Chapter 22. On to Buckland

It was a long ride from the Great Smials to Buckland, made longer because the Ferry would not be running in this wintry weather, even if Tooks trusted the Ferry, which as a rule they didn’t. Paladin didn’t want to spend his hard-earned coin on an inn, and so he hitched up his ponies about the same time they’d be milking, back home. Pearl saw to it that bags packed with food were ready. They’d travel steadily, eating their meals on the move. Leaving now, several hours before dawn, they ought to reach Buckland in the middle night.

Now in the torchlight in the icy courtyard, Eglantine hugged her oldest daughter. ‘Are you sure, Pearlie?’ she whispered. ‘It’s not too late to change your mind and come with us.’

 ‘I’m sure, Ma,’ she whispered back, squeezing a little harder before letting go and hugging her da. When she stepped away from Paladin, Nell, Vinca and Pip surrounded her and threw their arms around her all at once. She revelled in the feeling for as long as it lasted.

 ‘Climb in,’ Paladin said. ‘Time’s wasting.’

 ‘Goodbye, Pearl,’ Pip said, darting at her for a final hug.

 ‘Give my best to Merry,’ Pearl said, returning the hug.

 ‘I will!’ Pip said brightly, forgetting his grief at leaving his beloved sister in the excitement of soon seeing his best friend. He ran to grasp Paladin’s outstretched hands and chortled with glee as his father hurtled him into the waggon bed. Nell and Vinca climbed up as decorously as was expected of them, and last Paladin handed his wife into the front seat.

Turning back to Pearl, he said, ‘Remember, Pearlie. If there’s the least bit of trouble, you send to the farm and I’ll be here in three shakes to fetch you home again.’

 ‘I’ll remember,’ she promised, turning her face up to his. He kissed her gently on the forehead.

 ‘Best get inside before you catch your death,’ he said huskily, and then he was turning away, jumping up into the waggon, slapping the traces on the ponies backs, and driving out of the courtyard.

Pearl walked slowly back to the entrance, meeting the dairymaids on their way out to do their duties. ‘Are you at loose ends, Pearl?’ Daisy said. ‘Would you like to join us this morn?’

 ‘What are you thinking?’ Prim scolded. ‘Her in her fancy dress and all!’

 ‘I would love to join you,’ Pearl laughed, ‘dress and all!’ And so she did, enjoying the feel of the soft flank against her forehead, the warm smell of the cow, the milk spurting into the bucket, the sound of the cow chewing, even the wet slap of the tail against her cheek. It was a little bit like home.

***

 ‘The Master will see you now,’ Saradoc Brandybuck said, standing at the doorway to the best parlour. Hally looked to his father uncertainly, rising quickly in obedience to Gundy’s signal.

 ‘Come along, now,’ the woodcarver said, his hand warm around Rosemary’s. ‘The Master of Buckland doesn’t eat Tooks for tea, at least, not that I’ve heard lately.’

 ‘We save them for late supper,’ Saradoc smiled, but seeing the joke lost on the tween he apologised.

 ‘No harm done,’ Gundy said. ‘We’re all a bit nervous, you see.’

They followed the heir to Buckland to the Master’s study. Rorimac rose politely from his desk to greet them, inviting them to sit down and be at ease. Saradoc offered tea or brandy. All elected tea.

 ‘Now, what can I do for you?’ the old hobbit said, settling back in his chair. ‘My son said you insisted on stating your business only to the Master, and no one else.’

 ‘This is Rosemary Took,’ Gundy said without preamble, and the shrewd old eyes widened, then narrowed.

 ‘A quickpost message came through yesterday,’ Rorimac said slowly, ‘to say she’d run away, and was feared lost, what with the bitter weather we’ve been having. You found her, then?’

 ‘I’d say that’s clear enough,’ Saradoc put in when Gundy hesitated. ‘Why bring her here? Why not take her back to the Great Smials?’

 ‘She ran away for a purpose,’ Gundy said. ‘We could hardly take her back.’

 ‘What purpose?’ the Master asked, steepling his fingers.

 ‘They aimed to marry her off to a hobbit more than three times her age,’ Gundy said, squeezing Rosemary’s hand reassuringly.

 ‘Well,’ Rorimac said slowly. ‘Such marriages have been made before, arranged marriages, amongst the great families. They’re rare, of course, and usually aimed at protecting the lass from some sort of danger or difficulty. This is the first time I’ve heard of a lass running away from such.’

 ‘How old are you, girl?’ Saradoc asked, leaning forward.

Rosemary kept her eyes cast down, but a blush rose to her cheeks. ‘Four-and-twenty,’ she whispered.

Rorimac brought his fists down upon the desk with a thump that made the girl jump, and tears spilled onto her cheeks. ‘Four-and-twenty!’ he roared.

 ‘Father, you’re frightening the girl,’ Saradoc said, rising to go to Rosemary, offering her a clean pocket-handkerchief before either of the stunned Bolgers thought to do the same.

 ‘Scandalous!’ Rorimac fumed. ‘What were those Tooks thinking?’

 ‘What do you want of the Brandybucks?’ Saradoc said. ‘We cannot keep her safe here, not if it’s the Thain she’s running away from.’

 ‘Was the marriage already announced?’ Rorimac asked, getting his temper under control.

 ‘It was to be announced at yesterday’s breakfast,’ Gundy said. ‘She disappeared the night before.’

 ‘Then there’s still a possibility...’ Rorimac said, exchanging glances with his son.

 ‘A handfasting, that’s right,’ Gundy said. ‘If she’s handfasted to another they cannot force her into a marriage not of her desiring.’

 ‘Who?’ the Master barked.

 ‘I will,’ Hally said boldly, getting up to put his arms about Rosemary’s shoulders. ‘Don’t cry, Rosie,’ he said. ‘All will be well, I promise it.’

 ‘Why the Master?’ Rorimac asked. ‘The Mayor would have been closer, or The Bolger, even.’

 ‘Or even The Baggins,’ Saradoc said.

 ‘What, young Frodo?’ Rorimac said in astonishment. ‘He’s much too young to take on such a responsibility, barely past his majority as it were. If it were old Bilbo, now, he’d relish the opportunity to laugh in Lalia’s face.’

 ‘We talked it over,’ Gundy said, ‘and this seemed the only way. The Mayor owes Mistress Lalia a favour; she was the one, sent engineers post haste to Michel Delving to help dig out the Town Hole when the roof collapsed, and they saved his life.’

 ‘Old Mayor Flourdumpling,’ Rorimac muttered.

 ‘And The Bolger is Rosemary’s uncle,’ Gundy went on. ‘Odovacar’s sister was married to Ferdinand Took, and if Ferdinand agreed to this marriage, Odo would hardly gainsay him.’

 ‘And so you came to me,’ Rorimac said, sitting up a little straighter.

 ‘Yes, sir, we did,’ Gundy answered. ‘You can perform the handfasting. You’re a disinterested party. No one can accuse you of looking for personal gain in the matter.’

 ‘On the contrary,’ Saradoc said dryly. ‘This is likely to put a strain between the Brandybucks and the Tooks for quite awhile to come.’ He thought of his Meriadoc and young Peregrin Took and his lips tightened briefly. How to explain this sort of thing to them? I’m sorry, son, but you cannot see your best friend again because your grandfather insulted the Thain...

 ‘I’m sorry,’ Rosemary whispered, burying her face in the handkerchief. There was a short silence, and then she lifted her face again, pale and resolute. ‘I didn’t mean to cause such trouble,’ she said. ‘I ought to go back.’

 ‘No!’ Hally protested, his hand tightening on her shoulder.

 ‘We will do the right thing,’ Rorimac said sternly, ‘no matter how difficult, or what consequences we fear.’

Rosemary nodded, half-expecting the Master to order her escorted forthwith back to Tuckborough, but he was looking keenly at her. ‘Do you realise, my dear, that once this thing is done you may never go back?’

She took a sharp breath and nodded once more. They had discussed this very thing on the way from Woody End to Brandy Hall. ‘Your father, your brother, your uncles, aunts and cousins, all may disavow you for this, you and your children to come,’ the Master added, his eyes holding hers until she nodded yet again.

 ‘She has a family,’ Hally said staunchly.

 ‘The Bolgers of Woody End will welcome her as one of our own,’ Gundy acknowledged. ‘I discussed it with my brothers before we left for Buckland.’

 ‘Very well,’ Rorimac said abruptly, rising from his chair. ‘Tea is about to be served in the great room. There’ll be no dearth of witnesses. Come along.’

All the Brandybucks were in their places, a pleasant buzz of conversation filling the room. When the Master entered, all rose, ready to bow when he took his place. Rorimac did not take his place, however, but gestured to the visitors following him to come to the head of the room, in view of all.

 ‘I call you all to witness a handfasting!’ he shouted. The Brandybucks looked at each other and then back to the Master. This was unexpected. They were even more mystified when they saw the two young hobbits to be joined, neither familiar, and the Master did not introduce them.

 ‘Hally, Rosemary, go forward and stand on either side of the Master,’ Saradoc prompted in an undertone. They did so, stumbling a little in their awkwardness. Rosemary had been in great rooms many times with her parents, but never before the focus of all eyes. Hally, on the other hand, was more comfortable in a forest of trees than in a forest of hobbits.

 ‘We are here to unite two lives, two hearts, two spirits,’ Rorimac intoned, taking the left hand of each, for this was the hand where the heart-blood beat most strongly. He lifted the hands, placing them palm together above head-height, and then as he spoke the remainder of the traditional words, he wound a silken cord about the hands, tying them firmly together.

 ‘...And what has been joined here, before witnesses, let no one tear asunder!’ he ended loudly. ‘You are all invited to come—’ he turned to Gundy Bolger.

 ‘Five years,’ Gundy whispered.

The Master nodded. Five years from now, the girl would be nine-and-twenty. A bit young for marrying, but not scandalously so. He humphed to himself. What they were doing was scandalous, as it was. ‘You are all invited to come five years from now to witness a wedding!’

A cheer arose from the Brandybucks witnessing the handfasting. ‘Very well,’ Rorimac said. ‘You may slip your hands loose now, the deed is done.’ He indicated three places that the servants had set at the head table when they saw him walk in with three guests. ‘How about a spot of tea?’