Day Six: early morning to early evening

The Spring rains had returned to water the newly planted crops and give the world a nice cleaning.  It was a good day to stay inside and take care of the things one didn’t want to do when the sun was shining.  

When Pippin awoke, Diamond was already up and about.  Today she was meeting with the housekeeping staff and going over duties and schedules and deciding what, if any, changes she wanted to make now that she was Mistress.

“Sorry I’m that rushed, dear,” she said as she headed for the door.  “If I can get through this fast enough, I can get Faramir from the minder and spend some time teaching him songs or doing an art project.  It seems it’s been ages since I just had a chance for mum time.”

Before she could duck out the door, Pippin caught her and gave her a kiss.  “I know exactly how you feel,” he said.  He hoped it didn’t sound like he was belittling how she was feeling.  He truly did understand and sympathize with her.  

-----

Pippin stopped by the dining room and got himself some second breakfast—the Smials’ second, Pippin’s first—and headed straight to his office.  This time he wasn’t able to beat Regi there.

“Nice to know I can still occasionally be a step ahead of you,” He said as Pippin came in and shut the door.  “I already posted the letter and the note you left.  I told the messenger to make sure that they knew in Buckland that the letter must reach the King’s messenger.  I’m expecting the errand lad that I sent to your sister’s to be back any time with her response.”

“That’s very efficient of you.  Thanks.  Now, please don’t tell me we have any guests scheduled today.  I have a lot of things I need to get done.”

Regi shook his head.  “None today.  I have let the farmers know that you plan to meet with them tomorrow morning.”

“Good.”  Pippin sat down and pulled the page that he’d written out the night before to him.  “I’m hoping that this can at least be a framework for us to build on.”

“I think you’ve made an excellent start.  I don’t think they can fault you on anything.  You’re trying to be fair to them while still looking out for the common good.  Pippin, you’ve got a tough row to hoe here and you’re doing a fine job so far.”

“Thank, Reg,” Pippin answered.  “Now, I need you do me a favor or three.  First, I need to see the old contracts that have lapsed.  I need to know who I’m going to have to meet with and who may be harder or easier to negotiate with.”

“Very well,” said Regi.  “Give me about an hour and I’ll have them for you.  Sorry it can’t be faster.”

Before he left though, Pippin stopped him.  “Regi, I just thought of something that is vitally important.  I was thinking about it before I fell asleep last night but had forgot it again till just now.  My father was so tightfisted that a coin would cry before he’d part with it.  That being the case, where’s all the money?”

“Please believe me that all the coin I know about is in the treasury.  I do know that Paladin was not getting good prices for the goods he was forced to trade for.  The leaf farmers down South charged him especially high prices.”  Regi was feeling a little uncomfortable, not that he had done anything wrong, but because there was nothing he could tell Pippin that would help him find any money that might be hidden.

-----

While he waited for Regi to return with the requested documents, Pippin tried to begin to work through the mystery that had presented itself.  Where would the old Thain have hidden coin that he thought to protect.

He looked at the map of the Great Smials that hung on one wall.  Doubtless, there had to be rooms or tunnels not recorded on the map.  For years in the early days of the excavation there had been false starts on tunnels that were never finished for various reasons.  Most of these had been either filled back in or walled up but Pippin knew that some of them were still accessible and any wall could be removed and replaced.  He decided that he would have to find people to search these tunnels and that they would have to be people he trusted both to keep the secret and to return anything of value they might find.  Only if nothing was found within the Smials themselves would he turn to looking in the Green Hills.

By the time that Reginard returned, Pippin had already determined where he wanted the search to start and the pattern he wished the searchers to follow.

“Regi,” he said as soon as that one reentered the room, “I need you find between ten and twenty good hobbits that you trust to be honest and not engage in the talk and I want them assembled here as soon as may be.”

“What are you planning?” Regi asked.

“I’m going to have them search the Smials for any possible places where valuables could be hidden.  If they find anything, I want it brought to my attention if not to me personally.”

“You’re talking about the public places and the old abandoned tunnels, correct?”

“Of course,” Pippin replied before the import of Regi’s question had registered.  When he realized what the implications of the question were, he was stunned.  “I’m not some tyrant who would take other’s possessions to make up for what I had lost or squandered.  The only quarters to be searched are those not inhabited.  

When you have the searcher chosen, I want to meet with them and go over what I expect.  Once we have them out looking, I would like to speak with my mother and my wife.  I have a little assignment for them as well.”

“Very well.”  Regi put down the documents he’d brought and headed out to look for anyone he could find that met Pippin’s criteria for searchers.

-----

There were five pairs sent out to search while Pippin waited in his office to receive word as each area was checked.  As the searchers returned, he assigned them new places to look.

In the middle of this, Diamond and Eglantine arrived to answer Pippin’s summons.

“Oh, good.  You’re here,” Pippin said, turning from checking the plans in the wall and finding them entering the office.

“You wanted to see us?” his mother said.

“What’s going on?” Diamond asked before Pippin could answer the first question.

Pippin indicated that they should take the two chairs in front of the desk then he dropped rather informally into his own.

“I need your help,” he said, “and I’m afraid you may have to employ some of the servants to help you.”

“What do you need us to do?” Diamond asked.  “This place already looks like an ant hill that’s been stirred with a stick.”

“I need you to discretely check around and find out if anyone suspects that they may have noticed anything that could be a false wall or a false floor.  I don’t want to know about anyplace that someone is currently living, unless it was empty until the last month or so.”

“A false wall or floor?” asked Eglantine.  “What are you up to, Pippin.”

“Mum, I hate to ask you this but how much do you know about how things have been running around here for the last several years?”

“I know about what you knew until a few days ago.  Paladin kept things pretty much to himself.  I don’t think I like the way this discussion is going.  Are you speaking ill of the dead, son.”

Pippin flinched.  Speaking badly about someone who could not defend themselves was one of the worst things a hobbit could do and his mother took a very dim view of it.  He knew he would have to tread carefully.

“No, I’m not speaking ill,” he said.  He leaned forward, folding his arms on the desk, and look into her eyes.  “I’m starting to suspect that the stress of trying to run everything had become to much on Da and he was having trouble managing it all.  What I’m having everyone look for is the coin that should be in the treasury but isn’t.  I think, in an effort to protect it, he hid it somewhere.”

Eglantine shook her head but neither Pippin nor Diamond thought it looked like a denial.  “He was always so worried about a repeat of the Troubles that he wanted to make sure that no one could get too all of our wealth.  He believed that the treasury was too easy to find so he said he was setting aside a little in a private hidy-hole.  He said that he would tell you where it was.”

“He never got around to it.”  Bitterness was clear in Pippin’s voice.  “Now we’re having to play a strange game of hide-and-seek.  Mum, can you help us?  Did he tell you anything?”

“No,” she answered.  “He said it was Thain’s business and I didn’t need to worry myself.  I had enough to do with handing the servants and making sure everyone ate and planning all the events we hosted.”

Pippin turned pleading eyes to Diamond.  “Love, could you see to it that Mum gets back to her quarters and then can you speak to the maids and see if they have noticed any possible compartments hidden in cupboards or wardrobes or floors?”

Diamond reached over and gave his forearm a reassuring squeeze as she nodded and then stood.  “Come along, Mum, let’s get you to your elevenses, shall we?”

Eglantine allowed herself to be guided from the room by her daughter-in-law.

-----

The search had been going on for quite a while.  Several of the searchers had come back to request for new assignments as they had checked their previous one thoroughly.  The day had remained grey and wet and evening was coming early for mid Astron.  Pippin found himself staring at the floor plans and frowning ever more deeply.

“You do that long enough and your face may just stick that way,” said Regi, trying to lighten the mood.

“I feel like it already may have,” was Pippin’s morose reply.  “We’ve covered almost the whole place and nothing,” he said.  “Regi, I don’t want to contemplate looking out there.”  He waved a hand vaguely toward the rain-spattered window.  “It would be like looking for the proverbial needle in a haystack.”

“We’ll find it,” Regi said but he didn’t sound all that positive, even to himself.

-----

Everard and Ferdibrand were searching their third section of the Smials and were starting to feel that the whole thing was a wild goose chase.  They were in one of the tunnels that had been abandoned before it had been completed and it was dark and a little damp.  They carried a lantern but even that light seemed wan and weak.  They nearly ready to give up and turn back when Ferdi stopped.  Everard nearly ran into him in the gloom.

“Steady there, cousin,” said Everard.  “What’d you stop for?”

“Ev, look at that wall ahead of us.  Is it just me or do those boards look too new for this part of the Smials?  Those can’t have been down here in this dampness for more than a year, if that long.”

“You’re right!  Let’s see what’s behind it.”

Ferdi pried the board just below eye level free and they held the lantern up to the opening.  What they saw sent them both flying back to the Thain as fast as their feet would carry them.