82.
Yule Celebrations
The Mistress of Tookland came out of the Smials beaming to greet them. She
threw her arms around Faramir, exclaiming how he had grown since he went away
to Lake Evendim all those months ago. Diamond had understood and agreed with
Pippin's reasons for leaving their son in Buckland, but it was a relief to see
him home, whole and sound. Pippin asked after his newest daughter and was
informed that she was asleep, but he would be welcome to hold her when she
wakened. The twins mobbed their father, climbing him as if he were a tree.
Legolas looked on in bemusement, until Pippin put up his hands for relative
calm and introduced the elf. Diamond allowed Legolas a brief bow over her hand
before taking his elbow and her husband's arm and urging them into the Smials.
'It is freezing out here!' she scolded. 'You'll catch your deaths!' Pippin
rolled an eye at the elf, over her head, and Legolas smiled. 'Tea is just on,'
Diamond was continuing. 'I hope that the Fair Folk don't mind plain hobbit
fare.'
'All is well, my love,' Pippin said. 'He is a long-lost relation.'
She looked up in surprise, and then broke into a laugh. 'I suppose seedcake
will do, then?'
'Seedcake will do very well,' Legolas assured her.
For all their clannish ways, it did not take the Tooks long to warm to the wood
elf. His merry laughter, the hearty way he tucked into the food and drink, the
songs he sang were enough to put the most suspicious Took at ease. Even the
steward relaxed enough to trade stories with Legolas, over Pippin's protest.
'...and then he pulled the chicken out from under his cloak. You should have
seen their faces!' Regi said, and the elf threw back his head and laughed. The
Thain fixed his steward with a stern look, but could not resist joining the
laughter in the end.
'He learned that trick from a guardsman in Minas Tirith,' Legolas said at last.
'A guardsman!' Regi said in surprise. 'We found them very humourless fellows,
indeed.'
'Must have been the company,' Pippin said behind his hand.
'Ah, yes, all they wanted was a hobbit or two to liven them up, I imagine,'
Legolas said.
'Possibly,' Regi said. 'I find Men rather difficult to deal with. Surly, and
overtall. I do not know how they manage to walk without tangling those long
legs of theirs.' He eyed the elf. 'How do elves manage to appear so graceful?'
'It is an illusion, I assure you. We fall all over ourselves when we are not
among other folk,' Legolas said.
'Ah, well, it takes all kinds to make a world,' the Thain said philosophically.
'Think how boring it would be if all folk were the same.'
'When do you need to go back?' Diamond asked.
'Merry will send word by pony post. Two weeks after Yuletide ends, perhaps
three. There's a lot of unloading to be done, and they can only tie up two
ships at a time, one at each of the ferry landings,' Pippin answered. He turned
the subject. 'Tomorrow will be Last Night,' he said. 'Are we ready?'
'All is in readiness,' Diamond answered. A servant touched her shoulder, whispering
in her ear, and she excused herself with a smile. 'Someone else is demanding
her tea,' she said. 'No, do not get up, I shall not be long.'
The servers had brought out more teacakes and freshened the cosied teapots when
Diamond returned, depositing a bundle of blankets in her husband's lap. 'Greet
your daughter,' she ordered with a grin.
Pippin parted the blankets to look into unfocused eyes, tiny rosebud mouth
fully occupied with miniscule thumb. 'Hullo, little Joy,' he said. He felt a
presence hovering close and looked up into Legolas' face.
'Joy?' the elf said softly.
'Short for Jonquil, my mum's favourite flower,' the Thain smiled. 'Would you
like to hold her?' Carefully, he handed the bundle to the elf, who took her as
if she were rarest treasure. To an elf, she was.
'Look!' Diamond said in wonder. 'She's smiling at you! That's her first real
smile, I think.'
Legolas smiled back, saying something softly in a language they did not
understand, but the baby's eyes widened and she cooed in reply.
'What is she saying?' Pippin asked whimsically.
'She says that all is well with the world, and we are to be the best of
friends,' Legolas answered.
'You'll have to come oftener to the Shire if that's to be the case,' the Thain
said.
'I think I can manage that,' Legolas answered.
'Good,' Diamond said firmly. 'Long-lost relations must not lose themselves
again once they've been found.'
'I quite agree,' Regi said unexpectedly. 'Whatever sort of hobbit is up your
family tree must have been a Took.'
'High praise indeed,' Legolas said, putting out a finger for the tiny Took to
grasp.
'Welcome to the family,' Rosamunda, Regi's wife laughed. 'Or perhaps I should
say, welcome back to the family.' Legolas smiled as the warmth of hobbit
laughter washed around him.
***
Legolas found himself fully involved in Last-Night festivities. He accompanied
the wagon bearing Father Yule into the courtyard of the Smials, to be greeted
by a cheering crowd of young hobbits and their families.
Father Yule jumped down from the wagon, quite spry for one of his evident age.
Despite the recent famine, he was well-padded, and unlike hobbits, he bore a
snowy-white beard, as soft as combed wool, upon his chin. Legolas climbed down
behind him, handing him the scroll of names with a bow and a flourish. The
hobbit children's eyes, and those of their parents, widened at the sight of one
of the Fair Folk.
'That has to be the real Father Yule!' one young hobbit hissed to
another who'd expressed skepticism earlier in the day. 'He has one of the Fair
Folk helping him!'
Father Yule unrolled the scroll to see the first few names. 'Faramir Took!' he
boomed in a voice suspiciously like the steward's, only a bit deeper.
Faramir stepped forward with a grin. 'Yes, Father Yule?' he said politely.
The bearded figure peered at him from under his floury eyebrows. 'I understand
you were teasing the twins last night, immediately after your arrival. What
have you to say for yourself?'
'I missed them,' Faramir said simply. 'Brandybucks are not half so much fun as
my own brother and sister.'
'Ah,' Father Yule said. He cleared his throat impressively, then said, 'Well,
see to it that you do not stir them up just before bedtime, in future.'
'Yes, Sir,' Faramir said. Father Yule nodded to his assistant, and Legolas
handed him a bulging cap knitted of brightly dyed wool. 'Thank you!' Faramir
said as Father Yule passed the cap to him, and he bowed and stepped back. Every
year, the old aunties and gammers knitted these caps during the summer for
Father Yule's convenience.
Faramir opened his cap to find fat, firm apples and large nuts like those that
had come on the wains of the Rohirrim, and he smiled. Father Yule would seem
even more magical to the children this year, when the Shire's own harvest of
fruit and nuts had been small, hard, and skimpy.
A pair of children skipped forward when their names were called, stopping a few
steps away and creeping up to Father Yule and his impressive assistant. 'Hilly,
I hear you do not eat all your vegetables,' Father Yule said sternly. Turning
to the slightly older brother, he added, 'And I hear you do not wash behind
your ears before breakfast, Tally.' Little Talibold Took promised solemnly to
reform his ways, and Hildibold Took said he would try his best to eat his vegetables,
and both were given knitted caps bulging with fruit and nuts.
When Father Yule reached the end of his list, he thanked all the hobbits for
their attention, announced that hot cider and spicecake were being served in
the great room, and mounted his wagon with his assistant, driving off with a
wave to the cheering crowd.
If anyone noticed that Reginard Took and Legolas the visiting elf-hobbit were a
bit late slipping into the great room, no one remarked upon it.
***
There was a great deal of giggling in the kitchens of Buckland before Father
Yule stepped out the back door to his waiting wagon. Gimli brushed some stray
flour from his sleeves and nodded to his assistant.
'You look very authentic,' Merimas Brandybuck told him with a grin. 'And you don't
even need padding or a beard of combed wool!'
'But how I shall ever get all this flour out is beyond me,' Gimli said grimly.
'It will brush out easily enough,' Merimas said. 'You'll be fine as long as it
doesn't rain, the stuff will harden so that you'll need a chisel to get it
out.'
'My thanks for the reassuring words, lad,' Gimli muttered. 'I do not know what
I would do without your help.'
'You could not be Father Yule, surely, for he always travels with a helper,'
Merimas said. He bowed low. 'At your service.'
'Let us get on with it,' the dwarf sighed, but Merimas could see a twinkle in
his eye as he leapt from the wagon, took the scroll, and called the first name.
