Chapter 18. Table Talk

Tolly arrived before the dawn, with Reginard and an escort of two burly Tooks. The Bolgers were busy with morning chores when they rode into the clearing.

'I'm looking for the Thain,' Haldegrim Took said to the lad who came out of the byre to meet them.

'In the house.' Robin pointed, and went back to the milking. His father had told the children to stay out of the way as much as they could this day. Robin had a feeling they would be playing in the loft for a long time, while the grown-ups discussed their serious business in the house.

One of the riders took the ponies' reins while the others marched Tolly to the house. 'For all the world like a prisoner under guard,' Buckthorn whispered to Robin, peeking from the byre.

'Get to the milking,' Robin said shortly. He didn't want to think about what would be going on in the house. Uncle Ferdi was in big trouble, Robin knew that much, and he wondered at these important grown-ups who didn't seem to believe anything his uncle said. Couldn't they hear the truth in Ferdi's voice?

'So, Ferdi,' Tolly said as he entered the house, and the hunter looked up from the table where he nursed a mug of tea.

'You know better than to talk to him,' Haldegrim snapped. 'Wait until you've been questioned.'

Merry came out of the bedroom where Faramir still lay in fevered dreams. 'Tolly,' he said with a nod. He knew the head of escort from visits to the Great Smials.

'Master Meriadoc.' Tolly divined rightly that Merry would be questioning him, so he was allowed to reply when Merry spoke to him.

'Take off your cloak, sit down and have a cup of tea,' Merry said. 'Breakfast is not quite ready.'

The Master turned away, and Tolly cocked an ironic eye at Ferdibrand. 'Such a waste,' he said under his breath. He'd've made a good innkeeper, do you think? Ferdi caught the gist of his thoughts from his expression and snorted softly.

Haldegrim took three mugs down from the rack on the wall and poured the tea, shoving Tolly's across the table to him. Tolly added milk from the pitcher on the table and swirled the mug gently to mix it. 'We've been together a long time,' he said.

'No talking,' Haldegrim said again. He moved to sit next to Tolly, as if he thought he could serve as a better reminder of the trouble Tolly was in, sitting there. He nudged Tolly with his elbow, caught the head of escort's eye when Tolly looked over in annoyance. Be careful, his look said.

'I was just thinking aloud,' Tolly said in astonishment.

'Well, keep your thoughts to yourself.' Haldegrim's voice was hard. He didn't like his position, standing guard was what it amounted to, over Tolly and Ferdi, of all hobbits in the Shire. He didn't like it at all, but he would do his duty. 'You'll be silent, or you'll be gagged, Tolly.'

Tolly shrugged and rolled his eyes at Ferdibrand. Be serious, Ferdi thought, staring at him, but Tolly just shook his head.

'I told you so,' he muttered, then looked up in mock surprise at another elbow nudge. 'O, I'm sorry, Haldi. I keep forgetting.'

Hally and the boys came in from the barn and went to wash up. Rosemary and her girls began setting plates around the table, followed by platters of fried ham, potatoes cooked with bacon and onions, soft-cooked eggs in their shells and bowls of stewed fruit, and last of all, an enormous pan of apple crumble. The Bolgers gathered around the table, and Merry came out of the bedroom.

'Take a bite in there for the Thain,' he said quietly to Rosemary. 'He won't leave the lad alone, not even to eat.' She nodded and went to prepare a tray.

It was a silent meal. The children ate voraciously, after eating so little the day before, but there was none of the cheerful banter usual around this table, and they kept their eyes on their plates except for covert peeks at their uncle and the stern-faced Tooklanders. The grown-ups put food on their plates and then seemed unable to eat, taking two or three bites and laying down their forks, sipping at their tea. It seemed an age until the meal was over and the washing up done.

Merry looked significantly at Hally, and he turned to lay a gentle hand on his wife's shoulder. 'Will you take the children out to the barn, my dear? The Master would like to begin, I think.'

Rosemary stood for a moment with downcast eyes, pleating her apron between her fingers. Finally she looked Merry in the face. 'I would like to remain and hear what is said.'

'My dear –' Hally began, but she shook her head and took his hand in hers, her eyes still on the Master of Buckland. 'Ferdi is my brother. If he is to be banished this day, I have a right to hear the evidence against him.'

Merry nodded. 'Very well, Mistress. Will you take the Thain's place by his son, then, so he can sit in here with us? Leave the door open, and you will hear all that is said.'

'Thank you,' she whispered, and went into the bedroom while her husband herded the children out of the house. Pippin patted her shoulder as he passed her in the doorway, compassion on his face.

'We've heard from all the witnesses but one,' Merry began.

'You have not heard from Farry,' Ferdibrand protested.

'O we've heard quite enough from Faramir,' Merry said. He gave Ferdi a measured look. 'He wanders in fever, but his words are very clear.' He took a swallow of tea. 'We have enough evidence already, with your note and Tolly's confession.'

Pippin nodded grimly, holding his tongue with an effort. Let me go, Ferdi! His son's words had been clear indeed, and his attitude of desperation cut Pippin to the heart. Well enough for his special assistant to lecture him on his failings as a father – what had Ferdi been doing to the lad, to give Farry such a fear of him?

Tolly was cursing himself for his slip of the tongue, "conspiring", o whyever did he use that word in the first place? Of course they were conspiring – conspiring to prevent a scandal, to protect Pippin from the wagging tongues that would make his work as Thain ten times more difficult. It was hard enough, containing that wild son of his, Tolly thought. But what would this thick-headed Brandybuck know of Pippin's struggle to govern the Tookland, ill as he was, and shield his wife from worry, and – he sighed gustily.

He could understand the Thain's anger, he supposed. They'd gone about this whole thing the wrong way, but their intention had been to do him good, not ill…

'Very well, Tolly, let us hear your story,' Merry broke into his reverie.

Tolly sat up straight. This was his last chance, and he'd better make it good. 'Farry's minder came to me, just before teatime, the day the Thain left for Buckland,' he began. 'He said he couldn't find the lad, he'd looked everywhere he could think of, and could the escort help?'

'Go on,' Merry said when he paused.

'He was afraid to tell the Mistress,' Tolly said. 'He didn't want her to suffer a shock, knowing her condition and all...'

'The healers are being very careful, after last time,' Pippin put in quietly. There was no reason Diamond should lose this babe, no reason at all, but just the same the healers were treating her as if she were a goblet of fragile blown glass.

'You did not want to disturb the Mistress,' Merry said, putting Tolly back on the trail he was following.

'No. Well, I went over some of the same ground the minder'd been over,' Tolly said. 'Naught was missing, he'd taken no blanket, his pony was in its stall, his cloak hung on its peg, so he looked to be in the Smials. Then I started asking his friends, and found he'd borrowed a cloak "for a lark".'

'I see,' Merry said evenly. Tolly could not tell if his words were making any impression upon the Master.

'By then dark was beginning to fall, and I sought out Ferdi as the best tracker I know,' Tolly said. 'I didn't know what to do,' he admitted. 'I was afraid to tell Diamond, and the Thain would have been halfway to Buckland by then, and Reginard had gone to Tookbank on business. Ferdi would have been the one to tell, anyhow, since he'd been left in charge.'

'What did Ferdi say?'

'He said to tell Diamond the lad had gone with Pippin at the last moment, that he'd go off and find the lad, take him on to Buckland and make it the truth.'

'What else?' Merry asked.

Tolly shot a look at Ferdibrand, but Ferdi wouldn't meet his eyes. You've got to tell your own story, Tolly. They won't believe either of us if they think I've influenced you.

'I asked Ferdi how to keep Diamond from finding out, and he said to stop the post if need be.' He fidgeted nervously. He'd had his doubts about that at the time, but hadn't been able to think of a better plan. Sitting here now under the Thain's unrelenting stare, he wondered how he had dared to trifle with him. Strange, it was; he had always thought Pippin a lenient master. After Paladin, Pip's good humour and jesting had put the Tooks at ease with him, but Tolly realized suddenly that Pippin was as steel-willed as his father, for all his pleasant manners. Interfering with the Thain's letters painted the "conspirators" in a black light indeed.

'Is there anything else?' Merry asked, breaking into his thoughts once again.

'He said that if I heard nothing more, it would mean he'd found the lad and gone on to Buckland. I heard nothing more, so I thought all was well, until...' He broke off and shook his head. His story sounded weak even to his own ears.

'Is that all you have to tell me?' Merry pressed.

Tolly forced himself to meet Pippin's eyes. 'We are loyal to the Thain, both of us,' he said desperately. 'I know it sounds bad, but…' his voice trailed off. Pippin's face might have been carved of granite.

Merry cleared his throat. 'Ferdibrand, I have already heard from you. However, I would like to know what happened to the plan to take Farry to Buckland.'

'That was my plan,' Ferdi said slowly. He remembered that Rosemary was listening from the next room; she would catch any lie, and she would not let it go unchallenged.

He took a deep breath and decided to spill the entire truth. 'I made a bargain with Farry. He wasn't willing to go back to the Smials, and to speak truth, I didn't relish dragging him there kicking and protesting, or to Buckland, either.'

'What was your bargain?' Merry asked.

'I told him I'd bring him here, give him time to think things over and heal the slash in his leg, on condition that he was obedient and silent, because Hally'd never stand for having the son of the Thain under his roof without the Thain's knowledge. I passed Farry off as a lad I'd found in difficulty in the woods.'

'What would happen if he broke his end of the bargain?' Merry asked. Pippin was silent, his face hard. Ferdi glanced at him, then looked resolutely back at the Master.

'If he did not keep his bargain, he would go with me quietly wherever I chose to take him,' He put up a hand as if to ward off their outrage. 'It is not what you're thinking! I would have taken him to Buckland, to his father.'

'So you say.' From the heaviness in Merry's voice, it was plain that he did not believe him.

Rosemary, in the bedroom, was nodding. She could hear the truth in Ferdibrand's voice and was comforted by it. They would not believe her, of course, even if she tried to tell them. They would say she was only trying to protect her brother, poor mad hobbit, dangerously mad, as they thought. But yet – she had heard Faramir's pleas, as well. She remembered Ferdi's odd behaviour before the storm and her faith wavered. He could be telling the truth, what he thought was the truth, and still have gone round the bend. She bowed her head, weeping silently.

'And if Farry kept his bargain? What then?' Merry was asking.

'I would be bound to take him wherever he chose. I hoped he would have second thoughts, that he'd decide to go back to the Smials, or to his father in Buckland, but I was prepared to take him on towards Gondor if that was his choice.'

Pippin sprang to his feet, his chair clattering to the floor behind him. 'How dare you!' he demanded. 'How dare you make such a bargain with my son?' His voice shook with fury, and Merry reached out to catch his arm.

'Easy, Pip! He didn't get a chance to take Farry anywhere but right here, and he won't be taking him anywhere else.' He righted Pippin's overturned chair and gently pushed him into it. "Haldi! Another mug of tea for the Thain, please.'

'I would have sent you word!' Ferdi protested. Pippin was white, his breathing laboured, and Ferdi thought anxiously that much more of this would bring on an attack of the Thain's lung sickness. 'We would have gone to Stock, then North to the East Road, over the Brandywine Bridge. We would've gone right past the North Gate of Buckland – I would have sent word to you, Pippin, I swear it! We were on foot; you would have caught us easily, following a-pony-back.'

'You're mad,' Pippin said flatly.

'You may be right,' Ferdi sighed. 'It seemed a workable plan, and the only way to give Farry a chance to change his mind. I did not want to drag him back home against his will, only to have something worse happen in future.'

'I've heard enough,' Merry said abruptly, rising from his seat. He ticked off the points on his fingers. 'We have the evidence: first off, Farry's disappearance, hushed up by Ferdi and Tolly together. Whether or not the lad really ran away is beside the point; even were the minder to confirm their story, the fact remains, they conspired to keep word of Faramir's whereabouts from his parents, after he was found. Second, Tolly intercepted mail between the Thain and Mistress. Third, whatever he swears to now, Ferdi did not send word to either Pippin or Diamond; instead,' he ticked off the fourth point, 'the only note he wrote was to Tolly, urging him to "keep the secret".' He closed his fingers into a fist. 'For a mercy, the Thain sent for his son! Who can say what might have happened, if he had not?'

Merry had no more doubts. His outrage turned to fury as he looked from face to face, ending with Pippin. As if Pippin had not suffered enough, with his failing lungs, with Diamond's miscarriage – now add to that the faithlessness of trusted friends. Kinsmen, even. His eyes flashed. He fought down rage – a red haze that rose up before his eyes, a very unhobbitlike feeling, as if he could this moment seize the brand and burn the mark of banishment into Ferdi and Tolly's faces without compunction, without compassion, without mercy. The rage was replaced by the cold determination he'd known on the field of Pelennor as he'd stabbed upwards into the Lord of the Nazgul. This thing must be done, for the good of the Shire.

'Bring the children in the house and keep them busy,' he said brusquely to Hally. 'Shutter the windows. You will not want them to watch this.'

In the bedroom, Rosemary sobbed helplessly, muffling the sound in her apron. Farry squirmed restlessly in the bed, but did not wake.