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Flames  by Lindelea

 

'You want me to do what?' Ferdi repeated.

'Are you going deaf in your old age, gaffer? That's the second time you've asked. Are we to pension you off, then?' Reginard said. 'Or is it that you're just not paying attention?'

'I cannot believe you want me to ride escort to the Thain.'

'You've won the tournament the last few years running; unless you move away from Tuckborough it is your place to head the Thain's escort,' Regi said complacently.

'Move away...' Ferdi said bleakly. All these years he'd stayed, under the ban, and now, elevated to the position he'd always coveted, he was sorely tempted to go. 'You want me to...' he said slowly.

'No, I do not want you to do anything. I'm telling you. Do I have to make it an order?'

'You can order me to sprout wings and fly, but I'm not about to jump off the top of the Smials just to see if wings magically appear,' Ferdi retorted.

'The Tooks have chosen Pippin as Thain...' Reginard began.

'Not that they had any choice, with Eglantine as The Took putting him forward,' Ferdi interrupted.

'Not to mention the little fact that he is Paladin's son,' Reginard said dryly, 'and so the succession naturally passes to him.' He eyed Ferdi sternly. 'Just as being head of the escort passes naturally to you, as winner of the tournament.'

'Do I have a choice?' Ferdi asked sourly.

'No,' Reginard answered. 'Now go round up Tolly and Hilly, saddle your ponies and Pippin's Socks, and be ready in the yard. He's riding out in a few minutes; I'd hate for you to miss him.'

'Where are we going?' Ferdi asked.

'I'm sure he'll let you know,' Reginard answered. 'I'm not in charge anymore.'

'Could have fooled me,' Ferdi muttered as he turned away. He squared his shoulders. It was a job, just a job, and he would perform as thoroughly as he would have for the old Thain himself. And indeed, if he was stiff and formal, Pippin was equally so. Only necessary words were said, and without any pleasantries or chit chat, the Thain and his escort rode out of the yard.

***

They had ridden into Tuckborough, and if Ferdi was expecting that Pip was off to the Duck for a mug, as in the old wastrel days, he was mistaken. Nor did the new Thain stop in front of any of the grand homes belonging to the more important Tooks who chose not to live in the Great Smials. Instead, he led his escort into one of the poorer sections of Tuckborough, on the outskirts of town, pulling up before a hole dug into the side of the great hill, door looking shabby, needing paint, though the doorknob was polished and the windows were shiny-clean. It was a chilly morning, but no smoke came from the chimney.

'We have business here?' Ferdi asked as the Thain dismounted.

'We might,' Pippin answered, knocked on the door, and entered. Ferdi looked to Tolly, who shrugged, then to Hilly, who shook his head.

'What do we do?' Hilly asked.

'We wait,' Ferdi said.

'It's cold out here,' Hilly protested.

'So you're a delicate flower, going to wilt with a bit of frost?' Ferdi retorted. Hilly subsided, pulling his cloak more closely about his neck. While Tolly and Hilly waited, Ferdi slid from his saddle and eased the door open, to find the Thain talking casually with an old gaffer as if he'd known him all his life, cadging a pipeful of tobacco as if he weren't the most powerful hobbit in the Shire, putting his feet up on the fender before the cold hearth. Evidently a neighbor would arrive later with an armload of wood and a meal for the old hobbit.

Pippin glanced up at Ferdibrand in the doorway. 'Excuse me a moment,' he said to the gaffer. He got up, went to the door, said quietly, 'Cousin, I want you to go out and buy a cord of firewood, have it stacked under the eaves. The gaffer need not shiver through the mornings, waiting on his neighbor's kindness.'

'But...' Ferdi said.

Pippin grinned. 'The Thain's paying,' he said. Ferdi's head whirled... it seemed his cousin had not shed his wastrel ways after all, though this was definitely a different way to squander the gold Paladin had been at pains to accumulate.

'Yes, Sir,' Ferdibrand said without expression. He closed the door and mounted his pony.

'Where are we going?' Tolly said.

'You are staying here, in case the Thain takes it into his head to depart,' Ferdi answered. 'I am running an errand.'

It was chilly enough that he could see his breath, and early enough that the vendors were still setting up in the marketplace, but the woodcutter was there already, stacking bundles of wood neatly for sale to those who could not manage to buy a larger supply at one time. Ferdi asked the price, and shuddered. How could the poorer hobbits warm themselves or their food at those prices? He asked the price of a cord, and nodded, satisfied. It was much less, to buy in quantity, though a poorer hobbit would be hard pressed to scrabble together enough coin to do so.

'I want a cord, and I want it now, by order of the Thain,' he said.

The woodcutter came to attention at that, barking orders to his lads, then turning to Ferdi with the greatest deference. 'The lads, Sir, they'll have a cart filled for you in three shakes, and deliver it to the Smials not long after.'

'No, not to the Smials,' Ferdi said. 'I'll show them where to deliver the wood.'

'Yes, Sir,' the woodcarver said, still stiff and formal.

'Come to the Smials for payment,' Ferdi said. 'See the steward.'

'Thank you, Sir,' the woodcarver bowed, then shouted at the lads. 'Look lively, now! The gentlehobbit doesn't have the daylong to sit and wait on you!'

Ferdi rode slowly along, followed by the lads dragging the cart of wood. He showed them where to stack it outside the old gaffer's hole, under the eaves of the porch that had been built on for a place to sit of a fine summer's eve. He found himself smiling a bit at Tolly and Hilly's astonishment. When the lads were working to his satisfaction, Ferdi knocked at the door and heard laughter within before the cracked voice of the old hobbit bid him enter.

Pippin met his gaze, and Ferdi jerked his chin. Satisfied, the Thain nodded and turned back to his storytelling. Ferdi stood by the door, watching and listening... and wondering. Was this the same Pip who'd left, all those years ago?

He half-expected to ride on, stop at the next shabby hole, but Pippin never did was expected, now, did he... Instead, the Thain turned his pony's head back to the Smials, proceeding at a smart pace. Pulling up before the door, he told Ferdi to carry on the work of finding widows and gaffers in need of firewood. He staggered a little as he slid from the saddle, his shoulders sagged and his face lacked colour.

As Pippin finished giving his instructions, Ferdi interrupted. 'Cousin, are you all right?' Pippin did not look well to his eyes.

'I am well enough,' Pippin answered. 'Very well indeed,' he amended, straightening, his tone becoming formal again. 'I expect a report from you later this day.'

'Yes, Sir,' Ferdibrand nodded stiffly and stepped back. Pippin patted Socks on the nose and nodded to the stable lad to take him. He turned to walk into the Smials, the usual energy gone from his stride. Ferdibrand hesitated, then mounted his pony and led the escort out of the yard.

***

Just before teatime, after a perfunctory knock Ferdi entered the Thain's study. Reginard rose abruptly from his chair, putting an urgent finger to his lips. Following the steward's gaze, Ferdi saw the Thain, propped up on the sofa, asleep.

'He told me to report to him later,' Ferdi whispered, feeling foolish. Looking more closely at Pippin, he said, 'Is he all right?' When Regi didn't answer, he pressed, 'What's wrong with him?'

'Nothing that a new set of lungs wouldn't set aright,' Regi murmured back. He gestured Ferdi over to his desk, indicated that he should sit down, picked up a pen. 'I'll take your report,' he said softly.

Ferdi went over the doings of the day, naming the widows and gaffers he'd arranged to supply with wood at the Thain's expense. Regi noted it down, nodding.

'He's really going to pay for the wood?' Ferdi asked.

'So it seems,' Regi answered, looking over at Pippin, who was snoring softly. 'He's not a dragon, to sit on his hoard.'

'His father's hoard, you mean,' Ferdi countered.

'O aye, but what did Paladin ever do with his gold but tuck it away?' Reginard said. 'At least it is doing some good, now. And next year's wood will come from the Thain's holdings, and all that will need to be paid is the foresters' wages, which he'd be paying anyhow.'

'Have you gone soft, Reg?' Ferdi asked. 'What'll you be giving away next?' Pippin stirred and he lowered his voice. 'Is Pip trying to buy the affection of the Tooklanders?'

Reginard shook his head. 'No,' he said. 'This all comes of the training he got at the hands of the Bucklanders. Seems they take care of their own. No one goes cold or hungry in Buckland. Those who can work, do work, and those who can't are looked after, and if they don't have family to look after them then the Brandybucks of Brandy Hall do it. The Master finds ways for the hobbits to pay so that it's not charity, even if it's just knitting caps or storytelling or watching little ones.'

Ferdi absorbed this information. Thain Paladin had been a shrewd farmer, a careful manager; he'd known the value of a silver penny. Ferdi had never known him to give anything to anyone; he'd expected everyone else to work as hard as he did, pay their way. Families took care of their own... that's what had kept Ferdi at the Smials all those empty years, taking care of his da. It had never occurred to him to wonder what happened to those without family.

He looked at his sleeping cousin, was struck anew at how unwell Pippin looked. 'What's wrong with him?' he said again. 'Is he ill?'

'He's dying,' Reginard said bluntly. At Ferdi's shocked exclamation, quickly bitten off, he added, 'O not this very moment, mind... 'tis a slow death, and he'll fight to prolong it just as long as may be.'

'What are you talking about?' Ferdi whispered.

'When that Old Gaffer's Friend got its claws into Pippin, it ripped his lungs right out. I don't know what he's using to breathe... he's lasted nine years under the care of the Brandybucks, and I hope he'll last at least that long here... but the next cold, or even a good lungful of dust or smoke could carry him off.'

'He was smoking with a gaffer this morning,' Ferdi muttered.

'Aye, and he vowed to give it up shortly thereafter,' Regi said, turning to look at their cousin. 'I thought he was going to drop on the spot, but he wouldn't let me call the healer.'

'If the Tooks knew...' Ferdi said.

Regi swung back to him fiercely. 'The Tooks aren't going to know,' he hissed. 'They're not going to find out from us, now, are they?' He fixed Ferdi with a stern gaze until the other nodded slowly, then added, 'We need him, Ferdi, need his new ideas.'

Ferdi nodded again, thinking of widows and orphans and old gaffers.

Reginard leaned forward and said, 'The Tooks have looked inward too long, Ferdi, they need drawing out. Had we not been stuck in our thinking, we'd have thrown the ruffians out of the whole Shire and not just kept them at bay on the borders of Tookland...'

'You have a point,' Ferdi said softly.

'Was there anything else?' Regi asked, turning back to Ferdi's report.

'No, that's the lot,' Ferdi answered.

'All right, then. It's teatime, time to knock off for the day. Go get yourself something to eat.'

'Right,' Ferdi said, and rose from his chair. With a last look at the sleeping Thain, he eased the door of the study open and softly closed it again. He had a lot of thinking to do.





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