“You’re humming that song again!”

“Would you prefer if I whistle?”

“No, that’s worse, coming out of you.”

“Quite an earworm, isn’t it?”

“I rather thought that was the point.  I also rather thought that was reserved for the brydlop.”

“The what?”  Aragorn had been working in the Houses of Healing all day.  Merry and Pippin had apparently jumped at the chance to dine with him when he was not under any Social Obligations to Kingliness, as Pippin had put it, and up till this point he’d been content to let their mostly mindless banter wash around him.

“Birdlop,” said Pippin.

“Brydlop,” said Merry.  “The end part of the wedding, where the bride and groom retire for the night to many sly winks and nods.”

“And, if the rest of us are lucky, to the most magnificent song ever written!”

Aragorn raised his eyebrows.

Pippin only grinned.  “If the sun goes down and they’re still here, we get to tease them about it.”

A look of realization crept across Merry’s face.  “Oh.  That’s why you’ve got it in your head, isn’t it?”

Pippin practically bounced where he was sitting.

“Sam is getting married?” Aragorn hazarded.

“Well—no, not necessarily, not yet, but we didn’t even know he had a lass back home till yesterday, and surely he’ll have to marry her eventually, and when he does…”

“Pippin,” said Merry, “you don’t even know her!  What if she says ‘no’?”

“Sam didn’t seem to think she would.”

“He’s also clearly head over feet for her, and if Frodo didn’t know Sam had a sweetheart till now, how do we know how far along it really is?”

Aragorn frowned, as his mind filled in the gaps in the hobbits’ conversation.  He recalled Sam’s pleasure at seeing the greenery here in the Houses, and how tenderly the gardener had cupped one of the roses in his hand.  In that instant, Aragorn beheld that same brown hand cupping a blushing bride’s face—but he had said naught, for Sam’s secrets were his own to keep.  “What is her name?” said Aragorn.

“Rose Cotton,” said Merry.  “One of Sam’s more distant cousins, from what I could tell.”

“Rose, then?  I think you’ll find that she will wed him, eventually.”

“Excellent!  Wait, how do you know?”

“A King makes sure to look out for all his subjects.”

“So that means you’ll look out for us and help come up with ways to keep them at the party too late?”

“That depends.  What precisely is this song?”