41. Rest and Recovery
'...and I thought the handfasting had been only a fever dream...' It was good to be able to speak his fear at last, Pippin thought feverishly. He lifted Diamond's hand to his lips and kissed her fingertips. But even this small movement exhausted him, and he let her take his hand in hers and gently lower it to the bed, where she continued to hold on. Pippin sighed and closed his eyes, then opened them again and added, 'I am so very glad to be wide awake and to know the dream from the reality.'
Diamond's hand tightened on his. 'Oh, my love.' Tears filled her eyes, and she dashed them away impatiently. She decided to change the subject, to fix his mind on happier thoughts. 'Can you believe the two years since the handfasting are nearly passed? Why, it won't be long before you and I are old married hobbits!'
'I'm glad your father didn't make us wait three years,' Pippin answered. 'He could have, you know, set the wedding date after you come of age instead of some time before.'
She laughed. 'No,' she said merrily. 'Instead, he fixed the date as early as was decently possible! My father is so eager to secure another son, you know... And I know all too well that Estella and Merry are just as happy as we are not to have to wait another year.'
'Yes, my dearest cousin and my almost-bride are practically an old married couple already!' Pippin answered, sliding down a little against his pillows in an attempt to find a more comfortable position. He cocked an eye at Diamond and proclaimed, 'Next thing you know, she'll be fetching his pipe for him and scolding him for staying out too late with the lads...'
'Oh?' she said, tilting her head to one side.
Pippin nodded, but then he gathered enough strength to lift his pointer finger in the air, as if he were about to make an important announcement. 'Not that Jewel would let him get into any trouble.'
Diamond laughed, 'And, no doubt, he'll soon be washing up all the dishes and saying "Yes, dear" to all she says!'
'Oh, he already does that!'
'Which?' she queried.
'Both!' Pippin maintained, but then he amended, 'Well, he would be washing up all the dishes if they'd let him.' But when his cautious laughter (for coughing was still a problem) had subsided, Pippin pulled her hand to his face, resting it against his cheek.
'My love?' she asked gently.
'I am so glad it wasn't a dream,' he said fervently. 'I was afraid I had lost you all over again.'
Later that morning, Diamond told Estella about their conversation, about Pippin's recurring nightmare, over elevenses in the parlour, as they took a small break from their bed-watching duties.
Throughout the rest of that day and well into the evening, she barely stirred from Pippin's side.
'Wouldn't you like to go to the great room for supper?' he asked her when she couldn't quite stifle a yawn. 'You've been sitting in that chair practically all day on my account!'
'Are you tiring of me so soon?' she asked with a smile.
'Never!' Pippin contradicted.
'Well then,' Diamond said, 'stop trying to get rid of me!'
She sat with him the rest of the evening, until Ossilan came in with healer's assistant and a draught that he proceeded to coax into Pippin. When the cup was empty, he smiled and patted Pippin's shoulder. 'There,' he said. 'You need your sleep.'
'That's all I've been doing!' Pippin protested.
'I was talking to your true-love over there,' the old healer said with the hint of a smile.
With the help of the draught, Pippin's eyelids drifted closed, and soon he was breathing shallowly but evenly. The assistant took Diamond's place, and Ossilan shooed her off to her bed, threatening to bring her a draught of her own if she didn't stay put until breakfast, at least.
The next morning, Pippin awakened to see Lily Brandybuck smiling at him from the watcher's chair. 'Are you hungry?' she asked.
'Don't you start!' Pippin warned.
Undaunted, Lily said, 'You sound better.'
Pippin's eyebrows rose as he drew in a cautious breath and blew it out again. 'I feel better,' he said, and smiled. But then he wanted to know, 'Where's Diamond?' He wanted her to be among the first to hear the good news.
'Sleeping,' Lily said. 'Ossilan told her she wasn't allowed to get up before breakfast, and...' she cocked an eye out the window, 'that's still half an hour away, from the look of the sky.'
Pippin looked out at the winter darkness. 'How can you tell?' he asked.
She laughed. 'Brandybuck secret,' she said. 'Has Merry never told you?'
'I'm not a Brandybuck,' Pippin reminded her.
'Ah,' she said, laughing, 'That would be the reason why! But...' she said, returning to the topic of food, 'if there's anything in particular you'd like for breakfast, I'll be happy to send a message down to the kitchens to let them know.'
Somehow, she managed to wheedle Pippin into expressing his preferences for how the cooks ought to fill a breakfast plate for him, at least that morning. She got up from the chair, went to the door, and opened it just enough to speak to someone waiting outside.
Meanwhile, Pippin's attention was caught by a watercolour propped against the water jug on the table by the bed. He thought he recognised Estella's work.
In the picture, Diamond, crowned with a wreath of wildflowers, smiled at him, little tendrils of hair framing her face. On the bottom in tiny print was inked, 'For my former beloved, a promise of future happiness.'
***
Merry became aware that the fog had lifted, and he was thinking clearly for the first time in days, though he didn't know how many days it had been. His arms no longer felt afire, merely very sore, and he was breathing without difficulty. Both the decreased pain and easier breathing were a relief.
He awakened lying on his side, facing the table just past one of the watchers' chairs by his bed. Estella sat in the chair, watching him steadily. As his eyes focused, he saw a familiar folded sheet of paper lying on the table just beyond her.
When Estella saw his eyes open, she said, 'Good morning, beloved. Welcome back.'
Merry tried to speak, but his throat seemed to resist. Voiceless, he turned his eyes to meet Estella's gaze, then looked pointedly back at the table, though the effort made his eyes ache.
Following the direction of his look, she said, 'Oh, yes...' She picked up the paper and gently unfolded it.
'I found it in the shirt they'd cut off to dress your burns. When I saw it had been signed by Frodo, I knew it must be important to you,' she said.
He closed his eyes in relief, and then opened them, trying to convey his thanks in a long look.
She leaned forward and kissed his cheek, then whispered, 'I've kept it safe, beloved. Do you want it now?'
Merry swallowed hard, cleared his throat, and somehow found his voice. 'Read it to me again?'
She made music of the words.
'No matter what happens...' he echoed.
'That's a promise,' she answered.
***
Day by day, healing progressed and the injured kept improving. There finally came the day when Ossilan said that Merry and Pippin could get up out of their beds, walk a short distance to the nearest parlour, and take tea in company with Merry's parents and Diamond and Estella.
Taking tea in the parlour had never been so festive. Ensconced with Merry in the seats of honour by the hearth, Pippin soon had everyone laughing.
'This is how it's going to be in our old age, you know, Merry, when we're the doddering old Master and Steward of Buckland! Waited on hand and foot, venerated, hobbits hanging on our every word...'
Diamond popped a savoury into his mouth to shush him.
Estella laughed and said brightly to Merry, who was bound by strict orders not to move his arms quite yet (perhaps on the morrow, or the next day... if you follow healer's orders today!), 'Would you like another stuffed mushroom, beloved? I made them myself!'
'Then I'll have ten... but I'll start with one.'
Estella grinned and deftly fed Merry from their shared plate.
'Made them herself!' Pippin exclaimed. 'Are they safe to eat?'
'I dare not question,' Merry said aside to his younger cousin. 'I have to stay on her good side, or I'll starve.'
Estella laughed and fed him another morsel.
Pippin picked up a mushroom from the serving plate and made a great show of examining it before putting it in his mouth.
'Well? Do you find it satisfactory?' Estella demanded.
'I'm not quite sure...' Pippin said thoughtfully. 'I'll have to have a few more before I can make a determination.'
'How's the new stable building coming along?' Merry asked his father in between the bites Estella fed him.
'We're making astonishing progress. Bucklanders have come from all over to help us with the rebuilding. You'd hardly credit it, but the walls are nearly half built,' Saradoc answered. 'Merimas has taken charge of organising the rebuilding, seeing as how Merimac and Berilac are not quite up to the task yet. Even so, I'm amazed he's done as much as he has, considering the amount of time he lavishes on Jewel and Socks, not to mention Wingfoot.'
Merry's cousin Merimas had been the first of Merry's rescuers to leave his bed, and he seemed to be making up for the time he'd lost while recovering from smoke inhalation. Thankfully, Saradoc's brother Merimac, though still abed, had also been pronounced out of danger the day before. Silently, Saradoc counted his blessings yet again.
'Well, I'd say the Eastfarthing pony races are quite important, nearly as important as the new stables!' Pippin said pompously, imitating a fat old Brandybuck uncle. 'Prestige of the Hall and all that, what?'
'Eat, love,' Diamond said firmly.
He turned indignantly to her. 'Are you still singing that old song? "Eat! Eat!" That's all I've heard from anyone for the past two years!'
'And you'll keep on hearing it, at least until you've reconciled yourself to eating six meals a day like any other hobbit! I am not going to let you waste away to nothing when you're nearly within my grasp!'
Calm, dignified, ignoring the laughter of his aunt and uncle, Pippin picked up his fork and ate.
***