August already? Where is the summer going? I'm not ready for it to end! No, no, dear Summer! Please don't go yet. I need your bright sunshine, your long, lazy twilights, your blooming flowers and birds that sing past midnight! I need them because they have been the backdrop for me falling in love. I don't want it to end. Ever. Isn't there some way, some magic, some old spell, to stop time? There must be!
Ah, me! I am silly, I know. The silliest of women! All of these thoughts and feelings make me miss Pa and Ma more than ever. How I wish that I could share this with them. Oh, they would love Tairy so! Pa would look him up and down and approve of his sturdy build and strong shoulders, and then shake his hand. Ma would have a sly, knowing smile while the men talk. She would be taking note of how quiet and respectful Tairy speaks, so solemn but with his warm, honest eyes. Am I painting a memory that is far too perfect? I don't think Pa and Ma ever met a Gondorian in all their lives.
Emory. I never write about him. To be honest, I try to put him out of my mind most of the time. I can’t think about what he would think of Tairy because it’s too painful and it doesn’t matter. I expect one day they’ll meet. It can’t be helped. I know my brother is still somewhere around Bree. I worry that he’s fallen into a bad way and that’s why I haven’t seen him in so long. I worry that if Tairy knew the things Emory had done, that he might break his jaw as soon as he was able.
Bah! Back to happier thoughts, please!
Last night we sat and looked over the book he’d found, the one about birds. Well, when I say we “sat”, I mean that he sat down by the window and pulled me into his lap. I wonder how many times a lass can blush in her lifetime! I daresay Tairy may try to break that record, if there is one. He says the bird scolds him whenever he dares to walk through the yard, and that made me laugh. We had our tea with jam and bread in my bedroom for the first time. With the door wide open, of course! We wasn’t trying to do anything untoward. It were just the best window for seeing our little feathered guest in the oak tree. I told Tairy that if anyone came into the house, he’d have to toss me away, across the room! He said nay, just throw a blanket over him and pretend he were part of the furniture. I laughed so at that!
We decided that the bird is a babbling warbler. Or so we call them here in Bree! The book on Tairy’s knee were full of formal, fancy words and names I didn’t know. He read it out loud to me, slow and careful, letting me follow his finger on the page. I love him so much for that. Just for that one, little, kind, sweet thing.
I’ve had to put his ring on a piece of leather cord, since I’m always working and getting my hands dirty around the house. I can’t let anything happen to it! I’ve hung it round my neck for now, and I must say, I prefer feeling it resting near my heart. The cord is long enough that it stays out of sight, I don’t want every person I run into to ask me about it! Folk around Bree have some terrible, wagging tongues about these things.
I do wonder what it would be like...what it will be like…
Bless me, I can’t even write it down!
Bah, enough of this nonsense! I’m going outside to work in the garden.
