Chapter Four: Marquise

Pippin awoke the next morning to find he had rolled over in his sleep. He blinked sleepily at the hobbitess lying back on the other pillow and worrying her bottom lip with her teeth.

“Diamond?” he asked, raising himself up on an elbow. “Is aught amiss?”

“Good morning, husband,” she whispered in return. “I-- I am afraid that I do not know how to serve your breakfast in this smial,” she added apologetically.

“Oh, is that all?” Pippin laughed. “Somehow, I think the servants will have taken care of that today -- you needn’t worry about it.”

Diamond still bore a look of consternation, but she would not contradict Captain Peregrin. She watched as he raised himself out of bed and drew on a dressing gown, shaking his curls out of his face. They were a light, nearly ruddy, brown, rather than the sandy color of his youth. It was likely his hair would have darkened further to the deep brown of his father’s curls, but the Ent draughts had arrested its change of color.

He left the bedroom and opened the door to the corridor off the sitting room to find, as he had expected, a wheeled cart filled with covered trays sitting outside the quarters.

As he rolled the cart back inside, Pippin found Diamond standing in the bedroom doorway watching him, her own dressing gown now belted around her middle. He kicked the corridor door closed with a foot and said, with another laugh and a flourish as he drew a tray cover off, “Breakfast is served!”

They ate at the larger dining table in the back of the sitting room, their game pieces from the night before still scattered on the small table near the sofa. Pippin pretended not to notice the intense scrutiny Diamond gave from under her eyelashes to which dishes he ate.

When they had finished, he allowed her to clear the empty plates and place them back on the rolling cart before pushing it back out into the corridor.

He stretched and offered a hand to Diamond when she turned back into the room.

“Come, wife,” he said to her. “I would show you something.”

He led her back into the bedroom, where he sat upon the edge of the bed with Diamond standing before him. Pippin drew back the coverlets that hung over the side of the bed to expose the storage drawers built into the base.

“You may put whatever of your things you wish in this area,” he informed Diamond, pulling one of the drawers out. “I see some of them have been brought already.” He gestured to some of the boxes scattered about the room.

“The quarters are yours to arrange and to decorate as you will,” he said, then added with a grin, “just warn me before you move a chair to a position where it may kick me in the shins if I do not expect it!”

Pippin then leaned over and, making sure that Diamond watched the motions of his fingers, he pressed a mechanism that was nearly hidden along the edges of the bed frame. In response, another drawer slid out from the base of the bed where before had appeared to be only solid wood.

Pippin smiled at Diamond’s soft gasp of surprise. “Aye, ‘tis impressive,” he said. “This drawer has a dwarven lock. You may put within it -- well, whatever you would like to keep in such a locked place.” He squirmed a bit on the bed. “Of course, I shall have access to the lock,” he said uncomfortably.

Diamond nodded. She would not expect otherwise.

“’Tis the same on the other side of the bed, so you shall have access to mine as well, including the locked portion,” Pippin said hurriedly. He knew his father, nor his cousin, would not have thought it a good idea to have the locks made the same, but he wanted to begin his marriage with trust. After all, he would be spending the rest of his life with this hobbitess.

It was Pippin’s turn to chew his lip worriedly before he continued with his planned speech. “You will have the ability to have access to the locked drawer on my side, but I ask that you do not do so unless somehow required. For that is where I shall keep my sword, and ‘tis dangerous in untrained hands.”

“Yes, husband,” Diamond answered, her head meekly bowed and hands folded in front of her. “I shall not touch it without your leave.”

Inwardly, she was surprised -- but thrilled! Most hobbits who possessed swords hung them on the wall above their mantel, or in their great rooms as part of the decor -- if they had not been lent to the Mathom House at Michel Delving. Captain Peregrin must be a skilled warrior indeed! Perhaps, she thought, he could even be as dangerous as the stories painted Bullroarer Took. But she pushed that thought away, as a little too North Farthing in its scope, now that she was married to the Tooks’ Heir to the Thain.

She would concentrate, instead, on the great honor he showed her by entrusting her with this information. Diamond knew that her husband was well within his rights to have access to any of her things, but to entrust her with the knowledge of his own private lock, and the location of his sword -- well! Diamond would not dream of disobeying his instructions or of betraying his confidence. She blinked back a sudden film of tears over her dove-gray eyes.

“Well,” Pippin sighed as the lass continued to stand quietly in front of him. “I suppose we should prepare for the duties of this day.”


Pippin and Diamond both re-dressed in their wedding finery. For, while the joining had taken place the day before, the ceremonies were not ended.

Diamond again took his arm as Pippin led them through the corridors of the Smials to the office of the Thain. They both bestowed polite smiles and slightly inclined their heads to the hobbits and hobbitservants who greeted them as they passed.

A crowd had gathered inside the Thain’s office, and was spilling into the hallway as they approached the door. The hobbits parted to make way for them, with murmurings of “Mister Peregrin” or “Captain Peregrin” or “Mistress Diamond” or “Mr. Pippin, sir.”

Once inside the Thain’s office, Diamond saw her parents among the hobbits waiting. Her mother’s anxious look faded slightly as Diamond gazed at her as serenely as she had the day before, but Honeysuckle’s eyes still looked faintly pinched.

“Well!” Paladin coughed brightly. “It seems we are all assembled. I trust you all had a good second breakfast--”

“That ‘twas second breakfast?” Pippin asked in mock surprise, and appreciative titters swept the room. Honeysuckle’s pinched lips drew together, though, and Diamond was bewildered. She smiled, however, in appreciation of her husband’s apparent joke.

“Yes, well,” Paladin began again, struggling to keep the grin off his face and out of his voice. “I trust you are all well-fed --” he paused for a moment and sent a mock glare in Pippin’s direction. Pippin raised an eyebrow and grinned back at him, but did not interrupt again. “--for now, and we will have another feast for elevenses after we complete the ceremony.” He drew a deep breath, then asked, “Gerin North-Took, would you hand me the book, please?”

Paladin held his hands out in front of him, and Diamond’s father placed within them the same book from which Thain Ferumbras had read when Pippin was a babe. Paladin was glad that his own eyesight had not seen such failings, and that he could look upon his son as he read the appropriate passage, moving his eyes back and forth from Pippin to the page.

“...and so, in closing, I hereby declare that Peregrin Took is, at the time of his marriage, again formally recognized as Heir to the Thain of the Shire, and that the name of his wife, Diamond Took, originally North-Took, be inscribed in the Yellowskin alongside the name of the Heir.”

The Yellowskin was again laid open upon the desk, and Pippin took the quill his father handed him, their gazes locking again, this time in all solemnity. The book was open to the same page that bore his tiny hobbit footprint at the top; some ways underneath, freshly dried ink proclaimed his marriage. Pippin leaned over and, beneath this statement, inscribed in his own handwriting, “Peregrin Took.”

He then handed the quill to Diamond, who took it from his fingers with her head slightly bent, and wrote beneath his signature, “Diamond (North-Took) Took.”

Diamond handed the quill back to Pippin when she was finished, and he held a long glance with his father as he passed the writing implement to Paladin.

Paladin wished brusquely that the tears which threatened would not fall as he bent over the Yellowskin in turn. He was so proud of his lad, although these were not exactly the circumstances he had expected when he had long dreamed of adding his own signature, the first of these witnesses, as Thain Paladin Took II.

The other witnesses followed in their turn: Saradoc Brandybuck, Master of Buckland; Gerin North-Took -- Diamond’s father; Meriadoc Brandybuck, Heir to Buckland -- who seemed to be shaking a little as he approached the desk, but stilled his hand long enough to write; Ganelon North-Took -- Diamond’s brother, whose face was hard as he pressed down upon the quill; Everard Took -- Pippin’s cousin and good friend since childhood, who was now married to his sister Pimpernel; and, finally, Samwise Gamgee.

Paladin had been reluctant to allow the last one, even if the gardener was now Master of Bag End, but Pippin had insisted. Said the outlanders considered Sam something of a hero, and that anyway, he would be running for Mayor of the Shire come summer. Paladin had made up his mind that he would just have to see to it that Samwise won that election, before the North Farthing hobbits could see fit to object. It was already sticky enough that they’d refused to appoint another signatory of their own after the death of their elder hobbit two years before. That brother of Diamond’s, Ganelon North-Took, Paladin thought, might be inclined to make a fuss on’t.

With the last signature placed, and Samwise staring dazedly from the quill in his hands to the Yellowskin, as if he couldn’t quite believe this himself, Paladin was quick to dismiss the hobbits to the feasting.

Rosie Gamgee came up to Sam as the rest of the crowd surged toward the door. She took the quill, laid it carefully on the desk, then squeezed Sam’s hands and said something to him softly. Whatever it was, Sam turned his face from the book to smile back at her and follow Rosie out of the room in the wake of Estella Brandybuck.

Pippin released Diamond from his arm, steering her in the direction of her parents, as his mother approached him. Eglantine, like Honeysuckle, had remained solemn during his earlier jest, and now she stared at him with concern as she raised a hand to cup his chin.

“Pippin--” she began, but her son cut her off, his green eyes soft and a tremulous smile upon his lips. “’Twill be all right, Mama,” he told her, grasping hold of her hand. “Truly, ‘twill.”

As he lowered his body to carefully hug his mother, Eglantine exchanged a meaningful glance over his shoulder with his cousin Merry.

The rest of the day was taken up with formal farewells to all of the departing hobbits. Sam and Rosie, of course, could not stay long away from Bag End -- “especially now, again, Mr. Pippin,” Sam winked, and Pippin responded with a faint smile.

Merry and Estella left as well. Merry ignored protocol and gripped Pippin in a fierce hug, whispering tightly, “You take care of yourself, Pip! I’m going to miss you.”

“Aye,” Pippin breathed out with what breath he could get, as Merry was crushing him.

As Merry stepped back toward his pony trap, he turned to face Diamond and pointed a finger at her. “You,” he said sternly, “take care of him, or you’ll not deserve him.”

Diamond straightened to her full height. “Yes, sir,” she said solemnly in response.

Pippin fought to keep from rolling his eyes and sighing.

Diamond had executed the proper formalities at all of the previous goodbyes, until it came time to bid farewell to her parents.

Ganelon had already ensconced himself in the carriage, but her parents were hovering on the ground outside.

Pippin pretended to study the sky, as Honeysuckle reached out for her daughter’s hands, then moved to examine the North-Tooks’ ponies as Diamond’s parents both enveloped her in a hug.

Gerin let go first, and drew a sleeve across his eyes as he turned to stand again next to the carriage.

“Are -- are you all right, lass?” Honeysuckle asked as she continued to clasp her daughter’s hands in her own, and searched her face for assurance. “Is he treating you right?”

“Of course, Mother,” Diamond said, aghast. “Captain Peregrin is a fine gentlehobbit, just as you and Father always said!”

“Well, you remember, now, all those things we’ve taught you,” Honeysuckle said, wringing Diamond’s hands. “You must be a proper wife to the Heir!” she whispered. “The North Farthing, and your father” -- she glanced over at Gerin -- “have put their trust in you!”

“Yes, Mother,” Diamond whispered, just as Pippin, at a nod from Gerin, approached them.

“Sir!” Honeysuckle said, flustered, and released Diamond’s hands to drop into a curtsy.

“Mistress North-Took,” Pippin responded with a nod. “I thank you for your daughter, and I hope you shall have a pleasant journey.”

“Yes, sir!” Honeysuckle answered, casting another glance at Diamond. “Farewell!” She curtsied again and, behind her, Gerin bowed low.

Diamond instinctively began to bend her knees and her head in response to her parents, but Pippin stopped her with a gentle finger that lifted up her chin.

She blinked back tears at her error as they watched her parents climb in their carriage and depart. Pippin and Diamond remained in the yard, staring along the road, for several moments after the North-Tooks’ carriage was out of sight.

“Well,” Pippin finally said, rolling his shoulders back under his armor. “’Twas a long day. Shall we return to the quarters, then?”

He offered Diamond his arm and a small smile as they walked back to the Great Smials.

“Do you fancy another game tonight, then?” he asked her as they walked.

“Yes, husband,” Diamond agreed quietly.

“Why, with the proper teaching, soon you’ll be besting me!” he stated.

Diamond sucked in her breath but did not respond. She would not contradict her husband, but she could not dream, whatever her skill level might be, of besting him at a game. It felt shame enough for her that he had already had to rebuke her, kindly though it had been, for forgetting her new place -- and in front of her parents!

Diamond silently vowed to do her best not to fail in her duties again.