Note-Still some character development in Chapter 2, but Black Riders and the Loathsome Lotho Pimple are coming in Chapter 3!

You May Kiss the Bride Chapter Two

Only those who knew Dom well would guess he was slightly the worse for drink. His step was a bit too careful and he carried his head stiffly as if he could keep the world from spinning by sheer will. Sam followed close behind, wondering if there would be less scandal if Dom passed out before or after he reached his brother.

Hal and Periwinkle stood in the shade next to a small brook that had been diverted into the garden and artfully channeled over smooth carefully placed stones. Peri (she'd decided she liked Ivo's shortening of her name, mostly because her mother hated it) gratefully accepted a cool glass of cider from her husband, discreetly dabbing at her forehead with a handkerchief. Hal turned and saw Dom's slightly weaving approach. Hal's narrow-eyed appraisal of his twin brightened into a genuine smile of welcome for Sam.

"Sam, I'm glad you could come." Hal shook Sam's hand warmly. "It's been a long time." Brown eyes twinkled with amusement. "The Gaffer has already been by. He told Peri she's far too good for me and offered himself as a replacement if I don't do right by her."

Sam laughed, looking a little nervously at Dom, who stood morosely staring at the sparkling stream. "That sounds like the Gaffer. Not but what I think he's right. I'm sure she is too good for you." Sam smiled at Peri.

Hal, a bit irritated that Sam had repeated the teasing of his father, said in a mocking tone. "Why, I've forgotten my manners. My deepest regrets, Master Samwise. Let me introduce you." Hal executed a surprisingly elaborate bow of apology. "My dear, this is Master Samwise Gamgee, Gardener Extraordinaire, of Bag Shot Row, Hobbiton, Eastfarthing. Sam, this is my wife, Periwinkle Took, the new Mistress Stooptoe."

Sam's ears were red to the tips. Hal had turned a comfortable moment between friends into an awkward interlude that to Sam pointed up the gulf between a simple gardener and a member of the local gentry like Periwinkle Took. Hal and Dom easily moved between the two worlds in a way Sam Gamgee never would.

"Pleased to meet you, Missus" Sam mumbled, eyes downcast.

Periwinkle didn't understand quite what Hal had done, but she knew Sam was uncomfortable. "Hal has spoken of you many times, Sam." She said kindly. "And all in a good way." She threw a stern look of warning at her husband that he was already beginning to recognize. Hal ducked his chin mutinously. Just like a little boy, Peri thought with exasperation.

"He says you are moving to Buckland soon." Peri took Sam's hand in hers. "I hope you will find the time to come visit us at Stooptoe Hollow whenever you can. Thank you for coming to share this joyful time with me and Hal." She leaned over and, to Sam's complete astonishment, planted a quick kiss on his cheek. His entire face went scarlet. Hal laughed, good mood restored.

Dom spoke up at last. "Well, if you are going to give out kisses to old friends, Mistress Stooptoe, how about to very close relatives?"

He stepped forward, bowed, and asked formally, "May I have the honor of kissing the bride?"

Periwinkle, still laughing merrily over Sam's sweet reaction, curtsied gracefully to her brother-in-law. "Of course, dear sir." Full of innocent joy, she kissed Dom on the lips.

Dom, his emotions in turmoil from the day and the drink, gripped Peri tightly to him. He kissed her fully and passionately for several long moments. Dom was suspended in a timeless place; the kiss was everything he'd imagined it could be.

A tense silence fell on the watchers. Hal's face darkened with anger. Sam was about to tear Dom bodily away from the new bride, scandal or no. But diversion came from a completely unexpected, and yet (to those who knew him), totally predictable source-Peregrine Took.

"If my prettiest cousin is giving out kisses," Pippin chirped, bounding over to the embracing couple. "Then I'm next in line." He poked Dom sharply in the back with cheerful unconcern. "You've had your turn, Dom. Come on, time's up."

Dom released Peri slowly, coming belatedly back to reality-and regret. The stiff apology that hovered on his lips would have ruined the salvation Pippin unwittingly offered, but Peri only looked curiously at Dom for a long moment, before turning to her cousin.

Periwinkle fixed him with a disconcerting look. "Come here, Peregrine Took." Pippin, a little unsure now, approached her warily. Peri took Pippin's face in her hands. She smoothed his soft curls back from his face and caressed the points of his ears in a way that made the hairs on the back of his neck stand up.

Peri wet her lips with the tip of her tongue. Pippin swallowed audibly. His cousin seemed very different all of a sudden, even dangerous. Pippin's eyes were wide and fixed on Peri's mouth. His breath came in quick bursts. Peri brought her lips close to his, almost touching.

Then she said loudly, "No, I simply cannot kiss a man when I can still remember changing his diapers."

Meriadoc Brandybuck, hiccuping with laughter, caught his young cousin as he stumbled back from Periwinkle in dismay. Merry cuffed Pippin fondly on the head and called out. "If the nursery brigade won't do, I volunteer for duty, Mistress Stooptoe."

"I think I shall save my kisses, Cousin Merry, for one who is worthy of them." Periwinkle took her husband's hand in hers and smiled at him reassuringly. She announced clearly. "And I choose Halmeth Stooptoe, now and forever!"

Hal swept Peri up in his arms and kissed her passionately and long. Cheers went up from nearby wedding guests who began a new round of toasts to the happy couple.

******

Dom had watched silent and bemused at the exchange between Periwinkle and Pippin, until Sam seized the moment while everyone's attention was diverted to collar his friend and drag him unceremoniously out the back garden gate.

Dom's scattered senses did not quite register what was going on until his head was thrust under a pump and spring-cold water cascaded over his face and neck. He gasped for breath and struggled but Samwise Gamgee had always been the stronger, and held Dom firmly in place.

After an icy eternity, Sam allowed Dom, dripping and sputtering, to break free. Dom was bent over still trying to get his breath when he realized Sam had said something. "What?" he panted.

"I said, are ya sober yet? I won't hit a man so far in his cups he can't even stand up." Sam's voice was the coldest Dom had ever heard it.

Suddenly anger, humiliation and despair came together and boiled up in Domfast. He lunged toward his friend, trying to land a blow on Sam's jaw. Unsteady with drink and the icy dousing, Dom was unable to check himself when Sam nimbly stepped aside from the charge. Dom stumbled and fell face down in the mud and muck under the pump.

Sam stood silently for a moment over the fallen hobbit then said. "I've only known her a little while and I can tell Periwinkle Took is a lady to the very bone. How could you do that to her? And on her wedding day!" Dom showed no signs of life but Sam could tell he could hear him.

Getting down on his haunches, Sam spoke directly into his friend's ear. "How could ya do that to Hal?" Dom flinched, absorbing the words like blows.

There was a long silence. Then, very quietly, "I love her."

"What?" Sam said. "Speak up, lad."

Dom pushed himself to his hands and knees but his head hung down as if it were too heavy to lift. "I love her, Sam."

"Well, Glory and Trumpets, of course ya do!" Sam shook his head. "Dom, yer as honest and decent as any hobbit in the Shire. Love is the only thing I know can turn a right thinkin' hobbit crossways and upside down from his regular self."

Dom's head came up slowly. He looked at Sam as if doubtful that the encouraging words Sam spoke could be for him, after the way he'd acted.

Reaching down Sam hooked his hand under Dom's left arm. "Come on lad, up you go. Get over to this bench here under the tree." He pulled Dom up and slung the arm across his own shoulders. Together they staggered over to a wooden bench that encircled the trunk of a leafy oak tree standing in the kitchen garden.

Dom sank down and then looked blankly out to the hedge that ran along the backside of Great Smials and at the road beyond. Sam sat beside him, then handed over a handkerchief so Dom could wipe the worst of the mud off his face.

"Did you ever tell her?" Sam asked.

Dom shook his head, flinging little droplets of muddy water from his curls. "No. There was never a right time." He sighed. "I first met her here, at Great Smials, last year. I finally convinced the Thain to start stocking Longbottom Leaf here. Even Da never accomplished that. And as the Thain goes, so go most of the taverns and inns in Tookland. I was feeling like I could hang the moon."

Even now, Dom could smile at the memory. "She was here with her dragon of a mother. Petronilla was in the parlor, going on about something or someone not giving the Tooks proper respect. Periwinkle caught my eye. I could tell she loved her mother but thought she was being absurd and she invited me in on the joke just like I was family."

Dom looked at Sam. "She's like that, you know. She has a heart as big as the Shire and everyone she meets is worthy of attention, kindness and respect."

Sam nodded, remembering the warmth of Peri's smile. "I could tell."

"You were right, Sam." Dom said earnestly. "She is a lady. As gracious as one of those Elf ladies Bilbo used to tell you about, but just as open and merry as any lass in the four Farthings."

Suddenly aware of how he'd gone on and on about Peri, Dom looked sheepishly at Sam. "Aye, well." He cleared his throat a little, as Sam smothered a grin.

"We talked a bit and I felt right away she could be the one for me. When I was with her, it was like being in sunshine." To his credit, Sam kept silent when Dom's expression dared him to say something.

"I left, meaning to come back and get to know her better. But Da wanted my help negotiating with the Sackville-Bagginses because they'd taken a portion of our leaf to sell in a new market they found. The return was not what they'd promised even though they disposed of the entire load and we heard they got all the profit expected and more." Dom rubbed his neck. His head throbbed like a dwarf's anvil.

"Da was like to take a pitchfork to Lotho and Hal doesn't have the persistence to wade through the double-talk Lotho is so fond of. So I stayed home to negotiate and Hal came back to Great Smials to finalize the sale with the Thain."

"Hal and Peri met and seemed to fall in love right away. Hal kept putting off coming home, then he asked the whole family to come up here. The Thain even extended an invitation himself. It was clear what was in the wind as soon as we arrived. I watched them together and they were happy as larks."

Dom's voice was bitter. "No matter how hard I tried not to, I kept falling a little more in love with her each day. Finally, I had to leave. Da, Hal and Mam came back home to get ready for the wedding. But I never saw Periwinkle again until today. And you know how well that went."

Sam saw Dom's face was bone white even in the golden light of the early summer evening. Insects droned in the kitchen garden around them. The hedge muffled sounds of the celebration continuing behind it.

"Have ye eaten anything at all?" Sam asked.

Dom's eyes had closed and he did not open them, but answered. "Nay, all my meals today have been of the liquid sort, I'm afraid." He said wearily. "I must go apologize to Hal and Peri. Then I shall head directly back to Stooptoe Hollow. Hal can tell Da where I've gone." But Dom did not make any move to leave.

"Stay here, for a little while at least." Sam said firmly. "I'll bring you some food. 'When in doubt, sit down, have a think and a bite to eat,' my Gaffer always says." Sam stood and stretched. "On the whole, I've found it to be good advice."

Sam was almost to the garden gate when he heard Dom's voice faintly. "You may be a fine gardener Sam Gamgee, but your true calling is friendship. Thank you."

Sam smiled and headed for the tables. Maybe there would still be some kidney pie.