Title: Crickhollow - March 1420

Author: Anso the Hobbit

Characters: Mainly Merry and Pippin

Timeline: Buckland, March SR 1420

Note: I’m too impatient to wait for betaing when I first have written a story, so it's not been betaed yet.

Disclaimer: Not mine. They just own me.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

PART ONE: A Cousin with Ulterior Motives

”Do you lads have everything you need, then?" Esmeralda Brandybuck said as she surveyed the wagon her son was hitching the two ponies to. It was a cold day in early March and the pale sun was almost hidden behind the cold mist that came from the Brandywine.

"Yes, thank you,” Merry said and fastened the harness a bit tighter. “I think Pippin will be very pleased with that green dresser and we needed more firewood anyway."

Esmie hugged her son and tipped his head down to kiss his brow. “Now you take good care of that cousin of yours and we’ll be up to check on things in a few days. If there's anything you need please don't hesitate to ask. There are several mathom rooms as large as the Great Hall filled with things I haven't looked over in years and I would be happy for the opportunity to do so."

Merry laughed and hugged her back. “We're moving to the other side of the Shire, Mum. I'll be down to talk to Da tomorrow anyway unless Pippin is much worse."

Merry jumped up on the driver’s seat of the wagon, next to where Berilac already sat waiting for him. “Ready?” Berilac asked. Merry nodded and they drove off. It wasn't a long drive and they sat in companionable silence, lost in their own thoughts. Merry's thoughts were on Pippin who was in bed with a nasty cold again. It was the second time this winter and he hadn't recovered fully from the first boot when he was caught out in rain and icy wind after a trip to the Golden Perch and the cold moved from his head to his chest. For the last three days Pippin had been lying in bed coughing and miserable and Merry had gone to and fro to make him as comfortable as possible. They always had a steady stream of visitors at their little house and Merry was glad he hadn’t needed to ride down to the Hall to tell Saradoc that he would be staying at Crickhollow for a few days to look after Pippin.

Mostly, Merry liked the stream of visitors and they never lacked food or company and found many occasions for a party or celebration and so more family and friends filled up the house. It seemed like most of the lasses they knew thought they couldn't manage on their own and often came with pies and bread and other foodstuffs. But at times like this, when Pippin was ill again and he had to manage the housekeeping all by himself Merry wasn’t all that happy with the unstoppable relations. Not that he minded that they came to sit with Pippin for an hour or two of course or even help him out with cooking or other things that needed to be done but both he and Pippin had learned that the nightmares were more frequent when they were ill and not many people knew about the terrors that haunted them in their sleep and they both liked to keep it that way. Merimas had asked more questions than Merry liked yesterday when Pippin had woken trashing and gasping for breath and Merimas had needed to bodily hold him back from jumping out of bed and reaching for his sword. Pippin had managed to avoid telling the complete truth but Merimas wasn’t easily fooled so Merry was not sure he had forgot all suspicions about his cousins not telling the whole truth.

“Ah, here we are," Berilac said and Merry paid attention to the road again and soon the little house he and Pippin shared came into view. They drove up in front of the house and jumped down from the wagon.

“I’ll just go check on Pippin. I’ll be right back," Merry said and pulled off the felt hat head been wearing but kept his cloak and scarf on as it was quite cold for March. The lifting and carrying would warm him up though. He walked through the hall, past the parlour and the kitchen and in to one of the bedrooms in the back. Merry carefully opened the door and peered inside. Pippin lay on his side in the bed wrapped snugly in several blankets and reading a book.

“Hullo, Pip,” Merry said and came fully into the room. “How do you feel?” He walked over to the hearth and put a few more logs on the fire.

“I'm better I think," Pippin said and coughed deeply before taking a sip of water from the glass on his nightstand. "How did the trip go?"

Merry looked at Pippin. His face was flushed with fever and he looked pale beneath the hectic red of his cheeks. He doubted that Pippin was much better but was happy to hear his cousin in good spirits. "Just fine thank you. Berilac came up with me and Mum sends her greetings," Merry said. "They will be up in a few days to check on us." Merry retrieved the empty lunch tray from Pippin’s bedside table and turned to leave. "Is there anything you need right now? We’ll be unloading the wagon and then I will start an early supper I think. It will be too late for tea when we're finished."

“No, thank you. I'm fine Merry," Pippin looked up from his book again and smiled. "Thank you for doing this." He coughed again and snuggled back down, turning back to his reading material. “I think I'll take a nap now."

“You’re welcome, Cousin,” Merry smiled back and took a detour to the kitchen to deposit Pippin’s tray. “Sleep tight.”

Outside Berilac had taken the ponies to the barn and had unfastened all the ropes and started to pull down the sacks of firewood when Merry came back. Merry thought he'd been gone five minutes at the most but with all the work Berilac had laid down he must have been gone at least half an hour.

"How's Pip?" Berilac asked when he heard Merry come back outside. “I was starting to get worried when you didn’t come out at once.”

“I’m sorry about that. He is not as well as he thinks he is," Merry answered and lifted a heavy sack of chopping wood down from the wagon. "He says he's getting better but he's still feverish and lies in his bed. He wants to be better though and I won't deny him that. Two colds in less than a month is something we both thought he was through with now that he's all grown up."

Berilac nodded. He had heard about the Entdraughts and believed them when Merry and Pippin had told him that the strange drink had cured their ills during their travels. Exactly what those ills were Berilac didn’t know and when he had inquired further Merry had only given him a strange look he couldn't comprehend and shaken his head. Obviously there were things Merry and Pippin didn't tell those closest too them, but Berilac was with them now and would observe closely for himself the next few days. He knew Merry had nightmares time and again because he had stumbled upon him one late night when he couldn't sleep himself and had wandered to the kitchens for a cup of warm milk. Merry hadn't seen him and had been startled beyond reason when he saw him and moved to draw his sword, only he didn't carry it with him now, and when he realised what he had done Merry had turned bright red and stuttered an apology about always having to be alert but Berilac had seen a fear in his eyes that lay well beyond the scare of finding a cousin in the kitchens when you thought you were alone.

*****

It took two hours before Berilac and Merry was finished with the unloading and putting the wood, furniture and cart away and by then they were both numb and stiff with cold. They emptied one of the sacks of chopping wood and filled it with already chopped wood from the barn and went into the house. The sun was setting and Merry's stomach rumbled loudly.

“We’d better get some food down you,” Berilac laughed when it complained even louder as they took off their outer garments in the hallway and walked to the cosy kitchen. Merry nodded.

“I’d better get started on supper. If Pippin is as well as he says he is he might want to eat something more solid than the chicken soup and broths he has eaten the last few days."

“Aye. I wouldn’t say no to a good pot of stew myself either," Berilac said and went into the parlour to start the fire there. “He looked happy enough when we put that dresser in his room.”

Pippin had been reading again when Merry and Berilac carried the green dresser into Pippin’s bedroom and he had cheerfully ordered them about from the bed, getting them to put it exactly where he wanted.

Merry went to the pantry and started pulling things out from the shelves and cupboards. He wouldn’t mind a good, hot stew either but through the hunger Merry felt a little uneasy. He pealed some potatoes and carrots while thinking about the act Pippin had put on when they struggled with the dresser and was halfway through chopping them when a sharp pain jerked him back to the present and the kitchen counter. He hadn't been watching what he was doing and mistaken his finger for a carrot. Quickly he went over to the sink, a ewer of water from the bucket beside the sink in the good hand. He surveyed the cut closely. It wasn't long but looked deep. He poured the water over his finger and hissed in pain as the cold liquid hit it. He rinsed the cut a few more times and walked over to the hearth to get a better look in the light of the fire. Merry heaved a sigh of relief when he couldn't see any bones and he could move it without much pain. The cut seemed clean so he found a clean cloth in one of the cupboards and wrapped it around his finger before going back to the chopping board and continuing the preparations for dinner.

After a while Berilac came in, dusting his hands off and looking for the tea kettle. He spotted Merry's wrapped up finger at once and came over to him. "What happened?"

“Oh, I wasn't paying attention is all. Nothing to worry about," Merry said confidently and continued to stir in the pot. "Would you mind setting the table?"

Berilac looked critically at him but Merry shook his head. Well, if that was how it was going to be Berilac wouldn’t ask any questions. He couldn’t help wondering why Merry kept his thoughts so much to himself lately, but decided that to start a fight with his cousin now was not a good idea. Merry looked worn, for all that he tried to hide it, and he had Pippin to look after. Berilac understood one thing though, Merry and Pippin needed to be together to work through whatever had happened during their travels and if Merry didn't want to talk then Berilac would let him be, for now.

Merry prepared a tray to take into Pippin’s room but was surprised to see Pippin standing in the doorway just as he was about to bring it to him. “Pip!” Merry said and hastily put the tray down on the table so it wouldn't crash to the floor.

“What happened to your hand?” Pippin asked and came fully into the kitchen, sat down at the table and started munching on a piece of buttered bread. He was dressed in a nightshirt and his robe but looked much better than he had earlier in the day.

“Oh, nothing,” Merry said and waved away any more questions. He sat down opposite Pippin and studied him. "What are you doing out of bed?"

“I smelled supper cooking and decided it was time to get up,” Pippin said and started helping himself to stew and ale. “I was tired of lying about and the coughing seems to have stopped tormenting me for now.”

Merry studied him closely and only barely managed to reach out his good hand to check Pippin’s temperature. His eyes looked clear and alert and although he was pale, his cheeks were not so hectic red and fever-bright any more. At last Merry nodded in asset. "It's good to see you are doing better, but don't overdo it all right?"

Supper passed cheerfully and Berilac entertained them with tales of what the children at the Hall had been up to the last few days when they had finished the serious business of eating. Merry watched as Pippin laughed gaily, snorting with mirth. He tried to laugh just as merry himself but couldn't let go of that uneasy feeling that had settled in his stomach. He took a long draught of his ale as they laughed.

When supper and washing up was done – Berilac forced Merry to join Pippin in the parlour, he wasn’t of much use anyway with his hand wrapped in a cloth, the two Brandybucks sternly told Pippin that if he was to sit up with them he would have to wrap up snugly and not walk around on the cold floor unnecessarily. Berilac stewed a large pot of tea and found biscuits and jam tarts in the pantry so they could fill up the corners and have a pipe or two before going to bed.

“You’ll stay?” Merry asked as Pippin yawned for the third time and finally retreated to his bed. Berilac nodded.

“Yes, it's too late to ride out now."

“And?” Merry said and lifted an eyebrow.

“And what?” Berilac said innocently, pretending he didn't know what Merry meant.

“Who sent you too look after us?”

“What do you mean?”

“Isn’t it obvious, don’t you think? You volunteer a bit too cheerfully to join me taking the cart back even if you have a wife and newborn baby at the Hall. No father leaves their newborn baby just days after it is born, Berry. You know that. There are lots of cousins who could have helped me."

Berilac sighed. It was true of course. He had become a father for the first time only days before and the custom was that any father would stay with his wife and children the first weeks after the new arrival to get to know the wee one and spend time together. Everyone knew it was busy work and as the last year had proved, even dangerous at times to be one of the Master's closest companions and training to be Steward as Berilac was, there was no doubt he was considered among those closest to the Master. "All right," he finally said. "Da came to me yesterday after he had talked to Uncle Sara and told me that he was worried about how you were getting on here. He seemed more worried about you than Pippin actually.”

“So he sent you to look after me,” Merry said angrily. “Why couldn’t he just tell me he was worried so I could have proven to him that he had nothing to worry about?" Merry rose and started pacing the floor behind the sofa where Berilac sat.

“I think that is what he is worried about Merry. You have always denied that something is wrong and we have learned to read the signals by now. Don't you remember when you twisted your wrist after stealing those pies from Pansy Goodbody and hid it for weeks until it hurt so much that you couldn't hold your quill and Mr. Wood sent you from the schoolroom?"

Merry sighed. The Brandybuck children’s teacher, Mr. Wood, had asked why he had trouble writing and when Merry couldn’t give a proper answer he had sent him straight to his grandfather’s study to explain to him. He'd got a lecture from both his grandfather and parents after that but now Merry supposed Berilac was right in understanding that it hadn't helped. "I remember," Merry said. "And I learned my lesson after that. But there isn't anything wrong, I promise you! Except for Pippin's cold everything is fine with us." He knew he sounded angry but he couldn't help feeling a bit irritated by this surveillance. He looked Berilac in the eye and put on a cheerful countenance. “Don’t worry, Cousin.” Merry smiled and held Berilac’s gaze until he returned it. “All right, let’s go to bed then, it's getting late."

Berilac nodded and as they went through the house to prepare it and themselves for the night he decided to talk to Pippin in the morning. Maybe he could tell him what was wrong.