Day Five: before breakfast to elevenses

The morning came much too soon for Pippin.  When he pried his eyes open, he almost regretted the brandy but it had been so nice just to sit and talk and share a drink - all right, several drinks - with his oldest friend.  He wondered how often he would get chances like that in the years to come.

Reluctantly, he dragged himself out of the bed and shuffled to the washstand and began pouring the cold water into the basin.

“Out late last night, weren’t you?” said a sleepy voice from the other side of the bed.

Pippin nearly dropped the pitcher.  “I thought you were asleep, then and now.” he squeaked.  His voice hadn’t sounded like that since he was in his tweens.

“No, I was awake when you came in,” Diamond answered, sitting up and looking closely at him.  “I just figured that, as late as it was, I wouldn’t bother you with questions or anything.  My question now is, how are you feeling this morning?”

“I’ve been worse,” he answered as he put the pitcher down and splashed the cold water from the bowl on his face.  As he dried, he got a look at himself in the mirror.  “I look pretty bad though, don’t I?” he admitted.

“You’ve looked better,” she laughed, “but get some food and tea in you and you’ll be right as rain.  Do you think you have time to breakfast with Faramir and I this morning.  We’ve missed having you here at the beginning of the day.  Don’t get me wrong, I know that getting an early start means you can get done sooner but, once in a while, spending a little time at home in the morning is worth it.”

“I know it can be, “ he said as he sat back down on the bed and reached out to pull her close.  “Staying home for a little extra time with you would definitely be worth it.”  He leaned in to claim a kiss.

Diamond let him give her a long, soft kiss but that was all.  “Not this morning,” she said.

He looked disappointed but thought he knew why she was passing up something they both enjoyed.  She had not quite been her normal self yesterday after the events of the matron’s tea and now she was postponing a chance to spend intimate time together.  “Right,” he finally said.  “I’ll have to try seducing you in a few days.”

This was another thing she was thankful for; a husband who respected her enough not to make demands when she would rather not do something.  “I love you,”  she said aloud.

“I love you too,” he answered.  “So, you want me to have breakfast with you and Faramir this morning.”

“Yes, and if you’ll go wake your son, I’ll see that breakfast is brought to us in no time flat.”

-----

Breakfast with just his wife and son was one of the most enjoyable moment of the last few days.  They ate.  They talked.  They laughed.  It was a relaxed and thoroughly pleasant time.  Unfortunately, it couldn’t last forever.

Pippin looked at the clock on the mantel.  “I really hate to, but I must be going.  I have some research I’m doing and I’m finding that the early hours before everyone realizes I’m even in my office is the best time to do it.”

“I need to meet with the head cook about the meals for the next few days,” Diamond said, “and I also have a meeting with the head gardener about the planting of both the vegetable gardens and the flower beds.  When do you think you’ll be home?”

“I may be late today.  I hate working after tea time but we need to get out to some of the outlying fields and farms.  There’s so much to deal with this time of year.  Once everything is growing it gets easier, at least for me, but right now is a whirlwind.”

Pippin turned to Faramir.  “Now, my big lad, you are going to have to go play with your cousins again today.  You’ll be good for the minders won’t you?”

Faramir nodded.  “I like playing,” he announced.

His parents smiled and tried to hide their laughter.  “That’s a good thing,” Pippin finally was able to say.  

“You go on now,” Diamond said.  “I’ll get this one to his playtime.”

Pippin kissed Faramir on the forehead and tousled his dark brown curls then he turned to his wife and gave her a lingering kiss.  She swatted him on the shoulder.  “Now, be off,” she laughed.

-----

Pippin’s annoyance and frustration were reaching the tipping point.  He had been going over the figures for the last five years on the prices paid by the Thain to Tookland’s sheep farmers and rates that the Thain had received when he had, in turn, sold the wool on the open Shire market, he had then been comparing these numbers to prices that farmers from other parts of the Shire had been getting.  He was beginning to think that his figuring skills were lacking because the alternative was too grim to contemplate.   

“This can’t be right,” he said to the empty room as he tapped his pen against his chin.  “If it is right, then I’ve got some serious work cut out for me but it would explain what Regi meant with his comment about the health of the Thain’s treasury.  What am I going to do?”  He put down the pen and, propping his elbows on the desk, leaned his forehead on his hands.

He jumped and sat up straight when the door opened and Reginard entered.  “Still working on the wool problem?” the assistant asked.

Pippin nodded.  “Reg, would you do me a favor?  While I’m meeting with Merry, would you check my figures on this.  I’m starting to seriously doubt my arithmetic skills here.”

Regi walked over and looked down at the papers on the desk.  “There’s a lot here for me to go over,” he said.  “It may take me a little longer than just your meeting time to check.”

“That’s fine.  If you don’t get it done today, since we have to go out this afternoon, it can be finished tomorrow.  I just want to make sure I have something final by the day after tomorrow.  Also could you schedule another meeting with the farmers two days from now?”

Regi nodded again just as there was a tap on the office door.

“Come in,” Pippin called.

The door opened and Meriadoc Brandybuck entered.  Pippin quickly noted that this was the Master of Buckland today and not just his cousin Merry that he had shared brandy with last night.

-----

Pippin stood up and greeted the Brandybuck formally, “Good morning, Master, and welcome to the office of the Thain.  Please have a seat.  Is there anything we can get for you?”

Merry sat and shook his head.  “No, thank you.  I’m fine.”

Pippin resumed his seat.  “What would you like to discuss?”

“Oh, for the love of all that’s good,” said Merry, “can we dispense with the formalities.  This isn’t the court of the High King after all and we know each other better than any previous Master and Thain have ever known each other.  Yes, I’m here in that role but it doesn’t mean we have to act like we have no knowledge of each other outside of this room.”

Merry could see Pippin give Reginard a quick look before he relaxed and leaned back a little in his chair.  It was clear that he didn’t want word to get out to the rest of the Tooks that the two of them were having a conversation as equals.  The Tooks firmly believed that the Master was subordinate to the Thain.

“Now, really, what’s on your mind this morning, Merry.”

“I hate to break this to you, but we need to reestablish the trade agreements between Buckland and the Tooklands.  Under Paladin many of them were allowed to lapse and neither group has benefitted from that.  We have provided much of the produce for the Tooks over the years and you have provided us with most of the wool we need.  There are other things that have been traded and a few new items that I’m sure would be in both our best interests to share with each other.”

“By ‘lapsed’ do you mean that the agreements were just never renewed on paper while still being honored as understandings?”

“I wish it were that way,” said Merry.  “Pippin, I don’t know that your father was totally forthcoming with you about how he was running the Tooklands.  He was isolating this part of the Shire from the rest.  He wanted the Tooks to be totally self-sufficient.”

“There’s no way we could be,” Pippin countered.  We might produce enough grain crops to feed ourselves and our livestock but we don’t have enough farms that grow vegetables to sustain a population the size of the Green Hills.  Our orchards are small and we have no place with the proper climate to grow grapes for wine or pipe weed.”

“I know,” answered Merry.  “I couldn’t believe it when I found out that he had basically cut ties to the rest of the Shire.  I’ll be honest, Pip, people disliked dealing with him for the few things he was willing to trade for or buy that they purposely started selling him the lowest quality items at the highest quality prices.  The things he was willing to sell to the rest of us were so expensive that many of us began to look elsewhere for them.  Over the last fifteen years, Buckland and Bree have developed quite a nice working relationship.  Pippin, most of the Shire is prosperous and happy.  The only place that hasn’t recovered from the Troubles is right here.”  He tapped his finger on the edge of the desk for emphasis.

“Regi, were you aware of this?” Pippin asked his assistant.  “After all, you worked under Paladin for several years.”

Regi’s face looked bleak as he nodded.  “I knew that Paladin was going down a dangerous road but there was nothing I could say to dissuade him from the course he had chosen.  Many tried, including the Mistress, your mother.  She is a shrewd one and could see which way the wind was blowing, but he wouldn’t even listen to her.  He had it so fixed in his head that even though the Ruffians were gone, the Shire was lost and we were on the only island of safety.”

Pippin rubbed his fingers around his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose.  Merry could tell that his cousin was feeling the stress of this news and was trying to quickly formulate a plan to make things right.  

Finally, Pippin took a deep breath and spoke. “All right, lets start with the agreements between us and the Brandybucks.  Do you and I need to draw up the new contracts or can we delegate it to our assistants with us giving final approval?”

“I think we can trust Regi and Beri to do a good job of it.  We could look them over when they’re finished and then have a witnessed signing.”

“Good,” said Pippin.  He looked at Regi again.  “I’ll need you to pull the old contracts and work out a time for you and Berilac to get together to write up the new agreements.”

Regi nodded and wrote himself a note.

“I also need to see all the other contracts that have lapsed or are in danger of lapsing.  I’ll need to get in touch with the leaders of the various families and land owners in the other areas of the Shire to make sure that we get commerce going again.

“Oh, what a Valar forsaken mess he left me.  Thanks, Da,” he said, looking up toward the ceiling.

Merry could think of nothing to say to help his younger cousin.  He had inherited a mess but it was a mess that only he could fix.  No one but the Thain could handle the Thain’s business.

“All right, what other joyous news do you bring me?”  Pippin sincerely hoped that there was nothing else as serious as the problems already brought to his attention.

“Nothing at the moment,” Merry assured.  “I do have a couple of things that I wanted to discuss with you though.  One is to remind you that this position is only a part of your life and not the be-all and end-all of your existence, no matter what the Tooks may think.  Always remember that, at the end of the day, you walk away from this office and become the person you were before you put that ring on your finger.  You have a wife and son who adore you and they need you as much as, or more than, all these relatives who fill this place.  Your father was so worried about appearances and possible disaster that he lost sight of what really mattered.  Thankfully, your mum was a good influence on you, and I like to think that Frodo and I were too, as well as others outside the Shire, and you take more after her and us than you do after Paladin.  Hope that made sense.”

Pippin nodded.  “Thank you, Merry.  I have seen, just in these few days, how someone could get swallowed by these responsibilities but I will do everything I can not to let that happen to me.  I promise.”

“I’ll hold you to that.  Now, secondly, we have a little issue of the Yule holiday.  You’ve always, well for the last 15 years anyway, spent it at the Hall but that can’t always be the case now.  Shall we go back to alternating years the way our families did when we were small and my dad couldn’t be spared from Hall business for too long?”

“It seems a little early to be thinking of Yule, but I suppose we had better come up with something before the time sneaks up on us.  I will talk it over with Diamond but my first thought was that in years when the new year is odd numbered, we’ll visit you and then the even years, you can visit us.  That would mean that this year we’d come to you.  I definitely believe that Diamond and I will need to get out of the Smials by then before we both go a little bit crazy and start acting like tweens again.  I don’t think the Tooks would appreciate their Thain needing such a diversion as sneaking into the kitchen and switching labels or rearranging the spices.”

Merry laughed and Regi just looked scandalized.  “Definitely not,” the Master said.  “By all means come visit us this year but don’t plan to mix labels in our kitchens or Estella is liable to make you eat whatever is ruined.”

Pippin’s look turned wistful.  “Are you planning to depart today?”

Merry nodded.  “I’ve been gone almost a week, if you count travel time, and it will take me almost two days to get back.  With Estella expecting again, I hate to be gone even this long but I couldn’t leave you hanging at a time like this.  Plus, I had Aragorn’s gift and letter to deliver.  Did you read it?”

“Yes.  I read both of them.  I’m actually thinking of framing the one and sitting it right there.”  Here he pointed at a spot on his desk where anyone sitting in either of the visitors’ chairs could clearly see it.  “I’ll have it facing my guests so that those who can read can be reminded that there is a King and that I am his representative and that we are a part of a larger world.”

“That’s not a bad idea.  I may do the same with mine.  We Brandybucks aren’t as insular as you Tooks, but everyone needs reminding that we are a part of something much bigger than we see.

“I hope his other letter was encouraging and that you will keep that one where you can see it when you need to and know that others have great faith in you.”

“I’m keeping it right here in the this drawer where I can get to it whenever I need it.”

“Good.  Well, I’d better be off.  I’d like to make it half way by supper.”

He stood to leave and Pippin came around the desk and grabbed him in a tight hug.  Merry instinctively patted his cousin on the back.  Pippin was fighting tears.

“It will be all right,” Merry whispered to him.  “It’s also all right to grieve your da.  He loved you even if he’d forgot how to show it and I know that deep down you do miss him at least a little.”

Pippin nodded against Merry’s shoulder.  “I’m also worrying about mum and dreading the day when we lose her.  We still need her so much.”

“Don’t buy trouble, Pip.  You’re mum is fine and worrying about how much time you have left with her won’t add a day to it.  Use whatever time she or you or anyone around you has wisely and you’ll have few regrets in the end.”

Merry held Pippin away from him.  “I’ll see you at the Lithe Fair.  We have a Thain to confirm and a Mayor to re-elect.”  Pippin did not miss the emphasis on the re.

“Definitely.  I’ll be there.”

When Merry had left, Pippin turned to Regi.  “Would you mind stepping out for a bit?  Maybe you could go get something for elevenses.  I just need a moment to be alone.”

Regi didn’t question.  He had a pretty good idea what was up.  He simply nodded and left, softly pulling the door closed behind him.

When he was sure no one would hear or see, Pippin sat down and folded his arms on the desk.  As the tears started to trickle down his cheeks, he buried his face and released the sobs he’ll held back for the last six days.”