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It Takes a Took  by Dreamflower

CHAPTER 24

Lavender was pleased with Diamond’s progress.

“Another three days a-bed here, and then I believe you may get up and about some. But I want to wait at least a week before you return to the cottage. And you will take up your studies again *slowly*”

Diamond opened her mouth to argue, but Lavender stopped her with a gesture. “Think, lass. If you were your own patient, what would you be advising?”

Diamond gave her mentor a wry smile. “I see what you mean, Mistress. I will try to be patient as a patient. I think I am realizing now why we use that word. But it’s hard. I don’t want to lose the time.”

Lavender gave a little snort. “Don’t you realize that you can neither lose nor gain time? There are seven days in a week and six meals in a day, no matter what you yourself do or not do. We all have the same amount of time: the moment in which we now live.” She patted her apprentice’s hand and stood up. “I have other duties now. Get some rest, lass.”

As she left the room, Opal passed her coming in. Lavender murmured “She’s getting a bit bored, Opal. Watch out for her.”

Opal laughed. Tooks made notoriously difficult patients. Poor Lavender.

_____________________________________________

That afternoon, at tea with Merry and the Tooks, Estella steeled herself. “Mother--Merry, Pippin and I thought we would sit with Diamond for a while tomorrow.”

Rosamunda made a little bit of a face. She had hoped to go into

Tuckborough the next day. Pearl had finally agreed to introduce her to the coveted dressmaker. She really did not want to spend hours sitting with a sick apprentice. But if Pearl was in town, and both Pippin’s other sisters were still in Buckland, she’d not have much choice; one underage young couple was no chaperone for another couple that was of age.

Just before Rosamunda could answer, Eglantine leaned forward. “That’s perfect, then. You can come into Tuckborough with Pearl and me. We plan to visit her dressmaker, and then meet Dee--” ( this was her good friend and cousin Dianthus Goodbody) “--for elevenses. And we thought afterwards to make the rounds of some of the shops. I heard that Brownlock’s just got in a shipment of silk ribbons.”

Rosamunda wavered. “Well--”

Eglantine gave a little patronizing chuckle. “My dear Rosamunda, are you worried about the *proprieties*?” She gave a slightly amused and ironic inflection to the last word. “Reggie’s daughters will be in the apartment, after all! And what mischief could they possibly get up to with Diamond still so ill, and Pippin’s leg in a splint?”

Estella’s mother subsided. She did very much want to meet Pearl’s wonderful dressmaker. And a new shipment of silk ribbon! The truth was she did trust Merry and Estella--Merry actually the more so, as she knew how seriously he seemed to take his knightly honor. It was just the look of things--gossip needed very little fuel. But if Reggie’s daughters were at the apartment, then that should satisfy appearances.

She smiled at Estella. “Very well, dear. It is kind of you to offer to sit with the sick.”

Estella smiled back, seriously relieved. “Thank you, Mother.”

Merry, who had very carefully kept his mouth shut, suppressed the urge to yell “Yes!” Pippin winked at him across the table, and then turned to give his own mother a grateful smile.

___________________________________________________

The next morning, Amethyst showed Merry, Estella and Pippin to Diamond’s room, and went out, leaving the door halfway open. That should satisfy the appearance of things.

“I’ll bring you some elevenses in a while,” she said, and took herself back into the sitting room, where she had some stitchery to work on. From there, she could just hear the murmur of voices, but not what was being said.

Pippin sat down in the armchair next to the bed; Merry had drawn up a small side chair; Estella sat on the bed, beside Diamond.

Merry was pale, and Pippin could tell he was apprehensive. Pippin felt more than a little nervous himself. Talking about these things except among themselves was never easy.

Estella and Diamond looked alert and attentive. Diamond had a brief coughing spell, and Pippin handed her a cup of water.

“Are you sure you are up to this, Diamond-lass?” he asked worriedly.

Diamond shook her head. “I am fine. You lads are not going to use me for an excuse to get out of this.” She had been very surprised, but gratified, the day before when Estella had come to tell her of their plans. She had to admit to herself that her curiosity was fully aroused.

Pippin nodded and looked at Merry, who took a deep breath. Pippin reached over and gave his cousin’s hand a squeeze. Merry looked at him gratefully, and sighed.

“I’m going to start at what was really the very beginning for me. Even you have never heard all of this, Pip.” Merry leaned back and began his tale.

_______________________________________________________

“It was the during the spring, the year before the Party. I was eighteen and you were ten, Pip. It was only the second year your parents had allowed you to come stay at Bag End while I was there, and they wouldn’t let you stay for the whole time, but only for a month.”

I remember that visit. That was the year the Dwarves came.”

Merry nodded, and took up the narrative once more.

“They had just taken you back to Whitwell the day before. Bilbo had gone into Hobbiton to run some errands, and Frodo was absorbed in some of his studies of Elvish. He was barely aware of my presence, and I soon grew bored. Truth be told, I missed you.

I took myself off for a ramble, and if it so happened that I found myself in the Cotton’s strawberry patch at Bywater, it’s not really relevant to the story. I was coming along the road when I saw Bilbo. I tried to decide whether to say anything to him or not when he slowed down, with a look of annoyance on his face. The Sackville-Baggins were coming in our direction. Bilbo stuck his hand in his pocket; then suddenly, he vanished! Well, I was that taken aback that I very nearly forgot to hide myself behind the hedge. I walked along, puzzling over what I had seen. I was looking right through the hedge when I saw Bilbo suddenly re-appear--even more startling to me than his vanishment. He stuck his hand in his pocket, and I saw a brief glint of gold, as he put something back there.

Well, after that, I frankly spied on old Bilbo. I am surprised that he didn’t feel my constant staring after him. I never caught him out with the Ring again, but I began to wonder about that Red Book he constantly wrote in but never offered to show anyone. This seemed strange to me, as he easily shared all his other writings and tales to any who showed an interest. But when I would ask him about the Red Book, he would shake his head and say ‘Nothing of interest to you in there, Merry-my-lad. Dry as dust and boring as well’.”

Merry stopped for a brief moment, and asked Pippin for a cup of water. He sipped it for a few seconds, and then began the account once more.

“Of course I didn’t believe that for a moment. Bilbo could make even those long strange stories of the ancient Elves interesting. I seldom got a chance to venture into his study unless it was occupied, however.

One day, though, just a few days before I was to come to Tookland to join you for the usual summer visit, I got my chance. Bilbo needed to go to the stationer’s, and he asked Frodo and me to come along. Frodo needed some things as well, but I told them it was too hot for the tramp, and begged leave to stay at the hole by myself. As soon as I saw throught the window that they had gone out the garden gate, I hied myself to the study, and opened the book, where it lay on Bilbo’s desk.

It was a written account of his Adventure with the Dwarves, including many stories we had heard before, such as his encounter with the Trolls. But there was a very different account of his riddle-game with the Gollum-creature than ever I had seen before. I finally learned what it was Bilbo had in his pocket--a ring, a little gold ring that could make one vanish!

This explained much of what had always puzzled me about Bilbo’s stories, for though I had never thought he was making them up, I still had wondered how an ordinary hobbit was able to do many of the things that he did without getting caught.

Well, of course I kept my mouth shut. It was not my secret, and I was quite chuffed enough to think that I knew something that no one else did. When Bilbo pulled his vanishing act at the Party, I was probably the only one besides Frodo and Gandalf who knew exactly what had happened.

You know, Pip, that I stayed at Bag End that night, to help Frodo out. He was so crushed by Bilbo’s leaving--and I was quite angry at the old fellow for deserting Frodo. I was supposed to be getting my guest room ready, and taking myself off to sleep, but I heard him talking to Gandalf, and overheard the fact that Bilbo had left the ring to Frodo.

After that, I did go to bed. But I did not get much sleep. I was frankly terrified that with that ring in his possession, Frodo would take off after Bilbo and I wouldn’t be able to follow. And though over the years, we had often talked about an Adventure of our own, I knew it would be many years before Frodo would think me old enough to go with him--I wasn’t even in my tweens yet.

For a few years there I kept as close an eye on Frodo as I possibly could. He did not, of course come to Buckland that fall, and I got permission to stay with him for several weeks, during the time he normally would have visited. The following year, he came, but only for a couple of weeks. At least he continued to spend Yule with us. I also began to pay him more visits during other times of the year besides the spring, and wrote to him more frequently. It’s a wonder he didn’t chafe at all my extra attention.”

You know, Merry, I remember during that time. You often seemed distracted, and you didn’t pay me nearly the attention you usually did. I remember telling Uncle Sara once that I was worried about you, and he told me it was just because you were becoming a tween. But I always had the feeling it had something to do with Frodo. You stopped telling me stories about you and Frodo when you were a little lad, for one thing, and for another, when we visited, you hardly liked to let him out of your sight.”

Merry looked at Pippin in surprise. “I never knew you realized that! I always thought I was being rather subtle. But I should have known.”

“Gandalf was a frequent visitor as well during that early time, sometimes coming as often as twice a year, before his visits stopped for a long time. But as Frodo approached forty and showed no signs of haring off alone, I began to relax and think perhaps I had misjudged him. Do you remember how happy he was at his fortieth birthday?”

Pippin nodded. “I remember watching him dance, and thinking I had never seen him so relaxed and contented.”

“And then, on his forty-ninth birthday, I noticed once more that old sadness and fear on his face. It occurred to me that Bilbo must be getting very advanced in years, and that if Frodo still hoped to see him alive again, he would be off soon. And that in spite of all our talk about it when we were younger, he’d never really try to take me out of the Shire. I was no longer in a position to keep so close an eye on him. Having come of age, I had a lot of responsibilities myself. So I enlisted Sam’s help…”

Now that Merry had approached the actual beginning of the Quest, his voice began to falter.

Pippin took up the story for a few minutes, and told of how he had discovered the “conspiracy” Merry had started, to sneak off with Frodo. He explained about how Sam had discovered that Bilbo’s little magic trinket was really the Enemy’s One Ring.

This was something Estella had known already, from the few things Merry had let drop in the past. But for Diamond, this was new information, and her eyes grew wide--*the* Enemy? The Dark Lord of Mordor? She shuddered. This was *not* something Frodo and Samwise had revealed to the healers, and now she began to have some vague idea of why he had gone off on his own, with only Sam.

“I think for us cousins that was one of our worst times. We were all keeping secrets from one another, and that was something we were not used to.

I can’t tell you the relief I felt when I was finally able to tell Merry that I knew what was going on.” His own voice faltered for an instant, remembering how furious Merry had been at first.

Merry reached over and patted his hand. “I’m sorry now, Pip, that I grew angry with you. I had been so horribly worried about leaving you behind.”

Pippin gave Merry a little smile. “I know Merry. But it would never have happened. As Gandalf would say, we were ‘meant’ to go. And the way things turned out, he was right.”

Just then, there was a rap on the door, startling the four young hobbits, who had been so completely absorbed in the tale that was unfolding.

It was Amethyst and Garnet, with nicely laden trays for elevenses: fruit, cheese, fresh juice, and savory biscuits. Opal came in behind them.

“I’m sorry for the interruption, but Mistress Lavender wanted me to remind Diamond of her medicine." She indicated a small bottle on the nightstand.

There was a spoon next to it.

With a grimace, Diamond sat up and administered a spoonful to herself, though not without making a horrible face. Pippin gave her a sympathetic smile--he’d had his share of that very same awful tonic himself. It was one of the reasons he could not to this day stand the taste of brandy, as that was used to make the base for the medicine.

Surprised to realize they were hungry, the four young people tucked into the food.

__________________________________________________

The visit to the dressmaker had gone quite well, and Rosamunda had been only too pleased to have her measurements taken for two new frocks. Now they sat in the front room of the Goodbody’s lovely hole, and enjoyed a very nice elevenses. She had nearly forgotten how nice it was to spend a bit of time with ladies of her own age and standing. She loved Estella and was proud of her lovely daughter, but the child’s headstrong resistance to anything her mother wanted could be very wearing at times.

And she was quite looking forward to looking round the shops later.

The talk turned to Yule.

Eglantine said to Dianthus “You know dear, we will be leaving Reggie to preside over the Great Smials this year.”

“Why, no, Tina, I didn’t!” exclaimed her friend. “Do you mean to spend the holiday elsewhere?”

Rosamunda pricked her ears.

“That’s so. Last year Sara and Esme and everyone came to Tookland for Yule. So this year we are all going to Brandy Hall. It only seems fair, and it was very nice to have all the family together for Yule. After all, the lads will be returning to Crickhollow as soon as Pippin’s leg is able to manage the trip.”

Rosamunda drew in a breath. The Thain’s family would not be in residence for Yule? Now that was going to spoil her own plans. Unless, of course, they could wangle an invitation to Brandy Hall as well. She suppressed a shudder at the thought of Buckland. That was something she was going to have to get over if her daughter was eventually to be its Mistress.

_____________________________________________________

 





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