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.
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