Chapter 34. Interlude

Sam speaks to Merry in a low voice, and whatever he says is persuasive. Merry tenderly kisses Diamond's cheek while Samwise pulls the coverlet up over the sleeping Thain, and the two of them tiptoe from the room. I sink into the chair next to the bed, numbed. I ought to send for Fennel, I think to myself. There was something I was going to do... But for the life of me I cannot remember, though I thought of it only a moment or three ago.

And then something pungent, some sharp smell is in my nostrils, and I jerk my head back, and then someone says, 'She's coming round,' and a cup is held to my lips.

I raise my hand to push it away, only to have my hands seized in a firm grip as Fennel says, 'Drink it down, now. Sauce for the gander is as good for the goose...'

Fennel? How did he come to be here?

...not a bitter draught, as I half-expected, but sweetened with honey and somehow refreshing. I cannot help but drink as the cup is tilted; it would be undignified to let the stuff run down my chin and onto my nightdress.

My nightdress?

I open my eyes as memory comes flooding back. 'Fennel?' I say.

'You swooned,' Merry says in my left ear, and indignant and unbelieving I turn my head.

'I sent you off to your bed!' I snap. 'Healer's orders!'

Merry smiles. 'Sam took me there,' he says, 'and left me in the care of my wife, and then after he took himself off to his own bed I remembered something I wanted to ask the healer...'

I remember what I wanted Fennel for. 'You're to make up a sleeping draught for the Master,' I say, turning back to my assistant, who has withdrawn the cup and is standing with a curious expression on his face, one I don't remember seeing before. 'Make sure he takes it all. I want him to sleep at least the morning through.'

'And yourself, Healer Woodruff?' Fennel says carefully.

I shrug, and realising my nightdress is immodestly open I hastily do up the buttons, glaring.

'You were so very still, and white,' Diamond says softly. 'Arabella and I could not rouse you. How glad I was that Merry came--but you didn't stir, not even when he chafed your wrists and patted your face with cool water--and then I sent Arabella for Fennel, and he felt it needful to listen to your heart.'

'My heart is just fine,' I say haughtily, and make to rise, but the room tilts and Merry catches my arm and eases me once more into the chair. 'This is ridiculous!' I say, more to myself than the others.

'How many sleepless nights?' Fennel bends to my ear to ask. 'How many anxious days has it been? And then last night... they've been telling me...'

...and suddenly my beloved is there, hair wild and shirt half-buttoned, dropping to his knees before me and seizing my hands, to kiss them fervently, and then to stare into my face. 'You left me, and I never wakened,' he says, out of breath. 'I meant to be ready, to be there when you needed me, and I slept...'

I smile and pull my hand free to cup his cheek in my palm. 'You've always been a heavy sleeper, love,' I whisper. 'A good thing, too. One of us had to be bright and alert in the morning, for the children's sake.'

'You'll be the one doing the heavy sleeping,' Fennel said. 'I'll take the next watch.'

'No healers,' I say, remembering the Thain's words.

Fennel shakes his head, looking from Master of Buckland to Mistress of Tookland. 'She's off her head,' he says.

'I am not...' I splutter, barely able to form the words in my indignation. '...off ...my...'

My beloved stands to his feet and sweeps me up in his arms. 'You're but a shadow of yourself,' he says worriedly. 'A shadow, and not a proper hobbit at all...'

'She's scarcely eaten for worry and grief,' my assistant says candidly, but I interrupt him with a hiss.

'Fennel!'

'A meal, for certain, and then to bed with you,' Diamond says firmly. 'By order of the Mistress. 'Twould be Thain's orders as well, I suspect, only my husband is too deeply asleep to have noticed aught amiss.'

'At least someone is asleep who ought to be!' I say.

'Off her head,' Fennel mutters again, shaking his head, but catching my scathing glance he adds hastily, in too bright and cheerful a voice, 'I'll just stir up that sleeping draught for Master Merry, then...' and takes himself off. At least Pippin will have his wish for the moment; just so soon as I take my leave there will be no healers here in the Thain's apartments, for the time being.

'And see that you take it!' I order the Master of Buckland, who bows gracefully to me, belying the weariness I see in his face.

'Your least wish is my greatest desire,' he says grandly.

I struggle to turn my head far enough to take stock of the Thain, and my beloved, divining my intention, turns his body to make it easier for me to see without having to crane for a view. Pippin still sleeps, and it seems to me that the lines of pain are fading from his face. He looks very young at the moment, with his cheek pillowed on his hand, looks much like the tween I once knew, shortly before he followed his cousin off the map of "known" lands in and immediately surrounding the Shire, and into adventure.

With a sigh I lay my head against my beloved's shoulder. 'Very well,' I say. 'It looks as if this might be a good time for all of us to have a rest.'

'Take yourself off, Merry,' Diamond says. 'I'll send Fennel and his draught to you in your apartments.'

As she turns to me, I say with as much dignity as I can muster, being borne like a babe in arms, as it is, 'If you won't be needing me for the moment, Mistress, I think I'll take myself off as well.'

Her lips twitch, and she says, 'Very good, Woodruff. I'll send for you if you're needed.'

I cannot help yawning even as I dearly hope I won't be.