4. Slippery Sons

On Mid-day of April, Faramir was late to tea. Pippin was careful to come a little early to the Thain's private quarters, to spare Diamond the walk to his study to fetch him. He found her on the sofa with her feet up, and smiled.

'You are looking better today, my dear,' he said.

She forced a smile in return, holding out a hand to him, which he took, tenderly dropping a kiss on the palm before settling beside her.

'I am sure the armful of wildflowers had something to do with that,' she said softly, nodding towards the vase on the mantel.

'Wildflowers?' he affected surprise. 'Wherever did they come from?'

'I'd imagine some Thain or other sent his special assistant out into the pouring rain to gather them this morning, early, before anyone else was about,' Diamond said dryly.

'Thains can be such tyrants,' Pippin said severely. 'There should be a law against that sort of thing.'

'O my love,' Diamond said, and buried her head in his shoulder. He held her gently until she was again in control of herself, pulled out a handkerchief, carefully dabbed at her eyes as if she were a child. She nodded, and he put the handkerchief away again.

'What's for tea?' he said affecting an appetite, but Diamond was not fooled.

She shot him a reproving glance as she answered, 'Dried apple tarts.'

'Mmmm,' he lied. 'Sounds delicious.' The hardest part of fighting to keep his health was eating, when so few foods had any flavour to his poor battered taste. Ever since the Old Gaffer's Friend* had tried to drag him into the grave a few years back, he'd fought grimly to hold on to the edge, and not topple the rest of the way.

Sandy efficiently poured out the tea to the taste of Thain (black and strong) and Mistress (lots of milk, a little sweetening), fixed a cup of cambric tea for Faramir (mostly milk, warmed with hot water, just a taste of tea, and lots of sweetening), and deftly served the plates, stopping blankly when he brought Faramir's portion over.

'Where's Farry?' the Thain asked, nodding his thanks and taking a sip of scalding tea, hot and black, just the way he liked it.

'He's late,' Diamond said.

'I had noticed that,' Pippin returned. 'Sandy, go scour the Smials, find Faramir. He knows better than to be late to tea.'

'Very good, Sir,' the hobbitservant said, retiring with a dignified bow. He looked in all the likely places, then started to check the unlikely ones. Snagging a few other servants, he expanded the search, until the entire Smials had been scoured from topmost storage rooms to bottom cellars, and the search had expanded to the yard and outbuildings.

The Thain and Mistress had just finished their tea, having decided that undoubtedly their son had been invited to tea by one of his cousins, when Sandy returned with the news that their son was nowhere to be found.

'His pony's gone,' he added, bracing himself for the explosion, for even after three and a half years of working for this Thain, he still sometimes forgot the differences between the old Thain and his son.

'In this weather?' Pippin said mildly, and Sandy relaxed slightly. 'Who went out with him?'

'All of the escort are still in the Smials,' Sandy said apprehensively.

'He's out without an escort?' Pippin said, raising an eyebrow. Faramir was only eight, over-young to be out of the Smials without adult supervision. 'I cannot believe that someone would saddle his pony for him and let him go without question.' His temper was beginning to rise, Sandy saw, but of course this Thain's anger blew cold, not hot like his father's before him. The hobbitservant did not want to get caught in the freeze.

'Certainly not, Sir,' he answered.

'Perhaps he's out with his cousins,' Diamond put in smoothly, but could not completely conceal her worry. Pippin rose abruptly.

'Do not worry yourself, my dear,' he said briskly. 'I will get to the bottom of this.' His tone did not bode well for Faramir's minder, or the escort, should they be found wanting.

The minder, however, had a plausible explanation. 'Palangrim came early to say his mum had invited the lad to spend the day in their quarters,' he said. 'I thought he was to come back to you in time for tea.'

The Thain went to the door of his cousin's suite. 'Poppy, why didn't you send word that Faramir was to take tea with you this day?'

Poppy raised a refined eyebrow in elegant surprise. 'He's not here,' she said. 'Palangrim told me he'd be spending the day in your quarters, for Farry had a new game to show him.' She looked down her nose at the Thain. 'Do not tell me you have lost our sons,' she said haughtily.

Pippin held tightly to his temper. 'It seems that they have lost themselves,' he said evenly. 'I knew nothing about it until just now. I would expect Palangrim to be more responsible, being twice Farry's age...'

'Well,' Poppy said languidly, 'be sure and let me know when you find them again. P'rhaps I shall send Palangrim to bed without supper, silly lad, to stir up such a hornet's nest. And Diamond not well...'

'Diamond is well,' Pippin said between his teeth. 'And I will let you know. Believe me, I shall.' With a sharp nod, he turned from the door, followed by Sandy and Farry's minder.

The Thain went to the second parlour, where the escort were to be found. Tolly and Hilly were battling it out in a game of Kings, while Adelard reclined on a sofa, lips moving as he studied the book he held above his face.

'All nice and cosy, I see,' Pippin snapped, and all jumped to attention. 'Tell me why I'm feeding the lot of you.'

'Sir?' Tolly said.

'Farry's apparently out without an escort,' Pippin said. 'His pony's gone. I haven't checked, yet, to see how many of his cousins' ponies are missing as well.'

Tolly nodded to Hilly, who darted from the room. 'May I have Ferdibrand, Sir?' he asked quietly. 'He's the best tracker I know.'

'I will spare him for the day,' Pippin said shortly. 'I'll send him to you in the stables.'

'Yes, Sir,' Tolly and Adelard said together, and he was off. 'Water rations, for certain,' Tolly said under his breath. 'And it's probably his minder's fault for not minding him in the first place.' Adelard nodded glumly. They picked up their cloaks, Tolly taking Hilly's as well, for the latter had run out to the stables without it.

Hilly met them at the stable door, taking his cloak "for all the good it'll do", for he was already damp from the short cloakless run from Smials to stables. 'Five ponies gone,' he said. Tolly nodded. He could guess whose.

Ferdibrand arrived then, settling his cloak more firmly around him. 'Someone spilled the bucket,' he said, shaking rain from his hair. 'What have we got?' Tolly rapidly filled him in, and he shook his head. 'Tracking's going to be a bit of a challenge, in this,' he said, indicating the rain. 'Still, time is a wasting. Ponies saddled?'

Tolly nodded. 'Good,' Ferdi said. 'Lead them out after me when I signal.' He went out into the yard, scouting the edges where the stones ended, until he straightened suddenly and waved. The escort, leading their ponies and his as well, walked across the yard.

'Quite a little group went out this way,' he said. 'Might have been five ponies. We'll walk, the better to follow the trail.' The others nodded glumly, and Tolly pulled his cloak a little tighter about his neck. They continued to follow the faint trail, which proceeded across the meadow towards the next large hill.

'Nice weather for an outing,' Hilly murmured to Adelard, and Tolly hushed him.

'Where would I go on a rainy day?' Ferdi was humming to himself, making a song of it. 'I'd stay in my hole, not wander away.' Breaking off abruptly, he said. 'The old diggings, d'you think? A nice place to play, and out of the rain.'

'The old diggings?' Tolly said, his breath hissing in sharply. 'They've been warned against going there.'

'Makes it all the more enticing, then, doesn't it?' Ferdi said dryly. 'Don't tell me you never did what you were warned against.'

'But...' Tolly protested. Ferdi stopped, took his reins from Tolly, swung up on his pony.

'Come along,' he said. 'The tracks are making a beeline towards the old silver mine. I'd wager the lads are to be found there, having a nice picnic of pilfered food, waiting for the rain to stop, and probably don't even know it's past teatime and the fat is in the fire.' The others followed suit, making good time to the abandoned mine, halfway up the next biggest hill to the one containing the Great Smials.

* The Old Gaffer's Friend: a Shire term for pneumonia, which took the elderly relatively quickly and painlessly