Chapter Eight - You Will Always Be My Pearl

"Mouths were closed and all breathing stopped as the Thain spoke.

'Pearl Took, you are declared innocent of any deliberate wrong-doing in the death of my mother, Lalia Took, universally known as Lalia the Great. I do believe it was an accident, albeit a foolish accident that could possibly have been avoided. This inquiry is ended.'

"Then the Thain gave a word of warning: That no one was to wag their tongue at the local tavern about family business. He dismissed everyone in the room except for father and Pearl. As the room cleared, I remain seated in my chair thinking that I was included in the forthcoming discussion.

'You are excused also, Peregrin.' I heard Ferumbras say.

"I look at my father, and then at Pearl, who smiled weakly to let me know that she would be fine.

Father tells me, 'Go to your room, Pippin; I will see to you in a bit.'

"The following day I learned from Pearl that she was to be excluded from Ferumbras' accession ceremony and the party afterwards. I was sad for her, but she said that she wanted nothing to do with celebrations for a while. In fact, it was hard to get her to come out of her room except to help mother in the kitchen. She, or I should say we, no longer had chores to do. There were servants for that, and we were instructed to let them clean up and do for us as that's what they were hired for. Perhaps this made Pearl feel a little useless, and so she kept to herself, entertaining few friends.

"One day, Pearl was in her room gazing at an open box in her hand. I watched her from the hallway for a while before I asked her what she was staring at. She started a little when she heard my voice, and immediately closed the box. I tease her as I always do and tried to grab the box from her, making her lose her grasp as the box fell to the floor, spilling it's contents: a string of beautiful pearls.

'Pippin!' Pearl screamed at me, and she rarely did so without cause. Now it was my turn to be startled and so I froze in place, uncertain of what I had done to upset her.

'Please leave me alone, Pippin.' Pearl was fretful.

'W gave those to you?' I ask. I remembered seeing them somewhere before, but had a hard time thinking of where.

'None of your business.' She replied.

'Father wouldn't give you such a gift unless you were getting married!' I am curious as to who the giver of the gift was.

Pearl stoops to pick them up and then dangles them before her own eyes. She says rather distantly, 'Father didn't give these to me.'

"Then the place where I saw them before suddenly comes to mind. Pervinca and I were exploring the secret tunnels of the Smials when we discovered a room belonging to the Thain. A room that contained many lock boxes. The trouble was that none of the boxes were actually locked! Our natural curiosity bade us to open each one to have a look. Once we saw what the boxes contained, we realized we had inadvertently stumbled upon the Tooks' hoard of Great Smials. Then we bolted.

"In that room, I distinctly recalled seeing a very beautiful string of pearls much like the ones my sister now had. Pearls are hard to come by in the Shire, and the sight of seeing Pearl's gift on the floor brought the memory of seeing it before back to my mind.

'He gave them to you, didn't he?'

"Pearl snapped out of her thoughts, 'I don't know what you mean.'

'Yes you do. I've seen them before, and it was before you had them.'

"Pearl sat on her bed and began to cry. 'I don't know what to do, Pippin. He did give these to me, but I dare not wear them. What would others think? It would seem as if he is buying me off for his mother's death, yet he told me he wants me to wear them to the party at Lithe next week. What shall I do?'

"I sit next to her on the bed. 'How do you feel about it all?'

'I don't know! I'm afraid if I don't wear them, it would not go well for father. Ferumbras is going to officially declare him to be next in line for the Thain at the Lithe party.'

"I nod, now understanding Pearl's situation. 'If you wear them, others will think you've been paid off, while if you don't, then Ferumbras will make things difficult for papa.' I put my arm around her, 'Whatever you decide, no matter what happens, you will always be my Pearl.'