Chapter 23: Valley of Diamond’s

Diamond’s bare feet stepped softly about the edges of her childhood room in North-Took Tunnelings. She tilted a note toward the early light from the window so she could read it once more, then folded it small and tucked it deep within the pocket of her frock.

She hummed softly a bit as she removed her son, now near 18 months old, from the cot next the bed. Farry burbled one or two of his nonsense words, then fall back asleep in her arms.

Pippin, too, exhausted by continually mounting responsibilities at the Smials before this holiday, muttered something in his sleep as he shifted on the bed.

Diamond smiled at him as well as she bent to softly kiss the forehead of this dear, great lad, then she quietly eased herself and Farry out of the room, holding the door so it did not “snick” as it shut behind her.

She was walking, a short while later, on a path through Bindbale Wood where it had been long since her feet had trod. The late summer sun glinted in patches of heat and light through the leaves while the wood itself provided a contrast of coolness and shade. Diamond could hear the birdsong and smell the fresh green scents of her childhood as she easily kicked aside any small sticks in the path. She smiled, and allowed herself a quiet laugh as she remembered earlier trips through these woods.


“Hoy! Good morning, then!” Pippin called out cheerily as he stepped into the North-Tooks’ kitchen. He would have picked up his wife about the waist and swung her about, he felt, but she was nowhere in sight. He stuck his hands in his pockets and twirled himself about instead, then laughed. “Good morning!” he repeated with just as much cheer.

“A good morning to you as well, Sir -- Pippin,” Gerin replied with a smile from where he lingered at the breakfast table.

The maid, in turn, bobbed a smiling curtsy as Pippin seated himself and she set a plate before him. “And thank you, Nettie,” Pippin added as he dug in to the griddlecakes and strawberry preserves upon his plate, with hot, buttered plums served in a dish to the side.

He ate heartily for a few moments, Gerin sipping at his tea and reading from a ledger upon the other side of the table, before casting his attention to the other occupant of the kitchen.

“What ‘tis it you’re seein’ outside that window?” Pippin asked of Ganelon, who had drawn up a chair to a spot where he could look out as he sipped from his own mug of tea.

The North-Tooks’ Heir took another sip and swallowed before responding, without looking at Pippin, “As you say, sir, it is a good morning.”


Diamond had to laugh a bit again as she raised her arms and used both hands to brush away the leaves from a low branch which had become tangled in her curls. She certainly was taller than the lass she’d been when following this path before!

‘Twas a bit funny, Diamond thought as she pushed away another branch which hung in the path of her travels -- and then she had to laugh at that: thinking “’twas” like a Took, instead of all she’d been taught as a proper North-Took -- anyway, she mused to herself as her feet carried her on, ‘twas a bit funny that she was looking back to her childhood haunts on account of a letter she’d received because she was Peregrin’s wife.

She’d been taught, all those years when she was a tween, that her betrothal to Captain Peregrin, the future Thain of the Shire, meant that she would have to put away such childish and undignified trampings.

Now, of course, it seemed she had learned better. Diamond felt sure that Pippin would have been perfectly willing to accompany her on this jaunt, had she told him of it.

Ah, but she hadn’t, she smiled to herself, pushing aside more leaves as she walked, because it was meant for a surprise.

Diamond patted her pocket, catching sight of the tiniest shimmer of a rustle in the underbrush as she glanced down. That pocket held the note from Mistress Pervinca which had sent her upon this errand.

Friends she might be, now, with Pippin’s sister Nellie, but Diamond had never felt particularly close to the others. Perhaps that was why Pervinca, too, felt more comfortable including the note to Diamond with a letter she had sent to Pimpernel.

Nellie had thought it a bit odd, too, she had shrugged, when she handed it over, but upon reading it Diamond was glad that Pervinca seemed to be reaching out -- and with a suggestion that would make her Pippin happy! She had not known he was likely to have such a fondness for the white color of the valerian flower that Pervinca had heard might grow in the North Farthing.

Presenting him with some upon the occasion of their next visit, if they ever got the chance to visit Diamond’s home, might make a nice surprise, Pervinca had suggested.

And when, shortly after, a letter addressed to both Diamond and Pippin from her father had inquired whether they might be able to make the trip again to the North Farthing this Wedmath, the plan for this morning’s little expedition seemed to fall judiciously in place.

Ah! Diamond thought at last as she came to the end of her wooded path and stood upon the edge of a rise which dipped down into a valley. This spot was a sort of clearing in the woods which received the full effect of the sun in the hours midday, and Diamond felt the sudden intensity of the warmth as she started to descend the hillside.

She felt, a moment later, a deep compulsion to look back over her shoulder at the path where she had exited the woods. How narrow and dark seemed that wooded path! Diamond thought with surprise.

She shrugged, but she had an odd and uneasy feeling when an even stranger thought occurred as she walked toward the bottom of the valley — who might there be, here, to guard her from behind?


Pippin leaned back against the smial, his feet propped on another small bench before him and pipe in his mouth.

Ah, ‘twas nice to sit here a while in the quiet of the woods. ‘Twas a more comfortable visit this time, to be sure. Like as not, though, any hobbit would warm up with the addition of a grandbabe, Pippin thought with a grin as he drew his pipe out of his mouth and blew a ring of smoke. ‘Twas not a surprise, then, that Mistress North-Took and her daughter Jewel had been fussing about the babe all the day, nor that Gerin had contrived an excuse a few moments ago to leave off his own pipe-smoking to go in search of something within the smial -- conveniently, Pippin was sure, within reach of the sounds and sight of the splashing Farry in his bath.

He grinned again and brought his pipe back to his lips, puffing upon it contentedly. He would let them have a bit of time with the lad with just the family, as it were, for despite Gerin’s newfound comfort with him, Pippin knew that he was still not quite thought of as such -- and, he thought as his eyes trailed over to where Ganelon appeared to be re-coiling a rope upon the outside of the stable, ‘twas like, in some quarters, that he ne’er would be.

At least, he thought, closing his eyes a moment to enjoy the scent of his pipesmoke and the sounds of the birds’ songs, at least he had Merry, as it would seem he should never else gain a brother of the heart.

That heart, though, certainly had been captured -- and he thanked the Valar for’t -- by his wife! Pippin opened his eyes again and smiled indulgently toward the woods where she had gone to walk. ‘Twas good for Diamond, as well, to have some time away from the Smials and its many hobbits who pressed upon her.

As was good for himself, too, Pippin thought, even if ‘twas to mean that the North-Tooks’ maidservant might have to change her day of rest for another, this fortnight.

“Hoy!” he jumped up, clutching his pipestem in his mouth as Nettle appeared at the kitchen door he sat near. “Let me gi’e you a hand, then, wi’ that,” Pippin muttered around the pipe as he caught the edge of the basin Nettle struggled with, and helped her to pour the water out upon the ground of the kitchen garden, its drops glistening upon the herbs, the rosebushes, and the valerian beneath their feet.

‘A servant again!’ Ganelon thought as he finished re-coiling the rope and looked up to see this action of Pippin’s from across the yard. ‘A servant!’ he thought, and ferociously slapped the rope down upon its nail.

A sneer was upon his face as Ganelon whispered to the rope, casting another sidelong glance at Pippin as he did so, “Whatever you may lose here today, at least I’m sure no wife or ‘lady friend’ will hear you boasting, safe in your lands again.” He kept one hand upon the rope but turned his face toward Pippin, a wicked smile splitting it, to conclude, with dripping sarcasm, “Your triumphs here will not be on parade.”

Time, now, to put the plan into further action, Ganelon thought. He rubbed his hands together as he left the rope and began to walk toward Pippin.


Diamond had taken a large kerchief from her pocket, and placed into it the sprays of white blossoms as she knelt to gather them in the sun. It was too bad, she thought, that she had not known of Pippin’s preference for the white blossoms when she tended her garden plots, either here in the North Farthing or at the Great Smials. The reddish-pink variety were more showy, it was true, but also more common -- and she had learned, she thought, that Pippin’s tastes in such as flowers could certainly be as uncommon and surprising as his taste in -- well, in hobbitesses named for precious gems, she thought with a soft smile, and pushed away a curl from her forehead with a dirty hand.

She started a bit as she saw the smudge upon her white skin as she brought her hand back down again, but then the smile returned. As much as it were not fitting for the wife of the Thain’s Heir to be seen in such a disarrayed and grubby state as was she, Diamond knew that Pippin would not care. She did, herself, as she knew it reflected not well upon him, and her family would be disappointed at her appearance when she returned, but that was only because they wished that Diamond please her husband.

Diamond, too, wished still, from both training and desire, to please her Pippin. She made a critical assessment of the flowers in her kerchief. Yes, enough there for a pretty show, and she had dug enough for seeds and cuttings to plant at the Smials as well. Perhaps, Diamond thought, looking at the roots she would dry to add to the healer’s stores, she might gift a few of the flowers to Mistress Pervinca, for planting at her home as well.

Diamond began to stand when something a bit farther toward the bottom of the valley, where trickled a small creek, caught her eye. She began to approach this odd thing peering from beneath a leafy bush, when another plant nearby distracted her again.

Oh! Diamond thought, how could she have not seen? This patch of love-in-a-mist would be the perfect addition to the bouquet she prepared for Pippin. She stepped toward the stems with their lacy leaves, reaching out to gather some of the those with their pointed blue petals remaining on the flowers and some with the round seedpod standing proudly where the flower had once been.

Her steps came even nearer the bush which had first attracted her attention and, just as she stepped to crouch before it, Diamond felt a sudden tightening about her ankle.

Diamond ignored it at first, reaching to fill her arms again with flowers. When she attempted to move to reach some blooms farther away, and found that she could not, she frowned and set her bundle down, gently parting the grasses which grew about her foot -- to see the surprising sight of a rope coiled about her ankle.

Diamond continued frowning as her fingers teased the rope around her ankle, which it encircled like a bracelet. She pulled at it but, despite the fact that it had so obviously slipped on, it refused to come off. She worried at the knot which formed the circlet, but could not budge it. She stood upright and tugged slightly, but found she could not move from the spot where she was tethered.

Diamond crouched again and felt along the ground for the rope’s path. It led, however, farther away than she could follow with her motion limited, this strange snare to be found here.

Diamond’s heart hiccuped as she again caught sight of what had first drawn her attention to this bush: there, peeking from under it, was a kerchiefed bundle in a basket.

Diamond sat upon the ground and drew the basket out from under the bush, untying the kerchief to examine its contents. Meat, and bread, and cheese, enough to last the day, and a bottle which now held ginger beer but could be refilled with water from the brook if she stretched out her arm.

She was puzzled, and frowned further in confusion as she lifted the side of the kerchief and found tucked below in the basket a note, in handwriting she recognized as her brother’s.


“She shall not come back to you, you know,” Ganelon said with a touch of pride as he stood before Pippin, who was once more resting, with his eyes closed, upon the bench.

“What?” Pippin started, fumbling to catch his pipe as he blinked at Ganelon standing above him. “What do you mean?” he asked, as odd tendrils of doubt began to worm their way through his heart.

“Diamond,” Ganelon shrugged. “She has been gone long enough that she should be back by now -- if she meant to return to you, that is,” he said as he struggled against the smile which itched to play about his lips.

“But I doubt that she shall,” he continued, crowing inwardly as Pippin tamped out his pipe and dropped it carelessly aside as he stood before Ganelon, his hands starting to clench at his sides.

“She has done her duty by producing you an Heir,” the North-Took went on. “That is what the North-Tooks needed,” he said more harshly, “and now the child is here, where he shall learn of what by rights should be his and mine.”

Ganelon sneered in the face of Pippin desperately casting about his eyes toward the woods, unable to discern which path might have taken Diamond away. He strode then determinedly toward his pony Sorrel, grazing in the yard, as Ganelon’s scornful voice called from behind, “Think you we care of any shame that should be thine?”

Pippin whirled, yanking his pony’s tether out of the ground, and faced Ganelon with a mien that was no longer that of a relaxed hobbit upon holiday. Instead, his brow had an air of ferocity and of command about it as he demanded, “Tell me which way she has gone!”

The gloating smile began in the middle of Ganelon’s lips and spread as they curved upwards. He drew back his finger to point unerringly at the path closest to Pippin, nearest the spot where Ganelon had re-stored the rope.

“There,” he said with what purported to be an indifferent shrug. “If you can find her. For she is more familiar with these woods than you might be.”

Pippin nodded curtly and drew the pony into the stable. Looking over his shoulder, Pippin saw Ganelon still loitering about in the yard, a suspicious smile on his face, and Pippin withdrew his sword from where it had been hidden in the carriage, safely away from prying little hands, and buckled it about his waist. He reached for the saddle, next, in preparation for retrieving his and child from this place that had ceased to offer rest.

And he froze, his hand still upon the saddle’s pommel where it hung on the wall, then pushed upon the gate of a stall to mount himself saddle-less on Sorrel’s back, galloping forth from the stables in the direction of the scream which had rent the air.

Pippin spared not a glance for the fading smile of Ganelon, nor for the confused outpouring of North-Tooks from the kitchen door, as Diamond screamed again and he followed her voice, toward the path farthest from the one which he had been shown.


Diamond had not the chance to read the note before something else entirely drew her attention yet again.

She sucked in her breath in a gasp of fear, and backed away as much as she could from the bush, her ankle still caught tight, until she fell to land upon her backside, her heart trembling and eyes tearing as they stared, wide, at a particular branch of the bush.

The adder had curled herself about it, her skin glistening black in the sun, while the white tips of her fangs again echoed the light. Clearly visible were these sharp points of venom, as the snake’s mouth was open in her own agony, her belly slithering from within as a triangular head with its dark brown pattern of zigzag emerged from it.

Less than half the size of its mother’s sinuous length, the new young adder opened its own mouth, already filled with fangs more venomous still than the adult’s, and dropped to the ground, its tongue flicking as it began to squirm away. As soon as that first youngling’s tail had left its mother’s belly, though, came the immediate replacement at the opening of another scaly head poking through, its tongue, too, sweeping across its fangs, and its motion toward the ground heading it in a different direction from its sibling’s.

Diamond screamed.


Pippin was beyond caring that ‘twas no proper way to treat a sword, to hack at the branches which overhung the path with one hand whilst clinging to Sorrel’s mane with the other and to the pony’s flanks with already-protesting knees.

Nay; what was to care about was to get to his wife and cease her echoing screams. They resolved into words as he galloped farther along the trail: Diamond’s voice, shrieking his name with terror and supplication.

“Pippin!” she cried.

He had not breath enough to answer her but, with his ankles, he spurred his pony and galloped forward, leaping a mighty ditch around brook.

The pony’s feet came to rest atop a rise which dipped into a valley, and Pippin could see his precious Diamond somehow trapped on the ground below him. He urged the pony onward again into the gorge, calling out with what breath he could muster as the front hooves splashed through the water, “Diamond!”

She, in turn, twisted so that she could see his approach and held out a hand, screaming again at him, “Pippin! Stop!”

Pippin yanked back on Sorrel’s mane, and struggled to hold onto his balance as the pony not only answered to his command, but reacted on its own to Diamond’s entreaty, shying away from where she lay with a shriek of its own.

Pippin looked wildly about for the enemy as he regained control of the pony, only to have Diamond shout up at him, in her tear-strained voice, “Snakes!”

Pippin’s throat filled with bile as he looked to where she pointed, the bush in front of her with a snake dripping from its branches while a mess of wriggling vipers formed below it, Diamond’s body shrunk back from the nest as far as she could, except for one foot, which--

“I am trapped,” she sobbed up to Pippin, and he caught sight of the rope about her ankle and gave a roar of rage.

Pippin’s sword descended, its blade glinting in the sun against the light caught by the snakes’ white teeth, and he slashed through both the white rope which trailed away from Diamond’s ankle and the black head of an adder which had approached the closest to that foot.

“Diamond!” he called as he hung from the pony, menacing the bloodied blade before the other snakes which might be drawn to the motion. “Grab my waist and climb on!” Diamond gulped against the knot of fear still in her throat and scrambled away from the snakes which still pursued her.

She followed Pippin’s order and swung herself up behind him. Heedless of her disheveled appearance or the undignified manner of her ride, she clutched frantically to his waist from behind, letting her Peregrin carry her aloft as, upon the back of the pony, they flew from the deep bottom of the valley.

Diamond clutched still to Pippin as they galloped through the woods, the branches whipping against them, until, at last, his pulls and entreaties caused the pony to stop.

Pippin himself did not stop, though, vaulting from the pony’s back to land with a wince upon the ground, where he wiped the sword blade through some fallen leaves to clean from it the snake’s blood. Jamming the sword then back into his belt, he twirled once more to face Diamond and, his arms about her waist, lifted her from the back of the pony into his embrace.

Diamond leaned into the hug as she still trembled, lifting her feet above the ground as Pippin held her crushed to him in the air. She pressed back with as deep a passion as he when Pippin placed their sweaty lips together in a long kiss beneath the trees.

His green eyes were wild when at last he broke the kiss and and pulled back to look into her grey ones.

“Diamond,” he began in earnest, and she could feel him trembling, whether from fatigue or more, even as he held her up. “I -- first, are you all right?” he asked beseechingly, his eyes searching her face for any sign of pain.

“I--” Diamond sobbed, and cautiously shifted so that her feet touched the ground. She looked fearfully about her, still in search of snakes, and trembled still as she leaned against Pippin. “I am all right. They did not -- did not bite me,” she concluded in a whisper, and shuddered as she closed her eyes against a threatening swoon.

She opened them again to Pippin’s caress of her dirt-smudged forehead, to see tears upon his face and an odd expression as he asked haltingly, “Diamond, I -- I have to know. Is’t your wish to leave me?”

Diamond felt the blood drain from her face, and her insides grow cold at the horror of this suggestion. And then her heart both leapt and broke, for she recognized the expression she saw upon her darling’s face: fear.

“Pippin,” Diamond said gently, and she ceased to tremble as she caressed in turn the curls upon his forehead, her gaze meeting his clear and strong. “I made a promise, to love, forever if I may, and I have no wish to break it.”

Pippin stared at her for a long moment, then sobbed, laying his face in the crook of her neck, as he muttered, “Forgive this fool of a hobbit, Diamond. ‘Tis just that--” he whispered, and she stroked the curls upon the back of his head -- “that Frodo did leave, and Gandalf, and Boromir, too...” his voice trailed off. “And, at times, it seems as if Merry being in Buckland might as well be twice the length of the Shire. ‘Tis just -- just --”

He stopped, and Diamond patted his back encouragingly before prompting with a soft, questioning, “Yes?”

Pippin drew his head away from Diamond’s shoulder to turn his face once again toward hers. He did not meet her eyes, but looked down as he muttered, “I cannae do it all without you -- without someone I love -- beside me. I am nae strong enough on my own.”

“Oh, Pippin,” Diamond sighed, and reached to tilt up his chin and kiss him with a trust in his strength that was meant to put the lie into those words.

He stumbled a bit as they broke apart, and she caught at his elbow, from habit, supporting him against the betrayal of his knee.

“What--” it was Diamond’s turn to ask, timidly, as Pippin turned to the side and tried to compose himself, brushing a hand across his face to wipe away the tears. “What was it, though, my husband, which brought this question on today?”

“Oh,” Pippin answered as he tucked his shirttail into his trousers, “’twas aught your brother said.”

“My brother?” echoed Diamond, and looked down, turning her foot out beneath her skirts to once again regard the rope encircling it.

“Aye,” Pippin answered grimly, catching sight of where she looked and the sudden widening of her eyes in amazement and fear. The grimness spread across the sharp planes of his face as they shared a look and a short conversation.

“Give over the babe,” Pippin commanded as soon as he and Diamond emerged from the woods upon the pony’s back. They pulled the beast to a stop within the yard of the Smial, facing the assembled North-Tooks with their dirt-smeared countenances and their clothing sweaty and smudged.

Jewel clutched more tightly at Faramir, who had begun to fuss with the pony’s entrance into the yard, and looked to Ganelon for guidance.

“Hand over the babe to his mother, now, lass!” Pippin repeated in a tone that brooked no contradictions, his face stern and his hand opening and then closing again upon Sorrel’s mane as it itched for his sword. “Your brother’s wishes are of no consequence.”

Honeysuckle pushed at Jewel’s shoulders from behind to move her toward Pippin and Diamond. She and Gerin shared a look of confusion before turning their gazes to their son. Honeysuckle dragged up her leg and held it with a hand upon her hip as she looked at Ganelon with fear, chewing upon her lip. Gerin, who had a coil of rope flung over his shoulder, looked, too, to his son with furrowed brow, and a face of consternation.

Ganelon himself had a smile upon his face that was at odds with the scene. “No, Jewel,” he said softly, stepping between her and the pony. “I believe your brother’s wishes are of great consequence indeed.”

“’Tis insignificant!” Pippin sniffed, and pulled at the pony’s mane so it stepped aside, leaving open again the path to Jewel and the babe.

“No!” Ganelon roared, with a shout that produced a shriek from Farry, and a sob from Diamond, while Honeysuckle covered her ears and cringed and Gerin looked bewilderedly on.

Jewel trembled with uncertainty and glanced again back and forth between her brother and her sister. Diamond, sitting before Pippin on the pony, stretched her arms out for the babe.

“No!” Ganelon said in a gleeful, sibilant whisper, approaching so near where Diamond sat upon the pony that Pippin wheeled it about so the animal’s flaring nose confronted Ganelon.

“It is not I who am insignificant,” the young North-Took declaimed. “For I have the future in my hands.” He stepped toward Jewel and the still-sobbing Farry; at the look in Ganelon’s eyes, Jewel patted the back of the babe and stepped away. “The Heir to the Thain of the North-Tooks of Bandobras’s line!” Ganelon crowed. “He shall learn” -- Ganelon turned to again face Pippin upon the pony -- “ what it is to be a proper gentlehobbit, to achieve dignity and expect honor -- the kind that may not come,” he said with a sneer, “from the jest of putting a gardener up for Mayor!”

Pippin’s hands shook, he had clenched them so hard about the pony’s mane. “You,” he seethed through a mouth drawn into a tight line, “you dare to speak to me of honor and use it against Sam?” You who have not even the honor of well-treating your own sister?!” Pippin spat at Ganelon, the drops scattering on the ground before his hairy feet as he jumped back, his face contorted in anger.

“Ganelon!” Gerin cried before he could respond. “What means he by this?”

With an effort, Ganelon schooled his features into merely a scowl and did not reply, but Diamond did.

“Father,” she asked from atop the pony, “What have you found with your rope?”

“Why,” Gerin shifted it down from his shoulder and stared at it as if he had forgotten its presence. “Why, there seem to be at least two pieces, of some length, missing,” he said anxiously. “It worried me a few minutes ago, when we thought it might be needed, for you sounded as if you had got yourself into trouble in the woods.”

“It was not she who got herself into trouble,” Pippin answered sternly, and nodded to Diamond to show her foot, which she stretched out so that all could see the rope about the ankle.

“Wha--? I--?” Gerin gasped helplessly, and Honeysuckle put both her hands to her face as Pippin continued, “’Tis her brother who has set a snare to take my wife form me -- and to harm her as well, if I had not come upon the nest of vipers!”

“Ganelon!” Gerin bellowed, and Honeysuckle sobbed and ducked her head in shame.

“Father!” Ganelon shouted, and tried to placate, though he had gone pale at the mention of the snakes. “I know nothing of such adders! I meant Diamond no harm, only that she should return to her rightful family, so that one day, we all should take our rightful place in the Shire. He and his like” -- Ganelon pointed to Pippin -- “have not the sense even to not be familiar with servants, a lesson this family of gentlehobbits” -- he emphasized the word -- “learned long ago.”

Seething, Ganelon faced his father as he finished, his hands balled into fists at his sides. Honeysuckle gave another sob and covered her face again with her hands, while Gerin’s shoulders slumped and his voice grew weary as he answered, “Oh, Ganelon. You did not understand what you have seen.”

“I know,” Ganelon spat out at Gerin from between clenched teeth, “that I saw you taking easy familiarity with, and embracing, the servant-lass we had then, when I was but a child and my mother lay sick abed! And I have come to know what it means!”

“No,” Gerin said calmly and shook his head, tears streaming from his face as, behind him, Honeysuckle echoed both the action and the word, taking one hand from her face to place it upon his shoulder.

Unheeding, Ganelon continued, “And I have worked since to restore the honor and the dignity that is due this family’s name, rather than have it bestowed upon some fool of a Took! What, as a gentlehobbit,” sneered Ganelon as he looked toward Pippin, “has he that I have not?”

Diamond glanced then at Pippin, struggling mightily for control so that no harm might come to their son, his hands clutched upon a pony’s mane and the dirt and sweat effacing not his noble brow. Indeed, the sunlight glinted upon a drop of sweat at it flashed upon his forehead, and Diamond thought, and said proudly aloud,

“He has the favor of the King.”

Ganelon growled after a moment and ran at the pony, which ducked as Pippin guided it, and Jewel ran to the other side of the beast, trying now to keep the pony between herself and Farry and the advance of Ganelon.

“You’ll have to yield the son your wife has borne,” he shouted with angry fervor at Pippin, and waved a hand contemptuously at Diamond as he dashed at the pony’s heels. “And better that she should sacrifice her head, than that we lose our pride, and live as beggars, with all our rights denied!”

“Enough!” Pippin shouted, and managed finally to draw his sword and, with Diamond’s help, to stop the pony, while they both clung on for balance.

He held the sword before Ganelon, not touching, but close enough so that Ganelon could see the sharpness of the blade. He stood still upon seeing it, staring in disbelief at such a weapon wielded strong and true in a hobbit’s hands, and Pippin’s words which washed over him.

“A beggar, with his rights denied, is’t?” Pippin echoed with cold anger. “Aye, then that’s just what you shall be. You are no kin of me or mine henceforth,” he said as Jewel handed up the babe to Diamond’s waiting arms, the tableau in the yard at last still enough to allow her to do so, “and” -- Pippin looked a quick glance at Gerin, who nodded, then closed his eyes and bowed his head low -- “you are no longer the North-Tooks’ Heir. Be gone, and work for your grub, but know this,” Pippin growled in return to Ganelon’s earlier words, his arm which clutched not his sword tightening about his wife and son. “You’ll never be welcome at the Great Smials, nor shall any hire you where I have friends in the Shire.”

“Nor,” added Gerin in a cold voice, the tears still upon his cheeks, “shall they in the North Farthing.”

“I--” Ganelon squeaked, but Pippin wagged the sword just slightly, and he stepped back, while Gerin and Honeysuckle turned their backs upon him, Gerin’s eyes streaming once more as he choked out “daughter,” upon looking at Diamond. Their backs to Ganelon, Gerin bowed low and Honeysuckle beside him and Jewel next the pony curtsied deep before Diamond, cradling Farry, and Pippin, who pointed the tip of the sword in front of Ganelons’ feet and instructed him with quiet command, “Go. Be you gone now from my sight.”

Ganelon turned tail and fled.