They went into the farmyard through a gate at the foot of the hill. Pippin went up to the door at the back of the cottage and knocked in a quick, rhythmic pattern that Frodo believed was meant to be a signal; after a moment, Noddy Ferndingle answered.
"You're back earlier'n expected, Mr. Pippin, Miss-" Noddy peered at the third cloaked figure standing in his back yard. "Who's that you've got with you? Why, it's Mr. Baggins!"
"We met Frodo at the Green Hill Inn," Pippin explained as he went inside. Noddy held open the door to let Diantha and Frodo enter.
"Hello, Noddy," said Frodo, shedding his cloak. "It's good to see you again. I hope these Tookish rascals haven't put you out, making your home a hideaway?"
"Oh, no, Mr. Baggins. 'Tis an honor to help. I was put to more bother by that brother o' mine and them circus folk. That lot crowded me out o' house and barn! But I couldn't turn 'em away, could I? Nob's still my brother for all he's off runnin' about in the Big Folk's world with that lot, just as you said yourself once. He's as much right to make his bed at the farm as I do. Mr. Pippin 'n' his friends don't put me out hardly at all."
"I've been paying Noddy for the trouble of keeping us," Pippin added.
Another young hobbit peeked into the kitchen from the door at the other end. "We've done our best to give as little trouble as possible," he said. "Hello, Frodo!"
Isigo came into the room and behind him, moving more shyly, emerged the fourth member of the party. Diamond Took was more pale than her cousin Diantha, with hair a lighter shade of red and less prominent freckles. She was not actually smaller than her cousin, but she seemed more diminutive. Like Pippin, Frodo tended to think of her as "little Diamond." When he'd first met her five years ago, she had still been a child; even two years ago, when he'd seen her at the North-Thain's home, she'd seemed too young to be thinking of love and marriage. But she was now growing up into a fine, if delicate young woman.
She came forward with Isigo to greet Frodo. Noddy put the kettle on for his guests, then mumbled something about seeing to the cows and letting them alone to talk before he went quietly out the kitchen door.
"I've told Frodo all about you," Pippin informed them cheerfully, "How I'm going to help the two of your to get married."
"Then you'll help us too?" Isigo asked eagerly.
"I would like to. It's Diamond I've come particularly to see," Frodo told him, then turned to the surprised girl. "I have something important to tell you: Your family is searching for you."
"We thought they would," said Isigo.
"They've sent someone--your cousin Vida's husband."
"Odonto," Diamond said softly.
"But he's never been against us, not the way some of them are!" said Isigo. "Maybe he won't look very hard."
"Even if he does, he won't find us here," Diantha said with smug certainty.
Frodo hated to disillusion them, but now was the time to be honest. "He's engaged a detective to find you," he told them. "The best in the Shire."
Young, naive and foolish they might be, but they couldn't misunderstand that. There was only one detective in the Shire. He saw their expressions slowly change as they understood; Pippin's, Isigo's, and Diantha's mouths dropped open. Diamond regarded him with wide eyes and grew so pale that Frodo thought she might faint.
"Can't you lie to him, Frodo, and say you don't know where they are?" Pippin pleaded with him.
Frodo shook his head. "I gave my word when I undertook the assignment."
"You spy!" cried Diantha. "You promised you wouldn't tell."
"I made no such promise."
Frodo recalled that Diantha had tried to strike him once before, when he'd suspected her father of poisoning the late Thain. She had that same ferocious look now, but Sam was not here to restrain her as he'd done that last time.
It was Isigo who put a hand on the girl's shoulder to stop her before she could fly at him. "So you're just going to hand us over?" he asked. "I thought you were our friend."
"I am. I would like to be of help to you in this, as well as the Took family. I think it can be managed. I won't tell Odonto where you are, not until you agree that I should," he addressed this last part specifically to Diamond.
"Why should she agree to something like that?" her cousin demanded.
"Because she is the one person who is of the most concern to the Tooks. I don't imagine that Pippin will be in for more than a scolding for his part in this, nor you, Di, and Diamond's parents may be just as happy to see Isigo stay in the southern part of the Shire. But they will want her to go back."
"I don't want to, Frodo," Diamond told him.
"Do you love Isigo very much?" Frodo asked her, with a small smile. "Do you truly want to marry him, even if your family doesn't approve?"
She nodded. "Yes," she answered, blushing.
"Then a compromise of some sort will have to be arranged. As it is, there's nothing to stop your family from demanding that you come home, and keeping you there until you are three-and-thirty."
"Why can't they just get married?" asked Pippin.
"You know perfectly well why they can't, Pippin," Frodo responded. "Hobbits under three-and-thirty can't marry without their parents' consent."
"My mother and father are dead," said Isigo. "So is my stepfather, but he would've given me permission to marry if I'd asked for it. Besides, I'll be three-and-thirty next spring."
"But Diamond isn't yet one-and-thirty, and you know how her parents feel," said Frodo. "I'd like to convince them to change their minds about you, Isigo, but you must help me. Can you support a wife?"
"I had a grown hobbit's job in the north, and would still if the new Thain hadn't dismissed me. Father Brabantius said I did very well at it," Isigo informed him. "I can get another like it here in the south."
"Until then? If you don't mind a personal question, how much did Thain Brabantius leave you?"
"Enough, and I have a little money of my own my father left me."
"Have you brought it with you?"
"No. It's in a big box at Uncle Alamaric's house. We left so suddenly, and I didn't want to get him into trouble by telling him our plans in advance. Honestly, Frodo, we did plan to wait awhile, `til we were older, but after Father Brabantius died, Diamond's parents and the new Thain did everything they could to keep us apart and make life a misery for me. There didn't seem to be anything else for me to do but leave the North Cleeve, and Diamond said she'd come with me." He smiled at her, and the pale, delicate face lit up with its own smile in response.
"Poppa will keep the money safe for Isigo, and send it to him once he knows where to send it to," Diantha added. "What does all this matter, Frodo? When people are in love, they shouldn't have to think about stupid things like money--they should just be together."
"I beg your pardon, but that's exactly the sort of thing they must think about if they want to be together."
"Maybe they won't have to wait until they're of age," Pippin spoke up, undeterred. "There are ways to get around that. Remember what Jelly did when she was still short of three-and-thirty and wanted to marry Lad right away?"
"Who's Jelly?" asked Diantha. "What did she do?"
"Angelica is a cousin of mine," Frodo answered the first part of her question.
"She and Lad started to have a baby," Pippin jumped in to answer the second part. "Her family had to see them get married as soon as they could to avoid a scandal. They have two children now, and they're very happy."
"Diamond couldn't do that!" Diantha exclaimed.
Diamond blushed at the idea too, but she grew thoughtful.
They argued into the night, although the conversation became more subdued once Noddy returned from the barn. The farmer was upset to see two gents he regarded so highly as Pippin Took and Frodo Baggins at odds and, since he was unsure which side to take, kept his mouth shut, made a pot of tea, and unhappily retreated to the sitting room.
Frodo felt as if he had gained no ground. Diamond alone he might have persuaded, but Isigo was so certain of her parents' enmity toward him that he refused to consider dealing with them. And as long as he was firm, Diamond stood with him. Diantha plainly mistrusted everything he had to say, and it seemed impossible for Pippin to understand the practical side of the problem.
Diamond said the least during this discussion, but she was the first to grow weary. At last, after she sunk down into a chair by the hearth, Isigo declared, "I'm sorry, Mr. Baggins. I know you mean well for us, but we can't let them know where we are and that's that. You might as well go back to the inn."
"He can't go back," Diantha protested. "He'll write to Odonto as soon as he's there."
"I won't," Frodo answered this accusation. "I said I wouldn't." The girl remained doubtful.
"Well, you can't go anyway, Frodo," said Pippin. "Not on a night like this--the snow's still coming down. And I expect you'll want to keep an eye on us."
"You're welcome to stay, Mr. Baggins," Noddy called from the doorway to the sitting room, and then came into view. "The Misses Tooks have my mum's 'n' dad's old room--the best in the house--and Mr. Pippin and Mr. Pumble have the room me 'n' Nob slept in since we was big enough to be out o' the cradle, but we'll find someplace to put you."
"And where do you sleep, Noddy?" Frodo recalled that the cottage only had four rooms.
"In the parlor. The sofa's not so bad. You can have it for tonight, Mr. Baggins."
Frodo said he couldn't take the only remaining place to sleep in the house, but Noddy insisted. He made up a bed for himself on the sitting-room hearthrug out of spare bolsters and claimed that it was as comfortable as a feather mattress. The others went to their rooms and Frodo, exhausted, immediately dropped off to sleep once he lay down on the sofa without undressing.
He woke to daylight, when Noddy brought him a mug of tea.
"Breakfast'll be ready as soon as you're up for it, Mr. Baggins," the farmer told him with an oddly apologetic air, "but I expect you'll want to be on your way soon as you can."
"Why?" Frodo sat upright, suddenly alert. For a house that should be crowded with young hobbits just waking, it was strangely quiet. "Where are the others?"
"Gone, Mr. Baggins."
"Gone?"
Noddy nodded. "They went out the window in the middle of the night."
Frodo leapt up from the sofa and went to look in one bedroom, then the other. The coverlets on the beds were somewhat rumpled--at least one of the girls, most likely Diamond, had lain down--but not one of them had gone to bed. They'd probably left the house as soon as the snowstorm had let up. "And you knew?" he asked Noddy.
"No, Mr. Baggins! I didn't see they was gone `til daybreak, when I went out to the barn. They want their breakfast out there too, you know, and the cows want milking. Well, it was then I saw all the ponies was gone, `cept for my own, and when I was a-coming back round to the house, I saw there was footprints under the bedroom window--this room, here, where Mr. Pippin and the other lad was in."
Frodo unlatched the window and peeked out. The morning sun glittered blindingly on the sheet of snow that covered the farm fields, but just below the window, it was broken by a number of footprints, blurred about their edges by the blowing wind, but still clearly leading to the lane to the barn. When he went to the front door, he could see the hoofprints of the ponies going up the hill toward the main road. "At least they left a clear trail to follow."
He suspected that if Noddy hadn't known about this flight beforehand, he certainly hadn't troubled himself to announce it right away once he'd discovered it. The sun was well above the horizon, and Noddy had obviously taken time to make tea and start breakfast before waking him. But Frodo couldn't be very angry about the delay. He understood that Noddy was fond of Pippin and would want to help him and the other young hobbits. And even if he hadn't had the tracks left by the ponies to guide him, Frodo had a good idea of where the foursome was headed.
Site Info
We are the home of 1292 authors from among our 2552 members. There have been 2904 reviews written about our 3820 stories consisting of 10734 chapters and 29400445 words. A special welcome to our newest member, Rosamundeb.Categories
Skin Change
Donate
Help us keep one of the oldest running LotR archives available to all. Even the smallest donation helps!
Many thanks to our previous donors!
Many thanks to our previous donors!
