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."
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