Chapter Thirty-three

Linwe sat listlessly stirring the porridge in her bowl while gazing out the window to the dreary day beyond. It was five days after Yule. Freezing rain was hissing down out doors, coating everything in ice. Linwe sniffed and sighed, "I suppose that with this weather being so miserable, I should leave early to visit Mrs. Hornblower today."

Frodo swallowed a mouthful of porridge and turned to look at Linwe, his eyes wide and his brows curling up in a frown. "You can’t seriously be planning on going out in that."

"Of course I am," replied Linwe as though it should be obvious.

"I don’t think you should go out at all. This rain shows no sign of letting up anytime soon and there is already a thick coating of ice on everything out there. You will be doing well if you can make it to the front gate without falling," argued Frodo.

"I have no choice in the matter, Frodo. I promised Healer Burrows that while he was visiting his daughter, I would keep an eye on Mrs. Hornblower."

"Yes, and you also came home yesterday with the news that she is much improved

Linwe’s eyes shifted to a cold hard gray.  When she spoke her voice was steely.  "I promised I would go everyday and that is exactly what I intend to do," insisted Linwe, punctuating he remark with a deep caugh.

"Linwe, you are not feeling well yourself. I can not allow you to go out there. It will take you twice as long as usual to walk to the Hornblower farm. You will be soaking wet and chilled to the bone by the time you get there."

"Then I will hitch Strider up to the pony cart and drive over." retorted Linwe.

"That is a wonderful idea," Frodo said with heavy sarcasm, "It will be so comforting to me knowing that you had Strider to keep you company when you die of a broken neck, after the cart has gone sliding down Daisy Hill and you have been thrown out of it head first." Frodo’s blue eyes were now cold and hard as well.

Linwe turned to Sam, who along with Rosie, had stayed silent through this exchange. "Sam, tell Frodo that I will be perfectly fine. He will listen to you."

Sam looked Linwe in the eye, his gaze stern, "I will tell him no such thing."

"But Sam…"

"Frodo is right. You should not be out on a day like this, unless it is an emergency."

"Rosie, you understand don’t you?" pleaded Linwe.

"I’m sorry, dear, but I agree with Frodo and Sam. You have a cough, your nose is stuffy and you have barely touched your breakfast. You are obviously not feeling well yourself. I think it would be better if you stayed home preferably resting by a warm fire or in bed."

Linwe’s shoulders drooped in defeat. All they said was true, and she had not the energy to argue with all three of them. However she still felt obligated to go see Mrs. Hornblower. Linwe kept her eyes on her bowl. She ate a few small bites of her breakfast and then with a show of weariness excused herself from the table.

Frodo started to go after her but was stopped by Rosie. "Let her go, Frodo."

"I don’t know, I think I was too hard on her," he said, his eyes filled with worry.

"No you were not. None of us was. Linwe’s problem is that she has seldom been told ‘no’," said Rosie.

Frodo glared at Rosie, "You make her sound like a spoiled child."

Rosie ignored his glare, "She is a spoiled child! And highly manipulative. Fortunately for her and for everyone around her she is also sweet, and generous to a fault. In all, Linwe is one of the most loving people I have ever met."

"How can you say she is manipulative? How can you talk about her like that, the two of you are like sisters."

"It is because we are like sisters that I can say such things. I love her, Frodo, maybe not as much as you but I love her very deeply. Further more I choose to love her for who she truly is. Linwe is manipulative, but not cruelly so. She never uses her ability to serve herself, only for someone else’s benefit. Now she has been denied the chance of risking her own health for the sake of looking after someone else, and that is not the sort of thing to sit lightly with her. Just let Linwe have some time to herself, I am guessing in about fifteen minutes we will find her asleep by the fire, knitting still in hand."

~~~~~

Frodo got up from his chair stretched then shivered. He had spent the morning working on his part of Bilbo’s book. Dark memories threatened to engulf him. He felt cold. The last few hours he had been unable to stay warm. The fire in his fire place was kept blazing, and he wrapped a woolen blanket around his shoulders. Suddenly he wished Linwe were sitting with him, but true to Rosie’s words Linwe had been found sound asleep in their bed not long after breakfast. He looked at the clock and saw it was nearing eleven in the morning. "I should go see if Linwe is up yet. Surely she has not been napping all this time," he thought to himself.

Across the hall from his study was Frodo’s and Linwe’s bedroom. Frodo found the room to be rather dark and chilly. The fire had burned down to smoldering coals and there were no candles lit. What light there was came from the window and the gloomy day beyond. Frodo walked towards the bed and called out softly, "Linwe, are you awake?" There was no answer. Coming next to the bed he saw that it was empty. "I guess that answers that question." Frodo shivered again, feeling uneasy. ‘It is just the memories, nothing more,’ He told himself, ‘I will just go have a something to eat with the others and the rest of the day can be spent with Linwe.’

In the kitchen Sam was serving Rosie up some soup, the delicious aroma reminded Frodo that he had forgotten to have his usual tea and toast for second breakfast. "There you are," greeted Sam, "I was just about ready to come looking for you to see if you were hungry. Is Linwe coming or is she still sleeping?"

Frodo stopped short. "I thought she was with you."

"No she isn’t, Rosie and I have been in here all morning, I’ve been whittling and Rosie’s been knitting. Rosie went to look in on Linwe about two hours ago and said she was in bed, sound asleep. We have not seen her since."

Frodo’s uneasiness started rise up into a wave of fear. "She isn’t there now."

"Well she must be here somewhere," said Rosie "did you look in your bathroom?"

"She wasn’t there, the door was open."

"Then maybe she is back in one of the store rooms. She said something the other day about wanting to organize the herb pantry a bit better."

Frodo looked out the window into the dismal landscape beyond. As he watched the freezing rain pelt down, he shivered again. ‘Why can’t I get warm? I feel as though I am outdoors.’ Then he felt his heart sink as he came to understand. "Oh no! Not that!"

"What is it Mr. Frodo?"

"She’s left. She went to the Hornblower’s. I have to go out after her."

"She couldn’t have gone out, Mr. Frodo. Rosie and I have been sitting here all along and we would have seen her if she tried to leave," Sam said trying to reassure Frodo, but it was of no use. Frodo had already had gone through the kitchen, into the sitting room, on his way to the front door. Frodo faced the pegs where their cloaks were hung. There was an empty place where Linwe’s distinctive red cloak would have hung next to his own deep green one. Sam and Rosie had followed Frodo, they saw the empty peg. "I’ll go hitch Bill to the cart," Sam said grimly.

"I am going ahead, you can catch up with me," said Frodo as he threw his cloak about his shoulders.

Frodo gingerly stepped onto the ice that coated the front path, and slowly made his way down to the stair stepped path to the front gate. Once out he walked at the edge of the road in the spiky, ice coated grass, where his footing was a bit more secure than the open road. Even with taking this measure his progress was slow. Rain and sleet pelted down, getting past Frodo’s hood to sting his face. He trudged on, each minute feeling like an eternity. The ice cut his feet and the cold soon started to numb them making walking that much more difficult. Frodo had been walking for a quarter of an hour and had just come around a bend in the road when he spotted a familiar crimson clad form, lying at the road side. "Linwe!" cried Frodo. He tried to run towards her, slipping and sliding all the way. When he at last reached Linwe’s side, he fell to his knees. Her cloak was soaked through and ice had formed in many places. He gathered her into his arms and pushed her hood aside to reveal her face. Her skin was deathly pale and her lips were tinged with blue. On her throat he could barely see the faint throb of her pulse. "Oh Linwe" his words came out in horse whisper.

A minute later came the jangle of harness and the plod of hooves on the icy road. Frodo looked up and saw Sam coming with the cart. He carefully stood up with Linwe in his arms and started walking to meet Sam. "Is she all right?" asked Sam when he brought the cart to a halt.

"She fell and hit her head on a rock. She has been lying out here a long time and is very cold."

Frodo lifted the still and seemingly lifeless form up to Sam then climbed up and reclaimed her. "Hurry Sam, get us home as quickly as you can."

"I will, Mr. Frodo, I will."

~~~~~

Rosie stood in the sitting room, gazing out the window, waiting for the first appearance of the cart. She had the door open before Frodo could climb down from the cart seat. Before Sam left he had taken a moment to scatter salt and sand over the garden path, thanks to Sam’s foresight, Frodo was able to make his way from the cart to the door without falling and injuring Linwe further.

Rosie had only to look at Linwe to see what was needed. "Take her back to your bathroom." Frodo did as Rosie ordered without question. "Lay her on the hearth rug and get her out of that cloak." While Frodo did this, Rosie fetched a pair of scissors from Linwe’s work basket in the neighboring bedroom. "I am going to cut her out of her dress. We don’t have time to mess with all the buttons and laces. While I am doing this you start filling the tub. The quickest way to warm her will be to bathe her."

"But the only water we have to fill the tub with, is cold, we don’t have any heated." protested Frodo.

"Trust me Frodo. It will be warm enough to her. She has been lying in ice for who knows how long. To Linwe the water will feel warm. We have to bring her temperature up slowly."

When Sam came inside he found Rosie in the kitchen filling the cistern by the fire place, for heating water. "Is Linwe going to be all right?"

"To be perfectly honest, Sam, I don’t know. I am no healer, and I have never seen anyone so badly chilled. I am rather amazed that she is alive."

"Does she need a healer?"

"Maybe it would be best, but I don’t know who we could send for. The nearest one is probably in Tookborough." Rosie sighed, "The immediate need is to get Linwe warm. We can do that much on our own. Then we can decide if we need to send for a healer."

The next several hours were spent heating water and waiting. Frodo made sure that Linwe stayed sitting upright in the tub. Sam kept fires in the kitchen, the bathroom, and Frodo and Linwe’s bedroom, blazing, and cisterns and buckets filled with water and set close to the fires to heat the water. Every fifteen minutes Rosie would pour more hot water into the tub, gradually raising the temperature. About an hour after starting the process, Linwe stirred and opened her eyes. "Frodo?"

"I am here." He said, he reached into the water and took her hand, which still felt cool to the touch despite the gentle warmth of the water.

"Frodo, I’m cold." Linwe’s voice was barely louder than a whisper, but to hear her speak at all filled Frodo with relief and hope.

"I know dearest. We are warming you as quickly as we can." But Linwe did not hear him. She had already drifted back into unconsciousness.

By the end of the third hour the bath water was comfortably hot. Linwe’s deathly pallor was being replaced with a healthier pink glow. "I want to keep her soaking for at least an hour more." said Rosie, "I want to be sure she is thoroughly warmed through."

While waiting through that last hour, Frodo carefully washed out Linwe’s hair. There was a small cut on her temple from when she fell. Blood from the wound had matted up in her hair. By the time Frodo had finished drying her hair with warm towels, it was time to take Linwe out of her bath.

The bed had been warmed with heated bricks. Blankets, quilts, and towels were warming on a rack near the fire along with one of Linwe’s heaviest flannel nightdresses. Frodo lifted Linwe out of the water and laid her on a warmed blanket, near the fire. Rosie covered her with a towel and another blanket. Rosie and Frodo worked together to carefully dry Linwe, a small section of skin at a time, keeping her under the protective warmth of the quilt, and then rubbing heated oil into her skin. By the time Linwe was dressed and tucked snugly into bed, nearly four hours had passed since Frodo had found her lying on the road side. In all of that time she only stirred and spoke once.

It was a somber evening in Bag End that night. Sam made a simple dinner and served it to Rosie and Frodo in Frodo and Linwe’s bedroom. Then the three of them passed the time keeping a quiet watch until bed time. "We’ve done all we can for her." said Rosie, keeping a worried gaze on her sleeping friend, "She has had a terrible shock so I think she will likely sleep the night through."

Sam looked nervously at Linwe, "Why does she somehow seem so much smaller?

Rosie smiled, "She isn’t all that big to start with, and now we have her buried under so many quilts you can hardly tell if anything lies beneath."

Frodo sat on the edge of the bed. Rosie came around and laid a hand on his shoulder. "Do you want Sam or I to stay here with you tonight?"

Frodo looked up at her. She noticed there were dark smudges under her eyes. He tried to smile reassuringly, "No, you’ve done enough. I am sure the baby needs you to rest."

"Are you sure, Mr. Frodo, Rosie needs to sleep but I would be more than happy to stay up with you."

"No thank you Sam. I’ll be fine."

"I realize this is most likely pointless but I will say it anyway," said Rosie, "but you should try to make use of the cot Sam has set up for you. Linwe really doesn’t need you to watch her constantly through the night. This has been a long day for you too, Frodo. You should sleep while Linwe sleeps."

Frodo smiled wryly, "You are right, Rosie, that was pointless, but thank you for the advice and for having the cot set up just in case."

It was a long night. Frodo did his best to stay awake but dozed off in his chair just after midnight. Rosie and Sam each got up at least once in the night to come and look in on them. It was Sam who found Frodo asleep first. Sam crept into the room and stirred the fire up again to be sure the room stayed warm for Linwe. He thought about trying to move Frodo over to the cot, but decided against it. Frodo would likely just wake up, so Sam settled for covering Frodo’s shoulders with a blanket.

Not long after the night sky started to fade into day, Frodo woke up. He was briefly disappointed with himself for not having been able to stay awake through the night. He pushed that thought aside and the blanket that covered him as well and stood up. Linwe was still asleep. It looked as though she had barely moved during the night. Frodo reached out and touched her cheek. He found her skin clammy with perspiration and a little too warm to the touch. Frodo picked up the one lit candle from a near by table and held it so that he could get a better look at her face. Her cheeks looked a little bit more flushed than he thought they should be. He debated for a moment on going to go wake Sam and Rosie, but he looked out the window and saw that the day was coming and that Sam and Rosie would soon be up anyway. Frodo added more wood to the fire then headed down the dim passage to the kitchen where he gathered up bread, cheese, and things for tea.

When he returned to the bedroom he set down his tray and carried his small tea kettle off to the bathroom to fill it with water.

"Good morning."

Clank

"OW!" Frodo grabbed his toe that a full kettle had fallen on, and looked up. "Linwe! You’re awake! You surprised me."

Linwe smiled wanly, "Apparently so, are you hurt?"

Frodo did his best to not limp as he hurried over to the bed, "No I’m not. How do you feel?"

"My head hurts a little, and I feel weak. What happened?"

"You went to see Mrs. Hornblower yesterday without telling anyone. Do you remember?"

Linwe thought for a moment. "I don’t think I do."

"No matter. As I was saying, you left, but we don’t know when. I discovered you missing around eleven that morning. I went out to look for you and found you not very far from home. You had fallen and hit your head. You had been lying there a long time. Your cloak was soaked through, and ice was forming around your hood. Sam came with the cart about then and we got you home and warmed you up. You only woke up once though I doubt you remember."

Tears spilled down Linwe’s cheeks, "I’m so sorry."

Frodo pulled her into his arms, "Don’t cry, Love. Please don’t cry. Your home now and your safe, that is all that matters."

Linwe sniffed, pressed her face into Frodo’s neck and sighed. "I think I am too tired to cry anyway."

Frodo chuckled and pushed her gently back against the pillows, touched her cheek with the back of his fingers, and smiled. "You had quite a shock yesterday and I think you have a bit of a fever, so you will spend the day in bed."

"I will not argue with you today. Will you read to me?"

"I will do anything, so long as you will stay in bed."

There was a knock at the door followed by the appearance of Rosie. "Linwe, you’re awake," she said with a bright smile, "This is a welcome sight. How are you feeling, dear?"

Linwe spoke softly, "My head aches a bit, and feel quite tired, but that is all."

"I think she is a bit feverish." added Frodo.

"I am not surprised about the headache," said Rosie as she came to Linwe’s side, "you must have hit it pretty hard when you fell." Rosie laid her hand on Linwe’s forehead and scrutinized Linwe’s face closely. "You do feel a little feverish, but there does not appear to be much else wrong with you. I will fix you a cup of that tea you like for headaches. I seem to recall that you said it was good for mild fevers too. Can I bring you anything to eat?"

"No, I don’t think so. I believe I will just have the tea and then maybe go back to sleep."

Linwe slept most of the day. Every four hours the effects of the tea would wear off and her head ache and fever would return. Rosie wondered if they should send for a Healer, but everything outside was still icy, and Linwe seemed fine when she was awake. Surely all Linwe needed was rest.

The second day after Linwe’s fall passed the same as the first. Linwe ate very little when she was awake, usually just a bit of broth. She, would be awake for about ten minutes, just enough to drink another cup tea and drink a bit of broth. Her eyes would then drift closed once more. Frodo could not help but be worried. He stayed at Linwe’s bedside, dozing off in the chair while she slept. Sam and Rosie tried to convince him to lie down on the cot with assurances that one of them would always be with her (one of them was almost always in the room anyway) but Frodo refused. Early in the evening of the second day Linwe’s cough worsened. "I am sure it is nothing to worry about," said Rosie after Frodo had called her in, "She most likely just needs a change in position. I will have Sam bring in more pillows and then we can prop her up a bit."

Linwe’s cough troubled Rosie more than she would tell. She thought that after nearly two days of doing nothing more than sleep, Linwe would be showing significant signs of improvement. Instead she only seemed to be getting worse. Rosie decided that if Linwe was not doing any better by morning, then it would be time to send Sam to Tookborough or where ever he needed to go to find her a proper Healer.

One day later and Rosie would wish that she had not waited.