Chapter 28
The door to her room opened slowly in the fluttering candlelight. Pippin stood, a dark figure in the dimly lit hall. Diamond sat up in her bed, the blankets falling away from her nightdress. Pippin entered slowly, deliberately, with a purpose. He closed the door behind him and walked to her bedside. Gooseflesh covered Diamond's body. She drew back the covers and Pippin eased himself onto the bed. Diamond then drew the covers up over both of them. They lay, face to face, not touching, but the heat of their bodies warmed the space between them. Both were cast in shadowy darkness unable to see each other's eyes. By instinct, they each knew when the other moved and across the drift of warm air their lips sought the other's
out.Diamond sat up in bed, the room awash in dull, grey morning light. She shook her head and touched the place on the bed where, in her dream, Pippin had lain. Then her attention was drawn by a muffled pounding on the front door. She ran out of her room and in the hall encountered the others, driven by a similar purpose. When Pippin reached the front door he pulled it open to a young lad, soaked to the bone and shivering, who fell sprawling across the tiled floor. Pervinca and Diamond pulled him to his feet and took him into the sitting room. Pippin lit a fire in the grate while the lasses piled blankets on him. It was a few minutes until he could speak at all. When he did manage, his chattering teeth made it difficult to understand.
"The…wagon…road's gone," he stuttered, "wagon's gone…. Momma and Poppa, P-P-Penny, S-S-Sanny…" he trailed off and fell unconscious in Pervinca's arms.
"They must've been on the road when it washed out," Fetridge said not sounding all that concerned since it didn't directly involve him. Pippin was furious and barked several orders in his face.
"Collect every blanket in this place and light a fire in every grate-"
"You can't tell me what to do in my own home!" Fetridge fired back.
"If you want to keep that money I can!" Pippin countered. Fetridge was furious but turned to do as he had been ordered. Pippin then turned to his sister and shouted, "You and Diamond (even saying her name hurt) stay here and if I find anyone I'll bring them back!" Diamond left the boy's side and stood facing Pippin.
"I'll go with you," she said.
"No, it could be dangerous," he began to say as he ran to the hall to fetch his coat, "You stay here and-"…
"There is no debate. I'll go with you or without you," she replied firmly pulling her coat on over her nightdress and pulling the front door open. Pippin put his hand out on the door to stop her. She glared at him.
"At least go get dressed or you'll catch your death out there," he said, recognizing there was no convincing her otherwise. She nodded and turned to run down the hall. He called to her as she ran,
"Bring the pony and wagon with you!"
When Pippin got to the washout, he could see the wheels of the wagon. The wagon had overturned when a gush of water had taken the road out. The road dipped at the bottom of a hillock and the water had erased the path entirely. The rain beat down on Pippin's head and flooded his eyes, but he could still make out several members of the family. Two of the children and the mother were clinging to the wagon. The mother tried to push the children onto the flat bottom of the wagon, which had not yet entirely submerged. But as she pushed one up, the other would be washed off and she would have to reach out and grab that one. It was a never-ending process; she had to leave one to save the other. Pippin could see she was tired and that he needed to do something now.
Behind him he could hear the wagon splashing to a stop above the water line. As he studied the landscape to plan a course of action Diamond reached his side.
"I've got to get out there, she can't hold on!" he shouted above the rush of the water and the gusting wind.
"You'll never make it back!" she shouted back.
"There's no other way!" Pippin cried as he made his way to the edge of the gushing flood. Diamond ran back to the wagon and stopped Pippin just as he was about to set out into the stream. It is a brave thing for a hobbit to purposefully enter water, especially fast moving, possibly deep water. It was brave and dangerous. That being the case, Diamond intended to give Pippin the best chance she could. He stopped at the touch of her hand. She raised Fetridge's hunting bow and took aim at the far end of the wagon, away from the mother and her children. She sighted one of the spinning wheels. The sounds around her diminished and her breathing slowed. Pippin watched in fascination, wiping the lashing rain from his eyes. Adjusting for the winds and rain, Diamond focused her sight, blocking out the storm around her. The arrow flew, trailing behind it a length of thin but sturdy rope. Her aim was true and the wheel stopped spinning as the arrow buried itself deep in the wood. Pippin grabbed the rope and looped his arm over it. Diamond sat back, dug her heels into the mud and held fast to the rope. There were no trees close enough to the washout to use as an anchor. She would have to trust her size and strength, but she worried neither would be enough. If Pippin was not already on his way, she would've brought the wagon closer. But Pippin was on a mission and could not be diverted.
He clung to the rope in spite of the gush of water around him. It threatened to pull him free and toss him downstream at every moment. Diamond thrust herself backwards against the pull of the water and of Pippin, but the pull was too much. Thankfully, when she felt she could not hold on a second longer, she felt two strong arms and a great deal of weight behind her ease her load. She turned enough to see Farmer Whitwell from up the road on the rope behind her. They pulled and Pippin steadied out a bit. He finally reached the wagon. The water was swirling around his chest as he took the first child in his arms. The mother panicked for a moment, but he pointed to the other child and she released the lad Pippin was holding and focused her efforts on the lad before her.
Pippin made it safely to land and Farmer Whitwell pushed Diamond to go and see to the lad. She did so. He was barely breathing, and not moving at all except for the shivering that racked his body. She carried him to the back of the covered wagon and lay him among the blankets she'd placed there. When she turned from the back of the wagon she saw Whitwell's wife approaching. Diamond waved her over and she climbed in to the back of the wagon.
"Could you stay with him?" she asked Dahlia Whitwell, who nodded and took over his care as Diamond climbed out. Pippin had already reached the second lad and was nearly on shore again. Diamond ran quickly down to receive him. She took the lad back to the wagon as Pippin went back for the mother. Down stream Diamond heard a shout. Just off the still solid land she could see the father of the family. He was trying to hold a very young lass above his head as the water rose around him. He was clinging to a rock with one hand and pushing the lass up onto his head with the other hand. Diamond looked back to Pippin, but he was still trying to persuade the mother to let go of her hold on the wagon. Farmer Whitwell was still battling the swift current and steadying himself to deal with the weight of two full-grown hobbits. Diamond ran down the bank until she stood across from the father. He looked at her with pleading eyes and called out,
"Save her! Save Penny!" Diamond thought but for a second before she steeled herself and waded out into the water. It pressed against her legs with more force than she could have imagined. Each push threatened to wipe her feet out from under her. She dug her heels and toes into the muddy bottom and slowly made her way towards him. There was a small outcropping of rock against which he had braced himself. She rested her hips against it as she reached her arms out to the hobbit. He thrust his arms out, the lass limp in his hands, and she took her. She pressed the lass to her breast and steeled herself once more. Twice she nearly lost her footing, and twice she nearly went down. But finally she made it to the bank. Another hobbit was standing on the shoreline to receive the lass and she gratefully turned the child over to him. Then she turned to re-enter the torrent.
Upstream, Pippin struggled to bring the panicking hobbit to the land. She tore at his arms at first, and then suddenly went limp. Whitwell dug his heels in as Pippin began the return trip. Downstream, Diamond had reached the father. He was barely moving, so exhausted he was from his efforts, she had to pull him onto her back and drag him. He offered neither resistance nor help. Fortunately the weight of both of them pressed her feet deep into the muddy bottom and she held fast.
Pippin had made it nearly to shore when the one of the new arrivals, Brock Whitwell, the farmer's son, waded out to meet him. He relieved Pippin of the hobbit and all three headed into shore. Then something happened. Pippin slipped. Being so much lighter than he had been on the return trips, and exhausted beyond belief, he did not press his foot down into the mud with enough force, and he slipped. The water, waiting for its chance to seize him, did so.
Diamond was nearly back on shore and Thom Whitwell, the farmer's oldest son, was wading out to receive them both, his arms stretched out. But Diamond turned from the lad, her instincts drawing her eyes upstream. She was able to discern a ginger-haired head bobbing in the water and moving at an incredible speed down to her. With all her might she thrust the father towards Thom, who easily caught him, and turned back, edging her way carefully to the outcropping of rock. As Pippin was dragged down by the rushing water, he put his hands out, desperate to lay his fingers on some rock or plant to slow his progress. But none was forthcoming and so he was simply swept onwards.
Diamond saw him approaching, she braced herself against the rock and stretched her arms out as far as she could. As luck, or fate, would have it Pippin was pressed right towards her by the flowing water. He threw his hand out just as she did and their fingers locked. Pippin was swung around by the water, crashing into the corner of the rock. Diamond was yanked forward, her feet slipping in the mud beneath her. Pippin put his free hand out and grasped the rock as Diamond pulled backwards with all her remaining strength. The Whitwell lads began to creep towards them. Diamond held tightly to Pippin's fingers and he clung to the rock. Through all the rushing water, through all the whipping rain and winds, their eyes met. Neither spoke, nor moved their lips in anyway. But both heard what the other said, "I love you".
The lads had almost reached them when the rock, pounded by the rushing water for hours, suddenly broke free from the drowned soil beneath it. Diamond tipped over as the rock was pushed away and she and Pippin, hands still clasped tightly together, were washed away by the raging stream.
