Author's note: At long last, here is the fourth chapter of this story. To everyone who was reading this who's actually still interested: I deeply apologize for not writing a word in this story for a year or however long it was. You all reviewed in good faith, and I was bad. I make no promises with the addition of this chapter, but I do have a plan now and I know where I want this story to go. So hopefully it will get finished soon. As always, thanks to everyone who reviewed, it always makes me really happy.
Pippin gaped, fish-like, for several seconds before Merry elbowed him and said cheerily, "Hello, Diamond. What brings you here?"
"Oh, well…" Diamond of Long Cleeve glanced at Pippin, and her face fell a bit as he looked away from her. "I was visiting Celandine Brandybuck. We're old friends, you know." She flushed and added, "I stopped by Crickhollow to tell you, but you weren't there."
Merry raised his eyebrows. "Tell us…you'd seen Celandine?"
"Oh!" Diamond turned a deeper shade of red. "No, I meant to tell you that Samwise Gamgee is holding a party to celebrate Frodo's birthday." She paused to take a breath. "That's what I've heard, at least. Er, what Celandine's heard. And…well, that was all, really. I just wondered where you'd gone. It flustered me a bit to run into you like this…"
Resisting the urge to inform her that he could tell, Merry smiled and replied a bit wickedly, "Ah, Pippin can explain where we've been."
The sweet feeling of revenge took hold as Pippin stared at him wildly, then looked at Diamond. "Um," he stammered, "that is, well, Merry and Estella Bolger had a bit of an…erm…argument, and I was trying to patch things up…between them. Er." His face was bright red, all the way up to the points of his ears. "I'm sorry I wasn't there when you called. I wouldn't inconvenience you...well, not intentionally, that is, especially when you've been so thoughtful and come all this way to tell us--"
Merry clapped a hand down on his friend's shoulder, deciding that perhaps he'd been humiliated enough. "Well, Diamond, we'd best be getting back. There're chores and whatnot to be done. You're welcome to stop by anytime, though."
"Of course! Thank you. I will, and…with any luck, you'll be there. Good-bye, Meriadoc, and--" Diamond glanced hopefully at Pippin, who met her eyes for the barest of seconds. With a disappointed sigh, she finished, "Good-bye, Peregrin. I do hope I'll see you at the party…?" Pippin nodded and mumbled, "Bye." By the time she'd ridden past, he was a lovely shade of dark purple, and Merry laughed. "You're giving me advice about my love life?"
"Merry Brandybuck," Pippin began stiffly, "one more word, and everyone in Hobbiton will find out about you and Pervinca kissing in the bushes at Bilbo's Party!"
Merry attempted to stifle his snorts of laughter and said, "Fair enough, Pip. Here, hand me the reins." His cousin did so, and the two hobbits continued towards Crickhollow.
"Sam. Sam!" Merry stared helplessly at the door that had just shut. "Sam, I've brought the extra plates!"
Faintly, a shout came back, "I'll be right with you, Mr. Merry!"
Merry glanced down at the stack of teetering dishes and tottered towards the kitchen. "Rosie, help me!"
Rosie Gamgee popped her head out of the door and gasped, "Gracious, Merry! Hasn't Sam taken those from you yet?"
As she rushed to help him, Merry grunted, "Not exactly. He's too busy scolding Pippin for not arranging the tables properly."
Rosie rolled her eyes, but couldn't keep a slight smile off her face. "Everything must be perfect for him, you know. Send him back in--he's supposed to be helping me with these meat pies!"
Before he had a chance to answer, she bustled off. He turned to open the front door, but it was suddenly flung wide, accompanied by a shout of, "Rosie!" The hobbit's forward momentum carried her through the door and almost right into Merry, who she obviously (judging by the expression on her face) had not expected to be there.
"Hello, Estella," he said cheerfully.
"Hello," she replied a bit stiffly, no doubt trying to ignore the red flush creeping up her face. "I didn't mean to flatten you like that." "No harm done. I expect I'll regain the use of my left foot in no time at all."
"I never touched your foot!" she said indignantly. "Now where's Rosie?"
"Could be anywhere."
Estella gave him an exasperated look. "That's not particularly helpful."
"Well," Merry began with a small smile," How was I to know you were going to burst in here in search of her? I certainly would have kept myself informed of her whereabouts, otherwise."
She only had time to give him a withering stare before Rosie reappeared with an armful of potatoes. "Rosie!" Estella exclaimed, "There you are!" Her eyes fell on the tubers and she offered, "Let me help you with those--you'll probably need more, too. My cousins have decided to come after all."
A despairing look passed over Rosie's face, and noticing Merry was still there, she asked, "Merry, have you gone to fetch Sam yet?"
"No, I got caught up in assisting Miss Bolger here."
Said Bolger snorted and turned back to Rosie. "Also, that tablecloth you asked for? I searched every inch of the house for our extra one and it's nowhere to be found."
Rosie sighed and said to Merry, "Could you ask Sam to run to my parents? Have him ask my mother for an extra tablecloth and some help with the cooking?"
"What about the meat pies?" he asked with a grin.
"Estella will help me with those."
"What?! Rosie, you know I can't cook to save my life!"
Ignoring her friend, she commanded Merry, "And then you can come back in and help, too. There're potatoes that need peeling."
He managed not to let his expression falter. Trapped in a kitchen with Estella Bolger wasn't an exciting prospect. "I'd be happy to." With those words, he bounded out the door. For a moment, he watched in amusement as Sam attempted to direct Pippin where to put the tables, then promptly readjusted them. When one of the legs landed on Pippin's foot and he yelped, Merry decided to call, "Sam! Rosie has an errand for you."
Sam set the table on the ground, giving Pippin a chance to free his appendage. "What's that?"
"She needs her mother and a tablecloth."
With a nod, Sam responded, "Right. Poor Rosie, she's at her wit's end trying to manage all of this."
Merry grinned. "I'll say."
Turning to Pippin, Sam said sternly, "Now, Mr. Pippin, you remember where I told you to put all of these?"
"Sam," Pippin began, "they're tables. Does it really matter…" He trailed off at the look Sam gave him and hastily amended, "That is, of course I remember and I'll do the job perfectly." As Sam rushed off, Pippin rolled his eyes and said, "Honestly, who's going to care what angles the tables are at? Everyone's going to be so busy thinking Sam's completely cracked for holding a birthday party for a hobbit who isn't even in Middle-earth!"
Merry shrugged. "Well, Sam will notice, and he's rather larger than you are, so I'd do it right if I were you. Now," he sighed, "I'm supposed to be helping Miss Bolger peel potatoes, so if you'll excuse me…" He could have sworn he heard Pippin snicker, but he disregarded it as paranoia and made his way back to the kitchen. Rosie seemed to have disappeared, and Estella was already surrounded by potato peelings.
For a second, he just stood there, wondering what exactly to do, but Estella solved his problem for him by saying, "Well, don't just stand there looking helpless. Rosie wants these peeled by the time she gets back."
Sitting down and picking up a knife and a potato, Merry questioned, "Where did she go?"
"Oh, I don't know. She's impossible to talk to when she gets in one of these moods."
Merry nodded, and the two of them peeled in silence for several minutes. After awhile, however, he noticed that Estella's eyes kept flicking up to his face before looking almost guiltily away, so he asked in the most polite tone he could manage, "Is something wrong, Miss Bolger?"
"What?" She flushed, evidently embarrassed at having been caught. "Oh, no, nothing's wrong. I just…" Hesitating for several seconds, she asked, "Don't you find it a bit odd that we're holding a birthday party for Frodo, when he's…well, when he's gone?"
At this, Merry's eyes flashed with a small surge of anger. "It's not for me to decide what's odd. If you must know, I've seen odder. You don't know anything about it, Estella. You don't know what he went through with Frodo and how much Frodo will always mean to him. I don't even know. So I'll not have you laughing at Sam." He paused and then added fiercely, "And Frodo isn't dead."
Instead of responding, Estella continued to peel, which, upon reflection, Merry was grateful for. The knife she was holding seemed considerably longer and sharper than his, and he didn't fancy her using it on him instead of the potatoes. He supposed he shouldn't have reacted that forcefully to what was, really, a perfectly understandable comment. But he was tired of being stared at by all of these hobbits who had no inkling of what Frodo had done for them. Oh, things had been bad under Saruman for awhile, but nothing compared to what he'd seen. They'd been just bad enough to make everyone angry--angry enough to kill, which Merry never would have been able to bring himself to do again. Poor Frodo, who had never wanted to leave the Shire, returned and had to endure more destruction. "We set out to save the Shire," he'd said. When had he realized that the Shire had been saved, but he hadn't been? Was it when the lack of understanding or care became too much for him? And why hadn't any of them seen it then?
His thoughts were interrupted by Estella slamming down her knife and saying, "Well, if I don't understand, it's because no one ever bothered to tell me!" She glared at him, and after a second went on, "You certainly never did. You just up and disappeared one day and came back too grand for everyone else. I'm sorry, but Sam's behavior seems strange to me, and it always will, because no, I don't know what any of you went through." There was an extremely awkward silence after this, and neither of them moved. Estella's face was red, most likely from anger, but she surprised Merry by adding softly, "I'd like to have some idea."
Merry sighed and didn't answer, preferring to finish peeling the potatoes and leave as soon as possible.
When Rosie came back it was to find the two of them subdued and completely quiet, and, taking one look at the scene, she shooed Merry from the kitchen to make himself useful somewhere else. Sam employed him in the strategic placement of flowers until he announced in a panicky voice that the first guests were arriving and they couldn't keep preparing things with others looking on. Merry attempted to chat with the early arrivals, but he soon found that he had no desire whatsoever to remain at the party, and so, when Sam had vanished inside momentarily, he made a quick escape, heading back to Crickhollow on his pony.