Chapter 19. 'Rabbits is as rabbits does...'
After a day of rest, Estella's ankle was not all it should be, perhaps, but better than it was. At least Ferdibrand was able to manipulate the joint gently without bringing a gasp or wince as dusk began to settle over the Woody End. 'You'll turn it more easily in the state it's in,' he warned, 'until it's had time to heal completely.'
'I'll walk carefully,' Estella said.
'I hope so!'
The sound of heavy bodies moving carelessly along the nearby path prevented any further conversation, but when the Men were well away, Ferdi whispered, 'We'll sleep a few hours more and rise in the middle night, and eat what food we have left, and then depart our rabbits' nest, walking only for part of the night – for the last portion of this stretch of the journey must be made in daylight.'
'Shirriff Tallow's mushrooms,' Estella breathed.
'Exactly,' Ferdi said. 'But we're prepared, and will play our parts, and I have every confidence you'll be able to convince them as well as I hope to...'
'And then we'll reach the borderlands?' Estella said, for that was her understanding.
'That is correct,' Ferdi said. 'This night we'll see the last of the Wood before we reach the open country, and we'll have to cross a boggy area on the road, for going around the bog would have us walking out in the open with little cover to speak of for twice or even three times as long. There are copses sprinkled over and around the Green Hills, and trees growing in the valleys where streams are flowing. We'll try to work our way from cover to cover once we're past the bog.'
'And we must walk the Road in daylight,' Estella said.
'Because of the curfew,' Ferdi said. 'To be found on the Road at night is a certain invitation to the ruffians to march you off to the Lockholes.'
Estella shivered. Or worse, she thought. But "worse" was the whole reason Ferdi was risking the Lockholes for her sake. 'But to be found on the Road, even in daylight, without a Pass...' she said.
Though the sky above the trees was pale, darkness had already claimed their hiding place beneath the broad leaves of the bramble patch. Estella could hear the smile in Ferdi's voice as he said, 'That's what the mushrooms are for.' He adjusted his position for a more comfortable one, from the sound of it, and said, 'But sleep now. For tomorrow will be the longest day of our journey, as well as the most dangerous one...'
Estella stretched cautiously and then curled under her cloak and tried to relax into sleep. It took some effort of will, but she managed, somehow, for when Ferdi gently shook her shoulder to awaken her again, she felt as if she hadn't slept at all.
At least their scanty meal wasn't interrupted by passing Men. The path was much less-travelled this night. Estella hoped that fact boded well for the rest of this day. Begin as you mean to go on, her grandmother was fond of saying.
'There we are,' Ferdi said. 'Now, shake any and all crumbs out of the wrapping, and roll it tight like a bandage – for that's what it is, a bandage that you're carrying in case you have a mishap. Which you have,' he added.
'P'rhaps it would go better wrapped around my ankle?' she asked dryly.
'Not unless you are playing a game with the ruffians, trying to make them think you're weaker than you are,' Ferdi warned. 'For if they sense weakness, they'll go after you! ...and you must have a good hiding place where you can go to ground before they catch you, or a trap that will catch them as you lead them into it!'
It sounded like a very dangerous game to Estella. She also had the impression that Ferdi was not only familiar with the game but played it all too often in the cat-and-mouse gamble the Tooks had been playing with Lotho's Men for some months now. She could only hope their luck would not run out.
She ran her hand the length of the cloth wrapping to ensure no crumbs remained, and then she rolled it tightly and stuck it down the side of her pack, pushing it all the way to the bottom, under the mushrooms she'd gathered. Her stomach roiled at the rich smell of the mushrooms, and she firmly commanded it to behave properly. To her surprise, it did.
With a sniff and a nod, she shouldered her pack. The Moon, now high in the sky, was not far off the full, and the faint light filtering through the leaves gave her an idea of Ferdi's shape. Thus, she was aware when he raised his arm. The quiet rustle told her that he'd made a roof with his walking stick, lifting the briars above their heads to make it easier for her to crawl out of their hiding place.
He emerged immediately behind her, handing Estella her staff as he straightened. In return, she took hold of his cloak as she had at the beginning and gave a tug to indicate her readiness. And then they were moving through the darkness, perhaps a little slower than before (sparing her ankle? she wondered).
Their luck held through the rest of the night, for they encountered no ruffians during the dark hours. First light, a little before sunrise, found them at the edge of the Wood, where they paused to rest before leaving the cover provided by the sheltering leaves.
'I'll miss the Wood,' she murmured.
Ferdi smiled. 'I always do,' he said. 'There's something about a Wood... brambles, hollow logs, the (hopefully empty) dens of wild animals...'
'O you silver-tongued Fox, you,' she said, punching him lightly on the arm.
Shhh, he said, only half-joking, and she sobered at once. Then he lifted his hand to point. 'See the great hills rising in the distance beyond the grass-land,' he said. 'There lies freedom.'
Heartened, she nodded.
'But just one moment,' he said, staying her when she would have stepped out of the shadow of the trees.
As she watched in astonishment, he dug to the bottom of his pack, beneath the mushrooms, and brought out a small bag. 'Which way's the wind blowing?' he asked himself aloud as he undid the knot tying the bag shut. He turned himself to put the wind at his back, then bent over with his head pointing downwind and dumped the contents of the bag over his head. The breeze carried away a white cloud as fine as dust, though much of it settled on his head. He proceeded to work the dust into his curls. When he straightened again, taking care to brush any traces of dust from his clothing, he resembled a much older, white-haired gaffer!
'Flour,' he said succinctly, tucking the small bag inside his shirt. 'As long as they don't get too close...' Then he bent down and picked up a handful of dirt, which he rubbed into his face and neck, nodding to her to do the same. When Estella had finished, she looked at Ferdi and scarcely recognised him. He'd also, apparently, rubbed some dust into his eyes, making them red and watery, giving him a bleary look. He looked her over as well. 'Nicely grubby,' he said. 'Now, do you remember your part in our play?'
'Keep my mouth shut,' Estella said. 'Awkward and shy, a back-woods hobbit who's not comfortable with strangers – especially Big ones.'
'And?' he prompted.
'Let you do the talking,' she said, and as he opened his mouth to prompt her further, she held up her hand to stop him. 'And if all goes awry, run.' Though it went against the grain. She took a deep breath and let it out again. 'Run,' she said reluctantly, 'and don't look back, no matter what.'
'You'll do,' he said with a nod of approval.
As if of one mind, they stole together out from under the verge of the Wood, walking softly – though of course, all the stealth in the world could not hide them from spying eyes so long as they were walking out in the open. Ferdi zig-zagged them from copse to copse, spending as little time as possible in plain sight.
The ribbon of road he was aiming for came into sight; some time earlier, Estella had noticed it curving away into the hills. 'Just up ahead, we'll cross the wetlands,' Ferdi said. 'Not far beyond, we'll join with the road that runs between Stock and Tuckborough, where we'll find some cover as the road begins to wind over the skirts of the Green Hills. The track is deeply cloven, hardly fit for carts these days, so little of travellers does it see, but trees line the sides of the track, and hollows and hiding places abound.'
'And bramble patches?' Estella asked.
He grinned. 'Some, here and there,' he said. 'Or where would the rabbits make their homes? Rabbits is as rabbits does, as you know.'
'I do!' she said.
No ruffians accosted them as they crossed the open grass-land, and they saw no tall figures as they reached the little side-branch leading to the Stock Road and walked along the narrow track through increasingly damp and boggy ground. Estella pointed to the clumps of reeds of reeds and rushes, but Ferdi shook his head. 'Should you try to find hiding there,' he said in a bare whisper, 'you'd be hidden all right! At the bottom of the bog!'
They encountered some thin clouds of small, annoying biting insects, but Ferdi told her they were lucky, for though midges swarmed thick and hungry in the summer and fall months, they were hardly noticeable this time of year.
Hardly noticeable, Estella hmphed to herself, slapping at her neck. At least her newly acquired covering of dirt provided a little protection. Perhaps it was more than merely disguise.
Just after the side-road left the bog and just before they reached the little-used road leading to Stock, their luck ran out.
***