Flowers, Gems And Estella – Chapter XXIX
<><><><><>
Fredegar arrived two days before the Harvest Festival was scheduled to begin – his coming might have been sooner, he said, had there not been a great mass of carts making their way to Bucklebury. “They were hundreds of them,” he described to Estella, “They were filled with grain and corn, and all sorts of livestock as well, and some other goods to be sold – cloths of the most decorative varieties. You never know, Estella, you might be able to find something there to make your wedding dress of.”
Estella grinned at swatted at her brother playfully for his remark, but to her own self she did not pass it off as folly – she had considered often the prospect of marriage since admitting her feelings to Merry, and had to admit that the idea did not frighten her as much as it might have in the past. Celandine, noticing the serene quietness to Estella’s face, later commented on it.
“Before you would have hit your brother much harder, and probably had some choice words for his statement – a change, it seems, has come over you,” she said to her late that evening.
Estella smiled to herself, a piece of knitting in her hand that she was working on. “Well, I suppose it has – but really, Celandine, there was no need for him to say those words. Merry and I are not yet engaged, and it will be some time before we are – if ever.”
“But you’ve been spending an awful lot of time with him lately,” Celandine remarked, “Why, just yesterday when he came to visit you, the two of you spent nearly five hours outside together! It wasn’t until after dark that he even left, and you spent the rest of the evening sitting around with a far-off and dreamy look in your eyes – Estella, I must say, you are smitten with my dear cousin.”
“Well, I’ve never – met anyone as charming as he. Perhaps someday, Celandine, when you fall in love, you’ll understand what it feels like,” she said, and spoke no more as she continued with her knitting.
“What are you making there?” Celandine asked after several minutes of silence.
“Oh, I think it’s going to be a scarf – for Merry.”
“I thought so.”
“Well, one can easily tell what it’s turning out be,” Estella said, holding up the long threads of her work, “It’s not too difficult.”
“I meant that whatever it was, I figured it would be for Merry.”
“Oh – well, I suppose so. I mean, he probably really needs one, for it’s getting quite cold, and it’s only yet September – for the winter months ahead, you know.”
Celandine grinned and shook her head. “Good night, Estella,” she said, and exited the room for her own quarters.
The next morning Fredegar awoke eager to hear what had happened during Estella’s visit at Brandy Hall with Merry’s parents. Estella had only barely briefed him of the events, but from Celandine’s comments he knew that something extraordinary had transpired.
“And it landed in his lap?” he said at one point, his jaw dropping to hear the hilarity. He slapped his knees in mirth, shaking his head almost consciously. “I should have known you’d do something like that – you never were too good at social events, which probably resulted in your being such a recluse half the time. But I expect he wasn’t angry?”
“No, not at all! Why, he laughed so hard and just when on eating – it was a good ten minutes before he even removed the meat, he was so amused by it!” she said, laughing before regaining her composure, “But really, Fatty, I was lucky not to be thrown out by my ear after that stunt – any other hobbit would have been terribly upset by it, so I must be careful not to do something like that again. Etiquette, that is what I shall have to learn,” she said, and held her hands solemnly in her lap as she said this.
“Just as long as I have permission to tell Mother and Father of this,” he said, still wiping tears of laughter from his eyes, “When we return home, right?”
“I suppose – although, when exactly will that be?” Estella, though enjoying her stay in Buckland, was most eager to return home to her family.
“Hopefully the day after the Harvest Festival, if it suits you,” he said.
Estella thought it over quietly. “Yes, I think that will be agreeable – Merry has invited me to be his companion to the Festival, so I shall be able to say goodbye to him then.”
“Oh, why not just invite him to come here the next morning? I’m sure he would want to see you off, and it would just so romantic,” Celandine said, a light in her eyes.
“Perhaps,” Fredegar said, nodding slightly, “But Estella, I wonder – I brought a letter for you from our parents, but I seem to have forgotten it. Maybe it is in the knapsack I brought, the one I left on the pony’s back.” The two of them adjourned outside, but did not make their way towards the stables – Fredegar had already delivered a letter from their parents the previous evening, which Celandine knew nothing about thankfully.
“Thank you – there is much I wish to speak with you about,” Estella said once they were outside. They made their way towards the brook beside which Estella had sat with Merry some weeks earlier, and rested upon the green hill.
“You have no regrets leaving, right?” Fredegar asked her once they were seated.
“Oh, some, I suppose – I shall miss Celandine, and her brothers – and I suppose something of me will miss Mentha and Mellie – but yes, Fatty, I will miss Merry, if that’s what you’re asking of me.”
He nodded. “It is, mostly – Celandine tells me you two have spent much time together.”
Estella smiled to herself. “She’s not lying to you – it seems I never go a day without seeing him, and I would have it no other way.”
“Does he come here often? To Celandine’s house?”
“Yes, most of the time – sometimes, he does invite me to Brandy Hall, though only a couple times has he invited me alone. Most of the time Celandine does come, which I don’t really mind.”
“What do the two of you talk of?”
“Well, everything and nothing, really – we don’t talk about anything in particular, just whatever we feel like. Why do you ask?”
“Well, when I last returned home, Mother asked me how you were faring – I did not want to lie to her, and I knew that she would be pleased if I told her you had found a – a special lad, I called it.”
“Well, she got what she wanted, didn’t she?”
“I didn’t say much on the topic – only that the lad was Merry, and that you had gotten to know him better. She did seem pleased, actually, as she wished for you to find a suitable husband on this trip.”
“And you want to know if Merry and I have spoken any of marriage.”
Fredegar sighed here. “I’m not trying to get into your private business – but Mother will question you of these matters when you return home. She seems a little overbearing, I know, but she only wants to see you safe, and loved. I myself have no worries really about the two of you – but I’ll tell you this, when I told Mother of Merry she asked several questions about him, like whether or not I thought he was a gentleman, and would he treat you good – things like that. Quite strange, since I thought she already knew him. But nonetheless, it is a matter to consider, with or without Mother’s influence – the two of you have been together for nearly two months, and while most couples do court for longer, there are many who have known each other for less time and have married. I’m not suggesting that the two of you wed tomorrow –”
“Oh, no, I understand,” Estella said, and here she sighed, “You are right, and – it would not truthful to say that I have not considered marriage. But as for Merry, I have no idea – oh, he talks sometimes, but nothing serious. I remember that one time, he said something about the two of us growing old together – it was an offhand statement, spoken as if something like it were inevitable between us,” she said, and drifted off with a smile on her face, “It wasn’t really anything at the time, not to him – but it meant something to me, like he was somewhat aware of the prospect of marriage. It seemed to me, though, as it were nothing special that he was talking about – as if it were completely comfortable a subject between us.”
“Well, that’s not a bad thing – that means he is not frightened, like some lads have been know to be. If he is comfortable discussing it with you, I would see that as a good thing.”
“Really?”
“And if he invited you to the Harvest Festival – well, you never know what may happen.”
“Now, I don’t think he’d propose there!”
“Well, Merry’s not the most predictable of lads – he’s got a few tricks up his sleeve, and he would want to do the opposite of what you would expect. Now I’m not saying to go to this Festival expecting a proposal – for what if he didn’t?”
“I don’t think I’d be crushed, he’s not the most romantic of lads.”
“And you say he was rather nervous upon asking you?” Estella nodded. “Well, all I can say is this – the winds of change are blowing.”
“Why do you say that?”
“Well, have you ever seen Merry nervous about anything? Even when he’s in deep trouble, the lad’s resourceful and always seems to have something to say,” he said, stopping suddenly, “But I’m rambling – the choice is yours, not mine, for you are the one whose heart another holds.” And there he left her, alone and lost in her thoughts by the gently rolling stream.