Day Three: early morning through luncheon

The morning after the feast arrived much more quietly than the previous one had.  Pippin opened his eyes to a world still cast in the shadows of waning night.  He covered his face with his hands and rubbed at his sleep-fogged eyes.  He gave a sigh as he let his hands fall back to his sides.  Yesterday had been the stuff of dreams, today was his new reality.  Carefully, he got out of bed.  There was no need to disturb Diamond.  Yes, she would have new duties beginning this day but she needn’t rise hours before the sun.  Pippin was as quiet as he could be as he went about his morning routine and dressed.  He chose this day to dress in the manner he planned to on most days to come; trousers, shirt and waistcoat.  Good proper dress for a gentlehobbit but not pretentious or overly formal, but not so informal that he would not look the part of one of the leaders of the Shire.

Leaving his and Diamond’s bedroom, Pippin crept down the hall to peek in on his sleeping son.  Faramir was clearly planning on sleeping for several more hours.  Pippin smiled.  “Sleep well, my little miracle,” he whispered.

Once he was out of his family’s apartment, he headed to the great dining room where first breakfast was just being served  When the servants saw him, they began to nervously scurry about.  If the Thain was going to start coming to first breakfast on a regular basis, they would have to start making a more formal affair of it.  Pippin noticed their discomfort level and wanted to reassure them that they need not make changes on his behalf.

“Good morning, everyone,” he said to the room at large.  “Don’t feel like you have to do things differently today just because I’ve entered the room than you would have two days ago.  My title has changed, I haven’t.  So, if no one objects, I’ll just get my bacon, eggs, scone and tea and get out of everyone’s way.”

“You won’t be stain’?” asked the lead servant.

“No, not today at least,” answered Pippin.  “I’ve got a lot to do and I know I’m going to have a lot of interruptions, so I figured I’d get an early start.”

“Very well, Sir.  I can have a tray brought to you if you’d like.”

“This will do for now,” he said, raising the plate in one hand and making a saluting gesture with his mug of tea in the other.  With that, he exited the room and headed for his office.

Opening the door with both hands full was a bit of a challenge.  He ended up moving things around on the plate so that he could balance the mug on it.  In doing this, he almost lost the scone so he put it carefully between his teeth so that he had one hand free to open the door.  Once he had the door open, he grabbed the scone before he could accidentally bite completely through it.  He gave the door a gentle nudge with his foot to shut it and set the plate on the desk as far from any paperwork as he could.

He flopped bonelessly into the chair.  “That was interesting,” he said to the empty room.

-----

Reginard hoped that Pippin would not be late in arriving at his new office this morning.  They had a lot to do today and the earlier they got started, the sooner it would be done.  There were two meetings he wished he could skip altogether, but he would have to sit through them if for no other reason than to support Pippin.

He opened the office door and caught his breath.  There was a brief moment of silence before Pippin spoke.

“Come on in, Reg, and shut the door.  I don’t want to be interrupted before I have to be.”

Regi pushed the door shut but continued to stand there looking at his younger cousin.  Finally he spoke.  “I wasn’t expecting you here till at least nine o’clock.  How long have you been waiting on me?”

“I haven’t,” said Pippin.  “I’ve been working, and I think I got here about seven-thirty.  I got a few outstanding papers signed and I looked over today's schedule.  I also read up on a couple of topics that I thought it might be useful to be knowledgeable about for today’s meetings.  The first one I see is with some of the local sheep farmers.”

“Yes, it is,” Regi answered.  “Is there anything you need to know from me before they arrive?”

Pippin shook his head.  “I don’t think so.  Their reason for wanting to see me seems to be laid out pretty straightforwardly in the calendar notation.”

“Very well.  I’ll go see if they’ve arrived.”

-----

Pippin waited nervously, though he tried to hide it, for the visitors to arrive. He was so deep in thought that he hadn’t noticed he’d been absently playing with the nib to his pen until he looked down and saw the ink on both thumbs and the first two fingers of each hand.  “Oh blast,” he muttered, trying to carefully, without getting ink on his clothes, get his handkerchief out of his pocket.

He managed to get almost all of the ink off and the handkerchief hidden away just as the door opened again and Regi showed the three farmers in.

Pippin rose from his chair as they entered.  “Please, come in and have a seat.”

It took a moment for everyone to find a place.  One of the chairs from the corner of the room was moved closer to the Thain’s desk so that all could be a part of the discussion.

“Now, how may I be of help to you?” asked Pippin once everyone was seated.

“We wanted to talk to you about the sales of our fleeces,” said the first farmer.  

“What about them, Mr. Cloverhill?” asked Pippin.  He had studied his schedule well and already knew all three farmers’ names.  It didn’t hurt that he had seen them meeting with his father over the last few years.  Those experiences led him to know that this would be a tedious discussion at best.

“As I’m sure you know, since the Troubles several years back, all sales of wool in the Tookland have been to the Thain who then negotiated sales to other parts of the Shire.”  Pippin nodded to acknowledge that he did understand that this had been the practice.

“We’ve been comin’ here every spring for the last several years,” stated the second farmer, a Mr. Greendale, if Pippin remembered aright, “to try to get the right to sell directly back.  We appreciate all Thain Paladin did and we know he was tryin’ to look out for the Tooks and the Tooklands, but can’t help but think that maybe we could get ourselves some better deals.”

“You see,” said the third farmer, Mr Downytuft, “your dad set the price.  We couldn’t negotiate it at all.  He made the offer and we either took it or we didn’t.  If we tried to go around him, he’d thwart us at every turn.”

“What we’re wantin’ is to be free to sell to whomever we want at a price we can negotiate in the best interest of our families.”

Pippin leaned back in his chair and looked at the farmers in silence for several seconds.  Finally, he spoke.  “You raise some very valid points.  I will have to look into the matter.  I want to look back on the sales records for some years and also see how the prices you were offered compared to what the Tooks received for the sales made outside our borders.  Give me a couple of weeks and I will render a decision.”

The three farmers stood and gave small bows to the Thain.  “Thank you for your consideration,” said Mr. Cloverhill.

Pippin stood as well and nodded as the farmers exited.

After they were gone, Regi looked at him.  “I’d say you just took a huge step toward winning over the working hobbits of the Tooklands,” he said.  “You are giving them a fair hearing and review.  Old Paladin would never have done what you just said you would.”

Pippin gave a slight shake of his head.  “I know.  He was all about what he thought was best for the Tooks and our lands even if it hurt our own as well.  He’d rather horde and stockpile than see everyone prospering and happy.  Not that keeping a good reserve isn’t a good thing, but there is a difference between preparing for lean times and hanging on to something just because it’s yours.  I wonder how much of what he refused to sell actually went to waste.”

“Unfortunately, more than I think he allowed to be known or even recorded.  He was never one to be open about things and I often felt like calling him out on it, but one doesn’t call out the Thain.”

Pippin paced around to the front of the desk and leaned against it.  “What’s next?” he asked.

“This one’s going to be tougher,” said Regi.  “A few of your detractors have asked for an audience.”

“Oh, joy,” said Pippin.  “Any idea what they want?”

Regi shook his head.  “I’d watch yourself,” he advised.  “They’ll be looking to trip you up, but I know you can turn them around to your way of thinking.”

Pippin gave a chuckle. “Let’s hope your faith in me is not misplaced.”

Regi stepped outside the office to see if the new group of visitors had arrived yet.

Pippin sat back down at his desk and reorganized the papers in front of him.  He knew that playing with items on the desk would not set a good impression with his next guests.  He sighed.  This was possibly going to be one of the moments on which his whole tenure as Thain hung.

-----

Reginard stepped back into the room and announced the new arrivals.  Pippin stood and greeted the visitors.  He gave them what he hoped was a pleasant smile and a nod, but their scowling expressions did not change.

“Good morning, cousins,” he said.  The choice of word was accurate if somewhat informal.  “Please have a seat.”

The three Tooks remained standing.

“Very well.  As you wish.  Now, how may I be of service to you this morning?”

“The best service you could do for us and the whole family is to abdicate and turn the Thainship over to Reginard here.”

Pippin looked over at Regi.  The poor hobbit looked absolutely shocked and scandalized.  He looked back at the one who had spoken.  “That’s an interesting request, Alengrim.  Why do you believe that would be the best thing I could do?”

Alengrim looked to his companions to say something to back him up.

“You’re damaged goods, Peregrin,” said one of the others.  “You spent too much time outside the bounds and in Buckland.  Your thinking has been corrupted and we feel your strangeness will spread like a disease.”

“Now see here, Lambard,” interjected Regi, “that was uncalled for.  You do not have the right to come here and attack the Thain, and your cousin, like that.”

The third member of the group now spoke up.  “We’re just bringing up what people have been saying for months, years even.  Everyone knows that this person—I won’t even call him a hobbit since he doesn’t even look like one of us anymore—has divided loyalty.  He’s sworn himself to some kingdom of men.  How can he have our best interests at heart when he’s thrown his own lot in with them?”

“Use you head, Olangar,” said Regi.  “You’re talking about Captain Peregrin, one of the leaders of the rebellion that threw the ruffians out of the Shire.  You can’t think that he would bring more back in.”

“Maybe not the same lot,” said Olangar, “but there’s other kinds of ruffians out there.  His would just be doing the same things as the others just in a different name.  What’s to stop him from bringing in men sent by this supposed king to take what they want and send it down south?”

Regi started to answer but Pippin raised a hand to forestall him.

“I will forgive that last statement,” stated Pippin.  He was fighting hard to keep his temper in check.  He could put up with the insults to himself, he’d been hearing them for years, but he was not taking having Aragorn’s character demeaned well.  “You speak in ignorance.  You have obviously not listened to the proclamations made over the last several years.  The King, our King, has decreed that no men, including himself, may enter the Shire and live to tell the tale.  I have sworn, as a knight of Gondor, a messenger of the King and now as Thain, to uphold that edict for as long as I live.

“Now, to try to set some of your other fears to rest,” he continued, “I have picked up many ideas in my travels, but I don’t want to make huge changes in how we do things.  We have done pretty well for ourselves as is.  That being said, if I see something that I believe could be done better, I will point it out and make suggestions.  That’s what a leader does."

Alengrim finally spoke up.  “I hear that that old wizard, Gandalf, did something to you and now you can read our minds and plant thoughts in our heads.  That’s not something I want anyone, especially the head of my family doing.”

Pippin shook his head.  “Where do these stories get started?” he asked himself aloud.  “No, that is just some busybody’s tale.  I cannot read your mind, or anyone else’s, otherwise we would not be having this discussion.  I don’t know what I can do to reassure you, but there is nothing magical about me.

“Now,” he continued, “if you have some valid suggestions that I should consider now that I am in this office, I am eager to hear them; but if your intent is to sow discord, I have no time for you.  Why don’t you take yourselves off to luncheon and think of ideas that will benefit the Tooks and the Shire in the future and, when you have several good ones, make another appointment so that we can discuss them reasonably.”

He waved a hand indicating that the meeting was over.  Regi showed the three malcontents to the door.

When he returned, he looked long at Pippin before speaking.  “I’m sorry you had to hear that,” he said.  “I knew that there were a few people who thought that I should have succeeded your father but I never dreamed any of them would say it to your face.  They started in with that talk way back when you were living at Crickhollow and they kept it up even after you moved back here.  I tried to quash it every time I heard it but it still flared up from time to time.”

“Don’t worry about it.  You couldn’t have stopped it any more than you could stop the sun from rising.  Tooks have always been a discontented lot.  They have curiosity and nosiness in large quantities and they have to exercise it somehow.  Admit it, Regi, aren’t you the least bit curious about the things that have happened to me that I refuse to discuss?”

Regi preferred to think of himself as well grounded, but he couldn’t deny his Tookish inquisitiveness.  “If I have to confess, then yes, I have my questions.”

“Spend enough time with me and you’ll start to put the pieces of an interesting tale together.”  Pippin smiled in hopes of letting his assistant and closest ally in the politics of the Great Smials know that he held him totally blameless in what had happened.

“I am wondering where that latest accusation has come from though,” Pippin pondered aloud.  “I’ve never heard anyone say I could read minds before.”

“It’s probably just the latest variant on the ‘faery wife’ poppycock,” said Regi.  He’d never believed any of the those stories about a Took marrying a faery.  It didn’t make any sense, even leaving out the physical improbability.  

“So, you’re one of the ones who don’t believe that story, huh?”  Pippin sat back down behind his desk as he spoke and frowned at the half-full cup of now-cold tea.

Regi noticed the frown.  “Do you want me to request a late elevenses be sent up?”

Pippin shook his head.  “I think I’ll go to luncheon in a bit.  I need to get out of here for a while.  It’s starting to close in on me.”  He looked at the other hobbit closely.  “You never did answer my question.”

“Oh,” said Regi, “about the faery wife?  No, I never believed that story.  If anything, I’d say it might have been an elf, but that just seems so odd that I can’t countenance it.”

“Well,” said Pippin, “let’s just say that the real story is even more interesting than any fiction we could dream up.”

“It’s true then?”  Reginard’s jaw practically hit the floor.”

Pippin laughed at the look.  “No, but the truth is even stranger.”

Pippin stood up and picked up his used plate and mug.  “I’ll just return these when I go to the dining hall.”

“That’s it?  You’re not going to tell me?”

“Ah, we have plenty of days ahead of us, Reg.  You don’t want all the mysteries solved in the first week, do you?”

“Well,…no,” spluttered the Thain’s assistant, “but a crumb wouldn’t hurt.”

Pippin shook his head still smiling and walked out of the office.  Regi just stood staring after him torn between laughter, anger and curiosity.

-----

Fortunately for Pippin, the only meal served at the Great Smials that was done formally was supper, all other meals were set out on sideboards and people filled their plates and came and went as they pleased.  Being a person who never was good at keeping a strict schedule, the new Thain found being able to eat when he could convenient.

The only drawback to this arrangement was that one could never guarantee that any person one needed to see would be taking their meal at a time to allow for unplanned meetings.

Pippin hoped to see Merry or Sam in the main dining hall, but he didn’t see either of them.  He sighed.  He really wanted to see them.  He needed some reassurance that he was getting off to a decent start.  He’d just have to wait till supper now he supposed.