Her heart pounding in her throat, Peony ran up the hill and crashed through the door of Brandy Hall, nearly plowing down Esme and Saradoc. Saradoc caught her by the arms and stopped her headlong flight.
"Whoa there, Peony," he said. "What's your rush? Is something wrong?"
"Yes. . . it's. . . it's. . . " Peony struggled to catch her breath. "Milo sent me back. . . We need help. . . down at the dock. . . "
"What?" Saradoc asked. "Is Milo in trouble?"
"Drogo," Peony said. "And Primula. Drowning. Get Mr. Rory and Mr. Rufus, quickly!"
Saradoc's jaw tightened. "Esme," he said. "Find Frodo and keep him quiet. I'll get Da and Merimac and Uncle Rufus." He turned and ran toward the dance hall.
Esme and Peony hurried into the playroom. Peony ran to Bilbo and boldly tapped his shoulder in the middle of his story. When she had his attention, she whispered the situation in his ear.
Esme pulled Cady out into the hall. "Cady," she told him, "there's an emergency. Primula and Drogo Baggins are in serious trouble down at the river. The men are getting a party together to go rescue them. You've got to keep Frodo here, or else he'll go running after them and get in the way. Keep him busy and distracted. He's not to know that there's an emergency at all until it's over. Keep all the children busy, and don't let them out of the room. Can you do that for us?"
The color drained from Cady's face, but he nodded smartly and marched back into the playroom. "New game, everyone!" he called. "Everyone needs a pocket handkerchief."
Saradoc made his way through the crowd in the dance hall. The adults were taking an interval between dances and stood in small groups talking and nibbling dainties from the refreshment tables. Saradoc saw his younger brother Merimac with Nina in a corner. He elbowed his way over to his brother.
"Mer," he said softly, "I need you to help find Da and Uncle Rufus. Peony says there's trouble down at the dock. Uncle Drogo and Aunt Primula need help. We need to get to them, and we can't cause a panic here."
Merimac nodded, handed his plate to Nina, and set off toward the musicians' dais where Rufus Burrows was quietly negotiating fees. Saradoc spotted his parents holding court at the far end of the room. As politely as he could, he disengaged them from the guests and explained the situation. At the news that his youngest sister was in danger, all of the party gaiety vanished from Rory. He looked over the crowd and signaled to Rufus and Merimac. Menegilda gathered herself regally.
"Go get them," she said. "I'll tell your brothers and sisters and keep the party going here." With that, she took up a tray of little pear tarts and began to offer them around the room, making serene and pleasant conversation as she did so. Rufus, Rory, Saradoc and Merimac met in the entryway and hurried out to the dock.
Drogo and Primula were indeed in serious trouble. Drogo was slowly tiring as the water chilled him to the core. It was getting harder and harder to hold on to both the overturned boat and Primula, but he was struggling valiantly. Milo was soaked and shivering, having thrown the rope several more times. He had gotten it fairly close to Drogo, but Drogo either would not or could not let go of the boat to grab the rope. Milo had begun to aim his throws toward the boat but been having less and less effect as he had grown colder and wetter. He was still trying to make the toss when the others arrived.
Rufus ran to his son and began to rub life back into his arms. "Rory!" he called. "Milo's freezing. Do you have blankets?"
"In a chest on board the second boat from the left," Rory said. Rufus pulled out a blanket and wrapped it around Milo, then laid out two more ready for Primula and Drogo when they were rescued. Rory took the situation in and made a plan. "Sar, Mer," he said to his sons, "I want you two to row another boat out and get them into it. Come straight back to the dock when you've got them. And be careful of the current. The tide's going out, and it's running strong. Take a rope with you in the boat, and I'll fasten another one onto your stern and pay that out from the dock in case you need another line."
Saradoc and Merimac nodded and went to the closest boat at the dock. There was a coil of rope in the bottom, and Merimac took another coil from a neighboring boat. He fastened one end to an iron ring in the stern. Saradoc shoved the oars out and pushed off from the dock. With powerful strokes, he began to row cross-stream.
The children in the playroom were exhausted from the late hour and all the running games that Cady had made them play. Some of the smaller ones had gone to listen to Bilbo's stories, but even the older ones were starting to whine and complain.
"Why can't we leave, Cady?" Violet asked. "I don't want to play any more. I want to go see my Ma."
"The grownups' party isn't over yet," Cady told her. "Your Ma won't want to see you now." Immediately, he regretted his choice of phrasing. Violet burst into tears.
"You're mean, Cady!" she wailed. "My Ma does too want to see me." She made a lunge for the door, but Cady grabbed her arm and pulled her back into the playroom.
"Cady, I want something to eat," Frodo said. "All that running around made me hungry. Can I just go get a cake? I'll come right back, promise. And I won't bother the party."
"I'm hungry, too!" Violet said.
"And me!" a Baggins child from Hobbiton chimed in. Cady was suddenly at the center of a mob of children begging him to let them go get "just one cake." He backed toward the door, trying to keep them in the playroom.
"I'll go," he said. "I'll get a big tray of food and bring it back, and we can all eat it together in here." Mollified by the promise of treats, the children backed away, and Cady escaped into the hall. He ran to the dance hall, found Menegilda and tugged urgently on her sleeve.
"Please, Aunt Gilda, you've got to help me," he said. "The children are trying to get out, and there's so many of them. I don't know if I can control them much longer. I have to get a tray of food for them. I can't keep them quiet much longer."
Menegilda nodded and signaled to Esme. "Esme, find a tray of sandwiches for Cady to bring to the playroom," she ordered. "Then take Peony and Nina and bring as much spare bedding into the playroom as you can find."
Esme pushed a tray of sandwiches into Cady's hands. He took the tray gratefully and returned to the playroom. Eager hands snatched the sandwiches, and the complaining was hushed for a while. Cady sat down, relieved.
"Cady," Frodo said through a mouthful of sandwich, "Is my Ma still happy? I just want to make sure she's all right. She was awful sick, you know."
Cady opened his mouth and closed it again. He couldn't lie, but it was hard to answer without telling Frodo anything. Finally, he settled on the bare bones of the truth. "I didn't see your Ma, Frodo," he said. "I just ran in for the sandwiches." He was saved from further explanation when Menegilda marched into the room, followed by Esme and Peony and Nina bearing mounds of pillows and blankets.
"All right," she said imperiously. "It's gotten dreadfully late, and I'm sure you're all quite overtired. Bedtime for all children." Esme and Peony and Nina started spreading the bedding around. Bilbo eased the littlest ones off of his lap and moved to help them. "If you're good and don't make a fuss about bedtime, Bilbo will tell you another story before you go to sleep," Menegilda added.
The children seemed excited about getting to sleep all together on the floor and quickly tucked themselves in. Bilbo began to tell a story all about camping with Dwarves outside at night. One by one, the children drowsed off to sleep. The adults and Cady shared worried glances. They wished that the rescue would be over soon.
Drogo had long ago lost feeling in his arms. He knew he was still holding the boat because his head was still above water, and if he looked down, he could still see Primula's limp body clutched in his other arm. He wondered vaguely if she was still alive, but that hope seemed far away and faint to his numbed mind. He and Primula and the boat drifted lazily through the river. The moon hung low above him, and all around it the stars shone bright. He heard oars splashing in the water, and the faint sounds of shouting, but it all seemed so thin and distant. Suddenly, the river seemed to come to life. It was pulling fiercely at him, and suddenly he was moving faster. Drogo tightened his arms, unwilling to let either Primula or his boat go. Primula stayed by his side, but Drogo could see the boat slowly slipping from his grasp.
"The current's got him!" Merimac cried. "Pull, Sar, pull hard!"
Saradoc hauled on the oars with all his might. The current in the Brandywine at ebb tide was powerful, and however strong a rower Saradoc might be, he was too small a creature to chase something that the river had in its power. He leaned forward, stretching his arms until he was sure his shoulders would separate from their sockets, then lay back in one smooth motion, drawing his arms tight to his chest, feeling the boat surge as he pushed the water with the oars. He was rowing as well as he had ever rowed in his life, and beside him his brother was throwing a loop of rope again and again, missing their small, moving target. The blood pounded in Saradoc's ears, but he could hear Merimac shouting over the roar.
"I can't reach him! Pull, Sar, he's getting away!"
The river flowed, with a silken, shimmering sound. It was suddenly all around Drogo's head, filling his eyes and his ears as it whirled him away. His last conscious thought was that he still had Primula, and that whatever was to come of him, she would be there.
"Drogo!" Merimac threw the rope one last time. The loop splashed into the water a hand's breadth from his uncle, and Drogo and Primula vanished beneath the surface of the river and did not rise again.
Merimac slumped into his seat. Saradoc gave a few more strokes with the oars, and then he, too, gave up the pursuit. He maneuvered the boat around to the shelter of a small cove in the river, pulled in his oars and bent over them, screaming his grief, rage and exhaustion. Merimac remembered the long rope tethering them to Rory and the dock. He reached over and tugged at it. After a moment, the boat began to move. Merimac took the oars from his spent brother and sculled a little, to help Rory and Rufus hauling the rope. Slowly, the little boat returned to the dock. Rory helped Saradoc and Merimac out, and Rufus and Milo wrapped them in the blankets originally laid out for Primula and Drogo. The five men stared out at the river, which shone like silver in the moonlight. There was silence for a moment as they tried to absorb the sudden change in their world.
It was Rory who broke the silence. "We'll have to search the river in the morning," he said softly. "They can't have gotten much farther than half a mile, where the river bends. I'll send crews down there tomorrow to bring them back."
"We failed," Saradoc said.
"We did everything we could," Milo replied.
"It wasn't enough."
There was nothing more to be done, and the young men needed dry clothes and warm drinks. They secured the rescue boat and then walked back towards the bright lights and soaring music of Brandy Hall.
Menegilda was waiting at the door for them. She had seen them trudging up the hill without Primula or Drogo, and she knew that the worst had happened. Esme and Peony brought towels, and Menegilda took Rory in her arms, wordlessly sharing his grief over his littlest sister. After a moment, he pushed her away gently and turned to Milo and Peony.
"I'm sorry this had to happen tonight," he said. "It was supposed to be your special night, for both of you -- a birthday and a betrothal. I wish I didn't have to say this, but we can't continue with the party after this."
"I don't want any more party tonight, either, Uncle Rory," Milo said. "But can we just stop the dancing and send everyone home?"
"That's what we'll have to do," Rory said. "I'll explain it somehow. We'll just stop everything quietly. Someone should tell the family separately, though."
"You do that, Rory," Rufus Burrows suggested. "Gather them somewhere private and tell them. I'll deal with the musicians and the rest of the guests."
"It'll break Asphodel's heart," Rory said. "Primula was always her pet."
"All the better to hear it from her big brother, then," Rufus said.
Rory went first into the dance hall and quietly spread the word that his brothers and sisters and their wives and husbands should assemble in his study. After the little group had left, Rufus went to the musicians' dais and asked that the music be stopped. The guests were left in mid-dance, and began to murmur in confusion. Rufus stepped up to the dais and motioned for silence. Just as the talking stopped, a terrible shriek sounded from the study. Rufus winced.
"My good Hobbits," he began shakily. "Please accept my sincerest apologies. I regret to announce that we are ending the party early tonight. There has been a -- a sudden death in the family. My wife and her brothers and sisters are in seclusion at the moment and wish not to be disturbed. My son and Peony and I will assist you on your way out. Again, my sincerest apologies, and my deepest thanks for your presence at Milo's coming-of-age." Rufus stepped down from the dais and headed for the door as quickly as he could. The stunned crowd of party guests made way for him.
The announcement of death cast the expected pall over the departure. Parents stopped at the playroom, and Peony and Cady fetched the children one by one, taking care not to wake those children who would be staying the night in Brandy Hall for various reasons. Cady noticed the subdued, worried looks on the parents' faces and turned to Peony. "What happened?" he asked. "Are Uncle Drogo and Aunt Primula hurt?"
Peony refused to meet his eyes. "It's not my place to tell you, Cady," she said. "You should hear it from your Da and your uncles." She slipped into the playroom to fetch another child. Cady stared after her. He caught a glimpse of Frodo sleeping nestled between Carlo Burrows and one of the Hornblower twins, and he felt a cold knot of fear form deep in his stomach.
Milo stood by the door, bedraggled but dignified, to bid farewell to his guests. He stood for a long time and endured a hundred bewildered variations on "Congratulations and deepest condolences." Finally the last guest was gone. Milo sat down on the bench in the front hall and sank his head into his hands. He wanted to find Peony, he wanted his mother, but most of all, he wanted to go to sleep and wake up the next morning to find that the whole terrible event had just been a dream.
"Milo?" The soft query pulled him out of his reverie. One of his younger Brandybuck cousins -- Cady, he remembered the lad's name was -- stood in one of the doorways. He looked frightened and confused, but also a little suspicious. Cady needed someone, too, Milo realized. He sighed.
"What is it, Cady?"
"Milo, do you know what's going on?" Cady asked. "Esme and Peony made me keep all the children shut in the playroom and run them around until they fell asleep, and they said there was an emergency with Uncle Drogo and Aunt Primula, and now the party's broken up, and no one will tell me what happened. Do you know? Will you tell me?"
Milo suddenly felt very old. He was thirty-three now, he realized. He was of age and would be expected to take care of people rather than be taken care of. He still wanted his mother, though, and he wondered if people ever really outgrew wanting their mothers. Fortunately, the solution to this problem was easy, as both his mother and Cady's were in the same room. He got to his feet and took Cady's hand.
"Come on," he said. "Let's go find our family. They'll tell you what's happened."
The two cousins went to the study, and Milo knocked softly on the door. After a moment, it opened a crack and Saradoc peeked out.
"Oh, Milo, it's you. Come in."
"I've got Cady with me. He's awfully frightened. No one told him what happened."
There was a short pause, and some hushed whispers from the study. After a moment, Saradoc opened the door wide. "Come in, both of you," he said.
The aunts and uncles and some of the grown-up cousins were gathered around Rory's writing desk. Rory sat at the desk, with Menegilda and Amaranth beside him. Asphodel lay on a couch, pale and sweaty, her head in Rufus's lap. Dinodas stood when they arrived.
"Cady, lad, come here," he said. Cady stood rooted to his spot.
"What happened?" he asked. "Where's Aunt Primula and Uncle Drogo?"
Rory sighed, suddenly looking every bit of his seventy-two years. "There's no way to break this gently, lad," he said. "They're dead."
"Dead?" Cady's face contorted in a mask of shock and disbelief. "How could they be dead?"
"They went out boating on the river," Rory said. "Something happened to the boat, and they drowned. We sent out a rescue party, but we didn't make it in time."
"But what about Fro -- oh. . . " Cady's voice trailed off. The adults traded uneasy looks. Esme took his hands.
"I'm sorry," she said. "There just wasn't time to tell you the whole story. We couldn't have Frodo running around and worrying while there was still a chance. You were a good lad to keep him busy, Cady. Thank you for that."
"What'll happen now?" Cady asked. There was another long adult silence.
"Frodo is asleep right now," Menegilda said, finally. "And he will remain asleep until morning. I won't have the child woken in the middle of the night for this news."
"I'll send out search crews tomorrow," Rory said. "As soon as it's light enough to see, we'll search the river until we find them. I don't want to tell Frodo anything until we have at least some idea what became of them. Cady, you've already done a hard task, and you've done as well as any grown Hobbit could do. I'm afraid I'll have to ask a little more of you. Will you take Frodo tomorrow? Keep him busy again, and far from the river?"
Dinodas nodded. "He adores you," he said. "He'd love to spend a morning playing with you."
"I'll help you," Esme added. "There won't be a party going on, so you won't be left alone again."
Cady gulped. Now he was glad that he hadn't known much about the emergency. He was already dreading the awful idea of spending the next morning playing, all the time knowing the truth about Primula and Drogo. "I'll do it," he said. "If Esme and Aunt Gilda will help me."
"Of course we will," Menegilda said. "The very first thing we will do is not wake Frodo up in the morning. The longer he sleeps, the easier our job will be."
"You're a good lad, Cady," Dinodas said. "I'm so proud of you." He held out his arms to his son, and Cady finally ran to his father. He was a tweenager, and far too old to cry, but he couldn't stop the tears that started to leak out of his eyes. "It's all right," Dinodas said. "We've all been crying like babies in here." He stroked Cady's hair just as if Cady were very small.
Rory sat back and massaged his temples. Breaking the news to Cady had been difficult, but it was good that they had done so now. They would have to tell Frodo sometime the next day, and they needed all the preparation they could get.
