Later that night, Frodo awoke to hear voices nearby, laughing and speaking softly. There was no one in the hallway outside his room, and the room next to his was unoccupied. He went to the window and looked out.
A bright full moon was high in the cloudless sky and gave enough light to show him where Pippin and Di had flopped down in the grass on the slope below his window. They lay sprawled a few feet apart, not touching in any way. Di was wearing her trousers and a loose-fitting shirt and jacket; she might easily pass for a young boy.
"There's no reason why you shouldn' do as you please. They say the Old Took's daughters went off on adventures, and I know other girls who did," Pippin was speaking in a slightly slurred voice. "There was a Lady of the Big Folk who dressed up as a Man and rode into battle. She fought. She killed a terrible, monstrous beast and faced down the Dark Lord who rode it. Merry was there with her..." He lapsed into another melancholy silence.
"Who's this Merry?" Di asked. "You keep talking about him, but won't tell me who he is. Everyone shuts up the instant you say his name."
After a minute, Pippin answered, "Merry's my friend. My very dearest, most wonderful friend."
"And he went off on this great adventure with you and Frodo? I'd like to meet him."
"You can't," Pippin said mournfully.
"Why? Is he dead?"
"No. He's gone away, and might never be back. I loved him more'n anybody. D'you understand what I mean? I loved him with my whole heart 'n' most of the rest of my body. When he left, it was like part of me went away too. He's the one I would marry if it was allowed. Did your uncles tell you that about me, Di?"
"No... but I wondered. You always look as if you're about to cry whenever you think of him--is that why?"
"That's why. You see, he asked me to go too, but I didn't."
She leaned up on one elbow to look at him. "Whyever not, if you feel like that?"
"I should've. Part of me wanted to, but I couldn't leave, not now, when I'm finally getting on with my father. Much as I love Merry, I love Father too," Pippin went on in maudlin tones, "and my sisters and my nephew Pevvy, and Uncle Addy and my cousins and Mother, though she can be a pain. I didn't want to leave them. And I love the Shire. It's my home. We went away once and fought a war to save it--me 'n' Merry, Frodo 'n' Sam--but all the time we were off in the Big Folk's world, I missed being home. Well, now I'm home, and Merry's off in the Big world again. Must be halfway to Rivendell. I wish I could go after 'm and catch up..."
Frodo sank down onto the window-seat and lay his head on his arms on the curved sill. He shut his eyes to listen as Pippin talked about Merry. It was heart-breaking to hear all that emotion spilling out in a drunken gush.
He missed Merry terribly too, and loved him as dearly as a brother. He'd seen how unhappy his cousin had been since they'd come back to the Shire, restless and chafing against the social conventions of respectable hobbits, and forever at odds with his father, who wanted him to marry some girl, any girl, and produce the next Brandybuck heir. Like Dodi and Melly, Frodo had long suspected that it was only a matter of time before Merry had had enough... but he'd dreaded the day. Now that Merry was gone, he too felt as if some important part of himself had gone.
He suddenly felt achingly alone and thought of Sam, who would have come here with him, but had stayed behind at Bag End with Rosie. Frodo was sorry now that he hadn't asked Sam to come. It would be some comfort to have Sam here with him now, and to sleep tonight with strong, sturdy arms around him and a warm body to cuddle against rather than go back to an empty bed. At least, his love was only twenty miles away. He would return to Bag End and be with Sam in a day or two. But Merry... who knew how far away he was? Halfway to Rivendell, as Pippin had said?
Tears trickled through Frodo's lashes and onto his cheeks and he pressed his face into the curve of his arm to blot the moisture on his nightshirt sleeve. On the slope of the hill outside, Pippin went on telling the secrets of his heart--not to him, nor even to Uncle Adelard, but to a girl who was far too young to understand this kind of love.
Frodo was therefore surprised when Di said, "But that's terrible. Why couldn't people let you be? 'Tisn't right at all, Pip. It seems to me people oughta be married to whoever they like, boy or girl, if it's the one they love best."
Pippin lifted his head to stare at her, and spoke the words that had been in everyone's thoughts since Di's arrival that afternoon. "You aren't at all like I thought you'd be."
This made Di laugh. "Aren't I?"
There was a sound of another window opening and one of the Took girls called out, "Who is it? Who's out there? Is that you, Pip?"
The pair on the hillside fell silent. Then, after some whispers and shushing, Di climbed to her feet and made her slightly wobbly way around the hill to her bedroom window. A moment later, Pippin crawled to his own bedroom window, which was nearer. He seemed to have trouble getting the half-circle casements apart; Frodo got up and went to his cousin's room.
"Did you have your fun?" he asked as he unlatched the window from the inside and helped Pippin climb through.
"Oh, fun! She wanted a taste of ale, and we made a bet to see how much she could drink before she got sick," Pippin said as he stumbled over to the bed, Frodo holding him by the arm and trying to keep him on his feet. Once they reached the bed, he let Pippin flop down. "I thought I could drink her under the table, but she's got an awful good head for such a little girl!"
As Frodo lit the candle on the nightstand, he noticed that Pippin's lower lip was swollen and bloody. "Did you get that when you fell under the table, or did she hit you?"
"No, that was Tibby Clover. Can't stand the sight of a Took. But Di's good in a fight too." Pippin chuckled. "She gave 'm a thumping!"
"The two of you seem to be getting along remarkably well." Though Frodo knew it was certainly not in a way that Thain Paladin and Lady Eglantine would approve of.
"'Tisn't like that, Frodo. 'Salmost like having another sister--'cept Pim, Peri, 'n' Pearl never go out to pubs." Pippin managed this sentence with great difficulty, and laughed out loud when he got to the final P. "I can't 'magine us being like Mother and Father, can you? Getting into bed together. Having babies." He rolled his head back and forth on the pillow. "No, I can't see it. But I s'pose if I have to get married, it might as well be someone I can have fun with. 'Tisn't Merry..."
Frodo prepared for a fresh burst of tears, but that outpouring to Di seemed to have exhausted Pippin's emotions for the present. He shut his eyes and fell asleep almost immediately; Frodo tucked him in and left him in peace. Instead of returning to his own room, he went quietly down the hallway to the room where Di was staying. He tapped softly on the door, and when he heard the words, "Who's it?" entered.
Di was lying curled on the bed, still dressed. She held her nightshift in one hand, but hadn't gotten as far as changing into it yet. When Frodo came in, she clutched the shift to her chest with an exaggerated gesture of maidenly modesty and giggled, "Why, Frodo Baggins! Are you the sort of genl'man who comes to young ladies' bedchambers in the middle of the night?"
This kind of remark would normally leave Frodo flustered, but he could see that the girl was not in the least alarmed by his presence. "Don't be ridiculous," he replied. "I'm the sort of gentleman who can be trusted with young ladies, even in the middle of the night--and I suspect that you're more than capable of taking care of yourself with the other kind, or anybody else who gets out of hand."
"Well, what d'you want then?"
"I want to know who you are."
"I'm Di Took."
"You're a Took, certainly, but I'm just as certain that you're not Di."
"What makes you say that?" She lifted her head and focused on him with curiosity. "Pippin says you're the cleverest hobbit in the Shire. Are you really so clever, Frodo?"
"Clever enough to notice things, and wonder about them," Frodo responded. "You've raised quite a few questions, Miss Took. I wonder if you'd be so kind as to answer them for me. For example, can you tell what your father's name is?"
She opened her mouth to answer, stopped, then laughed. "What an odd question!"
"Don't you know? You have a father, don't you?"
"'Course I do!"
"Is it Alamargo Took, or Alamaric? You spoke of both as your uncles today: The first disapproved of Pippin as a prospective husband, and the other brought you home when you went to Bindbole Wood, but these seem to me to be the actions of fathers. I suspect one is Di's father, and the other is yours. Uncle Paladin and Aunt Eggie will know--they must have looked into Diamond's pedigree back to old Bandobras. I can ask them tomorrow morning."
The girl was somewhat befuddled by this line of reasoning, but she answered, "'Twas Uncle Alamaric, both times. I meant Alamaric. Slip of the tongue, that's all. You know how us Tooks are--everybody's got names just like everybody else's, so even we can't help getting 'em mixed up sometimes."
Frodo let this explanation pass; the custom of hobbit families to use extremely similar names was not confined to the Tooks. "There is also a discrepancy between you and the girl that the Tooks were expecting. They've been told that Diamond Took is a shy little thing, sensitive and well-mannered, just the type of girl that a lady of Aunt Di's refined sensibilities would recommend as a bride for the next Thain, and Aunt Eglantine would approve of for marriage to her son."
"You don't think Aunt Eg approves of me? She's been very kind."
"I daresay, but Pippin's mother wants a wife who will be a good influence on him--make him settle down and behave like a grown-up, respectable hobbit."
"Make him not like boys anymore, you mean. He's told me all about his Merry."
"Yes, I know."
The girl giggled. "Maybe Aunt Eg won't mind Merry so much now!"
"I don't believe Aunt Di would play such a trick on the Tooks. Therefore, you are the one who's playing the trick. You aren't Di Took," Frodo repeated. "You can't be."
"But I am," she insisted. "I am Di, and you can't say otherwise, Mr. Smarty-Baggins--so there!" She laughed again, hugging herself and rocking with delight as if it were a marvelous joke.
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