Title: Master in Training

Author: Anso the Hobbit

Characters: Merry, Pippin Saradoc

Timeline: Buckland, SR 1408, so Merry is 26 and Pippin 18

Summary: When Old Rory dies, Saradoc finds it’s necessary to increase Merry’s lesson in mastery and young Pippin is in for a few lessons on his own.

Note: Written from one of Marigold’s bunnies. Not yet betaed

Disclaimer: Not mine. They just own me.

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PART ONE: The Old Master

The Master’s study was one of Merry’s favourite haunts at the Hall and now that Grandda Rory was dead and Da was Master and Merry the official heir, Merry found himself looking at the familiar room with new eyes now that Da was taking over. The room had already a different smell and some things had been replaced for new ones. Not that that was a bad thing, it was only different and Merry thought he had to look at the room in a bit different way now.

The Master’s study was located at the end of a hallway and you could see the double doors from the main hallway that went from the middle of the three large doors and straight through the Hall before ending up in the Great Hall. In the back of the study, to each side of the hearth were two doors, one leading to the Great Hall through a narrow hallway and the other directly to the Master’s apartments. Guests were always led to the Master’s study through the middle main door but the study and the apartments were in fact located at the southernmost corner of the Hall so that the windows overlooked the private garden and the Ferry landing. 

The Master’s study was a cosy room, Merry thought. It was almost square and had two large windows covering the southernmost corner and Merry had found that if he sat in the corner of the window seat he could just barely make out the people coming and going on the Ferry Lane leading from the landing to Bucklebury through the trees. If he sat in the other corner and looked north he could see the boats on the Brandywine as the River made a curve just before it reached the Hall and bent again to make room for a lovely bit of garden with grassy plains, flower beds and trees.

The study was rather large, sporting an ancient, large desk in oak that Merry had been told had been standing there since Merry’s great-great-grandfather Marmadoc’s time. Behind it was a just as old leather chair with high backrest. The chair was covered in golden leather, softened after generations of use. The desk was placed just so that when sitting at it you could look out through the windows. On each side of the desk stood two lamps that shone with a golden light on the paper-strewn surface of the desk. On a table just to the side of the desk the Book of Brandybucks always lay on its honorary position, bound in burgundy leather with the Master’s seal with its double B’s and the M on the cover. It was the reckoning of every Brandybuck born since the Oldbucks time and also held the information about how many people resided in the vast Hall each year. In front of the desk two good and comfortable arm chairs stood so that those who came to see the Master could sit down when presenting their errand or discussing business.

The study was full of bookcases and originals of the History of Buckland and other important books were held here along with both ancient and new maps of the land and the Hall. There were some pictures adorning the walls, including portraits of previous Masters. There even was a drawing of Bucca of the Marish, but that was so faded and old that it was kept in a leather binding to be preserved and only brought forth on special occasions.

Mathoms and heirlooms stood on shelves and tables. Most of them were old and had been in the family for many generations. In front of the hearth a great rug in a green, red and yellow pattern lay. Merry had loved sitting there with his toys as a child, listening to his parents or grandparents talk and sometimes if he were quiet and the business wasn’t too unsuitable for a child’s ears, he’d been allowed to sit there on the rug and listen to his Grandda talk with hobbits from all over Buckland and the Shire.

Once, when he and Berilac had been sitting on the rug playing at farmers checkers, there had come a Man in with the Master. Apparently they had talked in private somewhere else first since the children were allowed to stay. Da and uncle Mac had been there too, Merry remembered. Merry learned the Man was a Ranger and someone Grandda had said it was very important to be in good standing with as the Rangers worked with the Bounders and it was the Master’s job to talk to this Ranger once in a while to hear what was happening on the borders of the Shire. Merry had found that curious business, but had later learned that it was to protect the Shire from the Wild of the Outside, something the Brandybucks always had lived with and thus also taught every lad or lass growing up in Buckland that the doors had to be locked at night. Grandda had been rather vague but Merry had remembered to ask Frodo about it later and he too had said that this was the purpose of the Rangers and the Bounders, and living with the tales of the Old Forest Merry had no doubt in the tales he was told. He had felt honoured though to be present at such a great meeting.

There was also a very large armchair with an identical foot rest and a tea table on the rug. It was in this chair Merry now sat, or rather lay sprawling, his head resting on a cushion on one armrest and his feet dangling over the other, a book in his lap and a mug of tea and a plate of sandwiches and tea cakes within easy reach on the table. Merry had given up reading and was thinking about his Grandda and all the memories he had from this study.

When he was little the study had been a room of secrecy and out-of-reach for children, but as he grew older and was allowed to stay more and more he discovered that this was the room where Grandda lived. Among the Mathoms and books and scrolls and reports were things that made this rather formal room into a cosy haven. There was Grandda’s pipe and pouch on their stand on the mantle, the smell of leather and pony and Gandalf’s toffee and pipe weed and sheep and hay that was his Grandda lingering in the air, the lovely throw Grandma Gilda had made and which Merry to this day loved to snuggle down in to keep warm on cold days or just to have a bit of a nap under thrown over the back of the armchair and at last the quills and ink wells from Cousin Bilbo intricately lain with foreign patterns coming from the Dwarves.  

Merry’s Grandda had been a busy hobbit. He was about the fields and villages as often as not but always had time for Merry if he needed to talk. Buckland and the Shire had been Grandda’s life and his duty and Merry knew that that was what it was to him too. Since he’d been little he’d always put the needs of others before his own, protecting Frodo or looking out for Pippin, riding to the aid of Bucklanders suffering from flood or running errands with firewood to an old gammer on a cold winter’s day or a sack of vegetables to a family who’d lost their crop in draught or illness.

Merry sighed and after hearing Da mutter to himself for some time while trying to put Grandda’s portrait on the wall Merry stood to help his da put up the portrait, as was the custom when the funeral and grieving, singing and remembering was officially over and the new Master took up his task.

“A bit more to the left, Da,” Merry said, stepping back so that the painting of his Grandda hung straight. It was a very good painting. Rory was sitting in the armchair Merry just had vacated with the back turned to the fireplace and he was smiling, his pipe in his hand and the Book of Brandybucks in his lap. Merry found the painting very comforting. “There, just so. Now you can look at it from the desk and he will always be able to look down at you and any visitors from here.”

Saradoc stepped back and looked at the painting. He looped an arm around Merry’s shoulders, squeezing a little and together they stood watching their predecessor for some time. Merry put his head on Saradoc’s shoulder – he was just as tall as his Da now. “I miss him dreadfully,” Merry said after some time.

“I know, my lad. I miss him too,” Saradoc turned a bit to kiss Merry’s curls, enveloping him in a tight embrace before letting go, tears streaming down both their cheeks. “Why don’t you finish your tea and then we can go for a walk. It will do us both good I think.”

Merry nodded and sat down in the armchair again, taking up his plate and mug while Saradoc went to his own plate on the desk and continued sorting through the papers and books lying there.

Merry was eating his last tea cake when there was a knock at the study door and Pippin entered. “Hullo, Pip,” Merry said and sat up in the chair. “We’re about to go for a walk now. Do you want to join us?” Merry looked at his father and Saradoc nodded. “I’m thinking that you too are a bit tired of being cooped up inside in this cold?”

“Actually,” Pippin said, “I was coming to ask Merry if he wanted to come outside for some time, so I’ll be happy to join you.”

“Good,” Merry said, rising. “We’d better put on some warm clothes then. I suppose you’ve had your tea?”