Notes to Readers:
Please be sure to leave a review! They are very motivating, and each review you
leave entitles you to a free cup of cyber-tea in the parlour (The Muse and I do
try to make our guests feel welcome). What you are seeing here is the edited draft.
(Thanks to my editor who prefers to work behind the scenes.)
Thanks for the comments! How do you like your tea?
I am sorry I cannot respond to your comments today. I read them when they come
to my email (so thank you! It is always a great feeling to check my email and
see that "Fanfiction Review" subject line), but I respond to them by retrieving
them from a particular story at ff.net when ready to put up another chapter.
Something odd is going on at ff.net today, and I cannot access reviews or much
else for that matter (it keeps trying to download files to my computer, which
is something it never did before. With all the virus problems floating around,
we try not to download anything these days.). Hope it'll upload this chapter!
Another chapter of "Runaway" is in the works and you'll see it as soon as we
can get it finished (Thanks, Jodancingtree! – she keeps knocking my socks off
with the snippets she sends me; wait, hobbits don't wear socks. Well, you know
what I mean). We are very close to the end in that story, though I cannot tell
you if the chapter under construction is the last or not. Expect a chapter of
"Sunsets" on the morrow and another chapter of "Small and Passing Thing" the
day after, if all goes well. Thank you for your patience.
***
Chapter 11. Ups and
Downs
Early next morning, they bundled Freddy up and put him into the coach once
again, well tucked up with hot bricks, his feet on a footwarmer filled with hot
coals. His mother had tried without success to get him to eat something more
substantial for breakfast: some lovely fluffy scrambled eggs, perhaps, or even
some custard, to no avail. He took a little tea, but turned his face away from
all other attempts.
'Freddy, you must eat!' she said in desperation, but he only shook his head,
eyes tightly closed, a tear sliding down one wasted cheek. He knew this trick.
The ruffians would put tempting food before a prisoner, urge him to eat, and
then beat him when he reached for the food. They couldn't catch him in that
trick. It hurt, however, to hear the ruffians making his mother cry, and
despite the risk of punishment, he spoke at last.
'Please,' he whispered.
'Try the milk toast,' Odo suggested. 'He took that, before.'
Widow Goodbody lightly toasted a slice of the bread she'd baked that morning,
buttered it well, sprinkled it with cinnamon sugar, and poured over warmed milk
from her neighbour's cow. 'Come lad,' she said sternly. 'No nonsense, now! You
eat this up, we don't like to waste good food here.'
'Please, Freddy,' Rosamunda begged, gulping back her tears.
Freddy sighed. Very well, then, let them beat him. He could not bear to hear
his mother weeping any longer. He ate several spoonfuls of the mixture, tensing
after each, before relaxing and accepting more without apparent resistance.
Rosamunda was able to feed him the entire bowlful, to her great relief. She
looked up into Odo's face, and he smiled back at her. It was a minor victory in
the fight to win their Fredegar back.
They stopped off at several farms along the way to renew the coals in the
footwarmers, warm the bricks tucked into Freddy's covers, and obtain mugs of
hot tea, but by early afternoon, the coach was turning off the East-West road,
north to Bywater. Here as well, hobbits were busily taking down the ruffians'
buildings, setting the salvaged materials in neat piles for better use. A cheer
was raised for the Travellers, and Merry and Frodo waved gaily in answer. Sam
had ridden ahead to let the Cottons know they were nearly there.
Rudi slowed the ponies to a walk as they turned into the lane leading to the
Cottons' farm, but it turned out he hadn't needed to take that precaution.
Someone had filled in the holes and smoothed out the ruts, and the coach moved
smoothly up the lane, stopping in the wide yard in front of the Cottons' house.
The large round door at the top of the steps was thrown open, and Cottons
boiled out of the house like ants disturbed in their nest.
'Welcome!' Farmer Cotton shouted. 'Nibs, Jolly, take care of the ponies; Tom,
Nick, help them get Master Fredegar into the house! The kettle's on, and we've
got everything ready.'
They had indeed. The best room had a bright fire on the hearth and the bed was
made up with several layers of featherbedding, for Sam had described Freddy's
thinness to them. 'No meat on his bones,' he'd said.
'We'll have to watch for bedsores, then,' Mrs Cotton had said briskly. 'His
bones'll wear right through the skin if'n he's not resting on clouds.' The bed
was soft as clouds, indeed. Freddy felt himself sinking into layers of comfort,
with more layers laid over him, and he sighed.
'There you are, lad,' Mrs Cotton said now, softly. There were tears in her
eyes. She thought of her fear that Tom might be taken off to the Lockholes, for
he'd taken to sneaking out at night, and who knew where he went or what he did
when he got there? It might be her son lying there in a bed, a mere ghost of a
hobbit. 'Would you care for a bite to eat?'
'No,' Freddy said, attempting to smile. 'Thank you kindly.'
Rosamunda caught the eye of the farmer's wife and said, 'Would you have any
broth? That seems to go down easily, especially if he can sip it from a mug.'
'I can do even better,' Mrs Cotton said. 'Beef tea, that's nice and
strengthening, and we've made up some already, knowing you were coming.' She
left the room, returning soon with a steaming mug. 'See if he'll take that,'
she said, 'and I'll put together a tea tray for you and your husband.'
'My thanks,' said Odovacar, 'but my brother and I must be riding to Tuckborough
now.'
'Tuckborough!' Mrs Cotton said. 'Don't you want to stop for tea first?'
'No, missus,' Odovacar said, 'though I thank you kindly. I have urgent business
with the Thain.'
'You might not catch him at home,' Farmer Cotton said from the door. 'He's
driving the ruffians out of the Shire, you know, the ones to the South and
West, anyhow. Mr Merry and Mr Pippin were to drive them out of the other
parts.'
'Well, I'm sure he's left someone at home,' Odo said pleasantly, 'and all I
want is to fetch my little girl back from the Great Smials, anyhow.'
At the Cottons' puzzled look, Rosamunda explained, 'We sent her to Tookland for
safekeeping. I'm a Took, you know.'
'Ah, yes, Mistress,' Farmer Cotton said, his face clearing. 'Of course, she'd
be safer amongst her relatives there. No ruffians crossed their borders, after
all. Would that we'd kept them out of the entire Shire that way!'
'Indeed,' Odovacar said. He kissed his son on the forehead. 'Be well, Freddy,'
he said. 'I shall return soon.' Then he kissed his wife, squeezed her arm, and
left the room.
'Come, Freddy, take a sip,' Rosamunda said, turning her attention to getting
the beef tea into her son. Fredegar sipped obediently, but made a face when he
discovered by the taste that it wasn't tea in the mug. 'What's the matter, my
love?' she said. 'Come, now, it's good beef tea, very strengthening. Drink up!'
By dint of much coaxing and more than a little scolding, she was able to get
the rest of the mug into him.
***
Odovacar and Rudivacar changed from coach to saddle for the trip across country
to Tuckborough. Optimistically, they led an extra pony for Estella to ride on
the return trip. Just before sunset, they were hailed by a small group of
Tooks. 'Who are you, and where do you think you're going?'
'I have business with the Thain,' Odovacar called back.
'He's not at home!' came the answer. 'You might as well turn around and not
waste your time!'
'Then I have business with whomever he's left in charge at the Smials!'
Odovacar shouted. He waited for the Tooks to come up to them.
'State your business,' the Took said. His bow was strung, and he held it and an
arrow in the same hand, in the casual way that archers do when it is merely the
matter of the wink of an eye from rest to shooting stance.
'It is personal business,' Odo said evenly. There was no point in being rude to
Tooks; they could be rude enough for two, and if he offended these he'd be
turned away summarily and perhaps not allowed back in the bargain.
'What business?' the Took persisted.
Odo considered, and finally said, 'I am Odovacar Bolger, do you know me?'
'I've heard of you,' the Took admitted, after a pause for consideration.
'My wife is Rosamunda Took,' he went on. 'The matter I wish to discuss with the
Thain or his representative is Took family business. My wife could not come, as
she is tending our son, who is very ill after being released from the
Lockholes.'
'I'd heard about that,' the Took said unexpectedly, and Odo wondered at his
source of information. The Tooks prided themselves on knowing everything about
everyone else while keeping their own business amongst themselves. 'Very well,'
he decided. 'Follow me. We still haven't dismantled all the traps we laid
against the ruffians, so for your own safety, stay close.'
He waved at the rest of the Tookish guards, who seemed to know what was
expected of them. When Odo looked behind him, as they rode away, the other
Tooks had already disappeared once more into their hiding place, from whence
they could easily challenge, or shoot, any comers.
It was refreshing to ride into Tuckborough, to see things unchanged, the Shire
as it had been before the ruffians came. The buildings and hobbit holes were in
good repair, the trees were intact, there were even some late-blooming flowers
in window boxes, bright in the light shining out from windows sparkling clean.
The Great Smials reared up behind the town, standing as it ever had. The only
difference Odo noted was the guards outside the entrances of Smials and
outbuildings, armed and ready for trouble.
He and Rudi dismounted, and a stable lad was there immediately to take their
ponies. 'Will ye be staying over?' he asked.
'I hope it won't be necessary,' Odo said. 'I hope to conclude my business
quickly.'
'Very well, sir,' the stable lad said. 'I'll rub 'em down good and give 'em a
feed, but we'll keep the saddles handy in case you call for them.'
'Thank you, lad,' Odo said, offering a copper to the lad.
'Thankee, sir,' the lad said, and led the ponies away.
At the door they were challenged again. 'I have business with the Thain,' Odo
repeated. He wondered to himself how many times he'd have to say the words.
'The Thain's not here,' one of the guards at the main entrance said.
'He knows that, Haldegrim,' Odo's guide said, 'so take him to see Reginard,
will you? I've got to get back to my hobbits.'
'Very well,' Haldegrim said sourly. 'Come along, you,' he said to Odo. 'Don't
dawdle.'
Odo had no intention of dawdling, but he and Rudi were hard pressed to keep up
with the Took's swift strides, leading them deep into the Great Smials, to the
Thain's study. Odovacar had been here on occasion in happier times, and he
remembered strolling at a leisurely pace down the corridor with Paladin, in
happy anticipation of a glass of fine ale at the end of the journey.
The guard stopped suddenly, to knock upon a door. He stuck his head in, said,
'Visitors for the Thain,' then swung the door wide to let the Bolgers enter.
'The Thain's not here,' Reginard Took said, rising from his desk to greet them.
He knew Odovacar, of course, and had seen Rudivacar on several occasions.
'I know that,' Odo said, 'but I hope that you can help me. I've come for
Estella.'
'Estella?' Reginard said, a puzzled look on his face. 'What makes you think
Estella is here?'
