"By the Shire, Diamond I never thought I would see the day when my little sister would get married!" Emma hugged me tightly to her bosom, and I frowned.

"I am not getting married. It is not a wedding dress, Emma. It is an 'occasion dress'. To be worn on special occasions, not to weddings."

"But weddings are special occasions, Sister." Emma was beaming, and I hated that she was reveling in my misery.

"Please Emma, it is not a wedding," I begged. I silently pleaded with her to stop simpering after me, lest I express my anger. She did not heed my call.

"Surely, Baby Sister, you cannot fool me." She laughed, and called Clover to her side, who was being harassed by her older sisters, Angelica and Basil. I pitied Clover, because I knew what it felt like to be harassed by an older sister. As I thought this, I sent Emma a look of pure wrath.

"Are you blind, O Unseeing Sister? Can you not see the edicts demanding the attendance of every maiden to the birthday festival honoring Meriadoc and Peregrin? Did you not see the crowds of lasses at Mrs Teagrass's shop, and other shops around the Northfarthing? Did you not see hordes of lasses stringed out into a line, practicing plaits on each others' hair? Are you so unknowing, O Ignorant Sister, that you really do think that we are all to be married?" I stormed out of the house, leaving poor Clover crying on her mother's lap and Ruby pacing back and forth across the wool rug. The only thing I regretted was causing Ruby and Clover pain. They were dearest to me of all the Hobbits in the Shire, besides that of Estella Bolger, whom I was set out to see that instant.

The Bolger hole was not so far from ours, just down two lanes, and then off to the left, but I had forgotten my shawl, and so was particularly cold. I wished that I lived in Buckland, where the Old Forest provided shelter from the West Winds that beleaguered other regions of Middle Earth, as I was told. The Northfarthing was too far north for us to be sheltered by any sort of land form of that sort, and ours were the worst winters of the Shire. Luckily, it was the spring, but it was only early spring, and that was still bad enough for us.

A warm glow echoed out from the windows of the Bolger hole. I hastened my step, hurrying as fast as I could to the warmth and comfort of my dear friend Estel.

I ran to their door, and rapped my knuckles on it impatiently. Estella's older brother, Fredegar, answered the door.

"Aye, Diamond! Hello, how are ye? Poor Stella's got it bad. She doesn't want to go anymore than, well you, I figure. You don't know how glad I am to see you here, to talk some sense into her." I nodded, even though I knew good and well that I wasn't planning on talking "sense" to Estel, but I was still cold, and Fatty, as he was called, could talk for hours over the simplest things. "All right then, she is in her bedroom. Please help her, Di. She's in an awful state." I felt a pang of guilt, but walked past him into the house, allowing my windswept body to thaw out as I slowly stepped by their hearth. Once I was warm, I wandered my way through their endless hallways and corridors and found myself beside a weeping Estel.

"Estel, what is wrong?" I asked. I had underestimated Estel's situation, and I felt even worse.

"O, Diamond. I don't know what to do. I'm in a real fix, if you could understand. On the one hand, I ever so badly want to be seen and admired by two real warriors from the Shire," She whispered, almost in awe at the very mention of their title.

"But on the second hand, I want to marry Oliver, and I want to marry him very badly. He said that he understands that I am required to go to the party, but he wants me to stay away from Meriadoc and Peregrin, so they won't pick me. I don't know what to do." I put my hand on her shoulder to stay her quivers, and she looked up at me.

Oliver Birchburrow was Estel's long-time beau, and they were very romantic. I would see them walking around Tuckborough, hand in hand, singing a hobbit love song, or with Oliver's arm wrapped around her shoulder. It was all very sweet, and they were the one couple that made me consider giving up my vow of chastity and wedding.

"Estel, do you know what your name means?" It was all I could think of to tell her. She wiped her eyes with the backs of her hands and nodded, tears flowing down her red cheeks. "Estella means star. I don't follow your thinking, Diamond," she confessed, her voice downhearted and sad.

"No. I mean the name that I call you. Estel. It is Elvish for hope. Live up to your name, Estel. Have hope, that everything will turn out alright. And I truly mean it when I say that it will. For you, at least. I cannot say the same thing for myself, but I am happy for you. Really, I am." Estel's already round eyes grew even wider, but not in shock. Her face bore an expression of true remorse and compassion.

"O, Diamond, I am so sorry. What's wrong?" I looked down to the ground. "Estel, I took a vow of chastity, with Ruby. I promised to never be married, and to never be a mother. I have never courted, and never shall. Seeing you and Oliver has made me sorely regret vowing a single life since the day I turned 15, but there is nothing I can do. What would I tell Peregrin or Meriadoc, if they were to pick me? Meriadoc, especially, because I have heard many rumors of his fathering many children to lasses our age." I wept, even though I had promised myself not to. Estel laughed, which was not the reaction I was expecting.

"Oh ho, Di! We are being silly, and ever so conceited! Who is to say that we are going to be picked at all? Out of all the Shire-"

"Only Tookland and Buckland," I corrected. "It is almost all of the Shire. Anywise, what is to say that they will pick us? Now, Diamond, won't you spend the night, so that we can spend the hours talking about my future with Oliver, and yours as an independent hobbitess, you and Ruby being the first of your kind, I must say."

The next morning, I set out from their hole, thanking the Bolger's profusely for their hospitality, and wishing their garden the best of reaps in the Shire, as was the custom.

When I reached Number 5 Tuckland Lane, Ruby ran out to greet me.

"Oh, Diamond. Hurry, hurry! Mrs Teagrass surely has your dress done by now, and Emm is in a fit. She was not happy with your running off last night. Says you've gone and gotten yourself pregnant, just to make yourself unapproachable to the good and decent sirs who desire your acquaintance. I knew you would never break your vow, but now, more than ever, do we need to leave the house.

"You can't imagine how I regret leaving Basil and Clover with their stupid mother. Angelica is gone, too. Her father took her on a day-trip this morning, and they won't be back until nightfall. But those poor, poor girls. Em will not rest until you are properly married, and I would see to it that you are not. But what am I to do? I am just your sister, not the Thain himself, who would see you married properly as well. So what do we do? We go get your dress, and hope for the best. What are you standing there for? Em will find us and have our heads!" She grabbed my arm, and together, we hiked our skirts up and ran down the path that I had just came from. I smiled to myself, thinking about how Ruby reminded me of Estel, in happier moods.

Mrs Teagrass had indeed, finished my dress. I waited until I was home to wear it for the first time, for modesty's sake.

Were it not pink, it would have looked lovely. My dress flowed out in a small train that had a tendency to flow behind me when I walked. My bodice was laced up tightly over a white underdress that revealed where the gaps in the lacing were, and a white sash was wrapped around my waist. My neckline dropped quite a bit, although it wasn't revealing, which was more than fine for me. My sleeves stopped at where my elbows bent, so that was a bit uncomfortable, but the silk flared out, draping my lower arms. Every hem on my body was lined in white lace, and I must admit, with the wreath of white roses draping over my auburn ringlets, I looked like a princess.

"Lovely. You are more lovely than I ever could have thought, Sister." Ruby's formality shocked me. She sounded so sad, and I could tell why, simply by looking in the mirror.

I was beautiful. Ruby had told me that the day before, when she had wheedled me into having this dress made. I didn't see it then, but I saw it now. My thin, arched eyebrows accented my large, round, dark eyes. My nose, a perfect patrician that arched up like a "a little mountain on the other side of the valley" as Mother had said. My mouth was small, and delicate, and my face was pale, except for my blooming, soft skin on my cheeks. I looked at plain Ruby, and I realized how right she was. "Oh, Ruby. Please," I begged, although I knew not for what. She hugged me, and whispered in my ear, "please, revoke the vow. Please, you could find your fate so much happier. Consider it, please?" I almost nodded. Almost! But I realized that revoking a vow such as that for no substantial reason was not good enough. I needed a reason. A good, valid reason, or else I would do no such thing; No matter how my heart ached, my head stubbornly refused. I shook my head. Ruby sighed audibly, and put her hand on my shoulder.

"Diamond, don't do this to yourself. Do you see how happy Oliver and Estella are? Do you see how happy Em has become? Do you want to torment yourself like this?" Ruby's voice dripped of tears, and her eyes scared me. They were frightened, like a deer's, but almost as mad as Farmer Maggot's dog Fang when a trespasser has been caught on his master's property.

Ruby's pleas tore at my heart. I wanted so badly to say yes, I would revoke everything I had tolerated for fifteen years of my life. It would have been so simple for Ruby, and even steadfast Estel, but not me. A simple "I do" had gotten me into this predicament, so why couldn't an "I don't" get me out? I wanted so badly to accept. My heart wanted to, it yearned to. I couldn't and it tore my insides up.

"No, no, please, no," I begged- pleaded nearly. "Don't tell me to. I want to stay lonely and miserable forever," I dropped to my knees, sobbing violently. I shook my head in my hands. My hair fell down around my eyes, and my garland fell off of my head. but I didn't care.

"Oh, Diamond. I am so sorry. I was selfish to bring you to the Well, and have you say that vow. I wanted you to stay alone, like I knew I would be. I wanted you to stay a little girl forever. Please forgive me. Forgive me by revoking the vow!"

Why couldn't I do this? It was as if a hidden spirit within me refused to allow my body and mind to do what it so badly wanted to. There was nothing I could find within me that was restraining me, but I couldn't bring myself to revoke anything.

"Ruby," I struggled, "I will revoke the vow only if- NO!" A cry escaped my lips, and my eyes grew wider. What had I done? What was possessing me to do this?

"Why can't I say yes, Ruby?" I cried, despondently.

"I don't know," she shook her head.

"Ruby, try to revoke your vow." I asked, on a whim. My mind had been working furiously, and I had thought of an idea.

"I will revoke- revo- re, I can't do this, Diamond." In spite of myself, I smiled grimly.

"We cannot. We are bound to this vow,