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Pearl of Great Price  by Lindelea 2 Review(s)
FantasyFanReviewed Chapter: 2 on 11/30/2003
Another strongly drawn point of view of one of the events in your wonderfully woven together storyline. Little Pip is very much the charmer. He gets his mother to butter his bread for him, and he shirks as many chores as possible, but nobody scolds him. It's funny to think he could have been the one to teach his son how to squirt milk at a cat, had things turned out differently.

The emotions are nicely done here, from Paladin's annoyance at the very beginning to his grief at the end. Nell's sense of loss is especially bruising, and it gives us a hint at how far back her feelings for Ferdi go. It's a little hard to reconcile Paladin's perception here with the later Thain who sniffed around Odo for hints on the Bolger sucession and gleefully thought of controlling the quarry and Bolger fortune. I understand Ferdi's future went down the drain with the fire and what happened afterward, but maybe we can see in this story a little of what made Paladin into the person he became later.

The only thing I am left wondering about is why did someone send a letter to Paladin by quick post and make him go to the Smials right at harvest? By the time he got there, it would have all been over. Did they want him for the funeral, or was there some other reason? I can't bring to mind now exactly how close the family relationship was. Was it for a council to decide what to do with the children? Lalia has her finger firmly on that decision. I guess I would have expected someone from the family to ride out and give him the bad news in person if telling him what had happened was all there was to it.

Author Reply: I'm not sure you'll see as much of Paladin's transformation as you wish... this particular story does not go as far as his becoming Thain, and that is when he changed the most.

Paladin didn't go to the Smials, but to Ferdinand's property on the Water (probably in or just west of the region of Bridgefields), thinking Ferdinand had burned to death in a fire along with his brother Ferdibrand (that's what the hastily scrawled message brought by the quick post rider said). He was "Merry" to Ferdinand's "Pippin", does that clear things up for you? That comes out in the next chapter, or at least, it is mentioned. Their grandfathers might easily have been close friends in the Smials, deciding to leave at the same time to make their own way and raise their children out of the Smials, but stayed in touch, much as Merry and Pippin would have stayed in touch even when they had to live so far apart in later years, with frequent letters and visits. Forgive me if I ramble, I am tired, and have to get off the internet any moment.

Thus Paladin left in the midst of harvest and stayed more than a day, though he could ill afford the time. Only when it appeared that Ferdinand might survive his injuries, and that Lalia had arranged for his care, and Ferdi's, at the Smials (something Paladin's family might not have the rescources to do), and of course Rosemary would want to be with her father and brother -- anyhow, once these issues were settled he reluctantly left his friend's side to return to the harvest.

Lyta PadfootReviewed Chapter: 2 on 11/30/2003
Poor Ferdi. No wonder Rosemary is so protective of him. Pippin's recounting of Paladin's recieving of the message reminded me of the phone call my father got to tell him that my grandparents had just been killed in an accident. He didn't have to say a thing, we all knew someone had died it was only a matter of who and how. Thats a tricky thing to capture in a story, but you did it well. And for a bonus more on Ferdi's past and his connection to Pimpernel.

Author Reply: Thanks for the review! I feel for your father, to lose both parents at once, and so unexpectedly. Each of my parents died after a long illness, which gave us time to prepare, though it was still difficult of course. We had a similar experience (the sudden shock, and knowing someone had died but not who) when my father's uncle died not long after he'd visited us. The phone call came in the middle of the night, and our father left on the first plane he could catch.

In future chapters you'll understand more about the Tooks' later attitude towards Ferdi, poor lad. It is good to be writing this *after* I know how he turns out in later stories.

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