The Monumental Thought
'Lily!' Rosie called quickly.
'Don't--' Sam tried to tell her, but she, in her jubilance, paid no heed.
'Frodo wants to see you!' and then, to Sam, 'What? Did he have something special planned?' and to Frodo, 'Did you? Well she doesn't need anything special, in any case. She just needs you and your words and that's enough. A string would suffice a ring for that poor girl. But that one there's gorgeous. Oh, I'm giddy. I can't believe it. I just can't believe it! Finally, after all of this!' And during all of this Sam was there trying to hush his overexcited wife so as not to ruin the surprise of it, at least. Frodo, however, stood by with growing confidence and a continuously broadening smile.
'I guess I do it,' he stated purposefully and started up by the thought that his words might have been heard by his Lily, now in the doorway.
'Believe what?' she asked innocently, and he breathed a sigh of relief to know that Rosie's boisterous exclamations had at least served some purpose.
'That it's nigh on winter a'ready,' Sam lied.
'But why does she--'
Lily was cut off by Sam's 'There's a matter t' be discussed an' we've no right intruding' on it, or puttin' off fer that matter, and in any case there er leaves outside need rakin' and supper needs makin'. We'll be off,' and he took Rosie by the wrist and pulled her along after him like a disappointed child.
'But she--' Lily turned to Frodo. 'What is going on?'
'I wanted a word with you,' he explained in a falsely confident tone. 'I was at the cottage today. . . to see your mother,' and at her surprised and slightly hurt expression, 'Now, Lily, oh please, don't be angry,' as if to a child.
'I'm not angry. I just--' Lily shook her head.
'I only went at her request and only on your behalf. I went to tell her how really atrocious she's been, but. . . the conversation changed a little in the speaking.' Frodo looked down at his hands before him touching only lightly at the fingertips as before. He'd lost his momentum and, with it, his conviction. He flexed his fingers out of their nervous condition. 'Lily, I--' he began, sounding now more himself than contrived.
At his uneasy tone, Lily stepped forward and looked up into his great blue eyes, searching for the cause of his demeanor. She clasped her fingers into his and found him shaking. 'Frodo--?'
He closed his mouth resolutely and shut his eyes a moment before speaking. 'Something for you on the mantle, there,' he intoned quietly. Lily turned her head first and, with nothing specific catching her eye, turned back to Frodo. His eyes were still shut, but his hands shook less. Finally she broke away and Frodo raised his gaze to where he had set the trinket minutes before in the shuffle.
A moment, then, before Lily grasped the trinket in her fingers and, slack-jawed and quite confused, turned slowly to her Frodo. 'She gave you this?' she barely managed.
He gave a nod of concurrence and said, 'Aye, she gave it to me.'
'And you accepted it?' It seemed a strange question to Frodo , and even to Lily as she asked it.
'It was not mine to deny.' He admitted this truthfully, though perchance she saw other truths, deeper motives. And then, at last, 'Marry me, Lily, as you wanted so long ago. My heart has not changed; it is true and shall be after. Tell me you feel the same. Marry me. Do,' he supplicated earnestly to her, stepping forward as he did so. 'Though your mother despise us, though the talk be our madness, though the whole of Middle Earth be against us, marry me, Lily, and we'll be together.'
A long moment and a slow gasp of breath from the girl. Frodo's pulse loud enough to be heard throughout the Shire. Furrowed eyebrows and nervous hands respectively. 'Frodo. . .' she spoke shakily. 'We're already together.'
A/N: Oh dear. Well, that's interesting. . . So interesting that you should review. D