CHAPTER 29

In the study of his smial in Overhill, Clodio Banks looked at the letter once more, as if a third, fourth or even tenth reading would change what it said. He pursed his lips in distaste. He’d not been happy with the Tooks for years, blaming his sons when Peregrin was silly enough to drink himself into a stupor. As though lads of that age couldn’t get up to that kind of thing on their own. “Beryl!” he called for his wife. “It looks,” he said as she stepped into the room, “as though we will be seeing my dear sister soon. They have called…”

“…for an assembly in Tuckborough,” said Ponto Baggins to his brother Porto as they sat over an ale in the newly rebuilt Green Dragon. The tavern had only just re-opened. “Young Frodo would prefer that I act as head of the family in the matter as he is still Acting Mayor, but he indicates that he also fears that some people will think he is…”

“…biased in the matter,” Olo Proudfoot muttered to his son at breakfast. “The Thain, the Master and the Acting Mayor are all afraid that there will be an outcry of ’bias’ if they deal directly with this business, because of their sons’ close involvement with that business down South. That’s why they have called for an assembly. I’d better speak to your mother. There will also undoubtedly be quite a lot of …”

“…social activity associated with a matter like this, Odovocar,” Rosamunda emphasized to her husband. “There is bound to be at least one, if not more, parties, with all the leading families of the Shire. It is absolutely essential that Estella and…”

“…I accompany you to this meeting, Longo” said Dianthus Goodbody, Pimpernel‘s mother-in-law. “Milo and Pimmie will be glad enough to see me. And Eglantine can use the support; she’s going to have a lot to put up with, believe you me. A lot of people are…”

“…not going to like this at all,” said Chico Chubb. “I can think of quite a few in our family that will be against whatever the Master may propose, just because he’s the one who said it. And the Thain’s going to have more than a few ready to give him a hard time as well. And the Baggins lad, I am afraid may be well out of his league…”

“…in this matter,” Fosco Hornblower said to his brother Tosco. “Have you heard from Tanto lately? Living in the Great Smials as he does, and being married to the Thain’s youngest daughter, he’s bound to…”

“…know something?” said Griffo Boffin to his friend Milo Burrows. “I know that you saw these people when they were here in Frogmorton. Did you find out anything that might be of any use… ”

“…to ask me, Will Whitfoot.” The mayor’s wife stamped her furry foot. “I don’t care what that letter from young Baggins said. You are still not well enough to be traipsing off to Tuckborough; you don’t start in with all this mayor business again, not until the healer gives you a clean bill of health, and especially if there are…”

“…Men involved.” said Dago Bracegirdle to his friends in the Hardbottle post office. “We had enough grief with all that nonsense Lotho started, and now we’ve got Men in the Shire again. It’s going to take a lot to…”

“…convince me that they are not up to no good,” Polo Bunce remarked to his wife Lavender. “But it is probably just as well that they decided to call the assembly. Those sons of theirs rid the Shire of ruffians, but they have strange friends. We had better start getting ready to travel…”

“…to Tuckborough.” was the phrase repeated in smial after smial across the Shire. To Tuckborough, for the assembly.

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In Hobbiton, the envoys were being briefed by the Thain and the Master about some of the hobbits they would meet and what their differing attitudes would be. Targon and Éothain exchanged a sigh, as the explanations often ended up in convoluted explanations of who was a fourth cousin thrice removed and why this made someone else’s second cousin once removed always agree. Targon shook his head. Why had he ever thought that hobbits were straightforward? This made his head spin and he was used to *Gondorian* politics.

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Esmeralda looked at her letter from Eglantine. She was troubled. There was no doubt that the plan would work. And it was absolutely delicious to think of the reactions of people like Rosamunda Bolger or Hyacinth Took. But how would Frodo take it? She found the thought disturbing.

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Fredegar had at first been embarrassed to face Legolas and Gimli again, but when they had returned to the smial, they had acted as though nothing untoward had happened. They talked to him, and told him amusing stories of things that had happened on their journey. He could scarcely believe some of the antics Merry and Pippin had gotten up to in company with Elves and a future King, not to mention the Wizard. But Tooks and Brandybucks never seemed easily impressed. When they told him of the prank the two had pulled on the sons of Lord Elrond, he actually found himself laughing.

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“Rose and Marigold, you must just call me Pearl, please. I think that these clothes will be just splendid for you to take with you; but do not worry about finery for any parties. You are both close in size to my sister Pimpernel, and it is quite the done thing to borrow dresses when you are guesting.”

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Paladin, Saradoc and Esmeralda went over Eglantine’s letter once again.

“You are right, Esme. Frodo will probably not like this at all,” said Saradoc. “I will talk to him. We will only go through with this, Paladin, if he does not object.”