FIC: Lobelia Flower

[serai]

"Mistress Lobelia?"

One hot summer's Highday, Lobelia Sackville-Baggins stood blinking in the bright sunlight as she examined a spun-glass mathom she had spied at a market stall. Turning it over in her hands, she finally set it down, sniffing. Too fragile; it would probably crack before she got it home.

"Mistress Lobelia?"

"Hm? Who's calling me?" She looked around, and then her eye catching movement looked down. There before her was a small child, rather grubby and dressed in lower-class clothes. That Gamgee boy, it was. She pursed her lips as she looked at him, and saw that he was nervous. And well he might be, she thought.

"Well?" she snapped, tamping her umbrella on the ground like a cane. "What is it?"

The child swallowed, and then piped up, "Mistress Lobelia, I came to say I'm sorry I got mud on your dress." He paused, and then added, "These are for you."

The old matron saw the child had a posey, and now offered it to her. They were lobelias, bright summery blue, gathered up into an almost perfectly round bundle of blossoms. She looked sharply at Sam's face, and surprised no look of guile or deceit.

Well, now. The boy may have misbehaved, but he was after all very small, and even she could see he was making an heroic effort to be courtly. She supposed there was no reason to be cruel, after all.

"Flowers, now," Lobelia muttered. Reaching down, she accepted the child's offering, and inspected it. She could see some effort had been put into the gift; it was fresh and had been tied with a carefully braided stem of grass. A memory stirred, white-tipped blue blossoms gathered in a hand, and the set of her mouth softened a little. "And my namesake," she murmured.

She looked down regally at Samwise, who stood with his toes curling and uncurling, all innocence and nervousness. "That was well done, Samwise," she said. "You're forgiven this once. But I expect it shall not happen again!"

Sam's eyes went round, and he shook his head. "Very well then," she said. "I shall put these in water when I arrive home. Be off with you, now."

The child hesitated a moment, then made a quick bow and scampered off. Lobelia watched him run, an eyebrow quirked at his obvious relief. Then she looked again at the cluster of brilliant color in her hand, and for just a moment, her expression might have been taken for a smile.