Chapter 30: "I Still Do"

Bill Ferny sat alone in a large room in Bag End basking in his pride of getting rid of Diamond and finally proving her disloyal. He was sitting there; smoking some of the pipe weed he had given Lotho when there came a knock on his door. He got up, and upon answering it saw a most unexpected sight.

"Good work, Ferny, but now I have come and I will be in charge," said the cold voice of Saruman. He stood in the doorway looking rather weatherworn and miserable, but his voice was hard nonetheless. Wormtounge cowered behind him.

"M…Master! How did you manage to escape?" asked Ferny.

"It is none of your concern. Where is Keaira?" Saruman asked suddenly.

"She is in the Lockholes, Sir. She was no longer loyal to us. Her memory came back, and she killed one of the Shirriffs so she was sentenced to be put into the Lockholes with no food. That was a week ago," replied Ferny.

"Take me there. She should not have been imprisoned, she should have been executed! Are you losing your touch, Ferny?"

"I…I am sorry, Sir. We can go there at once and carry out the sentence," stuttered Ferny, leading the way out the door.

They walked down the road towards Michel Delving, and upon reaching it stopped to ask the guard to bring them to the cellar where Estella and Diamond were being kept. "We are here to execute Diamond of Long Cleeve. Take us to her cell immediately!"

"That will not be necessary," said the guard named Merthian. "She died last night from starvation and malnourishment. The other died early this morning, probably from a combination of hunger and grief. I am sorry you have come to late."

"I do not believe you!" said Ferny. "How do we know that you are not simply trying to help them escape?"

"You can see their bodies. They were sent to be burned this morning when they were found dead in their cells…"

"And how do I know that it is their ashes?" Ferny retaliated, trying to lay the blame for their deaths on Merthian and not himself.

"The bodies have not yet been burned. They are in the back, if you want to see," Merthian replied.

"Take us to the bodies!" commanded Saruman.

"As you wish, my Lord," the guard replied, leading them around to the back of the Lockholes where they took the bodies to be burned. Diamond and Estella were laid next to each other and looked extremely thin and pale. Ferny bent down and put his ear next to each one's mouth.

"They aren't breathing," he said finally. "They truly are dead."

"You can ask any of the fellow prisoners. I am afraid that is the most proof I can offer you. You have seen the bodies yourselves!" replied Merthian desperately.

"At least she is dead, My Lord. And it was painful and slow, unlike death by the sword. Not a complete loss, am I correct?" asked Ferny, praying that he would not be punished.

"She was no longer of use to me, anyways. Nor are you! Go to the gates on the Buckland borders. I am in charge now, and you a lowly gate warden. Now go!" replied Saruman, obviously quite angered.

"Yes master," said Ferny weakly, slinking off to join the current gate warden. She was dead, but she had still cost him his authority.

It was after nightfall when, wet and tired, the travelers came at last to the Brandywine, and they found the way barred. At either end of the Bridge there was a great spiked gate; and on the further side of the river they could see that some new houses had been built: two-storied with narrow straight-sided windows, bare and dimly lit, all very gloomy and unlike the Shire.

They hammered on the outer gate and called, but there was at first no answer, and then to their surprise someone blew a horn, and the lights in the windows went out. A voice shouted in the dark, "Who's that? Be off! You can't come in. Can't you read the notice: No admittance between sundown and sunrise?"

"Of course we can't read the notice in the dark," Sam shouted back. "And if Hobbits of the Shire are to be kept out in the wet on a night like this, I'll tear down your notice when I find it."

At that a window slammed, and a crowd of Hobbits with lanterns poured out of the house on the left. They opened the further gate, and some came over the bridge. When they saw the travelers they seemed frightened.

"Come along!" said Merry, recognizing one of the Hobbits. "If you don't know me Hob Hayward then you ought to. I am Merry Brandybuck, and I should like to know what all of this is about, and what a Bucklander like you is doing here. You used to be on the Hay Gate."

"Bless me! It's Master Merry, to be sure, and all dressed up for fighting!" said old Hob. "Why, they said you was dead! Lost in the Old Forest by all accounts. I'm pleased to see you alive after all!"

"Then stop gaping at me through the bars, and open the gate!" said Merry.

"I'm sorry, Master Merry, but we have orders."

"Whose orders?"

"The Chief's up at Bag End."

"Chief? Chief? Do you mean Mr. Lotho?" said Frodo.

"I suppose so, Mr. Baggins; but we have to say just "the Chief" nowadays."

"Do you indeed!" said Frodo. "Well I am glad he has dropped the Baggins at any rate. But it is evidently high time that the family dealt with him and put him in his place."

A hush fell on the Hobbits beyond the gate. "It won't do no good talking that way," said one. "He'll get to hear of it. And if you make so much noise you'll wake up the Chief's Big Man."

"We'll wake him up in a way that will surprise him," said Merry. "If you mean that your precious Chief has been hiring ruffians out of the wild, then we've not come back too soon." He sprang from his pony, and seeing the notice in the light of the lanterns tore it down and threw it over the gate. The Hobbits backed away and made no move to open it. "Come on, Pippin!" said Merry. "Two is enough."

Merry and Pippin climbed the gate, and the Hobbits fled. Another horn sounded. Out of the bigger house on the right a large heavy figure appeared against a light in the doorway.

"What's all this," he snarled as he came forward. "Gate-breaking? You clear out, or I'll break your filthy little necks!" Then he stopped, for he had caught the gleam of swords.

"Bill Ferny," said Merry, "if you don't open that gate in ten seconds you shall regret it. I shall set steel to you, if you don't obey. And when you have opened the gates you will go through them and never return. You are a ruffian and a highway-robber."

Bill Ferny flinched and shuffled to the gate and unlocked it. "Give me the key!" said Merry. The ruffian flung it at his head, and then darted out into the darkness. He had not gone far when he turned around and said, "You two might want to check the Lockholes. I think you shall find a nasty little surprise when you get there…"

Then he turned and left, and as he passed the ponies one of them let fly with his heels and caught him as he ran. He went off with a yelp into the night and was never heard of again. (Tolkien 975-976)

"If Bill Ferny is here, that could mean that Diamond is here too!" said Pippin hopefully, though he wondered what Ferny meant about the Lockholes.

"So much for you Big Man," said Merry. "We'll see the Chief later. In the meantime we want a lodging for the night, and as you seem to have pulled down the Bridge Inn and built this dismal place instead, you'll have to put us up."

"I'm sorry, Mr. Merry," said Hob, "but it isn't allowed."

"What isn't allowed?"

"Taking in folk off-hand like, and eating extra food, and all that," said Hob.

"What's the matter with the place?" said Merry. "Has it been a bad year, or what? I thought it had a fine summer and harvest."

"Well no, the year's been good enough," said Hob. "We grows a lot of food, but we don't rightly know what becomes of it. It's all these "gatherers" and "sharers", I reckon, going around counting and measuring and taking off to storage. They do more gathering than sharing, and we never see most of the stuff again." (Tolkien 976)

The next morning they were "arrested" by a group of Shirriffs on the terms that they were Gate-breaking, Tearing up of Rules, Assaulting gate-keepers, and Trespassing, and Sleeping in Shire buildings without leave, and Bribing the guards with food. They of course refused to be arrested, and preceded on to Hobbiton. When they arrived they found the place in complete control of the ruffians, claiming to be under the allegiance of Sharkey.

Pippin left the group to rally the Tooks, while the others went to rouse the folk of Hobbiton. When finally they had assembled enough troops the Hobbits rose up against the ruffians.

When the Battle of Bywater was over only a small number of Hobbits had been lost in battle. Frodo, Merry, Sam, and Pippin proceeded to Bag End, only to discover that Sharkey was none other than Saruman. Saruman, however, got his end when Wormtounge, whom he had thought too weak to act against him, jumped him and slit his throat. Several Hobbit arrows in turn shot Wormtounge before he could get anywhere.

Pippin and Merry were both eager to find Estella and perhaps even Diamond, but they knew they had to first free the prisoners from the Lockholes. One of the first people they found when they arrived was Fatty Bolger. They had to carry him out because he was too weak to walk from being so malnourished.

"You would have done better coming with us after all," Pippin said to Fatty.

Fatty smiled, and said, "So would Estella. She was taken into the Lockholes quite early on. Its terrible, but the Shirriffs killed Chrysie. It was Horro Boffin himself, I'm told, but he was in turn killed by another Hobbit-lass. I don't know if was Estella or not, as its hard to get news in a prison cell, but whomever it was was taken into the Lockholes with Estella. I hope they aren't too starved like me."

At this news Merry was incredibly angered, and he and Pippin rushed off into the deeper cells of the Lockholes. They looked around, but did not find Estella or Diamond, as they assumed she was the other Hobbit-lass. They did however; find the Mayor, Will Witfoot. Upon helping him out of Lockholes as well they came across a Hobbit whom they knew as Chrysie's fiancé.

"We were so sorry to hear about Chrysie, Merthian," said Pippin. "Do you know where Estella, or Diamond are by chance? We were told that they were taken into the Lockholes as well, but they are not there. Perhaps they escaped?"

"Oh, Pippin! I am so sorry, did you not hear? They…they died of starvation but two weeks ago. Both died within hours of each other. I'm so sorry…" he trailed off as Pippin slowly turned around, tears in his eyes. They had come too late, and he had forsaken her. Pippin ran off to find Merry, who looked at him worriedly upon seeing the tears in his eyes.

"What is it Pippin?" he asked frantically. "What's wrong?"

"They…they…both…starved…last week…we're too late…" Pippin choked out between sobs. He couldn't stand to stand there and look at his cousin nearly break down at the same time as him, so Pippin ran. He ran through Hobbiton and ran through the night. When he finally stopped to rest he found that he could not sleep, so he continued to make his way back to Buckland. He would not stop and talk to anyone, nor even acknowledge anyone's presence.

For five days, Pippin did nothing but run in pure agony back towards Buckland. He could not stop cursing himself, nor could he stop wishing that he had not even survived the encounter with the troll and the Battle at the Black Gates. He did not know where he was running, he just ran.

After a short time he found himself at the base of the tree on the edge of Farmer Maggot's fields. Pippin threw himself to the ground in front of it and simply cried. "Why did I not help her when she came back? Why was I so stupid? It is my fault that she is dead, and it is my fault that Estella is dead too. I doubt she ever loved me…and…and I never even got a chance to tell her that I loved her one last time…"

Suddenly Pippin felt a reassuring hand grab his shoulder, and he heard Merry's voice saying, "She died honorably, you know. She was avenging Chrysie's death when she was sentenced to life in the Lockholes with no food. Estella…Estella…she was sentenced to the same." Merry stopped to wipe his own tears. "Diamond did love you, Pippin. I…I…know she did." Pippin looked miserably at his cousin.

Then, a voice from somewhere above them in the tree said, "I still do."