[piosenniel]

‘If nothing else,’ thought Amaranthas, ‘those Bywaters are good for getting the latest gossip.’

Here it was, not even mid-afternoon, and Lily Bywater had come knocking at her door, wanting to know if she’d heard the news about that Elf friend of hers. Amaranthas invited her in, and sat her down at the kitchen table. A plate of crisp nut cookies and a cup of strong tea, and the Hobbit’s tongue was loosed. Amaranthas listened closely to the description, sorting out fact from the fiction as Lilly prattled on.

A shabby rogue he was, and a bruiser from the looks of him, was Lily’s thirdhand decription – what with one eye swollen shut from a fight with the Shiriffs. Took six of them to take him down and bring him in, don’t you know. Big man, too, must be seven feet tall if he’s an inch. And free with his hands and kisses. Why he grabbed that Elf, the minute he was set loose, as if she were the prize goose and he was hauling her home for dinner. Amaranthas chortled at this description of Piosenniel, wondering what she would think of it.

She tuned out the rest of Lily’s news which had turned to talk of her thieving cousins and their latest exploits, and poured the chattering woman another cup of tea as she thought about what she had learned. Miz Pio had been right. It was Mithadan who had been detained by the Shiriff, and he sounded as if he was pretty beaten up by the trip to the Shire. From comments Pio had dropped during their conversations, she was fairly certain he was not the sort of man to go looking for a fight, nor was he one to defy authority. Must be tall, too. Pio was tall and from what Lily had described he had had no trouble taking her in his arms. The fact that he had kissed her straight off warranted several plus points in her book. Miz Pio deserved someone who was bold enough to show her affection in public.

‘To be quite honest,’ Amaranthas thought to herself, ‘I’m just happy to know he really exists.’ She had often wondered what sort of husband would let his wife be away from him for so long, and especially one bearing his babies. She had even gone so far as to doubt that he really existed at all, but rather, was just a convenient fiction for the Elf.

Lily’s talk had now wandered off into talk of the new additions to the prolific Bywater clan. Her sister Violet, it seemed, had just had twins, and what with the other eight children in the family Lily was thinking the family ought to pitch in and get Violet some extra help for the new babies. One of the younger cousins, she thought, could come and stay for a while and see her through the first few months at least.

Amaranthas snapped out of her musings as Lily’s words crept into her consciousness. ‘Why Lily! That’s an excellent idea. It’s a wonder I didn’t think of it first myself!’ Lily looked at the older Hobbit, and frowned. Now why would Amaranthas be thinking about Violet and her babies? She shrugged it off as just another odd statement from an oldster whose mind might be slipping a little more with the passing years.

She wasn’t surprised when Amaranthas sped her out the door shortly after making her comment. The Old Hobbit was known for her abruptness and her lapses in sociableness when the mood struck her. Lily, just happy for the time she’d been allowed to share her news, waved good-bye as she walked down the steps and headed home.

Lily had almost made it to the gate, when Amaranthas called after her. ‘Send young Hap round in an hour, won’t you dear? With his pony. I need a message delivered to someone in Hobbiton. There’s an extra penny for him, if he waits for an answer and brings it back.’