Chapter 14. Decorations

Once the early baking was done the teens and tweens were sent out to collect evergreens and bright winterberry clippings.

 ‘Mmmm, in their own way they smell as good as the food does!’ Pearl said, tying together branches of various greens to fashion a garland.

 ‘Ouch!’ Everard said. ‘They bite! Which the food never did.’ He sucked a finger that had grasped a sharply-pointed holly leaf with too little caution.

 ‘You cut yourself chopping fruit, as I recall,’ Hildibard said to him, and there was a shout of laughter from the tweens working at tables in the great room. ‘Perhaps you’d be safer out planting winter barley!’

 ‘Too late,’ Everard replied, for he was ever-literal. ‘Winter barley’s over and done or I’d be out in the fields yet!’

 ‘Poor Aldebrand,’ Daisy sighed, fastening a bright bow to the wreath that Prim had finished tying together. ‘Greenery’s not as important as baking. Not important enough to pull him from the diggings in any event.’

 ‘You could always hope for snow and ice,’ Pansy said. ‘If it gets too cold the ground will freeze.’

 ‘Not as far underground as he’s digging,’ Daisy said glumly. Though the engineers working for the Thain were reputed to be the best in the Shire, there was always the possibility that the diggings would collapse, trapping or killing the workers. Perhaps she ought to turn her interest to a hobbit with a safer occupation.

Pearl had lost her own smile, thinking of the possibility of ice and snow. She doubted her family would come if the roads were treacherous; yet the sky had been grey and gloomy indeed, the clouds hanging heavy, the last few days when the Mistress had taken the air.

 ‘Last Day is a fortnight tomorrow,’ Violet said with a wink. ‘He’ll be called back out of the diggings to help with the cooking and stirring up and baking.’

 ‘I cannot believe Yuletide starts in a week!’ Prim said. ‘The old year is waning fast, and a new year about to begin.’

 ‘I wonder what it will bring?’ Violet said.

 ‘Weddings,’ Pansy replied, and giggled when Daisy glared at her.

 ‘Burials,’ practical Everard said, and the girls shivered.

 ‘Births and feasts, rain and sunshine,’ Reginard put in, ‘but this is neither the time nor the place.’ The tweens nodded and busied their fingers again. They would be hard put to it for the next fortnight, cleaning, polishing, and dusting, and sweeping out the dust and cobwebs of the old year, to make the Smials ready for the new. The first day of Yule would be their first chance to rest and play, and they’d be up all night on Last Day to watch the old year burn away with the Yule log and talk about their hopes and plans for the future.

Regi looked over to where the carvers were working. He thought he’d heard that Gundy had not been to bed this past night, though you’d never know it. The woodcarver’s hand was as steady as ever as he chiselled and carved. Hally worked away bringing the roughed-out shapes to life as he talked quietly to Ferdi, who had added realistic texture to the trees’ bark, fur to the squirrels, feathers to the birds, tiny veins to the leaves that Gundy shaped and Hally polished. Would they finish? Regi half-wished he could take a tool in hand and help the carvers in their race, but his hands were not skilled at such work.

Someone raised a song and soon the great room rang with the joyous sound as the tweens continued their work. Groups of teens came in bearing more greenery, stopping for a hot cup of tea and a hand-warming at one of the braziers, and then it was time to go out again in search of more.

A week passed quickly for Pearl, divided between her duties to the Mistress and the many tasks that fell upon the younger folk at the Great Smials in preparation for Yuletide.

 ‘A week until Yule!’ Mistress Lalia said as they took the air at the threshold of the Great Door. ‘Smell that air! So crisp! I do believe it will snow soon.’

 ‘Yes’m,’ Pearl said.

 ‘There’s something about a good snow,’ Lalia said approvingly. ‘Makes the land look fresh and clean, covers up the mud.’

Thinking of her family, Pearl said only, ‘Yes, Mistress.’

Lalia stretched and sat straighter in the heavy wheeled chair. ‘Ah,’ she said in satisfaction. ‘The new year brings great promise... I can hardly wait to greet it!’ Pearl wondered what she meant. None of the discussions she’d overheard were of anything that might bring “great promise”, though the Mistress had taken to smiling at her son after a long period of frowns. The Thain had evidently made some promise or other to his mother.

The Mistress was in excellent humour whenever she was wheeled to the great room to check on progress of the tweens in their work, or the carving of the mantel. It did not appear that the woodcarvers would finish in time, and although Lalia grumbled there was a bright spark in her eye as she inspected the intricate work. Mastercarver indeed was Gundy Bolger, and she’d have the fruit of his two-months’ labours at no cost to herself. She smiled indulgently to see poor young Ferdi working away. The Bolgers had assured her that he would not spoil the work, and it did her heart good to think of the lad gainfully occupied instead of sitting idly staring at nothing.

Pearl wheeled her back to the Thain’s private quarters in good time for the noonday meal, and as she had lately, Lalia dismissed the girl to eat the nooning with the other tweens in the Smials.

 ‘I’ll walk with you, if I may,’ Isumbold said, meeting her outside the door to the Thain’s suite, though it ought to be more properly called the Mistress’ suite. Ferumbras occupied a small bachelor’s apartment nearby. Pearl couldn’t blame him for choosing to forego the opulence and clutter of the Thain’s apartments under Mistress Lalia. Her own fingers itched to pick up and straighten and clear away half the contents of the suite whenever she had to attend Lalia there instead of in the Thain’s study, which Adelard kept in some semblance of order.

 ‘You may,’ Pearl said with a smile. ‘Will you join me for noontide?’

Smiling, Isumbold shook his head. ‘The escort always take their meals together, had you not noticed? You are welcome to join us instead, of course.’

 ‘I’d be happy to join you all,’ Pearl said. ‘I find the escort very diverting.’

 ‘Yes, we must have lively wits to keep up with the Thain and his mother,’ Isumbold said. ‘Mistress Lalia is... changeable.’

Pearl managed to suppress a laugh, but when she glanced at Isum his eyes were dancing with mischief. ‘A true Took,’ was the safest answer she could think of. ‘My grandma always used to say, “What’s a mind for if you cannot change it?” .’

Indeed the Thain’s escort were a lively bunch, more so this day, for seeing Pearl at that table, of course Daisy and Prim, Violet and Pansy joined them. There is nothing like the combination of dashing hobbits and pretty lasses to stimulate the wit.

When the remnants of the noontide meal were cleared away, Pansy rolled her eyes. ‘The baking starts now,’ she said. ‘One week until Last Day! We’ll be hard put to it for the next week!’

 ‘All the better to enjoy the rest you’ll have at Yule,’ Pearl said pertly. ‘Naught to do but eat and dance and sing!’

 ‘I’ll be wearing a new gown the colour of sunshine,’ Violet said coyly, looking up at Baragrim from under her eyelashes.

 ‘You’ll brighten the hall,’ he returned gallantly. ‘You must save a dance for me, miss.’

 ‘Will all the escort be dancing?’ Pansy giggled. Daisy rolled her eyes at Pearl, who stifled a chuckle.

 ‘We know our duty,’ Isumbold returned with a nod. He stood up from the table, throwing his fine woollen cloak over his arm. Looking to Pearl, he said, ‘Would you care to join me, miss, for a stroll to settle that fine meal.’

 ‘It would be my pleasure, sir,’ she answered, even as she knew she’d have to fend off giggles and whispers when she returned to help with the baking.

He did not offer his arm, nor did she take it, but they walked the corridors companionably together, chatting easily, nodding to all they knew. Pearl thought they were walking without aim until they came to one of the lesser entrances to the Great Smials.

 ‘I wanted to show you something,’ Isum said. He settled his cloak about Pearl’s shoulders, fastening the clasp. ‘Wouldn’t want you to take a chill,’ he murmured. ‘Come.’

He opened the door to a land of wintry wonder. The few flakes that had drifted aimlessly while the Mistress “took the air” that morning had been joined by their fellows. A thick carpet of snow lay upon the stones of the courtyard, and more was descending in large, heavy flakes that were sticking together, unlikely butterflies.

 ‘O,’ Pearl breathed, one part of her amazed at the beauty of it all, the rest dismayed, for how would her family come to visit in this?

Isumbold led Pearl to the centre of the courtyard and turned her to look at the face of the Great Smials. ‘The fruit of your labours,’ he said, raising a hand to point. ‘I knew you’d had no time out-of-doors these past few weeks, between the demands of the Mistress and the busyness of preparing for the season.’

Every opening of the Smials was festooned with evergreen garlands tied with bright bows. Lamps shone in every window, sending a warm and welcoming light out into the storm with its fast-piling snow. ‘It’s beautiful,’ Pearl whispered, but she could not help the tears that spilled over.

 ‘What is it, my dear?’ Isumbold said softly, placing a finger under her chin to tilt her head upwards.

Pearl swallowed hard, trying to smile. ‘It’s all so lovely,’ she said. ‘I’ve never seen the Smials look so inviting... it’s just...’

 ‘What?’ the head of escort said, pulling a pocket handkerchief out and putting it into her hand.

Dabbing at her eyes, Pearl said, ‘The snow... my family...’

 ‘Is that all?’ Isem said with a chuckle. Smiling down at her, he added, ‘Your father is the most determined Took I know, next to Mistress Lalia. You don’t think that a little snow will keep him from visiting you at Yule, do you?’

 ‘To take a waggon along the track between Tookbank and Tuckborough in the summer is one thing,’ Pearl argued. ‘In heavy snowfall... there’s no proper road. My father is much too practical...’

 ‘Your father is much too practical to be stopped by a little snowfall,’ Isum said. ‘I’ll wager you that he’ll be here as promised.’

 ‘What’ll you wager?’ she answered with a smile.

 ‘Dance the first dance with me on Last Night,’ he said, greatly daring. Pearl would have no dearth of partners, and the first dance would be the most heavily contested.

 ‘You’re on!’ she said gaily, for his confidence was catching. A gust of wind sent snowflakes dancing and caught at Isum’s cloak, causing Pearl to shiver.

 ‘I had better get you back inside,’ he said, his eyes darkening in concern.

 ‘I am not all that fragile,’ Pearl laughed, but she allowed him to lead her back to the little door, his hand warm, even through the cloak, on the centre of her back.