"Auntie Esme! Auntie Esme!" Esmeralda spun around in alarm upon hearing the excited voice shouting down the hallway behind her.
Frodo was racing towards her, waving a piece of paper in the air, eyes shining and a broad grin on his face. When he reached her, Frodo grabbed her hand and jumped up and down, thrusting the paper so close under her nose and still waving it so wildly that his Aunt had little chance of focussing upon it.
Esmeralda could only laugh. "What ever is it, Frodo? Stop bobbing about like a Jack-in-a-box and tell me what's happened."
The young lad restrained himself from jumping but then started shuffling from one hairy foot to the other, unable to contain his excitement, and his voice was so loud that Esmeralda would swear that he could be heard clear across the other side of the Shire in Michael Delving.
"Uncle Bilbo is coming for my birthday! He's coming for a whole week . . . he says we can have a joint party . . . we share the same birthday . . . and I can invite whoever I like . . . and there will be lots to eat . . . and a cake . . . and games . . . and he will take me to the market to get presents for everyone . . ."
By the time he reached the end of his disjointed speech Frodo was jumping up and down again, taking both Esmeralda's hands in his and dancing around, spinning her in a circle. The older hobbit loosed his grasp to pull him to her in a hug before she became too dizzy. In response wiry arms wrapped themselves strongly about her waist and the sparkling blue eyes beamed up at her.
Still laughing in response, Esmeralda squeezed him. "That certainly sounds like a party to look forward to."
"Oh yes! Uncle Bilbo throws the best parties in the Shire . . . and he's going to hold it here and share it with me! There will be lots of food and he says he will bring toys for all my friends . . .toys from Dale! Dale! That's outside the Shire . . . from ever so far away! Even past the Old Forrest."
Esmeralda looked suitably impressed. Bucklanders had more contact with outsiders than most hobbits, being on the edge of the Shire as they were but, it was still quite an event to have large amounts of outland things arrive all at once in the same place. People would be talking about the event for years to come. But then, Bilbo Baggins was not one to keep a low profile and seemed blissfully uncaring of the whispers and stares.
It had taken a great deal of wheedling on Esmeralda's part to get Saradoc to suggest the idea to Bilbo. And now that it looked like it was actually going to happen she was not so sure whether this event would be good or bad for Frodo. Most people nowadays chose to forget that the lad was a relative of the notorious adventurer and drawing attention to the fact could cause his cousin and nephew some problems with his peers. On the other hand, she had never seen Frodo so animated and happy as when he received a letter from his Uncle Bilbo, and anyone who could bring about such a change in the serious child could not be all bad. Could he?
"Oh my. That does sound exciting. Have you told Uncle Saradoc?"
"Yes, yes, and he says it will be allowed. Auntie Marina is visiting a friend that week so she won't be able to organise my party and was going to ask someone else to do it. So it will be perfect. Isn't it wonderful? Uncle Bilbo coming here . . . I haven't seen him since . . ." Blue eyes lost some of their sparkle and the voice lowered. "I haven't seen him since the funeral . . . and he was so nice to me then. He let me sit by him afterwards and held me and gave me his hanky." Frodo fished from his pocket a large, clean and folded red hanky . . . obviously a treasured possession.
Bilbo Baggins went up several notches in Esmeralda's esteem. There was obviously more to the lad's Uncle than adventuring and it was also apparent to her that Frodo adored him.
"I hope you will be sending me an invitation to this bun feast."
"Oh yes, Auntie Esme. Uncle Bilbo asked me to start making a list of people I wanted to invite and I've got you at the very top of my list."
Esmeralda's heart leapt at the simple confession. That he had thought of her first when inviting friends was a sign of affection that she could not remember ever having been lavished upon her before by a child.
She brushed back the dark curls from his brow. "I shall be honoured to attend."
Frodo's grin widened and he stepped back, his mouth suddenly dropping open in alarm. "Oh . . . I have to tell Freddy!" With that he spun away and raced down the hall, almost bowling over one of the older occupants of Brandy Hall and pausing only to yell an apology to him as he rounded a corner.
000
The party turned out to be all that was promised, and more. Esmeralda was among the many, young and old, that filled the great dining room of Brandy Hall and her ears rang with the excited shrieks of children opening gaily-wrapped parcels. Bilbo had brought many little gifts for his nephew to hand over to his peers and Frodo and his uncle had spent the best part of one whole day deciding what to give to who, wrapping and labelling them carefully. Esmeralda smiled as she watched all their painstaking effort ripped away excitedly by small eager fingers, the shreds of paper beginning to form drifts upon the floor like autumn leaves in a gale.
The din was made worse by the fact that some of those parcels contained toy drums and flutes, rattles and whistles, and some of the more elderly members of the Hall had already retired to another room to consume some of the very good wine that Bilbo had provided. Now there was only Bilbo and Esmeralda and few of the mothers of the noisy swirl of children, keeping an eye on their charges from the fringes of the melee.
Esmeralda was pleased to see that Bilbo had not joined his peers but elected to stay with his nephew, although he now held a glass of wine, thoughtfully sent in by those in the other room. Esmeralda frowned as she watched Frodo ask his uncle for a sip and Bilbo comply, but her smile echoed Bilbo's chuckle as he watched the lad's face screw up in distaste as he swallowed quickly. At least now Frodo would not be tempted to go away and try it on his own.
Joining some of the other ladies, Esmeralda began to clear away the empty plates and cups, so that the children would be able to run around without doing too much damage, now that the important business of eating was out of the way. She smiled as she watched Hilda remove the platter that had contained the huge birthday cake. There was not a crumb left of the gigantic white and yellow confection and Esmeralda knelt to collect the stubs of the many candles that had graced it, from where they rolled about beneath the table.
As she paused to rearrange one of her combs, to fasten her hair out of her eyes, Esmeralda found herself face to face with the young Master of the Feast. His eyes shone, a wide grin splitting his pink flushed face, and she found that her own visage moved immediately to mirror that expression, so contagious was it.
"Happy birthday, Frodo, and many more of them."
Frodo giggled, a light and happy sound that shook his shoulders and sent his curls bobbing.
"Thank you, Auntie Esme."
He reached out a hand and grabbed hers, knocking the candle stubs back onto the floor and laughing all the louder at Esmeralda's exasperated sigh, as they rolled away in random directions. He tugged at her hand.
"Come on Auntie. I haven't given you your present yet."
Esmeralda blinked in surprise. Bilbo had given presents to all the grown ups who had attended (and some who had been too elderly to attend such a rowdy affair). Esme had been the recipient of a rather over decorated parasol. Frodo had dealt with the handing out of presents to his young friends but the small hand holding hers tugged insistently now.
"You'll have to come with me . . . I didn't have time to wrap it because Bilbo only took me to the market yesterday . . . and I didn't want you to see it until I was ready." Each phrase was punctuated with a tug and Esmeralda eventually acquiesced and allowed herself to be led from the din and through the warren that was Brandy Hall, to Frodo's little nest.
His room had no window so an oil lamp sat upon a table by the wall. The bed was small and obviously hastily made by its owner, the covers a little rumpled and the pillows not fluffed properly. A row of tatty books graced a rickety shelf in one corner and a cut down wine barrel beneath the bed held an assortment of toys, some of which had fallen out and now lay forlornly upon the faded rug, ready to trip up any unwary passer by.
A little washstand contained a bowl and jug decorated with pale pink roses. The pattern looked a little incongruous in a child's room, but then so did the carved pipe, hung on a piece of red wool from a nail on the wall by his bed.
In the corner stood a large wardrobe, some of its contents spilling onto the floor and draped over the half open door. Atop it was balanced an assortment of boxes obviously used for storage and another pile of books, their covers in even worse states than those on the shelf. Esmeralda suspected that the lad was a frequent spender at the second hand bookstall in the market and made a mental note to search the glory holes in the lower levels of the Hall for a bookcase.
Frodo led her to sit upon the bed and Esmeralda began to absently plump up his pillows as she watched him drag the room's only rickety chair to the wardrobe. She winced as he clambered up on the seat.
"Frodo . . . is that safe to stand on? Do be careful."
The chair creaked alarmingly as the lad reached up to feel on the top of the wardrobe and Esmeralda began to put out a hand to steady him . . . but he was out of reach.
"Oh yes, Auntie. Don't worry. I always stand on this chair to reach the wardrobe top. I used it only yesterday to put your present out of sight. I didn't want to lose it."
Esmeralda allowed herself a wry smile as she surveyed the room. She could see how easy it would be to lose something in the clutter of this room. He patted around and then let out a pleased exclamation as his fingers closed around a small bag. He spun round in delight, holding it in the air triumphantly and then shrieked in alarm, windmilling his arms frantically as he lost his balance.
The chair, whose joints had been protesting to start with, finally gave out at the sudden movement. With a loud groan the much-abused piece of furniture seemed to fold in upon itself, throwing its occupant off and for a moment Esmeralda could only stare, opened mouthed, at the heap of limbs . . . wooden and flesh that lay entangled upon the floor. It was the sight of a growing purple stain on the faded blue of the rug that eventually brought Esmeralda back to herself and she rushed to try and make sense of the mess. She was not even aware that she had shouted for help until the door flew open and several of the household ran into the room behind her, as she knelt on the floor at Frodo's side.