Chapter 17. Breathing Space

The following morning, Pippin awakened early. He stretched in the bed, luxuriating in the sensation of stolen moments of leisure, before the demands of the day would inevitably descend upon their heads. 'Diamond-bright?' he whispered. 'My heart, my own?'

Only soft susurrus answered. Diamond slept on, her back turned towards him, giving him a view of her tousled curls and meaning he could not watch the play of emotions across her face as she slept.

He rolled to his side, slipped his arms around his beloved and nuzzled the back of her neck.

'Mmmm,' she mumbled sleepily and swatted feebly behind her, quite ineffectually, of course.

'Mmmm?' Pippin teased.

'Mmmm!' she returned, more strongly this time.

'Are we sure about that?' the Thain said.

'Mmmm!' Still stronger, perhaps with a hint of annoyance, but then Diamond suddenly rolled over, laughing, and commenced to tickle him. A grand battle began, leaving the two of them flushed, laughing, and panting for air, and the bedcoverings quite rumpled.

'Mmmm,' Pippin concluded, slipping his arms around his wife once more.

Diamond reciprocated since they were conveniently face-to-face now, and then she giggled and kissed him on the nose. 'Isn't that where we started?'

'D'you want another go?' Pippin asked, quirking an eyebrow, which looked quite comical since he was lying sideways on a bed, his head half-buried in a feather pillow.

Diamond slapped gently at his questing hand. 'They'll all be wakening soon and descending upon us!'

'All of them?' Pippin wanted to know.

His beloved sighed. 'Every one.' She eyed him sternly. 'As you well know.'

Pippin matched her sigh, but he adjusted his hold, as did she, so that they were nestled together in each other's arms, resting comfortably, enjoying together the early-morning quiet.

'Are we alone?' he whispered in her ear. He felt Diamond tense as she listened. He was also listening but heard nothing, not even the snap of a fire. It was so early, Sandy had not crept in to spark the fire on the small bedroom hearth as he usually did before they wakened.

'Perhaps he overslept?' Pippin whispered.

Diamond answered this with a soft snort and a whispered, 'That hobbit! I don't think sleep is one of his duties!' She punctuated the thought with a kiss.

After the kiss ended, Pippin smiled into her eyes and mused, 'Perhaps we ought to add it to his to-do list!'

'That's what I like about you, always full of good ideas!' Diamond murmured, following this observation with another kiss.

'Now that I have you just where you want me,' Pippin said, keeping his voice low, 'and no one else around to hear...'

'You're going to list all my faults,' Diamond said. 'How thoughtful of you, dear! As long as you keep to that scheme of things, and continue to praise me to the skies when anyone else is nearby, we shall get on swimmingly.'

Pippin pretended to shudder. 'Bite your tongue!' he hissed. 'We're not in Buckland anymore!'

'We're not?' Diamond said, and stretched luxuriously, then returned to their mutual embrace and snuggled closer. 'Fancy that.'

'Fancy,' Pippin breathed in her ear. 'Alone... no one else to hear us... nearly as good as the Thain's study when Ferdi's gone out on an errand and Regi's checking on something.'

'Better, I should think,' Diamond returned.

'Better! Well then,' Pippin said, 'I've a mind to speak my mind.'

Diamond's forehead wrinkled. 'Ooo,' she whispered. 'Sounds painful, somehow.'

But Pippin persisted. 'You don't know how often I've had the thought that you ought to be Thain instead of me,' he whispered.

'Hah!' she whispered back. 'Not on your life!'

He nodded, enjoying the sensation of her finger tracing his features. 'I think you ought to keep the possibility in mind... You were absolutely bloody marvellous yesterday,' he said, employing a word he seldom used in polite conversation but one that perfectly expressed the depth of his relief at Diamond's adroit handling of the aftermath of recent events. 

She smiled. 'Thank you kindly, Sir,' she whispered. 'But don't think flattery will get you any farther along that trail! I'm not about to allow you to unload all your troubles and responsibilities and tiresome duties onto my back!'

He put a finger on her lips to quieten her. 'However, I do have a question.'

'A question?'

Pippin scootched a little closer and put his lips to Diamond's ear, the better to keep his whisper as low as possible. 'You told little Goldi that she could come to you if she had any questions. Does that invitation hold for the Thain, as well?'

'I don't know...' Diamond murmured after a moment of thought. 'Should it?'

'It seems to me that you neglected one detail,' Pippin ploughed on. Because they were holding each other, he felt her shake with silent giggles.

At last, with a soft gasp, she lifted her chin to bring her lips closer to his ear and whispered, 'Only the one, was it?'

His arms tightened briefly around her as he squeezed her gently. But all levity had evaporated, and his face was serious as he went on in an undertone that he could barely hear himself. 'You passed judgement on practically everyone in the room, as I recall.'

'Practically,' she murmured back, and nodded slightly.

'But I noticed that you did not pass judgement upon the Thain for his failings, his impulsiveness, his snap decisions...'

'The Thain was not the one on trial this time,' Diamond said, suddenly matching Pippin's serious mood.

'This time,' Pippin said, and trying for lighter speech, he added, 'Does that mean you anticipate additional trials in future?'

'Indubitably,' Diamond murmured, pulling him closer. 'Many trials. Though I hope the Thain won't be the one on trial, ever again.'

'But if you were to have passed judgement on the Thain, speaking hypothetically, of course, what would you have said?' Pippin muttered, only half-joking.

Diamond's eyes narrowed as she locked gazes with Pippin. 

'Don't tell me,' Pippin persisted. 'You're at a loss for words.'

'Actually, I haven't quite made up my mind about him yet,' Diamond said, quoting what Ferdi always answered when his friends and relations asked him whether he thought King Elessar was a ruffian.

Her attempt to hold a straight face was an abject failure; in the end, she giggled, and Pippin tickled her, and she retaliated, and another grand (though almost silent) battle was fought.

By the time that battle ended, Sandy was standing just outside the bedroom door with an armload of wood. When he was quite sure they were finished, he dropped a medium-sized stick of the wood he held onto the stone floor of the hallway, resulting in a satisfying rattle, waited another moment, and tapped gently at the door. 'My deepest apologies, Sir and Mistress,' he said, easing his head around the door and peeking in. 'I hope I didn't wake you.'

The Thain had his head buried under the pillows, but Mistress Diamond, bedcovers pulled up to her chin, blinked at him. 'Not at all, Sandy,' she said. 'We were just now beginning to stir.'

***