[Primrose Bolger]

Ginger was just making her way up to her room above the kitchen, when the sound of a familiar voice made her pause. ‘Wait up!’ she heard Buttercup call. ‘What’s that you’ve got?’ Buttercup drew near and reached out her hand, as if to take one of the books, but Ginger just held the two tomes all the tighter.

‘I promised Miz Bella I would keep them nice and neat for her. She’s leant them to me to take a look at.’ Ginger opened one of the books, the one with the pictures and the riddles, and showed it to Buttercup.

Picking up her apron, Buttercup wiped her hands thoroughly on it, and sidling in next to Ginger, held part of the book in her hand. Ginger turned the pages slowly as they looked at the neatly drawn, and often very funny, pictures. ‘Can you read what it says, Buttercup?’ the younger Hobbit asked.

Buttercup looked oddly at her friend. ‘Well, yes. I had Miz Callie Proudfoot for a teacher. Very strict on learning your letters and reading and writing proper.’ Ginger looked at her blankly. ‘She was that old teacher that retired years and years ago, I was just barely a tweenager when she taught her last classes.’ A look of comprehension came across Buttercup’s face. ‘She was the last teacher we had here in Bywater! You never got to do any learning with her, did you?’

Ginger’s cheeks pinked and she hung her head as she shook it. ‘Well, that’s not your fault, is it? And you all were busy enough on the farm that such things sort of got pushed to the side, I’ll bet.’ Buttercup patted her friend’s arm and closed up the riddle book. ‘You just bring that round to my room after supper, I can help you with it. Then you can show Miz Bella how good you’re doing.’

‘Thank you!’ said Ginger, smiling at Buttercup. Her eyes widened as she remembered something Miz Bella had told her. ‘Remember you asked me to ask her where she was from?’ Buttercup nodded her head. ‘She said she came from someplace called The New Lands. Showed me a map, too. It’s sort of like the one up in the Common Room – showed where the King lives – Gondor, right? And the Shire and all the way to the big sea on the left side where the wavy lines go right to the edge.’ Buttercup nodded again, wondering where Ginger would say the woman had come from. ‘Miz Bella’s map went further on the left . . . it wasn’t just the sea, there were some lands up in that top corner . . . The New Lands. And she sounded pretty familiar with them and not like she was just making them up.’

‘The New Lands?’ Buttercup’s brow furrowed as she tried to recollect anything she’d ever heard about them. ‘Well, now isn’t that just a puzzlement!’ She linked her arm through Ginger’s as they walked toward the younger girl’s room. ‘We’re just going to have to find out about those, aren’t we? They sound very, very interesting . . .’

A great booming voice called up the stairs, startling the two young women. ‘Have mercy! It’s Cook,’ said Buttercup. ‘I completely forgot she sent me up here to find you. It’s time to be getting the noon meal started.’ Ginger ran to her room and stacked the books on her nightstand. Then the two friends raced down the stairs to see what Cook had in mind for them to do.