Epilogue

Macidoc had been told by his mother that he was more than welcome to return home, back to his rooms in the Master’s quarters. So when he took his leave of the other Restorers, after the Ghosts departed, that was where he headed.

He reached to open the apartment door only to have it fly open. Mac was nearly rundown by his distraught mother. She clutched a paper in her hand.

“He’s gone, Mac. H-he wasn’t h-here when I re-returned. I thought he was f-finishing up. But . . . but . . .”

“I’m here now, Mum.” He wrapped an arm around her shoulders and guided her into the family parlor, seating her in her rocker by the fire. He draped her shawl over her shoulders, then knelt in front of her.

“Do you know where he is, Mum?”

“Gone. H-he’s gone, Mac.” She held the paper out, her hand shaking badly.

Macidoc took the paper. It was a note from his Father.

“It was on my pillow, Mac. On my pillow on our bed, and some of his clothes are gone. I had thought,” she rambled on as her son read the note, “that he was finishing up the business of seeing to Longo. And his satchel. H-his s-satchel is g-gone too. Why, M-Mac? Why would h-he l-leave?” Chalcedony was starting to panic again.

The note read:

My Dear Ones,

I feel I am as guilty as Longo. I do not see myself as fit
to be part of a trial against Tollo Grittison, nor to take
part in the setting of any punishment for either him
nor Longo.

Macidoc, you are now Master of Buckland. I have left a
properly made out document to that effect in my - your
office. Please go to the Great Smials with your mother
and see to the trial of the Grittisons.

Chalcedony, I can say, truthfully, that I was never
unfaithful to you. However, I know your life with me
has been difficult because of the person I am. You are
free of me. Consider me dead.

As Master of Buckland I lied, falsified documents and
ignored the needs of the hobbits who were supposed
to be under my care. I was a pompous arse. But the
worst atrocity I have committed was disowning my own
son, my dearest Macidoc. For that alone I deserve
this punishment I am imposing upon myself.

I am leaving. I am leaving Buckland and the Shire.
I place myself in exile.

Good bye

Macimas Brandybuck

“I think I know where he is going, Mum,” Macidoc said. He stood, kissed his mother, then rang for a servant. He instructed the serving lass to have the Mistress lie down in his bedroom and to send for the healer to be certain she would be all right. Then he left.

********************

Macimas had crossed the Brandywine using the ferry, then set off at a gallop. He was now well along his way heading south. He would leave the Shire at Sarn Ford. He was less known down there and he was wishing to leave without being recognized. From there he planned on going to the town of Greenway Fork. There were hobbit merchants that did business there, so a hobbit would not be unusual enough to cause talk. There he would see if he could find work as a clerk.

He heard hoof beats coming up behind him. Macimas turned his pony off the road into a stand of trees and bushes. The ridder appeared, coming at a fast trot, but he pulled his mount to a stop near to the copse Macimas was in.

“Father?”

Macidoc received no answer.

“Father? Are you here? Please answer me.”

No reply.

Macidoc sat on his puffing, lathered pony, listening. His shoulders soon slumped and his head hung down. He tapped Star’s sides and the tired beast began to slowly walk on down the road.

Just then, Macimas’ pony nickered to his stable mate. Both Macidoc’s and his Star’s heads came up.

“Socks? Is that you lad?”

Star turned towards the clump of trees, whinnying as she did so.

Slowly, Macimas and Socks appeared out of the gloom. For a few minutes, father and son sat upon their ponies in the moonlight simply looking at each other.

“Why did you follow me?” “Why did you leave?” they spoke at the same time. There was another long pause.

“I have behaved abominably,” Macimas said sadly. “How could I stay?”

“You left too soon, Father. Peregrin’s ghost told the full tale of what the Caskburys and Grittisons had done, and how they were able to do it.” Macidoc moved Star closer to his father and Socks, dropped the reins then took hold of his father’s hands. “You had been under a spell. All the Masters and Thains have been from the time those two families moved into the Hall and the Smials. Saruman cursed Daisy Sandyman’s babes, so they would be filled with bitterness and could control others with their voices.”

Mac leaned forward to look into his father’s eyes.

“That was why you were able to recover so quickly, Father. It wasn’t you, not the real you. It was Longo using you.”

Macimas said nothing.

“Please. Mum is beside herself with worry for you. I’ve never seen her so frightened. And if you don’t come back, how can I ever get to know the real hobbit who is my father? Please come home, Da.”

“My son!” Macimas sobbed as he and Macidoc hugged each other as well and tightly as they could whilst mounted on ponies. They had the first of many good father and son talks as they rode home on that moonlit night.

Macimas II remained the Master of Buckland until his death. He was remembered, not as “the Efficient” nor as “the Pompous” but as “the Merciful”. The trial of Tollo Grittison was conducted with proper decorum with Macimas II Master of Buckland, the Mayor of the Shire, and the new Took and Thain presiding. Adenbras Took’s senility was more than just his being manipulated by his secretary and it had been decided that Adlebras would assume the Took and Thainship even though his father still lived.

After the Master and the Mistress of Buckland arrived at Great Smials, Tollo Grittison awakened from the strange slumber he had been in for nearly a fortnight. At his trial, he came unhinged just as his cousin Longo had at his trial. Longo Caskbury lived out his life in a special wing of Brandy Hall where Brandybucks who went mad were tended with loving care. Tollo Grittison lived out his life in a similar wing of the Great Smials. Neither hobbit ever recovered their sanity.

Chalcedony Took assured all present that she would see to the removal of the curse from both the Grittison family and the Caskbury family, though no one seemed to be able to remember if she had stated how this would be accomplished. Rumors later spread that Rollo Caskbury and Mungo Grittison had each experienced a strange dream in which a petite being with red-golden hair had sung over them, freeing them from Saruman’s curse. Whatever was the truth of the matter, both young hobbits became fine, upstanding citizens, both choosing to leave the great houses to set up shops in Bucklebury and Tuckborough, respectively, as scribes.

It was decided by the Mayor, the Master and the Thain that the sentence meted out to the traitors, Longo Caskbury and Tollo Grittison would be as follows: The traitors themselves would remain in seclusion at Brandy Hall and Great Smials. That the celebration of the Raising of the Shire on 2 Blotmath, formerly observed only in Buckland with the blowing of the Horn of the Mark, bonfires and feasting, would now be celebrated throughout the lands of the Hobbits, and that the Caskbury family and the Grittison family would in perpetuity be responsible for planing and conducting the celebrations in Bucklebury, Tuckborough, Hobbiton, Michael Delving, Middowns, and Undertowers. It was also decreed that part of the celebrations in each town would include the telling of the true Tale of the Travellers.

Macidoc Brandybuck married Delphinia Caskbury one year after the trials.

Also, in that fascinating way that fate would have things, seven months after the trials, Marjoram Brandybuck and Athelas Brandybuck each gave birth to their first born. On 30 Blotmath, a son, Periadoc Brandybuck was born to Other and Athelas Brandybuck at ten o’clock in the morning. On 30 Blotmath, a daughter, Jebia Brandybuck was born to Jebbin and Marjoram Brandybuck at ten twenty in the morning. The next day, a watch chain with five small bells hanging from it was found in each babe’s cradle.