Chapter 37. To Market, To Market

The hobbits who had attended the trial filed out in a subdued body, talking quietly amongst themselves. Despite Freddy’s protests, Faramir lifted the hobbit in his arms. ‘I will carry you back to the Houses of Healing,’ he said, ‘and will brook no contradiction, my lord hobbit!’

 ‘I could stab him in the kneecap for you, cousin,’ Ferdi said helpfully, ‘but I fear he might drop you as a result. You had better suffer being carried, to be safe.’

Melilot walked with a son on each arm and more walking before and behind her. ‘No need to protect me so fiercely,’ she said. ‘I doubt even the maddest ruffian would attack me in the presence of Prince Faramir and Captain Beregond.’

Merry walked beside Ferdibrand. ‘Are you coming to the Houses of Healing?’ he said.

 ‘Of course,’ Ferdi said. ‘Nell is there, watching over her brother and his wife.’

Merry nodded. ‘Estella would have insisted on staying by my side, had I not convinced her that Diamond needed her more.’ Pippin had been flushed and restless the previous evening, pushing his plate away, dinner untouched. Over his protests Diamond had sent a message to the King, and Elessar had carried him to the Houses of Healing and put him under charge of the healers there.

The fever had risen through the night, despite all the healers could do, and had been dangerously high when Elessar had to pull himself away to attend the trial. The witnesses had been compelled to be in attendance, and their older sons had accompanied them. Merry, Sam, and Ferdi had felt they had no choice in the matter but to be there, to testify on Ulrich’s behalf. All the rest of the visiting hobbits were settled in or about Pippin’s room in the Houses of Healing, trying to stay out from underfoot while keeping as close as possible.

To their relief they found the Thain resting more comfortably. The blinding headache he’d complained of was much improved, for the stubborn fever had finally responded to the tepid baths and herbal concoctions. He demanded a full account of the trial.

 ‘What?’ Freddy said. ‘Don’t tell me we have to go over it all again, just because you couldn’t be bothered to attend!’

 ‘Very well, I’ll let you off this time,’ Pippin said weakly. ‘But tell me the outcome, at least.’

 ‘It is as we expected,’ Merry said quietly.

 ‘You told them of the Voice of Saruman...’ Pippin said, sitting up, only to fall back on the pillows that propped him.

 ‘They won’t believe what they never heard,’ Sam said, shaking his head in frustration. ‘But then, how many hobbits of the Shire believe today? Those who never heard the wizard speak don’t understand how he could have taken possession of the Shire.’

 ‘One key to Paladin’s resistance was that he never met Saruman,’ Merry said, and Ferdi looked at him in surprise.

 ‘The Tooks kept the ruffians out of Tookland,’ he said.

 ‘My point exactly,’ Merry said.

 ‘It had nothing to do with that wizard,’ Ferdi protested.

 ‘You see?’ Sam said to Pippin. ‘Even Ferdi doesn’t believe.’ He levelled his most serious look at Ferdibrand. ‘Had Thain Paladin agreed to work with Lotho, had he met with Saruman, Tookland would have fallen.’

 ‘Never!’ Ferdi said hotly, but Pippin raised a shaking hand to quell him.

 ‘You never heard his Voice,’ he whispered. ‘I doubt you’ll ever understand completely.’ He took the sting from the rebuke by adding, ‘and it’s a good thing you were spared.’ He looked to Freddy, Budgie and Robin, who still fought the memory of that Voice on a daily basis. They nodded soberly.

 ‘We’ll let you rest,’ Budgie said, for Pippin had clearly overtaxed his strength.

 ‘No—wait,’ Pippin said, and there was enough of command in his voice that the visitors hesitated.

 ‘What is it, love? Surely it can wait until you’ve rested,’ Diamond said, squeezing his hand.

 ‘No,’ Pippin said. ‘From what I know of the law and customs of Gondor, the hanging will be at dawn. That leaves us little time.’

 ‘Little time for what, cousin?’ Freddy said.

Pippin pulled his hand free from Diamond’s and massaged his head. ‘Time to figure a way out of this mess,’ he said. ‘If only my head did not ache so.’

 ‘Pippin,’ Diamond said, even as Forget-me-not dipped a cloth into a basin of water, wrung it out, and tried to place it on her father’s forehead. He fended her hands away.

 ‘Let me finish,’ he said.

 ‘Finish quickly, cousin, before the healers return and finish it for us,’ Freddy said.

 ‘Reprieve... reprieve,’ Pippin said, obviously trying to marshal his thoughts. ‘Unfortunately, the only case I can think of where a Man sentenced to hang was reprieved was a dying request.’

 ‘You’re not making sense,’ Ferdi said. ‘Of course he was dying... why would they pay any mind to his request?’

 ‘Not his request,’ Pippin said, rallying as annoyance lent him false strength. ‘His father’s.’

 ‘His father’s?’ Merry said. ‘I don’t understand.’

 ‘It happened, one of the times you stayed in Rohan and I went on to Gondor,’ Pippin said. ‘Cloud Dancer was due to foal, and Eomer wanted you to stay for the celebration, but Strider had sent an escort to bring me to Minas Tirith without delay for Ring Day, remember?’

Sam brought him back to the topic at hand. ‘The Man doomed to hang—his father was dying?’ he said.

 ‘That’s right,’ Pippin said. ‘He called for the King, and as he had served loyally in his time, the King came. He asked for a reprieve, his life for his son’s, that his son might live to care for the family, even if they had to go into exile.’

 ‘And Strider granted the reprieve?’ Merry said.

Pippin nodded weakly. ‘A life for a life,’ he said. ‘It seems it is an old custom in Gondor. If one Man is willing to lay his life down for another, the King is honour-bound to accept the payment.’

 ‘Well then,’ Ferdi said slowly.

 ‘Yes?’ Merry said as all turned to him.

 ‘I see only one problem,’ Ferdi said.

 ‘Only one?’ Sam said.

 ‘Aye, but the one,’ Ferdi said. ‘Solve that one, and Ulrich is saved.’

 ‘What exactly do you mean?’ Merry said, his eyes narrowing.

 ‘Which of us is going to lay his life down, that the ruffian might live?’ Ferdi said. A stunned silence followed. He nodded. ‘Aye,’ he said. ‘I thought as much.’ He shook his head. ‘So, d’you have any last words for me to carry to him when I bring him his dinner?’

 ‘Ferdi, I...’ Pippin began, but a stern voice spoke from the doorway.

 ‘What’s this? Can’t you Halflings hold your discussions somewhere else? This is a sick Halfling here, and he needs his rest!’

It was Cuillon himself, come to check on his most important patient. He strode forward as the hobbits scattered from the room, stopping by the bed to glare down at Pippin. ‘Have you never heard of rest and quiet?’ he demanded.

 ‘Never,’ Pippin answered.

 ‘That’s all too obvious,’ the Man said, brushing his hand over the hot forehead. ‘Your fever’s up again, and here I’d been told they’d brought it down.’ He looked to Diamond. ‘Another tepid bath is in order, I think.’

 ‘Ah no,’ Pippin complained. ‘It makes me feel so cold!’

 ‘That’s just the idea,’ Cuillon said.

Pimpernel stepped to Diamond’s side. ‘Let me take the little ones on an outing,’ she said. ‘It does them no good to sit around here listening to whispers and worries.’

Diamond gave her a grateful look. ‘Thank you,’ she said. ‘I’m sure some fresh air would be welcome.’

Though at first they were reluctant to leave, Pimpernel coaxed Pip and Diamond’s youngest away, diverting them with promises of purchasing bright flowers to cheer their mother, and sweetmeats to cheer themselves. As they passed the doors to the Houses of Healing, guardsmen in attendance, they were already chattering excitedly.

Ferdi put on his brightest manner though his heart was sad within him at the thought of Ulrich’s passing on the morrow. If only there were some way to win the Man a reprieve! He soon had Lapis and Lassie laughing in delight at his description of one of their escort buried in blooms to the top of his winged helm as the guardsman helped them bear all the flowers to be found at market back to Diamond.

The market square was an enormous expanse of colour and sound and delicious smells. They stopped to watch roasted nutmeats being stirred in a pot of melting sweetness and each of the little hobbits received a folded paper full of the treat, hot enough to sting their fingers until they learnt caution.

There were several flower stands, and the little group went back and forth between them, trying to decide which Diamond would like best. Pippin and Diamond’s young sons, Beregrin and Borogrin, were fascinated by a stand where a puppet show was being performed. Ferdi lingered a moment with them, as Nell followed Lapis and Lassie to yet another flower vendor.

Nell was diverted, however, by a table of brightly painted silks. ‘Oh!’ she exclaimed. The vendor smiled broadly and tried to present her with a length of yellow silk decorated with intricately brushed butterflies. ‘No, no, I couldn’t,’ she said, fumbling with her purse strings. ‘How much do you want for it?’

In the meantime, Lapis and Lassie had stopped at the flower vendor nearby and were laughing and ducking around the pots full of tall blooms. Their guardsman’s attention was diverted by the call of another guardsman, and when he looked again he didn’t see them. Where had the little ones gone?

 ‘I think I saw them over there,’ the flower vendor said helpfully, pointing to a vendor of carved toys and whatnots. Indeed, there were several little hobbits in view, if one looked under and between the legs of the charmed onlookers watching them test the toymaker’s wares.

Lassie exchanged a mischievous glance with her twin. No one could see them where they crouched amongst the blooms. It was as good as any game of “I hide and you seek me” on the meadow. As the guardsman started towards the toymaker’s stand, Lassie stood to follow, but her twin pulled at her hand.

 ‘Listen!’ Lapis whispered. The small sound came again.

 ‘A kitten!’ Lassie breathed. The twins turned to locate the sound.

The high-pitched mews were coming from a nearby alley cluttered with barrels and broken boxes leaning against one wall. Evidently a tiny kitten had lost itself amidst the litter.

Hand in hand the twins crept from their hiding place towards the sound. A guardsman standing near the alley entrance noticed them and turned into the alley after them.

 ‘What have you there?’ he said, bending over the wee lasses, who were crouched over something, cooing and crooning.

 ‘A kitten!’ Lassie said. ‘A lost babe! All alone, without its mama!’

 ‘Aw, now,’ the guardsman said fondly. ‘He’s just a mite.’

As the little lasses bent to exclaim over tiny pink nose and bright eyes, the guardsman fished a cloth and little bottle from under his tunic. Sprinkling a few drops on the cloth, he extended it to Lapis. ‘Here,’ he said. ‘See if he’ll take this.’

 ‘What is it?’ Lapis said, her nose wrinkling at the pungent odor.

 ‘He’ll think of it as rare perfume,’ the guardsman said, a smile in his voice. Lapis took the cloth and Lassie bent close to smell the “kitty perfume". A deep breath and both twins were slumping over the little ball of fur.

 ‘Lapis! Lassie!’ came from the entrance to the alley. Pimpernel stood blinking into the shadows. The guardsman behind her, seeing one of his fellows already in the alley, black armband in place, nodded and started to follow, only to be distracted as one of the little hobbits in the marketplace began to shriek in distress, having fallen and bloodied a knee.

 ‘Lassie? Lapis?’ Nell said, seeing her nieces bent over on the ground.

 ‘They found a kitten, ma’am,’ the guardsman said politely. Seeing the black armband, Pimpernel relaxed.

 ‘Come away, now, lasses, back to the market,’ she started to say, putting a hand to one of the bent shoulders. Lapis lolled in her grasp and she gasped.

 ‘What’s wrong?’ the guardsman asked, bending over her. ‘What’s this?’ he said, retrieving the cloth from the twin’s lap.

 ‘I don’t...’ Pimpernel began, but suddenly the Man had seized her with one hand and forced the cloth over her mouth and nose. She drew breath sharply to scream and was overcome by the fumes, sagging in the guardsman’s grasp.

He leaned her against a crate and considered. Which would be better, the two little lasses, or the larger hobbit? Both choices offered all manner of possibilities... pity he couldn’t manage them all at the same time.

He had picked up the little ones when another hobbit came up, saying, ‘Nell? Nell, what’s happened?’

The Man quickly shoved the little hobbits into the shadow of a barrel and bent over the hobbit matron, making as if attempting to rouse her. ‘I don’t know,’ he said. ‘I saw her wandering, as if looking for something, and then she suddenly crumpled.’

Ferdi hardly gave the guardsman a glance, once he saw the reassuring black armband. He bent over his wife, calling her name again, anxiously.

 ‘Do you want me to carry her to the Houses of Healing, sir?’ the guardsman said helpfully.

 ‘Yes,’ Ferdi said, chafing Nell’s hand between his own. ‘Yes, we had better...’

He never saw the blow coming.