Chapter 17. A Rescue

Bittersweet met them in the corridor as they carried Ferdi towards the infirmary. ‘What happened?’ she asked. ‘I was in the back of the room and didn’t see.’

 ‘It was the lighting of the Yule log,’ Isumbold said, and no more was needed.

 ‘Will this—’ Rosemary asked. ‘Will this set him back to where he was?’

 ‘I do not know, child,’ Bittersweet said soberly. ‘He has a very strong will, your brother does. I’ve never known anyone to come out of the shock once they’d stopped eating, and yet he did.’

They reached Ferdi’s room and set him gently on the bed. Rosemary settled beside him and stroked his hair. ‘Ferdi,’ she said softly. ‘It’s all right, Ferdi. There’s no fire here.’ It was true. There was never a fire in his room, not even an open candle. A lamp burned, the flame safely contained, and that was all.

Ferdi slowly lowered his arms from his head and blinked, then threw his arms around Rosemary, burying his head in a fold of the voluminous gown. ‘That’s right,’ she soothed. ‘That’s right, brother.’

 ‘We’ll take our leave now,’ Isumbold said quietly. He and Baragrim bowed and went back to their duties.

 ‘I’ll brew you some tea,’ Bittersweet said, and Gundy and Hally left the room with her.

In the little kitchen, Gundy spoke what was on his mind. ‘I had the impression you were looking out for the girl,’ he said.

Astonished, Bittersweet stopped short of setting the kettle on the fire. ‘I don’t know what you mean,’ she said.

 ‘That dress,’ the elder Bolger said. ‘She has always dressed sensibly and fitting to her tender age before, but to let her wear that dress...’

 ‘That was not my doing,’ Bittersweet said, stung.

 ‘Whose doing was it, then?’ Gundy said. ‘I’ve half a mind to give someone a piece of my mind. Poor child, with no one to look out for her...’

 ‘It was the Mistress,’ Bittersweet said. At Gundy’s raised eyebrow she nodded. ‘Yes, Mistress Lalia. She sent the dress with her compliments.’

 ‘I know the fashions are different here in the Great Smials, but I don’t see anyone else Rosie’s age dressed so,’ Gundy argued. ‘She looks all of ten years older, old enough to put the wrong ideas into the heads of hobbits looking to be wed.’

 ‘There’s something here I do not understand,’ Bittersweet said slowly. ‘The girl didn’t sleep last night, and she’s been miserable all the day. I asked her father what could be wrong and he told me only time would tell.’

 ‘The dress is part of it, mark my words,’ Viola said from the doorway. ‘Mistress Lalia is up to something. She looked like the cat that got into the cream this night, when she pulled Rosie to her side and held her tight like a cat with a mouse. And Rosie didn’t look all that different from a mouse that’s caught.’

 ‘Why would she dress a child as if she’d come of age?’ Gundy said. He was still scandalised. That sweet, innocent child... a daughter of his own would not be allowed to walk out with a suitor until she reached the age of thirty, and that was early to many of the Bolgers’ thinking. Two-and-thirty was plenty early for a lass to marry. There was no call for a tween to go about dressed as if she were seeking a husband.

 ‘Let us ask Rosie,’ Viola said.

 ‘She wouldn’t tell me earlier,’ Bittersweet warned.

 ‘She is much too young to bear this kind of serious trouble on her own,’ Viola said.

Whilst the grown-ups discussed Rosemary amongst themselves, Hally crept back to Ferdi’s room, to find Rosemary weeping, her head bowed over her brother.

 ‘What is it, Rose?’ he asked. ‘Let me help.’

 ‘No one can help me,’ she whispered.

 ‘Let me try,’ he said. ‘Please.’ He put a cautious hand upon her shoulder, bare as it was in the low-cut gown, and took it away quickly again.

She raised her face to look at him, her expression bleak. ‘I’m pledged to marry,’ she said.

 ‘Handfasting?’ he asked. ‘Your father has arranged a marriage for you when you are older?’ It made sense, though his heart was sinking within him.

 ‘Marriage,’ she said, ‘in the Spring.’

 ‘The Spring,’ he echoed, stunned. ‘Excuse me a moment,’ he stammered, and stumbled from the room.

He found the adults still talking in the kitchen, waiting for the teakettle to boil. ‘She’s pledged to marry in the Spring,’ he blurted.

There was a sudden silence as they all looked at him. He withstood their scrutiny as best he could, though normally he found trees to be more comfortable company than hobbits.

 ‘Pledged to marry,’ Gundy said slowly. ‘A handfasting?’ he said, for that was the only plausible explanation; still it did not justify dressing the child the way he’d seen her this night.

When Hally shook his head, Bittersweet stepped forward, tea forgotten. ‘Whom?’ she demanded, suspicion growing. ‘Whom is she to marry?’ But Hally only shook his head again.

Bittersweet marched from the room, the others behind her. Viola stopped only long enough to swing the little kettle away from the fire.

 ‘Your father has arranged a marriage for you?’ Bittersweet said to the girl who sat with drooping head. ‘A marriage, and not a handfasting? To the Thain?’ All save Ferdi looked at her in shock.

 ‘How did you know?’ Rosemary said miserably.

 ‘I have served Mistress Lalia for more years than you’ve been alive, girl,’ the healer snapped. ‘I know she’s desperate for her son to have an heir, and I know that none of the fine ladies of the Great Smials will have him so long as he’s under his mother’s thumb.’

She eyed the girl, nodding to herself. ‘About the only way she could find him a wife would be to coerce a girl with little other choice, and no one to protect her.’ Her eyes narrowed thoughtfully. ‘I wonder what she offered her son to go along with her plans and ask Ferdinand. She knew he’d not in honour be able to refuse. She was willing to risk scandal and gossip to get her way, but then what else is new?’

 ‘We have to stop this,’ Gundy said.

 ‘How? This is the Tookland,’ Bittersweet said, ‘and it’s the Thain you’re talking about.’ She pursed her lips as her eyes shifted back and forth, reflecting her furious thoughts. ‘Unless...’ she said.

 ‘Unless what?’ Hally demanded. Ferdi’s eyes were open now, moving from one speaker to the next, apparently following the conversation, though he maintained his tight grip on his sister.

 ‘Rosemary,’ Bittersweet said slowly, her tone demanding the girl to look at her. ‘A difficult choice is before you.’

 ‘What choice?’ Rosemary whispered, her expression hopeless.

 ‘You can stay here, accept Lalia’s manipulations, marry a hobbit old enough to be your father, nay,’ she said bitterly, ‘old enough to be your grandfather,’ she shuddered at the thought, monstrous it was.

 ‘Or?’ Viola said.

 ‘Or you can run away,’ Bittersweet said. ‘I cannot believe I am saying this,’ she muttered. Raising her head, she said slowly and deliberately. ‘I am telling you to defy your father and leave the Tookland. You cannot stay where the Thain has influence; your father will only claim you’re a wayward child and send to have you brought back again.’

 ‘Where would I go?’ the girl said, her eyes wide. ‘What would I do?’

 ‘We’d take you in,’ Gundy said stoutly. ‘The Thain has no hold on us anymore, and our land is in Woody End, beyond the border of Tookland.’ Despite the seriousness of the situation he smiled faintly, feeling the roll of paper tucked away.

Rosemary’s arms tightened about her brother. ‘I cannot leave Ferdi,’ she said.

 ‘Go,’ came a whisper.

 ‘Who would care for my father if I go?’ she said. ‘At least if I marry the Thain I can stay and watch over...’ Her voice trailed off as she looked down at her brother in amazement. ‘Ferdi?’

He nodded, pushing himself up to a sitting position. ‘Go,’ he repeated. ‘I—I’ll take care—of our da,’ he finished haltingly.

 ‘She’s not safe even then,’ Viola said. ‘If there’s an agreement they can claim “breach of promise” and haul her back to the Tookland.’

 ‘Not if she’s already joined to someone else,’ Gundy said slowly.

 ‘Joined — as in married?’ Bittersweet said. ‘This whole travesty started with her being too young to marry!’

 ‘Handfasted,’ Hally spoke up. ‘I’m too young to marry as well,’ he added, ‘but handfasting is as binding as marriage — there’d be no recourse for her father or for the Thain, and we could be married when we’re old enough... if you’d have me, Rosie?’ He held his breath, thinking he’d gone too far.

 ‘O Hally,’ Rosemary breathed. ‘I couldn’t ask you to —’

 ‘But I want to do it,’ he said earnestly, and blushed.

 ‘Is this something you’d want, Rosie-lass?’ Viola asked gently.

 ‘Yes,’ Rosemary said softly, and then again with more determination. ‘Yes.’ She looked to Hally. ‘I never dared hope before this moment,’ she said, ‘but I’ve dreamed a long time.’

 ‘Then it’s settled,’ Gundy said.

 ‘Not quite,’ Bittersweet said. ‘We still have to get her out of here.’