"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."
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