Chapter 11. Troubles

(About five years later. Faramir is now fifteen.)

‘Lotho’s louts are up to something; that’s the word we’ve had from several directions, anyhow, though nobody seems to know any more than that. Something big, one of them said.’ Thain Paladin puffed on his empty pipe and sat back in his chair. There’d been no tobacco to be had in the Shire for some months now, not in the occupied parts, and certainly not in a Tookland under siege. Ferdi waited.

Finally, the older hobbit spoke again. ‘I want you to go out again, find out what you can. It’s possible they might know more. They’re the best chance we have in this, I think.’ He didn’t mention a place, and he certainly spoke no names. All the better to keep Ferdi’s sister Rosemary and her family safe from Lotho’s wrath, should he find out that they were collecting information and passing it on to the Thain.

Ferdi nodded and turned to go, but the Thain called him back, more solemn than Ferdi had ever seen him. Paladin rose from his chair and came around to the front of the desk. He put his hands on Ferdi’s shoulders, gazing intently into his eyes, and then pulled the younger hobbit into an embrace. ‘You’re all the family that’s left to my good friend Ferdinand,’ he whispered, naming Ferdi’s father. For of course, Rosemary was officially disowned, her name stricken from the Yellow Book, her very existence unmentionable by anyone living under the purview of The Took. ‘Don’t lose yourself, now. If they catch you, it’ll be the Lockholes – or worse.’

Stepping back, Ferdi tried to smile. ‘They’ve found me a bit difficult to catch, this far.’

Paladin nodded, a sharp jerk of his chin, and stood straighter, squaring his shoulders, and Ferdi became suddenly aware of the bags under the older hobbit’s eyes. Paladin was pale from too much time indoors, and he seemed thinner, even though the Tooks, having resisted all attempts at gathering by the ruffians, still had sufficient food to eat – which was more than you could say for the rest of the Shire. There were new lines in the Thain’s face that hadn’t been there only a few months ago, in the time before the disappearance of his son. Why, Ferdi realised in shock, the old farmer was going grey, and even though he’d straightened, Paladin was still standing somewhat stooped as if bowed down by burdens.

‘Go with grace, lad,’ the Thain said quietly. Ferdi nodded and took his leave. 

‘He didn’t mention any places or names,’ young Faramir said thoughtfully. ‘Not even when he was deep in the Smials, far from the borders of the Tookland, and listening ears?’

‘You never knew how word might come to Lotho,’ Tolly said gravely, and at the teen’s sharp intake of breath, he put up a staying hand to hold back the indignation he saw in Farry’s face. ‘Not that any Tooks would let anything slip a-purpose, lad, not at all. But you know how it is, when they get to talking.’ Because Farry knew all too well how it could go with the Talk.

‘Not to mention,’ Regi said. ‘By that time, there were Outsiders living in the Great Smials.’ Not-Tooks, he meant. Hobbits who came from other parts of the Shire.

‘How did they come to be here?’ Farry asked. ‘You said,’ he continued, looking from one face to the next, ending with his father, who looked as fascinated as Faramir himself felt at the recounting of this piece of Tookish history. Of course, Pippin had been busy about other things at the time of the Troubles. He returned his gaze to Regi. ‘You said that Lotho sealed the borders. No one was allowed in or out of the Tookland.’

Tolly gave a muffled snort, and the teen grinned at him. ‘Except, of course, those the Thain allowed to go in and out.’

‘That’s just it,’ Regi said. ‘Lotho’s louts had caught wind of a Took outside the Tookland, and they were hunting him down. They tracked him to a farm on the outskirts of Bywater, and then they lost his trail. They accused the farmer of hiding our hobbit...’

‘And did he?’ Pippin said. ‘Brave fellow.’

Regi shook his head. ‘He did not,’ he answered. ‘That farmer actually wasn’t one of ours. I suppose the Took they were hunting might have gone to ground in his byre, to hide away the daylight hours, before making his way back to the safety of the Tookland. The farmer told me, when I questioned him, that the ruffians found signs someone had hidden in the hay, and that was enough for them to accuse him.’

‘More than accuse him!’ Hilly broke out bitterly. ‘They burned his home, his byre, his sheds – they slaughtered all his animals, would have even killed the cats and the dogs, had the cats not fled and the farmer not whistled the dogs to run away, across the field, as if they were after sheep! On the grounds of a suspicion!’ Lower, he added, ‘And he received more than one blow for that little show of resistance.’ 

‘They gathered all the hobbits of Bywater and marched them out to the farm to watch the spectacle,’ Regi said quietly. ‘They wanted to make an example of him.’

Farry gulped down sickness, saw a matching sickness on his father’s face, while quiet fury radiated from the Tooks who were sharing the teaching of this particular history lesson: Regi and Ferdi, Hilly and Tolly, all of whom had been in the thick of the Tookish resistance.

‘They left the farmer and his family with the clothes they were wearing,’ Regi went on. ‘No one in the area was willing to take them in, for the ruffians had made it clear to those who were forced to watch the firing that the next time, they might just burn a smial with the hobbits inside and the doors chained shut.’

‘Perhaps we’ve had enough for today,’ Pippin said in a low tone. Farry looked to him in surprise, and he met his son’s gaze squarely, adding, ‘It is a lot for a teen to take in.’

Farry knew that many hobbits in these days of peace and plenty did not know the details of the stories he was hearing. Those who had lived such events generally did not care to speak of their memories. Added to that, the Thain, Master and Mayor were united in their efforts that the hearts of the Shire-folk should be protected from the evils that Men were capable of. Some Men, Farry reminded himself. There are a great many good Men in the world, as my da is often quick to remind the Tooks. Not that they believe him.

Now the teen said, ‘I am well, Da, truly I am. I think,’ and he paused to find the right words, ‘I think it is best to draw the sting, to force out all the poison at one go, to put it all behind us, rather than to do it in fits and starts, letting it fester in between.’

Pippin locked gazes with Faramir for a few more breaths, then nodded and looked to Regi. ‘Go on,’ he said.

The Steward returned the nod and turned back to Farry. ‘The family had nowhere to go,’ he said. ‘While the ruffians followed them, laughing and jeering, they stumbled across the fields in the direction of Tuckborough. They told that poor farmer and his wife, and their children with them, that the Tooks were likely to shoot them out of hand – that the Tooks had already shot and killed folk who’d come too close to their borders.’

‘And that much was true,’ Ferdi said quietly. ‘Though the ones killed were ruffians – Men, not Hobbits.’

Farry swallowed hard. ‘How horrible,’ he said. ‘Caught between a rock and a hard place would be easier, I should think.’

‘And as they reached the borderland, an arrow flew right past the farm family and caught one of Lotho’s louts in the arm,’ Regi said. ‘The archer called out, No further! You Men, turn around and take yourselves back to your Boss! Tell him the Tooks aren’t having any today! And two more arrows buried themselves in the ground to either side of the group of ruffians. And another of the Tookish archers, watching from cover, called, Those shots were aimed to hit where they landed! We can aim for your hearts just as easily! Now go!

‘So they turned and ran, stumbling, tails tucked between their legs,’ Hilly said in dark satisfaction. ‘ ‘Twas a fine sight, indeed.’ And Farry realised that he was looking at one of the archers who had lived this particular story.

‘But the farmer...?’ he said. ‘He had nowhere else to go.’

‘The farmer stood his ground,’ Hilly replied. ‘No, he did more than that, actually. He stepped forward, putting himself between his family and those deadly Tookish bows, brave fellow. He stood there, knowing that arrows might well be aimed at his heart, and told us what had happened... asked us to take him to the Thain.’ The escort’s eyes looked into a far distance. ‘His courage impressed us, and we talked it over and decided that one of us would bring him in.’

‘You would have left a family... little children... with no shelter, no food, nowhere to go?’ Farry said in dismay.

‘Och, no, lad,’ Hilly said, real distress in his tone. ‘That would make us no better than the ruffians, now! Yet we had to guard the Thain. It might have been a ruffians’ trick.’

‘Of course we were not going to let them anywhere near Paladin,’ Regi said. ‘Suspicions were running high in those days. Any Tooks found outside the Tookland were being beaten, some severely, and taken to the Lockholes. Who knew if this were a trick of Lotho’s to get someone past the Tookish border defences, to gather as much information as possible and then leave again to bring word to Lotho and his louts? Can you understand that, Farry?’

Farry nodded.

‘So they brought the farmer to me,’ Regi said. ‘I questioned him at length. We shut them up in a parlour and set a guard at the door, with instructions to listen to all they said to each other, and yet not speak to them at all, at least, until we could be more sure of them.’ At Farry’s wondering look, he said, ‘O they had all the comforts of home – regular meals, changes of clothes, escort to the privy and bath room. All they missed was their freedom, and in the end, they chose to throw in their lot with ours, though it meant they might never see their farm again.’

Pippin said, ‘Sounds very Shirriffish to me – I mean, the Shirriffs as they were under Lotho, or Sharkey, that we encountered when we returned to the Shire. Every which way you turned, there was a Rule to be followed.’

‘I’m sorry to have to admit it,’ Regi said. ‘In some ways, we were no better than Lotho and his louts. But we were fighting for our homeland, and later, it seemed all too clear we’d soon be fighting for our very lives.’

***