14. Circumstantial Evidence

Some time before dawn, Ferdibrand awakened, in his right senses, more or less. Hally dozed in the chair beside the bed, and at the sight of his brother-in-love, Ferdi remembered where he was, and why he was there. Farry! Who was watching Faramir?

Cautiously, so as not to jar his head, he rolled himself to a sitting position, then waited for the dizziness to subside. His head felt as fragile as fine elven glass, and as likely to shatter with an injudicious move. He lifted a trembling hand and stroked his fingers from the bridge of his nose to his temple. Well, his head hadn't quite fallen off during the bad spell. He'd had his doubts at the time.

He stood swaying for a moment, then walked carefully across the room, almost afraid to touch foot to ground, keeping his movements as smooth as possible. This also made his progress silent, and Hally dozed on, unaware of Ferdi's wakening.

He eased the bedroom door open and looked to the hearth, breathing a sigh of relief to see the pile of blankets there, only Farry's curls showing in the light of the watch-lamp. The sigh was a mistake; his head gave a twinge.

The creak of the door had awakened Rosemary. 'Ferdi? What are you doing out of bed?' She rose quickly to take his arm.

'Farry,' he breathed.

'Farry's fine, sound asleep. See?' She guided him to the bed in the corner. 'Lie down and I'll get a cool cloth for your head.'

He did not resist. He heard the trickle of water being wrung from a cloth, and it occurred to him that the world outside was blessedly silent. The roaring beast that had haunted his dreams was gone. The storm was over, the weather ache that had shadowed his mind was fading. He'd be well in a day or two, and able to take Farry on to Buckland.

The cloth was laid over his forehead, and in spite of himself, he sighed. 'There,' Rosemary whispered. 'Rest, now.'

He heard the bedroom door creak, and knew she was taking herself off to her own bed. A murmur of voices meant that she'd wakened Hally from his uncomfortable position in the chair, a rustle of bedcovers told of Hally and Rosemary snuggling together. Ferdibrand heard no more, drifting off to sleep.

He awakened some time later to the sound of ponies outside. The door slammed open, banging back against the wall and letting in a blast of chill air. He sat up, his head feeling less fragile this time, and a voice said sharply, 'Don't move, Ferdi!'

'Hilly?' he said. 'What are you doing here?' He wondered for a moment if he was really awake, or had fallen back into nightmare. This was not believable: Hilly stood in the open doorway with an arrow pointed at his chest. He cautiously shook his head and blinked, but Hilly was still there, his bow drawn, and it did not appear to be a jest.

'Don't move, Ferdi, I'm warning you. Where is Faramir?' There was no trace of friendliness in Hilly's voice, and Ferdi decided this must be happening in truth, however much it felt like a bad dream.

'He's right there by the hearth, asleep,' Ferdi said, with a slight nod. He wasn't about to make any overt moves, under the circumstances. Two cloaked figures that had entered behind the escort moved quickly to the bundle of blankets before the fire.

'Farry?' It was Pippin's voice, but hoarse and strained, and Ferdi felt a stab of concern.

'Pip, no! You rode through the storm? You'll catch your death!' The Thain ignored him.

'He's burning with fever,' Pippin said tightly, and the other cloaked figure threw back his hood to reveal the Master of Buckland.

'Fever!' Ferdi said, startled into motion, but Hilly's arrow convinced him to sit back down on the bed. 'He was fine earlier.'

'So you say,' Merry snapped.

Rosemary appeared at the door of the bedroom, a shawl thrown over her nightdress. 'What in the world...?' She sounded utterly bewildered, and Hally came from behind to put his arms about her.

'The Thain has come to claim his son,' he said in realisation.

'Rose, Farry's fevered,' Ferdi said urgently. She looked at her brother, his hands held out to his sides while Hilly's arrow pointed unwavering at his heart, and Ferdi nodded to her. Help the lad.

She crossed to the washstand and dipped a clean cloth in the water bucket, bringing it over to lay on Farry's forehead. She knelt beside the lad and undid the blankets, unwound the bandage around his leg to look at the wound. It was healing nicely.

'Not infected,' she murmured absently. She opened Farry's shirt and placed her head against his chest, recoiling quickly with alarm on her face. 'Sit him up!' she ordered. 'It'll help him breathe.'

'Not...' Pippin blanched with fear, hurrying to prop his son up in his arms.

'His lungs are rattling,' she said shortly. She went to a shelf in the kitchen corner, taking down a crock. Coming back, she liberally smeared a handful of the contents over Faramir's chest, and on his back for good measure. 'Goose grease,' she answered the Thain's inquiring look. 'I'll make up a mustard plaster as quick as I can, and if that doesn't work we'll try an onion poultice.'

'He was fine earlier,' Ferdi repeated. At least, he thought Farry had been fine. Surely Rosemary would have said something, had the lad been ill.

'He was,' Rosemary affirmed. 'This must have come on during the night.' She shook her head. 'He's been warm and dry here...' she looked to her husband. 'Hally, could he have taken a chill when he was helping the lads?'

'I wouldn't think so,' Hally said. 'And none of them is ill.' The other children were clustered in the bedroom doorway, their eyes wide at the scene before them.

Ferdi gave a sharp exclamation.

'Don't do that!' Hilly snapped. It was hard enough to hold an arrow steady without being startled in the bargain.

'What a fool I was!' Ferdi said, looking to Rosemary. 'He slept the first night in a haystack, and I never thought to ask if he was dry or damp when he sought its shelter.'

'You let my son sleep in a haystack? Why did you not seek shelter?' Pippin's voice trembled with outrage, and Ferdi hastened to explain.

'He was on his own that first night. He'd...' He looked around at all the listening ears. 'I ought to tell you this in private.'

'I think everyone in this room has a right to hear, seeing how you've used them,' Merry said sternly. It seemed to him that the Bolgers were honestly bewildered by events.

Ferdi hesitated, but seeing which way the wind was blowing, he nodded. 'He had run away from the Smials,' he said. 'It was too late to follow him, by the time it was discovered, so he spent that first night in a haystack. I caught up with him towards evening of the second day, and that because a fox had treed him.'

'You expect me to believe that?' Pippin said coldly.

'I do,' Ferdi answered. The others were taken aback by his confidence, but Merry was quick to press the attack.

'Why did you not take him back to the Smials to be cared for? Or as you were closer to Buckland, why not there, to his father?' He fixed Ferdi with a penetrating stare. 'Why did you not return him to his parents? What are you doing here, Ferdi, hiding out with the lad and not a word to anyone?'

'If Farry ran away, why did I have no word from Diamond?' Pippin added.

'We gave Diamond reason to think he'd gone with you to Buckland,' Ferdi said. 'I didn't want her to worry, in her condition.'

'We?' Merry asked, raising his eyebrows.

'Tolly,' Everard elaborated from the doorway, having put the ponies away. Seeing that Hilly had the situation fully in hand, he put down his bow and threw back the hood of his cloak.

Pippin wrung out the cloth in the bowl of water Rosemary had brought him and replaced it on Faramir's forehead. He moved with slow deliberation, doing what he could for his son, but there was a tightness in his face and a subtle tension in his body that boded no good for someone. 'I thought it odd that there were no letters from Diamond – there'd be one a day, usually, reminding me to eat. I was beginning to worry, actually, that she might be ill – but I thought I could rely on Ferdi to keep me informed.' He flashed a glance at Ferdi, sharp as a naked sword.

‘And of course if my wife had received my letters to her, she would have known Farry wasn't with me,’ he finished bitterly.

'Tolly would have the authority to stop letters,' said Everard.

'I trusted you, Ferdi.' Pippin sounded sad. "If I had not seen your note to Tolly with my own eyes –'

'Tolly knew I meant to take Farry on to Buckland when I found him. I told him I'd only send word if things went otherwise. But a fox found the lad before I did, and scored his leg. I brought him here to give him a chance to heal before we went on to Buckland.' I'm babbling, he thought in despair, seeing Pippin’s stony gaze, and he doesn't believe me anyway.

No one answered him, but as he looked from hobbit to hobbit, the eyes that met his were hard. He blundered on. 'I could not bring him back to the Smials bleeding; Diamond would be beside herself!’ Surely they could find no fault with that.

He added, ‘Neither did I relish bringing him to Brandy Hall in that state.' Pippin snorted his disbelief.

'Very convenient,' Merry said coldly. 'No doubt you can also explain why you sent no message to the Thain. I saw when the bandage was removed that the lad's leg is nearly healed now, certainly well enough to travel. Why are you both still here, Ferdi, since you planned to bring him to Buckland? Or said you planned...'

Ferdi stared at him in astonishment. 'Exactly what are you accusing me of?' he demanded.

Rosemary broke in. 'Ferdi fell ill, the day before yesterday.'

Hally nodded. 'He was abed most of the day. He stayed on his feet just long enough to send a message to the Smials, since he knew he was in no condition to travel with the lad.'

'He sent word to the Smials, to Tolly,' Pippin said grimly, ‘not to Reginard,’ he added significantly, 'but he sent no word to me! Yet he knew I was in Buckland – two hours' ride from your door. Obviously he realised that I would have come for my son, and that plainly was not part of his plan. Rather, his message to Tolly was to keep his whereabouts secret as long as possible. You will find it hard to explain that to my satisfaction, Ferdibrand!' He practically spat the last words.

'Farry had run away,' Ferdi repeated desperately. 'He threatened to run again, at first opportunity! I brought him here to calm him down, to make him see reason –'

'Or perhaps you brought him here to keep him secret whilst his leg healed, so you could spirit him away who knows where,' said Merry. 'Easy enough to tell the good folk here that you were going on to Brandy Hall, and they’d have no reason to disbelieve you.’ Rosemary started to speak, but Merry continued, ‘I wonder where you would really have taken him.'

'That's not the way it was at all!' Ferdi protested. 'Ask Tolly!'

'Oh, I'll ask Tolly, you can be sure of that!' Pippin said quietly, having mastered himself once more. 'Tolly should be here very soon. Reginard is bringing him – under guard.'

Just then Faramir stirred in his blankets, and all Pippin's attention went to him at once. 'Steady, lad, steady,’ he crooned. ‘All's well now, Farry. You're safe.'

'Ferdi!' the lad moaned, and his father cradled him in his arms, murmuring words of comfort.

Faramir was deep in a fever nightmare. He clung to the side of a bluff where a raging torrent had eaten away at the bank, collapsing the trail above. He'd seen one friend swept away, and another climb to safety, aided by Ferdibrand. Now Ferdi, clinging to the bank beside him, took off his belt, fumbling with one hand and grasping at protruding tree roots with the other. He used the belt to secure Faramir to some sturdy-looking roots and smiled.

That'll keep you, for the nonce. What d'you suppose we'll be having for supper?

'Water rations for me,' Faramir muttered.

'What did he say?' Merry asked.

'I couldn't make it out,' said Pippin. 'Something about water, I think. Fever talk; he's probably thirsty.'

'I'll bring him a cup,' Rosemary said quickly.

Could be worse. Water from a mug sounds a lot more inviting than water from the stream, at the moment.

'Are you thirsty, Farry?' she asked, holding the cup to his lips.

'You have the right of it,' he answered faintly, but oddly enough, he didn't drink.

I'm glad my Nell cannot see me now. She'd have the babe out of sheer consternation, not to mention I would never live it down... Just then, more of the bank crumbled away beneath Ferdibrand, throwing his weight fully upon the tree roots to which he clung... roots that did not hold his weight, but gave way, plunging him into raging waters that closed over his head...

'Ferdi!' Faramir cried out in horror, stiffening against the hands that held him. 'Ferdi, no!' He began to sob. 'O no, please, no...'

Ferdi met Pippin's eyes over the lad's head, and looked hastily away. He had never seen such fury in another hobbit's face – Paladin's noisy rages were nothing in comparison. Only the ruffians’ ferocity compared to that of this father who thought he’d nearly lost his son.

He'd heard that Pippin had been much in the company of Men, the year he was away from the Shire, and he’d made visits to the South since the War had ended, before he’d had become Thain. Merry, too, had often returned to the South. Were they more like Men than hobbits, now?