15:
Engagements, Confessions and Goodbyes
Pervinca
raced to Pippin’s room. She had some wonderful news, and he was the first
person she wanted to tell. He was packing for his upcoming trip to Hobbiton and
Buckland. Frodo Baggins needed help with his move to Crickhollow. Pervinca
thought that Pippin seemed to be packing a lot for a simple trip to Hobbiton,
but she refrained from making a comment. She had more important matters to
worry about.
“Pippin,
you’ll never believe what has happened!” she cried.
“Gandalf
turned Merry into a toad?” Pippin offered, though his heart was not in it.
“No,
silly! Everard and I are going to get married. We’ve finally made it official.
We’re engaged!” Master Everard Took had been courting Pervinca for several
years now. It had always been assumed that they would eventually marry, and
Pervinca’s recent coming of age was all that they were waiting for.
Pippin
forced a smile. “That’s wonderful, Vince. When will you be holding the
wedding?”
“Well,
hopefully as soon as possible.” In her joy, Pervinca didn’t yet notice the
lines of worry on Pippin’s face. “But we shall wait until you’re back, of
course.”
Pippin
openly cringed. Wait until he was back? He didn’t even know if he was coming
back! Merry had made it perfectly clear how dangerous this journey could well
be.
“You
don’t have to, you know,” he said in a small voice.
“Don’t
be ridiculous!” Pervinca cried. She suddenly wondered if Pippin didn’t want her
to marry. She was his favourite sister, after all. “Pip, please don’t be upset
that I’m marrying. Everard will be a wonderful husband, you know that.”
“No,
no, Pervinca! I do want you to get married. And you know how much I like
Ev. It’s just…” Pippin sighed. “You deserve to be happy, and you shouldn’t have
to wait for me to get back.”
Pervinca
laughed. “You’re only going to Hobbiton and Buckland! That’s hardly a long
distance.”
Peregrin
knew he had been sworn to secrecy. He knew that Merry had ordered him to tell
no one about their plan, but he could not keep Pervinca, his dearest sister, in
the dark like this. He whispered, “No, I’m not.”
“You’re
not going to Hobbiton?”
“Well,
I am going to Hobbiton and Buckland first, but then…who knows where we’re
going.”
Pervinca
paled as his words sunk in. “Pippin, what are you talking about?”
“I
can’t tell you…”
“Pippin,
please.” Pervinca’s eyes had started to tear up. Whatever Pippin said, it was
not going to be good.
He
sighed again. “Fine, but if Merry finds out, he’ll kill me. I won’t tell you
all the details, just enough for you to understand. Perhaps Merry won’t think
that so bad.” Pippin took a deep breath. “Frodo’s in trouble, big trouble. So
big, that he has to leave the Shire.”
“So
that’s why he sold Bag-End to the S.-Bs! I thought that was strange. He isn’t
moving to Buckland at all.”
Peregrin
shook his head. “It’s just a diversion. It would not do for Frodo to simply
disappear like Bilbo did.”
“And
you and Merry are going with him?”
“Yes,
but he doesn’t know that yet. He only knows that Sam is.”
Pervinca
took a sharp breath. “Sam? Sam is going too?”
“Gandalf
chose Sam personally to be Frodo’s companion.”
“Where
are you going?”
“Don’t
know yet,” Pippin replied. “Rivendell for starters, but after that…”
“I’m
coming with you,” Pervinca interrupted.
“No,
Pervinca. I won’t let you. I’ll be in enough trouble as it is if they find out
I told you. Imagine what would happen if I let you come along!” Pippin managed
a smile. “I especially don’t want to think what Ev and Rosie would do to me.
I’m sure that having you and Sam together in the Wild is a recipe for
disaster.”
Amidst
her tears, Pervinca laughed. Pippin was probably right. Faced with the dangers
that would obviously be a part of this journey, she and Sam would be sure to
form a bond that should not exist. Rose Cotton and Everard would never forgive
them – if they ever came back.
“Oh,
Pip! What if you never return?” she cried suddenly. “What if I never see you,
or Merry, or Sam, or Frodo again?”
Pippin
wrapped his arms around his sister, and for a moment, was annoyed that she
stood an inch or two higher than him. “I promise I will come back. And I will
bring those three with me. Even if I have to drag them the whole way.”
He
had never broken a promise to his sister before, so it was hard for him to make
one that he might not be able to keep. But perhaps that promise would help him
hold on in times that he could feel inclined to give up.
“Then
I shall wait until you come back to have the wedding,” she whispered.
“Pervinca,
don’t! I want you to be happy.”
“I
won’t be happy unless you stand witness at my wedding,” she stubbornly replied.
Pippin
gave in. “I hope Everard will understand.”
The
next morning, as Pippin left for Hobbiton, Paladin noticed that his youngest
daughter seemed more upset than she should have been, considering Peregrin
would only be gone for a month at the most. He had made this trip countless
times. The Thain began to suspect that there was more to this situation than he
was aware of.
* *
* * * *
It
was around three weeks after Peregrin left that a messenger arrived from
Buckland bearing ill news. It seemed Crickhollow had been attacked.
“What
of my son?” Paladin asked, slowly. The messenger had been taken to the Thain’s
office. Eglantine sat by his side, gripping his hand tightly. Pervinca and
Everard stood near by.
“No
sign has been found of Peregrin, not the Master’s son, nor Mister Frodo Baggins
and his gardener,” the messenger replied. “Fredegar Bolger was the only hobbit
found, but when I left Buckland, he had not yet come out of a raving fit of
fear.”
Eglantine
cried out, and Paladin pulled her close. Pervinca felt Everard’s hand on her
shoulder, and was thankful for it. They really had gone. Part of her had wanted
to believe that Pippin had made everything, but now she knew for certain it was
all the truth. Frodo was in graver danger than she feared, if his home had been
attacked.
Paladin
gathered his strength and addressed the messenger in the proper Thain manner.
“I must thank you for coming. Please rest for as long as you wish.”
“Thank
you, sir, but I will probably head back soon.” The messenger bowed low. “Rumour
has Master Saradoc may want the Old Forest searched, and they’ll need every
able body they can find.”
“Then
I ask that you take word to my sister and her husband that I shall be
travelling to Buckland within the next few days. Perhaps, by then, Master
Fredegar may have some answers for us.”
The
messenger from Buckland bowed again and left the room. Eglantine could hold on
no longer. She burst into tears.
“Oh,
Peregrin!”
In
the end, the Tooks did not need to travel to Buckland. Pimpernel was sent – she
had moved to Brandy Hall when she married Merry’s cousin, Berilac. Paladin sent
word to Pearl (living in Pincup with her husband, Orlando Burrows) to return to
the Smials, so that all of Peregrin’s family would hear the news. Paladin,
Eglantine, Pimpernel, Pearl and Pervinca sat in Paladin’s office.
“The
general belief is that they were lost in the Forest,” Pimpernel explained.
“Uncle Sarry is doing nothing to dispel that rumour. He thinks that it will
help to keep Frodo’s secret.”
“What
secret?” Eglantine demanded. “And what does it have to do with Pippin?”
“They’ve
left the Shire,” whispered Pervinca. “Frodo’s in trouble, and Pippin, Merry and
Sam went with him.”
Pimpernel
looked at her sister in wonder. “How did you…? I suppose Pippin spoke to you.”
The youngest Took nodded. “It’s to be expected. How much do you know?”
“Very
little.”
“Well,
Fredegar told us as much as he could. Poor fellow was nearly mad with terror.
We had to send for Estella, so that she could calm him down. We would never
have gotten any information out of him otherwise.”
“Pimpernel,
please tell us why Peregrin has left us,” said Paladin, in a tense voice. He
knew his daughter meant well, but she was quite prone to rambling.
Pimpernel
took a deep breath, and then relayed everything she had heard from Fredegar
Bolger, about Bilbo’s ring and Frodo’s quest to be rid of it.
“They
left the Shire for our sake,” said Pearl. “They had to leave to keep the
Shire safe. Frodo, did, at least, and Merry and Pippin would not be separated
from him.”
“I
asked to go with them,” Pervinca admitted, tears streaming down her face.
Paladin
moved to his youngest daughter and held her tightly. “I am glad that you did
not. It is hard enough for me to have to lose Pippin and Merry…”
“You
haven’t lost them! They are going to come back. Pippin promised me. He had
never broken a promise made to me!”
The
Thain nodded. Much of him believed in what Pervinca said. Not only had Pippin
never broken a promise, but when he was with Meriadoc, he never got himself
into trouble he could not handle. Unfortunately, his more logical side forced
doubt into his mind, and tried to convince him that he was holding onto a
fool’s hope. He needed his son to be there, to tell him that anything was
possible.
“Anything
is possible, Dad,” said Pervinca, as if reading his mind. “As long as you
believe in it.”
Paladin
managed a smile.
* *
* * * *
A/N:
This chapter parallels with a chapter of “Just to Be With You”, where it is
discovered that Crickhollow has been raided, and Pimpernel is chosen to take
the message to her father. I just didn’t like to think that Pippin and Merry’s
families had no idea what had happened to their sons, so that’s why I decided
that they should be told.