Thank you to Pearl Took and Zebra Wallpaper for your lovely reviews! Yes, this starts out a bit dark, but it gets a little light-hearted at the end; I mean, one cannot stay too gloomy with a baby Pippin around!
Chapter Three - Beneath the Surface
The sun had not yet risen when Merry awoke the next morning. He rolled over onto his back to wake up more fully, and breathed in the inviting aroma of biscuits baking and sausages broiling. He stretched and yawned before turning up the lamp on the bedside table. After rubbing the fairy sand from his eyes, his hands found the edge of the quilt and pulled it away, feeling the chill air in the room as he dragged himself out of bed. His toes curled, feeling the cold flagstone floor, but hobbled towards the hearth anyway to put another log onto the smoldering embers.
He quickly pulled his hands away when the fiery ashes flew up and threatened to burn a hundred pinholes into his bandages; he detected a faint whiff of cloth burning. Merry stared at the burned bandage on the underside of is hands; he imagined the ashes setting them on fire, and his hands aflame. He shuddered as he came back to himself.
Next, he grabbed his luggage, sat it atop his bed and found clean clothes. As he got dressed, the bandages got in the way when he tried to fasten up his trousers; his braces proved to be even more of a challenge, so he took off the bandages and left them on his bureau. He gingerly washed up using the water-filled basin that was placed on the bedside table for him. Normally it was set on the bureau, but he still wasn't tall enough to reach it. As the ripples in the water became still he could see the reflection of his face in the water. It stared back blankly at him. The feeling of emotional emptiness came rushing back to him as fresh as when he left Brandy Hall. He sat on the bed, deep in thought as water dripped from his chin.
"Master Meriadoc!"
Merry jumped up from the bed, startled at the voice of a strange woman. When he didn't answer, the door opened of it's own accord, and in peeked the face of an elderly looking matron. "Time t'get up Mast--" Then she noticed the young lad was awake and standing next to the bed. "Good mornin', laddie! Breakfast is laid out on the board." Cocking and eye in playfulness, "Ye know if ye're late, the lasses will have ev'rythin et by the time ye get there!"
Merry only stared back at the stranger. "Who are you, please?"
"Well, I s'pose that can be amended!" She came fully into the room and gave a slight curtsy. "M'name is Dahlia; my husband was Aldifast Longbridge."
Merry gazed in puzzlement. "But what are you doing here?"
"I help the Mistress with the cookin', cleanin' and watchin' after the lasses so she can look after the baby." She took a towel from the wardrobe and dried the boy's dripping face.
Merry folded his arms in front of him and saw this as an opportunity to draw a vivid line with the new help. "Thank you, but you can see that I'm a lad and not a lass. This means you don't have to look after me; I can look after myself."
Dahlia, hands on hips, stood her ground. She wasn't going to be put out by a saucy eight-year-old--inherited titles or not. Her "line" was just as vivid. "I look after whichever child the Mistress asks me to --including ye! Is that clear?"
A very vivid line--one that Merry would never cross. He sighed in defeat, "Yes, ma'am."
She gently nudged him into action with her hand, "Now off with ye, lad." As Merry got to moving, he unwittingly let his hands fall to his sides. "Child! What happened t' yer hands and yer fingers?" Then she touched the upper part of his cheek. "Bless me, I've not seen the likes o' this since my own Salfast was yer age."
Merry had a mind to tell her a not-so-truthful-tale, but after the recent battle of the wills, he relented and told her the absolute truth. He started to hold them out for her to view closer, and then He pulled them back out of her grasp. These were a very personal injury; external wounds that echoed the internal hurts of his heart.
Instead of recoiling and gasping in shock, Dahlia tenderly took his little hands and enveloped them into her own. "Ye're not cracked, young master," she said, "But I reck'n ye ought t' keep out o' fightin' for a spell." She noticed the newly formed scabs were dry, and the skin broken while a bit of blood oozed from them. "Come along, laddie, yer hands got t' be covered in order t' heal proper."
"Good morning, Merry!" Eglantine greeted her nephew with a great big one-armed hug. She was sitting at the table holding the newest addition to the Took Clan in her other arm. As Eglantine let go of Merry she saw his hands. "Merry! What happened to your hands?" Then she noticed his shiner. "And your eye!"
Merry stopped to dote on the babe in her arms. "I cracked. Hullo, Pippin! Looks like you're finally getting bigger!"
Eglantine and Pearl both eyed each other in alarm. "Merry," His aunt asked him, "why do you say such nonsense?"
"Because it's true. Mum has been extra nice to me lately, and so has Mistress Ferne. Uncle Merimac even says I've gone mad." Eglantine was still gazing at her nephew as he calmly sat down for breakfast.
"Seems somebody is naming poor Merry as the mad one to shroud his own oddities." Said Pearl, setting the platter of sausages none too gently on the table.
"Pearl Took!" Eglantine rebuked her teenage daughter.
"But mother, why is a grown hobbit saying untruthful things about a sweet little boy?" Pearl was genuinely concerned; Merry had spent quite a few holidays at Whitwell over the past few years, and Pearl thought of her young cousin as yet another sibling to watch over. So there was a reason as to why she took offense at Merimac's remark.
"I don't understand it either, Pearl," Eglantine scolded her, "but you mustn't address, or refer to your elders in that manner. You've been taught better than that."
"Yes, Mother." Pearl turned away and winked at Merry.
Just then young Merry spied Dahlia crooking a finger towards him indicating to follow her. "Come here, Master Merry--the new bandages will only take a moment to put on."
"Yes, Ma'am." Merry got up and followed the new cook into the washroom.
"Good morning, love." Paladin entered the kitchen with Pervinca in tow and kissed his wife. "I thought I heard Merry--is he not awake yet?" He picked up his little daughter and put her in the chair with the old books upon it. He looked about the kitchen, "Where is Pimpernel?"
"Everyone is here for breakfast, dear; Merry is in the washroom with Dahlia getting new bandages, and Pimpernel went out to the barn for a minute. She should be returning any moment."
Paladin sat in the chair between his wife and young daughter and spoke in low tones. "Has Merry said anything about his hands at all?"
"Just that he's cracked," Eglantine returned his level of speech, "and I don't believe it for a second! What happened?"
Paladin sighed and shook his head, "I only know what Essie said in her letter--that he was getting into scraps with his cousin, Berilac." He glanced at the open and adjacent washroom to make sure Merry was engaged in something other than listening. "I don't know Tina...I only know It's not good for him to go about calling himself a mad lunatic. There's something deeper going on inside his head besides getting into fights, and he wasn't any more willing to talk about it last night than he seems this morning."
As Dahlia and Merry exited the washroom, Pimpernel returned from the barn. "Hullo, Merry. Come for another holiday?" She hung her cloak on the coat hook.
"My Mum seems to think I need one." Answered Merry, taking the seat next to her at the breakfast table. "Good morning, Uncle."
"Good morning, Merry." Paladin got up and took his seat at the head of the table, and began passing the platters around the table. "The barn-cat had kittens a while ago. Pimpernel can show them to you after breakfast, if you like ."
"Are you coming, too?" Asked Merry.
Paladin shook his head as he swallowed his tea, "No, Merry. I will be going to Great Smials to see cousin Addie today. It will be all business; I'm afraid that will not interest you much."
Merry laid down his fork in disappointment.
His nephew's actions baffled Paladin, "What's the matter?"
"Why is it that no one seems to ask me what I want to do?"
Paladin and Eglantine exchanged looks. Paladin ventured a question, "All right Merry, which do you want to do? Play with the kittens, or go with me to talk business with Addie?"
Still sitting dejectedly in his seat, Merry answered, "I would like to go with you, Uncle."
"Very well, then. We leave soon after breakfast."