‘I have been tending these cellars for nigh as long as you’ve been alive, child, and I am quite rested enough! I think I should know my own strength more than you do!’ Bilbo was greatly enjoying watching Gilda dress Esmie down, and leaned back in his chair, tea in hand, to watch the show. ‘I’m not on my deathbed yet, girl, and even if I were, I’d rather it be my cellars, doing some honest work, than ruining some perfectly good bed.’ Oh, Gilda, you are in fine form! Frodo was smirking into his griddlecakes. ‘So you just take your pretty rump out the door and enjoy a cuddle under a tree with that useless boy of mine before it gets too cold for that this season.’ Even Sara was grinning now, and Rory’s warning look was aimed at his irascible wife. Esmie turned a lovely shade of pink that complemented her auburn hair quite nicely. ‘In fact, Maddie, you will fix up a picnic basket for these two and see that they scoot out the door and stay away all day.’