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At the End of His Rope  by Lindelea

 

Chapter 9. Consultation

'I think Meriabrand a reasonable compromise,' the Chancellor of Tookland said thoughtfully. 'Tookish enough, yet still honours the hobbit he's to be named for.'

' 'Tis a fine-sounding name, I'll admit,' the Steward of Tookland said, with a sip of his brandy. 'My, but the Hall surely knows its business,' he said. 'This stuff gets better every year.'

'No comparison to Tookland's ales, of course,' the Chancellor said after rolling his own sip about his mouth and letting it linger on the tongue.

'Of course.' The Steward savoured another sip and went on, 'A fine-sounding name, and yet methinks "Merianard" has more of a ring to it.' He turned to the Thain. 'Wouldn't you agree, Sir?'

The Thain made a great show of considering, then shook his head. 'I still like the name "Meriadoc". It's true to the original.'

Both of his counselors shook their heads. 'Ah, no, 'twon't do, 'twon't do at all,' the Steward muttered regretfully. He hated to disagree with the Thain, but felt he must hold firm on this point. 'If the lad were a Brandybuck, perhaps. But he's the son of a Took and a north-Took, and son of the Thain to boot. I'm sorry, Sir, but you've got to face facts.' It was bad enough that the heir to Tookland had an outlandish name, even if it were shared by the Prince of Ithilien. Wherever that might be.

'Reginard,' the Thain said to his steward, 'I will take your suggestion under serious consideration.' He turned towards his chancellor, 'As I will take yours as well, Ferdibrand.'

There was a tap on the door, and the Thain said, 'Come!'

A servant stuck his head in and said, 'Begging your pardon, Sir, but the Healer Botham's come and is asking to see you.'

'Thank you, Sandy, show him right in,' Pippin said. Reginard and Ferdibrand rose to greet Botham, and the Thain smiled, saying, 'Pardon me for not getting up.'

'Sandy, please ask Healer Woodruff to attend the Thain in his quarters,' Reginard said.

'Very good, Sir,' the servant answered, lingering a moment to pick up a few items from the floor and straighten a picture on the wall. It was a constant battle to keep these rooms straight, and he took every opportunity to stay ahead of the fight. At the steward's nod, he bowed and turned to the door.

The healer returned the smile, taking the chair that Reginard indicated. 'How are you this fine day, Sir?'

'Couldn't be better,' the Thain said. 'This bed and I are on a first-name basis.'

'And after only a week, to have established such a friendship!' the healer said. Chuckling, Sandy closed the door behind him. He was surprised they'd been able to keep the Thain abed a week without more uproar than they'd had.

The hobbits continued to make small talk until another tap sounded on the door, and it swung wide to admit the head healer of the Great Smials, a short, plump hobbit matron with graying curls and a grandmotherly manner. Ferdibrand surrendered his chair to her and took up his station outside the firmly closed door.

'Has there been any change?' Botham said as the healers examined the offending leg. 'Let me see you wiggle those toes, now, Sir. Good, how about just the big toe?' He nodded to himself at the resulting twitch.

The Thain lay back and suffered himself to be poked and prodded, only commenting at one point, 'There's nothing wrong with the left leg, mind! You don't have to poke it so hard. You'll have it bleeding in another moment.'

'Be brave, lad,' Woodruff chided as if he were a hobbit lad of ten. 'We're almost finished.' She was true to her word, for soon the Thain was tucked back under the covers and the healers took their chairs, declining the offer of brandy.

'Well?' said Reginard quietly.

'As far as I can tell, everything's there that should be there,' Botham said, looking to Woodruff for confirmation. 'Nothing's been crushed. P'rhaps something got pinched. You were a long time under the coach, the flow of blood might have been hindered for too long.'

Woodruff shook her head, 'Yet there's no sign of failing,' she said. 'I don't see the same sort of damage you'd see, say, from leaving a tourniquet on too long.' She met the Thain's eyes. 'At first I thought we might have to take the leg, but the foot is warm and you can wiggle those toes. You have some movement in't, and that's a good sign.'

'Why won't it stand up under weight, then?' Pippin asked.

Botham said, 'Something got flattened as shouldn't have. Still, you're no worse than you were a week ago. It's possible you might still make a full recovery.'

'How long?' the Thain asked. 'I can't stay abed forever. People are already starting to talk.'

'I can put it about that we suspect a crack or break in the bone and have warned you in no uncertain terms to stay abed whilst it heals,' Woodruff said. It would be all too easy to spread a rumour.

'You'll need to keep working those muscles, though, or you'll have nothing to walk with when the feeling does come back,' Botham added. If the feeling comes back, the Thain silently added to himself.

Woodruff nodded, 'I'll see to it.' The Thain smiled. She was his harshest taskmaster these days.

'A month in bed, working the muscles as much as possible, mind, and we'll see what's what,' Botham said. 'You can run Tookland well enough from here.'

Reginard spoke up. 'You can count on Ferdibrand and me, you know that, cousin.' Pippin nodded.

'Your father the Thain ran Tookland from his bed that whole last year,' Woodruff murmured. 'And he still had people asking him "How high?" when he told them to jump.'

Pippin chuckled to hide his dismay. A month seemed enough of an eternity to him.





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