Note to Readers:

I am back from vacation. Kind of/sort of. Actually, I took today off and did laundry and let the children play in the sunshine while I got a bit of writing done. Funny, felt more like a vacation than *vacation* did.

Thanks for the comments!

Xena, funny, I hadn't even thought about how Ferdi lets his concern show, but you're right. The Muse must have sneaked that pert in when I wasn't noticing... she thanks you, by the way, and wants me to reiterate that she will work for pina coladas and reviews.

Bookworm, yes, things are getting better...

As I mentioned, I have written well ahead in both "Flames" and "Merlin" so that you ought to be able to enjoy daily updates, as long as everything goes well. Please keep reviewing, it keeps my spirits up (nearly killed off a major OC last week in a fit of depression, how horrid!) and makes the Muse more tractable.

I have added a new chapter to "Merlin" as well, in case you are following that story.

***

38. Gossip

'Did you hear what happened at late supper last night?' Hilly said, bending closer, speaking low.

Ferdi stirred honey into his porridge, added a bit more cream. 'You know I always spend late supper with my Da,' he said.

'The Thain's fork wasn't clean,' Tolly said less glumly than usual.

'O?' Ferdi said, looking up. 'How many missed their meal, then, waiting for all the silver to be picked up, washed, and set down again? Was the food cold by the time you got it? Was the Thain finished eating before half the room was served?' When the Thain finished eating and rose, the meal was over. Tooks had learnt to gobble their food when The Took showed up for meals in the great room. They could always converse over tea after hunger had been satisfied, after all.

'No! That's not what happened at all! Do you know what Pip did?' Hilly whispered.

'He told them to leave everyone's silver and just bring him a clean fork,' Tolly broke in. 'Did you ever?'

'Very sensible of him,' Ferdi said, applying himself to his breakfast.

'And then, he stood up when I was only half finished eating, and some of the folk hadn't even been served yet...' Hilly said.

'...and he told everyone to sit back down and finish their food, not waste it.' Tolly interrupted.

'Very sensible indeed,' Ferdi said. 'Sounds as if our cousin has learnt a few things in Buckland.'

Tolly snorted and Hilly looked insulted. 'Buckland!' he rebuked. 'What good ever came out of Buckland?'

Everard broke into the conversation. 'Buckland?' he said. 'What about it?' He sat down, took the cream pitcher Ferdi passed to him, and made ready to eat his porridge.

'What about Buckland, indeed!' Hilly sniffed, and subsided into his tea.

'I was just wondering,' Everard said cheerfully. The others stared at him.

'Have you been at the beer already today?' Hilly asked suspiciously. 'I cannot remember the last time I saw you smile.'

'Can't a body smile if he's a mind to?' Everard said with a chuckle. He took a huge bite of breakfast and grinned. 'Mmmm, that's good,' he said with satisfaction. 'Beautiful day, isn't it?'

As Ferdi recalled, from the early exercise he'd given his ponies, it was drizzling, and the dawn had promised to be grey and dismal. 'If you say so,' he said. 'What's got into you, Ev'ard?'

'I've been sacked,' Everard said, his grin brightening.

'He's gone off his head,' Tolly said gloomily. 'Round the bend.' He sighed and sipped at his tea. 'First Ferdi, and now Ev'ard.'

' "First Ferdi", what?' Ferdi demanded.

'Pip got you sacked, and you went off your head for nearly a week, and now it's Ev'ard's turn,' Tolly gloomed. 'Wonder how Regi's taking the news.' He sighed.

'Sacked?' Hilly said. 'Whatever for? Did you lose your temper with our new Thain?'

'No, just the opposite,' Everard said. 'I nearly kissed the son of a Took.'

Tolly choked on his tea and required a bit of back slapping before he was able to stop coughing.

'All right, Ev'ard, you've had your fun and Tolly's near choked to death. Would you kindly put us out of our misery and tell us what's going on?' Ferdi said. He looked back down at his cooling porridge, then pushed it away. He hated cold breakfast.

'I'm to be an engineer,' Everard said with wonder in his tone. 'Can you believe it? Pip's taken me off farming and put me on to digging!'

'Will wonders never cease?' Tolly asked glumly. 'He actually got something right. You were always meant to dig in the dirt Ev'ard, and we all knew it.'

Everard sobered. 'Thain Peregrin,' he said, with emphasis on the title, 'is sending me and the other engineers,' he stopped with a look of wonder. 'Other engineers,' he repeated, and shook his head.

'Sending you where?' Hilly asked.

Everard grinned again. 'To Buckland, to learn some of the new techniques they've found for digging and delving,' he said. 'And I'm to go along, as an apprentice engineer. No more farming for this lad!' He looked down at his bowl of porridge, then pushed it away. 'I've no more time, I need to get ready! We're leaving just after second breakfast.' He rose from the table, said, 'Fare thee well, I shall see you when I see you!' He left the room, whistling jauntily all the way to the door and out.

'Whistling, at breakfast,' Tolly muttered. 'There ought to be a rule against it.'

***

When the coach arrived from Buckland, bearing Pippin's family, Ferdi was off in Tuckborough on an errand and missed the arrival. His father filled him in that evening, however, and the gossip seasoned the simple meal with interest.

'...and just as he handed her out of the coach, someone hissed, "Farmer's daughter!" if you can imagine,' Ferdinand said.

'I can imagine,' Ferdi said. 'Tooks aren't the most polite of hobbits.' He rolled his eyes. Diamond was a pleasant-enough girl, he didn't like to think of her having her feelings hurt by the snobbish Tooks of the Great Smials. He looked sharply at his father. 'So what did Pip do?'

'He lost his temper,' old Ferdinand said with glee. 'Gave those snobs the tongue-lashing they deserved.'

'You should have seen it,' cousin Tansy broke in. 'Cold as ice, he was, didn't even raise his voice but he froze them but good! Reminded them that old Paladin'd been a farmer before he was Thain, said anyone who'd look down on any hobbit what worked with his hands didn't deserve to be a Took and might as well pack up and leave...' Her own husband had been a forester before being killed by a falling snag, leaving herself and their children to move back into the Smials with her parents after his death. She'd suffered enough painful snubs on account of her hard-working husband, to appreciate Pippin's diatribe this day.

There was a stir near the doorway, and suddenly the old aunties who tended Ferdinand were making courtesies as the Thain entered.

'Welcome, lad,' old Ferdinand said. 'I'd heard you were back, but didn't know when I'd get to see you.'

'Thank you, "Uncle" Ferdinand,' Pippin said with a smile. 'I came as soon as I could.'

'Very kind of you, lad, indeed. Or perhaps I should say, "Sir",' Ferdinand corrected himself.

'You're entitled to whatever you wish to call me, "Uncle", and welcome,' Pippin answered.

'Tansy, some tea for the Thain,' Ferdinand ordered. 'Would you care for anything else?' he asked.

'Tea would be fine,' Pippin said.

When he'd been settled in a chair with his tea, the conversation recommenced. 'I understand you've elevated my son to head of your escort,' Ferdinand said.

'It was Regi's doing, actually, though I'd have done the same,' Pippin said. 'I'm told that Ferdi has won the tournament for the past few years, so it is his place to head the escort.'

'In a manner of speaking...' Ferdinand said. 'He couldn't actually enter, you know.'

'I know,' Pippin said softly, his expression pained. He leaned forward. 'Ferdinand, had I known what my father did...'

'Would you have come back?' the old hobbit asked. Pippin's mouth tightened, and the old hobbit nodded to himself and repeated, 'Would you?'

The Thain jerked his chin abruptly. 'Aye,' he said, 'No matter how bitterly it cost me, for my pride and foolishness cost Ferdi far more.'

Ferdi shook his head, embarrassed. 'Pippin, that's all over and done,' he said.

'That may be,' Pippin answered, 'but there's no way to pay you for nine years of your life, under the ban, undeserved, unjustly punished for something I did. I can never make it up to you, Ferdi. I might spend the rest of my life making amends for my father.'

'You might,' Ferdi said cooly, 'but I wish you would just drop the matter here. Forget about it, and move on.' He rose from his seat, addressing his father. 'Da, I'm tired tonight, think I'll turn in early.'

'You do that, Son,' Ferdinand said. 'I hope to see you on the morrow.'

'You can count on me,' Ferdi said. He nodded to Pippin, and to the old aunties, and left.

'Is that all?' Pippin asked. 'Just move on?'

Ferdinand sighed. 'If you were to live another hundred years, I doubt you'd be able to make amends for your father,' he said. 'Paladin was hard, hard and cold and proud, and even when he knew he was being unjust, he kept on, being too proud to admit to any mistake.'

'I don't think I have a hundred years,' Pippin said. 'But I will do my best in the time I do have.'

'You do that, lad,' Ferdinand said. 'Do your best, to be the best Thain you can be. Forget redressing Paladin's wrongs; just make sure you do right. If you prove yourself trustworthy, you'll have Ferdi's trust again, someday. You'll have to work at it awfully hard.' He sighed, then glanced sharply at the other. 'But you're looking a bit weary this evening, lad,' he said, 'and didn't your family just get in today? Seems to me as if you ought to take yourself off, spend some time with them and get some rest in the bargain.'

'I think you're right,' Pippin said, rising.

'You aren't aiming to take my teeth along with you when you go?' Ferdinand said sternly.

Pippin chuckled. 'No, "Uncle", suffice it to say, your teeth are safe from me. I think I've grown beyond those pranks for the nonce.'

'For the nonce?' Ferdinand said.

'Ah, well, you know, if being Thain ever gets to be boring, I might have to take it up again...' Pippin answered.

'Just let me know so I can hide my teeth before you start the mischief again,' Ferdinand said. He and the Thain grinned at each other, and then Pippin left the room.