Budgeford wasn't far from Crickhollow, and though Freddy didn't feel up to much traveling after his ordeal, Merry and Pippin came to visit him often. They brought news of the world and their success in chasing the Ruffians out once and for all. They brought food that Merry's mother had prepared and sent with them, saying, "He needs to be fattened up again. You two are skinny enough after all your walking, but poor Fredegar, he frightens me."

Estella was often there with him, and they'd talk, especially when Freddy wasn't in the mood for talking. And as the months and the seasons passed she started coming to visit them at Crickhollow and at the Hall as well, even when Freddy stayed home.

They'd known each other since they were children, of course, but while Fatty had been, after Merry, among the most enthusiastic hobbits in following Frodo in whatever he decided to do, Estella was more grounded and more independent, and Merry had always had the feeling that she disapproved slightly of the boys' adventuring, and thought them immature, even when Frodo had come of age and inherited Bag End for himself, and she was still a girl of seventeen.

And even now, after all that had happened, and despite the great respect with which the rest of the Shire regarded them, Estella seemed more than anything to be amused by these Travellers returned with their foreign finery and strange ways. When Merry and Pippin told stories at the Ivy Bush a hush would fall over the crowd, but if Merry sought out Estella's face she was usually smirking, and the places she laughed were not the ones where the audience was supposed to laugh.

This all made it even more important to Merry to impress her, which was a vicious circle since the harder he tried to seem important the more Estella thought him pompous.

"Well what do you come and see us for then?" he finally demanded. "Is it just so you can laugh at us?"

"No," she said, laughing again, and Merry turned away. "No, Merry, look at me." She controlled her laughter and turned him around to face her again. "I come to see you because I'm hoping to get a look at the real you, what you're like when you're not trying to be some hero out of a storybook. And I do get to see it, every once in a while, when you and Pippin look at each other and you forget that I'm there. That's when you seem like real hobbits again."

"That's..." Merry tried, then started again. "It isn't an act, the rest of it. It's all the real me, the whole time."

"All right," said Estella, "I suppose that's fair. But the Merry who looks at Pippin that way is the one I've got a crush on. I keep coming to see you because I'm hoping one of these days you'll look at me that way."

Merry was speechless, could do nothing but stare, while Estella watched his face attentively and, after several very long moments, announced, "There it is!" and kissed him firmly on the forehead.

"Is that all it takes then," said Merry, "for me to get your approval? I just have go dumb?"

"No, Merry, you just have to trust me is all. Let your guard down."

Merry was still a little confused, but he thought he was starting to figure things out. "Like this?" he said, still doing nothing but look at her."

"Yes, just like that."

"Like this?" And this time he moved closer, brought his hand gently behind her head and pulled her close and kissed her on the lips. It was slow but not long, open but not pushing in. And when he drew away Estella was the one who looked shocked, and that was a very unusual look on Estella's face.

But after a few moments she recovered her usual composure. "Yes," she said. "Yes, that's just what I've been waiting for."