[piosenniel]

Pio sat in the darkness of her rooms. Her talk with Laurie had gone well. ‘That one will find her path with sure steps.’ she thought to herself. She watched the stars wheel and dance in the sky for a short while, then relit the small lamp by her side.

Her red note book lay on the table by her, and she picked it up flipping to the page where she had made her list of things needed before the babies came. Taking a fresh quill from the portable writing desk at the other side of her chair, she dipped the tip into the ink and went about editing her entries.

The midwife had been found. Sam’s wife, Miz Rose would do her the honors. Now what about the position of Innkeeper. She chewed her lip and tapped the feather against her cheek. ‘Ah! What about Prim?!’

Primrose Bolger, a distantly related cousin to Fatty Bolger would fit the bill nicely. A down to earth Hobbit with a good head for judging people and a good mind for business. A hard worker – she had been a server at the Inn for about a year now and had been a tremendous help to Pio when she first had come and had the Inn drop in her lap. She was the kind of young woman who dove right in to manage anything thrown her way.

Prim was thirty-five years old, and unattached as yet, though many of the young males hung on her every word and eyed her as she moved about the room serving drinks. Pio kidded her about her covey of admirers, but Prim just laughed it off saying she was too young to think about settling down as yet. She had too much she wanted to do.

Perfect! She would ask her tomorrow if she would be willing to take over the Innkeeper duties.

Pio closed the book and put it down on the table again. Her hand brushed across a pile of papers that lay stacked in an unruly heap, and several fluttered to the ground. The first one she picked up was a bill from one of the suppliers. She laid it aside to deal with tomorrow.

It was the second one that caught her eye. Narello had done it. She smiled to see it, and her mind quested out to see how the boy fared. He was well and sleeping – in the open beneath the stars and the sighing trees. The picture was lovely. The Two Trees, their light captured well by his young hand. She heaved herself up from her chair and found a silver frame to place it in. ‘Right here.’ she said, placing it on the mantel of the small fireplace. ‘The light from the sun and moon as they stream in the window will shine on the Trees from which they sprang. And I will see it each day as I enter the room.’

She touched his mind once more. A precious gift, Narello! I thank you.