43. An End to Waiting
'Don't be so nervous. A wedding is not all that different from a handfasting!' Diamond tried to say the words in her most reasonable and reassuring tones, but despite her best efforts, they came out with a squeak at the end.
'When did I say I was nervous?' Estella demanded.
'Your hands are trembling.'
'Your hands are trembling, too,' Estella retorted. 'This is ridiculous!' She waved Diamond's fingers away from her head as if they were annoying insects buzzing about her ears and added, 'Calm down, Diamond, you cannot do up my hair with trembling hands!' Then she whirled about to face her friend, put her hands on her hips, looked as fierce as she could imagine looking, and tapped impatient toes. 'I'm going to tell your mother on you!'
Diamond laughed, and Estella's stern expression melted into a smile. 'That's better.'
Once Estella's hair was done up to the satisfaction of both and the lasses had finished their preparations by crowning each other with wreaths of delicate wildflowers, Diamond said, 'Do you think the Thain will come?' Anxiety knotted her stomach again at the thought of the stern hobbit and his objection to her marrying his son.
'He's not here yet,' Estella said. She added practically, 'At least, he hadn't made an appearance by the time we shut ourselves up in your room to dress.' She pouted. 'If he doesn't hurry, he'll miss the ceremony!' Then she brightened again as if she'd just had a happy thought. 'Ah, but if he gets here in time for the feasting, it's not a wasted trip.' Her smile widened into a grin at Diamond's surprised laughter.
But then Diamond's brow clouded, and she said, 'If he doesn't come, I don't think Pippin will ever speak to him again.'
'Well, they haven't spoken since the handfasting, so that would be no great change,' Estella said philosophically. She adjusted the delicate lace that graced Diamond's shoulders and finished with a pat as if administering a silent order to the finely woven ornamentation to stay put.
'Two years,' Diamond said slowly as Estella stepped back to admire the effect. 'I cannot imagine not speaking to my own father for two years.'
'Well, your father is not The Took,' Estella said briskly. 'That makes a big difference, to be sure.'
'The difference in their position, you mean?'
'No, the difference in the hobbit. Your father is a reasonable fellow.' Estella's tone hardened as she added, 'The Thain is a fool.' In response to Diamond's wince at her bluntness, she doubled down. 'Well, he is! I know you've seen it as clearly as I have! He drives his son away, and then he's angered when his son decides to stay away.'
A voice called at the door, accompanied by gentle rapping. 'Lasses! Are you nearly ready? Do you need any help?'
'We're nearly ready, Mum!' Diamond called back. 'Aren't we?' she asked Estella.
'Oh, yes,' Estella breathed, giving the wildflowers that crowned Diamond's head one last adjustment and then tweaking the tendrils of curly hair that framed her friend's face. 'I think you look perfect.'
'And you couldn't be more beautiful if you tried,' Diamond said honestly.
'Oh, yes, if I do say so myself,' Estella smirked, winking saucily at her reflection in the looking glass on the wall.
'Go on with you! You're nearly as bad as my husband-to-be! Or about-to-be! Or... whatever I'm supposed to call him!'
'Only nearly? I must be slipping,' Estella said archly, then dissolved into giggles that were all too contagious.
Laughing, the two brides opened the door to join their waiting parents.
***
Diamond heard the crowd begin the traditional song as her father escorted her to the wildflower meadow where the ceremony would take place. They couldn't have asked for a nicer day. Fleecy clouds swam in a sky that was intensely blue. The meadow seemed to mirror the sky, with its hundreds of blue and white wildflowers in full riotous bloom.
She glanced over at Estella, who was smiling, with eyes only for her beloved Merry.
Diamond's eyes met Pippin's, and her own face shone with the joy that bubbled up in her heart. At last!
Their fathers escorted them right up to a beaming Mayor Samwise, who spoke the joining words with the dignity befitting his office. Rose Gamgee, baby Merry in her arms, looked on fondly. For his part, Merry almost lost his composure when the Mayor's wife caught his eye and winked, but then he managed to straighten his face and attend to the ceremony to the end.
A great cheer arose from the watching friends and relations as Mayor Samwise pronounced each couple "husband and wife". Then the newly joined couples and their parents happily received the congratulations of the guests who snaked in a long line that circled the field and eventually wound its way past the newlyweds and their families, finishing at the pavilions that had been set up for the feasting to follow.
Though one face was beginning to blend into another – surely she'd stood here an hour or more by Pippin's side, receiving handclasps and hugs and felicitations! – Diamond caught her breath as Paladin and Eglantine Took came up to them.
The Took and Mistress stood straight and proud, surveying their son and his bride in silence, and then Eglantine moved forward, gathered Diamond in a firm hug, and said, 'Well done, lass.' She put Diamond back and locked gazes with her, finally adding, 'Take good care of my lad.'
'I will!' Diamond promised, her smile more genuine than the polite expression she'd assumed on seeing Pippin's parents approach.
Eglantine nodded and shook a finger at her. 'I'll hold you to that, you know!' Then she turned from Diamond and threw her arms around Pippin for a long, heartfelt hug. When the hug ended, she reached up to pat his cheek. 'Be well, lad,' she said. And then she stepped back, took Paladin's arm, and simply waited.
Pippin stared at his father for a long moment, then broke the silence that had fallen after Diamond's exchange with Eglantine. Even the hobbits that followed the Thain and the Mistress of Tookland stood quietly, as if waiting for something. 'But will you not stand with us?' he asked stiffly. 'It's your place. You're my family, after all.'
Diamond thought she saw a crack appear in the Thain's frozen face, a look of longing, perhaps, as the older hobbit answered, 'Oh, aye.' Then Paladin stood straighter and seized his son by the hand, muttering his congratulations. Meanwhile, Esmeralda took her husband's arm as if unsure of whether they would stop with the newlyweds to receive congratulations or move on as if they were simply invited guests at the wedding and no more than that.
As the pause lengthened, Diamond became convinced that Pippin's parents would continue moving with the line, and her heart grieved anew at the estrangement. Especially since she was the bone of contention that separated them, or so it seemed to her.
But then Paladin met her eye for the first time, looked squarely at her, and nodded. It might not be acceptance, she thought, but at least it was acknowledgement, and she smiled and nodded in a response that was both polite (though I'm not sure he deserves it! she imagined Estella's whisper) and relieved (for her beloved's sake).
Paladin looked over at Eglantine, reached to pat her hand that rested on his arm, and stepped out of the line of congratulatory wedding guests. The Tooks then moved to stand beside their son.
It was not an apology, and it was nowhere close to a reconciliation, but it was a start.
***
The wedding supper lasted long into the night. Pippin made sure that he and Diamond were in the thick of things, eating, dancing, laughing. 'After all,' he said more than once, 'I need to make it up to you for missing the feast at our handfasting, the last time you and I stood together before the Mayor of Michel Delving to plight our troth!'
'Do you even know what those fancy words mean?' she laughed up at him.
'O aye,' he said softly, and leaned down for a kiss. All around them, watching guests clapped and cheered. 'It means our hearts are wound together and tied in fancy bows!' And in that moment, Diamond's beloved set aside all mischief and did not even observe, as would have come all too naturally to him, that such an idea sounded more than a little uncomfortable on further consideration. In point of fact, his gaze was completely sober and sincere, and he raised her hand to his lips and kissed her fingertips as if in confirmation.
'Forever,' she whispered, oblivious of the crowd of hobbits surrounding them.
'For ever and a day,' he answered.
'And a fortnight after that!' Estella called from Merry's side. And then she squeezed Merry's arm, and when he met her gaze, she said, 'They're already a kiss ahead of us! A kiss-and-a-half if you count him kissing his darling's hand!' The hobbits around them laughed as she continued, 'I fear I must protest that the situation is becoming intolerable! We cannot let it stand...!'
'Indeed not,' her beloved answered with a gentle smile, and as she lifted her face to him, he bent his head to bestow a long, lingering kiss on her lips, sparking more cheers and applause, of course, including from Pippin, who tucked Diamond's hand into his elbow so that he could bang his hands together noisily as he shouted, 'Hurra!'
'There,' Merry said when he finally came up for air. 'That kiss could well count for two or three, I should think! Now they're the ones who have fallen behind.'
'Not fair!' Diamond cried.
'Eminently fair!' Pippin contradicted. 'For now we must even the count again! Why, I find this even more diverting than an Elf and a Dwarf counting Orcs in the midst of a battle!'
'None o' your nonsense now, cousin!' Reginard Took, standing close by, felt compelled to offer. But then he made up for this scolding by raising his glass and proposing a toast to the newlywed couples, and then he held the crowd spellbound with a story of some early mischief of Merry's and Pippin's, giving both sets of newlyweds plenty of opportunity to increase the count of kisses bestowed and accepted.
Pippin seemed as full of energy as he had in his youth, laughing and toasting his friends and relations in return, accepting the titbits of food Diamond was able to sneak into his mouth from a nearby serving platter from time to time, dancing with his mother and Diamond's mother and Diamond, of course.
Merry's mood was quieter, though he ate and danced and laughed and toasted as joyously as any newly-married hobbit might be expected to do.
Estella made sure she kept him busy, laughing, and well-supplied with food. She knew to her sorrow that a part of his mind was on another wedding that would have taken place here five years earlier, but she loved him all the more for his courage and determination to celebrate life in the here and now.
But what was this? A ripple of astonishment passed through the crowd as staid Mayor Samwise climbed upon a table and held up his hands for attention. As silence fell, he lifted his winecup towards the newlyweds.
'I was so fortunate as to be toasted at my wedding supper by the illustrious Meriadoc Brandybuck and Peregrin Took, and it is my pleasure to return the compliment,' he called with a broad grin. A cheer went up from the crowd. Rose beamed at her husband, knowing what would come next.
'But this toast is not for Master Brandybuck, nor is it for Master Took!' Samwise shouted. 'No, indeed, for I ask all who are gathered here today instead to lift their cups in tribute to their benefactors. Ladies and Gentlehobbits, I give you the new Mistress Took – and Mistress Brandybuck!'
Shouts of 'Hear! Hear!' sounded heartily from every quarter, and many cups were raised to the new brides and enthusiastically quaffed.
'And what is a toast without a song?' Mayor Samwise bellowed over the happy noise from the crowd of celebrating hobbits.
Rose nearly giggled at the look of apprehension on Merry and Pippin's faces. But of course, giggling would not be dignified for a matron, mother of four, and wife of the Mayor of the Shire. So she contented herself with a wide grin.
Another rousing cheer went up, and the Mayor bowed several times, turning slowly on the tabletop to acknowledge all of the hobbits surrounding him.
Then he stood facing the newlyweds, as if waiting. Silence fell, and after a long and thoughtful moment, Sam began to sing softly.
A lamp in the window, burning through the darkness,
Calling the traveller home.
Although he can't see it, walking in the darkness,
He knows that it waits for him there.
The wind may be blowing, snow may be falling,
Mighty mountains rise before him, rushing rivers behind,
There's a lamp in the window, shining in the darkness,
Calling the traveller home.
As he began the next verse, the musicians, friends and neighbours of Diamond's family, began to weave their harmonies around the melody the Mayor spun, making magic of the slow, haunting music.
His journey may lead him to lands drenched in darkness,
Where Sun, Moon or stars are not found.
He knows that behind him, shining in the darkness,
The lamp in the window still burns.
The dark foes are waiting, seeking his blood,
Fell voices laughing, with no hope ahead,
There's a lamp in the window, shining in the darkness,
Calling the traveller home.
Samwise stopped singing but gestured to the musicians to continue. They obligingly played through a verse without words, a musical interlude of sorts, with the fiddler carrying the melody. As they reached the end of the verse, Sam nodded to them and lifted his hand, palm upwards, and they responded by sounding the introductory phrase in a higher key, somehow transforming darkness into light as he resumed singing.
The battle behind him, he turns his face homeward,
Seeking the light of the dawn.
Although he can't see it, walking in the darkness,
The lamp shines to beckon him on.
The wind may be blowing, rain may be falling,
Mighty mountains rise behind him, rushing rivers ahead,
There's a lamp in the window, shining in the darkness,
Calling the traveller home.
His singing slowed, and the musicians followed, bringing the song to a quiet, gentle ending.
The lamp in the window, shining in the darkness,
Welcomes the traveller home.
The hush lasted for a long moment after Mayor Samwise finished.
Merry stood, tears streaming down his face, hand tightly clasping Estella's.
Samwise looked at his old friend and comrade in troubles, nodded, and said quietly, ' 'Tis a wise hobbit who knows where to find his treasure.'
Then he straightened, putting on the guise of the Mayor once more, and raised his cup to the crowd before shouting, 'Let us drink to joy!'
Joy! sounded the enthusiastic answer from the crowd. With satisfaction, Sam saw that Merry shouted as loud as any of them, and Paladin lifted his glass and drank the toast with as much determination as he'd initially opposed Pippin's choice of Diamond two years earlier.
'To joy!' Sam Gamgee repeated at the top of his voice, and even as he drained his glass, his heart and mind sent out his sincerest wishes to both newly married couples – and to everyone standing around and beyond them.
***