Chapter 4. In which a Took shows a flair for subtlety

Pippin heard the murmur of greeting beyond the door to his study, and he was up and out of his chair and halfway to the door when it opened to admit...

‘Merry! Glad Yule!’

‘And to you, Pippin,’ Merry said, laughter bubbling over to see his cousin’s face shining with joy, and exhibiting better health than the last time he’d seen him. ‘You’ve been eating well, I think!’

‘The cooks outdid themselves at the Yule Feast,’ Pippin admitted, stepping back from their embrace to pat his stomach—not even close to a paunch, and considering his health, likely never to become one, but still subtly rounded in a way that spoke of good eating. ‘Why, we ate from teatime until after the clocks struck middle night!’

‘He even roasted mushrooms-and-bacon with the tweens over the Yule log, in the wee hours,’ his steward Reginard said, rising to extend a welcoming hand to Merry. ‘Well come indeed, Master Merry. We’ve still half an hour until teatime.’

‘Half an hour!’ Pippin said in surprise. ‘It’s that late already?’

‘Aye,’ Regi said, one side of his mouth quirking. ‘The minutes take wings when one passes the time in pleasure...’

Merry looked at the piles of paperwork on the steward’s and Thain’s desks and cast a suspicious glance at the steward, who was known for his no-nonsense demeanor. ‘Was that a joke?’ he said.

Pippin laughed and slapped Regi on the back. ‘A joke!’ he said. ‘Never! Our Regi?’

‘I’ll just carry on,’ Regi said, returning to his desk. ‘If there’s anything of any urgency...’

‘You can put it on the top of tomorrow’s pile,’ Pippin said with a chuckle.

‘That’s one of the reasons we made him Thain,’ Regi said to Merry. ‘Decisive sort of chap.’

‘Very decisively done,’ Merry said, slipping an arm about Pippin’s shoulders. ‘So... what are we having for tea?’

Reginard smiled, looking down at the papers, picking up his quill and making a notation, as their voices receded from the room. It was good to hear the Thain so very cheerful, brimming over with energy. ‘Knowing you were coming today, Diamond ordered apple tart, especially...’

‘...sitting room, or great room?’ Merry was asking as the study door shut behind them.

‘Well, as Samwise is to arrive today as well...’

‘Samwise!’ Merry said. ‘He wasn’t here for the Tooks’ Yule celebration?’

‘Outbreak of spots at Bag End,’ Pippin said, ‘right along the first of last month. Rosie wanted to wait to see the last of it, and so even though there weren’t any spots showing on any of the little Gamgees, last week, she chose to err on the side of caution.’

‘Admirable of her,’ Merry said. ‘She didn’t want to spread spots to hundreds of Tooks, and possibly Faramir, when his favourite “uncle” was due to visit this week!’

‘And what did you bring him this time?’ Pippin said. ‘You’re still trying to bribe Farry to choose between yourself and Ferdibrand, I take it, in the “favourite uncle” dispute.’

‘No dispute about it,’ Merry said with his chin in the air.

The two hobbits had a friendly competition going to achieve the status of “favourite”, and young Faramir basked in the light of their attention, learning much of steadiness and planning from his Brandybuck uncle, while receiving lessons in attentiveness and hunting skills from his Took uncle.

They passed through the large sitting room and out of the Thain’s private apartments. ‘Great room,’ Pippin said belatedly. ‘There’s quite a welcoming feast, between welcoming the Mayor and the Master and the son of the Thain...’

‘Welcoming Farry?’ Merry said. ‘Why, where has he been?’

‘Out to Whittacres,’ Pippin said. ‘Since Pearl and Isum's older sons could not attend the Yule festivities here at the Smials this year, Farry was pining for his Whitwell cousins. I thought a little visit would do him a great deal of good. Ferdi’s fetching him back in time for...’

‘Ferdi,’ Merry said, stopping. ‘You sent Ferdi to fetch him? And...?’

‘And nobody,’ Pippin said. ‘You don’t think Ferdi, by himself, capable of handling a headstrong ten-year-old?’

‘But Pip,’ Merry said lowering his voice, ‘after what happened...’

‘Exactly,’ Pippin said, sounding quite as headstrong as the aforementioned ten-year-old. ‘After what happened, I thought it a good idea to send Farry out to the farm with Tolibold as escort, and have Ferdi fetch him back.’ He lowered his own voice. ‘Put a stop to those rumours, you know, that keep popping up.’

Merry flushed. ‘There ought not to be any rumours,’ he said. ‘Not after the show you put on in the courtyard, cutting their bonds and announcing to the world that they’d been falsely accused!’

Pippin’s mouth twisted, and he made to move on before someone noticed them and began listening in. ‘You know the Tooks and their Talk,’ he said, still in an undertone. He pasted on a smile and returned the greetings of several cousins, hurrying through the corridor on the way to some last minute before-tea preparations. ‘Why, for years after Lalia’s death they were still muttering over what part Pearl played in the tragedy...’

‘And so you send Farry out, alone, with two who were accused of child-stealing...’

‘Hobbits don’t steal children,’ Pippin said. ‘Hobbits don’t steal at all, as a rule,’ he added, ignoring the account of a certain Burglar in family history.

‘I’d’ve said that hobbits don’t throw in their lot with ruffians, before we met Lotho's Shirriffs...’ Merry said.

‘The matter was all cleared up, and to your satisfaction,’ Pippin said, and then he shook a finger in Merry’s face and added, ‘and a lucky thing, too, that I didn’t find myself bearing the stiffest penalty for a false accusation!’

‘Luck of the Tooks,’ Merry said lightly, nodding to a pair of curious servants as they passed.

Pippin snorted. ‘Luck had little to do with it,’ he said. ‘Here Ferdi and Tolly were trying to save me the grief of a scandal, over my son’s foolish notion to run away to Gondor, and how did I reward them? Banishment!’

‘Well, they were not banished, as it turned out, and they ended a great deal richer than they’d begun...’ Merry said.

‘Hush! If it becomes common knowledge we’ll have all sorts of treasure-seekers converging on the Shire!’

‘That’s not funny,’ Merry said, stopping again, but then he pushed Pippin on, so that they were walking at a brisk pace. He forced himself to smile, as if they were simply passing the time of day, catching up on the news from Brandy Hall. ‘I was going to wait to tell you,’ he said.

‘What?’ Pippin said. ‘Can’t be good news, if you were going to wait. Only bad news keeps...’

‘News from Bree,’ Merry said, keeping his voice low and his smile bright, for the sake of passers-by. ‘Apparently there’s been more talk than usual at the Prancing Pony of the Thain and his gold.’

‘Blasted gold,’ Pippin said. ‘I scatter it just as fast as I can, but it keeps mounting up in a most alarming manner. Why, while delving in the Green Hills not far from here Everard struck silver, and then gold...’

‘Yes, and it was all the talk in Bree,’ Merry said. ‘As if you didn’t already have more gold than was good for you...’

‘Well then, the Watchers must be ever more on their guard,’ Pippin said. ‘Have the Bounders reported any Men hovering round the Bounds of the Shire?’

‘No,’ Merry said, ‘but it’s only a matter of time. Every time Butterbur reports talk of Tookish gold, there seems to be a rash of Edict-breakers.’

‘More fruit for the Rangers to pluck from the trees,’ Pippin said grimly. Not so long ago, the corpses of men had decorated the copses outside the Bounds, hanged and left as a warning to would-be trespassers, but Pippin had put a stop to that. Now the Rangers took the bodies down after the rope did its work, and buried them.

Men still occasionally were caught entering the Shire, but word had spread of the Northern Rangers’ diligence, guarding the Shire, and so there were not so many as there had been when the Edict first went into effect. Only a handful had been taken and hanged, the previous year.

That was one of the things that had got Tolly in trouble, actually. He’d caught a pair of wanderers and, heeding their pleas for mercy, had escorted them safely out of the Shire, avoiding the Rangers. As a result, he’d found himself accused, later, when young Faramir went missing, of being in league with ruffians seeking the Thain’s gold. And working with Ferdibrand, who’d gone into hiding with Faramir until he could persuade the lad to abandon his plans for running away, had only made things worse.

Which brought Merry back to his earlier point. ‘But you sent Farry out with Tolly and Ferdi,’ he said. ‘Pip, are you sure that was the wisest...?’

‘Not together,’ Pippin said. ‘Separately. Tolly took him out there and returned safely, and brought back a nice note from Pearl, thanking me for the privilege of having Faramir for a week, and of course Diamond left the note lying about in the great room at supper, so the news was all over the Smials in no time at all...’

‘So Tolly has been established as trustworthy and above reproach,’ Merry said, ‘and now Ferdi?’

‘And now Ferdi will escort Farry into the great room at teatime, just in time to greet Mayor and Master and wish them Glad Yule,’ Pippin said.

‘Nicely staged, to take place before the greatest number of hobbits possible, Tooks and Tooklanders and servants and all,’ Merry said dryly.

‘Exactly,’ Pippin said.

‘You’re the devious one,’ Merry said, withdrawing his arm from Pippin’s shoulders and giving his cousin a whack on the back.

‘Might as well put it to good use,’ came the reply.