As the wind mercilessly pelts across Buckland, whistling over Headstrong Smial, the inside is surprisingly calm and serene. There seems to be hardly a sound, save for the crackling of the fire--and a soft, gently humming. The humming comes directly from Lilly Took who is sitting in the parlour at Headstrong Smial, reading a rather large book--its edges aged yellow with time, and its cover a dark, musty brown. Her curly head can be seen from the door, moving side to side as she moves her large, dark eyes across the page, drinking all the information she can. She stops suddenly, and leans back into the couch, saying to herself, "My, oh my--I hadn't expected that to happen. What a tale this is!" After chuckling to herself in low tones, Lilly licks her lips, and jumps back into her in-depth reading.

While the home of the Headstrong family is warm and quiet, the outside world is cold, windy, and bleak. The moon is starting to climb into the sky as usual, covered occasionally by grey clouds.

A knock sounds at the door - not a quiet, subtle knock but a loud, rapping knock as though the knocker were mad. The butler stands up from his seat by the door and opens the round portal.

An old, harried-looking stoor enters. He closes the door and nods to the servant. "Thank you, sir. How is Miss Headstrong?"

The butler coughs. "Not much better, I fear, Doctor Goold... and I seem to have come down with something as well..."

"You should rest, then," says the Doctor. "Doctor's orders." He walks inside and places his medicine bag on a chair by the fire. The butler nods to Lividoc, and sits down on another chair by the right hall. The phsyician takes out a pad and starts reading his notes.

A hobbit walks in the door with a white vest over a blue shirt he has on. Looking around the area Lonyorac walks in with a smile realizing how nice and warm it is in here. He notices some hobbits and walks over to the group,"Good day to you all I hope everything is well on this day."

A pair of dark eyes appear over the edge of a large book and stare at the Doctor for a moment. Then, a sunny faced smile, curtained by long auburn spiral curls, peer out. "Hello," says the lovely Took lass, folding her book--but putting her thumb in place to keep her page. "I believe I saw you at the wine festival, but we weren't properly introduced. I'm Lillianda Took, from Tuckborough--though it looks as if I'll be in Buckland for quite some time. Rue is... a friend of mine, I suppose you could say--friend by association." Cocking her head to the side, Lilly bites her lip a moment and looks at the Doctor, "Teradoc Burrows and I went to Frogmorton to get Dahlia Burrows--quite the healer--and she's been in and out with Rue, but I'm afraid she can't figure out what exactly is the problem... I trust you're taking care of yourself, Doctor?"

Not five minutes after Doctor Lividoc has entered the room, another knock sounds. This time, though, the caller doesn't wait for the butler to respond - he rattles the handle and pushes open the front door himself, stepping indoors quickly to get out of the cold, icy weather outside.

He nod curtly at the butler, who is just in time to take his coat.

"Well, about time." he smirks, "You may tell Master Dilby that Hugo Bracegirdle is here to see him, snapish."

Doctor Lividoc looks up from his seat and pad. "Well? I should say it is far from well... it is unwise to be here, sir..." He puts down his notes and stands, walking over to Lonyorac. "There is a terrible illness here... pneumonia of some sort, I think. Very dangerous."

Turning to Lilly, Goold nods. "Thank you, I have. And I believe I may have identified the cause, though I cannot be sure until after I've done some more questioning and testing."

"Do you think it's catchy, then?" asks Lilly, a hint of curiousity in her eyes and a twinge of fear in her voice. She furrows her brow, not waiting for an answer, and mutters, "Not good at all, no, not good at all. You see, my husband-to-be--Teradoc, he's been sniffling and coughing and bit... but... he insists that it's just a cold. And my brother is very close to Rue. Lilly sighs and runs her hand over her long curls. To Hugo, she says, "Mr. Bracegirdle--I don't think Dilby is in. I haven't seen him about for a few days, and when he's here, he's practically an apparition. Though I doubt it, is there anything I can help you with? I'm keeping things going while Rue is ill, you could say."

Nodding, the doctor says to Lilly, "I should say it is not only contagious, but -very- contgious. I haven't heard of anything this 'catchy' as the Great Plague of 43."

"Bracegirdle, eh?" Lividoc mutters to himself. Looking up at Hugo, he asks, curiously, "I don't suppose you might be akin to Bruno Bracegirdle? A cousin, or aunt of mine - rather distant, one Tolula Goold - married one Bruno Bracegirdle. Is there any relation?"

Approaching Lividoc and Lonyo, Hugo shakes his head, "Pneumonia? Ah, well, how ironic. I spend the whole trip from Bucklebury worrying about catching a cold, and then step right into a sick house."

He sniffs, turning on his heel, and walks up to the fireplace to warm his hands.

"Miss Took, isn't it?" he asks Lilly. "Hum. Well, I had hoped to get a case or three ordered for next month. I've some rather important guests coming to stay... Do you have the keys to the cellar? You could hand them over for a few hours. I've a good line of credit, not to worry."

As he talks, he shifts his head this way and that, trying to read what's written on the spine of her book.

Distractedly, still trying to name the book, Hugo nods to Lividoc, "Why, yes, Doctor, Bruno was my father. What a splendid coincidence!"

Lilly looks down at her book, and raises a perplexed eyebrow at Hugo. "Ah, so the wine is it... and yes, it's Miss Took--but soon to be Burrows--I beleive we've met a few times before in Hobbiton," says the young Lilly, holding her large book oddly close to herself. "And as for the keys to the wine cellar, well, I know I saw them somewhere around here..." she says, standing, still clutching her book, and looking up on the mantle. She frowns slightly, turning around, a little bit of a pout on her lips. "You will excuse me, but the wine business is certainly nothing I'm familliar with. Books and poetry are much more my thing... and I've had the fortunate luck to live with the Tooks at Great Smials most of my life..." she sighs, "I swear the keys were right here!"

Hugo perks up as books and Great Smials are mentioned together in a sentence. His jaw trembles, and his eyes narrow. "Ah... how very... IN-TER-esting." he murmurs, rolling the last word around in his mouth like a boiled sweet.

"How rude of me to announce that we're throwing a party, and then not invite you three, too. Oh, and Mr. Burrows, too, of course." he says, suddenly. "And Dilby and Rue too, I suppose, though I'm sure that they're very ill and wouldn't want to infect my other guests, what a shame."

"What do you say, Doctor? Lonyorac? Miss Took?"

He puts both hands on his hips, and beams genially.

Goold nods to Hugo. "Ah, I see. A pleasure meeting you, sir. I'm afraid, though, that I cannot attend... I must remain here to tend to the Headstrongs." He sighs.

"Well, how close are they to recovery?" asks the Bracegirdle patriarch, arms now crossed in front of his chest. "And what's the matter with them, anyway? Both strapping young examples of hobbithood, as far as I remember. Must be all that grape treading, wot."

"And although a party does sound simply fantastic to me," Lilly says, mournfully, her fingers gently moving along the smooth leather cover of her book, "I shall have to decline. I honestly think its best if I stay here with my brother while he tends Rue. He's... my brother, afterall, and I do owe it to him, in a familial sense." Placing the book down on a side table, Lilly looks curiosly at Hugo, "Well, you see, no one is exactly sure what's got Rue down. No doubt it's pneumonia of some sort--but it's all very peculiar. I'm sure Dr. Goold would know how to explain it better, afterall, I'm a writer--not a doctor."

Hugo squints at Doctor Goold. "Yes, please, explain." he asks. "Surely some hot baths and a little bed rest should fix them up fine and dandy."

Lividoc looks at Hugo, then at Lilly. "I'm afraid it's a rather strange story... Rue has told me that a few weeks ago she ran into a rather... odd man, a big person. I believe that it was he who infected her." Sighing, he picks up his bag and pad and walks to the hall to the right. "I am very sorry... I must tend to Miss Headstrong. And no, Mister Bracegirdle, it is not a question of money." He walks down the hall and through a door, which he closes.