Brabantius Took, Thain of Long Cleeve and head of the North-Took family, sat alone in his study. He poured a glass of wine from the decanter set on its silver tray, which had been moved from its place on the sideboard to the small table at his elbow, as it was every afternoon at this hour. He held the filled glass up to the light, gazing into the dark red depths of the liquid for a long while, but did not drink.

After a few minutes of considering the wine, he set the glass down and tugged the bell-pull to ring for his butler. "Has he come yet, Tulipant?" he asked when the servant arrived.

"No, your Thainship," came the reply, "but a watch is being kept on the road from the south."

"Inform me as soon as the investigator arrives."

The butler Tulipant bowed. "It will be done, your Thainship."

---

"It can't be much farther now," Merry said hopefully as the four hobbits slowed their ponies to peer at the signpost planted at a fork in the road ahead. None of them had been in the far reaches of the Northfarthing before. Long Cleeve was a three-day journey from Hobbiton; they had come by way of Oatbarton then turned westward to skirt the northernmost borders of Bindbale Wood. It was now late afternoon and, from the directions obtained in Oatbarton, they had every reason to believe they were nearing their destination.

"This North-Thain," said Sam after they'd chosen the path that turned northward and ridden on for awhile, "didn't he say what he wanted you for, Frodo?"

"No, Sam. You know as much as I do. It's 'a peculiar and most delicate problem requiring a great deal of discretion.' That's all he said in his letter, and the letter contains all the information I have." Frodo had brought the North-Thain's cryptic message with him, and carried it now in his inner waistcoat pocket, but he'd read it over so many times since he'd received it last week that he could recite most of it from memory. He had written in reply that he would be glad to come to Long Cleeve and offer his services, then invited his cousins to accompany him.

"What d'you suppose it can be?" wondered Merry. "A robbery? The family jewels stolen and he thinks it's one of the family who took them? Or maybe it's some dark, terrible secret he doesn't want to expose to public scandal."

"There was a scandal last year," Pippin remembered. "Mother and Father were talking about it after they had a letter from Aunt Di. Thain Brabantius got married again, to a lady much younger than he is--half his age, Mother said."

"Well, there's no mystery in that," Merry laughed, "except how an old hobbit near eleventy-one can hope to please a wife so much younger."

"You didn't tell him about us coming along?" Sam asked Frodo.

"I said I might be bringing my associates to aid me in whatever investigation he required. Since I've no idea what he requires, I can't predict how much help I might need, and I didn't know when I wrote if you would all be able to come with me." Frodo gave his friend a smile. "You would, of course, dear Sam, but Merry has his Buckland to look after these days, and Pippin has his family." Pippin had only returned from Buckland to visit his family in Tuckborough a few weeks ago; he had grown homesick since leaving them in the spring.

"Uncle Merry's glad to take Buckland off my hands for awhile," said Merry. "I think he prefers having me out of the way so he can manage things properly."

Pippin grinned. "My family didn't mind me going away again. I only had to tell Father and Mother that you'd asked me, and I was off. Mother wasn't sure if she should be pleased or worried when she heard where we were going. She's hoping that if I see Diamond again, I'll reconsider marrying her. On the other hand-"

"There's the other Di," Frodo finished for him. It wasn't difficult to guess; this wasn't the first time Pippin had spoken of Diantha Took during their journey.

"Exactly! Mother's terrified I'll come home and announce I've got myself betrothed to her. That'd almost be worse than Merry!"

"Thank you!" said Merry.

Pippin ducked his head. "Well, you know what I mean. As far as Mother's concerned, one's nearly as bad as the other. She couldn't imagine a worse girl for me to like."

The northward road went around the curve of a hill, then led into a deep, rocky cleft. This narrow passage went on for perhaps a quarter-mile before it gradually widened into a grassy gap between steeply sloped hills. On an outcropping of rock above the path, a figure was sitting; as they drew closer, they could see it was a young hobbit with bright red hair, wearing a well-worn jacket and trousers. This youth stood up, waved, and shouted, "Halloo! I've been keeping watch for you!" then jumped down into the road before them, fearless of the height.

"Di! Hello!" Pippin climbed down from his pony and went to her.

"That's a girl?" Sam murmured doubtfully as the two hugged.

"That," said Frodo, "is Miss Diantha Took." He too dismounted to be hugged in turn.

"Welcome to Long Cleeve, Mr. Clever-Baggins!" Di said once she let go of him. "Granduncle Brabantius has been asking after you every half-hour since he received your letter, saying you'd come. He doesn't like to be kept waiting."

"We came as quickly as we could, Miss," said Sam. He had heard the story of how this strange young girl had come to Tuckborough, pretending to be Pippin's prospective bride, but was uncertain what to make of her.

"You don't know my granduncle. He's used to having everybody jump and obey him instantly," the girl responded. "I told him how Frodo's worked for a great King of the Big Folk and wouldn't be pushed about by a mere Thain, but he only said I was impertinent."

"So you are," replied Frodo.

"What if I am? It's still true, isn't it?" Di retorted.

"Yes, it is, but how do you know about it?" Frodo was aware that he was famous throughout the Shire as a detective, but he doubted that his recent adventures in Minas Tirith were well known.

"Pimmy wrote and told me about it last year, before Pip went off to find you and Merry. How is she, by the way? I heard she's made an awful scandal and run off with a troupe of acrobats. I wish I could run off with some acrobats. Anyway, I was the one who recommended you, Frodo. You didn't know that, did you?"

Frodo shook his head.

"I thought it must be Aunt Di," said Pippin.

"Granduncle did ask Auntie Di about Frodo, but she said that investigating was a disreputable occupation for a gentlehobbit so closely connected to the Tooks, always involved with murders and such. I told him that I knew you as well as she did and knew how clever you were. I ought to, oughtn't I, after you figured out I wasn't Diamond? Besides, there hasn't been any murder in Long Cleeve. I almost wish there was one. It'd be exciting to be in middle of it, but I suppose I'd feel bad for the poor person who was killed unless it was somebody I really didn't like."

"Then you'd probably be suspected," said Merry, "and that wouldn't be fun at all." He hadn't spoken before, since they'd encountered Di, and had hung back a little during the hugs and banter. Like Sam, he'd heard Pippin's and Frodo's story of how they'd first met this girl and would probably have been more pleased to meet her himself, if Pippin hadn't so obviously looked forward to seeing her again.

Di looked him over with curiosity, and Frodo took the opportunity to introduce the two.

"So you're Pip's Merry?" said Di. "I've heard all about you. Pip's told me everything." Then she tugged on Frodo's sleeve. "Come along. Granduncle Brabantius is waiting. He'll want to see you the minute you're in the front door of the Thain's Hall."

"How much further is it to Long Cleeve, Miss?" Sam asked her.

"You're in the Cleeve now," answered Di. "This is the bottom end of it. It goes on for nearly twenty miles, but it's only another mile or so to the Hall."

With Di as a guide, they continued up the road, walking and leading their ponies. The gap widened out into a valley and the slopes of the hills grew higher but no less rocky or steep. They began to pass small farms and cottages with gardens, and spotted the round doorways of hobbit-holes on the hillsides above them. Di led them into an eastward lane toward the brass-trimmed oak door of what appeared to be a grand residence with a large number of windows. There was a garden behind a low hedge on the lower slopes of the hill below the door. "That's the Thain's Hall."

"Do you live here, Di?" asked Pippin.

"No, Poppa and I have our own house, over there-" Di pointed to another, less magnificent-looking door farther along the hillside. "I won't go in with you. They won't want me and, besides, it's almost dinner-time and Poppa must wonder where I am. Good luck! I'll come and ask you all about it tomorrow." She left them at the garden gate, which was shaded by a cluster of young willow trees on either side.

Frodo left his friends with the ponies and went through the gate, then up the stone steps to the Hall door up to knock. The door was answered by a porter, who told him, "You are expected, Mr. Baggins," once he heard Frodo's name. Other servants were quickly summoned to see to the ponies and baggage, and the porter escorted Frodo and his companions into the Hall. Frodo thought they were being taken to the Thain, but instead they soon found themselves in a plush parlor where a group of hobbits were seated.

At their entrance, one older gentleman rose to greet them. "Which of you is Mr. Baggins?" he asked.

"I am," Frodo identified himself. "You aren't Thain Brabantius?" He doubted it could be, for the Thain was an elderly hobbit of 110, and this gentleman was at most five-and-seventy. Nor did any of the other occupants of the room look old enough to be the Thain. There was another gentleman in his seventies and three younger lads in their thirties or early forties. The rest were all women. Diamanta was sitting with another pair of ladies about her own age and one notably younger, pretty girl. Another lady, perhaps fifty-five and a remarkable beauty, sat apart from the rest.

"No," said the older gentleman, "I am the Thain's eldest son and heir, Alhasrus Took. We wanted to see you first, Mr. Baggins, before you spoke to Father."

Although they had never met him before, Frodo, Pippin, and Merry recognized the name: this was Diamanta's husband.

Alhasrus introduced the others, beginning with the remarkable beauty. "May I present Lady Iris, my father's wife. My wife, Diamanta, you know of course, and this is our son Ulfidius." He indicated the eldest of the three young hobbits, then presented the other older gentleman, "My brother, Alamargo Took." One of the older ladies was "Aspid, his wife," and the two younger lads, "their sons, Hilbarus and Helimarcus." Persifilla, the pretty young lady, was Ulfidius's wife. She had observed the newcomers with great interest since they'd come into the room; at her introduction, she met Frodo's eyes for a long, languid moment then, meeting with no response beyond politeness, welcomed him indifferently. Lastly, almost as an afterthought, Alhasrus introduced the other lady who sat inconspicuously with Diamanta and Aspid: "And this is Istra Goodwood, Aspid's sister, who lives with us here at the Thain's Hall since her husband passed on."

In turn, Frodo introduced his companions: "Peregrin Took, the South-Thain's son and heir, Master Meriadoc Brandybuck of Buckland, and Mr. Samwise Gamgee, who is Chief Sheriff at Bywater." Most of the group were curious to see Pippin, since they'd heard so much about his reputation for wildness when Diamanta had proposed a match between him and her niece Diamond, but they also seemed intrigued to learn that Frodo had brought a shirriff with him.

"Did Father invite all of you here?" asked Alamargo.

"No, only me," Frodo answered, "but my friends always assist me in my investigations, and I thought it would be more expedient to bring them along rather than wait and send for them later, when I had need of them. It would take a week or more for them to arrive, and time may be of the essence in this case."

"We don't want to be an imposition," said Pippin. "If it's too much trouble, having so many unexpected guests, we can all go and find lodgings at an inn or tavern somewhere. Surely there must be a few in Long Cleeve."

"Several," said Helimarcus, smiling.

"But you mustn't be so ridiculous as to think of such a thing, dear Peregrin," Diamanta added swiftly. "A Took lodge in a tavern! We wouldn't dream of it! Of course, you and your friends will stay here with us. There's plenty of room."

"Yes," said Iris, "if you have come at the bidding of my husband, the Thain, then you must stay. As Lady of Long Cleeve and mistress of this house--" she put her step-daughter-in-law in her place, "I welcome you on his behalf."

Diamanta and Aspid glowered, but said nothing.

"What sort of case is it, Mr. Baggins?" asked Alhasrus.

"I can only tell you that it is most confidential." That was all he knew of it himself, but Frodo could see that the Thain's family didn't know why he had been summoned either, and they were anxious to find out.

"But surely you can confide it to us?" Aspid prodded. "After all, we are his family."

"His nearest relations," said Iris, and received another look of dislike from the other ladies.

"If there's some trouble, it's only right we know what it is," said Alamargo.

"I'm afraid I can't say more, not until after I consult the Thain,"Frodo answered them.

"Look here, Mr. Baggins," Alhasrus put the matter plainly. "We're terribly concerned for my father. He's a very old hobbit, and he hasn't been well lately. He was seriously ill only a few weeks ago and though he's recovered, since he's been up and about again, he's behaved so oddly that I'm afraid his wits have been affected. He's taken to shutting himself up in his study all day."

"He doesn't even come out to join us for meals and barely speaks to anyone except his butler," added Lady Iris.

"It was only when your letter came that we learned he'd sent for you," said Alhasrus.

"And he hasn't told you why?" asked Frodo.

The Thain's heir shook his head. "There's no reason we can fathom. It may be for no reason at all. You and your friends may have come all this way on a fool's errand. I'm worried that my Father has entered his dotage. But if there is some reason, as my brother suggests, we must know. Surely, Mr. Baggins, you can see-"

What Frodo was meant to see, he never learned, for the door opened at that moment and another young hobbit-lad popped his head into the room. "Father Brabantius has heard that the investigator's arrived," he said.

"It's that Tulipant," said Alamargo. "Father's eyes and ears!"

"He's heard you've got him here, and wants to see him right away. Which one is it?" The young hobbit looked from one guest to another; Frodo stepped forward to accompany the newcomer and left his friends with the North-Tooks.

"Are you the Thain's son?" he asked his escort as they went down a series of tunnels toward the back of the Hall. This boy was much younger than the Thain's two sons he had already met, younger even than their sons; he looked to be less than thirty and might not yet be of age. Yet he had referred to the Thain as 'Father.'

"Step-son," the young hobbit clarified. "I'm Isigo Pumble, Lady Iris's son from her first marriage. There's been talk of Father Brabantius adopting me, but I don't think anything will come of it. The others wouldn't stand for it." They had arrived at a door at the end of a corridor, and Isigo rapped smartly on it. A servant opened it and the boy told him, "I've brought the investigator for the Thain," then raised his voice to call out into the room beyond. "Here he is, Father!"

From within the room came an answering command: "Bring him in!"

The servant held open the door to admit Frodo; Isigo did not go in with him. The Thain's study was dimly lit, with the curtains drawn over the window, the fire low, and only a single candle on the table beside the elderly hobbit who sat in a comfortable chair. The Thain sat more upright as Frodo came closer; he was wizened and white-haired and had the gnarled and shrunken look of the very old, but his eyes were bright even in this low light and held a lively and interested look that belied his family's fears for his sanity.

"Mr. Frodo Baggins," the servant announced formally.

"So I see!" said the Thain. "Welcome, Mr. Baggins. I've long looked forward to meeting you. Do sit down, please, and make yourself comfortable. I wish I could offer you some wine..." This struck Frodo as an odd remark, since there was a nearly full decanter on the same table as the candle, easily within reach. As he took a seat in a chair near the Thain's, the old hobbit turned to dismiss his servant. "Thank you, Tulipant. You may leave us now."

Tulipant bowed and exited.

"An excellent butler," said Thain Brabantius once the servant had gone. "Most discreet, but some things are not for his ears. Well, Mr. Baggins, I hope your journey was not too arduous. It's a long road from here to Hobbiton--it's been a good sixty years since I rode that way myself--but I hoped for news of your arrival here every day since I received your most encouraging response to my invitation. I've heard much about your remarkable talents. My great-niece, that young mischief-maker and hoyden, has gathered every tale she can find of your adventures to repeat them to me."

"Di did tell me she was the one to recommend me to you," said Frodo.

"And so she did!" The old hobbit shook his head. "I'm afraid we'll never make a proper lady of the child, but I am quite fond of her. She's an honest little creature."

Frodo couldn't help a small smile, recalling the circumstances under which he had met Diantha.

The Thain caught this smile, and understood. "Oh, she's as full of tricks as a dozen imps, I don't deny it, but there's no harm in her. She means what she says, and that's a quality I've come to value, when there are so many about me who smile and lie." He grew more somber. "If half what I've heard about you is true, then you're just the one who can help me with my most perplexing and disturbing problem."

"I'll be happy to do whatever I can to aid you, sir," answered Frodo, "but you haven't told me what your problem is. I don't know what it is you want me to do."

"No," Thain Brabantius agreed. "I didn't like to put it down in writing. It sounds so very odd to speak of. I didn't even like to think it myself at first. Have you spoken with my family? Yes, Tulipant told me that you were sent to them before you were brought to me. They think I'm going mad--but I'm not. I'm only frightened and don't know who in my household I can trust. You see," he explained at last, "I'm being poisoned, Mr. Baggins, and I don't know by whom."

"Poison..." Frodo spoke the word in a soft hiss. He had dealt with poisonings before, and knew what a horrible, insidious type of murder it was. The culprit would be difficult to find, since he or she could plant the poison days or even weeks in advance and need not be anywhere near the victim at the time of death. A poisoner could go silently and strike wherever they liked, and there was little hope of predicting their crimes nor preventing them. "How do you know?" he asked.

"I didn't know it, not at first. When you get to be my age, even the hardiest hobbit has to put up with certain infirmities. Old bones grow weary and the heart doesn't beat as strongly as it did when you were young. In June, I fell into a fit of some sort, and for two days afterwards, I lay as if dead. I'm sure my family thought it was the end of me, but my senses returned at last and I slowly recovered while abed. It was thought that I must have suffered some sort of stroke of the brain, which is not so remarkable in a hobbit of one-hundred-and-ten, but it was only when I resumed my duties, and again drank..." He glanced at the decanter.

Frodo followed the old hobbit's gaze, and a chill ran through him. "The wine?"

"It's a special vintage," Brabantius explained. "The Thain's Own, they call it. It's reserved for my private use, to be shared with favored guests and members of my family. I have my decanter here, and only let it be brought to the table on special occasions, such as my birthday and the birthday of my heir. Both were months ago, and my children and their families seem to have suffered no ill effects from the last time they drank it."

"Have you been the only one to drink the wine since?"

Brabantius nodded. "It sat here in this room all the time I lay abed, untouched. When I drank from it again, I had more such tremors and mild fits, not so bad as that first, but enough that I began to suspect my bouts of 'illness' weren't all that they seemed. Before I made up my mind to summon you, I gave some of the wine mixed with milk and bread to a dog from the stables, an old and sickly beast like myself, to find out whether or not my worst suspicions were true. He went into fits, just as I had, and was sick as a dog might be, but the poor creature didn't recover. He died that same night."

"Who comes into this room?" asked Frodo.

"Under normal circumstances, when the door is not locked, anybody might come and go when I am not in," said Brabantius. "The door was locked during my days of illness, so that the wine couldn't have been touched, or taken, until I was well enough to return and open the door myself. Since I've begun to suspect the truth, however, I am in here most of the day. I lock the door when I am out, and Tulipant has instructions that no one is to be admitted without my knowledge or permission. And yet, the poison might not have been added to the wine here, in this very room. It might be done at the butler's pantry, where Tulipant decants the wine."

"Who has access to the butler's pantry?"

"Tulipant keeps the keys to his pantry and the wine cellar, but I suppose they might easily be taken by anyone in the household. Before this, there was never a good reason to be particularly careful with them. I would have said that my servants were all perfectly trustworthy and I needn't worry that any one of them was drinking themselves into tipsiness on my stock of wine. You must speak to Tulipant, ask him."

"Yes, I intend to," said Frodo. "But you must tell him what all this is about. He will wonder when I begin asking questions about the keys and the wine, and might refuse to answer if he doesn't understand."

Brabantius nodded, agreeing to this. "I don't suppose this can be kept secret much longer. Yet I dislike the thought of telling all the household. The one who's done this is surely among them, and would be put on his guard if he knows why you've come here."

"My arrival will have put him, or her, on guard in any case. The others might not be able to guess why I'm here, but the one who's been putting poison in your wine surely will."

The old Thain smiled. "True. Very well. They must be told, and you may ask them all as many questions as you like. I will give whatever aid you require, to do what you must."

"Thank you," said Frodo. "I have one question for you, Thain Brabantius. Why?"

"Why?"

"Why would anyone wish to poison you? You must have given it some thought since you began to suspect it was so."

"Oh, I can guess why someone would wish me out of the way," said Brabantius. "When you met my family, Mr. Baggins, was my wife there as well?"

"Yes, sir, she was," Frodo answered.

"Then you see what's put them all into a flurry. Not one of them can abide Iris. They've never forgiven me for marrying a second time at my age--and to marry such a woman! Though I suppose it'd be just as likely for someone to poison her as well as me, if that were the reason. Oh, this is a terrible thing! Before you came, I've sat here day upon day, too frightened to know where to turn."

"I've had experience of poisonings before, sir," said Frodo. "I investigated a similar case just last year, and I was in fear of being a victim of poison myself."

"Have you?" The old Thain began to regard his guest with a new appreciation. "When did you run afoul of a poisoner before, Mr. Baggins?"

"It wasn't here in the Shire," Frodo told him. "I was summoned by the King in Gondor, to aid him when two Men of his court were murdered."

"And did you find the one responsible?"

"Yes, in the end, but it was terrible case. Two more people were killed before the poisoner was discovered, and many other people were in danger, myself included. I know how it is to be fearful of eating or drinking. Nothing tastes as it should."

Brabantius nodded eagerly. "Yes, that's so. It's as if every drop may be tainted."

"But you must eat. You need to keep your health and strength. My advice to you, sir, is to go out among your family," Frodo told him. "Do not eat alone. Unless this person wishes to harm the rest of your family--and I don't believe he does, if he's only poisoned your private stock of wine--then the food that everybody eats is the safest. Eat only what the others at the table have eaten. If there is any food known to be a particular favorite of yours, don't touch it."

"Yes..." He nodded again, even more appreciative of Frodo. "I shall take your advice, Mr. Baggins. And I would be happy to have you join my family at dinner tonight. You will have a better chance to look them over. But before that-" The Thain yanked the bell-pull; a minute later, Tulipant reappeared. "Ah, Tulipant, I have a special errand for you. You've been most circumspect, and obeyed all my most peculiar orders these past weeks without question or delay."

"It is always my pleasure to serve my Thain," Tulipant replied with a bow.

"I'm pleased to hear it. Mr. Baggins here has also agreed to aid me, and I wish you to give him every assistance. He acts with my authority. Show him your pantry and the wine cellar, and whatever other part of the kitchen offices or storerooms he would like to see. Answer his questions as if I had asked th

Tulipant looked somewhat perplexed by these orders, but he bowed again. "Will that be all, your Thainship?"

"For the moment, thank you, Tulipant," answered the Thain. "Oh, and I pray you take this decanter of wine from my sight. I've no desire to see it again."

"How long have you been in Thain Brabantius's service?" Frodo asked Tulipant as the butler led him down a steep back-tunnel to the Hall kitchens.

"Forty years, it must be," Tulipant answered, carefully bearing the tray with the decanter of wine before him. "I came into the Thain's Hall as a young lad, when old Mr. Coppernob was butler here. I was his pantry-boy and polished the silver. He used to send me to carry up the Thain's tray with his wine of an evening. 'Twas how his Thainship came to notice me, and when Mr. Coppernob retired, I took his place. I've been his Thainship's butler for over twenty years."

"And your duties still include bringing the Thain's wine into his study every day?"

"That's right, Mr. Baggins. I have a pantry-boy of my own, Jeddy Tubrose, one of the gardener's sons, but he's a flighty lad and I wouldn't trust him yet to carry something so precious as his Thainship's best decanter. I'm sure he'd drop it!"

"Then this boy has nothing to do with the household wines?"

"No, Mr. Baggins."

"Does anyone but yourself handle the wines?"

Tulipant was used to obeying without question, but he gave Frodo an odd look as he answered, "No, sir. 'Tis my responsibility, and mine alone."

They had now entered the kitchens, where an elderly hobbit-woman was busy preparing dinner and ordering a bevy of maids to attend to their tasks. A young lad, presumably the pantry-boy Jeddy, was also there, laying out the appropriate silverware for the dining-room table on a cloth-covered tray. The lad looked up from his work expectantly as Tulipant came in, and the cook turned from her stove.

"Has that investigator come yet? Did you see 'm, Mr. Tuli-" she began; when she saw that the butler was accompanied by a stranger, she shut her mouth abruptly and curtseyed. "Beg yer pardon."

"This is Mr. Baggins, the investigator," Mr. Tulipant presented him. "Mr. Baggins, Mrs. Scrubbs." The pantry-boy was gaping, and the maids had also stopped their work to stare. Evidently, the Thain's servants were as curious about his presence here as the Thain's family.

"Did you want to see us, Mr. Baggins?" asked Mrs. Scrubbs as she wiped her hands on her apron. "Is there ought we can do for you?"

"Perhaps later, thank you. I can see you're all very busy, and I don't wish to interrupt your household routine," Frodo tried to put the cook and her staff at ease. "Mr. Tulipant is assisting me, at Thain Brabantius's request." He turned to the butler. "Will you show me the wine cellars, please?"

Tulipant nodded and took Frodo into his pantry; there, the butler set down the tray and decanter he had been carrying, and took out the bundle of keys that hung on a chain from his waistcoat. He unlocked a door at one end of the room, and they went down into a long, cool, dark tunnel that seemed to stretch into the heart of the hill. A number of cylindrical chambers lay on either side of the tunnel, each lined on all sides with bricks. Frodo looked into each of these: Some contained bins where dusty and cobweb-covered bottles of wines were neatly stacked, and others contained large oaken casks.

"Where is the Thain's Own wine?" he asked.

"Here, at the end, Mr. Baggins." Tulipant led him down to the last vault. Here were more dusty bottles on rows of shelves, larger than the wine bottles elsewhere, blown from green-tinted glass into a distinctive bell-shape. Each bore a red wax seal over the cork, stamped with the Thain's crest. "'Tis a 1364 vintage," said the butler. "A famous year for grapes. His Thainship had it aged in oak for twenty years, and the bottles were made special when the time was right. He put his own seal, as you see it, on each bottle himself. The stock is getting a bit low, but his Thainship's most careful with it and there'll be enough left to see him out and drink the health of Master Alhasrus for many a year to come."

Frodo had indeed noticed the seals, and examined them for signs of tampering. The wax was very old and some of the seals were crumbling around their edges. Someone might easily remove the wax cap from one or more bottles, pull out the cork beneath, and replace both. "Does anyone come into these cellars, Mr. Tulipant?"

"Besides myself? Jeddy helps me bring down the empties, but I wouldn't let 'm touch the Thain's Own. And Mr. Bunberry, our porter, comes down with me a time, to sample a drop or two of the other wines." Tulipant began to regard Frodo with increasing concern. "What is it, Mr. Baggins? Does- Does his Thainship think someone's been getting into his special wine?"

"I suppose you could say that," Frodo answered.

"He doesn't think I've been taking a drop of it for myself?" Tulipant sounded horrified at the suggestion. "Now, sampling the wine's a butler's perquisite, but the Thain's Own is his own. Except at his Thainship's invitation, I'd only taste it to see as a new bottle opened is up to the standard."

"No, Mr. Tulipant, it isn't that," Frodo hastened to reassure him. Should he tell the butler the true reason behind these questions? Thain Brabantius hadn't authorized him to tell anyone yet, but his investigation couldn't go very far without the Thain's household learning the truth sooner or later, and Tulipant was a valuable source of information. "I'm afraid it's worse. The Thain believes his wine has been poisoned."

The butler went pale. "Poisoned?" He looked so shocked that Frodo thought he was going to faint and stepped forward quickly to catch Tulipant by the arm as the butler slumped against brick wall beside the vault door. "Oh, it isn't so! To think it should come to this! I didn't know nothing about it, Mr. Baggins." Then with an effort, he pulled himself together and asked, "What can I do to help his Thainship?"

"You've been of great help already, Mr. Tulipant," Frodo assured him. "Please, go on answering my questions, as you've been doing."

The butler nodded. "What else do you wish to know?"

"Tell me: is your pantry normally kept locked?"

"Not as a rule, Mr. Baggins," Tulipant answered, "but the wine cellars are, as you see." As they left the cellars, he locked the door again; the butler was still somewhat shaken, and his hand trembled slightly as he turned the key and returned the ring to its place in his pocket. Once they were in the pantry, Tulipant took a seat at the table. "And the silver closet, over there, where the best plates and table-ware are kept is locked too. Mrs. Scrubbs has keys to the storerooms, but I have my set as well, in case hers go missing."

"Does Mrs. Scrubbs have a set of your keys?" asked Frodo.

"She has a key to the silver closet, but not the cellars."

"Do you always keep your keys with you, on your waistcoat chain?"

"During the day, yes, and I hang 'em on a hook in the wall by my bed at night. They never go out of my reach." Then Tulipant appeared to struggle with his conscience and after a moment, he admitted, "Sometimes, Mr. Baggins, they do get left on the mantel-piece or on my table here in the pantry. I'm a bit forgetful when there's a lot to be done, but the keys are always right where I left 'em when I go looking. If somebody took 'em, then they put them right back."

After he had finished questioning Tulipant, Frodo returned to the parlor, where his friends were still sitting with the North-Took family. Tea and a large platter of cakes had been brought in for the refreshment of the three visitors, and their hosts were still trying to pump them for information--information that Sam, Pippin, and Merry simply did not have.

Everyone looked up with curiosity when Frodo came back into the room. "Where have you been all this time?" Pippin asked between mouthfuls of cake. "We were beginning to wonder."

"I've had a look at the wine cellar." Frodo's answer only perplexed the group; his friends might be used to this sort of cryptic remark, but the North-Tooks didn't know what to make of it.

"Wine cellar?" repeated Alhasrus. "Why should Father want you to see that?"

Frodo replied cautiously, unsure of how much he could reveal before the Thain himself had told his family. To gain information from them, he would have to take a different tack than he had Tulipant and be more subtle. "Thain Brabantius believes the wine has been tainted." He was careful not to say the word 'poisoned.'

"Nonsense," said Alamargo. "There's nothing wrong with the wine. We've all drunk it."

"We had some with our dinner only last night," his wife added.

"There is a special vintage," said Frodo, "reserved for the Thain's private use."

"Yes, that's right," said Alhasrus. "The Thain's Own."

"When did you last drink that?"

"A decanter was brought to the table at my birthday." Alhasrus looked to the others for confirmation.

"Before your father was taken ill?"

"Yes," said Alhasrus, and seemed more perplexed by these questions. "In April, but Father's drunk of it since."

"Your father is convinced that his recent illness has been caused by the wine," Frodo informed him.

Isigo gave a sharp whistle. "So that's what all this mystery has been about!"

"But that's absurd!" Lady Iris cried.

"Nevertheless, my lady, it is what Thain Brabantius is afraid of. He's asked me to look into the matter." Frodo watched them all for their reactions to this announcement: the North-Tooks were surprised and incredulous, but if any one among them had a guilty conscience, they did not betray it in their expressions.

"But we're his family," protested Hilbarus. "Surely you don't suggest he suspects one of us?"

"It can't have anything to do with us," Persifilla said confidently.

"Grandfather must be in his dotage, if he can believe such a thing," said Ulfidius.

Frodo didn't know exactly who the Thain suspected, but he noticed that Diamanta and Aspid met each other's eyes, then both glanced surreptitiously at Iris from under lowered lashes.

"Do you believe it, Mr. Baggins?" asked Alhasrus. "An old hobbit can have strange fancies, especially if he's been ill. You aren't just encouraging these odd ideas of his?"

"No," Frodo replied, "I believe him."

At dinner-time, the Thain emerged from his study to join his family and their guests at the table. This was a surprise to the North-Tooks, who hadn't seen Brabantius at a meal in weeks. In light of what Frodo had told them, they were all eager to hear what the Thain had to say. Could such a thing be true?

"I'm afraid it is," Thain Brabantius confirmed. He waited until the others had begun their soup before he began to eat his. "It's time for you all to learn the truth. I only waited to consult the advice of a professional before I made it known. You see, there has been a reason behind my odd behavior of late. There is no doubt in my mind that I have been poisoned."

Once the ugly word had been spoken aloud, shocked cries and exclamations of disbelief went up around the dinner table. The ladies fluttered, and more than one hobbit put down their soup spoons, appetites suddenly gone.

"But how can that be, Father?" demanded Alamargo. "Who would do such a thing?"

"That is what I hope Mr. Baggins will find out." Brabantius looked at his family around the table. "If you truly mean well by me, my dears, you will indulge an old hobbit and give Mr. Baggins and his companions every assistance in finding the truth." The Thain was no longer frightened; he meant what he said, and his family knew it. Any further protests would look too suspicious. Like it or not, they must cooperate.

After dinner, the four guests were shown to their rooms. Lady Iris might act as their official hostess, but it seemed more likely that Diamanta had made the bedroom arrangements: While Sam's room, with no window, lay directly across from Frodo's, and Merry's was next door, Pippin's was in another part of the house entirely.

"Goodness knows where they've hidden him," Merry reported when he joined Frodo in his room after trying unsuccessfully to locate Pippin. "I've been all up and down this tunnel, knocking on every door, and the only other person up this way is Isigo, which shows how they feel about him as well as us."

"Perhaps they've put Pippin in one of the family rooms," Frodo mused. While his cousin sat perched on his bed, he unpacked and put away his clothes away in the wardrobe. "He is a Took."

"And we're merely distant relations, not to mention disreputable investigators. They know we're only going to bring trouble."

"The trouble was already here, dear Merry. We're only going to dig it up."

"They won't like us any better for that," Merry responded.

"I know, but it is my profession... and yours too, if you'll join me."

Merry grinned. "I wouldn't have come all this way if I didn't intend to."

There was a knock on door, and Sam peeked in. He wasn't happy to see Merry there ahead of him, but he only said, "I came to see if you wanted any help putting things away proper, Frodo. And I thought as you might want to tell us what you want us to do about his Thainship and this poisoning."

"I've finished my unpacking, Sam, thank you, but do come in." Frodo shut the drawers at the bottom of the wardrobe. Still crouched on the floor, he gestured to invite his friend to have a seat on the bed beside Merry. "I am going to need your help. The two of you and Pip were sitting with the family all the time I was talking to the Thain. You've seen more of them. What can you tell me about them?"

"Nothing that you haven't already seen for yourself," answered Merry.

Frodo nodded. "The North-Tooks disapprove of the Thain's new wife."

"Can't abide her ladyship, is more like," Sam added, "nor her son either. If you was to ask me, I'd say none of 'em likes her, but it's Missus Diamanta who's got her nose most pushed out of joint by the other lady."

"Yes, that's so. She feels Lady Iris has usurped her rightful place as mistress of the household," said Frodo, and sank back thoughtfully to sit on his heels. "I wish we knew more about the others. That'll be a job for all of us. I can't make a list of suspects until I know everyone better."

"Who had the best opportunity? Did you find anything in the wine cellar, Frodo?" Merry asked him.

Frodo was just beginning to tell them what Tulipant had told him about the keys, when there was another tap on the door. They all expected that it was the missing Pippin, come to join their conference, but when Frodo asked, "Who is it?" a woman's voice replied.

"It's Diamanta, dear. May I come in?"

"Yes, of course, Auntie," Frodo replied, rising to answer the door and throwing a quizzical glance at his friends, who were just as surprised.

Diamanta had not come alone; with her was her sister-in-law Aspid. The ladies seemed nonplussed to find Merry and Sam also there. "I beg your pardon," said Diamanta. "We wanted to speak to you, Frodo, before you went to bed. I hope we haven't interrupted."

"It's quite all right, Aunt," Frodo answered. "My friends and I are only discussing the- ah- case." Normally, he would insist that his companions stay to hear what Diamanta and Aspid had to say--he would tell them what the ladies had said in any case--but these two visitors were more likely to speak their minds to him without an audience present. His friends took the hint, and rose to leave.

"You boys are comfortable here, I trust," Diamanta said as Merry and Sam exited.

"Very comfortable, Aunt Di," said Merry. "We feel almost at home. You haven't seen Pippin, by the way, have you? I've looked all over for him."

"Pippin?" Aspid echoed, puzzled. "Do you mean your friend, Peregrin? He's in the room next to my sons." Diamanta said nothing, but looked as if she wished that her sister-in-law hadn't answered the question.

"Thank you!" Merry smiled and bowed to her, and went off to find Pippin.

"What can I do for you?" Frodo asked once his friends had gone. The ladies had come into his room and shut the door, though they did not sit down.

"Your 'case' is just what we've come to talk about," Diamanta answered. "We believe we can help you, and help Father Brabantius as well. Aspid and I have discussed this terrible matter between ourselves. It's a horrible thing to contemplate, but we both feel that Father Brabantius may be right in his worst suspicions."

"His illness did come on so suddenly," Aspid added. "Although, of course, we had no idea at that time that it was anything but the usual sort of illness an elderly hobbit might suffer from."

"No idea whatsoever!" agreed Diamanta. "But, if he is right and his illness was the result of poison, then only one person could have done it."

"Yes?" Frodo prompted, although he could guess what she was about to say.

"Lady Iris, of course," Diamanta answered with a mild note of scorn, as if she didn't think much of Frodo's investigative skill if he hadn't already come to the same conclusion. "Surely you see that. There was never anything wrong in this house before she came into it."

"It's obvious she married him for his money and the prestige of being a Thain's lady," said Aspid. "But, if that wasn't enough, she wants to put her poor old husband out of the way as quickly as possible. She can't even wait for him to die a natural and peaceful death in his own good time, as he has every right to do."

"If he'd wanted peace, he would never have married again," said Diamanta, "and not so impetuously to a totally inappropriate woman. I admit I have never thought well of her, but this surpasses my worst imaginings."

"And I feel sure that son of hers has a part in it," added Aspid. "So you see, you must speak to Father Brabantius about them, to warn him."

"If you're as clever a hobbit as your reputation would have it," said Diamanta, "you can surely make him see the truth."

"I can't make unfounded accusations against anyone," Frodo told them patiently. "Before I speak to Thain Brabantius, I must have proof. And, you know, it might not be Lady Iris at all."

"Nonsense!" responded Diamanta. "Don't be absurd! Who else could wish to do such a thing? What reason could they have? Mark my words, Frodo Baggins, it is she and no one else."

After breakfast the next morning, the four hobbits met in a little grove of trees on the slope of the hill outside Frodo's and Merry's windows. They had seen each other over breakfast, but couldn't talk with so many North-Tooks around as they naturally would among themselves. Here, they could smoke their pipes and be frank.

"I'd hoped to have a word with you last night, after Aunt Di and Aspid left, Merry," Frodo teased his cousin, "but I didn't see you again after you went to search for Pippin. I assume you found him?"

Merry laughed. "Oh, yes. I had to walk all the way down our tunnel and go around to the far side of the dining room and great hall to another tunnel where the family bedrooms are, but I found him. His room's not only next to Aspid's sons', but her daughter's room is just on the other side."

"You know who the daughter is, don't you?" asked Pippin. "Miss Diamond Took!"

"I haven't seen Diamond since we arrived," Frodo observed. "Where has she been?"

"Staying with her aunt, Lady Aspid told me," said Pippin. "She's expected home today."

"My guess is that they wanted her out of the way while you were investigating whatever the Thain sent you for," said Merry. "But now that you've brought Pip with you, they're hastening to bring the girl home as soon as possible." He chuckled. "What d'you imagine they're hoping will happen with Pippin sleeping next door to their innocent little chit? Aunt Di and Diamond's parents would be shocked to the bones if Pippin tried sneaking into her bedroom in the middle of the night--even more shocked than if he came to mine."

"And did you go sneaking anywheres last night, Master Merry?" Sam asked him.

"Not with all the North-Tooks' bedrooms so near, I didn't dare! No, it's better if Pip comes to me. It's more quiet and private up this way. It's a good, long hike--half a mile or more, I feel sure--but do they really think that will stop us if we want to be together? Of course, it'd be much easier if I had only to knock on the door next to mine. Or just step across the hall. Don't you agree, Sam?"

Sam blushed, but Frodo smiled. Sam had in fact returned to his room last night after Diamanta and Aspid had gone. Frodo had told his friend what the ladies had said before they'd cuddled up to sleep. He repeated the conversation to his cousins now.

"Auntie Di doesn't seem to dislike Isigo as much as Aspid does," said Pippin. "At least, she doesn't call him a murderer too. Do you believe what they said, Frodo?"

"I believe that they sincerely believe it. Whether it's true or not is another matter. Their dislike of Lady Iris is so great that they'll believe anything disgraceful about her. But just because they hate her, it doesn't mean they're wrong. They're as jealous as cats, but perhaps they understand her character better than her husband does. Thain Brabantius seems to think it's someone else, that his marriage to the lady has stirred up some deep resentment against not only his new wife, but himself. It might be anyone in the house." Frodo drew his knees to his chest and mused, "If the keys were taken when Tulipant left them lying around..."

All three of his friends were used to these pensive states, but at these last words, they looked puzzled. "What keys, Frodo?" asked Merry.

"To the wine cellar. I was going to tell you about it last night, when we were interrupted." Frodo did so now. "It seems least likely that the wine was poisoned while it was in the pantry. Tulipant doesn't look as if he'd let wine sit around unattended once it had been decanted. It's more probable that the poison was put in while it was still in a bottle in the wine cellar, or after it had been brought to the Thain's study while Brabantius was elsewhere. That might be easily done, although there was always a risk that the Thain might return, or Tulipant or someone else would walk in. The wine cellar would allow the poisoner to work without being seen. To get into the wine cellar, he'd have to get hold of the keys when Tulipant left them lying around in a moment of forgetfulness. The door to the wine cellar is kept locked, and Tulipant has the only key, which he wears with the other household keys on a waistcoat chain. He doesn't normally allow people to enter the wine cellar, not unless he's with them. He takes his duties very seriously."

"We haven't seen this Tulipant yet," said Sam. Two maids had served in the dining room last night, and the butler had been absent. No wine had been served at the table. "What's he like?"

Frodo shut his eyes, the better to picture the Thain's butler. "He's an ordinary-looking hobbit of middle years, with thick, dark curls on his head and toes, and a fine, round belly," he described. "He wears a black coat and a white waistcoat with brass buttons. He puts on a high style of speaking suitable to a senior servant in a Thain's house, but when his feelings are up, he slips and you can hear the voice of the country lad he once was. He's worked for Brabantius since he was a boy, and he's devoted to him. Even when he's been too frightened to know who to trust, the Thain has relied on Tulipant."

"How d'you know it isn't him, then?" Pippin asked, grinning.

"Of course, it might be," Frodo conceded. "A trusted servant in Tulipant's position could do whatever he liked to the Thain's wine, whenever he liked. He could be lying about the keys, to cast my suspicions away from him. But he seemed genuinely upset when I told him about the poison." He looked to Sam. "That's where you can help me most, Sam."

"Me? How?"

"The poison. I thought you might know what it was, and how it was come by." Frodo explained, "When I was in Minas Tirith last year, the Master Herbalist at the Houses of Healing showed me all sorts of plants that had medicinal virtues, but could also kill. You know as much about plants as he does."

"All kinds of common plants is poisonous," Sam answered. "Some you wouldn't guess to look at 'em, as they look harmless as the summer grass. Was there a bitter taste to the wine, did his Thainship say?"

"He didn't, but I can ask. Can you tell me what plants might cause someone to fall into fits and lay near death for a day or more? It did the same to a dog, but the dog died."

Sam considered these symptoms. "Now, it's hard to say, knowing so little, but I'm thinking it could be laburnum. There's plenty of it about." To prove his point, he nodded to indicate a cluster of small trees in the garden below the Thain's Hall. "It's pretty enough in spring, with all its golden flowers, but it's got to be fenced off proper."

"That's right," Frodo knew little about plants, but he did know this much. "Laburnum seeds are poisonous."

"Every bit of it is, begging your pardon," Sam corrected with gentle deference, "but it's the seeds that the little uns'll pick up, and cows and sheeps are most likely to eat if the trees grow near where they graze. I've seen a sheep or two die just the way the Thain's dog did--they go into fits, if they eat enough of it."

Frodo regarded the trees below thoughtfully. Anyone in the Thain's household could gather laburnum pods, or the leaves or flowers, without leaving the garden, then brew and distill them to extract the poison. It was a simple enough process; he had learned this from an expert. All that was needed was a pot of water and a strainer.

"The thing I don't understand is why go to so much trouble?" asked Pippin. "If somebody wants Thain Brabantius to die, they'd only have to wait a little while. He's very old--he'll be eleventy-one next year and couldn't go on much longer even if he was in the best of health. They wouldn't have to do anything. Why take the risk of finishing him off?"

"Lady Aspid said that Lady Iris wouldn't want to wait," Sam remembered what Frodo had told them.

"But she didn't say why, except to suggest that Iris was greedy enough to want to get her hands on the Thain's money as soon as possible," said Merry. "How much do you suppose she'd get? And if it wasn't her, who else will get something from the Thain's will? Maybe they couldn't wait."

"That could be anyone in the Thain's family," Frodo responded. "His sons, grandsons-" He stopped as a bedroom window farther up the slope swung open and a young hobbit's head popped out.

Isigo smiled at the sight of the four sitting on the hillside. "There you are! I was been looking all over for you, Mr. Baggins, and then I heard your voices. Mother wants to talk to you."

Frodo left his friends, climbed in through his own window, and met Isigo in the hallway. The young hobbit led him down through the tunnels to the other side of the Thain's Hall. They did not go to the parlor where Frodo had met the Thain's household on his arrival, but up into the tunnel Merry had described, when the family bedrooms were, until they came to the Thain's and his Lady's suite of rooms at the far end.

"Mother's waiting in her boudoir," Isigo explained. "She wanted to see you alone, without those old cats poking their noses in. They never dare venture here." He tapped on one door before he opened it slightly. "I've found him, Mama," he announced and, as he had the evening before when he'd escorted Frodo to the Thain's study, left him to go in on his own.

Frodo entered a charming ladylike room with lace curtains in the window and pink cushions on the chairs. There seemed to be flowers in vases everywhere, and more crowding the little terrace just outside. Lady Iris was seated on the sofa before the windows with a little piece of embroidery-work in her hands, but she set it down and rose to greet him graciously. "I'm so pleased you could come, Mr. Baggins. I know you must be terribly busy on my husband's behalf, and I'm grateful you can spare the time for this chat. Do sit down, please."

Frodo took the indicated seat on a chair facing the sofa. "What can I do for you, my lady?"

"We must discuss what we are going to do."

"About your husband's case?"

"Yes, exactly." Iris returned to her own seat and leaned forward toward him confidentially. "You see, I'm very worried about him. I have been, since he'd begun to behave so oddly, and when I learned last night why he had called upon you, it came as an awful shock. I can't believe it's true. I'm certain there must be some mistake. Brabantius hasn't been well lately, as you know, and he's apt to imagine all sorts of ugly things. Suspect the people he would normally trust the most. To think of him sitting alone in his study, frightening himself with such horrors, and never saying a word! Oh, it upsets me. I wish he'd confided his fears to me. I could have talked him into seeing sense."

Frodo wondered why she had taken this line and was trying to deny the truth, but then he realized that she hadn't yet been told the entire story. She didn't know about the dead dog, which he considered positive proof of the Thain's claim. Unless Lady Iris was in fact the person responsible for putting the poison in her husband's wine, she only had Brabantius's word that it was so. Like many another hobbit, perhaps it was only natural for her to deny that something unpleasant was happening around her. Things like this were not supposed to happen at all in the Shire!

"Tell me, Mr. Baggins," Lady Iris went on in her same confiding tone, "what does my husband's family have to say about this? They've told you it's my doing, haven't they?"

"I haven't spoken to them about this yet, Lady Iris," Frodo answered, not quite honestly. Did she know about Diamanta's and Aspid's visit to him last night? If she didn't, he didn't think he should tell her.

The lady smiled wryly. "Oh, but I know what they'll say when you do. I can't help being aware that his sons and their wives disapprove of his remarriage to me. They haven't troubled to conceal their opinions. But I hadn't realized until last night that they harbored such hatred for me."

Frodo heard nothing in Lady Iris's voice but concern for her husband and distaste for his family's behavior toward her, but he couldn't help remembering how King Aragorn's councilors had subtly accused each other of being the murderer he was looking for under the guise of aiding him. As Diamanta and Aspid had named Iris as the poisoner, so he expected Iris to hint that they were responsible.

He waited for it, and it came:

"But what else can I expect? The Tooks have always been an odd family. They're flighty, quick-tempered. They feel things more deeply than ordinary hobbits. Do you know, Mr. Baggins, it wouldn't surprise me if one of them did put something into Brabantius's wine--not intending to harm him, mind you, but so that they could claim I had done it. There have been other... upheavals before this, before I came into this house."

Frodo tried not to smile. "What do you mean by 'upheavals,' my lady?"

Iris shook her head. "Oh, Mr. Baggins, I mustn't. I have my ideas, but in spite of the way disgraceful way they've treated me, I couldn't make false insinuations against any one of them. Brabantius wouldn't like me to drag that old gossip up." Then she reconsidered, and glanced at him with a glint in her eye that was almost coquettish. "Very well. I'll give you a hint or two. My marriage hasn't been the only one to cause quarrels in this family lately. Ask Hilbarus. He'll tell you. You might also have a word with poor, dowdy Istra. And I can tell you that my husband's sons aren't so devoted to him as much as they are to the inheritance they hope to receive one day. Now, I don't dare say that any one of them means deliberate harm to Brabantius. I refuse to believe anyone would. But when you look into this business, Mr. Baggins, I'm sure you'll find it's something of the sort. A petty, vindictive act that I feel certain the culprit regrets already, now that he or she sees the trouble it's caused." She leaned closer to him again. "And when you do find out who it is, I hope you'll come to me so we can decide the best way to tell Brabantius. My poor husband has distressed himself so much over this, and I don't want him distressed any further. The truth must be broken to him gently."

After Frodo had gone, Sam went down the hill to the Thain's garden. Isigo returned to Merry and Pippin.

"It must be wonderful working with Mr. Baggins," he said after he had settled down comfortably on the grass beside the pair and Pippin had offered him some pipeweed. "I'll wager you could tell some remarkable stories about the mysteries you've investigated."

"Oh, we can tell you plenty of stories," Pippin answered, grinning.

"But you've never had one like this, have you? A murder, only the victim isn't dead. That's lucky for Father Brabantius, and for Mr. Baggins too, but perhaps not for the rest of us. Did you see the family at dinner last night? Nobody daring to eat, and everyone glancing at everybody else out of the corners of their eyes. We're all wondering who could do such a thing. Mama says it must be a mistake, or some sort of accident. She won't believe it. What does Mr. Baggins think?" he asked them. "Has he turned up anything?"

"There isn't much to tell yet. We've only just started to look about," Merry answered. "Frodo never likes to tell us what he's thinking, until he's sure."

Pippin laughed. "Sometimes, we haven't the least idea what's on his mind. He'll say the oddest things, and you can't understand a word of it until he explains. Then it all makes sense."

"Besides," added Merry, "it's really best not to say too much to the people involved, before we know who to suspect."

The young hobbit sat up, eyes wide. "I say, I'm not suspected, am I? Surely Mr. Baggins doesn't think so. There's no reason why I'd want to poison Father Brabantius. I like him too much. He's always been thoroughly decent to me, even when I was a little lad, long before he married Mama."

"Is he leaving you any money?" Pippin asked bluntly.

Isigo was taken aback by the question, but he answered, "A little bit, I suppose. Not as much as his grandchildren will get when he passes on, but why shouldn't he want to provide something for me if he likes? I'm in no hurry to have it, if it means he has to go. As far as I'm concerned, Father Brabantius can live to be a hundred and seventy."

"Then you don't have a thing to worry about," Merry assured him.

While they were talking, Diantha Took and a hobbit gentleman who must be her father had come out of the smial next door to sit in the garden adjacent to the Thain's. When she saw them, Di waved and beckoned eagerly.

"Let's go down," said Isigo. "Di's been panting to hear what's up since Father Brabantius wrote to Mr. Baggins. Uncle Alamaric's just as curious, although he won't admit it. He doesn't dare to look nosy--he'll leave that up to his daughter." As the trio rose and went down the hill, the young hobbit added, "Will you tell them anything, I wonder?"

At the bottom of the hill, they went through a side-gate in the hedge that separated the Hall garden from the smaller garden of its neighbor. Isigo introduced his companions to Alamaric as "friends of the detective the Thain's sent for."

"I'm looking forward to meeting your famous friend," said Alamaric pleasantly after he had shook Pippin's and Merry's hands in turn. "Is that Mr. Baggins there?" He nodded to indicate Sam, who had climbed over the low decorative fence around the laburnum trees to examine the ground beneath them.

"No, Poppa," Di chided affectionately and wound her arms around her father's shoulders from behind his chair. "That's Mr. Baggins's other friend, Chief Shirriff Gamgee. We were introduced yesterday. Frodo Baggins is thin and pale, with big eyes and dark hair. You'd never guess he was a detective to look at him, but he's awfully clever."

"A shirriff..." Alamaric mused and continued to regard Sam. "Are all of you here to aid Mr. Baggins?"

"Yes, sir," answered Merry. "We always do, whenever we can."

"Well, I hope you can get to the bottom of this business, whatever it is. Of course, I've no idea what the problem is--Uncle Brabantius has kept so much to himself lately--but I can guess it's to do with his recent remarriage," Alamaric said and examined his pipe with studied disinterest, as if he weren't probing for information. "I beg your pardon, Isigo-lad. You know how fond I am of your dear mother, but anyone can see that the Thain's household has been in a topsy-turvy state since she married him. Mind, I don't blame her, nor him, for that matter."

"No, but you're quite right," Isigo agreed. "There's been one quarrel after another since Mother and I came to stay. But it doesn't have to do with us-"

"What then?" Di exploded impatiently. "What's put Granduncle into such a frightful tizzy? He wouldn't tell me either, and I was the one who said he should send for Frodo in the first place! Did he tell Frodo what this is all about? Do you lads know?" She looked eagerly from Pippin to Merry. "What does he want him to do?"

"It has to do with the Thain's recent illness," Merry spoke with caution, uncertain how much Frodo would want them to reveal, when Pippin blurted out:

"He says he's been poisoned."

"Poisoned!" squeaked Diantha. "How?"

"In his special wine," said Isigo. "At least, that's what Father Brabantius told us over dinner last night. Mr. Baggins has been peeking into the wine cellars and asking all kinds of questions about when was the last time anybody else had a sip of it."

"We each had a glass or two of it at Alhasrus's birthday, even the children." Alamaric took his daughter's hand. "Is that what your friend the shirriff is doing?" he asked. "Looking for poison?"

Merry nodded. "Sam says laburnum's the most likely thing."

The elder hobbit looked grim. "It's a horrible business, if it's true."

"Are there other laburnum trees nearby, Mr. Took?" Merry asked, thinking that Sam might want to have a look at those too.

"Goodness! There are trees just like that all up and down the Cleeve!" exclaimed Diantha.

"There's a laburnum grove near our old cottage," offered Isigo. "I can show you, if you'd like to see it."

Pippin accepted this invitation, and Di went with them. Merry stayed behind with Alamaric. As much as he would have liked to accompany the other young hobbits, he had noticed that Alamaric seemed familiar with Lady Iris--and, unlike the Thain's nearer relations, he seemed to like her. He would be able to answer questions about the lady, and Merry was certain that Frodo would want him to learn as much as he could.

But they did not discuss Iris immediately. "I've heard tales of what a wild lad your friend Peregrin Took is," Alamaric said after the trio of young hobbits had exited the garden. "Diamanta despairs of him, but now I've met him for myself, I must say he seems like a pleasant lad--high-spirited, as Tooks occasionally are." He smiled. "You have something of the Tookish look about you yourself, Master Brandybuck."

"I'm half a Took," Merry answered. "My mother, Lady Esmeralda, is Diamanta's and Pippin's father's youngest sister. We're first cousins."

Alamaric, who shared the common hobbit fondness for genealogy, was pleased to learn this. "Then you and I are distant kinsmen," he responded. "I thought we might be. 'Pippin,' you call him? That's what Di calls him too. My daughter talks about him almost as much as she does about Mr. Baggins. They made quite an impression on her. Of course, a spirited boy like that is completely unsuitable for my little niece Diamond, but perhaps..." He turned to watch the three young hobbits disappearing down the lane.

With a jolt, Merry understood that Alamaric was hopeful of a match between his daughter and Pippin. He ruffled briefly, jealously, but bit back a discouraging retort. After all, Alamaric could have no idea what he and Pippin were to each other. "I doubt there are many girls who could put up with Pip," he said more tactfully. Unfortunately, this Di looked to be just the sort who would. Rather than continue this distasteful topic of conversation, he asked Alamaric, "Do you mind if I ask you a few questions, sir, on Frodo's behalf?"

"For this investigation? No, I don't mind," Alamaric answered. "But there's isn't much I can tell you. I never heard a word about poison before this morning, and couldn't begin to guess who's been putting it into Uncle Brabantius's wine."

"It isn't that. It's Lady Iris I'm curious about, and I know Frodo is too. Can you tell me something about her? Why does everybody in the Thain's family hate her so?"

"They think she's a climber," Alamaric responded promptly.

"Don't you?"

The older hobbit shook his head. "No more than any other woman of no particular family and no money who receives a proposal of marriage from the most wealthy and prominent gentleman in this part of the Shire. It'd be a hard offer to turn down even if she wasn't in the least greedy or scheming. That's just what my cousins and their wives say she is. They can't forgive her for marrying their father, but I can understand it. I say why shouldn't the old fellow marry again, if he's of a mind to? His children resent it, but their own mother's been dead these twenty years. I've no wish to insult her memory--Aunt Salvia was a wonderful Lady, sweet and generous, but since I've lost my own wife, I know how lonely it can be to live without the companionship of a woman. Iris is pretty and attentive, and no doubt makes Uncle Brabantius feel young again himself."

"Have you known her long?" asked Merry.

"For years. I knew her first husband, you see. Rosaldo Pumble was a friend of mine. A sort of cousin-by-marriage to the Tooks. We North-Tooks and the Pumbles have intermarried for generations, and we consider them kin even when there's no blood connection. Rosaldo worked as a land-agent for the Thain's farms in the northernmost end of the Cleeve. I can't tell you about Iris's family, but she was most likely the daughter of one of the farm-folk there. I first met her just after she and Rosaldo had wed--she was a remarkably lovely girl in those days. It'd take your breath away to see her. Uncle Brabantius would often ride up that way on land-business when he was younger and more fit. I went with him once in awhile, or I'd go in his place. Uncle Brabantius must have seen Iris many times while she was married to Rosaldo, but I never guessed he had special feelings for her.

"Then after Rosaldo fell ill and died suddenly, Iris wrote to Uncle Brabantius, asking for his help. It seems that she and her boy Isigo weren't left very well off. Uncle Brabantius invited them to come and live here--not at the Thain's Hall, but in a little cottage not far away."

"The one they're going to look at?" asked Merry, and waved a hand in the direction of the lane Pippin, Di, and Isigo had gone down.

"The very one. It isn't a far walk, even for a hobbit of his age. Uncle Brabantius would call upon Iris two and three times a week, and one day he returned from a visit and announced that he had asked her to be his wife!"

"The family was shocked?"

"Well, we were all very much surprised." Alamaric gave Merry another curious look. "Does this have anything to do with Uncle Brabantius's-ah- trouble? Isigo said it wasn't why you and Mr. Baggins had come here, but..."

Merry could only answer honestly, "I don't know. I'm only trying to find out whatever I can information your family."

"If that's so," said Alamaric, "then I can be of help."

"It belongs to Father Brabantius," Isigo told Pippin as they and Di approached the cottage. "He invited Mother and me to come live in it after my father died. I'd never been to the south end of the Cleeve before that."

"How long ago did your father die?" Pippin asked.

"Nearly three years ago. He worked for Thain Brabantius, you know. The Thain was always good to us, even when my own father was alive and he could have no idea that he'd be my step-father one day. Father was forty years younger--who would guess that Brabantius would live longer?" They reached the cottage, and Isigo held open the gate to admit the other two. "We only lived here for a few months, until Mother married Brabantius and we went to live at the Thain's Hall. I'm glad for her, but I was happier here. It's a comfy place, almost like our old home in the north, and was getting to be like a home of its own. The Thain's Hall isn't my home, and won't ever be. They've made that plain."

"The Thain's family," said Pippin.

Isigo nodded. "Di and her father are only ones who've gone out of the way to be welcoming."

"Diamond's been sweet too," Diantha said with a meaningful smile.

"Diamond is sweet," Isigo agreed. "She never says much, but when she smiles..." A smile briefly touched his own face. "If it weren't for those beastly brothers of hers always standing in the way, I'm sure she'd say more to me. She's coming home today, did you know?"

Pippin didn't always pick up subtle clues, but he gathered that Isigo was sweet on Diamond--and he was delighted to hear it. "Where are these trees we've come to see?" he asked.

"In the back-garden. I'll show you." Isigo led them around the hillock of a cottage, to a cluster of small decorative trees on the far side of a rock-edged pond. They were not fenced off from the rest of the garden, but the garden was so tiny that no cows or sheep were likely to wander within its walls.

Pippin wasn't certain what he was supposed to do now. He'd come to see the laburnum trees, and here they were! Since Sam had been looking under the trees in the Thain's garden, he did the same. He saw only plain dirt and tufts of untrimmed grass covered by some old, dead leaves and withered seed pods than had darkened from the characteristic golden color to a tawny brown. There were no footprints he could see.

"Nobody lives here now?" he asked.

"No," answered Isigo. "Some of my father's things are stored here, in boxes. I'd show you inside, but it's locked up. Father Brabantius is sure to let you or Mr. Baggins have the key if you want a peek at the rooms."

Frodo might, but Pippin didn't see the use of it.

"You don't think the poison came from here?" asked Diantha. "Trees like these grow all over the Cleeve. All over the Shire!"

"We had a grove like this at our old home," Isigo said in agreement, "and laburnums grow wild in the hills, although of course the farmers won't have them in their meadows."

"Exactly!"

Pippin was inclined to agree. Since he thought Sam would gather some of the seed pods, he picked up a handful and tucked them into his jacket pocket.

When Frodo left Lady Iris, he returned to the slope of the hill outside his bedroom window to find that his friends had gone. He quickly spotted Sam and Merry in the garden next door, sitting and talking with an older gentleman, but Pippin was nowhere in sight. Frodo went down to join his friends and be introduced to Alamaric Took, who had heard a lot about Frodo from his daughter and was delighted to meet him at last.

"And where's Pippin got to?" Frodo asked.

"Off with Di and Isigo," Merry replied with a wry note that puzzled his cousin. "They've gone to look at some other laburnum trees."

"Some other-?" Frodo glanced at the cluster of trees in the Thain's garden.

"I got some pods from under those," Sam reported, and patted his bulging coat pocket. "But there's no way o' knowing if that's where the poison came from."

"Is there a way to find out?" Alamaric asked, no longer troubling to hide his curiosity. His first shock at hearing about the danger to his uncle Brabantius had abated, and as long as no harm had come yet, he was going to enjoy this opportunity of seeing the famous detective at work.

"Not that I know of. But I've been thinking that we can narrow down the possibilities of who brought it into the house, and how it got into the wine." Frodo excused himself; he didn't ask Sam to come with him, but Sam followed him anyway. Merry remained with Alamaric.

They went into the Thain's Hall to the butler's pantry. Tulipant was seated at the table in the middle of the room, polishing the best silver and looking rather pale and ill. He quickly rose to his feet as the detective and his friend came in, and asked if there was anything he could do for them.

"As a matter of fact, yes," said Frodo. "That wine you carried from the Thain's study yesterday--have you poured it away yet?"

"No, Mr. Baggins, not yet. I thought as it might be wanted, so I put it aside--over there." Tulipant indicated the decanter sitting on top of a squat cabinet against the far wall. The glass of wine the Thain had poured for himself but not drunk still sat on the tray beside it.

Frodo went to the decanter and removed the stopper to sniff the wine inside: it had a heady pleasant smell, redolent of dry apples and oak, and probably had an oaky flavor to match. He then picked up the glass and held it up to examine the contents. The liquid was very dark red, clear, not clouded, and there was no sign of sediment. Nor was there any in the decanter. He asked, and Tulipant confirmed that he always strained the wines through a sieve when he decanted them.

Frodo dipped a finger into the wine and was about to put a few drops on his tongue when Sam cried out, "What're you doing?"

"I wanted to see if I could taste the poison. I won't swallow it."

"Here, you let me do that." Sam took the glass from him.

"Do you know what laburnum tastes like, Sam?"

"No, no more'n you do, but I heard tell the seed-pods is bitter. And I know what wine tastes like, and what it oughtn't taste like." Sam took a sip, then spit it out into a slops bowl Tulipant quickly provided.

"Well?" asked Frodo.

"It's a strong-tasting wine to begin with," Sam reported after he had rinsed his mouth with water. "'Less the poison was bitter as bile, you'd have to put a lot of it in before it'd be noticed."

"Thain Brabantius must be used to the taste of his own special wine. Surely he could detect a subtle difference, if something were added to it. Tulipant," Frodo turned to the butler, who had been observing these proceedings with great interest, "you've drunk some of the Thain's Own, haven't you? You told me yesterday that you sample the wine whenever you open a new bottle."

"Yes, Mr. Baggins, that's so," Tulipant answered. "I had a bit of this last when I opened the bottle, to sure as the wine hadn't been tainted by a bad cork, as sometimes happens. I've come to know the taste of it over the years. If you don't mind, Mr. Gamgee-" He took the wine-glass from Sam and gulped a mouthful. Frodo gave a cry of protest, but Tulipant only swished the wine around in his mouth in the peculiar, energetic way that butlers had when testing a wine's flavor, then spit it out into the slops bowl and rinsed his mouth.

"Not to say it's bitter, sir," he told Frodo, "but there's an odd undertaste."

"And you're certain that taste wasn't there when you poured this same wine from its bottle?"

"No, Mr. Baggins. I would have noticed it."

"When did you open this bottle?"

"It'll be in my pantry-book." Tulipant located the book on a small table near the door to the wine cellar and looked at the last page he had written on. "June the fourteenth. His Thainship might take a glass or two of his wine of an evening and this decanter'd last him a week in the usual way of things, but he fell ill just afterwards and it's hardly been touched since. You see there's nearly half of it left."

"How long was June the fourteenth before the Thain had his illness?" asked Frodo.

"The day before." The butler looked distressed at this thought. "I was never took ill myself, but if there was anything wrong with the wine when I opened the bottle, I mightn't've drunk enough. I only took a sip, to test as you might say."

"What about his Thainship?" asked Sam. "Didn't he notice the taste?"

"If he did," Tulipant answered, "he never said so to me. I remember when I carried it into his Thainship's study. He was a-sitting at his desk, going over his big books with Mr. Florisel, and as he was busy-like, he didn't come to drink it 'til later. He normally likes a taste of a fresh decanter when I bring it in. He didn't drink of this one 'til the next day."

"You'll have to ask his Thainship," Sam said as they left the butler's pantry.

"I intend to," Frodo declared. "There are also a few other things I want to ask the Thain about."

"Such as what?"

"Aunt Diamanta and Pippin have each posed an astute question: Who else in this household besides Lady Iris has a reason to poison the Thain, and why have they chosen to do it now? Let's seek answers to these questions, and see where our inquiries lead. Then we can make a good list of our suspects."

They were on their way to see Brabantius, when they were intercepted by Alhasrus at the head of the tunnel that led to the Thain's study. "Mr. Baggins, a moment of your time, if you can spare it. I wondered if I might have a word with you, ah-" He looked at Sam. "alone, please."

"Shirriff Gamgee is completely in my confidence," Frodo told him, but Alhasrus was not inclined to confide in a shirriff. "Oh, very well." Frodo murmured to his friend, "Sam, will you go and talk to the other servants--the cook, the kitchen maids--while I speak with Mr. Took? They know the workings of the household nearly as well as Tulipant. Find out if they've had any visitors in the kitchens lately. I'll join you as soon as I've finished here."

Sam agreed to this, and turned to go back down the kitchen tunnel they had just come up. Frodo accompanied Alhasrus into the parlor where he had met the North-Took family the evening before; it was unoccupied now. The Thain's heir took a seat in one comfortable chair by the unlit fire, and invited Frodo to sit down as well. "Have you found anything- ah- conclusive yet, Mr. Baggins?"

"No, not yet," Frodo answered, and thought that this was not a question that required confidentiality. He expected to be asked it regularly by everyone involved until he could finally name the culprit.

"I'd like to believe it's all a wild fancy of a hobbit in his dotage," said Alhasrus, "but I've spoken to Father since he made his-ah- astonishing announcement last night, and I'm forced to accept that what he says is indeed so." He shook his head. "I can hardly believe any hobbit capable of such a thing. My wife says it must be Iris."

"Don't you think so, sir?"

"I don't like that woman but, to be fair, I can't call her a murderer without proof. Just because she's after Father's money, it doesn't follow that she'd poison him for it. What I wanted to say to you, Mr. Baggins, is this: I want this matter settled as quickly as possible, not only for Father's sake, but for the rest of us. We can't go on for many days with this terrible suspicion between us. It will tear us apart. I will be the head of the family one day, when Father passes on--though I hope it will not be too soon! But when that day comes, it will be my duty to ensure that we have peace in this household above all else. We must live with Iris and that son of hers in our midst... unless they are the ones who've done this."

Frodo took the hint that Alhasrus wouldn't be sorry if Iris did turn out to be the one who had poisoned her husband, but he was determined not to make accusations that might destroy the family peace for years to come. "I will find the person responsible as quickly as I can," he assured Alhasrus, "but you must understand that an investigation takes time. We have to find the information that will lead us to the culprit. The proof you need. My friends and I have begun our search already, inside the household as well as outside."

"Outside?" Alhasrus brightened at the suggestion that someone outside the household might be the poisoner.

"It may be so. It would be easier for someone within the household to have tampered with your Father's special wine, but so far as I can determine, only one decanter of wine has been poisoned. This most probably happened in the middle of June, if the bottle was not tampered with in the wine cellar long before it was opened. Can you tell me what visitors were at the Thain's Hall during that time, just before your father was taken ill?" Frodo asked.

"We did have guests in the house that week," Alhasrus said, then reconsidered and shook his head, "but it couldn't possible be any one of them."

"Who?"

"My sister Althaea, for one. She came to dinner the night before Father took ill."

Frodo hadn't known that the Thain also had a daughter. He recalled that Pippin had said that Diamond was visiting an aunt, but 'aunt' in hobbit-terms might be any older female relation regardless of the precise degree of kinship and not necessarily a mother's or father's sister. "Does she live far from here?"

"Althaea has her own home a mile or so up the Cleeve," Alhasrus answered. "Low-wood. She comes to visit us often, sometimes with her husband or her youngest daughter Vidalia."

"Were they here then?"

"Not that day, no. My cousin Alamaric and his daughter Diantha were also here, but they are in and out of the Hall all the time. Some other cousins, Gradantius Took and his wife Glovina, my daughter-in-law's parents, came to dinner one night. Oh, and Florisel Pumble-Took was here for a few days just before Father fell ill, but he didn't stay with us overnight. You see, it couldn't be one of them. We've had other callers, ladies to see Diamanta or Aspid or Iris, but no one who was free to wander around the house and get into Father's wine." Alhasrus seemed disturbed; an outsider would be a much more agreeable solution to the problem of who had poisoned the Thain, but the most likely 'outsiders' were as much family as the occupants of the Hall. "Is it possible that someone snuck into our kitchens?" he asked Frodo. "An acquaintance of our butler or cook, or one of the maids?"

"That is possible," Frodo agreed. "Mr. Gamgee has gone to ask your servants. Perhaps something of the sort will turn up."

Alhasrus's hopes were revived by this reassurance.

"I was going to ask your father a few questions, but perhaps you wouldn't mind answering them as well," Frodo continued. "It may help my investigation to move more swiftly."

"Yes, of course. What do you want to know?"

"I've heard there have been quarrels among the Tooks."

"Oh, yes. Since Iris and her son have been here, we've had many."

"No, not about them. I mean other quarrels between yourselves, between the Thain and his family, for other reasons. Before Lady Iris married your father."

"Oh." Alhasrus was taken aback, but quickly re-composed himself. "Yes, I suppose there were a few," he said. "What family doesn't have disagreements?"

"What did you disagree about?" asked Frodo.

"Nothing important," said Alhasrus. "Nothing that concerns you and your investigation, Mr. Baggins."

In spite of Alhasrus's declared determination to have things settled quickly, Frodo could see that he would supply nothing more helpful on this point.

They parted at the parlor door. The Thain's heir was congenial, but Frodo suspected that Alhasrus was now eager to get away from him and his questions. He went down the tunnel to the Thain's study to see if Brabantius was in and willing to talk.

"Of course, you are welcome to disturb me any time you wish, Mr. Baggins!" Brabantius greeted him warmly. "I am in your debt, for you've done me good already."

"But I haven't done anything!" Frodo protested.

"Indeed you have. Since we spoke yesterday, I find I feel much more hopeful of my future. I am able to eat my dinner again, and surely going without is torment to any right-minded hobbit! Now, how may I aid you?"

Frodo sat down and briefly told the elderly Thain what deductions and discoveries he and his friends had made so far with regard to the use of laburnum poison, most likely taken from the trees in the garden, and how Sam and Tulipant had tasted the wine. He did not mention Diamanta's and Aspid's accusations against Iris, nor Iris's hints about family quarrels.

"I wanted to ask you about the wine, sir. Tulipant says he can detect an odd undertaste to it, but doesn't recall if the same taste was there when the wine was first decanted. Do you recall when you first tasted that wine if there was anything odd about it?"

"I wish I could," said Brabantius, "but if there was anything wrong, I'm afraid I didn't notice. I'd been going over the accounts to add in the northern rents and had no time to relax and savor the wine. I gulped down my usual glass without a thought. And after I recovered from my illness and my suspicions were aroused, everything tasted as if there might be poison in it."

"I hope if you don't mind some more personal questions, sir."

"No," Brabantius replied after a moment's hesitation, "not if they are to the point, and they will help you."

"Have you made any recent changes to your will?" asked Frodo.

"Yes, certainly, after I married again. It was the only sensible thing to do, since I had new family members to provide for."

"Can I ask what these changes were?"

"I don't see why you shouldn't know, Mr. Baggins. I've never troubled to conceal it from anyone. The small bequests are the same as they've always been--gifts of money and possessions to distant relatives, tenants, and my faithful servants. After my first wife's death, the main portion of my property was divided three ways, equally between my two sons and my daughter. The Hall and the land attached to the Thainship were to go to Alhasrus as my heir, with the understanding that his brother and sister and their children and grandchildren might always find a home here if they wished it."

"And after your re-marriage?"

"I had to think of Iris too, of course. She is to consider the Hall her home as long as she lives, and then it will become the property of Alhasrus or his son if she outlives him, and not go to Isigo. The Hall must be kept in the Took family, you see. I've provided for Isigo too, but Alhasrus is heir to the Thainship--he'll be the next Thain after me and no will can alter that. As long as the Hall belongs to Iris, she has the same understanding about my children and their families finding a home here. My fortune is mainly divided into four equal portions now instead of three, and Isigo and the grandchildren will come in for smaller bequests."

"Is everyone aware of these arrangements?" Frodo asked, thinking of Alhasrus's statement about having to live with Iris and her son.

"More or less," Brabantius replied. "I've never made my plans a secret, as I've said. My sons are well aware of these changes. I made it all plain to them, especially the disposition of the Hall, when the new will was written up. I suppose they've told their wives and their sister, and they told the grandchildren. Iris read my will when I signed it."

"Did anybody make objections?"

"I imagine s me! Alhasrus has cause to resent it most, but after all, I couldn't leave my wife unprovided-for and hope for generosity towards her from him and Diamanta."

"-and that's when Mr. Baggins said, 'Go on and have a good look, lads, 'cause you an't getting your hands on a bit of it!'"

Sam was seated at the large, circular table in the middle of the servants' dining hall, with three maids and the pantry-boy hanging on his words. Mrs. Scrubbs, the cook, had provided him with a cup of tea and some currant-buns fresh from the oven, and stood listening from the kitchen doorway while she kept one eye on the luncheon leg-of-lamb on its spit and several boiling pots on the stove.

Frodo, returning from his own interview with the Thain, stopped at the entrance on the opposite end of the room. He couldn't help smiling at the sight of the enthralled audience gathered around his friend. Sam had a way with maid-servants and older women. He didn't, however, recall saying anything like the sentence Sam had just attributed to him.

"You never saw nothing like how those Longchalk lads fell over themselves when Mr. Baggins told 'em how he'd seen through 'em," Sam went on with his story. "They didn't think the Mayor's son was cheating at racing at all, but only wanted to make a scandal by saying so. Meek as mice, they were, once we called 'em out on it."

"But what did they want the gold for, then?" one of the maids asked.

"If Lad Whitfoot'd given it to 'm, that'd be like proof that he was guilty as they was saying, and nobody'd believe contrary-wise and his reputation'd be ruined. Because of Mr. Baggins, he was saved."

With horror, Frodo realized which investigation of theirs Sam was recounting. "Ah, Sam-" he said tentatively, blushing as all eyes turned to notice him, "you aren't telling them that story?"

"Not all of it, Frodo," Sam assured him, and introduced his audience around the table. "This is Miss Elsey Cragtop and her sister, Miss Tilsey, and Miss Lacy Appledore. The lad here is Jeddy Tubrose. I was just telling 'em that you snuck out o' the inn under the very noses of them Longchalks to find me. That's all."

"It must be wonderful to have so many exciting adventures, as Mr. Gamgee's been telling us, Mr. Baggins," Jeddy said wistfully.

"You were supposed to be asking questions, not telling stories, Sam," Frodo chided.

The maids came vigorously to Sam's defense. "Oh, he did!" the same girl who had spoken before, Lacy, protested. "He asked us whether anybody else was here in the kitchens afore his Thainship took ill."

"And we told 'm!" said Tilsey. "Everything we could tell, Mr. Baggins. On our honor!"

"I'll tell you the same and I told your friend here, Mr. Baggins. There's been nobody here in my kitchens as didn't ought to be," Mrs. Scrubbs said, and brandished the large wooden stirring-spoon she held in one hand as if she intended to drive out any would-be intruders with it.

"The maids said as how they'd rather go walking out with their sweethearts out-of-doors when they get the chance," Sam reported, which provoked delighted giggles from all three girls.

"Might someone have gotten into the butler's pantry or wine-cellars unnoticed?" asked Frodo.

"Not through my kitchen," Mrs. Scrubbs insisted. "If I'm not here from breakfast-time 'til the dinner dishes is washed and put away, at least one o' my girls is. And Mr. Tulipant's always about if he's not looking after his Thainship. There's only the one door that goes out through the scullery, and it goes up to the gardens and the rubbish heap at the top o' Eastsides Hill. There's a cart track that runs up that way, for deliveries 'n' such, but it's a climb for any visitors to take if they want to call upon us. Better they knock at the front door!" It was then the cook noticed that one of the pots on the stove behind was boiling up dangerously and she went to attend to it.

"You'd never think it was one of us, Mr. Baggins!" Jeddy asked. "Nobody aside from Mr. Tulipant serves the wine, and he'd never let me touch a glass as had the Thain's Special in it!"

"Poor Mr. Tulipant," said Lacy. "He's taken it awful hard--as if it's all his fault for carrying the wine to his Thainship."

"I don't suspect you," Frodo told the boy. Unless one of these young hobbits bore a grudge toward their master, he doubted they could have taken the trouble to poison him. Did they even have the opportunity to do so? "You've all been trusted in the Thain's service for many years."

"Not so many years for me!" answered Jeddy. "I only came to work at the Hall last summer, though I used to help out my dad in the garden since I was a little lad."

"And none of us has been here more'n four or five years," said Elsey. This was usual; most young girls from the local farms and villages who took work as servants in a grand household only intended to be there for a short while. It gave them a chance to get out of their homes, see new places and meet new people, learn more about housekeeping than their mothers had taught them, and earn some money before they married. Few made a career out of service.

"I suppose Mr. Tulipant's been with Thain Brabantius longer than anyone else," said Frodo.

"Not longer'n my dad," said Jeddy with a note of pride. "He's been here since his dad was gardener."

"And what about Mrs. Scrubbs?" asked Sam. "She must've been here for ages."

"Oh, not Mrs. Scrubbs," said Tilsey. "She only came last year, after our last cook left. Her Ladyship hired her."

"It's not us. It's them you're thinking of, isn't it?" asked Lacy. "One o' his Thainship's family?"

Frodo didn't answer this, but Sam's eyes briefly met his and the maids understood.

"Oh, how horrible!" cried Elsey. "'Tisn't any wonder his poor Thainship's been in such a state."

"Which one d'you think it is, Mr. Baggins?" asked Lacy.

"I'll wager anything you like it's that new Missus Stuck-up," Tilsey said. Her frankness and the disrespectful nickname astonished both Frodo and Sam.

"You mean her ladyship?" asked Sam.

"No! I meant Missus Persifilla, as is Mr. Ulfidius's wife," the girl explained. "I do her lady-maiding for her and she's a wrong un, I can tell you! Greedy. Gives herself airs like she's Lady o' the Hall already. Gave up a good lad for it, too. No, I never meant her ladyship, Mr. Gamgee. I wouldn't say a word bad about her."

"You'd best not, Tilsey Cragtop!" said Mrs. Scrubbs. She had finished attending to her pots on the stove and stood in the kitchen doorway regarding the maid with hands on her hips and a fierce scowl on her face. "Her ladyship's as fine a lady as ever there was and I won't hear no word against her. There's enough o' that from his Thainship's family, as ought to know better."

Frodo was surprised that Mrs. Scrubbs should show such ferocious loyalty toward Lady Iris, when Iris had only hired her a few months ago. He wondered if they had known each other much longer than that.

"I didn't, Missus Scrubbs," Tilsey defended herself. "I like her ladyship. If anybody says she did it, I wouldn't believe 'em."

"Nor more'n I would. Now you girls and Jeddy've spent enough time chattering with these detectives," Mrs. Scrubbs answered. "They'll be wanting their lunch laid out in the dining-room soon enough, and we'll be wanting ours laid out here. Beg your pardon, Mr. Baggins, Mr. Gamgee, but we've got work to do and I need my maids to do it. You'll have to go." She was adamant; any further questions would have to wait. Frodo asked if he and Sam could go out the back way and see the kitchen gardens and, once Mrs. Scrubbs' permission had been granted, they got out of her way.

"We shall have to speak again to Mrs. Scrubbs and that maid, Tilsey," Frodo said as they ascended the steeply slanted tunnel that led up from the scullery to the back door atop the hill. "Will you talk to them, Sam? Find out how long the cook has been acquainted with Lady Iris, and especially find out what Tilsey means by saying that Persifilla Took is a 'wrong un.' I've no impression of the young lady at all, except that she seems rather flirtsome for a married woman."

"She might've meant nothing by it," said Sam, huffing as he tried to keep up with Frodo. "A lady's maid'll take slights easy, if somebody like Missus Took was high-handed with her and put on airs."

"Perhaps, but ask her just the same. Chat with them all, as the opportunity presents itself. The more the servants are willing to talk to you, the more we are likely to find out about the Tooks. They like you, Sam, and the Tooks aren't eager to tell me anything. They've closed ranks over their family quarrels and shut their mouths tightly. The servants will know all about it. But for goodness sake, please don't tell any more embarrassing stories about me wearing Angelica's clothes!"

"Honest, Frodo, I never told 'em about that part o' it," Sam answered. "I only said as you disguised yourself so you could sneak out past them Longchalks, and never said disguised as what. You know I wouldn't."

They emerged through the door at the end of the tunnel, a round, wooden hatchway that lay at a slant on the hillside. A series of terraces had been cut into the slope around it, and the kitchen gardens laid out on them. Sam sat down on a split log that served as a bench and caught his breath while Frodo looked around. The neat rows of growing vegetables were sheltered by some dwarf apple and peach trees against a low stone wall, and a few stone outbuildings lay on the other side. At some distance beyond was a rubbish heap. Above rose the rocky crest of the hill like a ragged line of brown teeth. A single dirt road ran along the ridge below the crest. There were no laburnum trees, and the herbs that were grown and dried here were all harmless plants for common household use.

"Besides, there aren't no more stories to tell. You only wore Angelica's dress the once," Sam said, regarding his friend, "and you looked awfully pretty in it."

Frodo turned to give him a smile. "Why, thank you, Sam. You might also have a word with Jeddy's father. I know you won't mind having to talk 'shop' with another gardener."

Sam didn't mind, but he wondered where these questions he was supposed to ask were leading. "You don't suspect 'em, do you, Frodo?"

"Not Jeddy nor the maids, no, but the older servants are worth considering," Frodo replied. "Tulipant, of course, has access to the wine. Mrs. Scrubbs has a kitchen at her disposal where she can brew up whatever potions she likes without drawing attention, and the gardener could easily gather laburnum pods or other poisonous plants from the Thain's garden at his leisure. Perhaps they are all three working together." He laughed. "Well, at any rate, we must look into the possibility. I'm afraid, dear Sam, that the more we see, the more clear it is to me that the Thain's wine was poisoned while it was in his study by someone within the house--if not one of the servants, then one of the family."

"More likely to be one o' the family," said Sam.

"Yes," Frodo agreed, and sighed. "If Alhasrus is telling the truth, and he has little reason to lie, there were only a few visitors to the Hall the day before the Thain fell ill, when the wine was mostly likely poisoned. They are all members of the family too." As he repeated what Alhasrus had told him, he continued to look out over the landscape of the Cleeve. The view was magnificent from this height; he could see miles of the green valley, fields and farms, cottages boxed in by dark lines of evergreen hedgerows, clusters of buildings along dusty lanes, and on the far side, the matching wall of the westward hill. This part of the Shire was more rough and craggy than the rolling southern downs he was used to, but attractive in its own way. Frodo sometimes found it hard to believe that anything so terrible as murder could happen in such a snug and safe-looking valley, but experience had taught him that evil could flourish in the pleasantest places.

Down at the bottom of the hill, he could see that Merry was still sitting with Alamaric and he wondered what they could be talking about for so long. He also noticed a carriage coming up the lane toward the Thain's Hall.

"It an't going to be easy for none o' them in the end," Sam said.

"No. At least, Thain Brabantius seems to grasp that. He's not a foolish hobbit. He's had time to ponder the possibilities and what they will mean to all his family as well as himself if it turns out one of them has tried to kill him. For the others, it's a new idea, and not a pleasant one. They are already divided. The Thain's children and grandchildren dislike Lady Iris, and are happy to suspect her. They are afraid to consider it might be anyone else."

The carriage stopped before the Hall, and three ladies climbed out. The slope immediately below the kitchen gardens was too steep to scale safely without a rope, and so Frodo and Sam went back down through the kitchens to reach the front of the house. As they approached the front door of the Thain's Hall via the main tunnel, they could hear sounds of a minor commotion ahead. Alamargo and Alhasrus and their wives had already gathered to greet the ladies, and Alamaric and Merry had come indoors with the new arrivals. With the porter dragging in baggage as well, the front hall was crowded with hobbits all talking at once.

When they reached the front hall, Frodo could see the three ladies. One, Diamond, he recognized, although she appeared more mature and poised than she'd been when he'd last seen her two years ago; the other two were another young lady a little older than Diamond and far more poised, and a grand older lady. Both had Tookish features, and he could guess who they were before he heard their names.

"Althaea!" Alamargo greeted his sister while Aspid welcomed their daughter home with hugs and kisses. "And Vida, my dear girl, how lovely to see you. Hasn't Valumus come with you?"

"My husband is indisposed," Althaea replied.

"He's not very ill, I hope?" Aspid asked pointedly. "Poor Valumus seems to be indisposed so often."

"When he's in such a state, there's nothing to be done about it," Althaea answered shortly. "He prefers to be left alone, in peace and quiet. As long as we were to accompany Diamond home, I thought it best that Vida and I spend our afternoon here--if you don't mind."

"No, certainly not!" said Alhasrus. "Father will be so happy to see you."

"What's this news I've heard about your visitors?" She glanced back at Merry, who stood in the open doorway behind her, then looked over her brothers' shoulders to find Frodo and Sam at the other end of the front hall, and regarded them with curiosity and mild disdain.

"We have detectives in the house, Althaea. It's Father's idea. You know how odd he's been lately." Alamargo took his sister by the arm, and he and Alhasrus explained things to her in quick, lowered voices. Only fragments of their conversation could be heard. Vidalia also regarded the visitors with wide-eyed curiosity. Diamond met Frodo's eyes, and gave him a shy smile.

"We have heard about you, of course, Mr. Baggins," Althaea said once Diamanta had introduced them, "though I am astonished to find you and your friends here."

"I remember you, Mr. Baggins," Diamond added softly. "When I met Peregrin Took."

"Where is Peregrin?" Diamanta asked and looked around the front hall, as if she had only now noticed his absence.

"He and my Di and Isigo went off together," said Alamaric. "It must've been at least an hour ago."

"They're taking an awfully long time just to look at some trees," Merry observed in that same wry tone that Frodo had noticed before.

"Trees?" echoed Althaea with a note of puzzlement.

Frodo was ready to explain this part of his theory. Since discussing the question with Sam, he was fairly certain that laburnum was the poison used, and it was most probably extracted from seed pods gathered from the tree in the garden.

"You seem to be suggesting that someone in this house deliberately made up this potion to give to my father," Althaea said when she and the others had heard about the effects of laburnum poisoning.

"I'm afraid it looks that way, Mrs. Lowfoot. I've been given leave by the Thain to ask questions. I hope you won't object if I have anything to ask you?"

"But what can you wish to ask me?"

"I thought perhaps you might have seen something that could be of help to me," said Frodo. "You were here when your father was ill, weren't you?"

"Yes, I came as soon as I heard the news," Althaea answered.

"Your brother tells me that you were here before your father's illness."

"Yes, we came to dinner the night before, my husband and I." She glanced at her brothers, as if wondering which of them had brought Mr. Baggins and his questions upon her.

"What a horrid profession you have, Mr. Baggins," said Vidalia. "Prying into everyone's private affairs. Asking questions that are nobody's business to be asked! I don't know how a gentlehobbit can bear it."

"It is an unpleasant business sometimes," Frodo agreed, "but then murder is a nastier one. Our prying has found out quite a lot of murderers. You wouldn't want the person who did this to your grandfather to go around undetected, would you, Miss Lowfoot?"

"But grandfather hasn't died," the young lady responded.

"No, but the poisoner might take it into his head to try again until he succeeds, or to try the same trick on someone else."

"But you certainly can't think my mother has anything to do with it? Or my uncles."

"There is only one person it can be," said Diamanta. "Frodo knows who as well as we all do, and this investigation is a waste of time."

"I must say, I find the whole thing difficult to believe-" said Althaea.

"It is true, my dear," Brabantius, who had come down the hall from his study, being informed that guests had arrived. He and Iris were arm-in-arm. "The facts are there, and can't be avoided no matter how much we might wish it weren't so. Mr. Baggins has done only what I've asked him to, and you are to give him every assistance, Althaea, and you too, Vida... as I have already made clear to your brothers and cousins, and dear Iris." He patted his wife's arm.

It was interesting to see how the grown children of the Thain and their spouses, grand ladies and gentlemen, instantly turned into chastened children. As Althaea looked down, abashed, Frodo could detect a resemblance to timid little Diamond. The Thain was very old and had grown frail since his illness, but his will was still strong and he remained a force to be reckoned with in his own household.

There were more kisses and hugs of welcome from the Thain and his lady. Iris not only agreed that the guests were more than welcome to stay the afternoon, but invited them to dinner.

"But can't we please talk about something else?" she requested. "Such a disagreeable topic isn't fit for the dining room! It will put us all off our food."

Frodo begged her pardon. "You may rest assured, my lady, that the lunch will be quite safe," he said. "Sam and I were questioning the staff while your Mrs. Scrubbs was preparing it, and we can both vouch for its wholesomeness."

"I certainly hope so!" Iris laughed. "One has to trust one's cook, you know, and I would trust Mrs. Scrubbs with my life."

"We shall all have to," said Brabantius.

The group went into the dining room. Ulfidius and Persifilla had joined them by that time, but Diamond's brothers, Hilbarus and Helimarcus, were absent. The maids brought in the leg-of-lamb and covered dishes full of steaming vegetables to set on the table. As the Tooks and their guests took their seats, Alamaric said, "I wonder where Di and the lads have gone to? The poor things will miss lunch."

Pippin, Diantha, and Isigo had gotten their own lunch. When they left the empty cottage, all three young hobbits agreed that they were ravenous, having missed their elevenses. Isigo suggested that instead of going back to the Thain's Hall, they stop at a tavern up the lane.

The tavern's bar was not yet officially open for business when they went in. "I couldn't serve public ale or beer afore midday," the tavern-keeper told them apologetically. "And anyway, Miss Diantha, you know what Mr. Alamaric says-"

"Father says-" Di began, grinning.

"I'm not to give you a beer at any time." As the tavern-keeper spoke, Di said these words along with him. "That's right, Miss. Not 'til you're a full three-and-thirty. But I can give you and the lads a drop o' cider."

"And a bite to eat, please?" requested Isigo.

Mugs of cider, a gooseberry tart, and a platter of cold ham and cheese were provided. The trio settled down at a table in the empty common-room, and were enjoying their meal when a handsome, fair-haired hobbit of middle years emerged from the hallway behind the bar, where there were two spare rooms reserved for travelers.

"Uncle Flori!" cried Di when she saw him. "I didn't know you were here."

"Uncle Flori always stays at the tavern when he visits," Isigo told Pippin. "You should've let us know you were in the neighborhood, Uncle."

"I only just arrived last night. Hello, children," Uncle Flori replied, and rumpled the curls of the two young hobbits. "You shouldn't be swilling down ale at this hour- Ah, it's cider, is it? That's much better. More respectable for young persons, especially young ladies. Who's your friend? I thought I knew all the Tooks in the Cleeve."

"Pippin's one of the South-Tooks," Diantha explained. "Thain Paladin's son. He's never been to our part of the Shire before."

"Nor do I go down to the south Shire very often to call on our relatives there," said Uncle Flori. "I'm pleased to make your acquaintance, Master Took. Staying at the Thain's Hall, are you? Now perhaps you children can tell me--what on Middle-earth is going on at the Hall? When I came in last night, this room was full of local folk, and I heard all kinds of alarming stories about the poor old Thain going mad, and sherriffs and detectives being called in. I say, Uncle Brabantius is all right, isn't he?"

They told him what was going on. Since none of the three young hobbits were the type to keep secrets, they told him everything they knew about Brabantius's worst suspicions and the extent of Frodo's investigation so far. Pippin only kept his mouth shut about the accusations Diamanta and Aspid had made against Isigo's mother.

"My goodness!" cried the older hobbit when he had heard all. "How terrible! I was thinking of going over for dinner this evening-"

"Don't be afraid, Uncle Flori," Di laughed. "The soup won't be poisoned!"

"It isn't that, Imp," Uncle Flori replied and tweaked the tip of her ear. "Will they want me underfoot with so much going on?"

"Oh, they won't mind," said Isigo. "Why don't you come back with us? Mama will be pleased to see you. She needs her friends about her now. You know how they've all been about us since we came to live with them, and this has only made it worse for her."

Uncle Flori agreed that he would, and went to find the tavern-keeper to see about his own luncheon.

"Who is he?" Pippin asked. "You didn't say. Is he a relative of ours?" He didn't have Frodo's detective skills, but he couldn't help noticing that the older hobbit did have a Tookish look about him, and both Di and Isigo had called him 'Uncle.'

"Yes, he is," said Isigo. "One relative we have in common. He's Florisel Pumble-Took--a cousin of my father's on the Pumble side, and a distant cousin to the Thain on the Took side."

At that moment, Hilbarus and Helimarcus Took came into the tavern, and did not appear happy to see the other trio there ahead of them. "Does your father know where you are, Diantha," asked Helimarcus, "and who you're with?"

"Yes, he does!" Di shot back. "Are you following us, to spy?"

"Following you?" her cousin echoed. "Goodness, no! We were trying to get away from all this ugly business with poisons and detectives. It's no pleasure to find you here, my girl, nor your companions. But who you choose to keep company with is thankfully no concern of ours."

Pippin thought that these remarks were directed at him, as one of the intruding 'detectives,' until Hilbarus, the elder brother, added, "Better it's you in such company, I suppose, than our sister." Then he said to Isigo, "She's coming back today, so mind you keep a respectful distance, Pumble, and don't get any ideas about making up to her and worming your way into our family like your mother has."

Isigo turned very red. "I never had any such idea," he retorted, rising to his feet. "I wouldn't want to be part of your family, thank you!"

The two North-Took lads stepped forward and Di sprang up, to side with Isigo. Pippin was about to stand also--after all, he couldn't just sit there while his friends were in need of aid, and he knew something about fighting--when the tavern-keeper and Florisel returned from the kitchen, averting the brawl that was about to break out between the young hobbits. Di put her hand on Isigo's arm, and the pair sat down again. Hilbarus and Helimarcus turned with exaggerated casualness and strolled to the bar to order ales, for it was now just past noon.

All was peaceful for several minutes. Hilbarus and Helimarcus drank their ales and Florisel joined the others at their table. When the mugs of cider were empty, Pippin got up to have them refilled. He would have preferred an ale himself, but it didn't seem fair to drink in front of Di when she wasn't allowed to enjoy one too.

"It's a shocking thing to see," Helimarcus said to him as he stood at the bar while the mugs were attended to. "You, a Thain's son, taking up with the worst lot in the Cleeve--that wild, unnatural girl and that scheming boy."

"Oh, I'm worse that the two of them together," Pippin answered with a grin. Since one fight had been avoided, he wasn't going to be provoked into another one.

"You work for this Mr. Baggins?" asked Hilbarus.

"I help Frodo whenever I can," Pippin replied. "He doesn't pay me--I do it because it's fun. What better reason is there to do anything?"

"Fun for you and Mr. Baggins, perhaps," grumbled Helimarcus, "but not for us."

"What's he up to with Grandfather?" asked his brother.

"What d'you mean?" Pippin asked back.

"This business about poison in the wine," Hilbarus explained. "It's all a waste of time, isn't it?"

"You think you know who the poisoner is?" asked Pippin, expecting that Hilbarus would have the same opinion as his mother and aunt.

"No--because there isn't one! Old hobbits are apt to fancy odd things like food tasting funny and people plotting against them. I'm certain this is all in Grandfather's imagination, and your Mr. Baggins encourages it for the sake of poking his nose in where it doesn't belong."

"If Frodo says he believes Thain Brabantius has been poisoned, it's because he truly does," Pippin defended his friend. "He wouldn't lie."

"If you say so," Hilbarus said with a shrug. "But I think that this famous detective is so keen on seeing murderers everywhere, he looks for them even when there are none to be found. Our home will be turned all topsy-turvy and everyone upset, and what's it all for? Nothing. It'd be much better if Mr. Baggins puts a stop this investigation of his and tells Grandfather there's nothing in it. Then you can all pack up and go home, and leave us in peace. Since you're a friend of his, Peregrin, you might tell him so."

As Lady Iris had requested, there was no talk of poison over lunch. On this point, all the ladies were in perfect accord. Instead, there was a polite unraveling of genealogical connections, as Althaea traced the relationships of Frodo and Merry to Diamanta, and subsequently the North-Took family. The presence of detectives in her father's house was made more palatable by the fact that at least three of them were akin to her. Sam, the North-Took ladies ignored, but Iris went out of her way to draw him into conversation. Frodo guessed that she was probably used to being snubbed by them herself, and therefore sympathetic to someone else in a similar position. There was no discussion of her family background at the table.

Near the end of luncheon, Florisel Pumble-Took arrived at the Thain's Hall with the five young hobbits, some of whom were in sulky moods. But Florisel was smiling. "You see, I've brought all your wayward children home," he announced once he had been greeted by Brabantius and kissed Iris, "plus one extra. They've told me such alarming tales, and you must tell me more. I am most eager to meet the famous detective I've heard so much about."

Frodo and the rest of his companions were introduced, but there were too many hobbits all around, with different views of the case, for any one of them to give Florisel a clear account. Iris took him by the arm, and the two retreated for a private conversation in her boudoir. The group began to break up. Brabantius returned to his study. Alamaric and Diantha went home. The ladies and gentlemen of the Thain's Hall went to the parlor for a conference of their own. Sam went out to find Mr. Tubrose, the Thain's gardener, and Merry went in search of Pippin and Isigo, who had disappeared almost as soon as they'd returned to the Hall.

Frodo intended to speak to Brabantius about the conclusions he'd drawn since their conversation that morning, but when he approached the Thain's study, he found that Brabantius already had a visitor. Althaea had not joined her family in the parlor, but had followed her father.

"There is another reason I came today, Father. I wanted to talk to you about something very important." She stood with her back to the slightly open study door and did not see nor hear Frodo. It wasn't gentlemanly to eavesdrop, but Frodo didn't move from the spot. He had learned that this was sometimes the only way a good investigator could find out important things. "It's about Vida's marriage," said Althaea. "We are hoping to see her and Odonto wed this autumn."

"Vida doesn't need my permission to marry," Brabantius answered. "Odonto is a fine lad, and if you and Valumus have given your approval, I've no reason to protest. I'll throw the young couple a wedding party, and give them a good present, just as I did when your two elder girls were wed."

"Will you also settle a dowry upon her?"

"That's the duty of a father, my dear, not a grandfather. Won't that husband of yours put up a little for his own daughter, or can't he?"

"You know he can't, Father! There's nothing left to give her. Valumus-"

"Yes, I know all about Valumus." The Thain sighed. "I'm afraid you made your own bed there, Althaea, and will have to abide in it. I had my doubts about Valumus from the beginning, but you were so insistent that he was the only one for you. I hoped that a strong-willed girl as you were would bring out the best in him. Instead, he's sunk himself and tried to drag you down with him. It pains me to see it, my dear. Whenever you've come to me, begging for money, I've helped you out of your troubles. I've been generous time and again, and that husband of yours only sinks farther and expects more from me. There must be an end to it."

"Father-!"

"No, Althaea. I'll settle something upon Vida for her marriage. But nothing more for yours. I've done all I can."

Althaea turned and rushed out of the study; Frodo shrank back against the curving wall of the passage until she had passed, then waited another minute before he knocked on the open door.

"Come in, Mr. Baggins," the Thain spoke from within.

Frodo peeked in through the doorway. "You knew I was there?"

"I became aware that someone was waiting in the passage, but wasn't certain whom it might be. Tulipant would have made his presence known with a discreet cough. I guessed it might be you, or one of your companions. You've been all around today, I understand, making the acquaintance of my family and servants, asking them questions."

"You don't mind?"

"Of course not. That was precisely what I asked you to do."

"No," said Frodo, "I meant my eavesdropping on your conversation with your daughter."

Brabantius shook his head. "If I had objected, I wouldn't have spoken as I did. I imagine it's part of your work, to pry into private matters. I hope you will be discreet about anything you overhear that has no bearing upon your investigation."

"We can be extremely discreet about what we find, even when it bears upon our investigation." Frodo ventured, "Do you think your daughter's- ah- difficulties have any bearing?"

"You mean, do I think Althaea's poisoned me to obtain money I won't give her freely? No, I can't believe that's so. I can't believe it of any of my family, and yet it must be one of them. She loves that worthless husband of hers. Him, I can believe anything of." The Thain looked as if the mere mention of his son-in-law made a sour taste in his mouth. "I would be happier if she left him to his fate and returned to live with us here. Perhaps she will once Vida is married and gone away to a home of her own." Those bright eyes met Frodo's suddenly. "You do think it's one of the family, don't you?"

"I'm certain it's someone in this house, or someone who is able to come in and go about freely," Frodo answered.

Brabantius nodded solemnly. "Someone I have trusted."

"Yes, sir."

After a long silence, Brabantius sighed. "Then I've done what is best by setting you among them. I had my qualms about it when you and your friends first arrived, but I see now it must be done. Go, and pry as you will. Ask my children whatever questions you like. You're a clever young hobbit, Mr. Baggins. I'm certain you can bring the truth to light."

"They are reluctant to tell me anything," Frodo informed him.

"Undoubtedly they are, but I have confidence in your ability to handle them. I was most impressed with how you spoke to Vidalia when she challenged your work." The Thain gave Frodo a small smile. "My hearing is still good, you see, and you are not the only one who has found some advantage in listening to other people's conversations."

When he left the Thain, Frodo went to his room to change before tea-time; he had somehow got a splash of the wine on his waistcoat. Sam, who had come in from the garden, went with him.

"Did you find the gardener?" Frodo asked his friend once they were alone.

Sam nodded. "Mr. Tubrose told me there wasn't anything else in the gardens that was poisonous--leastwise, nothing that'd take a hobbit the way laburnum does."

"That must be it then. I'd like to know precisely where the poison came from--that might tell us who gathered and brewed it--but the trees in the garden are enough." Frodo removed the jacket and waistcoat he had been wearing and gave the latter to Sam. While Sam clucked despairingly over the wine stain and wondered if it would ever come out, Frodo opened the wardrobe to pick out a clean waistcoat for the afternoon. "It's probably your fault," he said to Sam's fussings. "I think the wine must have spilled on me when you grabbed the glass from my hand in the pantry." He turned to lay out his chosen waistcoat on the bed, and smiled at Sam. "That was very brave of you, drinking that wine when we knew it was poisoned."

"I didn't drink it," Sam answered diffidently. "Even if I did swallow that little bit, it wouldn't've done me much harm. Glasses of it didn't kill his Thainship, so a sip of it couldn't kill me. Besides, I heard tell as laburnum's not so bad as you'd think."

"But you told us this morning that it kills sheep and cows. It did kill a dog!"

"Yes, but hobbits is hardier," Sam replied. "I reckon they didn't put in enough. Even an old hobbit like his Thainship'd have to drink the whole bottle o' wine at once to get sick enough to die."

Frodo rolled up his shirt sleeves and poured some water into his wash-basin. "But you wouldn't let me even have taste a few drops," he rejoined, still smiling.

"Well, you can't be too careful, 'specially where your health is concerned. You're better now'n you were, Frodo, but you're still not strong."

"Yes, I know." Frodo splashed his face with cool water.

"And I've got to look out for you."

"I know that too. You always do." Frodo looked up, face dripping, and found that Sam had taken the towel from its hook on the side of the washstand and was ready to hand him; he took it and blotted his face dry. "Thank you, dear Sam." As he lowered the towel, Sam put an arm around his waist and brought him closer, so that his curled forearms rested on Sam's chest. They kissed.

There was a tap on the door and Pippin stuck his head into the room. "Sorry--I'm not interrupting anything, am I? I heard your voices as I was passing, and thought I'd better tell you what happened today."

"It's all right," Frodo said, and stepped away from Sam's arms. His budding romantic plans were regretfully set aside; he was here, after all, to conduct an investigation and he wanted to hear what his cousin had to say. They hadn't had a chance to talk together privately since the morning. "What happened?" he asked as he picked up his fresh waistcoat to put it on.

Pippin plomped down on the bed. "Wait 'til you hear!" He told Frodo of his visit to the laburnum tree at the empty cottage, and gave him the seed-pods he still had in his jacket pocket--Frodo put them on top of the chest-of-drawers, next to the pods Sam had collected--of how he had met Florisel at the tavern and the fight that had nearly occurred. He was repeating Hilbarus's suggestion that Frodo withdraw from the investigation, when Merry came past the open door on his way and saw him.

"I've been looking all over for you, Pip," said Merry. "Have you been here all along?"

"No, I just came in a minute ago," Pippin answered. "I was telling Sam and Frodo-"

"About all that time you spent hanging about with Diantha and Isigo?"

"Yes, that's right."

"What about you, Merry?" Frodo asked. He could see that Merry was spoiling for a quarrel over Pippin's defection and wanted to stop it before he could get started. "You were talking with Di's father for quite a long while this morning."

"I meant to tell you earlier, Frodo: He's invited us all to come and have lunch with him tomorrow next door. He can tell you a lot."

"What did he tell you?" Frodo asked.

"You must've picked up something," Pippin said cheerfully, "after all that time you spent hanging about with him."

Merry gave him a withering glance and answered Frodo's question, "For one thing, they're all badly in need of money. The Thain holds tight to the purse strings."

"That must be what all those quarrels no one will tell me about were over," said Frodo.

"It seems so to me too. Frodo, listen: Alamaric told me that the three of them--Alhasrus, Althaea, and Alamargo--came into part of their inheritance when their mother died, and the Thain settled a big amount on each of them when they married, but they have no regular income. No property of their own. Alhasrus is the best off, since Aunt Di has some income from the farmlands around Tuckborough Grandfather settled on her, and their son Ulfidius made a good match to a rich girl."

"That Persifilla," said Sam, remembering what Tilsey had said about her.

"The others are scrambling to do as well for their children," Merry went on. "Althaea has two other daughters, older than Vidalia, who've been married off successfully and moved far away, and she has hopes of seeing Vidalia married off soon to some Took cousin. Alamargo and Aspid are trying to do as well for their children. They had some hopes for their older son, Hilbarus, but it didn't come off in the end."

"That would explain why they're so eager to see Pippin matched to Diamond," Frodo mused. Pippin would be the South-Thain one day, and one of the wealthiest hobbits in the Shire.

"I wondered why they were trying so hard, even now that they've met me," Pippin said.

Merry nodded, but he wasn't concerned with Diamond.

"What about Aspid?" asked Frodo. "Did Alamaric say if she has any money?"

"No. She's from a respectable Cleeve family, but not a wealthy one. You see how her sister's dependent on the Tooks as a poor relation."

"And Althaea's husband?" asked Frodo, thinking of the conversation he had overheard between the Thain and his daughter. He'd seen that Brabantius disliked his son-in-law, but didn't know exactly why.

"According to Alamaric, he's a spendthift and wastrel," Merry answered. "They say he drinks to excess."

Pippin laughed. "Who doesn't?"

"No, Pip, even more than that. He doesn't just go off to the pub and have a half-pint too many. He sits alone at home and drinks himself into a stupor, then he's 'indisposed' all through the next day afterwards. He's spent all their money. The Thain owns their house, so they can't lose that, but they can't sell it either. He's rescued them from embarrassments more than once, but they only fall into trouble again. Right now, they're begging for money to see their daughter married off properly."

"The Thain will give her a dowry," said Frodo, "but he won't help his daughter any longer. I heard him tell her so. She and her husband won't see another penny from him, until he dies. All of them must be waiting to come into their inheritance." He told his friends about the terms of the Thain's will. "The better I know my client, the less surprised I am that someone's wanted to speed him to his end. When I met him yesterday, he was recovering from his recent illness and very frightened, but before that he must have ruled his household and his grown children like a domestic tyrant. They are still under his command. But one of them must have rebelled. Resentments must've been building up over many years. He's very old, but if they've waited a long time for him to pass on, and he shows no sign of dying yet, they might be growing impatient to see him off."

"And if Lady Iris gets one fourth of his fortune, and this house, that must cut out a good bit from their expectations," said Merry. "No wonder they're all against her."

"We don't have a complete list of suspects yet, but I believe we can begin to make one." Frodo began to pace at the foot of the bed; as he counted off each suspect on his fingers, Sam got out the notebook and little slate pencil he kept in his breast pocket to write the names down.

"First, there's Lady Iris. Diamanta and Aspid, and probably the rest of the Thain's family, believe that she married him for his money and position, and is looking forward to becoming a comfortable widow. We know that she'll come into a sizeable portion of his fortune when her husband dies. Has she tried to hasten him off?

"Second, Alhasrus. He's in need of money. More than that, he'll lose the Thain's Hall when his father dies. He may never own it if Lady Iris outlives him, but he and his family will live on here at her sufferance, unless this attempt at poisoning Brabantius can be laid at her feet."

"Which is no doubt why Aunt Diamanta is so sure Lady Iris is responsible!" said Pippin.

"We'll call Diamanta two-and-half," said Frodo. "Not only because of the Hall, but also because she hates Iris for taking her place as Lady of the Cleeve and mistress of the household. She might've put poison in the Thain's wine, perhaps not enough to kill him, or even meaning to, but in hopes of seeing Iris blamed for it.

"Third and fourth are Althaea and Alamargo, and their spouses. Put them all together on your list, Sam. Any one of them might've acted alone, but either couple might be working together. Or brother and sister might. They all have the same reason to hasten the Thain's death, and they're more desperate to come into their inheritance than Alhasrus is, if Alamaric is to be believed."

"Mr. Alamaric sounds eager to talk about how bad off his cousins are," Sam observed. "Is he trying to lay blame on them?"

"I think he wanted to show me that Lady Iris isn't the only one who'll get a great deal of money when Thain Brabantius dies," Merry replied.

"Could he be trying to cast our attention elsewhere to draw it away from himself?" Frodo asked. "What reason would he have?"

"He's the only one of the family who likes Lady Iris," said Merry. "Maybe he's in love with her himself, and was working up to asking her when she married his uncle. He seems like a nice enough fellow, but he admits to being lonely since his wife died. I don't think he'd mind a second marriage to a pretty, wealthy widow."

Frodo accepted this as plausible. "How long has Di's mother been gone?" he wondered.

"Nearly two years," Pippin answered. "But it couldn't be him."

"He has to be considered, Pippin. You know that. Sam, put down Alamaric Took as Five on that list of yours."

"I hate it when you say things like that, Frodo," said Pippin.

"But it's true," Sam defended Frodo on this point. "Mr. Alamaric and Miss Di go in and out of this house all the time. They could get at his Thainship's wine whenever they liked, same as anybody that lives here."

"They don't need to go in and out," said Pippin, then shut his mouth tightly and looked contrite, as if he'd given something away. The other three pounced on it.

"Come on, Pip," Merry urged him. "Out with it. What does that mean--'they don't need to'?"

Pippin struggled against this and even more promptings from Merry and Frodo, but eventually he gave in. "The house next door used to be part of the Thain's Hall. Di told me about it. The last Thain, Brabantius's father Ulgradius, was her great-grandfather, and her grandfather was Brabantius's younger brother. The two were split apart in his day."

"Was there a quarrel?" asked Frodo.

"No, the grandfather just wanted a home to himself, but didn't want the trouble of moving into a new house. When he got married, a new front door was cut out, the second-best drawing room made into his parlor, and the tunnels between the two were shut up. Di says they're still there. It gets very cold in the winters this far north, and when it's raining or snowing, they can go into the Thain's Hall through one of the old doors. But that doesn't mean they did, Frodo! Besides, there's somebody else who likes Lady Iris. Uncle Flori."

Frodo nodded. "Florisel. He was here just before the Thain's illness, and there might be something between him and her ladyship."

"Isigo says he's a cousin and old friend of his father's," said Pippin. "He's been a friend of the family for ages."

"He's obviously good friends with Lady Iris." Frodo thought of the way Florisel had kissed the lady--a light peck on the lips--and how the two had gone off to her boudoir for a private chat. These things had been done openly, and Brabantius didn't seem to mind their intimacy, but what if the two were more intimate than the Thain guessed?

Sam diligently put Florisel Pumble-Took down on the list as Number 6. "Who else is there? Missus Persifilla, though we don't know why."

"Yes, and that's one of the things we must find out," said Frodo. "I also want to know more about Hilbarus. He told Pippin he wanted me to stop this investigation and go home. I wonder why? Is it simply family feeling and a dislike for our prying, or is he trying to keep us from discovering something specific? Lady Iris said that I should talk to him."

"What about Isigo?" asked Merry. "You've made friends with him, Pip. What do you think? Or can Miss Diantha tell you more? He and she seem very friendly."

"They're friends, that's all," answered Pippin. "It's not like that. He's sweet on the other Di."

Frodo looked interested. "Diamond?"

"He told me so."

"Is that where the two of you have been all afternoon?" asked Merry.

Pippin nodded. "I heard him and Di talking about Diamond, and then Diamond's brothers warned him off her. So at the first opportunity, I took him to someplace quiet where we could have a nice long chat--up outside his window. We had a pipe together, and I got him to tell me all about it. He doesn't think he stands a chance, considering how her family feels about him, but I've decided that I'm going to help him."

"You, a matchmaker!" Merry scoffed.

"Why not? I've got a better reason than anybody except her mother and father to see Diamond Took gets a good husband. She's nearly thirty now--if she isn't old enough to get married, she's old enough to think about it. Why shouldn't she think about Isigo instead of me? He seems like a nice lad. I'm sure she'd like him if she gave him half a chance."

"Her parents and the rest of the family would never approve of it," said Frodo. "They hate his mother, and they think he's beneath her. She is the granddaughter of a Thain."

"And he's the stepson," said Pippin. "The North-Thain will probably give him a little something."

"What if he's the one who poisoned his stepfather to get 'a little something'?" asked Merry. "He won't come into as much money as everybody else when the Thain dies, but maybe he doesn't want as much."

"He didn't do it," Pippin answered confidently. "Isigo likes his step-father."

"You'll have to prove it," said Merry. "If you do, then you can match him up however you like. I'll be as glad to see Miss Diamond Took off your hands as you are. Any Miss Tooks."

"That will be your task, Pippin," said Frodo. "Find out about Isigo. Merry, yours will be to find out if there's anything suspicious about Alamaric. I'd like a look at those tunnels between this house and next door when we get a chance. Sam already knows he's got to ask the maid Tilsey about Persifilla and talk to Mrs. Scrubbs about Lady Iris. We must all keep our eye on the Thain's children."

"I think I can help out with Persifilla too," said Merry. "What about you, Frodo?"

"I want to find out why Hilbarus is so eager to see us gone. I also want to talk to Mrs. Goodwood."

"Who?" asked Sam.

"Aspid's widowed sister. Lady Iris suggested that she may have some reason to resent the Thain. If she does, I'd like to know what it is. And I ought to have a chat with Mr. Pumble-Took."

After they had all washed up and refreshed their wardrobe, or not, as necessary, the four hobbits went together to the parlor, where afternoon tea had been laid out.

"For a house where there's been a poisoning, they don't stint on their meals," Merry murmured to Frodo as just before they went into the room. "Remember another tea party in Minas Tirith? And how all the ladies of the court and I wound up being violently sick in the Houses of Healing?"

Frodo shushed his cousin and nudged him to be quiet. "Of course I remember," he whispered back. "But there's no fear of it here. Laburnum is far too bitter to be put into tea. Isn't that right, Sam?"

For Sam was close behind them and had been following the entire exchange; as always, he kept a wary eye on any confidences between Frodo and Merry. In answer to the question, he nodded. "You'd taste it right away."

They went into the parlor. The rest of the group, except for Brabantius himself, had already assembled. As Frodo had observed that morning, the household was divided into two distinct and opposing camps: the Thain's children and their families on one side, and Iris and Isigo on the other. The seating arrangements in the parlor reflected this, for Lady Iris sat with her son, while the others in the party were gathered into small groups pointedly apart from the two. Aspid and her sons cast frequent, hostile glances at the pair. Althaea and her brothers were in another whispered conference. Alamaric and Diantha, sympathetic allies to Iris and her son, sat nearby and observed the two groups, but did not join either. Only Vidalia and Diamond, who were discussing the elder girl's upcoming wedding plans, seemed indifferent to the tension around them.

While Florisel was also Iris's ally, it appeared he was enough of a Took to be accepted by the Thain's family; his easy charm carried him through any question of divided loyalties. He was chatting amiably with Diamanta when Frodo and his friends arrived, but at their entrance, excused himself and rose to greet them.

"Ah, Mr. Baggins, I've been hoping to talk to you, but I haven't had a chance since I arrived. Everyone else was so eager to tell me about you and your associates-" Florisel took the other three hobbits in at a glance, "I had to listen to their side of the story first. I must say, you sound like a remarkable bunch of lads. The things you've done! The adventures you've had. You don't mind if I ask you a few questions, do you?"

Since Frodo had been hoping for the same thing, he said that he didn't mind at all. After he'd been offered a cup of tea by Lady Iris, he and Florisel took seats in an alcove.

"Now," said Florisel confidentially, "everyone's told me what they can about your investigation, but none of them seems to know very much of what's truly going on. Even your friend, young Peregrin Took, could only tell me that Thain Brabantius's recent illness wasn't natural after all, and laburnum poisoning seems to be the cause of it. Someone put it in his special wine. Is that correct?"

Frodo admitted that it was.

"I didn't want to ask young Mr. Took more behind your back. I thought it best to come directly to you. According to the Tooks, you've all been going around, asking a lot of questions of everyone, even the Thain's servants."

"Yes, that's so," said Frodo. "It's the only way to conduct an investigation. We have to pry into matters that wouldn't be our business in normal circumstances. A great deal of what we find out has nothing to do with whatever it is we're investigating, and we do our best to forget it afterwards."

"That's a relief to hear!" Florisel said with a broad smile. "But I only wanted to ask if you'd found your way to the truth. Who could be doing this?"

"I'm afraid I haven't found that out yet," Frodo answered, and smiled at the older hobbit in return.

"I wish I could help you with your investigation, Mr. Baggins," said Florisel. "I'm quite fond of Brabantius. He's always been generous to me, like an uncle, although we are barely related. If there's anything I can do to help you, any questions I can answer, you must consider me at your service. Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be much I can say. I haven't been here since Brabantius first fell ill. I don't visit the Thain's Hall as often as I'd like. My business keeps me in the north."

"What is it you do, Mr. Pumble-Took?"

"I'm Thain Brabantius's land-agent. He offered me the job after Rosaldo died. I come to call at the quarter-year, to bring the rents from the farms in the north-Cleeve."

"And you were here last at Lithetide?" That had barely been two months ago.

"I brought the rents at Lithetide, yes," replied Florisel, "I was about to return to the north when Brabantius was suddenly so very ill and everyone was afraid he might die. The death of the Thain would mean great changes for us all. I stayed on for a week or so, until he began to recover." He flashed a smile. "If you wonder why I'm here now, when the autumn rents aren't due for more than a month, it's because I heard such alarming stories about the Thain falling ill again. I had to come dashing down to see if it was true. Also, I came in aid of a friend."

"Her ladyship?" asked Frodo.

"Quite right," said Florisel. "The prospect of losing a second husband, so soon after the first, was very distressing to her, as you can imagine." He glanced in Iris's direction; the lady must have been observing them obliquely, for when he turned her way, she lifted her eyes briefly to meet his.

Florisel chatted amiably with Frodo for a few minutes more, then excused himself; as long as he was here and Brabantius was well, there was business they ought to discuss.

After Florisel had gone to seek out the Thain, Frodo looked around the parlor. While they'd been talking, his friends had scattered around the room to have conversations of their own. After Isigo had left his mother to join Diantha and Alamaric, Sam had again been taken up by Lady Iris, who was asking him how he had become involved with Mr. Baggins. Merry was being charming to Persifilla, who didn't seem to mind. Pippin was sitting with Diamond. While the girl's mother and Aunt Diamanta watched with approbation from a discreet distance, Frodo was close enough to hear the name of Isigo being spoken. But even if he hadn't overheard, he would have guessed that Pippin was working on the other partner in his proposed match, and that any courting being done was on Isigo's behalf.

Mrs. Istra Goodwood sat alone. Aspid had been seated with her earlier, but had moved to join Diamanta once Pippin had begun to talk to Diamond. Frodo had barely noticed her since he'd been introduced to all the residents of the Thain's Hall yesterday; she had in fact been present at most of the family meals and gatherings, but always quietly in the background. Not noticed by anyone. Easily overlooked. As she sipped her tea, her eyes darted from one group to another around the parlor with keen interest, and a small smile flickered on her lips. Frodo wondered what she thought of them all.

He moved toward the chair Aspid had vacated. "Do you mind if I join you, Mrs. Goodwood?"

That smile appeared again. "Not in the least, Mr. Baggins. Do you wish to question me? I'm afraid there's little I can tell you about these terrible happenings."

"I'm certain that's not so," he answered diplomatically as he took a seat. "My friends and I are strangers here, and must work to solve this problem without knowing the circumstances that led to it. We're rather lost, you see. But you know the North-Tooks much better than we do. You've had opportunities to observe them."

"As an outsider, within the house?"

"Something of the sort, yes. You've lived here quite some time."

"Ten years," she answered, and was no longer smiling. "Since my husband died and left me with so little that I couldn't keep up my own house. Aspid invited me to join her here, and the Tooks made me as welcome as they could. I almost consider the Hall my home."

Almost. The word was not lost on Frodo. He guessed how it must have been for Istra, living here these last ten years, a poor relation-by-marriage, at the mercy of the Tooks' generosity. They would not stint on material comforts for Aspid's widowed sister, but he had seen how they treated people they considered outside their family circle.

"So you have no thoughts about who might be responsible for tampering with the Thain's wine?" he asked.

"Well, I've wondered, of course, as everyone has, Mr. Baggins. But I can't imagine who it might possibly be. It seems so hard to believe that anyone in this house could do such a thing, when Brabantius has been so kind to us all. He has such great care for his family. It's touching to see how he looks over his children as if they were still little hobbits under his care. All the Tooks are wonderful, warm-hearted folk. Not a cupful of cruelty between them."

Frodo tried not to smile at this description of the Thain and his family. The words were fulsome, but there was an undertone that gave them a double meaning. Istra might as well be saying exactly the opposite. "You hold your sister's husband and his siblings in the same high regard?"

"Oh, yes," replied Istra. "Indeed, Mr. Baggins, I find it simply impossible to speak an ill word against any of the Thain's children and their charming children. They are like my own family to me, and I wish them all well. Do you see Ulfidius there?" She nodded her head to indicate Alhasrus's son, sitting nearby, his eyes fixed on his wife, who was laughing at something Merry had just said. "He's married a lovely girl. What a delightful sense of humor--and how she appreciates your handsome friend's blandishments! I hope all the children will make matches just as successful, especially Hilbarus."

"Why Hilbarus especially, Mrs. Goodwood?" Frodo glanced at Alamargo's elder son. Like Ulfidius, Hilbarus was regarding Merry's playful banter with Persifilla with disapproval. Frodo wondered if this was because they were afraid she was being questioned by one of his associates, or because she was so pleased at the attentions of a socially prominent visitor. Unless the gossip about Merry had traveled so far north, none of them could know that he was famous for his lack of interest in women.

"He's a favorite of mine among my nephews and nieces by marriage," Istra answered. "He has my sympathies, you see. He's been disappointed in love once."

Frodo recalled that Alamaric had told Merry something similar, and he began to form an idea about Hilbarus's disappointment. "What about Lady Iris?" he asked.

"A sweet lady," said Istra. "She's brightened the Thain's Hall with her presence, and made an elderly hobbit's final years most pleasant for him. Oh, I know my sister and sister-in-law don't approve of Brabantius's remarriage, but goodness knows I am in no place to criticize, even if I had anything bad to say! The Thain seems happy with his choice, 'til recently, and I'm certain that's no doing of Iris's."

At that moment, Hilbarus leapt up. His brother, sitting on the same sofa, tried to hold him, but he easily threw off the hand on his arm and went over to where Merry and Persifilla were seated. He hissed something at the girl; Frodo only heard the word "enough!"

Persifilla stared back at him with wide, doe-like eyes. "I don't know what you mean," she responded. "I've a right to amuse myself in any harmless way I like. Master Brandybuck and I are only being sociable. If my husband doesn't like me speaking with a gentleman, a guest in our home, then he can tell me so, and I can tell him to mind his own business." At this, Ulfidius's ears turned red, but he did not respond. "It's nothing to do with you, Hil."

"No, it isn't," Hilbarus agreed bitterly, and he left the room.

There followed an awkward silence. Although many of the party were too far away to hear what had been said between Hilbarus and Persifilla, they had all seen what had happened. Alamargo looked embarrassed and Diamond's eyes glittered with sympathetic tears. Helimarcus went out after his brother. Merry looked astonished and a little abashed at the unexpected reaction his efforts to draw out Persifilla had provoked.

Only Persifilla remained composed and unconcerned. "You mustn't mind Hilbarus," she said to Merry. "He has these odd fancies and tempers from time to time, but I never take any notice of them. You mustn't either. It only encourages him to think his opinions matter, and they don't. Not in the least."

The party in the parlor dispersed soon after this incident. Isigo and Di went out with Merry and Pippin, and Frodo sought any one of the Tooks who would be willing to explain the scene they had all just witnessed. Sam remained after everyone else had gone, and waited for the maidservants to come in and clear away the tea-things; Frodo had asked him to talk to Tilsey, and this was his chance.

When Tilsey and Elsey arrived and began their work, he offered to help. "Here, let me take those," he said, rising quickly to catch the precarious stack of teacups and saucers Tilsey had balanced in one hand while she gathered up more from tables and armrests around the room.

"Thankee, Shirr cups off the stack and carried them over to the nearest empty tray.

"Whyn't you call me Sam? My friends do."

Sam was never entirely comfortable among high-born hobbits like these North-Tooks, although he admitted that Lady Iris had been kindly enough to him; he was at his best as an investigator with common work-a-day folk. He understood their ways of thinking better than gentle-folk like Frodo and his Took and Brandybuck cousins could, and servants and other working hobbits were more at ease talking to him. From their first case, when Frodo had sent him into the servants' hall at Brandy Hall to learn all the household gossip, and pushed him to flirt with the maids to find out what they knew, it had been so. Since then, however, he had overcome his extreme shyness with girls and knew just how to gain their confidence.

"They've finished up early today," Elsey observed. "Sometimes, they don't leave off their tea 'til it's time to wash up for dinner and then we have to scramble to clear up and set the dining-table on time!"

"Sommat happened today that sent 'em off early," Sam said, "and right odd it was too." He told them about the scene between Hilbarus and Persifilla.

The two girls nodded knowingly. "It don't surprise me," said Tilsey. "Not the way she's treated him."

"How's she treated him?" Sam asked her.

By the time they had gathered up the last of the tea-things and Sam had offered to carry the heaviest tray back to the kitchen, both Tilsey and her sister were telling him all they knew about Persifilla Took.

---

"What was that about?" Merry wondered. "It wasn't as if I was flirting with Persifilla-"

"You were so," Pippin responded with a grin.

"Only to try and draw her into talk! If anybody was going to be jealous over it, it ought've been her husband, not Hilbarus. He isn't in love with her, is he?"

"Is he?" Pippin asked Isigo and Di. "He acts like he is."

Isigo nodded. "Everybody knows about it. He wanted to marry her, but she picked Ulfidius instead."

---

When Frodo left the parlor, he followed the main group of hobbits. It seemed that Althaea and her daughter had decided to go home earlier than they'd originally planned and would not be staying for dinner after all. Alhasrus ordered his sister's carriage to be brought out immediately, and while they waited into the front hall, he and his brother, their spouses, Diamond and Alamaric made their farewells to Althaea and Vidalia and hoped that the two would call again soon.

Frodo hung back from this group and did not speak; it was only when Althaea and her daughter were heading out the door, and the lady gave him a cool glance, that the others noticed his presence.

"I must beg your pardon, Mr. Baggins," said Alamargo, "and Master Brandybuck's as well, for my son's behavior this afternoon. I'm heartily sorry you should see it."

"Is that what your family quarrels were about?" Frodo asked. "Not all of them, of course, but I imagine it's caused a rift between your two families."

"I don't know what you mean, Mr. Baggins," said Alhasrus.

"I mean that Persifilla chose to marry your son instead of your brother's, and Hilbarus resents it still," Frodo explained. This was a guess on his part, but Hilbarus's behavior--and the reactions of the group--made him certain he had guessed correctly. "Come now," he appealed to them, "can't we be honest? It is my work to find out secrets. I will find the truth one way or another, and if you conceal something from me, it will only look more important to my investigation when it finally comes to light. The Thain would not want you to hinder me, but you've all deliberately kept things from me to try and protect each other. You've lied, sir."

"I lied?" the Thain's heir echoed indignantly.

"You told me that when your sister visited the night before your father's illness, she came alone. She said that she and her husband both came to dinner. You were all right here, and heard her say it as well as I did."

"That wasn't a lie!" Alhasrus protested. "I merely forgot. Valumus didn't stay very long that evening. He was indisposed, you see, and unfit for company. He sometimes is."

"He's a drunkard, you mean," said Frodo.

"Who told you that?" Diamanta asked sharply.

"I thought it was common knowledge, Aunt."

Florisel, who had joined the group while Frodo was speaking, laughed out loud.

"Was it you, Florisel?" Diamanta whirled to him. "You'd think it all a joke. Or was it you, Alamaric? I know you've been talking your head off to Merry Brandybuck."

"I hardly said a word about it, nor about Hilbarus and Persi," said Alamaric. "Honestly, Di, I never thought it mattered."

"Oh, what does it matter?" said her husband. "It is known. Yes, you're right, Mr. Baggins. Valumus had already drunk too much wine before he and Althaea came to us that evening, and he went away when we refused to give him more. He left before dinner was on the table and went home, I assume. Althaea stayed longer."

"And will you tell me about Hilbarus?" Frodo requested.

"I don't see what it has to do with your investigation, Mr. Baggins," said Aspid. "It's a private matter, and one that has caused our family much distress."

"It may have nothing to do with it," Frodo agreed, "but I'd like to hear the story all the same and decide for myself."

Alamargo stepped forward. "I will tell you about it."

"My dear-" his wife said. Diamanta and Alhasrus also looked distressed.

"It must be done," Alamargo told them. "He is going to find it all out sooner or later, and I for one would rather he know the truth of it than hear it as a lot of gossip from the neighbors and servants." He lay a hand on Frodo's shoulder, and directed him to a small sitting-room just off the front hall.

---

"I wasn't here when it happened," said Isigo. "The whole business was over and Persifilla was already betrothed to Ulfidius last spring a year ago, before Mother and I came to live at the cottage."

"But I was here to see it all," said Di. "I've watched 'em since we were all children together, 'though Persi's a bit older than me and not the sort I'd want to play with anyway. She only wanted to dress up dolls and put ribbons in her hair, and wouldn't ever dare do anything to muss up her clothes. She was Vinella's and Velda's friend."

"Who are Vinella and Velda?" asked Pippin, somewhat confused.

"Vida's older sisters. They've married and gone to live far away now. I never saw anything to like about Persi, but Hil was always gaping at her like a mooney-eyed calf. You see how he behaves now. He was even more silly about her before she got married. Since then, he's been horrid to everyone. I don't like her, but I say he got his just deserts. Who is he to stand in the way of other people when he's been kicked down in love himself? It ought to make him kinder, not meaner."

Isigo also looked pleased at Hilbarus's rejection. "It's Ulfidius I feel sorry for," he said.

"Why?" asked Merry. "What happened? Why did she pick him over Hilbarus?"

---

"You see," Alamargo explained as he made himself comfortable in the nearest chair, "Persi is the only daughter of Gradantius Took, a second-cousin of ours, and the second wealthiest hobbit in this part of the Shire after Father. Everything he and his wife own will go to her. Persi's grown up with our sons and daughters, and my Hilbarus has been sweet on her since he was of an age to notice girls. A match might've been made between them, but my brother and Diamanta had an eye on the girl for their own son, even if Ulfidius never cared particularly for her or she for him. Father approved it, and Glovina and Gradantius were happy at the prospect of seeing their daughter become a Lady of Long Cleeve, so Diamanta and Alhasrus gave Ulfidius a push to go court her."

"Didn't Persifilla object to this change of bridegroom?" asked Frodo.

"No," Alamargo said bluntly. "I don't believe she ever truly cared for poor Hil. She liked the attention he paid her, that's all. He flattered her, and practically tripped over his own feet to do whatever he could to please her. He even wrote poems! I think she would've been glad to have him if no other suitor came her way, but when she saw she could make a better catch of Ulfidius, she snatched him right up."

"And this has been a quarrel between your brother's family and yours since then?"

"There were some hard things said between my brother and me, between our wives, and between Hil and Ulfidius once the betrothal was announced," Alamargo admitted. "We had quarrels with Father too, as you've guessed, but he remained firmly on Alhasrus's side. He said that Ulfidius was the elder grandson, and heir, and had a right to first pick of a bride, if the girl would have him. Well, he was right about that. Persifilla made her own choice of husband. Believe me when I tell you that I no longer have a quarrel with my brother's family, Mr. Baggins. I see now that it was just as well that that girl didn't marry my son. It would've been nice to have her fortune in our family, but she would have made Hil a poor wife. You see how she treats him even now, and her husband as well. Your friend isn't the first personable young lad she's flirted with before one or the other, to see how they rise to it."

"But your son doesn't see it that way?" Frodo asked.

"No. I wish he did, but he still feels it strongly. He still loves her, against all common sense." Alamargo looked up at Frodo anxiously. "But you mustn't suspect he'd harm my father over it. What good would it do him? If Persi or Ulfidius were poisoned, I'd allow that you had a right to suspect my boy. But Father? No."

---

"Cold-hearted, Miss Persifilla was," said Tilsey as she and Sam piled the cups, saucers, and plates in the scullery sink. "Cold and grasping. We could see that even afore she married Mr. Ulfidius and come to live here at the Hall--isn't that right, Elsey?"

"Broke poor Mr. Hilbarus's heart," Elsey agreed.

"That's right. She tossed aside a boy who truly loved her just because Mr. Ulfidius'll be Thain one day and she wants to be a Thain's Lady," Tilsey went on. The third maid, Lacy, had been helping Mrs. Scrubbs with the vegetables for dinner, but left her chore and came over to help with the washing-up. "Doesn't care two pegs for Mr. Ulfidius any more'n she did for Mr. Hilbarus, if you ask me."

Mrs. Scrubbs came to the doorway between the kitchen and scullery. "Here, you girls," she scolded. "No more o' that tittle-tattle. Are you asking my maids questions again, Mr. Sherriff Gamgee?"

"His Thainship says Mr. Baggins and me can ask whatever questions we like," Sam responded.

"Not when we've work to do, you can't. This part o' the day is our busiest, with dinner coming so fast upon tea-time. If you're going to be underfoot in my kitchens, you give a hand, or come back and ask your questions later."

Sam said that he was more than happy to give a hand to the washing-up. Mrs. Scrubbs continued to regard him with suspicion, until an unexpected voice called to her from the servants hall on the other end of the kitchen. Lady Iris had come to request a moment of her cook's time, and Mrs. Scrubbs went out to talk to her.

"Does her ladyship come to the kitchens often?" Sam asked the maids as they began to wash the tea-things.

"I expect she's come to ask about the dinner," said Lacy. "See that it's fit for his Thainship and the rest o' them to eat. We've all been put off our meals since we heard tell o' this poison in the house, Mr. Gamgee. Poor Mr. Tulipant's been in a fearful state, sitting in his pantry and staring at that flask o' wine he took from his Thainship's study. Nobody's dared touch a drop o' wine."

"Her ladyship sometimes comes to sit and have a chat with Mrs. Scrubbs, when times aren't so busy," Elsey added. "They'll make a pot o' tea on the kitchen fire when it's late and her ladyship don't like to be a bother about having a tea-tray brought to her rooms."

"The best o' the fine folk are the ones as considers their servants' feelings," Tilsey said approvingly. "Her ladyship wasn't born so high as a Took, but she knows what it's like to be one o' us common-folk and she gives a thought to them that works for her. Not like that snobby Missus Persifilla, who don't give a thought to anybody but herself!"

"About Missus Persifilla," Sam said to her in a lowered voice. "You said as she was the one that poisoned his Thainship. Why d'you think she'd want to?"

Tilsey considered the question. "Well... I see it like this, Sam. When his Thainship dies, it puts her husband one step closer to being Thain himself, and her to be Lady o' the Cleeve. Who can say? If she gets away with it, Mr. Alhasrus and Missus Diamanta might be next!"

---

As Frodo came out of the sitting-room and went in search of Sam and his cousins, he found the latter with Di and Isigo at the point where the two corridors to the bedrooms forked. When they saw him, they came toward him eagerly.

"Frodo!" cried Pippin. "Wait 'til you hear! We've got the whole story about Hilbarus and Persifilla!"

"I've already heard it," Frodo told them.

At Frodo's reply, his cousins' faces fell in disappointment. "How did you find out?" asked Pippin.

"Hilbarus's father told me all about it." They went into Pippin's room, which was nearest, and Frodo repeated all Alamargo had said. "He says that Persifilla refused his son in favor of Ulfidius out of ambition. He also admits that he was angry with his father and brother at the time, but is glad now that Persifilla isn't his daughter-in-law."

"But Hilbarus obviously doesn't feel the same way," said Merry. "He's eaten up with jealousy. You saw how he spoke to her."

"Yes. What did he say, by the way?" Frodo asked. "You were the only one, besides Persifilla, who was close enough to hear."

"He said, 'How much of this teasing must I put up with? Enough is enough!'" Merry reported. "He seemed to think that her laughing at my jokes was meant for him to hear... and if you ask me, he was probably right. At least, it was meant to rile him as much as her husband, although Ulfidius didn't seem to mind it so much."

"But you didn't stop it either way, Merry," Pippin said with a broad grin. "It made me wonder who else all that laughing and joking was meant for."

"I was only trying to draw her out," Merry retorted. "Just as I told Frodo I would. He said wanted to find out more about her, and I that's what I did. That's why we came all this way, isn't it? To help out."

Pippin was still grinning. "I'm glad that's all it was. I'd hate to think you were doing something silly, like trying to make me jealous by flirting with a married woman! Even if you were going to like some girl, she's not your type at all."

"And what type of girl would you like?"

Sensing another row boiling up between the two, Frodo quickly asked Merry, "What impression do you have of Persifilla, now that you've spoken with her?"

"She's a shallow, self-centered girl," Merry replied, keeping his eyes on Pippin. "She was happy as long as we were talking about her and she had her admirers looking on, but every time I tried to lead the conversation to something else, she kept dragging it back to herself. I don't believe she has a thought in her head for anything else. If you want to know, she reminds me of Jelly."

"Angelica's not so bad as that," Frodo defended his Baggins cousin.

This made Merry and Pippin both laugh in surprise. "Frodo, you could never stand Angelica! You used to say she was the vainest, spoiledest girl in the whole Shire!

"Yes, well, since Aunt Dora's stopped trying to push us at each other, I've come to appreciate her good points," Frodo conceded. "And Angelica's improved greatly since her marriage. She might bully Lad a bit over his pony-racing, but he adores her and she wouldn't play him false."

"You can't say the same about Persifilla Took," said Pippin. "I bet she makes life a misery for Ulfidius. But all the same, does she have any reason to poison the old Thain?"

"I can see her doing such a thing if it gained her something she wanted, and not turning a hair," Merry answered.

"If she doesn't, Hilbarus has good reasons for resenting his grandfather, as well as his aunt and uncle," said Frodo. "They arranged the match. Alamargo might say his son's had a lucky escape, but as far as Hilbarus is concerned, they've stolen away his intended bride."

"But the bride was willing to be stolen," said Pippin.

"True. Maybe he can't bring himself to hate her for it, but he can certainly blame them--and I imagine he does."

They went to the room next door. Frodo tapped on the closed door, and Helimarcus answered it.

Frodo's first thought was that Pippin had directed him to the wrong room, when Helimarcus said, "I suppose you're here to interrogate my brother. Well, you can't! Haven't you and your friends caused enough mischief?"

He was about to shut the door in Frodo's face, when Hilbarus spoke from within, "No. Let him in." Helimarcus scowled and looked as if he would still prefer to slam the door, but he grudgingly opened it wider to reveal his brother, who sat in a window at the far end of the bedroom. At the sight of Frodo, Hilbarus said, "Mother told us that Father told you about me and Persi. Now you've found out, you ought to hear my side of it too, Mr. Baggins."

"I would be happy to hear your side," Frodo answered.

"I'll bet you would," said Helimarcus dryly.

Hilbarus ignored this. "Then come in, please--you alone." He glanced meaningfully at Merry and Pippin, who stood in the hallway. "Helly, you can go too."

Frodo went into the room, and Helimarcus went out, shutting the door behind him.

"I suppose you've heard my story, as Father tells it," Hilbarus said once he and Frodo were alone. "How I've been in love with Persi since we were children, but she never cared a jot for me. And when the family pushed our cousin Ulfie, who is older and richer than I am, and will be Thain one day, to court her, she snapped him up like a greedy, grasping wretch."

Frodo acknowledged that this was what Alamargo had told him.

"But it wasn't like that, Mr. Baggins."

"Are you saying that she was forced into this marriage?"

"Oh, she consented. Of course she did. What choice did she have, set up against Aunt Di, Uncle Alhasrus, Grandfather, and her own parents, who just as were delighted at the match? They generally get what they want. I don't blame her, or Ulfie, for that matter, for giving in and doing as they were bid. It is a good match, from a practical point-of-view, but I pity them both. I can see how miserable it is for them to be married without love. I might feel differently if I thought Ulfie loved her as I do."

Frodo thought that whether or not Persifilla was miserable, Merry was probably right in that she made her husband so. "You still love her yourself?" he asked, although the answer was obvious.

"I know it's wrong of me, now that she's married, but I can't help it," admitted Hilbarus. "She does care for me. Why else would she tease me so cruelly?" When Frodo looked perplexed at this line of reasoning, the young hobbit explained, "Oh, she has to make a show of not caring what I say or do, but if she were truly as indifferent as she claims, she wouldn't try so hard to provoke me into saying and doing things. Father says she's a heartless flirt who likes to have the lads all gathered around her, but she never plays up so to my brother, nor to that Isigo Pumble, nor even Ulfie when I'm not there the way she did with your friend at tea today. I know she only does it to make me show that I still feel the same as I always did."

The next was a delicate question, but it had to be asked. "Is there-ah- anything between you and Persifilla?"

"Not in the disgraceful way that you're insinuating," Hilbarus shot back. "She wouldn't dream of it. She's made her bargain, and you can be sure she'll keep it. She'll even provide the North-Took family with a future Thain, and you can be sure he'll have the father he ought to."

Frodo noted that Hilbarus had attributed all the virtue, such as it was, to his lady-love and none to himself. "You said that your aunt and uncle, and your grandfather, are strong-willed hobbits who get what they want. They are responsible for Persifilla marrying Ulfidius. You must resent them for it."

"Yes, I do. There was an enormous quarrel between the lot of them, and Mother and Father and I when Ulfie first went courting. We didn't speak to them for days. Mother and Father have come around since the wedding, but I can't forgive them. I don't believe I ever will." Hilbarus glanced up at him suddenly. "But if you're suggesting that I would poison Grandfather over it, you're quite mad. Do you think that once he's dead, I'll go after Aunt Di and Uncle Alhasrus? What would it get me?"

"Revenge is seldom reasonable, Mr. Took," Frodo answered. "It would put them out of the way. And-" he added in a burst of inspiration, "if Persifilla married to become a Thain's Lady, it would put her closer to that goal."

Hilbarus laughed in astonishment at the suggestion. "I told your friend Peregrin that you saw murderers everywhere, and now I'm certain it's so. I expect you'll say that we're in it together, and once the rest of the family is dead, we'll get rid of Ulfie too, so I can marry her at last."

"I don't say it."

"No, but you're thinking it!"

"It's part of any investigation to imagine all the possibilities, then try to find out which of them might be true," Frodo answered.

"Well stop imagining that one! It simply isn't so. Pry as you like, Mr. Baggins, you won't find a poisoner in me, nor in Persi. You'll have to look elsewhere. And don't go to Persi with these awful accusations, or you'll hear more from me!"

The North-Tooks were cool and silent over dinner that evening, for they were furious at how Frodo and his friends had dug up this family scandal. Only Florisel, Isigo, and Brabantius were openly in a good mood, and Mrs. Goodwood was quietly pleased as she watched the others fume.

"What do you intend to do next, Mr. Baggins?" the Thain asked him with a note of keen interest. The rest of the party were just as interested, but most weren't as keen. They were really afraid now, not of a poisoner in the house, but of more family secrets being found out by these investigators who'd been brought into their midst.

"I'm thinking of paying a call on your daughter and her husband tomorrow," Frodo replied.

"What a good idea! Yes, you must meet Valumus," Brabantius said with the same keen warmth. "I'd like to hear what he'd tell you."

"Oh, Father, haven't you caused enough of an upheaval here in our house, digging up forgotten scandals and private family disagreements?" said Aspid. "Must you send your investigator to Althaea's home as well?"

"It's my house, Aspid dear, and so is the one that I've given Althaea and her husband to live in. As long as I am Thain here, I'll do with my property as I please, and it pleases me that Mr. Baggins question Valumus."

"Do you think it's Valumus, Father?" asked Alhasrus; this was the first hint his father had given about whom he might suspect.

"I accuse no one," said the Thain. "Nor will I, until I've been provided with proof. Let there be no misunderstanding: I mean to find out who has tried to kill me." He looked around the table, meeting everyone's eyes in turn. "You seen to have forgotten that, my dears. I haven't. I will do all I can to further Mr. Baggins's inquiries, and I don't care a fig what embarrassments he causes as a consequence. I've no interest in your scandals and secrets, except as they concern finding a poisoner. Nor, I'm certain, do Mr. Baggins and his friends."

He looked to Frodo for confirmation. Frodo felt rather put-upon-the-spot by this intimidating speech, but he replied, "Yes, that's so. We have to pry, and I'm sorry if we turn up things you'd prefer we didn't know about, but if it's nothing to do with our investigation, we will simply disregard it. We can be very discreet about other people's secrets."

"We've kept worse secrets than yours, lots of times," Pippin chimed in.

"It does no good to hide things," Frodo continued. "We'll find them out sooner or later in any case, and if you try to hide something, it will only look more important and suspicious to us when it does come to light."

This did not encourage anyone at the table to spill their secrets. The Tooks went on with their dinner as silent as before, but more worried.

---

After dinner, as the party was leaving the table, Florisel murmured to Frodo, "What other secrets have you discovered, Mr. Baggins, aside from the ones that upset the Tooks so? Oh, I'm not asking for other people's secrets. I'm sure they wouldn't want me to learn theirs any more than I would like you to divulge mine if you dug them up and brought them to light. Have you?"

"Your secrets?" answered Frodo. "No, I haven't discovered them yet." He was certain, however, that Florisel had spoken to him in order to find out if he had. "Do you have secrets, Mr. Pumble-Took?"

"Oh, hundreds!" Florisel laughed. "What hobbit doesn't? But I hope mine are no concern of yours."

"Only one is." Even though they were moving more slowly than the rest of the group and were the last to leave the dining room, Frodo lowered his voice. "About your friendship with Lady Iris."

The response to this probe was unexpected; Florisel laughed again. "Goodness, what a suspicious mind you've got! An unavoidable consequence of your profession, I've no doubt. Well, I'll tell you: Lady Iris is like a sister to me. Our friendship has been misunderstood before, I'm certain, but the truth is that I've known her since she was a girl. I introduced her to her first husband, my cousin Rosaldo, as a matter of fact. He was a dear friend of mine from boyhood, and I know he would want me to look after Iris and their son now that he's no longer here to do so himself. They're no longer in financial need, thank goodness. That was the one way in which I couldn't help. But I try to do whatever else I can for them. I escorted them down from the North Cleeve when they came to live here, and I brought Iris some- ah- belongings she'd left behind in the north when she asked me to. There's no secret there. Does that answer your question, Mr. Baggins?"

Frodo replied that it did, and they followed the others to the parlor. Once there, he noticed that Merry and Pippin hadn't joined the group, and Sam seemed to have disappeared entirely since tea-time.

As the group left the dinner table and was heading down the corridor, Persifilla had gently lain a hand on Merry's arm. "May I speak to you... privately?" she requested. "I would go to Mr. Baggins, but I confess he rather frightens me."

Merry consented, and he and the lady went into one of the little sitting-rooms along the corridor between the dining hall and the parlor. "What are you afraid Frodo will find out, Mrs. Took?" he asked her in a teasing tone.

Persifilla regarded him with her soft brown eyes open innocently wide. "But there's nothing for him to find out as far as I'm concerned."

"Not even about you and Hilbarus?"

"Oh, I don't mind him knowing about that, even if the rest of the family does. It wasn't my fault. A girl can't help a boy being silly about her, can she? And if he persists after she's chosen someone else- Well," Persifilla heaved an exaggerated sigh, "that's even more silly of him. Hil is a sweet lad, and I'm sorry for the trouble he's caused today, but it's nothing to do with me. Nothing at all. And nothing of interest to this investigation of yours."

"Then what did you want to talk about?" asked Merry.

Big brown eyes gazed up at him appealingly. "Tell me, Master Meriadoc--may I call you Merry?"

"Of course."

"Merry, please, tell me: does Mr. Baggins suspect my husband?"

"Your husband?"

"Oh, I know what terrible things you must've heard about me and Ulfidius from Isigo and that awful Diantha, and goodness knows what Hil and his father have said. It's true that our match was arranged and we wed without loving each other, but you mustn't think that means I'm not fond of him. After all, we've known each other since we were children."

As far as Merry knew, Frodo did not suspect Ulfidius, but he began to wonder if maybe he ought to.

"I've been so worried that Mr. Baggins would stop considering Lady Iris as the poisoner, as all the family says she must be, and begin to look at other people. Ulfidius is the next in line to be Thain after his father, you see," Persifilla explained. "Wouldn't that make him someone with a... how do you detectives say it? Motivation for murder?"

Merry felt somewhat bemused by having these feminine wiles thrown at him, but it was all to no effect. As Persifilla went on, he believed in the sincerity what she was saying less and less. She wasn't worried for her husband at all, nor was she truly afraid that Frodo thought Ulfidius had poisoned the Thain. Although she wasn't speaking of herself as openly as she had at tea-time, this conversation was still all about her. But what was her purpose? Was she trying to make Frodo suspect Ulfidius for some reason, or was she trying to deflect attention from herself after the old story about her and Hilbarus had come out?

"You've no need to worry," he told her. "Frodo will consider all possibilities, and won't make a mistake. He's really very good at this kind of thing, you know. I'll tell him what you've said, if you like."

"Will you?" She smiled. "And he'll understand?"

"I'm sure he will." Better than Merry did himself, he was sure.

"What a dear boy you are!" Her hand was again on his arm, and she gave him a quick peck on the cheek. "I find it hard to believe that nobody's caught you yet. If I may say so, Merry, you're quite a good-looking boy and very funny too. A girl likes a boy who can make her laugh. I understand that, aside from our Thain and the South-Thain, you're the most highly-ranked and wealthiest hobbit in the whole Shire!"

Merry modestly acknowledged that this was so.

"It's odd that none of you investigators are spoken for, except for Shirriff Gamgee," Persifilla observed. "Very strange, for so many eligible young lads. Is it because of your work? Such a life full of adventures as yours must be agony for a wife to endure, always wondering what terrible things might happen to you. But I'm sure you'll all marry one day. It's the duty of all well-born gentle-hobbits to marry as best they can. Your friend Peregrin will be matched off with Diamond... or perhaps it will be Diantha he marries in the end? She isn't a very nice young lady, but he seems to like her better."

The last thing Merry wanted to discuss was Pippin's liking Diantha. "What about Frodo?" he asked. "He's a handsome boy, don't you think so?"

"I suppose he is," Persifilla answered without enthusiasm, "but he's so clever and, well, intense. That way he has of asking questions, as if he already knows the answers! I'm sure he isn't at all gallant. A girl who wasn't as clever as he is would find him intimidating. The whole family is afraid of him, except for Granduncle Brabantius, and he's become alarming himself."

The door to the little room opened a crack, and Ulfidius looked in. He didn't seem surprised to find his wife sitting alone with Merry. "I beg your pardon, my dear," he said. "Am I interrupting?"

"No," said Persifilla, rising from the sofa. "We've finished our conversation. Will you excuse me, dearest? I'm sure the other ladies have missed me in the drawing room and must wonder where I've gone."

"I'm certain they've guessed," said Ulfidius dryly as his wife went out.

"Nothing happened for you to be worried about," Merry tried to reassure him once Persifilla had left. "Your wife only wanted me to convey a message to Frodo."

"Oh, I'm not worried," Ulfidius replied. "I know that whatever you're up to, it's all for your investigation. You have to talk to everyone. But Persi can have nothing important to tell you about Grandfather's wine. She knows nothing about it. I only hope she hasn't said anything too foolish. As to the other, I'm not jealous, if that's what you're thinking. I know what a flirt Persi can be, and I know something about you--and about Peregrin Took--that she doesn't."

Merry grinned. "I didn't think the gossip had gone so far north."

"It hasn't, really," said Ulfidius. "I only overheard Mother attempting to explain to Aunt Aspid why your friend mightn't be a suitable match for Diamond after all. I expect I understood what she meant better than poor Auntie did, since Auntie's still hoping to make the match. Or perhaps she doesn't care about your friend's suitability as a husband, as long as he'll be Thain one day. That's all that was considered important in my case."

"What about your cousin, Hilbarus?" asked Merry. "Don't you mind about him either?"

"No, I don't mind Hil. I understands his feelings for her. I only wish he didn't make it so obvious. As long as the two of them conduct themselves discreetly, and when Persi has a baby, it looks enough like me that we can say it's mine, I won't ask any awkward questions. It's not as if Persi and I care a fig for each other. We're very frank about it: Father's nearly skint and I needed to bring some money into the family, and Persi wants to be a Thain's Lady. That's our arrangement."

"But you object to her flirting," Merry said. "I saw how you glared at us earlier."

Ulfidius's expression darkened. "I dislike her making such a show of herself in front of everybody. I don't care what she does, but I don't want a scandal. We've had enough of that with Grandfather and his new wife. I don't want there to be talk about mine."

When Merry went out a few minutes later, he found Pippin had lingered in the hallway to wait for him. "Here you are, getting mixed up with married ladies and jealous husbands!" Pippin said with a grin. "Who would've thought Merry Brandybuck would ever get himself caught in the middle of that kind of scandal?"

"Leave off, Pippin," Merry replied shortly. "It isn't funny. Where's Frodo?"

"Mrs. Persifilla Took seems to have taken a liking to our Merry," said Pippin. Even after he and Merry had found Frodo and gone up to Frodo's room so that Merry could repeat his conversations with both the lady and her husband, Pippin remained amused by the incident.

"I'm not surprised," said Frodo. "It's only natural that she would turn to Merry, since he was kind enough to pay attention to her earlier."

"And she thought she could him twist 'round her fingers!" Pippin added gleefully. "She isn't afraid of Merry like she is of you, Frodo."

"She must sense that Frodo is even less susceptible to a girl's charms than I am," said Merry. "A pretty girl like that, she's most likely always had her own way with the lads before, and she can't get around Frodo by batting her eyelashes. That's what she meant by all that talk of intensity and not being gallant, Frodo. You wouldn't put up with her tricks."

"I hope I'm always courteous to ladies," Frodo responded, "even when they're lying their heads off."

"What do you think she wanted, Frodo?" Merry asked him. "To draw suspicion to her husband, or away from herself?"

"It might be both. Even if she hasn't done anything wrong, she might be eager to rid herself of a husband who doesn't care for her in the least."

"She doesn't care for him, either. They're both very frank about it. They told me so."

"Yes, but I think a girl like that would prefer a husband who adores her, even if his adoration isn't returned," said Frodo. "Ulfidius sounds completely indifferent to her charms. Is he like us, Merry?"

"I've no idea. He seems a cold-hearted brute in any case."

Pippin laughed. "Merry could go flirt with him if you like, Frodo. You wouldn't mind it, would you, Merry, for the sake of the investigation? It's much more in your line than married ladies!"

"You'd like that, would you, Pip?" Merry flashed back at him. "If I went after someone else?"

"It wouldn't be the first time," Pippin observed.

"And it mightn't be the last!"

Frodo looked from one cousin to the other, bewildered and disturbed. This was not playful banter; there was a sharp tone to their supposed teasing that wasn't kind or friendly at all, and sounded like the beginnings of a real argument. As far as he knew, the two had been happy since they'd reunited in the spring, and this trouble had only begun during their journey to the north. "Or perhaps I'm wrong," he said. "Ulfidius might care for Persifilla very much, and has done his best to hide it since his wife doesn't love him. If he knows she married him out of ambition to become a Thain's Lady, then he might have tried to put her closer to what she wants most by getting rid of his grandfather."

Merry's attention turned from Pippin to Frodo. "But if that's so, why would she want to make us suspicious of him?" he replied. "It'd be in her best interests to keep her mouth shut, and let him try again."

"Maybe she doesn't know he did it," answered Frodo. "Or maybe she's being very clever and knows that if we find out he is the one, she can claim she had no idea of it because she came to you. Do you think she's clever, Merry?"

"I think she's clever enough in getting her own way," said Merry.

"We'll have to add Ulfidius to our list. You haven't had a chance to talk with Alamaric again yet, have you?"

"Not more than a word or two at tea-time."

"What about you and Isigo, Pippin?"

Pippin shook his head. "We only talked about this thing with Hilbarus and Persifilla--Merry was there. He and Di don't like Hilbarus much, and I don't blame them. Why don't I go find him now?"

"Yes," said Merry, "why don't you?"

After Pippin had left the room a few minutes later, Frodo asked, "Merry, what's wrong between the two of you? I can't believe you're really quarreling over Persifilla and Ulfidius. Pip doesn't mean a word of what he's saying--he's only making stupid jokes to poke at you, and if I may say so, you're being much too touchy about it. There's something else." Frodo thought of how snappish Merry had been when Pippin had disappeared with Isigo and Diantha this morning. "You're not jealous of Isigo, are you? That's ridiculous. He's in love with Diamond, and Pippin's doing all he can to bring them together. Is it the other Di?" He saw that this second guess had struck true.

Merry huffed. "He does like her, Frodo. You can't deny it. You heard him going on about her all the time we were riding up here, and they've spent a lot of time together, running about the Cleeve, since we arrived. I wasn't worried about the other Di--Diamond. I could see that he wasn't interested in her and besides, her family doesn't think he's at all suitable as a husband, except that he's a Thain's son and very rich. There's no danger there. I didn't want to take this Di seriously either, before I met her, but now I've seen him with her, it worries me. I've never seen him like this over any girl before. If there's anybody he could marry, she's the one."

"He does like her," Frodo agreed, "but as a friend. They get on like brother and sister. They're kindred spirits, Merry--adventuresome and mischief-loving young Tooks."

"And I'm not a wild young mischief-maker anymore," said Merry. "I'm Master of the Hall, and I have to behave myself like a respectable and grown-up hobbit. I must be terribly dull to be around these days."

"Nonsense! Pippin doesn't feel that at all. I'm sure that his feelings for Di are the same as yours or mine for Melly."

Merry didn't find this comforting. "You proposed to Melly," he reminded Frodo. "And since she's left Everard, I wouldn't be surprised to learn that she's sorry now she turned you down." He glanced at Frodo. "Sometimes I think the same."

"That Melly was wrong to refuse my proposal?"

"No, that I did. You said you would marry me once if I asked nicely, remember? I shouldn't have let you go, Frodo." Merry smiled. "If Pip does marry this Di, maybe I'll steal you back from Sam."

At this moment, Frodo became suddenly aware that Pippin had left his bedroom door slightly ajar, and he had the feeling that someone was standing outside. He held up a hand to silence Merry, and called out, "Hello? Who's there? Pippin, is it you?" Then he went to open the door.

Sam was standing in the corridor between their two bedrooms, and the look on his face told Frodo that he had overheard the last part of their conversation.

"Sam!" Frodo cried. "Where have you been all this time? We missed you at dinner."

"Did you now?" Sam replied. "Well, I was helping them out in the kitchens, asking questions o' the maids like you asked me to. I sat down to supper with them--'twas more comfy than sitting amongst the fine folk."

"Oh, Sam." Frodo was momentarily jarred out of his sense of awkwardness; he felt ashamed at the snubbing his friend had received, and despised the North-Tooks for it. "What did they tell you?"

"I had a good, long chat with Miss Tilsey, and she told me why she don't like Missus Persifilla," Sam reported. "She said as how Mr. Alamargo's son, Hilbarus, was in love with Missus Persifilla when she was a Miss and wanted to marry her, only she married Mr. Alhasrus's son instead."

"Yes, yes, we know all about that," said Merry, who was trying to behave like his usual self even though he too realized that Sam must have overheard his remarks to Frodo. "It's old news."

Sam stared at him. "And d'you know about Mrs. Scrubbs and her ladyship too?"

"What about Mrs. Scrubbs and her ladyship?" Frodo asked.

"I don't know exactly, but there's something," answered Sam. "I had a talk with Mrs. Scrubbs after the maids took the dinner off to the dining room. She'd tell me all about these North-Tooks, whatever I asked, but she wouldn't tell me nothing about Lady Iris."

"Come outside and tell me about it," Frodo invited, and took his friend by the arm to lead Sam across the room in the direction of the window. "I'd love a pipe before bed-time, wouldn't you? Merry, why don't you go find Pippin and make it up with him? If there's anything important you ought to know about, I'll tell you both tomorrow."

While he wasn't at the moment eager to go after Pippin, Merry was glad to leave Frodo to deal with Sam alone. After he'd gone, Frodo took Sam out onto the hillside outside his room. As twilight settled over the vale of the Long Cleeve, they sat down on the grass under a cluster of trees, smoked their pipes, and talked.

Sam told Frodo him about Lady Iris's visit to the kitchens after tea, and her private conversation with Mrs. Scrubbs. "The girls say as she does it a lot, and they have tea and such like old friends. But Mrs. Scrubbs won't say a word about her ladyship, nothing good nor bad. When I asked, she wouldn't tell me how long ago they met, or if they knew each other afore Mrs. Scrubbs came to work here. But I reckon they did. Mrs. Scrubbs didn't tell me that, but the maids say they guess as how her ladyship knew Mrs. Scrubbs afore she came down from the north end o' the Cleeve, when her first husband was alive. Maybe even when her ladyship was a girl."

"Before she married Rosaldo Pumble?" Frodo wondered.

Sam nodded. "Lacy remembers her--Mrs. Scrubbs, that is--let it slip once she'd come from up that way, not meaning to."

"I'd be interested in knowing more about Lady Iris's past," said Frodo, and lay down on the hillside to consider the darkening sky overhead through the branches of the trees. He blew a puff of smoke up toward a gap in the leaves, but it dissipated before it reached its target. "Her life before her first marriage seems shrouded. There's a mystery there--whether it's part of our mystery, I can't yet say. You'll have to press Mrs. Scrubbs, Sam. If you can't wheedle it out of her, maybe I ought to go and ask her myself, or ask Lady Iris."

Sam also told Frodo about Tilsey's theory of why Persifilla would want to poison the Thain.

"I suggested something similar to Hilbarus," said Frodo. "He took great offence at it."

"He would, wouldn't he?" Sam replied with his pipe clenched in his teeth.

"Yes, but it sounded to me as if he were more afraid I'd suspect her than himself. He warned me off questioning her. I wonder if she's the one he's trying to protect?" Frodo propped himself up on one elbow and turned to his friend. "It must be. The only other people he seems to care deeply about are his brother and sister, and they've no motivations for murder that we've discovered."

"Maybe Miss Diamond did it to keep from being pushed to marry Mr. Pippin," Sam joked. "Maybe she wants to marry Isigo as much as he does her."

Frodo chuckled. "The Thain wouldn't stand in their way. But listen, Sam: Hilbarus knows or suspects the same thing as Tilsey does. He knows Persifilla's ambitions at least as well, but he loves her enough to overlook them." He told Sam about his conversation with Hilbarus, and Merry's with Persifilla and Ulfidius. He also repeated the key points in his chats with Florisel and Mrs. Goodwood.

Sam snorted. "Not a nice lot o' hobbits, are they?"

"No..." said Frodo, and drew in on his pipe thoughtfully. "Any one of them could've tried to kill the Thain. Things like this used to shock me, Sam. I used to be horrified when I saw these dark spots in the Shire, and realized what respectable hobbits were capable of. Now I accept anything as possible. And I wonder: did this sort of thing go on just as often before you and I began to investigate, and simply went unrecognized? The deaths would be taken as natural, or tragic accidents. A young lad drowns in the river. A lady disappears and everyone assumes she's fled with her lover. A very old hobbit sickens and dies. No one would think it murder, and the murderer got away with it." He moved a little closer to Sam and rested his head on Sam's shoulder. "It isn't a pleasant thought."

"But it's a good thing you're here to look into 'em now when they happen," answered Sam. "The murderers don't get away with it so much anymore. Though I wish we wasn't here, looking into this one."

"I know, Sam. The North-Tooks have been horrid to you."

"I don't mind that," Sam said. "It's the troubles that've been rucked up since we came here. That Miss Di, and Mr. Pippin... You wouldn't go back to Master Merry, would you?"

"No," Frodo answered, then tried to make light of the question. "Only if you gave me up first, Sam."

"I wouldn't!" Sam insisted. "Not ever. But he'd have you back, if Mr. Pippin got married to that Miss Di. I heard him say so."

"Sam, he was joking."

"Maybe he said it like a joke, but he meant it."

"It won't happen," Frodo assured him. "Even if Pip and Di marry in the end, it'll be a marriage in name only. Neither of them wants to be a true and proper husband or wife. At most, they would have the sort of arrangement that you and I and Rosie have, and that's worked out very well."

Sam looked unconvinced, but said no more about it. Instead, he set his pipe aside and slid one hand under Frodo's chin to tilt his head up and place a kiss firmly on his mouth. Frodo understood; he was going to have to work hard at showing Sam that he had nothing to worry about as far as Merry was concerned.

Placing his hands on Sam's shoulders, Frodo gave him a push; he caught Sam entirely by surprise and sent him sprawling onto his back. He pinned Sam by lying atop him, breastbone to breastbone, and gave him a kiss before he said, "Listen to me, Samwise Gamgee: It will not happen. And do you know why? Because I adore you. I love the way your arms feel around me when you hold me tight. I love the way you smell like flowers and fresh earth and pipeweed, and sometimes just a little taste of ale." He gave Sam another kiss, then went on more seriously. "I love you because you insist on looking after me when I don't want to be looked after, and because you've never hesitated to stand by me even when you don't approve of or understand the things I do. You don't always approve of me, Sam. Don't deny it. It's true. I can see how I disturb you sometimes with my shocking behavior."

Sam couldn't deny it, especially since he well remembered the last time Frodo had pounced on him like this amid a grove of trees.

"You blame Merry for that, don't you?" asked Frodo. "You think he taught me to behave this way?"

Sam couldn't deny this either.

"Merry did teach me a few things, it's true, but mostly he let me find out about myself. He let me be shameless--and all that means, my dear Sam, is that I can't feel ashamed of who I am. I had odd thoughts, ideas, deep inside me that I didn't know about. Things that nice, respectable hobbits aren't supposed to think about at all even when the lights are out. But I've thought about them. I've tried a few. And I've begun to wonder if most nice, respectable hobbits have the same kinds of feelings inside them. Not all the secret things hobbits are capable of are dark and nasty and hateful. Some can be really quite pleasant, as I'm sure you know."

"Well..." Sam conceded reluctantly.

"I did look very pretty in Angelica's clothes, didn't I?" Frodo prompted. "You told me so. Would you object very much if I were to do the same again sometime?"

"You couldn't go borrowing Angelica's dress again."

"No, that's true. She'd wonder what I wanted it for," Frodo grinned. "But there are other dresses. If you promise, dearest Sam, to stop behaving like a farmer chasing trespassers off his property every time Merry comes near me, I promise not to remind you that he and I were ever more than friends. And I will make it up to you. Tonight, I will give you the most exquisite ravishing..."

Sam looked more alarmed than pleased by this prospect. "Not out here?" It was a fine evening, and many windows of the Thain's Hall were open. Who knew what they might overhear?

"No, not here," Frodo reassured him. "Nothing shocking, not tonight. It'll be just as you like. Promise, Sam?"

"Promise."

"Very well then. Have you finished your pipe? Good. Let's go in to bed..."

He was about to give Sam another kiss, when the silhouette shapes of two figures walked out of a door in the slope below them--not the Thain's front door, but some exit farther south. Frodo quickly climbed off his supine companion and crouched low in the grass, waving a hand for Sam to be silent and watch with him. As the pair headed down the unlit path to the garden gate arm in arm, he could see that one figure was male and the other female. Under the shelter of the willow trees that surrounded the gate, they stopped and embraced, then the male figure went out and walked away. The women turned and went back into the Hall. It must be Florisel, Frodo decided. Who else would be leaving the Thain's Hall at this hour? He could also guess who the lady was. But then he'd doubted already that Florisel was telling the truth when he'd said that his feelings for Iris were brotherly.

Merry hadn't gone to make up with Pippin. He was still too angry for it. Instead, when he left Frodo's room, he went to his own room next door; it seemed the best place to be until Frodo had talked Sam out of giving him a good thumping. He could hear their voices murmuring in the grove outside, and when the tone of the conversation turned from serious to playful, he shut his window and curled up in a chair to smoke his own pipe and brood alone.

After awhile, he heard Frodo and Sam come inside. Seeking a breath of fresh air before going to bed himself, Merry reopened his window and climbed up to sit in the curve of the sill. It was after dark now and the house had grown quiet. Candlelight flickered in only a couple of windows, and a lantern had been lit at the Hall's front door.

Just as Merry was about to go back inside, he caught a flicker of movement in the shadows cast by this lantern: someone was in the Thain's Hall garden. It might be the gardener, out late, or one of the Tooks who had a legitimate reason for wandering the garden at this hour, but there was something furtive about their manner that made Merry think otherwise. Quickly and quietly, he dropped from his windowsill into the tall grass beneath and crawled until he was within the grove of trees near Frodo's window.

"Fro-" he began to call his cousin's name, then thought the better of it. No, best not to interrupt whatever Frodo and Sam were up to. He could manage this on his own and, if it turned out to be anything interesting, he'd tell Frodo about it in the morning.

Keeping low, Merry crept forward cautiously and went down the hillside into the garden. The person he had seen was crouched under the laburnum tree and seemed to be scuffling the loose leaves beneath in search of something in the darkness. He was very close before this person became aware of him.

"Oh!" a female voice cried out softly in surprise, and she stood upright. It was Persifilla. Her brown eyes were wide and she held something clutched in her hand. "Oh, it's you, Master Brandybuck. How you startled me! Whatever are you doing going about the garden so late?" she asked him before he could ask her.

"I saw someone moving about, and thought I'd best have a look," Merry answered. "What're you looking for, Mrs. Took?" He glanced down at her tightly closed hand. "Did you find it?"

"Yes, I did, thank you."

"What is it?" Merry pressed. "May I see?"

"It's nothing, really," she answered reluctantly, then held out her hand and unfurled her fingers to show him what lay within her grasp: three seed pods. "These are what Mr. Baggins was talking about this afternoon, aren't they?" she asked. "They're like the ones he said somebody put in Granduncle Brabantius's wine?"

"Yes, that's right," said Merry. "Why did you want them?"

"I wanted to be sure."

"Sure? Of what?"

"That they were the same," Persifilla explained. "I've seen others like these before, inside the house. Oh, Merry, please don't make me say where!"

Merry was rather bemused and not entirely certain he believed her. "You know I must ask," he answered.

"And you'll tell Mr. Baggins?"

"I'll have to do that too," Merry held out a hand. "May I have those, please? I'll give them to Frodo tomorrow, and he'll want to know how I came by them. If you don't want to tell me yourself, he'll ask you more about this in the morning. Would you rather talk about it then?"

Persifilla placed the three pods in his outstretched palm, and seemed to struggle with the choice that had been placed before her. "No," she said. "I'd rather tell you." But she didn't answer immediately.

"Where did you see pods like these before?" Merry prompted.

"In the chest of drawers in Ulfidius's dressing-room!"

The promised ravishing went on well into the night, and when Frodo slept, he was satisfied that he'd put Sam's worries to rest for the present. He'd made every effort to give Sam exactly what he wanted--although Frodo found that he also had to be careful not to do anything to remind Sam of the months he and Merry had been lovers. No kisses with tickles of tongue. None of what Sam termed "jumping all over." Nothing shocking. Just simple and plain hobbit-style love-making.

"Wait 'til you hear what I found in the garden last night," Merry told Frodo in an undertone as the two of them served themselves bacon and eggs from hot platters on the dining-room sideboard the next morning. None of the North-Tooks who were in the dining-room had said more than 'Good-morning' to them when they'd come in for breakfast. Persifilla was regarding them with an anxious expression that Frodo didn't understand, until he'd heard the story of Merry's midnight interview with her.

"I must have a word with that young lady." Frodo murmured, and cast a glance at Persifilla as he and Merry sat down at the far side of the table from her. "As soon as I have a chance."

"Why not now?" asked Merry.

"There are too many people about--I want to speak to her alone, hear her tell her own story without interruption. Besides, I wanted to call on the Lowfoot family this morning," answered Frodo. "Perhaps there'll be time before we go to luncheon at Alamaric's house."

"Is there anything I can do before then?"

"See if she'll tell you more about how and when she discovered those seed pods. Talk to them all, if they'll talk to you. There might be other things we haven't found out."

"Is Frodo asking you to go on flirting with Persifilla?" teased Pippin as he took a seat on Merry's other side, his own breakfast plate piled high. "Or is it going to be Ulfidius today?"

Merry gave him a scornful look in reply, and Frodo could see that the two hadn't had their own reconciliation during the night.

Brabantius gave him directions to Low-wood, and Frodo took his pony from the stable. He found his way easily up the lanes to the smial, which was not as large or grand as the Thain's Hall, but a good-sized and comfortable-looking if slightly run-down home. Vidalia was in the front garden, cutting and gathering flowers into a large woven basket. Near her, lounging on a shaded bench beneath a bower with his hat pulled low to shield his eyes from the sunlight, was a gentlehobbit whom Frodo assumed must be her father. At the sound of pony's hooves approaching, this hobbit sat up slightly and opened his eyes.

Frodo had seen many tiplers before, for most hobbits liked their ale and wine in generous quantities. His cousins were famous for it. But Valumus Lowfoot had a sadly worn and dissipated look that was not usual. There was something unhealthy about the red of his nose and cheeks--it was not the natural ruddiness of a robust hobbit in his prime, but had an ugly purplish tone to it. Tiny streaks of darker purple had crept across his face like the veins on a leaf. His eyes only focused on the visitor coming in through the gate with an effort.

"Who the deuces are you?" he asked as he lifted the brim of his hat and peered at Frodo.

"This is Mr. Baggins, the investigator," Vidalia introduced him. "Mama and I told you about him last night, Father. Remember?"

Valumus obviously recalled no such thing. "Did you, my dear?"

"He and his companions are staying at Grandfather's," his daughter reminded him, "although what brings him here, I can't imagine."

"I wanted to meet your father, Miss Lowfoot," Frodo said.

The girl looked wary, but her father chuckled. "Does this have to do with someone poisoning the old wretch?" he asked. "I do remember your mother telling me about that, and I can't say I'm surprised. It's the best thing really. He's lived far too long as it is and once he goes, my wife and her brothers will finally see some of the money they ought to have to keep them in respectable comfort. I'll wager that pretty wife of his wouldn't be too sorry to see him go either, with all she has to put up with."

Vidalia was mortified at this unguarded speech, but it was another female voice that cried out, "Val, hush-!"

Althaea emerged through an open door into the garden, looking even more alarmed than her daughter. "Are you not satisfied with upsetting my father's household, Mr. Baggins?" she asked. "Must you bring your prying here too?"

"I'm afraid I must, Mrs. Lowfoot," Frodo answered. "It is what your father engaged me to do. Nothing your husband's said is new to me. I knew already that you and your brothers are all badly in need of money, and you've had to go begging to your father for it. I know that he's provided for your daughter's marriage, but refuses to give you and your husband another penny. You'll only gain your inheritance at the Thain's death."

"What a vile thing to suggest!" Althaea exploded. "Who told you what passed between my father and me?"

"The Thain keeps no secrets from me in this matter," Frodo replied circumspectly. He didn't like to admit that he had eavesdropped. "We spoke of it after you left his study yesterday. He was quite frank. It is an ugly thing, Mrs. Lowfoot, but the truth is that all signs indicate that whoever poisoned your father was one of his household, or one of his family."

"You mean us, don't you?" said Vidalia. "Mother, Father, and me too. You have to include me in your suspicions, Mr. Baggins--before yesterday, Grandfather refused to help with my dowry. My marriage would have been delayed. But if Mother had come into her inheritance, she would certainly have settled something on me and I could be married right away. That's reason enough, isn't it, if you believe that money is all we care about?"

The words were flung out defiantly, and Frodo couldn't help but respect the girl's efforts to defend her parents by drawing suspicion toward herself. "It isn't your family alone, Miss," he answered her. "I have to consider everyone close to the Thain. The poisoner must be close to him, to enter his study or wine cellar and tamper with his wine. I've eliminated the possibility of an outsider managing it. Thain Brabantius realizes this too, which is why he's given me the authority to question anybody I need to to find the truth. He isn't sentimental about it."

"No, he wouldn't be," said Valumus.

"Knowing that someone you've loved and trusted has tried to murder you has a chilling effect on sentiment," Frodo responded.

The older hobbit laughed. "Then that lets me out! Brabantius never loved or trusted me."

But his wife and daughter were both aware that they were in this category. "Very well," said Althaea. "I admit that I have been desperate for money, and I went to my father to beg. He refused me. Is that what you came here to ask, Mr. Baggins? It is true, and yesterday was not the first time I went to Father a-begging and came away with little or nothing."

"Did you have such an interview with your father when you last visited him before he fell ill?" Frodo asked. "That would be in June. The night you and your husband came, and he went away early."

Althaea's lips tightened into a hard, straight line. "I did."

"It's why I came, and why I left," said Valumus. "I told my dear wife it was useless, but she was bound to try."

"Did you go directly home on that night, Mr. Lowfoot?" Frodo asked him.

"I really don't remember. I may have stopped off at our local pub. I have an idea that I did, but it might've been some other night. It was weeks ago, after all."

"My father came home around 10:00 that evening," Vidalia added quickly. "I remember it because I usually go with Mother when she visits Grandfather's house, but she bade me stay home that night. My betrothed, Odonto, came to see me, and we were surprised when Father came home unexpectedly." The girl's face was pink, whether from the memory of being caught in a cuddle with her sweetheart or from some stronger emotion, Frodo couldn't say.

"Did I, Vida darling?" said her father. "I beg your pardon. I wouldn't have interrupted you for the world."

"It's all right, Father. You didn't." She told Frodo, "Father went straight to his room, and he was there until Odonto left and I went to bed. I swear that he didn't go out again that night, nor did I."

"And how late did you stay at the Thain's Hall, Mrs. Lowfoot asked Althaea.

"Very late," Althaea answered. "After dinner and my conversation with Father, I sat with my sisters-in-law and the other ladies of the Hall in the parlor. We had a great deal to discuss. But in all the hours I was there, I was never alone. Father was in his study when I went to speak to him, and he was still there when I left. I never touched his wine, though I saw him take a glass as I was going out."

"Was that the last time you were there?" Frodo asked both her and her husband.

Valumus said that he hadn't been back to the Thain's Hall, but Althaea and Vidalia both admitted that they'd visited their family several times since the Thain's illness.

"I will tell you this, Mr. Baggins," Althaea added. "As badly as we need money, I would never dream of harming my father to obtain it. How could I poison him? I wouldn't have the least idea of how to go about it. In spite of our recent differences, I love my father dearly and I will sorrow at his death. I've no wish to speed him to it. You can believe that, or not."

Frodo did believe that Althaea loved her father, but it had also become obvious to him that she loved her husband devotedly, and that she and Vidalia were doing their best to defend a drunkard who didn't have the wits to protect himself.

He thanked the Lowfoots for their cooperation and left their garden. On his way back to the Thain's Hall, he rode down a different lane from the one he had come up, one that would lead him past the nearest tavern. He hadn't gone a hundred yards from Low-wood when the path took him around a knoll with a grove of decorative trees atop. Although Frodo did not have Sam's knowledge of plants, he recognized these immediately; the distinctive golden blooms had long since gone, but there were a number of equally distinctive seed pods scattered on the ground beneath.

Frodo's primary reason for going to the local tavern was to find out if anyone remembered seeing Valumus Lowfoot on the evening of June 14th or thereabouts, but he also hoped that Florisel Pumble-Took would be there.

He found the place easily, for it sat at the crossroads between two of the wider lanes. It was too early for an ale, but the tavern-keeper was agreeable to answering his questions. Yes, he knew Mr. Lowfoot well--that was to say, Mr. Lowfoot didn't come in for a drink very often, but he would have a flask of his filled from the kegs. Everybody knew Mr. Lowfoot preferred to do his drinking alone instead of in company. No, Mr. Lowfoot wasn't here any night in June so far as he could recall, but he'd ask his missus and the barmaid to be sure. Mr. Pumble-Took was in, and had just finished his breakfast. Would the young gent like to see him?

Yes, Frodo said he would. The tavern-keeper retreated from the public area of his house, and returned a moment later to say that Mr. Pumble-Took would be right out.

Florisel emerged shortly. "What a surprise to see you here at this hour of the morning, Mr. Baggins! Is it more inquiries?"

"I'm afraid so. I wanted a private word with you," Frodo explained. "I thought you would prefer to discuss certain matters here, rather than at the Hall." Florisel only looked puzzled, and Frodo saw that he must make the 'certain matters' more clear. The tavern-keeper was still in the public-room, wiping down the bar even though it was perfectly clean. Frodo took Florisel by the arm to lead him to the far end of the room and spoke in a lowered tone. "It's about your secret, Mr. Pumble-Took. The one you were so anxious last night that I not pry out. About Lady Iris."

"But I told you about us yesterday," Florisel protested. "There's nothing more to tell."

"There is," said Frodo. "You lied to me yesterday--I understand why, but this isn't the time for such gentlemanly discretion. I saw you, as you left the Thain's Hall last night. My friend Sam and I were on the hillside above the garden gate. Or was I mistaken? Was it some other lady, not Iris, who kissed you in farewell? The flirtatious Persifilla? Or perhaps Aunt Di?"

"No," Florisel admitted after a long and silent struggle. "It was Iris."

"Will you tell me the truth now?"

They sat down at the table nearest the door, farthest from the ears of the tavern-keeper.

"There is nothing more to tell," Florisel insisted. "It isn't as you think. I am not her lover, except that I do love her dearly. I have since the first time I saw her as a girl not yet thirty. She was the loveliest girl in the Cleeve, if not the entire Shire. You've never seen such a pretty maid in your life. Can I confide in you, Mr. Baggins? What I tell you mustn't reach the ears of the family at the Hall. Iris was a maidservant in those days, in the home of friends of myself and my cousin Rosaldo. She'd taken the work after her father died, and she and her mother needed to support themselves. I saw how she hated it. She was meant for better things and I wanted to give them to her, but I could offer her nothing except my constant devotion. I couldn't think of proving for a wife in my youth, and even now could barely manage to give a lady the genteel comforts of a home. I never spoke to her of love in those days, and when she married Rosaldo, I wished them both well. He wasn't rich either, but he had a home and his job as the Thain's agent, and could do better as a husband for her. I remained a friend to them both. When Rosaldo died, I almost hoped... but then Iris came here and married Brabantius. Well, he's Thain, after all, and could give her so much I could never dream of. I don't blame her for marrying him, and I am still her devoted friend. There's never been anything between us except a few kisses and words of love--words of love on my part, and she is kind enough to hear them occasionally. Iris guessed long ago how I feel about her, but she does not love me."

"Why didn't you tell me this yesterday, instead of that twaddle about her being like a sister to you?" asked Frodo

"A gentleman, even an impoverished one, can't say such things about a married lady," Florisel answered, "let alone a Thain's wife. And since someone has tried to poison poor old Brabantius--well, I'd be an enormous fool to admit to a famous investigator anything that looked like a reason for me to want him out of the way, wouldn't I?" He paused, then asked, "You suspect me, or Iris and me together, of trying to poison Brabantius, don't you?"

"I suspect several people," Frodo answered noncommittally. "It seems that a lot of people near the Thain have some reason or other to speed him to his death."

"But it couldn't have been me! Even if I wanted Brabantius dead so I could marry Iris, I'd be worse than a fool to kill him when he only has a few years left of life. I'm not so impatient. I've loved for Iris for more than thirty years. I've waited through one husband, and she'll be a widow again before too long without me going to the trouble of making her one. And that's if I thought she'd have me. I'm in no position to ask any woman to be my wife, especially not a Thain's widow!"

"But Lady Iris will have enough money to keep you both once Brabantius dies," said Frodo. "She'll get a quarter of his fortune, and the Thain's Hall will be hers for the rest of her life."

"Will it?" Florisel looked interested at this last piece of information. "I didn't know that. Well, be that as it may, Mr. Baggins, I didn't try to murder Thain Brabantius for love of Iris."

Florisel returned with Frodo to the Thain's Hall, and they parted company before the front door. Florisel went inside, while Frodo met with his friends in the garden; they had a brief conference and made a plan before they went to lunch at Alamaric's house. Their host, as they had discovered yesterday, was a more relaxed and genial gentlehobbit than his relatives next door. Although his home was not so impressive as Brabantius's, the four guests felt more comfortable here. Alamaric also felt himself far enough removed from the investigation that he was not on his guard against them, and took a spectator's interest in the proceedings.

"How is your investigation coming along, Mr. Baggins--may I call you Frodo, since you are my daughter's friend? I believe you meant to call upon Althaea and her family this morning."

"Yes, I did."

"And met Valumus? What did you think of him?"

"He is an- ah- unusual hobbit," Frodo answered tactfully.

Diantha laughed. "A tipsy clown, you mean."

"Yes," Frodo agreed, "but his wife and daughter seem devoted to him, and extremely protective."

"They are," Alamaric said, and regarded Frodo with solemn interest. "I take it that you suspect Valumus--or Althaea, perhaps--of having something to do with the poisoning?"

"I have suspicions," Frodo admitted, "but nothing more at this point."

"Poor Althaea! I hope it wasn't her. What about the rest of you lads?" Alamaric asked his other guests. "Have you discovered anything remarkable, besides our family scandals?"

"Uh- naught so far," Sam said gruffly and somewhat guiltily, for he hadn't spoken to Mrs. Scrubbs this morning but had spent his time brooding over personal matters.

"We've been matchmaking," Pippin said, and exchanged a grin with Diantha, whom he had included in his plan; while he'd been encouraging Isigo to speak to Diamond, Diantha had been praising Isigo to her timid girl-cousin.

"I've been chatting with some of the family," said Merry.

"Persifilla and Ulfidius?" Pippin asked him archly.

"They were there, yes, but so were Aunt Di and the other ladies," Merry retorted. "They didn't say anything interesting. Everybody was on their best behavior with me in the parlor, but they had to put up with me there. I mightn't be as important as a Thain, at least not in these northerly parts, but it's occurred to them that the Master of Buckland is somebody it doesn't do to insult. I consider myself lucky that they don't have any unmatched girls in the house to try and push at me."

"I doubt Aunt Di would try it even if they did," Pippin said, teasing. "She knows too much about you, Merry."

"I did learn one interesting thing," Merry said, ignoring this jibe. "About Mrs. Goodwood, and how she came to live at the Hall."

"Aunt Istra?" asked Di. "She's not one of your suspected persons too, is she?"

"I wanted to know more about her," said Frodo. "What did you find out, Merry?"

"Mr. Goodwood used to work for the Thain as a land agent, like Lady Iris's first husband, but here in the south," Merry reported. "When he died, she was left without resources and wanted Brabantius to do something to help her. This is according to Aspid, her sister. She says that Mrs. Goodwood came to her and asked her to speak to the Thain for her. Aspid says that she and Alamargo interceded on Mrs. Goodwood's behalf and got Brabantius to invite her to come live at the Hall. There really wasn't anywhere else she could go."

"Yes, that's right, but that was ten years ago," said Alamaric. "Istra wanted a little home of her own to live in, but she had to take what was offered. Since Iris married Uncle Brabantius and that cottage where she and Isigo lived is empty, Istra's been asking for it. I suppose she feels she's been slighted. After all, her position and Iris's weren't very different when they were first widowed, but she's been a poor dependent in the Thain's Hall, while Iris was set up comfortably even before Uncle Brabantius took it into his head to marry her. But of course, Istra was never a beauty, even in her youth. Surely you can't believe she'd try to poison Brabantius because he didn't favor her?"

"I think that after living on his charity and taking what she's been offered, that lady has had long years to let her resentments against him and the Took family grow," answered Frodo.

Di laughed. "Not Aunt Istra! She never does anything but gossip and knit."

"It seems to me that there are a lot of people in that household who bear resentments. Why didn't you tell Merry about Hilbarus and Persifilla, and how her marriage to Ulfidius divided the Tooks, sir?" Frodo asked Alamaric. "You told him so much that was helpful to us yesterday, it seems odd that a scandal so large was omitted."

"I beg your pardon, Frodo--I never thought that it would concern your investigation," Alamaric replied. "It's old gossip these days, and all in the past now."

"But everyone was anxious that we not find out about it," said Frodo. "When I asked Alhasrus about family quarrels earlier, he denied that they had any. No one was willing to tell me anything."

"I'm not surprised," said Alamaric. "It was all very distressing at the time. Things were said on both sides I'm sure they'd rather forget. The quarrel split the household apart, until Iris married Uncle Brabantius and gave them a common enemy to bring them back together again. But, as I've said, it was all settled and done with months ago. Persi's married to Ulfidius for better or worse, and Hil can do nothing but stew over it. If there are any hard feelings left over, I doubt they've anything to do with who put poison into Uncle Brabantius's wine."

"I don't know if that's so, Poppa," Diantha said gleefully. "It wouldn't surprise me in the least if Persi went around poisoning people. I wish it was her, or else Hil or that even more awful brother of his."

"Hush, darling," her father scolded gently, but with an underlying tone of real rebuke. "You mustn't say things like that, even in jest. This is a serious matter. Even if our friends here realize you're only joking, it doesn't do to accuse people simply because you don't like them."

"D'you mean you wouldn't be happier if it turned out to be one of those stuck-up lads or prissy Miss Persi, who've always been mean to me, instead of Aunt Iris?" Di asked back, unabashed.

"I would be much happier if it turned out to be somebody I don't know at all and wasn't related to," Alamaric answered, "but unfortunately I don't see much chance of that. It is somebody within the Thain's Hall, isn't it, Frodo, or our family outside?"

"I'm afraid there are only a few people who could have tampered with the Thain's wine," said Frodo.

"That's why you suspect Aunt Althaea, isn't it?" asked Diantha. "She was at the Hall right before Granduncle was so ill."

"And Valumus left before dinner that night--or so he claims," Alamaric added; he was still watching Frodo for any indication of what he might be thinking.

"As far as I can determine, Mr. Lowfoot did go home when he left the Hall," said Frodo.

"While Auntie was here all night," said Di.

Frodo was instantly alert, for this was not what he'd been told. "Was she? I understood that she went home as well, later that evening."

Alamaric glanced at his daughter as he admitted, "No, Althaea stayed so late that she was invited to spend the night at the Hall rather than make her way back to Low-wood alone at such an hour."

When she realized what she'd done, Diantha looked genuinely horrified at her slip. "Oh, I didn't mean to get Aunt Althaea into trouble!" she cried out. "Frodo, can't you forget I told you? No, I don't suppose you can. I hope it wasn't her!"

"You really must learn to watch your tongue, my dear child," Alamaric told her. Diantha was more receptive to this rebuke than the last, and looked properly ashamed of herself.

"It proves nothing," Frodo tried to reassure them both. "There are plenty of other people who could have done it. Anyone who lives in the Thain's Hall had the same opportunity that night before Brabantius fell ill. Why, even the two of you can go into and about the Hall as easily. Pippin tells me that this used to be part of the same house."

His friends stared at him, for this what not what they had planned; Merry and Pippin were to distract their host and his daughter with chatter and give Frodo a chance to excuse himself, leave the dining room, and go in search of a door into the Thain's Hall. Sam would go out after him, to keep watch while Frodo searched. They all thought such a door would be easy to find. If Alamaric and Diantha were accustomed to use it often in wet weather, then it wouldn't be bricked up nor filled in with dirt. The door might not even be locked. No one expected Frodo to make such a direct feint.

Alamaric paused for an instant in the middle of taking a sip from his glass, then met Frodo's eyes as he answered, "Yes, that's so. As a matter of fact, one of the old doors my grandfather put in is just down the hallway outside. When we've finished our meal, why don't I show you?"

After lunch, Alamaric led the party from the dining room, down the passageway just outside in the opposite direction from the front door. They went past a few other closed doors until they came to one at the very end.

Frodo tried to open this door. It was locked. "Do you keep the key, or do they?" he asked.

"They have a key too," said Alamaric. "We keep ours here." He opened the top drawer of a cabinet that sat along the corridor and took out a large iron key on a loop of string. He gave this to Frodo.

Frodo unlocked the door, opened it, and stepped through into the other half of the original tunnel to see where it emerged inside the Thain's Hall. There were more doors to small sitting rooms on the other side, including the room where he and Alamargo had gone to yesterday. The front hall was just a few yards beyond and he could hear the clinking of silverware and the voices of the Thain's family in their own dining room. The juncture to the corridor that led to the Thain's study was just a short walk further, and the tunnel to the kitchens, butler's pantry, and wine cellar were easily reached from there. He might run into a servant if he attempted to go down one of these tunnels now, but in the middle of the night, he could easily enter the Thain's Hall this way and go anywhere he liked without being seen.

His friends had also ventured through the open door to have a look around. Frodo turned to go back into Alamaric's home. "Thank you for showing me, sir," he said as he returned the key to its owner.

"I hope it's of help to your investigation," Alamaric replied. "I must say it's been a fascinating experience, watching you at your work." He seemed at ease, but Frodo saw that Diantha had gone pale and was staring at him with a sick and frightened look in her eyes.

Frodo and his companions returned to the Thain's Hall a short time later through the front door and went up to his room to discuss their morning's work. They had just settled down when there was a frantic tap on the window and, when Frodo went to see who it could be, Diantha scrambled in over the sill. The girl was no longer pale, but red-faced.

"It isn't Aunt Althaea or Lady Iris, or Hil or Persi," she hissed. "You think it's my father, don't you?"

"I only wanted to see if he had ready access to the Thain's Hall," Frodo answered.

"We go in and out when we like," Diantha replied defiantly. "Why shouldn't we? Nobody minds. Just because there's a door between our house and this one is no reason for you to think we'd ever harm Granduncle Brabantius. I never would! Why do you think Poppa would? How could you?"

"He's fond of Lady Iris," Merry suggested.

Di glared at him. "what of it?"

"Aside from Florisel, he's the only Took who's supported her ladyship since she married the Thain," said Frodo.

"But he's not in love with her or anything silly like that, if that's what you're saying," the girl responded. "He couldn't possibly be."

"Are you sure of that, Di?" Frodo asked. "He told Merry only yesterday that he's been very lonely since he lost your mother. He's been a close friend of Iris's for years. She's a handsome woman, and quite charming. It wouldn't be so unusual, now that he's a widower, if he'd begin to look on her as more than a friend. It's possible that even a nice, gentlemanly hobbit like your father might fall in love again at his age, even with a married lady, and wish she were free to marry him."

Di looked shocked and horrified. "You can't possibly think so, Frodo. It's too ridiculous!"

"I don't say it's true, but I have considered it."

"You 'considered'-!" Di's already flushed face went scarlet and she slapped him across the face as hard as she could.

Sam quickly grabbed her wrist. When Di kicked at his shins and struggled to get free and fly at Frodo again, Sam yanked her back and lifted her up off the ground with one arm around her waist. "None o' that, Miss," he said firmly. He wasn't about to let anybody strike Frodo, girl or no girl, Took or no Took.

Diantha continued to fight for awhile longer, until she was out of breath and had to give in at last. She stopped struggling, but she wasn't finished. "I think you're horrible, Frodo Baggins!" she spat at him from Sam's unyielding grasp. "I thought you were so clever--but you're stupid if you think such a thing even for an instant. Poppa wouldn't dream of killing anybody! He doesn't love Lady Iris. He loved Mother. You didn't see how sad he was when she died. He's much better now, but he's never going to marry anybody else. Certainly not Lady Iris!"

"I'm sorry, Di. It is horrible to suspect people," Frodo agreed, cupping his cheek that still bore the bright red marks of the girl's fingers. "But it must be done if we're to conduct our investigation properly and honestly."

"Why?"

"We have to consider all the possibilities, even the most outlandish ones, if we're to find the truth. We can't simply ignore something that might be important just because we like the person it points to," Frodo tried to explain.

"And we do like your father, Di," Pippin hastened to assure her. "I do."

"So do I," said Merry, "but we can't let that matter."

"You're all horrible!" Diantha squirmed against Sam's hold on her. "Let me go!"

"You behave yourself, Miss, an' I'll put you down," Sam told her. "But I won't put up with no more tempers from you. Mind now, or out you go."

Diantha reluctantly stopped squirming, and Sam released her just as reluctantly, but continued to watch her warily. Diantha was still outraged and indignant, but she did not try to strike Frodo again.

"It has to be done, but if your father's done nothing wrong, then there's nothing that he or you need fear from us," Frodo told her. "It's in his favor that he was willing to show me that door into the Thain's Hall when I mentioned it."

Regardless of Frodo's reassurances, Diantha remained frightened for her father. "I'm sorry I ever told you about the tunnels," she said to Pippin before she climbed back out the window. "I'm sorry I ever told Granduncle to bring you here--I hate you all!"

"Poor girl," Merry said after she had gone. "This investigation isn't so much fun for her anymore." There was a certain note of satisfaction in his voice.

"I know how she feels," Pippin replied sympathetically. "I didn't like it any better when you and Frodo were talking about my family in the same way after Toby Clover was killed. I just didn't go around screaming about it or hitting Frodo."

"You know better'n that," Sam murmured, "even if she don't."

"Frodo's suspected Brandybucks twice as often, and they never mind it," Merry retorted. "They're used to it by now. How sensitive you Tooks are, North and South!"

"Is that why you asked Mr. Alamaric directly about the door instead o' slipping out to look for it like we planned?" Sam asked Frodo. "You wanted to see what he'd say?"

"Yes. It seemed like a rather dirty trick to play on a hobbit who's been so forthright and helpful to us. He's no fool. I doubt he'd be so easily distracted. He'd soon see through it. I took the chance that he would be honest if I asked. I'm sorry to upset Di, and I really don't think her father is our poisoner any more than she is herself but I had to see if he had the opportunity. And he does."

"You like him too, don't you?" asked Merry.

"Yes, I do," Frodo admitted, "I've never suspected anyone's who's been so generous and understanding about it. He seems perfectly secure that I can't accuse him of anything--whether that's because he's innocent, or because he knows I can never prove otherwise, I can't say. I'm inclined toward the former... but I can't let that guide my judgment, just as you said. I've met murderers I've liked before."

Merry knew exactly who Frodo was thinking of. "So have I."

Sam caught the glance of unspoken understanding between them, and scowled.

After Di's stormy departure, the foursome held a quick conference. Frodo reported what he'd learned from his visit to the Lowfoots, and what Florisel had said about his friendship with Lady Iris. He was surprised to learn that his friends had done so little with the same amount of time, and especially that Sam had made no inroads with Mrs. Scrubbs.

"The morning's no good for getting in a word with Mrs. Scrubbs," Sam protested in his own defense. "'Tween first and second breakfast, then getting ready for lunch, she wouldn't have me in her kitchen."

"Well, you'll have a better chance now," Frodo replied. "She won't have another meal to see to 'til tea-time. That's two whole hours. Off you go!" He gave Sam a push to send him toward the door.

"What about us?" Merry asked after Sam had gone. "What can we do?"

"Come with me, Merry. It's time I had that chat with Persifilla."

"Do want me to do anything, Frodo?" asked Pippin.

"If you're looking for something to do, Pip," said Merry, "you might try to find proof that Di's father is innocent--if you're finished proving that Isigo couldn't've poisoned the wine either. How has that line of inquiry turned out? Or have you and Diantha been too busy with your matchmaking to bother about it?"

"I don't think either of them did it," Pippin retorted. "I've spent enough time with Isigo by now to know he's all right. Maybe that isn't proof, but it's what I feel. I wouldn't be trying to marry Diamond off to a poisoner, would I? He's a good lad. And Di's father is a decent hobbit."

"He'll be a wonderful father-in-law for you."

Pippin grinned at this jab. "Besides, Frodo says they aren't very high on his list."

Frodo had to concede that this was so. They parted company in the corridor, Merry and Frodo going to find Persifilla, and Pippin going off on his own.

"You didn't have a chance to talk to her earlier?" Frodo asked his cousin before they went into the parlor.

"A word or two, no more. She wasn't feeling flirtatious today, and we were never left alone."

The Tooks had finished their lunch and had dispersed on their business in and out of the house. Most of the ladies were in the parlor, but Persifilla was not among them. The pair tried the family bedrooms next, although they weren't certain which room was hers. By trial and error, knocking on a few doors and peeking into a few rooms, they found her sitting at her dressing table, carefully brushing her dark chestnut curls into ringlets around her fingers.

When she saw the visitors at her door, she set down her brush and turned to them, smiling. "Do come in. My husband would be shocked to know that I've invited gentlemen into my bedchamber, but I've been expecting you." She regarded Frodo nervously. "I know you've wanted to talk to me, Mr. Baggins. Merry said you would, after- well- what happened last night. He's told you all about it, I suppose?"

"Yes," said Frodo as he and Merry came into the room. "I've just a few questions to ask you about it. You don't mind, do you?"

"No... it must be done. I see that." She sat up straight, hands folded in her lap, and looked up at him expectantly. "I'll tell you what you want to know."

Merry had remained by the door. "Do you want me to stay, Frodo?"

Persifilla looked as if she would prefer it, but Frodo answered, "No, that's all right, Merry. You can wait outside. Keep watch. Or perhaps you might go and distract anyone who doesn't want me to talk with Mrs. Took? If they ask, you don't know where we are. See that they don't come looking."

Merry nodded. "I'll do what I can," he promised, and went out.

After he had gone, Persifilla regarded Frodo more nervously. She blushed very prettily and gave him a shy smile. "I'm a little afraid of you, Mr. Baggins," she confessed. "I'm sure Merry's told you that too. I hope you won't be too hard with me." Her gaze dropped and, when she met his eyes again, hers were hopeful, but Frodo did not give her the gallant response she was used to receiving from young males.

"If you're honest, then you've nothing to be frightened of," he told her. "Just tell me: Where exactly did you find these seed pods you saw in your husband's room? Can you show me?"

Persifilla nodded and rose to lead Frodo into a small dressing-room that connected her husband's bedroom with hers. There was a tall oaken wardrobe and a squat chest of drawers beside it; Persifilla went to the latter piece of furniture and opened the top drawer, where neatly folded underclothes and handkerchiefs were piled in stacks. "Here," she said, indicating the gap between two stacks.

"These are your husband's things," observed Frodo. "What were you looking in here for?"

"I was short of handkerchiefs, and thought Ulfidius might have some of mine. The silly girl is always mixing up our laundry and putting things in the wrong places," Persifilla explained. "And there they were."

Frodo examined the contents of the drawer, and the faded sheet of cheesecloth lining the bottom. "When did this happen?" he asked.

"Weeks ago. Before Granduncle was so very ill. I thought it odd at the time that Ulfidius would keep such things. He has no interest in gardening, and those ugly little seed-pods have such an odd, nasty smell, not pleasant like lavender or rose petals. But then I forgot about it and didn't think of it again until you began talking about laburnum pods and poison, and I couldn't help but wonder..."

"I'm sorry, Mrs. Took," Frodo said, "but I don't believe you. Laburnum pods, as you say, have a distinctive scent, and they leave an oily mark on cloth. Even after a few weeks, there'd be some traces on the lining here, and there are none. It's not a new lining--it looks like it's been here for months." He shut the door and turned to face her. "The truth now, please. Why were you really out in the garden last night gathering seed pods? You were planning to put them in here, weren't you, to cast suspicion on your husband?"

Persifilla stared at him with the eyes of a cornered doe. She didn't answer, but Frodo could see he'd guessed rightly.

"Mrs. Took, why?"

"Because I can't stand him!" she cried out. Tears welled in her eyes, and she turned and darted into her room to fling herself sobbing on the seat at the foot of her bed. Frodo followed as far as the doorway. "It's not as if Granduncle Brabantius is dead," Persifilla said after a moment. "Ulfidius wouldn't be hanged if everyone thought it was him, would he? But he might be sent away. He's awful, Mr. Baggins! You don't know what it's like, being married to him."

"I thought you didn't love him either," said Frodo.

"I don't--but it isn't that. I could bear our bargain, if only he were more agreeable and did as I want once in awhile. But he never does. He only smiles in that heartless way." She sobbed. "And Hil is so useless!"

"Hilbarus?" Frodo was confused.

Persifilla lifted her tear-streaked face from the curve of her arm. "I thought he'd done it, you see."

"Done it?" echoed Frodo. "You mean, you thought he poisoned his grandfather?"

She nodded.

"You asked him to?"

"No, of course not! But he knew how much I wanted to be Lady of the Cleeve. When I asked him last night if he'd done it, for me, he was horrified that I'd think such a thing. I should've known. Hil can't do anything right!"

---

Pippin, meanwhile, had gone outside for a pipe. There was no convenient grove on the slope near his bedroom window, so he went into the garden before the Thain's Hall to put his feet up on a bench while he smoked. He tried to think of ways to help Alamaric and Isigo, but his thoughts instead turned to Merry's reaction to his friendship with Diantha. He couldn't help it. From time to time, a small, satisfied smile touched the corners of his mouth.

Some time later, Diantha came out of the smial next door and came through the gate in the hedge. "You're alone, Pip?"

Pippin nodded and put down his feet to make room on the bench for her.

Diantha did not take the offered seat immediately. "Poppa says I have to apologize to Frodo--to all of you," she announced, and looked both sulky and contrite.

"You told him?"

"Everything! I thought he should be warned after what happened at lunch today, but he said I wasn't to be so silly and make such a fuss about it. He said he hadn't tried to poison Granduncle or anybody, and Mr. Baggins'd find that out for himself in good time, and I wasn't to go flaming off at him but let him get to his work. He also said he hoped that this'd teach me to keep my tongue. If I watched what I said more carefully, we'd have nothing to worry about." She stopped to catch her breath. "Oh, Pippin, I am sorry for the awful things I said. I didn't really mean it. Well, I did when I said it, but I don't anymore."

"I'm sorry I told Frodo about the tunnels in the first place," Pippin apologized in return. "He and Merry forced it out of me."

"Do you think Frodo will forgive me for hitting him?"

"I don't see why he shouldn't," said Pippin. "Sam mightn't--he's awfully protective about Frodo, you know--but I'm sure Frodo understands how you feel. I do. I was in the same position myself not so very long ago. A boy was killed in Tuckborough and Frodo and Merry thought my father or sister or somebody else in my family might've done it."

"They didn't, did they?" asked Di, and sat down beside him.

"No, it was somebody else. No relation of ours. But it wasn't very nice to know they were suspected, and not knowing myself if it was one of them after all, even if I didn't want to believe it was true."

"Yes, that's it's exactly," said Di. "Oh, I know it can't be Poppa, but knowing that Frodo's considering him is bad enough. Tell me, Pippin--is there anything I can do to make him stop considering Poppa and look at somebody else? Not somebody else I like, I mean. I want him to find the real person who tried to poison Granduncle, but I don't want it to be anyone I care about. I'm not even sure I want it to be Hil or Helimarcus." Her eyes brightened. "I could say that I took the key to that door and went through to the Thain's Hall the night before Granduncle Brabantius was so ill for some mischief or other, then forgot to put it back in the drawer so that Poppa couldn't possibly-"

Pippin shook his head. "Frodo wouldn't believe you. He'd see right through it. He's that clever--more than the two of us put together."

Di had to concede that this was so. "Oh, gobby-lobs!" she said in frustration. "Your friend Merry was right, Pippin. Being in a murder isn't any fun at all."

Sam resumed his pursuit of Mrs. Scrubbs, just as Frodo had asked. The cook left her maids do to the after-lunch washing-up and was willing to chat with Sam as long as she wasn't occupied with the business of her kitchen, but she refused on all points to speak of Lady Iris. When the girls were done with their work, they came into the servants' dining hall and, for awhile, the conversation turned to more general topics; everyone was eager to hear more about the adventures of the famous investigator and his good friend, Mr. Gamgee. Sam was happy to oblige, for he enjoyed singing Frodo's praises, and modestly included his own small part in each tale. He helped the kitchen staff cut sandwiches for tea, but as the dinner hour drew near, Sam began to despair of getting Mrs. Scrubbs alone long enough to get her to talk. He couldn't come away empty handed after Frodo had sent him here so particularly!

At last, a moment arrived when the three maids were sent out of the kitchen to bear the tea-trays to the Tooks' parlor, and Mrs. Scrubbs put a fresh kettle on the fire to make a pot of tea for herself. Sam followed her into the kitchen and began again to talk of Lady Iris. Before he got very far, Mrs. Scrubbs turned to him and said, "Enough! We've work to do here, Shirriff Gamgee, and you're getting to be a nuisance. You're trying to make me say sommat that's against her ladyship, and I won't--not in a thousand years! She's a fine lady, my lady, and she'd never do naught that was wrong. That's all I have to say to you! You'd best be off now."

Sam's heart sank. How could he go back to Frodo and say he'd failed? He was about to make one last effort before he retreated, when another voice spoke behind him.

"Mr. Gamgee?"

Lady Iris had come into the servants' dining hall and was standing at the door to the kitchens, regarding Sam and Mrs. Scrubbs with an expression that was both puzzled and alarmed. "Have you been questioning my cook about me?"

"Yes, m'lady," Sam answered diffidently, since he'd been caught at it. "It's what Frodo's sent me to do."

"But why? Surely he doesn't suspect me of doing anything to harm my husband?"

"Oh, no, m'lady," Sam replied, although he knew very well that she was high on the list of suspects he had written out for Frodo only yesterday. "But he can see as how Mrs. Scrubbs is keeping things back about knowing you afore she came to work here, and it only makes him want to know all the more what it is she an't telling, and why. And his Thainship did say as everybody was to cooperate and answer whatever questions we asked 'em."

"I don't think he meant to include me when he said that," Lady Iris replied.

"No, m'lady, but he'd mean it for Mrs. Scrubbs and the rest o' the servants."

Sam saw he had scored a point, for Lady Iris stared at him, nonplussed for a moment, then said, "I understand you have your duty to Mr. Baggins and my husband to ask such questions, but all the same I'd rather you not trouble Mrs. Scrubbs."

"I didn't tell 'm nothing, Iris m'love," said Mrs. Scrubbs. "I swore I'd never breath a word, and I haven't. I wouldn't--not ever!"

"I know." The lady placed a hand affectionately on the cook's arm. "I rely on you for that. But it seems I will have to, if we are to be left in peace." Mrs. Scrubbs sputtered in protest, but Lady Iris only said firmly. "It's all right--I'll take care of it. She turned to Sam. "Can I trust your discretion, Mr. Gamgee? What I tell you will go no further than Mr. Baggins--for I know you must tell him all. But it must never reach the ears of my husband or his family."

"O' course, m'lady," said Sam. "That is, if it don't have naught to do with what we're investigating."

"I assure you it doesn't. Will you come with me, please?" They left the kitchen and went into the upper-servants' private sitting room, which was off the dining hall. This room was the exclusive province of the cook and butler; the pantry boy and maids would not venture in without an invitation.

Lady Iris shut the door. "I hoped no one would learn the truth, but I knew there was a danger from the moment I hired her and brought her to live at this house. I'm glad, at least, that it's you who's found me out, and not one of my husband's family or someone who would carry tales to them. You see, Mr. Gamgee, my maiden name was Scrubbs. Mrs. Scrubbs is my mother."

---

After leaving Persifilla, Frodo went to his room to lie down for awhile. He wanted to think things over. There was so much to think about--so many suspects!--and he felt no closer to finding out who had put the poison in Brabantius's wine than he'd been when Brabantius had first told him about it. If Persifilla's tearful confessions were true, then Ulfidius and Hilbarus were cleared... but was she telling the truth? Althaea would surely lie for her husband's sake if necessary. Had it been necessary? Her need for money was more desperate than her brothers'. And could he believe Florisel's story about his long-standing, unrequited love for Lady Iris?

At four in the afternoon, he rose and went to the parlor. The Tooks were assembling for tea, although the tea had not been brought in yet. Pippin and Sam were absent, but Merry was seated among the younger lads of the family. Lady Iris and Florisel weren't there, and the other ladies sat in a group. Persifilla had bathed her eyes and looked as pretty as ever, if a little more sullen. The Thain's sons were together, and Frodo went to them first.

"I wanted to speak to you about your sister and her family," he said softly.

"Yes," answered Alhasrus. "Your friend, Master Meriadoc, has already told us about your visit to Low-wood."

Merry, who had overheard this reply, as had everyone else in the room, looked apologetic. "I'm sorry, Frodo. I didn't know you didn't want them to know."

"I didn't," said Frodo. "I mean, I don't care that they do or not. Did you also talk about Mrs. Lowfoot's stay here the night before the Thain fell ill?"

"Oh, everyone knew about that," said Istra Goodwood, who was sitting nearby, knitting and observing the scene with interest. "It was no news."

"It was to me," Frodo replied. To Alamargo and Alhasrus, he added, "This is the second time you've kept things back about your sister's and her husband's comings-and-goings."

"Why shouldn't we wish to protect our sister from scandal?" said Alamargo.

"The poor thing has enough to bear with that husband of hers," said Aspid.

Frodo asked them all: "Do you think she did it?"

The Tooks responded unanimously with a single, aghast, "No!"

"Or her husband, Valumus, and she is protecting and aiding him?"

The family wasn't so sure of Valumus's innocence, but they all agreed that, whatever had been done, Althaea had no part in it.

"You know full well who is responsible, Frodo Baggins," Diamanta told him.

"But it does look so bad for the poor dears," Istra murmured.

"Yes, it does," said Frodo. "But you haven't helped them at all, none of you." He looked at the various Tooks seated around the room. "You must see that this lying and concealing the fact that they were both here for part of that evening--and Mrs. Lowfoot for the entire night--only makes it look worse for them than it otherwise might."

"Very well," said Alhasrus. "Althaea spent the night here the last time she came to dinner. We sat up very late, and in the end she decided to accept our invitation to stay and sleep here rather than go home by herself. Isn't that right, dear?" he appealed to his wife for support.

"Perfectly right," said Diamanta.

"What was it you were talking about?" asked Frodo.

"Family matters," Alhasrus answered cryptically, then clarified this statement with, "Vida's upcoming wedding, and how Althaea would manage it. She'd asked Father for aid."

"Brabantius was so kind," said Istra. "He offered to give the young couple that empty cottage where Iris keeps her things for the first weeks of their marriage."

Frodo could see that the other members of the family didn't consider this offer so generous. "I believe you were once interested in that cottage yourself, Mrs. Goodwood," he said.

"Oh, ages ago," she replied pleasantly. "Perhaps when the young couple has ended their honeymoon, I might prevail upon Brabantius again... or perhaps upon Alhasrus, if Brabantius is no longer with us."

"Don't you want to stay with us here, Istra?" asked her sister.

"I've stayed on so long--I don't wish to impose on the Thain's generosity in this way for the rest of my life. With all the young folk coming of age and getting married, this house will be crowded with children soon and I'd only be underfoot."

"Nonsense, my dear," said Aspid. "You're always welcome in our home."

"Besides," Diamanta added, "you must't worry about the young folk. Alhasrus has just asked Father to give Ulfidius and Persifilla the cottage for a year or two, after Vida and Odonto have left it. They're no longer newlyweds, but we've all agreed that their marriage might benefit if they spend some time in a home of their own." Neither Persifilla nor Ulfidius looked pleased with this arrangement, but they had no choice in the matter.

The look in Istra's eyes was scalding, but she only said, "How wonderful for them. Just what a young couple needs. We'll have to find a nice girl for dear Hilbarus next."

"Was that all you and Mrs. Lowfoot talked about?" Frodo asked, not wishing to be drawn too far off the point.

"There also was some question of whether or not Father would provide a marriage settlement for Vida," said Alamargo, "but I expect you know all about that already, Mr. Baggins."

"We saw her to bed when we went to bed ourselves," said Aspid. "She had her old bedroom, which is next to ours, and I'll swear that she never stirred from it all night 'til breakfast-time."

Frodo saw that, whether it was true or not, this was the line they would all take. "What about Mr. Lowfoot?" he asked. "He left here before dinner was served, I believe. Did he return later that evening? Did you see him at all?"

He could see that Althaea's brothers would be relieved if they could find some sign that Valumus had returned to the Thain's Hall, but they had to concede that they hadn't seen him again before the Thain fell ill.

"You must believe that we're always careful about letting Valumus near our wines," said Alhasrus. "He could never have been near that decanter of Father's when he was here last."

"But your sister went into the study that evening, to talk to your father about her daughter's dowry?"

"She did--but Father was right there all the time," countered Alamargo. "Do you think she poured the poison into his wine while he sat there and watched, then drank it? Or that he turned his back long enough to allow her time to do it?"

Frodo had no good answer for that yet.

Alamaric came in. When he saw Frodo among the company, he smiled. "Ah, Frodo, I wanted to say that I'm sorry about my daughter's behavior toward you after lunch today. My Di is very young and impetuous, and doesn't understand these things."

"It's quite all right, sir," Frodo assured him. "No hard feelings?"

"None at all. I sent her to apologize, but she doesn't seem to have gotten so far as the Hall front door. At least, she's made it up with young Pippin."

"Pippin?" echoed Merry, suddenly alert at the mention of his friend's name.

"Yes. I just saw the two of them sitting out in the garden," said Alamaric. "They looked to be entirely caught up in whatever it is they were talking about and never noticed as I went past. I didn't like to interrupt them."

"How very sweet! You might find a match for that spirited daughter of yours one day yet," said Istra.

Alamaric himself seemed rather pleased at the idea, but Frodo observed that, for once, Aunt Diamanta and Merry were in full agreement: neither liked the sound of it. Little Diamond, on the other hand, who had sat quietly since Frodo's entrance, appeared to be perfectly composed and unaffected.

"Apologize for what, Uncle?" asked Helimarcus. "What's that girl done now?"

"Oh, she had a little tiff with Frodo over his investigation," Alamaric explained lightly, as if it were nothing of importance. "He took an interest in the door between our two houses, and Di was upset over it."

"So he suspects you too!" cried Alamargo.

"Is there anyone you haven't suspected, Mr. Baggins?" Hilbarus asked him.

"I've considered nearly everyone I've met since we arrived," Frodo answered, "some more seriously than others."

Many of the Tooks looked disturbed at the idea that, like Alamaric, they had been "considered," but Diamanta exploded impatiently, "All of this is nonsense, Frodo! You're wasting time with suspecting people who have nothing to do with it, when all along-"

She stopped suddenly as the parlor door opened and Florisel came in.

---

"Your mother?" Sam echoed in astonishment. "And she works for you?"

"It was the only way I could bring her here to live near me," Lady Iris explained quickly. "She's been a cook all her life, since my father died when I was young and she had to earn a living for us. I hope you can understand, Mr. Gamgee." She lay a hand on his arm. "My first husband Rosaldo and I did what we could, but our bungalow was too small for her to live with us. When I married Brabantius, I could finally give my mother a comfortable home. She doesn't mind cooking. It's what she knows and likes to do best. I couldn't send her money in the north or try to settle her in a nice little cottage somewhere nearby. People would notice and want to know who she was to me. It would reach Brabantius's ears."

"Couldn't you tell him yourself, m'lady?"

Iris shook her head. "Brabantius might not mind. He is kind and generous. But you see what his children are like," she appealed to Sam confidentially. "They place such importance on rank and social position. If they were to know that my mother was in service, or guess that I'd been in service myself-!"

"That's naught to be ashamed of," said Sam. All the same, he sympathized with Lady Iris's position; he'd formed no good opinion of the North-Tooks and their snobbish ways.

"I'm not ashamed of it," Lady Iris answered, "but you see how difficult things are for me here. Imagine how much worse it would be if they knew!"

"They won't hear it from me, m'lady," Sam promised her.

Lady Iris smiled. "Thank you, Mr. Gamgee. I knew that I could trust you."

---

"Where is dear Lady Iris?" Istra asked Florisel as he entered the parlor.

"Iris will be joining us shortly," Florisel announced. "She begs you accept her apologizes for being late, but she had to go to the kitchens--something to do with dinner."

"Seeing the soup isn't poisoned," said Ulfidius dryly, "or seeing that it is?"

No one found this joke amusing.

The maids arrived with their trays full of teacups and pots and plates of cakes and sandwiches. In Iris's absence, Diamanta took the duties of hostess upon herself and began to pour out the tea. The group gathered around take their tea-cups and serve themselves from the plates of dainties, then dispersed to separate parts of the room to whisper amongst themselves in light of the interesting and distressing scene that had been interrupted. Frodo was hoping to have a quick word with Merry, for he saw how his friend still looked somewhat upset after hearing Alamaric's news about Pippin and Di, but this personal conversation would have to wait. As soon as he had gathered up his eatables, Florisel approached Frodo and indicated that he was eager to talk.

"I do have something helpful to tell you after all, Mr. Baggins," the older hobbit announced confidentially as soon as he had draw Frodo away from Merry. "I didn't realize it when we spoke yesterday, but I've told Iris about our- ah- meeting earlier. I thought it best that she know."

"Yes, I thought you might," said Frodo.

"I told her that we might be suspected, and she pointed out something to me that will help us, and help you. It concerns when this poisoning was supposed to have happened. You think that someone went into the Thain's study the day before he fell ill or over the night and tampered with his wine? Is that correct?" When Frodo nodded, Florisel said, "Then I can tell you that that couldn't have happened."

"What do you mean?" asked Frodo.

"It isn't possible," answered Florisel. "No one--not me nor Iris nor anybody else--could have gone into the Thain's study during the day just before his illness. I brought the north-Cleeve rents to Brabantius just after Lithetide, at the beginning of June, you remember? He and I went over every penny of it. There was a lot of loose money about while we were adding it all up for the accounts, and Brabantius locked his study door whenever he wasn't in. I was never in there unless he was there too, and nobody else could have gone in without Brabantius being there to see what they were up to. He keeps the only key."

Florisel's voice had been rising during this last speech, and those nearest them, Alamargo and his elder son, heard the end of it.

"Yes, that's so," Alamargo confirmed. "Flori and Father are always shut up in the study all day when he brings the northern rents. None of us could've gone in while they were there--and no one could've gotten in later at night. Since Father was ill the next day, it stayed locked until he was well enough to return to it."

Frodo stared at him, astounded.

"Why didn't anybody say so before?" asked Merry, as amazed as Frodo at this remarkable omission.

"I didn't think of it. We always take it so for granted," Alamargo said apologetically.

"I never knew it at all," said Persifilla. "I don't think I've been in Granduncle Brabantius's study more than twice in my whole life!"

"I've heard it spoken of from time to time," said Istra, "but I've never tried to enter Brabantius's study when he wasn't in to see whether or not it was locked. Why would I?"

"It didn't occur to me that that one day and place was so important," Alhasrus explained. "I thought that Father's wine could've been tampered with at any time before his illness."

"No," said Frodo. "There may have been wine poisoned before, but Tulipant opened that particular bottle, decanted it, and brought it to the Thain's study on the day before the Thain fell ill. That day and night seemed to me the most opportune time for anyone to have touched it."

"And none of us could have. There, you see!" Aspid was beaming with relief. "It couldn't have been one of the family."

"Not even Iris." Florisel said triumphantly, and turned back to Frodo. "Ask Brabantius himself if you don't believe it's so."

After he left the Hall kitchen, Sam went in search of Frodo to tell him what he'd discovered. A quick look around told him that Frodo was in the drawing room, having tea with the Tooks. Sam hung back outside the door reluctantly; he didn't want to put himself in among the Tooks, and he certainly couldn't tell Frodo about her ladyship's secret in front of them.

Lady Iris, who had remained in the kitchens awhile longer to speak with her mother, was coming up the hallway. Rather than meet her again now and go in with her, he went down the hall in the opposite direction and came to the entrance. He went out the front door. In the front gardens, he saw to his alarm that Pippin and Diantha were sitting together in what appeared to be an intimate conversation. It confirmed his worst fears.

Last night, Frodo had done his best to convince him that Merry was no longer a threat to them, but Sam continued to worry. He'd observed the quarrels between Frodo's two cousins, and knew that it meant trouble. Merry and Pippin had only to part for Merry to consider taking up with Frodo... and where would that leave him if Frodo decided to go back to Merry and Buckland?

It was useless to talk to Merry about it, for Merry would only say he was joking and deny that he had any designs on Frodo. Besides, Sam knew that if there was a break between Merry and Pippin, it wouldn't be Merry's doing, but Pippin's and that wild, red-headed Miss Took's.

That scene in Frodo's room this afternoon had disturbed him for many reasons--the girl's slapping Frodo and fighting to get at him--it'd taken a lot of effort to hold her still--the knowing glance between Frodo and Merry over some secret they shared. But most of all, he didn't like the way Pippin had taken Diantha's side and openly sympathized with her. And hadn't there been an odd little joke about matchmaking between the two over lunch?

Sam had to find out how much danger there really was. Would there be a match between the two young Tooks, or did he still have one ally who didn't want Frodo and Merry to go back together as much as he did?

He went down the front steps toward them. Di flushed red and became rather angry and flustered as Sam approached and stood over the bench where she and Pippin were sitting; she didn't like boys who could best her in a fight.

"I an't interrupting?" Sam asked them.

"No," Pippin said. "We were just talking a few things over, about this investigation and other things. Di says she's sorry about what happened before--don't you, Di?"

"Yes, 'm sorry," the girl mumbled. "I made a stupid fuss. Poppa says I should apologize to Frodo too."

"And so you should, Miss. You'll find 'm in the parlor," Sam informed her.

Diantha took the hint and left them to find Frodo herself.

Sam decided to let her make her apologies to Frodo first, and tackle this more serious problem while he had the chance. "Where's Master Merry got to?" he asked Pippin after Di had left them.

"I don't know. He's probably gone to have his tea with everybody else by now. I ought to go in myself--I am feeling a bit peckish." But Pippin did not get up; instead, he indicated the empty spot on the bench beside him where Di had been sitting. "What is it, Sam? What's wrong?"

"I wanted to talk to you, 'bout him," Sam said as he took a seat. He didn't have his own pipe with him and, having nothing to occupy his hands, began to fidget his thumbs.

"You're not still upset about Merry and Frodo, are you?" Pippin asked.

"Now how d'you know about that?" demanded Sam, and wondered if Frodo had confided in his cousins.

Pippin grinned. "You've been upset about them since you dragged Frodo back to Bag End this spring. Even I can see that plainly enough. Merry's afraid you'll give him a thrashing over it one of these days."

"I just might," said Sam. "Don't it bother you--the thought o' them?"

The grin disappeared, and Pippin was quiet for a moment before he answered, "I used to be afraid it would happen, if Frodo ever saw how Merry felt about him."

Sam mmph'd! at this; he'd seen very well for himself how Merry felt about Frodo.

Pippin smiled more softly in understanding. "Everybody but Frodo saw it. You know how blind he is about obvious things. He didn't see how you felt either, Sam, not for years and years. Anyway, I was afraid it was going to happen and when it did, there wasn't anything I could do about it. At least you didn't have to travel with them all the way home from Rivendell and see them together. They tried to be polite and not make a show of it, but I knew how they were going at each other like mad squirrels whenever I wasn't around. It was over by the time you came to Buckland--and it is over now, Sam."

"D'you think so?" Sam wondered, with some doubt.

"I think they've got over each other. They've had their fun and found out what it would be like, and that's that. There's nothing for you or me to worry about. Besides," Pippin's grin reappeared, "as long as I can keep Merry jealous, he has to admit he cares enough not to let me go. He was wild over my flirting with Hy Bunce this last spring, and you see how he is now about Di."

"You mean," Sam sputtered, "you're doing this deliberately?"

"That's right." Pippin's grin grew broader. "It's a good idea, don't you think?"

"And you and that Miss Diantha--there's nothing in it?"

"Absolutely nothing," Pippin confirmed. "Not the way you mean. Di's a friend, that's all. She's good fun. She understands how it is with me and Merry, so she's happy to help."

"She won't be led along? She'll help you keep 'm jealous, and won't expect to get married in the end?"

"Oh, no. Di doesn't want to marry anybody, even more than I don't!"

"If that's what you're up to, Pippin, you better be careful you don't go too far with it," Sam warned him.

"I won't. I don't want to drive poor Merry off. Mind you, if it comes to it and I have to marry somebody, there's nobody else I'd rather be married to. No other girl, I mean. At least we'd have fun." Pippin laughed. "And Mother and Aunt Di can't stand her. Just think how it'd annoy them, and make 'em sorry they ever tried to push any girl at me!"

"You can't get married for a prank, Pippin Took," Sam said sternly. "Call it fun if you like, but it'll be worse for you'n anybody else. Don't think you can share yourself 'tween two people. It won't work. One way or another, you have to pick one of 'em over the other, no matter how you feel. Somebody's bound to get hurt."

Pippin stared at him. Sam had never spoken so frankly about his arrangement with Frodo and Rosie before. "I won't do anything stupid, Sam," he said seriously. "More than I can help. Have you told Frodo how you feel?"

"No, and I won't," said Sam. "Mind you don't either. He's not to know. But mind you don't get yourself into the same fix."

Frodo was at first doubtful of Florisel's claim that no one could have gotten into the Thain's study--he'd learned to regard Florisel as one of those charming hobbits who were not very exacting with the truth--and the others would back him to save themselves. But when he left the parlor and went to see the Thain, who was sitting in his study with Isigo, Brabantius confirmed that it was true.

"There is no other key?" Frodo asked after Isigo had been dismissed to go and hear the full story from the others in the parlor.

"No, I have it here." Brabantius took a bundle of keys from his waistcoat pocket and showed it to Frodo. "I didn't normally lock the door before this trouble began, but it is my custom to do so when the rents have come in and are being sorted out, before they go into the strongbox. It wasn't that I mistrusted my servants or family, but I always thought it best to keep temptation out of their way."

"Is there any other way into this room?"

"Only that window." The Thain pointed to it.

Frodo pulled aside the curtains to reveal a small, round window that was latched on the inside. They were far underground, and the window opened onto a narrow tunnel that slanted sharply upwards to provide light and air to the room, but no view. "And you never left Florisel here alone while he was working with you on your accounts?"

"No. I had no reason to leave him."

"He was here when Tulipant brought the decanter in?"

"Yes, Tulipant brought in the tray in shortly before dinner and put it down over there-" Brabantius indicated the little table near his favorite chair before the fire, "just as he always did of an evening. Florisel and I were at the desk and neither of us went near it--Florisel didn't, nor did I until after he and Althaea had come and gone."

"Was Florisel here when you spoke with your daughter?"

"He was just leaving. Sensitive lad, he saw right away that Althaea desired a private interview with me and took himself off. I went to my chair and took up the decanter while I was speaking with Althaea, but didn't drink until after she'd gone."

It seemed impossible that either could have touched the wine while the Thain was there to see. The next question was more awkward, and Frodo struggled to pose it delicately. "Is it possible that- ah-someone could've taken your key from you--while you were asleep, for example?"

"No, not during those days when there is so much rent money about. I wear the key to my strongbox on a string around my neck, and when I lock my study door, the key to the study joins it. I also lock the bedchamber door. None dare disturb me."

"Not even her ladyship?" Frodo asked.

Thain Brabantius looked amused. "Not even her ladyship. She does not share my chamber."

Frodo didn't dare to venture furthe

"The key hung about my neck all the time I was ill," Brabantius continued. "As far as I know, no one touched it, for the study was just as I'd left it, if a bit more dusty, when I was well enough to be up and about again. I recall that my son Alhasrus asked for it once and offered to go over unfinished business while I was recovering, but I wouldn't give it him."

All his previous theories must be cast aside. If what the Thain said was true, and no one could have entered the study during the crucial time when the decanter had sat there on its tray, then the wine must have been poisoned before Tulipant had brought it in.

Frodo next sought out Tulipant in his butler's pantry to ask, "Could someone have poisoned the Thain's wine while it was here in this room?"

"No, Mr. Baggins," the butler replied. "Not that wine. From the moment I pulled the cork from the bottle, 'til I set it down on the table in his Thainship's study, it was never out of my sight. Nobody else had a chance to touch it."

Even as he spoke these last words, Tulipant's expression changed; his round, ruddy face grew pale and his eyes went wide. Was it because he realized that if no one else could have tampered with the wine, as he had just claimed, then he was the only one who could?

When he left the butler's pantry, Frodo was eager to assemble his friends for another private conference. He had to tell them what he'd discovered, and talk over what it meant. He returned to the parlor to find all three of his companions there with the remnants of the tea and the North-Took family, who were still talking avidly about this latest turn of events.

"Did Brabantius confirm what I told you?" asked Florisel.

"He did," Frodo answered.

At this news, the North-Tooks were all happier than they'd been since Frodo had arrived. Isigo took his mother's hand, and Frodo realized how worried the boy had been for her. Diantha laughed and hugged her father; she also offered an apology for striking him, and Frodo accepted it politely, but his mind was elsewhere. He barely listened to everyone's admonitions that he turn his attentions to finding "the true poisoner"; only Helimarcus was rude enough to add "and mind you leave us out of it!" although many of the others must be thinking it as well.

"The next time someone tells you that I'm the cleverest hobbit in the whole Shire," he told his friends once he'd gathered them in his room and flopped down on the bed, "you must say that it isn't so. I'm an utter fool."

"You didn't do so bad as all that," Sam said, and sat down beside Frodo to pat him consolingly.

"Brabantius told me that he and Florisel spent that day going over the rents. So did Florisel. Others had mentioned it too. I never thought to ask what that entailed. I based all my ideas on an assumption that wasn't so," Frodo replied. "I looked at everyone who was in the Thain's Hall during the day and night after that wine bottle was decanted. I thought it must most likely have happened in the study, but only Florisel and Althaea were in the study after Tulipant brought the wine in. Unless one of them put the poison into it right under Brabantius's nose, it's impossible. No matter who else was in the house that evening or during the night, they couldn't get in. They'd be met by a locked door."

"Your girl-friend will be relieved to hear that," Merry said to Pippin.

"She isn't my girl-friend!" Pippin told him. "She's a friend, and she's a girl. 'Tisn't the same thing. Besides, we were mostly talking about you."

"Were you?"

"Yes." Pippin met Merry's eyes, serious for once, to let him know that he was no longing teasing; he had taken Sam's words to heart. "We started talking about how we could help her father, and I ended up telling her all about you. I always do."

"Nobody could get into either the study or the wine cellar without Brabantius or Tulipant knowing about it," Frodo went on, disregarding this private exchange. "The one and only key to each door is held by one or the other, and neither would lend it away lightly. If Brabantius had lent his study key or thought it had been taken from him, I'm sure he would've told me. He's quite adamant that no one did. Tulipant..." he sighed. "I think Tulipant would tell me if he'd let someone to take his key to the wine cellar, unless he was trying to shield them."

"Maybe he mislaid his keys," said Sam.

"Yes, that's so. He admitted as much the first time I questioned him," Frodo answered, rallying. "If someone found and borrowed the key to the wine cellar... That might be done. They couldn't have kept it for long. Then it would simply be a matter of putting Tulipant's keys back where he'd left them, so he would notice nothing amiss when he realized he'd mislaid them."

"But that somebody'd have to make the poison beforehand and have it to-ready when it was needed," Sam observed. "It'd take some gathering of the laburnum pods and brewing. Would they leave finding the key to chance after that?"

"Yes, you're right," Frodo agreed. "They wouldn't leave something so important to chance. Perhaps they took the key from his room at night. He keeps his keys on a hook by his bed. He told me so. That's more likely than finding the key to the wine cellar lying about by happenstance. Now who...?" He pursued the possibility. "Whoever it was, they most likely would've done it at night. There are too many people in the kitchen chambers during the day, and someone who didn't belong there would draw attention. Night is the only time they would have time to go into the wine cellar long enough to remove the wax seal and cork from a bottle of the Thain's Own wine, put the poison in the wine, and go out again without fear of being seen or interrupted."

"What about Lady Iris?" asked Merry, dragging his attention away from Pippin. "You said she's in the kitchens quite a lot, more than ladies of her rank usually are."

"I don't believe it's her ladyship," said Sam. "If she goes into the kitchens more'n usual, it's to see her mum."

Frodo sat up. "Mrs. Scrubbs is her mother?"

"I was going to tell you soon as I had the chance, only I didn't get one with all those Tooks about," Sam explained. "Mrs. Scrubbs didn't tell me--her ladyship did, in the highest confidence."

"She put her own mother into service?" asked Merry.

"Her ladyship said it was the only way she could have her here without anybody noticing," Sam replied in the lady's defense. "You know how that lot o' Tooks'd treat her if they heard a word of it. They'd see it as worse a disgrace'n murder."

"Aunt Di and Aspid would eat it up like strawberries and cream," Pippin agreed.

"I believe you've gone sweet on her ladyship," Merry teased Sam.

"She's the only one in this Thain's family who an't turned up a nose instead o' speaking civil to me. And she's got a takin' way with her," Sam conceded. "I hope it an't her, is all. Now, what she told me can't go no further."

"Florisel knows all about it," said Frodo. "He told me something of her history. Not about her mother, but he's known her since she was a girl, in service herself. I'm sorry, Sam, she is in the kitchens often and that's worth noting. She and her mother might be working together. Or Mrs. Scrubbs might be acting for her. She has more chances than any of the Took family to get her hands on the key to the wine cellar and to do things in the kitchens. I don't see anybody else who has so much opportunity."

"Except for the butler," said Merry. "You've avoided looking at him, Frodo."

"Yes," Frodo had to agree, and grew more solemn. He'd become enthusiastic as he'd let his imagination take flight, but Merry's reminder brought him abruptly back to earth. "I've made an assumption too quickly again. Someone might have taken the key to the wine cellar--it is possible, but we don't know that it's so. If it isn't so, then suspicion falls on Tulipant alone. He could go into the wine cellar at any time, or else poisoned the wine in the pantry when he decanted it. That would be easiest, and he's the only one who could do it that way." He got up from the bed; he couldn't put this off any longer.

---

Frodo returned to the kitchens, where Mrs. Scrubbs and her staff were busy preparing for dinner. He stole quietly through the servants' dining hall, not wishing to disturb them, and went into the butler's pantry, where he'd left Tulipant little more than an hour ago. The silverware that Tulipant had been polishing earlier was laid out carefully on a tray on the table for Jeddy to carry upstairs, but the butler had gone. Frodo tried the door to the wine cellar, and found it locked. He then looked into several of the adjoining rooms, but there was no sign of Tulipant.

He went to the kitchen doorway. "Can you tell me, where has Mr. Tulipant gone?" he asked the cook and maidservants.

"I don't know, Mr. Baggins," answered Mrs. Scrubbs, turning from her stove. "An't he in his pantry? Since there's no wine served at table since you come, he sits in there all the day, a-staring at that pretty glass jug that had the bad wine it in. Here, Jeddy-lad--Go and find Mr. Tulipant for Mr. Baggins and be quick about it!"

The pantry-boy scurried off. Frodo returned to the butler's pantry, and it was only then that he noticed something he had overlooked before: the decanter of the Thain's Own wine, which had been sitting on its tray on the sideboard since Tulipant had brought it back from Brabantius's study, was now empty. It hadn't been washed, for traces of dark liquid remained at the bottom.

Sudden understanding and a feeling of dread overwhelmed him even before he heard Jeddy's swiftly pattering feet returning down the corridor beyond and the boy shouted: "Oh, Mrs. Scrubbs--come quick! It's Mr. Tulipant. He's a-lying in his room and he's been taken awful bad! I think he's near dead!"

Frodo followed Mrs. Scrubbs--or to be more precise, the sound of her heavier footsteps in the wake of the Jeddy's lighter tread down the unfamiliar tunnels that led to the servants' quarters. Under normal circumstances, he could easily have caught up with an elderly and ponderous woman, but Mrs. Scrubbs knew exactly where she was going and he did not; the tunnel branched and more than once, Frodo took the wrong turning before he located Tulipant's room.

Tulipant lay on the bed fully clothed, but his neck-cloth had been loosened and the brass buttons on his waistcoat were undone. His eyes were shut, lids fluttering, and he breathed in deep gasps. Mrs. Scrubbs had knelt at the butler's bedside and was patting his face, calling his name, and making an effort to revive him with a cup of water from the washstand pitcher. Jeddy stood nearby with the pitcher at hand and his eyes wide with alarm.

"Is there anything I can do?" Frodo asked from the doorway. He felt that he ought to do something.

"No, lad," Mrs Scrubbs answered without looking up at him. "If he's taken sommat that's done him ill, there's naught for it but to try and bring it back up. Here, Jeddy-lad. Fetch some hot water from the kettle on the stove, and that jar o' ground mustard that's on the spices shelf. If you can't find it, ask one o' the girls to get it. Mind you bring it back quick as you can. And you might tell the girls I won't be there to finish the dinner, as I'll be here with Mr. Tulipant awhile. They'll have to manage themselves. It's a matter of getting the chickens off the spit and the rolls out o' the oven afore they burn. Go now!"

The boy nodded and handed the pitcher to Frodo as he slipped past him and went out the door.

Mrs. Scrubbs now twisted around to look up at Frodo. "You can be off too, Mr. Baggins," she told him. "There's naught you can do for poor Mr. Tulipant. I'll see to 'm. But you might go and tell her ladyship and the rest o' them what's happened, and how the dinner might be a bit late."

---

When Frodo brought the news to the Tooks, and Lady Iris heard that Mrs. Scrubbs was nursing Tulipant, she rushed to the servants' quarters to see what she could do to help. She returned shortly and announced, "There's little to be done. He has passed into a state of sleep near death, and will awaken, or not."

"Just like Father?" asked Alhasrus.

"Yes, just like my poor husband."

"I believe he drank the rest of the poisoned wine deliberately," Frodo told them. "The decanter was empty."

"It was still half-full when I sent it away," observed Brabantius. "That must surely be enough to kill even the heartiest hobbit." He then said what the others were all thinking. "So it was my butler all along. And you'd no idea, Mr. Baggins?"

"No, sir," Frodo admitted. "Not until I learned it was impossible for anyone to have entered your study and tampered with the wine there. Unless someone had taken his key to the wine cellar, no one else but Tulipant could've touched the wine before it came to you. I was just going to question him about it-"

"And he decided to take this way out, rather than confess?" asked Aspid.

"It appears so," said Frodo.

Persifilla shuddered. "How horrible!"

"It seems an unnecessarily extreme reaction," said Ulfidius, "but perhaps he felt it was the only way once he'd been found out."

"It's a shame." Brabantius sounded sincerely sad. "I trusted him more than anyone, and I hate to learn how my trust has been misplaced."

"So that's the end of it!" said Florisel. "I'm sorry about your butler, Brabantius, but I must say I'm glad it's turned out not to be someone- well- closer to you. Only think how awkward a situation that would be!"

The maids brought the soup with apologies for the meager dinner, and brought fresh news of Tulipant's state with every platter they cleared, but the Tooks didn't mind. Most of the party were too excited, and pleased, by this turn of events to demand the usual three courses and dessert. Frodo ate little himself, and did not join the others in the parlor after the meal was ended. Instead, he turned and headed for the tunnel that lead to his bedroom.

He was outside the door to his room when he heard Merry call out behind him, "Frodo?"

"I saw how upset you were, Frodo," Merry said as he caught up with his cousin and placed a hand on Frodo's arm. "It hasn't turned out as you were expecting, has it?"

"No," said Frodo. "There were so many other people who seemed more likely than the Thain's butler. I was sure it must be one of them. And now poor Tulipant..."

"Do you want to talk about it?" Merry tugged Frodo gently in the direction of his own room, just down the hall. Frodo realized that, yes, he would welcome talking with someone about this.

They went into Merry's room. "You'd guessed it must be Tulipant when you came away from the pantry to gather us up and talk it over, didn't you?" Merry asked once he and Frodo had sat down in the window-seat.

Frodo nodded. "Just as I said: unless someone had taken his key, it couldn't be anyone else."

"So we went over who could've taken the key, before you went to talk to Tulipant. That's what I don't understand, Frodo. Why didn't you question him right away? You had him there. He'd all but admitted to it. He couldn't help but confess if you'd pressed him."

"I wanted to think things over before I went on..." Frodo sighed. "No. That's what I said to myself at the time, but the truth is that I didn't want to push him harder right then. I didn't want to believe that a faithful servant had poisoned his master. I still don't like to think it's so, even though I have little other choice now. I'd hoped that if I discussed it with all of you, we could find another answer. If he dies, Merry, it will be my fault."

"No!" Merry put an arm around him.

"It is! You're right--I should've stayed and made him tell the truth. He wouldn't have had the chance to do this." Frodo leaned on his friend. "There was no reason for it, Merry. He wouldn't have been hung for his crime. It wasn't murder. Dismissed from the Thain's service, certainly. Expelled from the Long Cleeve or punished in some other way. But nothing so bad as what he's brought upon himself."

"Maybe he thought it was a fitting punishment for betraying his Thain," Merry suggested.

"If he truly felt that way about it, then he never would've dared to do it in the first place." Frodo lifted his head from Merry's shoulders to look into his face. "It all fits together, Merry. It makes sense as an answer to the question of who poisoned the Thain, but it isn't right. We haven't got the whole truth yet."

"We might never, Frodo."

"If Tulipant never awakes," Frodo agreed, and returned to the comfort of his cousin's arms. He rested his brow on Merry's shoulder and the two sat holding each other, rocking slightly, until they heard Sam's voice from the corridor outside, calling Frodo's name.

"Here, Sam!" Frodo called out in reply. He drew away from Merry's arms, but not before Sam came to the door of Merry's room. Sam's eyes widened at finding the two of them together.

---

"What's gone on between you?" Sam demanded as he and Frodo walked the short distance from Merry's bedroom door to Frodo's. "I came after you because I was worried, and I find you all cuddled up with him."

"It's nothing, Sam. We were talking, that's all," Frodo answered.

"About what?" Sam asked suspiciously.

"About Tulipant. The end of this awful case, if it is the end, and how I brought it about."

"And you'll talk to Merry of such things, but not me?"

"He was there to listen. I'd wanted to be by myself for awhile, but then Merry came and I found I needed to talk to someone."

"I promised I'd listen to whatever you wanted to say," countered Sam. "You made me promise, remember?"

"I remember. You also promised you'd stop being so jealous whenever I was with Merry." At his door, Frodo whirled to face Sam. "Sam, I don't want to quarrel about this now. It isn't the proper time. There is nothing between me and Merry. You will simply have to believe that, or don't, and leave me alone!"

He shut the door on Sam, sat down on his bed, and began to weep.

Tulipant died in the night. Frodo heard the news when he came to breakfast in the morning, bleary-eyed and miserable after a sleepless night alone. The weight of his responsibility for what Tulipant had done tormented him. He would've been grateful for some company but, after their quarrel, he couldn't cross the hall to Sam's room nor, he knew, would Sam come to him since he had been the one to shut the door between them. He couldn't go to Merry; Sam would explode with jealousy if he heard Frodo entering his cousin's bedroom in the night. Even if he'd dared risk it, it soon became impossible, for after the rest of the household had gone to bed, he'd heard Pippin creep up the hallway past his door to tap on Merry's and ask to be let in. The two appeared more cheerful together than they'd been in days when he saw them seated at the breakfast table. So they'd made up.

Brabantius was the only one who grieved for Tulipant. The Thain looked more old and weary than he had since Frodo had first seen him. He had little appetite for his breakfast and after sitting and staring at his barely touched plate, he retreated to his room. The rest of the North Took family gathered in the parlor after breakfast, Unlike Brabantius, they were in good moods. For once, they didn't resent the presence of the investigators among them. They could afford to be courteous to Frodo and his companions now that they were no longer threatened by them. Alhasrus even went so far as to congratulate Frodo on completing his case so satisfactorily.

"I'm sorry--I feel it's ended badly," Frodo answered.

"On, the contrary, Mr. Baggins," said the Thain's heir, "I don't see how it could've ended better for us."

"But not for poor Tulipant."

"No, that's so. It is a pity, but what else could the wretched creature do once he saw you were close to finding him out? He couldn't possibly have faced Father, after what he'd done, and it's a mercy that Father won't have to face him. Poor Father's dispirited now, but only imagine how he'd feel if the one who'd betrayed him were still alive? Imagine the scandal!"

"It wasn't your fault, Mr. Baggins. Tulipant took it upon himself," Lady Iris said sympathetically a little while later. "You've been a great help to my husband. He sees that. Brabantius has taken such a liking to you, and I'm sure he doesn't blame you for what Tulipant chose to do."

Althaea and her daughter came to call soon afterwards. The two were told the news immediately upon their entrance, and after some exclamations of surprise and "Thank goodness this horrible business is finished!" the ladies settled down to discuss Vidalia's upcoming wedding.

Everyone seemed to agree that the matter had ended well. Diamanta and Aspid were disappointed that Iris wasn't revealed as the poisoner after all, but even they saw that this was otherwise the best conclusion to Frodo's investigation. No one in the household except for Brabantius felt the death of the butler as anything but a relief. They could no longer be under suspicion now that the dead hobbit had made so unmistakable a declaration of his guilt. Frodo also sensed that they were rather pleased that the one person the Thain had trusted--not one of his own family--had been the one to betray him. Though no one said so aloud, they seemed to feelthey'd had a sort of revenge against the Thain for suspecting them, setting investigators upon them, and bullying them into giving away family secrets.

Frodo looked at the people around the room: Lady Iris and Isigo; Mrs. Goodwood with her knitting, forgotten and unnoticed by the chattering group of girls and ladies only a few feet away, but watching them surreptitiously; Alamaric, who had arrived with Diantha soon after Althaea, talking with Alamargo and Alhasrus about the butler's death. His own friends, Merry and Pippin with Diantha, and Sam apart, glancing at him for some sign of what he meant to do next. There was no reason why they shouldn't go home. The North-Tooks would be glad to see the last of him, and Sam and Merry must both be eager to be away for reasons of their own. He had only to say the word for them to begin packing.

But he couldn't go, not until he'd settled the matter in his own mind. He was the only one who felt as if the whole truth hadn't been uncovered yet. There were still some questions that needed to be answered.

Frodo rose and left the parlor. He went to the kitchens, where the maids, all three teary and somber-faced, were washing up after first breakfast and preparing for second. Neither Mrs. Scrubbs nor Jeddy was in sight.

"Mrs. Scrubbs went to bed once she saw we had breakfast in hand," Elsey answered when Frodo asked about the cook. "She was up all night with poor Mr. Tulipant."

"Mr. Tulipant!" her sister echoed in amazement. "Would you ever guess it was him who did it? Him, the properest butler in the whole Shire!""

"I'll tell her you asked after her when she arises, Mr. Baggins," Elsey continued after this interruption, "but I daren't disturb her after the awful night she's had."

"What about Jeddy?" requested Frodo. "Is he here? May I speak to him?"

"The poor lad was up all night too, tending Mr. Tulipant with Mrs. Scrubbs," the maid replied. "She said as he was to go home after he had his breakfast and he wasn't to come back for two or three days."

Frodo thanked the girls and left them. As he exited the kitchens, he found that Sam had followed him from the parlor and was waiting for him in the corridor. "Did you want to say something to me, Sam?"

"No- that is-" His friend blushed and became flustered. "'Twasn't nothing."

Frodo tried not to smile; he could see that Sam wanted to apologize for his behavior last night, but didn't know how to begin. "When you spoke to the Thain's gardener, Sam, did you go to his cottage?" he asked. "Do you know where it is?"

"Mr. Tubrose?" Sam was somewhat confused. "It's just down the lane, not a far walk at all. Why?"

"I wanted to ask the boy, Jeddy, a few questions about Tulipant. He was the one to find him, you know."

"Oh." Sam hesitated diffidently, then asked, "D'you mind if I go with you?"

"Not at all. I would be glad of the company," said Frodo, and he and Sam went out through the nearest door and headed down the lane that led along the foot of the slope. The two walked side by side, silent for most of the way, but eventually Frodo thought that someone must breach the gap between them.

"I know you can't help being a little jealous, Sam," he said, "but you must understand: Merry is my very dear friend, and has been since we were both too small to remember. He always will be. In some ways I am closer to him than anybody. Even you. I won't give up my friendship with him for your sake, any more than I would ask you to give up someone you loved. Don't try to force me. It can only make both of us unhappy."

"You love him? Do you-" Sam hesitated to ask the question. "D'you want to be with him?"

"Not in that way, no," Frodo answered. "That's over and done with between Merry and me. Please, believe that. I thought we settled that when I agreed to come home with you." He took Sam's hand and held it until they reached the gate before the gardener's bungalow.

While Sam waited at the gate, Frodo went up to the door and knocked. Mrs. Tubrose answered and, when Frodo asked to speak to Jeddy, told him that her son had just gone to bed, but if he'd wait a moment, she'd see if he was asleep yet.

No, Frodo didn't mind waiting. Mrs. Tubrose went into the bungalow and, a few minutes later, Jeddy emerged, looking less distressed by his sleepless night than Frodo was after his.

"G'morning, Mr. Baggins!" Jeddy said as he came out into the small garden. "What is it you want?"

"I wanted to talk to you about Mr. Tulipant. You helped Mrs. Scrubbs attend him last night, didn't you?"

"That's right."

"All night?"

"I was in and out, bringing damp cloths and jugs o' hot water, and clean basins," the boy answered. "It was Mrs. Scrubbs as never left 'm 'til he breathed his last."

"And he never awoke?"

"Not to say 'woke,' Mr. Baggins. He had fits something fearful at first, then lay quiet most o' the night. He but stirred once or twice, a-tossing and moaning, and opened his eyes, but he didn't know where he was."

"Did he say anything?" asked Frodo.

"He didn't confess to nothing, if that's what you mean." The boy's eyes brightened. "There was a slip of paper on the bed beside 'm when I first went in, but Mrs. Scrubbs picked it up as soon as she saw it. I expect she's got it. If he took on the blame for putting poison in his Thainship's wine, it'd be writ down in that. All he said when I was there to hear was 'Forgive me, my Thain. I gave it to her. She cosseted up to me. I didn't know.' He didn't stir again after that, and died afore daybreak."

'Her' might be any woman in the household: Mrs. Scrubbs herself, one of the three maidservants, Aspid, Istra, Diamanta, Persifilla, Iris--then Frodo realized who it had to refer to, and suddenly he saw it all.

"Sam," he said once he'd thanked Jeddy and the boy had returned to the bungalow to sleep, "we must go back to the Thain's Hall."

"You know who did it then?" Sam asked him. "And it wasn't Mr. Tulipant?"

"No, it wasn't Mr. Tulipant. But I'm afraid you won't like it when I tell you who it was."

When they returned to the Thain's Hall, Frodo sent Sam to the kitchens to see if Mrs. Scrubbs was up, and to wake her if she wasn't, to ask her a few specific questions. After Sam had gone on this errand, Frodo peeked in at the parlor to discover that most of the ladies were still there, discussing Vidalia's wedding plans. Mrs. Goodwood, however, had left her knitting, Persifilla had left the room, and Lady Iris was no longer seated with her son.

Sam returned after a few minutes and repeated what little he'd gotten from the cook in answer to his questions. "Is that good enough?" he asked Frodo.

"It isn't," said Frodo, "but I'm afraid it will have to do."

"D'you want me to come with you, when you go talk to her? She might be a danger."

"No, Sam. Thank you. She can't harm me." Frodo left his friend outside the parlor and went up the tunnel where the family bed-chambers were, until he reached the door of Lady Iris's boudoir. He tapped on the door, and when the lady asked who it was, identified himself and asked to come in.

Lady Iris was seated on her bower-like sofa amid a profusion of flowers. "What can I do for you, Mr. Baggins?" she asked. "I must say, I'm surprised you and your friends have stayed on so late in the day, now that this horrible business is over with. It's nearly noon, and you've a such long journey ahead of you. You'll be leaving us soon?" She sounded politely curious, but Frodo thought he detected an eagerness for him to be gone underlying the question.

"Yes, my lady." Frodo took a seat in the chair opposite the sofa. "Before we go, I must talk with Thain Brabantius about this case one last time, and I need to decide what to tell him. I was hoping you might help me. You asked me to consult you, remember?"

"Of course," said Lady Iris. "But I don't see what needs to be decided. It was his butler who tried to poison him. Poor, dear Brabantius knows that. What more is there to say?"

"It wasn't the butler, my lady," said Frodo. "Oh, it's true that Tulipant played an unwitting part in the poisoning, and when he realized it, it tormented him until he was forced to do what he did, but he wasn't the poisoner. That was someone else. A woman. Tulipant spoke of her before he died."

"Did he?" the lady sat forward and looked extremely interested. "Who did he name?"

"He didn't speak her name, unfortunately," Frodo answered, "but he said enough for me to understand who the lady must be--for it was a lady. Tulipant said, 'I gave it her. She cosseted to me.'"

Lady Iris said nothing. Frodo went on:

"I think what happened was that this lady cajoled Tulipant into letting her borrow the wine-cellar key, then went into the cellar and tampered with the Thain's special wine. I don't know how long ago this occurred. It may have been weeks, even months before the poisoned wine came to the Thain's study. According to Tulipant, Brabantius was accustomed to drink a glass or two of his wine every evening, and might finish a bottle in about a week. It would only be a matter of time before the poisoned bottle was opened--if only one bottle was poisoned. Tulipant was quite overwhelmed by the lady's charms, I imagine, and didn't even think about why she wanted the key until I arrived and the Thain told him that the wine had been poisoned."

Lady Iris smiled and sat back against the plush pillows behind her. "You have a wonderful imagination, Mr. Baggins!" she said. "All that, from just a few words. Tulipant might've meant anybody, any woman. Why must it be a lady? Couldn't it be a servant--one of the maids, or perhaps our cook?"

"If it had been a maidservant, my lady, would Tulipant have given her the key so readily? And why wouldn't he speak up about it when I began to ask questions? Why struggle with his conscience for days and drink the rest of the poisoned wine himself rather than tell me or the Thain what he'd done? He had a reason for his silence. I feel sure it was the Thain he was desperate to keep the truth from at all costs. He knew how it would break the Thain's heart... and he was in the end loyal to his Thain. It was someone Thain Brabantius cared very much for, you see. I don't believe it can have been one of the Tooks. Not because they're above such things, but because they're all awful snobs, as you well know. They would consider 'cosseting' to a mere servant to be a degradation. Even if they could bring themselves to play up to a servant, Tulipant wouldn't hand over his keys to the Thain's daughters-in-law, Mrs. Goodwood, or Persifilla. I'd be surprised if Persifilla even knows where the kitchens are! He might feel enough loyalty to Althaea as his master's daughter to lie for her, but I can't imagine Althaea Lowfoot 'cosseting' to her father's butler even to commit murder. She seems to be the sort of lady who would rather drink poison herself. No. The lady I'm thinking of wouldn't possess that sort of snobbery. She wasn't born to it the way the Took ladies were.

"It's funny you should bring up your cook, my lady. It wasn't Tulipant's last words alone that helped me see the truth. The other thing, which eliminated the Took ladies from consideration altogether, was the behavior of Mrs. Scrubbs after Tulipant drank the poisoned wine. He left a note, did you know? It's gone now, most likely destroyed in the kitchen fire. The pantry-boy Jeddy says it lay on Tulipant's bed when he first found him, but it wasn't there when I arrived shortly after Jeddy and Mrs. Scrubbs. He says that she took it up the moment she saw it, and I've no reason to think he's lying. If Jeddy himself had taken it, he wouldn't have mentioned it to me at all."

"Does she admit to this?" Lady Iris asked.

"No, she denies that there was any note. She claims she never saw it, and says that she can't even read."

"She can't," said the lady. "Not more than a few simple words."

"If you say so," answered Frodo, "but I think that even if she didn't know what Tulipant had written, she must surely have guessed that it was some sort of confession. Something that she couldn't allow anyone else to see. She also sent Jeddy away to his home for a few days, so that he couldn't tell me about the note, nor the words he'd heard Tulipant cry out before he died."

"Then you are suggesting that Mrs. Scrubbs poisoned my husband?" Lady Iris asked, with a little laugh. "But that is ridiculous."

"She might be the poisoner," said Frodo. "I suspect very much that she was the one who brewed the poison, and I shudder to think that she was the one who nursed Tulipant so carefully through his last night. He might've died anyway, after drinking so much of that wine, but I will always wonder if she didn't ensure that he never had a chance to revive and speak. She may even have gone into the wine cellar. But whatever she did, it wasn't for selfish reasons. There was someone else in this. You see, there's no reason why Tulipant would keep silent if she had been the woman who borrowed his key. And there is only one person Mrs. Scrubbs is so devoted to that she would go to such lengths to aid and protect, even if it meant being suspected herself. She might even confess to protect that person."

The lady's amused little smile had grown frozen. Her rosy face had turned very pale and her beautiful eyes, fixed on Frodo, had taken on a icy glint. Her voice, when she next spoke, was also icy. "Why, Mr. Baggins do you think this lady would do such a thing?"

"I think she did it because she wanted to marry again," answered Frodo, steadily meeting that frozen gaze. "I think she's been in love with someone else, a gentleman with no money, for some time, perhaps even while her first husband was still alive. He says that she's doesn't care for him, but I don't think she's as indifferent as he's tried to make me believe. Perhaps he's even told the truth that there's never been anything between them except a few kisses. I can't really say. After her first husband's death, she found that she couldn't afford to marry this impoverished gentleman, being a poor widow herself. Instead, she put herself in the way of a wealthy and elderly hobbit who has always admired her, and when the opportunity presented itself, she married him and looked forward to being a widow again soon. When her second husband dies, it means she can marry her lover without worrying about his lack of fortune. All she had to do was bide her time for a few months, or even a few years. But she wasn't as patient as her lover. When her aged husband lived on and showed no sign of ill health, she began to grow weary of the marriage and decided to help the inevitable along to its end. It was all very cleverly done. If Brabantius hadn't grown suspicious and fed some of his wine to a dog, he might have succumbed by now to his 'illness' and nobody would think to question it, no matter how much they disliked his widow."

Lady Iris could no longer pretend to misunderstand him; the accusation was too clear. "You've no proof of this, Mr. Baggins," she said. "It's guesses, nothing more. You can't even prove that poor Tulipant said a word before he died. He's gone and can't tell anyone why he did what he did. As you say, there's no note to be found--if he ever left one. Mrs. Scrubbs will deny there was. You only have the word of a silly little boy to contradict her. A boy who's so caught up in the excitement of having detectives in the house that he'll say whatever will impress you. Who's to say it isn't all ugly, horrible lies? They hate me so much in this house that they'll say anything against me."

"I can't prove what I've said to you is true," Frodo admitted, "but I must tell Thain Brabantius what I know and what I've deduced."

"He won't believe you."

"Perhaps not, but if what I suspect is true, then I can't stand by and let you try it again. That's why I came to you first, so you would know what I intend to tell your husband. If you think you've gotten away with it this once, I'm afraid you'll be bold enough for another attempt. The next time, you might succeed." Frodo rose from his seat. "Brabantius mightn't take my word, but I might at least convince him to make a few changes in his will, to safeguard himself."

As he turned toward the door, he heard a hissing intake of breath behind him. Lady Iris was still glaring at him; for a moment, he thought she might leap up and come at him with her fingernails, but she sat where she was. She was angry and frightened, but Frodo wondered if he'd done enough to push her.

"One last question," he said before he went out. "How did your first husband die, my lady? Would it be worth my while to go to the north and find out?"

Frodo didn't go to Brabantius with his conclusions immediately; instead, he decided to wait and see what Lady Iris would do. He had little idea how the lady would respond to his ultimatum, but he thought it best to avoid eating or drinking anything during the remainder of his stay at the Thain's Hall. While Sam packed their bags and made ready to leave whenever Frodo gave the word, Frodo himself lay down to smoke his pipe and think. He didn't go to lunch but, after his restless night, drifted into sleep. He slept through the afternoon, and so missed all the excitement until his cousins came to find him and tell him about it.

Lady Iris hadn't appeared at lunch-time. There had been a few comments from the others at the meal, which had been cooked as well as served by the maidservants. Tilsey reported that her ladyship was lying down in her room; Iris claimed she had a terrible headache and no appetite. She'd sent for Mrs. Scrubbs, and the cook, who'd just awakened after her night of nursing, made a pot of chamomile tea and taken it to her ladyship.

It wasn't until tea-time that Brabantius grew concerned and went to Iris's chambers himself to see if his wife was any better. He found Iris gone. A quick investigation of her rooms showed that Iris had taken few of her belongings, clothing and her jewelry box, but she had definitely and purposefully decamped, apparently going out her terrace window. Ponies had been taken from the stable, and Isigo was also not in the house. When the cook was sent for, she was also found to be gone. By the time Frodo joined the others, inquiries at the tavern where Florisel was lodged revealed that Mr. Pumble-Took had gathered his bags rather hurriedly shortly after midday. Lady Iris had been with him--an unprecedented event at the tavern!--and the two had ridden away together.

"She's gone," the Thain told Frodo with a note of bewilderment.

"Really and truly gone!" Diamanta echoed. "Run off with Florisel."

"I never suspected that there was anything- well- disreputable between the two," Istra added in an undertone. "They always seemed quite affectionate, but I imagined it must be the intimacy of a brother and sister. Perfectly innocent! Who could guess?"

"And that boy Isigo's gone with them," said Helimarcus. "The whole Pumble family's cleared off."

Brabantius could hear no more, and went to his study to leave his family to celebrate this astonishing turn of events out of his hearing.

Merry approached Frodo. "You know something about this, don't you?" he leaned close to murmur in his cousin's ear. "You were hardly surprised when we told you her ladyship was gone."

Frodo was aware that Sam was making an effort not to watch them. "Yes," he admitted, "I was expecting something, but I didn't know what it would be. I'll tell you all about it while we get our things."

"Then we're going now?" Sam asked.

Frodo nodded. He was as eager to see the last of this household as his friends were.

They left the front hall, where the North-Tooks were all talking excitedly, to return to their rooms and gather their bags. Pippin went with them rather than to his own room, to hear what Frodo had to say. They'd gone well up the tunnel before they were aware that someone was following them.

"Mr. Baggins?" Diamond stood in the curve of the tunnel, ten feet behind them. She had come up quietly and was timidly twisting her skirts in her hands. "Mr. Baggins..." she leaned forward on her toes and spoke softly, "Frodo? I couldn't tell Mamma and Papa. Isigo didn't go away with his mother. I saw him leave the Hall, and I know where he went."

---

Frodo had never been to the cottage where Isigo lived with his mother before her marriage to the Thain, and so had to ask Pippin to accompany him. Pippin was also on friendlier terms with Isigo than Frodo was, and the boy would be more likely to trust him. Diamond didn't dare to tell Frodo more, but darted away once she'd delivered her information to return to her family before her absence was noticed.

"Do you think she told you because she likes him, or was she trying to get him into trouble?" Pippin wondered. "According to the other Di, her cousin is an awful tattle-tale."

"If she'd wanted to stir up trouble, she had only to tell her family where Isigo was hiding. I'm sure they'd be happy to make the most of it," Frodo answered. "If he's lost the Thain's protection because his mother's gone, there's no one in that household to stand by him now... except for her." He gave Pippin a smile. "Your matchmaking may have accomplished something there, Pip."

Pippin grinned. "Pity her family wouldn't hear of a match between them now--not that they'd consider it before!"

When they reached the cottage, Frodo knocked on door and tried it, but found it locked. Pippin, meanwhile, peeked into the windows, and found that the latch on one had been pried back.

"It wasn't like that when we were here before," he told Frodo once his cousin came to see it. "Diamond must be right--he's inside." Pippin opened the window and called into the cottage. "Hello! Isigo? Are you there?"

There was no answer for a long while, then a voice replied, "I'm here, Pippin." After another minute, the front door opened and Isigo stuck out his head. "You'd best come in this way. I tore my trouser leg climbing through that window."

Pippin and Frodo went inside and followed Isigo into a room that must once have served as the cottage sitting room, now containing only a few sheet-covered, dusty pieces of furniture, straw-stuffed boxes, and corded trunks. One of the smaller trunks had been opened and the contents taken out and spread on the floor--books, a patched velveteen jacket, and a pipe case.

"I was looking at Father's--my real father's--things," Isigo explained. "Have you come to arrest me, Mr. Baggins?"

"I don't have the authority to arrest anybody," Frodo answered. "Is there any reason you ought to be arrested?"

"Mama..." the boy answered softly, and sat down onto the nearest box. "I swear to you, Mr. Baggins, I didn't know anything about it until today. I like Father Brabantius. I've always said so. Mama called me to her not long before lunch-time. She was packing a bag and told me she must leave the Hall right away. She said she was sick of the place and everyone in it, and Uncle Flori would help her. Uncle Flori would, you know. He'd do whatever Mama asked. He even brought Grandmama down from the north when Mama wanted her here, and we kept the secret of who she was. Mama wanted me to come away with them." He gulped, and tears swam in his eyes. "She said you were going to tell Father Brabantius awful lies about her, Mr. Baggins, and I wasn't to believe a word of it--but I didn't believe her. My own mother, and I didn't believe her. She did do it, didn't she? Not Tulipant."

"I'm afraid so," Frodo answered.

Isigo nodded. "She said I was to gather my things up as quickly as possible and meet her at the tavern. I didn't go. I couldn't, not once I knew... I couldn't abide to face her after that. But I also saw that I couldn't stay at the Thain's Hall once she'd gone. This was the only place I could think to go." Tears had begun to flow down his cheeks, and he blotted them with his shirt-sleeve. "I don't know what to do!" He looked from Frodo to Pippin hopefully. "May I go back to the south with you? Nobody knows me there. I won't be a bother to you. I can take work, any work."

"You can come back to Tuckborough with me," Pippin offered. "My family won't mind. You're a relation, although I suppose we shouldn't tell them that!"

"You are welcome to come with us," Frodo added, "but will you let me speak to Brabantius on your behalf first?"

"He won't want to help me," Isigo sniffled. "After what Mother's done, he'll want nothing more to do with me. I might as well have gone away with her."

"Nevertheless, may I try?"

"Do as you like," the boy answered sullenly. "I'll be here, waiting, whatever comes of it."

Pippin stayed to wait with Isigo, while Frodo returned to the Thain's Hall alone. Little had changed since he'd stolen out to the cottage barely half an hour earlier, except that the Thain's family had moved to the parlor, where they could sit comfortably while they expressed their amazement and delight at Lady Iris's departure. Some of them were only now beginning to wonder why the lady had gone so suddenly.

"There must be something behind it," Frodo heard Diamanta say as he went past the open door to the parlor on his way to Brabantius's study. "Mark my words, it can't be merely an attachment to Florisel Pumble-Took that took her off like that, without a word. She might've done that any time she pleased. If Frodo Baggins were half the detective he claims to be-"

Not wishing to hear his reputation abused any further, Frodo went on. He had no desire to tell them why Iris had departed so abruptly. Let them guess all they liked. Would he tell the Thain? Perhaps it would help the elderly hobbit to bear the loss if he knew why his wife had left him. Or perhaps the truth would only make it worse.

The door to Brabantius's study was shut, and he tapped on it gently.

The Thain snapped, "What is it?" But his expression brightened when Frodo peeked in. "Ah, Mr. Baggins, it's you. I thought it must be one of my children, eager to offer their heart-felt commiserations. Do come in, please. I was hoping to see you again before your and your friends left."

"I wouldn't have gone without saying good-bye," Frodo responded as he closed the door behind him. "And there are one or two things I wanted to talk to you about."

"I never thanked you for the service you've done me, even if it hasn't come out as I expected," Brabantius told him. "I saw the danger before me and imagined it might come from any one of a number of people close to me, but didn't guess it was the one I trusted most implicitly."

"I am very sorry about Tulipant's death, sir. I might've prevented it, if I'd seen the truth a little sooner."

"You did your best, Mr. Baggins. She left me a note, did you know?" Brabantius took it from the pocket of his waistcoat and gave it to Frodo. "I found it in her room, when I went to see. She says she's terribly sorry, but she can't bear any more. My household has been torn apart over her, and recent events have shown her that the rift can never be mended. She can't continue to live among my family when they despise her so much, and the best thing she can do is take herself away and hope I will forgive her."

Frodo read the note while the Thain was speaking; Lady Iris's written words were more effusive, but Brabantius had summed them up accurately.

"She doesn't say it's because they've openly accused her of trying to poison me, but that's what she means," Brabantius concluded. "Yes, I know all about that. My daughters-in-law never can keep their mouths shut, especially when they have something vicious to say. But, my dear Mr. Baggins, they were right, weren't they?"

"I believe so," Frodo admitted as he returned the note. He told Brabantius what Jeddy had told him, and what he'd said to Iris that morning. "She confessed to nothing and it can't be proved, but I felt sure even as I spoke to her that my ideas were correct. An innocent woman wouldn't have responded to such terrible accusations the way she did. She would have at least slapped my face, or made me bring my accusations to you and have them discredited. Instead, her flight so soon after I warned her that I was going to tell you looks... well, like a confirmation of all my suspicious."

Like Tulipant, Frodo was afraid that this betrayal would break the Thain's heart, but since Brabantius had already come to suspect it for himself, he took it rather well.

"Indeed it does," he agreed grimly. "Tell me, was Florisel part of this plot?"

"I don't know," Frodo said. "He's loved her for years."

"Well, yes, that's always been obvious. I might've thought more of it if I'd seen any sign that she returned his feelings. Since Iris was so much younger than I, I thought it'd be selfish to deny her her admirer."

"If it's any comfort to you, sir, I think it unlikely that he was aware of what Lady Iris was doing beforehand. He might've suspected it when you fell ill, and it's my opinion he guessed the truth once he heard you were behaving oddly and might be ill again, and came dashing down here to find out what was going on. He wanted to know what my investigation had turned up, if I had any reason to suspect Lady Iris, and he did his best to protect her. He was the one who brought it to my attention that no one, especially she, could've entered your study when the decanter was there, since the fact had escaped my notice before. She told him to tell me--he even admitted to that. He must've known then. He's certainly a fool if he didn't see the truth when he agreed to take her away from here on such short notice."

"Oh, he's a fool," said the Thain. "But wasn't I as well? A pretty woman can charm you into believing anything she says. Oh, I was never foolish enough to believe that she loved me as my first wife did, but I thought we had a mutual affection, and that she was grateful for all I could do for her..." He lapsed into a gloomy silence and, as he had that morning at Tulipant's death, looked very old and weary. Then he sighed. "So she and Florisel have flown off together. I wish them joy of each other, and hope that Florisel does not eat anything my wife prepares for him."

"They've only been gone a few hours, sir, and can't have gotten very far," said Frodo. "They might still be within the Cleeve. Will you send someone to catch them?"

"No." Brabantius shook his head. "I've no desire to see Iris again, even if it's to see her punished. I want her as far from me as possible. To bring her back and accuse her would only create a scandal of the worst kind. Besides, I'd never hear the end of it from my family. Diamanta will be insufferable if she learns she was right. No--I can bear anything but that. She and Aspid must be content to gloat over Iris's flight. Let them think it was Tulipant... my poor Tulipant. Where will I find a new butler? And a new cook too. I will also need a new agent for my lands in the north Cleeve."

"What about Isigo?" suggested Frodo.

"Isigo?"

"He hasn't flown with them. He's at the cottage, since he knew he couldn't stay on here. I told him you might still aid him. Will you? It would be a way for you to stand by him, but not have him in the midst of your family, who are going to be hard on him. I'm convinced he knew nothing of his mother's plots. He's very young, but I think you'll find him responsible and eager to please." Also, when Isigo brought the rents, he would have chance to come to the Thain's Hall and see Diamond. Why shouldn't Frodo play matchmaker too? The girl had taken enough interest in Isigo to know where he'd gone and try to help--perhaps a match could be arranged while the Thain still lived and had the will to convince Diamond's parents that Isigo was acceptable.

The Thain nodded. "I've always been fond of him. He's a good lad. If you will tell him to come to me, I shall have a word with him. My family won't like it, but they'll have to put up with it." A sudden thought occurred to him. "The rest of the Thain's Own wine, it will have to be poured out, won't it?"

"I'm afraid so, sir. I don't know if that one bottle was the only one poisoned. There might be more."

"Yes, you're right. I suppose it's for the best. I will never be able to enjoy the taste of it again, and we can't have Alhasrus or Ulfidius poisoned from another bottle in years to come."

---

Isigo came back to the Hall with Frodo and Pippin and was now in the Brabantius's study, arranging his future. The four hobbits from the south were ready to leave. It was late afternoon and they couldn't expect to get far before nightfall, but they were eager to be on their way homeward and, with the disappearance of the cook, it would be inconvenient for them to stay on for dinner. They were all well aware that the Tooks would rather not have them here another night. After they'd made their farewells to the Thain's family and received heart-felt wishes for a swift journey, they spoke to Alamaric and Diantha in the lane before the two houses.

"Perhaps we ought to wait and see if they work things out," said Pippin. "Isigo might want to come with us after all."

"Don't worry about Isigo. Even if Uncle Brabantius won't help him, I'll look after the lad," Alamaric promised. "I know it's going to be difficult for him here, with his mother gone to who-knows where, and knowing... well, I have to wonder if Diamanta hasn't got hold of something when she says there's more to it than a couple of lovers running off together. It's all quite remarkably odd, and very mysterious. But I don't suppose you'll tell us about it, will you, Frodo?"

"I can't," said Frodo, since the Thain had made it clear that he didn't want the truth known to his family. "Perhaps Brabantius will tell you himself, one day." But when Alamaric nodded, Frodo could see that the elder hobbit understood it all without being told.

"I'm afraid my poor uncle mayn't have many days left," Alamaric said sadly. "He's come through the danger safely, but this experience has all been awfully hard on him. First the poisoning, then Tulipant's death, and now Iris..." He shook his head. "Who would've guessed she'd do such a thing? She always seemed like such an amiable and warm-hearted woman."

"It's Uncle Flori I'm surprised about," said Di, misunderstanding her father. "Love makes people so stupid sometimes. All the same, I'm going to miss him. I liked him so much. I'll be happy if I never have to be in another investigation, not if this is the way they turn out."

"You get used to it," Pippin told her. "It isn't so bad when it's nobody you care about."

"Well, I found it interesting to play a- ah- part in your investigation," said Alamaric. "I hope you'll come to visit us in the Long Cleeve someday, under happier circumstances. I know that my daughter would be glad to see you again, Pippin."

Pippin said he'd be happy to see them both again too. Di hugged him in farewell, although she was more restrained in her farewells to the other three. The foursome mounted their ponies and rode away.

They'd gone through the narrow southward passage out of the Cleeve and were on the road toward home before Sam said, "Will we go back?"

"You won't have to, Sam," Frodo assured him. "But I must admit I'll be curious to learn how things turn out for Brabantius and his family."

"You'll go back, won't you, Pip?" said Merry. "You'll want to see Diantha again."

"I was just being polite," Pippin answered. "I do like her, Merry, but I won't marry Di or anybody unless you approve. I promised you so just last night, didn't I?"

"Yes, you did," Merry said rather smugly. "I just wanted to be sure you didn't forget it."