Chapter 15

Euphorbia gave her sister-in-law a suspicious look. Hyacinth stood there briefly, her eyes cast down to hide her sullenness. Finally, Euphorbia said, "Well, get on with it. We do not believe in being ‘fashionably late’ here, not when there is such an important guest."

Important? Hyacinth wanted to laugh. But it would have been bitter laughter, and she knew it.

Eglantine and Paladin looked at one another in dismay. Who would stay with Pippin?

"Excuse me, Mistress Took?" Mistress Hollyhock spoke up.

"Yes?" asked Eglantine, a bit distractedly – and no wonder, thought the healer privately, what with all that was on her plate. She resolved, once again, to do all she could in aid of the family.

"Perhaps I could stay with the lad this evening. I plan to give him that sleeping draught we discussed, that he should sleep altogether soundly the night through. And I have no other demands on my time at the moment."

Eglantine and Paladin exchanged glances, a look of relief passing between them, and then their gratitude tumbled out, words jumbled together, "Oh, Mistress Hollyhock..." "We would be *so* very grateful..."

The healer nodded and smiled. It would be no different than many evenings spent by a patient’s bedside--it was a quiet and peaceful way to spend an evening, and she kept a small book in her medical satchel just for such occasions.

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Hyacinth was fit to be tied. Reggie had not returned to their apartment for tea, and she had hoped to question him as to what Ferumbras had been saying about his mother’s death. Instead, he had sent a note saying that he would be busy all evening with the Thain’s business.

Well, at any rate that left her free to go and demand an apology from the Brandybucks, without his interfering. And, to stir up two cakes in a single bowl, in a manner of speaking, quite possibly she could pay a call on the Whitwell Tooks afterward, and find out what was wrong with Peregrin. Surely a mere sunburn would not have required the healer again.

Of course, she’d have to find something to do with her daughters. Reggie seldom interfered with what she did with them, but she knew from bitter experience that he’d show his disapproval for them being left to themselves, alone. It was one of the few things that would goad him to action, so far as Hyacinth knew.

"Amethyst," she called sharply.

"Yes, Mother?" Amethyst came out of her room, wearing a different frock than the one she had worn earlier. She had been trying on her good frocks and posing in the mirror.  She had tossed the one in her hand down with the others on the floor when her mother called.

"After tea, why don’t you and your sisters go see little Estella Bolger?" The Bolgers were staying in the apartment of Rosamunda’s older brother Ferdinand, just a few doors down.

"Mother! The Bolgers are boring! And I don’t like Cousin Ferdinand. He’s always cross."

"Amethyst, do as you are told. I have things to do after tea."

Amethyst sighed. "Very well."

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Begonia was taking her tea with the other servants, in a manner of speaking--that is to say, she had some tea and some scones, and she was in the same room as the others, but she was isolated at one end of the table, excluded from the busy conversation around her.  She sighed. After all these years, she was accustomed to such treatment, but since her mistress had died, she had begun to notice again. It was her not having a place, that was the problem. When she knew her place, it didn’t matter what the others thought. She tried to tune out the conversation taking place around her.

"--and I heard that Clover Tunnelly was stepping out with that new stablehand, Til Brockhouse--"

"You don't say! Clover don't seem his type!"

"Well, I shouldn't have said so, but you know there's no accounting for it--"

"--so then you add the eggs one at a time. You have to make sure to whisk each one in right well before you add the next--"

"I'm that tired! Who would have thought a babe could keep up a noise like that all night long--"

"So--have you heard anything more about that Miss Pearl and the old Mistress?"

"Hsst. No talk of *that*!" said Cook firmly.

Suddenly the conversation stopped completely. She looked up, and saw Mr. Reggie standing at the door.

"Begonia?"

"Yes, sir?"

"If you have quite finished your tea, I should like you to come with me, please."

She nodded and stood up, and followed Mr. Reggie. As they left, the buzz of conversation started up once more, and this time Begonia knew that she was the subject of it.

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Saradoc and Esmeralda were ready to go.

"Come along, Merry," said his mother. "You need to be there as well."

"I don’t see why," he said crossly. He really much preferred to stay with Pippin. He was fretting about him--but Aunt Tina had told him that Pippin would be getting a sleeping draught tonight, and that their aunts Primrose and Peridot would be watching him.

"Because we need to show our support for Pearl, son," said his father. "Let us go now. The others are waiting for us."

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Frodo arranged his cravat, and dusted off his weskit as he put on his jacket. He would meet the Brandybucks in the passageway in just a few moments.

He took a deep breath. This had been a difficult visit to the Great Smials; his first as Master of Bag End and head of the Bagginses. He wished it could have been under better circumstances.

Oh well, he thought, we will find out tonight what Ferumbras means to do about Pearl. If he does not treat her fairly, I shall have to find a way to show Paladin’s family my support. He was quite sure that Bilbo would have found some clever sort of way to already do so. He still felt very inadequate to taking Bilbo's place sometimes.

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Rosamunda was surprised when Hyacinth’s daughters Amethyst, Garnet and Opal appeared after tea, wanting to play with Estella. She was already entertaining Odovocar’s cousin Wilibard and his wife Aster, who was expecting.

However, she called Estella and Fatty and her nephew Ferdibrand, and told them to take the lasses to the back room to play. Odovocar and her brother Ferdinand had left right after tea, in response to a summons from the Thain. She hoped that it meant this whole nonsense about poor young Pearl was going to be laid to rest at last.

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Hyacinth was surprised to receive no answer in response to her knock on the Brandybucks’ door. She had worked herself up into a fine little speech about Merry’s deplorable behavior, and had been looking forward to delivering it.

Still, it probably meant they were next door at the Whitwell Tooks’ chambers. The two families were practically in one anothers’ pockets. Well, she *had* been curious about the healer’s errand earlier. Perhaps she could kill two birds with one stone. 

She knocked on the other door.

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Rosamunda, Wilibard and Aster were talking of names for the expected child, when Aster gave a sudden gasp. "Oh dear!" she said breathlessly.

"What’s wrong?" Wilibard’s tone bordered on panic. This was their first child.

"I think--" gasped Aster, "that the baby’s coming!"

"But I thought you said it was nearly a month to go!" objected her distraught husband.

Rosamunda stood up. "Fredegar!" she called. The children all came to the door. "Would you go to the cottage and fetch the healer?"

"Excuse me, Cousin Rosamunda," said Amethyst smugly, "but the healer is not at her cottage."

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Hyacinth was startled when the door to the guest apartment was opened, not by any of the family, but by the healer.

"Oh!" she said blankly. "I was calling upon Paladin and Eglantine!"

"I am afraid they had to go and attend upon the Thain this evening," said Mistress Hyacinth. "I have stayed to watch over young Peregrin."

"Oh dear!" Hyacinth said, feigning surprise. "Is the dear little lad ill?"

Mistress Hollyhock sighed. "Do come in. No, he is not really ill, but he *did* suffer a rather painful sunburn a couple of days ago…"

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Frodo put a calming hand on Merry’s shoulder as the little group arrived at the Thain’s spacious quarters. The reception room had been filled with chairs, and several of the relatives and family heads summoned had already arrived. Pearl shrank into her father’s side, and Paladin put an arm around her. Pimpernel stood close to her mother, and Pervinca clutched her mother’s hand, even though a few days ago she had said she was too old for such things. Saradoc reached up and patted Paladin on the shoulder, and then he took Esmeralda’s other hand and gave it a squeeze.

Paladin noted a row of chairs near the front of the room, that appeared to be waiting for them.

Reggie, who had been standing at the Thain’s side, looked up, and then came over to greet them. "Good evening," he said blandly. "I think that this evening will put an end to the speculation."

Paladin looked at his cousin sharply. What did he mean? But Reggie was speaking politely to Frodo now, and there was no hint of what he himself thought.

With a smile that was unsettling in its very politeness, Reggie nodded towards the Thain and proceeded to usher them to their seats.

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Mistress Hollyhock found herself resenting the necessity of making small talk with this interloper. She did not particularly like Hyacinth, though she never let it show by so much as a twitch of her eyebrow, but she could hardly be rude. She had left the door to Pippin’s room open, but she much preferred to be at her little patient’s side.

"So the Thain wished to see all the immediate family, and the lad’s aunts were unable to attend him tonight as had been planned--"

"The Thain?" Hyacinth’s mind raced. Reggie! How dare he not tell her that the Thain had called a meeting--she should have been there! But perhaps this was good--if he had called all of Pearl’s family--perhaps he was going to disown them! That would be too good to be true!

Just then there was another flurry of knocks upon the door, urgent enough to waken the dead, though not, perhaps, someone dosed with the healer’s best potion for sleeping.

Mistress Hollyhock barely avoided giving a sigh of annoyance. Was every wretched hobbit in the Smials going to come calling here tonight? It was a good thing she’d already dosed the little lad and settled him to sleep, a good, healing sleep induced by the draught, or he’d have no rest at all!

It was the little Bolger lad--what did they call him? Fatty? She looked at him crossly, but his words jolted her.

"Mistress, aren’t you the healer? Mother says you should come at once; my cousin’s wife is having her baby, and it’s too soon."

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