The young hobbit who knocked at the front door of Bag End that chilly morning had well-tailored clothes, the nice manners of a gentlehobbit, and the distinctive red hair and fox-like features of a Took.

"Odonto Took, at your service," he introduced himself after Rosie had shown him in to Frodo in his study and he had thrown off his fur-trimmed cloak.

The name was vaguely familiar, but Frodo couldn't quite place it. He was sure he'd never met this personable young gentlehobbit before. "One of the North-Tooks?" he guessed. His visitor spoke with a north-Shire accent.

"That's right. We haven't met, but I've heard a great deal about you from the Thain's family in the Long Cleeve--I'm only a distant cousin, you know, though I've had the honor to be welcomed into the Thain's own household by my marriage to one of the old Thain's granddaughters. You may recall meeting my wife. Her name is Vida."

"Vidalia Lowfoot?" Frodo brightened. "Yes, of course." Vidalia was the old North-Thain's daughter's youngest child; she'd been betrothed to Odonto when he'd met her while investigating the poisoning of Thain Brabantius two years ago. "I was so sorry to hear about Thain Brabantius's death this autumn past."

"Thank you," Odonto replied solemnly. "We were all very grieved, but he was 112 and had lived a long and prosperous life. It had to end one day, and you gave him a few more years than he might've had, Mr. Baggins. That was why Thain Alhasrus sent me down to call on you. He thought you might be of help in another delicate situation. We need help, you see, in finding Diamond."

"Diamond?" Frodo had no difficulty recalling that shy young girl; the Tooks, north and south, had been trying to match her with Pippin for years now. "What's happened to her? Is she lost?"

"She's run off with Isigo Pumble. There's no sign of them in the Cleeve--in fact, some young people were seen going out the southern gap a week ago, and it's assumed that it was them. I don't know how much you've kept in touch with the Tooks in the Cleeve since you visited them, Mr. Baggins?"

"I've heard a little." Pippin corresponded with both Isigo and Diamond's cousin Diantha, and Frodo occasionally heard fragments of their news through him. While in the Long Cleeve, Pippin had done his best to encourage a romance between Diamond and Isigo; from subsequent gleeful remarks of Pippin's, he gathered that these efforts had met with some success, but he'd had no idea it had gone so far. "Isigo was sweet on her when we were there," he said carefully, "and I've heard since that she's become rather fond of him. Her parents disapproved, but Thain Brabantius didn't object to them seeing each other."

"Yes, that's so," Odonto agreed. "The Old Thain was always fond of Isigo, in spite of his mother's scandalous behavior--running off with poor old Florisel! Aunt Di will still have it that she was the one who tried to poison Thain Brabantius. You know that Thain Brabantius made Isigo his land-agent? Yes, and he continued to treat Isigo as his own son whenever he was at the house, whatever fuss his children and grandchildren might make about it. When he saw little Di and Isigo talking together, he'd smile on them. I don't believe he would've minded if they'd married one day. But once he died, the rest of the family put a stop to all that. The new Thain, Uncle Alhasrus, dismissed Isigo from his place as agent and forbade him to come to the house. He would've stopped Isigo from receiving his inheritance from the Old Thain too, only Uncle Alamaric saw to that. Uncle Alamaric and his daughter have stood by him first to last, and let him stay with them since he's been forbidden the Thain's Hall. Diantha's gone off too, by the way. If you ask me, she's been helping the two go on seeing each other in secret and most likely helped them plan their flight.

"I daresay you're sympathetic to them yourself, Mr. Baggins?" The young hobbit met Frodo's eyes speculatively. "You and your friends were on good terms with Isigo when you were at the Hall. That's why it took so long for the family to decide to send someone to ask for your help--Aunt Di and Aunt Aspid, not to mention my mother-in-law, all say you'll be on Isigo's side. They're afraid you'll refuse to help, or you'll say you'll help but work against them in favor of Isigo marrying Diamond. That's why, in the end, Uncles Alhasrus and Alamargo decided to send me. They know you didn't get on with my cousins, Diamond's brothers and the Thain's heir. And I suppose they wanted to see how well I'd do for the family." He met Frodo's eyes again, more candidly this time. "You see, I think Isigo's not so bad as some of them make him out to be. I don't blame him for whatever his mother is supposed to have done, and I think the Tooks have done him a bad turn by treating him like an outcast. If nothing else, it's made him more sympathetic to Diamond. She's a tender-hearted girl, you know. But all the same, I agreed to come and see you, and carry out my duty. This is a sort of test for me as well."

"I assure you, Mr. Took, that if I accept this case, I'll do my best to find them," Frodo answered rather stiffly. He was fond of Isigo and would like to help him as well as Diamond, but he resented the North-Tooks questioning his honesty.

"I hoped you'd say that!" Odonto said. "I knew you'd see it in the right way. After all, no matter what one thinks of Isigo or his marrying Diamond, they are both still underage. They ought to be made to listen to reason for their own sake, before any- er- mischief is done."

"Yes," Frodo agreed reluctantly.

"Then you will try to find them?"

"Er- yes," Frodo agreed again, feeling that he'd been manipulated into it. But he would not refuse the assignment. "As a matter of fact, I think I can already guess where they've gone. I shall go and visit my friend, Pippin Took."

It didn't require the skills of a great detective to guess that if Diamond and Isigo had come south, they would go to the one person most likely to help them. Nothing would make Pippin happier than seeing the girl his parents wanted him to marry wed to another boy.

"You didn't have to take up this job," Sam said to him later that evening, after Frodo had reported the conversation and outlined his plans.

They lay cuddled together under the down comforter on Frodo's bed--a rare treat these days. Their old routine of Sam sharing his nights between his wife and Frodo had been set aside since Rosie had given birth to twins in the spring. With the two newborn infants, plus little Frodo and Elanor getting their parents up and down a dozen times during the night, Sam found it more convenient to sleep next door to the nursery to be at hand whenever he was needed. His only opportunities to be with Frodo during these long months, and get a good night's sleep afterwards, were during brief interludes at country inns while they were away on investigations. But the twins were nearly nine months old now, and sleeping through nights, and Frodo's namesake was past the worst of his teething; Sam had tentatively resumed his visits to Frodo's room.

"I didn't intend to at first," Frodo replied, "but Mr. Odonto Took is a rather persuasive young hobbit, Sam. He had a way of putting the case so that I couldn't refuse without seeming dishonest." But he was not entirely happy with his decision. He felt torn in two; he would do his best to find the young couple, but at the same time he felt sympathy for their plight. Since Odonto had left, he'd been trying to find a way to combine the two without betraying anyone. "It's my hope that the North-Tooks will take my agreeing to find Isigo and Diamond as a sign of my integrity and my good intentions. If they trust me to do this, perhaps they'll listen to reason and let me settle matters for them as well. I'd like to find some way that will allow Isigo and Diamond to marry someday and that Diamond's family will agree to."

"That's impossible. You know what awful snobs them North-Tooks are. You saw how they used to treat Isigo even when the old Thain was alive, and you say it's been worse since his Thainship died."

"I know, but they can't go on blaming him for his mother's crimes. Isigo knew nothing about what she was up to until after she'd gone away. He isn't like Lady Iris at all. He seems to me to be a decent young lad, and I must also try to make her family see him in that light now that his mother is dead and no longer a threat to them."

Sam's expression said clearly that he still considered this an impossible task. "Will Mr. Took be going with you to Tuckborough?" he asked.

"No. Odonto has agreed to stop on here at the Ivy Bush Inn until I send for him. It won't help me to find the runaway pair, or make them trust me, if they see him with me. If I find them, I must speak to them alone first, without his meddling."

"Alone," Sam repeated the word. "So you don't want me coming along either?" He pulled Frodo a little closer.

"No," Frodo snuggled to his chest. "There'll be no nights at an inn for us on this investigation, I'm sorry to say. I want you to keep an eye on Odonto. I'm not entirely certain I can trust him, Sam. He says he bears Isigo no ill will, but even if that's so, he's been sent here on a particular mission and the Tooks will be watching him carefully to see how well he does. He won't want to fail them, no matter what he thinks personally of Isigo. If he guesses where Isigo and Diamond are before I'm ready to tell him, he might come after them and frighten them off. He might even write the North-Tooks, and we'd have Diamond's father or those brothers of hers storming down here to try and carry her off. That will only make things worse. I'll write short reports on my progress in Tuckborough and send them to you, though they may not tell you everything. Visit Odonto at the inn and give him my news, or invite him here. Then, when I send word of where the runaways are, you'll escort him there."

"What'll you do when you find them?" asked Sam.

"I don't know yet, Sam." Frodo sighed. "I won't know until I have a chance to speak with them. I'd like to convince Diamond and Isigo to wait `til they're of an age to wed, or least until she has her parents' consent. Odonto was right about that, Sam. Two hobbits in their tweens can't just fly off and be married in secret and expect to live happily ever after. That's nonsense. The wedding isn't the end of a happy story. It's the beginning of a new life. If they are going to marry, someone must look to their future and see that they begin well."

"And that'd be you?"

"If they are too naive to do it themselves, and no one closer to them cares to, then I will take it as part of my responsibility on this investigation," answered Frodo. "I must try, for their sakes. I'd like to save them from disaster, whether they wed in the end or not."

"You can't say you don't set your sights high, Frodo," Sam sounded amused, and Frodo chuckled at this apt description of his character.

"True, but I've taken on heavier burdens than the happiness of two young hobbits before this."

"Well, if you're going off in the morning on this fool's errand of yours, and leaving me behind, we might as well make good use of tonight." The comforter flew up as Sam ducked and disappeared under it. A moment later, Frodo let out a ticklish laugh that ended in a yelp as he was pulled beneath the comforter too.

Frodo had last visited Tuckborough about three months earlier, when he and Thain Paladin had worked together to prepare for his investigation in the Uphill-Took household. He had spent several days with the Thain's family at that time, but everyone was pleased to see him again. He had to hear all their news and see their children, who had grown so much since he'd seen them last. He first visited Pippin's eldest sister Pearl, who lived with her husband Reginard and her father-in-law in the house next to the Thain's Hall, and played with her three little boys, Peveril, Parsival, and Pelagrin. Then he called on Pippin's youngest sister, Peri, who lived in the house on the other side of the Thain's Hall with her husband Ferdi and his parents. Peri and Ferdi had just had their first baby that autumn and named her Periwinkle; Peri wanted to call her Wink for a pet name, "for she can never keep both eyes open," while Ferdi insisted on calling her Little Peri, "since she's the image of her mother--or will be once she has some hair. I'm sure it'll be just the same color."

Once these courtesies had been performed, Frodo returned to the Thain's Hall for tea. He was now quite certain that none of the Tooks here had received news about Diamond's elopement from their relatives in the north; if they had, all three households would be talking of nothing else. As he sat down with the Thain and Lady Eglantine, he felt perfectly safe in asking the casual question, "By the way, where is Pippin? I thought he'd be here somewhere, playing with his nephews and new niece."

"Oh, he dotes on them all," said Eglantine. "Pearl always says Peregrin is wonderful with the boys. I'm sure he'd make a wonderful father himself."

"I'm afraid Pippin's not here," the Thain told Frodo.

"Has he gone to Buckland?" Frodo asked.

"We assume so. He was at home until a few days ago, then he had a letter the day before yesterday and left us rather abruptly. I'm sure he'll be sorry to miss seeing you, Frodo."

"I suppose he'll write me once he gets to Crickhollow. He or Merry usually do."

"I do wish," said Eglantine, "that he would give up this nonsense with Merry Brandybuck and stop making a scandal."

"It's not such a scandal any more, my dear," said Paladin and cast an apologetic eye at Frodo, though of course Frodo had heard this same complaint from Pippin's mother many times before. "There's plenty of time left."

"Yes, but he's not a child any longer," his lady answered. "He's nearly six-and-thirty. People have been remarkably understanding and tolerant, but it's absurd for them to carry on these boys' games so long. It's far more natural for a boy of our son's age to think about girls and marriage. He does so like children, and ought to be thinking about having children of his own. If it weren't for Merry encouraging this outrageous behavior, I feel certain he would give serious consideration to finding a wife."

"We've done all we can for him," said Paladin. "We can't force him to marry a girl he doesn't like--although must I admit, I'd be pleased if he showed signs of liking girls at all. There's only one he's ever seemed to be fond of."

Eglantine made a small sound of distress. "Oh, I'd be overjoyed if he chose any girl in the Shire--any girl, but that one." Frodo knew which girl they were referring to. "I'd almost rather he carry on disgracefully with Merry than see that wild hoyden Diantha Took come into this house as a Thain's Lady." She shuddered at the thought of it.

---

Frodo didn't stay to dinner at the Thain's Hall. He told the Tooks he was in the middle of an investigation, though he did not elaborate, and must be on his way before nightfall. They had told him all they could, but it was all he needed to know.

When he left the Thain's Hall stable at dusk, he knew exactly where he was going--where he was sure Pippin was most likely to go. That mysterious letter that had summoned him away the day before yesterday was almost certainly from the runaway couple or Diantha, not from Merry. Fond as they were of each other, Frodo doubted a note from Merry would make Pippin leave home suddenly unless there were an emergency in Buckland. And he would have heard if there'd been an emergency in Buckland.

Isigo and the two Dis would have ridden down from Long Cleeve following the main road south around Bindbole Wood and through Oatbarton, passing Threefarthing Stone. Where would Pippin meet them? The obvious meeting place was the Green Hill Inn, which stood at the crossroad of this north/south road and the east-to-west one that led from Tuckborough past the vast Green Hill Wood to end eventually at Bucklebury Ferry. The inn was not within a town; there were only a few cottages around the crossroad and some neighboring farms. Pippin was already a frequent visitor there on his trips to Buckland and the innkeeper was used to strangers stopping for a night or two on their travels.

Frodo rode toward the inn in the gathering gloom. Any hint of warmth in the wintry day had faded with the setting of the sun. A mist lay thick over the land and there was a hushed feeling of expectation in the air, foretelling snow. When he arrived at the inn, he ordered a hot cider and asked the innkeeper, who knew him well, if any travelers were staying there.

"No, Mr. Baggins, not as to say staying," the innkeeper reported. "There was some fine folk, two young gents and a lady, who stopped awhile a day or two past. I'd say the older gent and lady've gone on their journey, but the other gent, no more'n a boy, is a friend o' Mr. Pippin's. They were back again last night for an ale. Yes, that's right--the lad's a Took by the look o' him. You've never seen such red hair! But he's not a Took I ever saw before. I didn't hear his name."

Frodo thanked him, and settled down by the common-room fire with his cider. He could guess who that unknown Took 'lad' was. If Pippin had been here the last two nights with his companion, then they were staying somewhere nearby and would very likely return tonight. He had only to wait.

An hour later, after Frodo had purchased another cider and written a brief letter to Sam for Odonto, saying that he had already discovered promising signs of the young couple's whereabouts, the outer door to the common room opened. Two cloaked and hooded figures came in, bringing a gust of frosty air and a few flakes of snow with them. They stamped their cold feet and tossed back their hoods, and went to the bar to order drinks for themselves.

Frodo was sure now that all his guesses were correct. Here was Pippin, and even among the Tooks, that shock of red hair and splash of freckles across the nose of the 'boy' with him were notable. The pair surely must know where the runaway couple were hiding. If Diantha was here, could Diamond and Isigo be far away?

Pippin and Diantha didn't notice him immediately, for they were laughing and joking together as they stood at the bar; Frodo sat with his back to them and watched the pair over his shoulder. As the innkeeper gave them their drinks, Pippin asked if there had been any messages for him. No, the innkeeper replied, "But Mr. Baggins was just asking after you lads," and he nodded in Frodo's direction.

The two young Tooks whirled to look around the room. "Frodo!" Pippin cried out when he caught sight of him. "Whatever are you doing here?"

"I've just been visiting your family in Tuckborough," Frodo answered. This much was true. "I meant to go back to Hobbiton tonight, but it looked like snow. I thought I'd better stop here for the night. But what are you doing here, Pip? Your mother and father think you're in Buckland. And it's quite a surprise to see you, Di."

They both laughed. "It's a secret," Diantha told him. "But you've got to promise not to tell."

"Tell what?" asked Frodo.

"Come back with us after we've had our ales," Pippin responded, "and we'll show you what!"

Frodo joined the pair at a table while they enjoyed their ales and listened while they chatted. He didn't wish to appear too curious about their secret; he knew the answer to it already and didn't want to put them on their guard by asking pointed questions. Both young hobbits, however, were eager to talk.

"I let Father and Mother think I was going to Buckland," Pippin said. "They thought I was going to see Merry when I left the Hall, and I didn't tell them otherwise." He sounded pleased at his own clever deception. "But what really happened was that I received a letter from a friend-"

"Friends," Diantha interjected with a grin.

"Friends," Pippin agreed with a laugh; the laughter of both Tooks increased when Frodo looked from one to the other with apparent perplexity. "Friends who were asking for my help, so I came here to help them."

"Who do you mean, beside Di here?"

"Can't you guess?" asked Diantha. "And you're supposed to be such a clever hobbit! Doesn't Pip tell you our news?" She lowered her voice to a hissing whisper, even though there was no one around except for the innkeeper and one or two newcomers at the bar on the other end of the common room. "Isigo Pumble! You remember him, Frodo? And now you'll be surprised--my cousin Di is here too!"

"Here?" Frodo looked around the room, and set the two young hobbits into another fit of gleeful giggles.

"No, not here," Pippin said in a conspiratorial tone. "I met all three of them here, since it was right on the road, but I couldn't let little Diamond and Isigo stay here, where they might be seen."

"It doesn't matter so much for me," said Diantha. "They'll be looking for two girls and a boy, and I've been dressed like a boy since we left the Cleeve."

"I've put them someplace safe in hiding," Pippin went on.

"But why?" Frodo asked.

"Isigo had to get away. It's been awful since Granduncle Brabantius died," said Diantha. "Uncle Alhazrus is the worst Thain that ever was, only I'm sure Ulfidius will be even worse when it's his turn. Aunt Di--Lady Diamanta, we must call her now--is unbearably high-and-mighty. And the rest of them are almost as bad. You never saw such snobby hobbits! We're hardly welcome in the Thain's house any more, Poppa and I, but we don't care to go anyway. We're Isigo's friends, and they can't bear it. He hardly has any other friends in the Cleeve.

"Oh, Frodo, they've been horrible to him. Uncle Alhazrus said he wasn't fit to be an agent, even though he's done a good job of it--said he wasn't to be trusted with money! As if he were a thief! Then he said Isigo had to leave the little cottage he'd been living in up north, since it's the Thain own property. Granduncle gave it to him, but Uncle Alhazrus took it back. Now that was stupid of them," Diantha spoke with contempt. "They wanted to make him go away, but the poor lad had nowhere else to go but to us! If they'd wanted to keep him away from my cousin Di, they'd have better let him go on working in the north. But they had to be as cruel to him as could be, and their own meanness turned and bounced back against them. Just what they deserved! We couldn't let poor Isigo starve to death under a hedgerow, could we? Poppa had him come live with us. That's why we aren't welcome at the Thain's Hall anymore. That, and I was always asking Di to come over. They could see each other almost every day, and if they weren't in love before, they are now."

Both Diantha and Pippin laughed triumphantly at this.

"They've run away together," Pippin said. "They want to be married. Isn't it wonderful? And I'm going to help them do it."

They were both so guileless and innocent of suspicion that Frodo felt guilty. It was as if he had already betrayed them.

After the two had finished their ales and gone back for another, Pippin said, "Come along, Frodo--we'll show you." They went out of the inn and through a flank of the pine wood to the east. The snow was coming down heavily now, but they were sheltered from it beneath the thickset evergreen branches.

"When we came here, Pippin said he knew the best place for us to hide," Diantha told Frodo as they walked. "His friends in the circus stayed there once."

"Mr. Grimmold's circus? You're not camping out in the woods in this weather?" Frodo was horrified for Diamond's sake; the other three might not mind sleeping rough, but she was a more delicate creature, accustomed to the most comfortable surroundings. He remembered that stony end of the little cavern where the circus had made their camp. Even then, it was a freezing and miserable spot.

Di laughed. "No--it's a farm."

"Noddy Ferndingle's!" Pippin, who was walking ahead of them, shouted back.

"He says he knows you, Frodo."

"Yes, he was once a client of mine. I remember the farm well." They had passed through the wall of pine trees and, as they left their cover, emerged on the top of a hill; the Ferndingle farm was snug in the little dell below. The fields and harvested meadows were white, and the thatched roofs of the barn and farm-cottage were covered with a fine dusting of snow. Smoke rose from the kitchen chimney.

They went into the farmyard through a gate at the foot of the hill. Pippin went up to the door at the back of the cottage and knocked in a quick, rhythmic pattern that Frodo believed was meant to be a signal; after a moment, Noddy Ferndingle answered.

"You're back earlier'n expected, Mr. Pippin, Miss-" Noddy peered at the third cloaked figure standing in his back yard. "Who's that you've got with you? Why, it's Mr. Baggins!"

"We met Frodo at the Green Hill Inn," Pippin explained as he went inside. Noddy held open the door to let Diantha and Frodo enter.

"Hello, Noddy," said Frodo, shedding his cloak. "It's good to see you again. I hope these Tookish rascals haven't put you out, making your home a hideaway?"

"Oh, no, Mr. Baggins. 'Tis an honor to help. I was put to more bother by that brother o' mine and them circus folk. That lot crowded me out o' house and barn! But I couldn't turn 'em away, could I? Nob's still my brother for all he's off runnin' about in the Big Folk's world with that lot, just as you said yourself once. He's as much right to make his bed at the farm as I do. Mr. Pippin 'n' his friends don't put me out hardly at all."

"I've been paying Noddy for the trouble of keeping us," Pippin added.

Another young hobbit peeked into the kitchen from the door at the other end. "We've done our best to give as little trouble as possible," he said. "Hello, Frodo!"

Isigo came into the room and behind him, moving more shyly, emerged the fourth member of the party. Diamond Took was more pale than her cousin Diantha, with hair a lighter shade of red and less prominent freckles. She was not actually smaller than her cousin, but she seemed more diminutive. Like Pippin, Frodo tended to think of her as "little Diamond." When he'd first met her five years ago, she had still been a child; even two years ago, when he'd seen her at the North-Thain's home, she'd seemed too young to be thinking of love and marriage. But she was now growing up into a fine, if delicate young woman.

She came forward with Isigo to greet Frodo. Noddy put the kettle on for his guests, then mumbled something about seeing to the cows and letting them alone to talk before he went quietly out the kitchen door.

"I've told Frodo all about you," Pippin informed them cheerfully, "How I'm going to help the two of your to get married."

"Then you'll help us too?" Isigo asked eagerly.

"I would like to. It's Diamond I've come particularly to see," Frodo told him, then turned to the surprised girl. "I have something important to tell you: Your family is searching for you."

"We thought they would," said Isigo.

"They've sent someone--your cousin Vida's husband."

"Odonto," Diamond said softly.

"But he's never been against us, not the way some of them are!" said Isigo. "Maybe he won't look very hard."

"Even if he does, he won't find us here," Diantha said with smug certainty.

Frodo hated to disillusion them, but now was the time to be honest. "He's engaged a detective to find you," he told them. "The best in the Shire."

Young, naive and foolish they might be, but they couldn't misunderstand that. There was only one detective in the Shire. He saw their expressions slowly change as they understood; Pippin's, Isigo's, and Diantha's mouths dropped open. Diamond regarded him with wide eyes and grew so pale that Frodo thought she might faint.

"Can't you lie to him, Frodo, and say you don't know where they are?" Pippin pleaded with him.

Frodo shook his head. "I gave my word when I undertook the assignment."

"You spy!" cried Diantha. "You promised you wouldn't tell."

"I made no such promise."

Frodo recalled that Diantha had tried to strike him once before, when he'd suspected her father of poisoning the late Thain. She had that same ferocious look now, but Sam was not here to restrain her as he'd done that last time.

It was Isigo who put a hand on the girl's shoulder to stop her before she could fly at him. "So you're just going to hand us over?" he asked. "I thought you were our friend."

"I am. I would like to be of help to you in this, as well as the Took family. I think it can be managed. I won't tell Odonto where you are, not until you agree that I should," he addressed this last part specifically to Diamond.

"Why should she agree to something like that?" her cousin demanded.

"Because she is the one person who is of the most concern to the Tooks. I don't imagine that Pippin will be in for more than a scolding for his part in this, nor you, Di, and Diamond's parents may be just as happy to see Isigo stay in the southern part of the Shire. But they will want her to go back."

"I don't want to, Frodo," Diamond told him.

"Do you love Isigo very much?" Frodo asked her, with a small smile. "Do you truly want to marry him, even if your family doesn't approve?"

She nodded. "Yes," she answered, blushing.

"Then a compromise of some sort will have to be arranged. As it is, there's nothing to stop your family from demanding that you come home, and keeping you there until you are three-and-thirty."

"Why can't they just get married?" asked Pippin.

"You know perfectly well why they can't, Pippin," Frodo responded. "Hobbits under three-and-thirty can't marry without their parents' consent."

"My mother and father are dead," said Isigo. "So is my stepfather, but he would've given me permission to marry if I'd asked for it. Besides, I'll be three-and-thirty next spring."

"But Diamond isn't yet one-and-thirty, and you know how her parents feel," said Frodo. "I'd like to convince them to change their minds about you, Isigo, but you must help me. Can you support a wife?"

"I had a grown hobbit's job in the north, and would still if the new Thain hadn't dismissed me. Father Brabantius said I did very well at it," Isigo informed him. "I can get another like it here in the south."

"Until then? If you don't mind a personal question, how much did Thain Brabantius leave you?"

"Enough, and I have a little money of my own my father left me."

"Have you brought it with you?"

"No. It's in a big box at Uncle Alamaric's house. We left so suddenly, and I didn't want to get him into trouble by telling him our plans in advance. Honestly, Frodo, we did plan to wait awhile, `til we were older, but after Father Brabantius died, Diamond's parents and the new Thain did everything they could to keep us apart and make life a misery for me. There didn't seem to be anything else for me to do but leave the North Cleeve, and Diamond said she'd come with me." He smiled at her, and the pale, delicate face lit up with its own smile in response.

"Poppa will keep the money safe for Isigo, and send it to him once he knows where to send it to," Diantha added. "What does all this matter, Frodo? When people are in love, they shouldn't have to think about stupid things like money--they should just be together."

"I beg your pardon, but that's exactly the sort of thing they must think about if they want to be together."

"Maybe they won't have to wait until they're of age," Pippin spoke up, undeterred. "There are ways to get around that. Remember what Jelly did when she was still short of three-and-thirty and wanted to marry Lad right away?"

"Who's Jelly?" asked Diantha. "What did she do?"

"Angelica is a cousin of mine," Frodo answered the first part of her question.

"She and Lad started to have a baby," Pippin jumped in to answer the second part. "Her family had to see them get married as soon as they could to avoid a scandal. They have two children now, and they're very happy."

"Diamond couldn't do that!" Diantha exclaimed.

Diamond blushed at the idea too, but she grew thoughtful.

They argued into the night, although the conversation became more subdued once Noddy returned from the barn. The farmer was upset to see two gents he regarded so highly as Pippin Took and Frodo Baggins at odds and, since he was unsure which side to take, kept his mouth shut, made a pot of tea, and unhappily retreated to the sitting room.

Frodo felt as if he had gained no ground. Diamond alone he might have persuaded, but Isigo was so certain of her parents' enmity toward him that he refused to consider dealing with them. And as long as he was firm, Diamond stood with him. Diantha plainly mistrusted everything he had to say, and it seemed impossible for Pippin to understand the practical side of the problem.

Diamond said the least during this discussion, but she was the first to grow weary. At last, after she sunk down into a chair by the hearth, Isigo declared, "I'm sorry, Mr. Baggins. I know you mean well for us, but we can't let them know where we are and that's that. You might as well go back to the inn."

"He can't go back," Diantha protested. "He'll write to Odonto as soon as he's there."

"I won't," Frodo answered this accusation. "I said I wouldn't." The girl remained doubtful.

"Well, you can't go anyway, Frodo," said Pippin. "Not on a night like this--the snow's still coming down. And I expect you'll want to keep an eye on us."

"You're welcome to stay, Mr. Baggins," Noddy called from the doorway to the sitting room, and then came into view. "The Misses Tooks have my mum's 'n' dad's old room--the best in the house--and Mr. Pippin and Mr. Pumble have the room me 'n' Nob slept in since we was big enough to be out o' the cradle, but we'll find someplace to put you."

"And where do you sleep, Noddy?" Frodo recalled that the cottage only had four rooms.

"In the parlor. The sofa's not so bad. You can have it for tonight, Mr. Baggins."

Frodo said he couldn't take the only remaining place to sleep in the house, but Noddy insisted. He made up a bed for himself on the sitting-room hearthrug out of spare bolsters and claimed that it was as comfortable as a feather mattress. The others went to their rooms and Frodo, exhausted, immediately dropped off to sleep once he lay down on the sofa without undressing.

He woke to daylight, when Noddy brought him a mug of tea.

"Breakfast'll be ready as soon as you're up for it, Mr. Baggins," the farmer told him with an oddly apologetic air, "but I expect you'll want to be on your way soon as you can."

"Why?" Frodo sat upright, suddenly alert. For a house that should be crowded with young hobbits just waking, it was strangely quiet. "Where are the others?"

"Gone, Mr. Baggins."

"Gone?"

Noddy nodded. "They went out the window in the middle of the night."

Frodo leapt up from the sofa and went to look in one bedroom, then the other. The coverlets on the beds were somewhat rumpled--at least one of the girls, most likely Diamond, had lain down--but not one of them had gone to bed. They'd probably left the house as soon as the snowstorm had let up. "And you knew?" he asked Noddy.

"No, Mr. Baggins! I didn't see they was gone `til daybreak, when I went out to the barn. They want their breakfast out there too, you know, and the cows want milking. Well, it was then I saw all the ponies was gone, `cept for my own, and when I was a-coming back round to the house, I saw there was footprints under the bedroom window--this room, here, where Mr. Pippin and the other lad was in."

Frodo unlatched the window and peeked out. The morning sun glittered blindingly on the sheet of snow that covered the farm fields, but just below the window, it was broken by a number of footprints, blurred about their edges by the blowing wind, but still clearly leading to the lane to the barn. When he went to the front door, he could see the hoofprints of the ponies going up the hill toward the main road. "At least they left a clear trail to follow."

He suspected that if Noddy hadn't known about this flight beforehand, he certainly hadn't troubled himself to announce it right away once he'd discovered it. The sun was well above the horizon, and Noddy had obviously taken time to make tea and start breakfast before waking him. But Frodo couldn't be very angry about the delay. He understood that Noddy was fond of Pippin and would want to help him and the other young hobbits. And even if he hadn't had the tracks left by the ponies to guide him, Frodo had a good idea of where the foursome was headed.

After a quick breakfast provided by the still apologetic Noddy, Frodo returned to the inn to fetch his own pony from the stable there. While at the inn, he wrote a quick note to Sam that said only "I am following their trail," and left it with the innkeeper to be mailed.

In return, the innkeeper told him that a letter had been delivered by courier for Pippin after they'd gone last night. Would Mr. Baggins give it to him?

As Frodo accepted the letter, he looked at the handwriting on the direction, and smiled. It confirmed what he'd already guessed. When he left the inn, he rode westward down the Stock Road.

---

Few travelers were on the road through Green Hill Wood that morning, so that the path left by the four young hobbits' ponies remained clear. They had not once left the road to conceal themselves among the walls of evergreens and silvery, bare birch trees on either side--Frodo was sure of that. The snow was four to six inches deep in most places, except where the wind had piled it into deeper drifts. The sunlight glittered brightly upon it, giving the surface an icy crust but not warming it enough to melt it. These conditions made the journey a slow one, but Frodo hoped the snow would impede the others as well. It disturbed him when he saw far-spaced hoof-prints, indicating that the young hobbits were trying to ride more swiftly than was safe in order to keep ahead of him.

About twenty miles from Noddy's farm and not far from the fork to Woodhall, he found signs that one of the ponies had indeed slipped on the icy road and tumbled its rider into a drift. He could see the hollow made by the body landing in the snow, with outflung hands and knees that made deep, round dents going down to the bare ground. Footprints of various sizes were gathered around this spot, indicating that more than one hobbit had dismounted to help their companion; from the small size of one of these in comparison with the other two, Frodo felt sure it was one of the girls who had tumbled. It must have been Diantha. She was the more likely of the two to ride recklessly and, besides, he saw no traces of heavy folds of cloth accompanying the imprint of the rider's legs, as long skirts would have done. No serious injury had befallen the rider--there was no blood on the snow. As Frodo went on, however, he observed that one pony trod more lightly with its left forefoot; these tracks did not sink so deeply into the snow as the others.

At the fork in the road, he found a surprise: Two of the ponies had gone on down the road toward Stock, but the other two had taken the other road, to Woodhall. Frodo stopped and stared at the divergent paths before him while he tried to decide which to follow.

Woodhall was closer than Stock. If one of their ponies had been lamed, they might decide to take it there rather than continue to ride it. But Woodhall was a private manor, with only a few tenant cottages in the woods around it. The hobbits there were a reclusive lot and, as far as Frodo knew, no particular friends of Pippin's lived among them. The Woodhall family might not have a pony to lend to strangers in place of their injured one. Also, the road to Woodhall was a dead end. Unless they meant to stay there or travel on foot through the deep gullies of Woody End--both ridiculous choices--then the two who had gone that way would have to come back up this same road. Would they dare risk meeting him after taking such a detour?

Frodo got down from his own pony to examine the two trails more closely, and discovered another more curious thing: the limping pony hadn't gone to Woodhall, but had gone on the road toward Stock. For a moment, Frodo was perplexed. Why then had two of the party headed for Woodhall? It made no sense...

Then he laughed out loud. Of course! With their tracks so clear in the snow and the injured pony slowing them down so they no longer had a hope of outracing him to their destination, they would surely try some sort of trick. The road to Woodhall was their only plausible opportunity.

Frodo took the road toward Stock. He hadn't ridden more than a mile before he saw the tracks of two ponies emerging from a creek that ran through the birch wood to the south, joining the pair he was already following. The creek must also cross the Woodhall road, and those other tracks that led that way would have disappeared if he'd followed them.

As he drew near to Stock, Frodo lost the trail. It was now long past noon and there were many hobbits, carts, and ponies about in the vicinity of the town. The four sets of hoof-prints he had followed so diligently through the woods became obscured by a muddy melee. But Frodo wasn't dismayed. He believed that the party would stop here. With the lamed pony, they'd have to. Where they would go in the town was another question, but not a difficult one to answer. Pippin was familiar with Stock; on his way back and forth from Buckland, he always stopped here. Frodo had often heard his cousin speak with particular fondness for the fine ale brewed at the Golden Perch.

To the Golden Perch Frodo went. He first looked in at the inn's stable to see that his pony was fed and watered, and to ask the ostler a few questions.

The ostler confirmed that, yes, a group of travelers had come in at midday. There were four ponies in his stalls; he had brushed down them all and given them warm oats and blankets. He had also examined the bruised foreknee of one mare. The ostler felt sure that the pony was not badly hurt, and would soon be put to rights with a day or two of rest. The party of travelers? He had seen three lads, one also with bruised knees. He couldn't say for sure that they'd gone into the inn, but where else would they go?

Where else indeed?

Frodo next went into the inn for a chat with the innkeeper. Like the keeper of the Green Hill inn, the Golden Perch's owner knew Peregrin Took very well. Pippin had come in about midday with a group of friends, and they'd had luncheon in the private dining room.

"Are they still there?" Frodo asked.

"Mr. Took went out right after lunch with one of the lads, Mr. Baggins. The other two is still here--the youngest lad and a girl. Brother 'n' sister, I reckon, by the look o' them. I gave them a sitting-room to themselves, since the girl's a proper young lady and didn't like to be out in the public room with the rough lot o' lads we have hereabouts. Do you want me to tell `em you're here, Mr. Baggins?"

No, Frodo preferred to wait for Pippin's return. Since he hadn't eaten since leaving Noddy Ferndingle's farm that morning, he had a late lunch as he sat in a quiet corner where he could watch the door but would not be seen by anyone coming in.

It wasn't long before Pippin and Isigo came into the public room. From what Frodo could hear of their conversation, he gathered that they had just obtained another pony.

"...I'll come back for the other one later, after things have settled down," Pippin was saying. "We have to go on tonight."

"Tonight? But I thought we'd stop here for tonight. Diantha is hurt, though she says not, and all this riding in the cold is hard on Diamond."

"But we can't stay! Frodo won't be taken in by a trick for long. He's very clever. For all we know, he's right behind us."

"He is," said Frodo, who had risen and quietly approached the two younger hobbits while they were talking. Isigo and Pippin jumped and turned, startled by the sound of his voice so near. "Or did you think I'd go all the way to Woodhall?"

"Er- no," Pippin answered, dismayed. "I thought it'd take you off our trail for awhile. We couldn't hide anyplace with all this snow on the ground!"

Frodo shook his head. "It wouldn't have mattered. I knew last night that you intended to head for Bucklebury Ferry."

"How did you know?" asked Isigo.

"Pippin told me."

"I didn't!" Pippin protested, since Isigo was giving him a reproachful look. "I never said a word about Bucklebury Ferry."

"You didn't need to," said Frodo. "You said you were going to see Isigo and Diamond married. To do that, you'd need a magistrate to witness their signing their names in his registry book." The hobbit marriage ceremony was a two-part affair: the public hand-fasting, which was normally followed by an enormous party, and the signing of the book of births, marriages, and deaths kept by the local magistrate, or his clerk if he had one, officially recording the fact of the marriage. This signing could take place before or after the public occasion--in the case of a secret marriage, it might be months before. "What other magistrate in all the Shire could you turn to except for Merry? You wrote him, didn't you--that's why you were dallying about the Green Hill Inn, to wait for his answer before you headed to Buckland. Here it is, by the way." Frodo produced the letter the Green Hill Inn's keeper had given him and handed it to Pippin.

Pippin turned the letter over in his hands and noticed that Frodo hadn't broken the seal to read Merry's reply, then tucked it into his own coat pocket unopened. A door at the beginning of a corridor that led away from the public room opened and Diamond peeked out. She looked alarmed to see Frodo. Isigo went to her, leaving the door still slightly open.

Now that they were alone, Pippin grinned at Frodo. "You know Merry'll be as glad as I am to see Diamond married."

"That may be, but he couldn't do it."

"Of course he could! Merry's got as much right to register marriages as any other magistrate in the Shire."

"But he can't register a marriage between two people who are underage. It wouldn't be legal. The nuptials would be worthless. Enough of this nonsense, Peregrin Took." Frodo took him by the arm and led him back into the quiet corner where he'd been waiting; Pippin, dazed at Frodo addressing him in the same tone as his mother did when she scolded him, went without a struggle. "You say you want to help them, but I don't believe you care as much for their welfare as I do," Frodo said in a harsh whisper. "You treat this as if it were all a grand joke, but this is no laughing matter. Are you truly trying to do what's best for those two children, Pip, or are you only interested in what their marriage means for yourself? You'd like to shove that girl off onto anyone else, so long as it means your family will stop shoving her at you."

"Not anybody," Pippin said, stunned into meekness by Frodo's vehemence. "She's a sweet girl."

"So she is, and she deserves better treatment than this from you."

"She deserves a better husband than I'd ever be. Why can't I help her to get one?" Pippin asked plaintively. "It's not just me being selfish, Frodo. Honestly, it's not. I do want to help them. But if Diamond ends up married to a boy she truly loves, then it'll be good for me too. If I help her now, it'll show everybody how much I really mean it when I say I don't want to marry her myself. And maybe they'll stop nagging me about it." His brow furrowed with a frown. "Isigo is a nice lad. Don't you think so, Frodo? Won't they be happy?"

"I think he is a thoroughly decent boy and I hope he and Diamond will be happily married in the end. But, Pippin, they are both so very young and inexperienced. They aren't prepared for the problems they'll have to face as a married couple. With this beginning, a happy ending won't come so easily for them. Things naturally work themselves out for boys and girls who fall in love, especially when they have the support of their families, but that isn't true for them, any more than it is for people like us. We had to plan it all out, didn't we? You and Merry, before you could be happy together at Crickhollow? You remember how much trouble you had before you settled things. And me and Sam and Rosie." Frodo tried a different tack. "What if your intended prank came off just as you'd planned? You reached Buckland, met Merry, and had him register Isigo and Di as married--never mind whether or not it was legally done. Say that when her family learns of it, they disown her rather than drag her back to the Long Cleeve in disgrace. What would happen to the two of them afterwards? Isigo has no family of his own, and few friends."

"He has me. I'm his friend."

"And what can you do for him? When you are Thain, you can do much--give him work, a home anywhere in Tuckborough--but it'll be years before you're in a position to provide those things. If he marries Diamond, he will have to support a wife who's accustomed to a comfortable home. Unless the old Thain left him a fortune, his inheritance won't last long if that's all they have to live on. Will you support them on your allowance? What if they have children? Can you see that they're all looked after? If Diamond marries without her family's approval, they would refuse to aid her if she needed help in a year or two. Or they could insist she leave her husband and return home--you know they might very well do it. We have to consider all of that, Pippin. If this marriage is to come off properly, it has to begin in the right way."

"Frodo?" It was Diamond. During this urgently whispered conversation, she had emerged from the room where she had been hiding and was standing a few feet away. Frodo wondered how long she had been there.

But if she had overheard him speaking of "people like us," Diamond was too concerned with her own problems to be curious about what Frodo meant by it. "Frodo," she said again, shy now that she had his attention. "You don't have to go on chasing us. I will see Odonto. You can write and tell him where we are."

Isigo and Diantha had also come out of the room after her; Diantha leaned on the curved doorjamb, favoring one leg. Diantha let out a cry of protest, and Isigo said, "Di! You're not giving up, are you?"

"No-" She turned and held out a hand to him. Isigo rushed to seize it in both of his. "Oh, darling, no! I won't give you up, not ever! But Frodo's right." There was a glimmer of tears in her eyes. "We can't go on running and hiding. I'm tired of running, and I can't hide away for two years, 'til I'm old enough. We can't be married without Mama's and Papa's approval."

"They won't ever approve of me."

"Di, you know they won't," her cousin added.

"We'll have to make them." Still clasping Isigo's hands, Diamond turned back to Frodo. "You'll help me, won't you?"

"Yes, of course," Frodo promised. It was what he'd hoped to do from the first.

They took two rooms at the inn--the Dis took one and Frodo shared another with Pippin and Isigo. After last night's tricks, he was determined to keep an eye on them. Isigo and Diantha remained opposed to Diamond's sudden acquiescence, and Frodo thought they might succeed in changing her mind before morning.

He wrote one last letter to Sam, asking him to escort Odonto to Brandy Hall. Merry's letter to Pippin had said that he would meet them at the ferry and give them a haven, so it seemed more reasonable for them to go on and make whatever arrangements were necessary from there rather than stay on at the Golden Perch.

All the young hobbits were accounted for at breakfast the next morning. Diantha was sullen and rebellious, Isigo pale and nervous; Pippin, cowed after his scolding, seemed willing to do as Frodo wanted. Diamond, on the other hand, was calm. There was little conversation over the table, and no one protested when Frodo said it was time for them to leave. He saw them out to the stable and onto their ponies, then led the party out of town.

The day was warmer than the one before and a mist lay low on the ground as the snow began to melt. The road between Stock and Bucklebury Ferry ran upon a raised earthwork causeway above the marshlands to the west of the Brandywine River; the mist grew thicker over the water and rose like white walls on either side of their path.

As they approached the ferry, Diantha hissed to her cousin, "You don't have to do this, Di. It's still not too late to turn back. You and Isigo can ride off into the woods, fast as you can, and me 'n' Pip will keep Frodo here 'til you're far away."

Frodo was relieved to see Diamond shake her head, rejecting this suggestion. He didn't know how he would deal with a rebellion at this point.

"Why should we do what Frodo says?" Diantha made one last attempt. "What does he know? He's so clever about investigating murders and such things, but he's not married. How can he tell how hard it'll be for you? Maybe, once you're married, everything will work out fine. You don't know. If you see Odonto, he'll only want you to go home with him."

"I won't go home with him," Diamond answered with surprising firmness. "I want him to carry a message back to Mama and Papa. It'll be all right, Di. You'll see."

"But-"

"Hush," said Pippin. "Somebody's coming."

The group fell silent; they could all hear the steady clip-clop of iron-shod hooves on a wooden surface and the hollow echo of it across the marshes. They were very near the river now and the ferry landing, but couldn't see it nor the rider who must be upon it. Stopping their own ponies, they peered into the fog ahead of them with nervous anticipation. It couldn't be Odonto; they all knew that he couldn't possibly have received Frodo's instructions yet, let alone ridden all the way from Hobbiton. Perhaps someone had been sent from Brandy Hall...

A cloaked figure on a dark pony loomed out of the misty white bank. Pippin smiled. "Merry!" He jumped down from his mount and went to him. "How did you know we'd be here?"

"I didn't," answered Merry, also dismounting and giving Pippin a quick hug. "I didn't know how long it'd take you to cross the Wood in this miserable weather, but I thought I'd better come out and try to meet you somewhere along the way. Did you get my letter? I sent it to the Green Hill Inn, just as you asked."

Pippin nodded and patted the breast of his coat, which made a crinkling sound.

"It sounded like a matter for secrecy," Merry went on. "If you don't want to be seen at the Hall, I can take you 'round a back way to Crickhollow. I hope there'll be enough room for you all..." He turned to scan the others and count them, then realized that there were five hobbits instead of the four he'd been expecting. "Here- Oh, it's you, Frodo. Hello! What're you doing with this lot?"

"Spying on us," Diantha said bitterly.

"I am not," said Frodo. "I've been perfectly honest about my intentions since I first found you."

"Not since you first found us, Frodo," Pippin said with a grin.

"Well, after that. If I'd told you I was working for the North-Tooks, you would never have told me where you were hiding Diamond and Isigo."

"Spy," Diantha said again.

"Your family wanted me to find Diamond. I agreed, and I've fulfilled my obligations and done just as they asked. Now, I intend to convince them to let Diamond marry Isigo."

"They must," Diamond said so softly that none of the others took notice of it.

Merry laughed. "It sounds very complicated, but if anyone could manage it, Frodo, it would be you."

"There's no need for them to hide," Frodo told him. "We'll be expecting company in a day or two, and I think both Dis will be more comfortable at Brandy Hall. Diantha's banged her knees falling off a pony. Perhaps your mother or one of the aunties could look at them for her."

As they went to the ferry and crossed the wide sweep of the Brandywine, Pippin told Merry all that had happened since he'd first heard from the runaways--how he'd hidden them at Noddy's, and how Frodo had found them and traced them to Stock. The others piped up with details and their own view of their adventures, interrupting this narrative so that Pippin only just finished his story by the time they landed on the opposite side of the river.

"I don't know how Frodo did it, but he's convinced Di to see things his way," Pippin concluded. "Me too. I suppose he's right about some of it. They can't hide away for years and years, and I can't help Isigo by giving him a job."

"If he wants work, I might be able to help with that," said Merry, and turned to address Isigo. "You worked as an agent for the old Thain, didn't you? Would you be willing to do the same for me? My cousin Marleduc works as my secretary and agent. It's part of his job to ride up and down Buckland to visit the farms and collect the rents, but since his wife Celie is expecting a baby soon, he doesn't want to be away from her for days at a time. You could take over that part of his work if you want to."

"I'd be happy to," Isigo said gratefully. "But I wouldn't like to be away from Diamond for so long either."

"I'm sure we could work that out, if the two of you end up married. There are plenty of cottages all around Buckland suitable for newlyweds. Would you mind living in the north of Buckland, you two?" They had arrived at Brandy Hall, and went inside.

Three days passed before Sam and Odonto reached Brandy Hall. In the meantime, the Brandybucks made their unexpected guests welcome.

The ladies of Brandy Hall, both young and older, were especially interested in Diamond and, once they'd heard her story, expressed great sympathy for her situation. They were not sympathetic to the Tooks, for a coolness had arisen between the two great families in recent years. Merry's and Pippin's relationship was the original cause of it, but there had also been quarrels after Melly Brandybuck, Merry's and Frodo's cousin, had left her husband, Everard Took, and returned to Brandy Hall with her little boy. The Brandybucks blamed Everard for this disaster, but the Tooks seemed to think Melly was at fault. Even Lady Esmeralda, who'd been born a Took, had lived at Brandy Hall for forty years and placed her loyalties with the Bucklanders. Only Uncle Meriadoc suggested that Pippin had better take the young couple and that other Took girl back to Tuckborough to straighten their personal problems out.

The elder Brandy Hall ladies fussed over Diantha, bandaging her knees and seeing that she was placed before the drawing-room fire to rest and recover with soothing warm blankets over her unskirted legs. Pippin spent much of his time sitting there with her, even though Merry was not entirely happy to see the two on such friendly terms.

"No wonder Pip likes her so much--They're just the same, and you'll never again see a girl so much like a boy," he said privately to Frodo. "Even growing up hasn't changed her a bit. She's as skinny and flat as she was two years ago." Merry put a hand on his own chest. "Just like a boy."

"Well, there is that one important difference," said Frodo.

"Yes, he could have children with her. That's what bothers me most!"

Diamond also sat frequently with her cousin. As he passed the drawing-room door one afternoon, Frodo glimpsed the two North-Took girls alone and giggling together. They fell silent as soon as they realized he was there. While it was pleasant to see them in good spirits, Frodo couldn't help wondering what the cause of their giggles could be. If he didn't know better, he might guess that they were planning Diamond's wedding. Was Diamond so confident now that it would come off? No one else dared to think so far ahead but during the days before Odonto's arrival, the young girl seemed strangely untroubled about her future.

Odonto arrived on a chilly afternoon, well wrapped in his furs and red-cheeked from the long, cold ride from Hobbiton. The young Took beamed at the sight of Frodo, who came out to greet him and Sam by the stables.

"You are a marvel, Mr. Baggins! I had little hope of finding them, and you were only at it for two days."

"They weren't so difficult to trace once I realized my cousin Pippin was helping them," Frodo answered modestly. "But they have been rather hard to catch. They didn't wish to come along quietly at first."

"Yes, but you managed it magnificently. I must say, I was worried when Mr. Gamgee here brought me your first two letters." Odonto nodded to Sam, who hung back from the conversation; he and Frodo had smiled at each other in greeting, but they wouldn't have a chance to say Hello the way they would both like best until they were alone. "You said so little about where you'd gone and what you'd discovered. I was afraid you'd taken Isigo's side after all and were keeping secrets."

"I am on his side," said Frodo. "I'd like to see him marry Diamond under the right circumstances, with her parents' permission. But I hope you appreciate that my feelings didn't stop me from doing my duty to her family first."

"Oh, I appreciate it, and I hope Uncle Alamargo and Aunt Aspid and the rest of the family will too." They headed across the frosty lawns toward Brandy Hall. "I hope they'll say we've done a proper job."

"I promised Diamond that I would do whatever I could to convince her parents to give their consent."

Odonto wasn't as pleased to hear this. "Well, of course you can try to convince them, Mr. Baggins, but I don't know if it'll do any good. I doubt they'll agree to any kind of marriage between their daughter and Isigo. They have higher hopes for her. You must know who I mean, although if he's been helping them, I don't suppose there's much hope for that match. I expect they'll just want Diamond to come home as soon as possible. It'll be my duty to escort her there. You're welcome to come with us to talk to them, if you like." They entered Brandy Hall through the nearest front door. "Where is she?"

Frodo took Odonto to the drawing room, where Isigo, Diamond, and Pippin were all seated around Diantha by the hearth. While other members of the Brandybuck family made a discreet exit after the introductions had been made, Merry and his mother remained to offer their support to the young Tooks.

The first thing Diamond said with quiet determination was, "I can't go home, Odonto. I won't ever go back to Long Cleeve, not without Isigo. He's going to stay in Buckland and work for Master Merry, and I belong with him now."

"You haven't done something foolish, have you?" Odonto asked her. "No secret marriages?"

"No, but I have to marry Isigo," she answered. "Papa and Mama have to let me. Will you tell them that?"

"Yes, of course," said Odonto, touched but somewhat befuddled by her insistence. "But can't you tell them yourself?"

"I can't. You tell them..." Diamond shut her eyes and took a deep breath. Her cheeks turned pink as she announced, "I'm going to have a baby."

"What? But you can't be!"

"I am so."

"You-" Odonto whirled to Isigo, who was gaping at Diamond, mouth opening and shutting as if he wanted to speak but could make no sound. "You dared-? I thought you were a decent lad!"

He looked as if he would like to take Isigo by the coat-collar and give him a fierce shaking and slap in the face, as befitted a boy capable of such a disgraceful deed with a young girl. Diamond moved quickly, bravely, to stand between them and Diantha joined her, casting off the blanket over her knees and rising stiffly from her chair.

"He is a decent lad," Diantha said. "And he'll do the decent thing--won't you, Isigo?" Isigo could only nod dumbly. "Diamond's right. They'll have to be married as soon as possible. There's no use in trying to take Di home and hushing it all up. They might bully Di into keeping secrets, but they won't bully me."

"They won't bully me," Diamond said in that same quiet voice that might easily go unnoticed.

"I'll make an awful scandal," her cousin promised. "See if I don't! The whole Shire will hear about it."

"And I'll help her too," said Pippin. He looked as if he were trying not to laugh.

Odonto turned to Frodo. "Did you know about this?" he demanded as if a trick had been played on him, and Frodo were somehow responsible.

"Not until this very minute," Frodo answered honestly. "I had no idea..." He regarded the young girl, who was still standing protectively before her lover, blushing deeply but holding her ground. "I wondered why you changed your mind so suddenly."

Diamond didn't reply to this, only said, "They'll have to let us get married now."

Odonto was forced to agree. A hasty marriage was the only way to avoid a greater scandal. "Very well," he said, calmer now. "What's done is done, and there's only one way it can fixed now. No--I don't blame you, Mr. Baggins, if you truly knew nothing of this. You did as I asked. But it seems as if there's more going on between the two of them than anyone suspected... and has been for some time." He eyed Isigo disdainfufully. "I'm disappointed in you, Isigo. I thought better of you than this. You are going to do the decent thing by the girl, aren't you, my lad?"

"Yes, of course," said Isigo, rallying. "It's what I wanted to do all along." He took Diamond's hand.

"Well, you'll have you wish, and I do sincerely hope you'll both be happy. But I'm afraid Di's parents won't like it one bit."

"But they can't say No," Diantha said triumphantly. "They've no choice."

"No," Odonto agreed. "Unfortunately, I must be the one to tell them of it, and must return to the Long Cleeve to do so, right away. There can be no delay."

"I'll go home with you, Odonto," Diantha offered. "If you can't make 'em see it in the right way, maybe I can. Besides, I have some news of my own to tell them. I'm betrothed."

Merry's eyes went wide and he looked at Pippin, who ducked his head.

"I meant to tell you before," Pippin said. "Di and me talked it over last night, and we've agreed... that is, if it's all right with you, Merry."

The Brandybucks spent the rest of the day preparing for the wedding of Isigo Pumble to Diantha Took. The young couple would sign the registry book that Merry kept in his study and be ready to perform the hand-fasting as soon as permission to do so was received from the Tooks at Long Cleeve. Everyone expressed surprise that such a sweet and timid young girl and nice young boy could be in such a fix, but some of the younger Brandybucks acknowledged that these things could happen even to nice boys and girls. Even more astounding than this hasty marriage, however, was Pippin's betrothal to that other, very peculiar, trouser-wearing Took girl.

At the first opportunity, Lady Esmeralda took Diantha aside and delicately questioned her. "Are you certain you wish to do this, my dear? I'm very fond of Pippin and think it would make his parents happy if he chose a wife, but I'm afraid he isn't what most girls would find a suitable husband. Up in the far north, you mightn't have heard the gossip about him and my son..."

"Oh, yes, I have, Aunt Esme," Diantha cheerfully assured her. "Pip told me all about himself and Master Merry ages ago."

"And you don't mind?"

"No. I don't want a husband or babies or anything like that, but Pip's my friend and he asked me as a special favor to get betrothed to him."

"But you're so very young," said Esmeralda. "You might change your mind about husbands and babies when you're a bit older. What if you fall in love and decide you wish to marry someone else in a few years?"

Diantha shook her head vigorously. "That won't happen! The only person I ever wanted to marry is getting married to someone else."

Lady Esmeralda thought she understood. While she continued to believe that these two young hobbits were making a mistake, she said no more about it.

Merry, meanwhile, was still fuming. After Pippin had managed to escape the threat of marriage to Diamond, it was unforgivable of him to betroth himself to the one girl Merry felt most threatened by. And without telling him first!

Pippin was apologetic as he tried to explain his betrothal to his friends. For reasons that Merry and Frodo didn't fully comprehend, he began by telling Sam, "It's not a joke or prank. We didn't do it for fun, or to make my mother angry. I don't care how anybody else feels about Diantha. I like her, and she's the only girl I could ask to do this for me."

"But why did you ask her?" demanded Merry.

"It seemed the best thing to do. Now that Diamond's going to be married, my parents will only try to match me up with somebody else, and I don't want to be matched with anybody. So I decided to put a stop to it. They'll make a fuss, but I'm old enough to choose my own wife. That's what I'll say to them. Di and I mightn't ever get around to getting married--it'll be the longest betrothal in Shire history--but as long as it goes on, they can't bother me about marrying any other girls."

"You might've warned me," Merry grumbled.

"I know I promised I wouldn't do anything like this unless you said it was all right, Merry. I meant to tell you before anybody heard, only Diantha got in first." Pippin gave his lover a pleading look. "Is it all right with you, Merry? You've no reason to be jealous--it isn't like that between Di and me at all. She isn't in love with me any more than I am with her. We're just friends, that's all, and it's all we'll ever be. Even if we do end up getting married, we won't really live like married people. We're both sure we don't want that sort of thing. So you can stop making a fuss about it."

"What about Faramir?" Sam asked him.

"Faramir?" Pippin repeated the name, bewildered, but Merry understood that Sam was not referring to the Steward of Gondor.

"The son you've always wanted to have, Pip."

"Oh." Pippin twiddled his fingers. "Well, I've given up on having a son of my own. It wouldn't be fair."

"To whom?" Merry wondered.

"To his mother, for one, whoever she might be," Pippin explained. "I couldn't get married just to have a baby. I know, girls want babies when they get married, but they want other things from a husband too. Most girls do, but Di doesn't. And, besides, there's Peveril. I think of him as my heir already, and I couldn't disappoint him now. If I want to have children around me, I have him and my other nephews and a niece now too. My sisters are bound to have plenty more. The Tooks won't die out because of Di and me."

Like his mother, Merry still had misgivings about this plan, but he reluctantly consented to let Pippin be betrothed under the condition that the marriage would never be consummated. Nevertheless, he was pleased to know that Diantha was returning to her home in the north very soon.

Since they could not delay, for Diamond's sake, Odonto and Diantha would start for the Long Cleeve in the morning immediately after first breakfast. Sam intended to ride with them as far as the crossroad to Oatbarton, but Frodo was going with them to see the North-Tooks.

"I promised Diamond I would help her," he told Sam that evening. They'd begun this investigation snuggled together in bed, and concluded it now in the same way. A light snow was falling on the round window above their heads, and the embers of a fire were glowing in the grate. Frodo had been given the same room he always had when he visited Brandy Hall, one that had a dressing room adjoining it containing a small bed that Sam didn't sleep in, but rumpled the sheets for the benefit of the housemaids. Since they'd been separated for the better part of a week, and would separate again soon, they were making the most of this one night. "It isn't how I planned to go about it, but I intend to do my best to make it palatable to them all the same. I can at least tell them that Isigo has the patronage of the Brandybucks, which will appeal to their snobbery. He'll be able to support a wife and baby. Even though Odonto still believes that Isigo hasn't behaved like a honest gentleman, he's come to accept that their marriage won't be a disaster."

"Well, he was never so hard on the lad as the rest o' the Tooks were."

"True," said Frodo. "I doubt the Tooks will ever like Isigo, but perhaps in time they'll be reconciled to the marriage if he does well and gives Diamond no cause to regret her choice. They'll have to give up any idea of matching her with Pippin in any case. At least, Diantha's father will be delighted about her news."

"Like it or not, they'll have to see Miss Diamond married no matter what," Sam answered as he nibbled the nape of Frodo's neck. "Mr. Odonto was hoping to put a stop to this before any mischief was done, but it seems to me as if those two got up to plenty o' mischief before they ever left Long Cleeve. Maybe that's why they flew off so suddenly, the way they did."

"Perhaps." Odonto had expressed the same thought, but Frodo had his doubts about it.

Before they left Brandy Hall with Diantha and Odonto the next morning, Frodo had a confidential word with Diamond alone.

"You're not really having a baby," he said to her as if it were a fact. "It was Pippin's idea, wasn't it? Oh, I don't mean he recommended you to tell such a lie, but when he told you how my cousin Angelica forced her parents to let her marry the boy she wanted, you thought you might do the same. Diantha knew about it, and she must've told Pippin or at least he guessed the truth just as I did. But you left poor Isigo out of your secret."

Diamond gaped at him in dismay. "How did you know?" she whispered.

"I saw Isigo's face when you announced your news. He was as astonished as everyone else. I can't believe either of you thought of such a plan before Pippin suggested it. And, my dear Diamond, if you'd taken Pippin's advice as soon as he spoken it, you couldn't possibly know you were having a baby yet. That wasn't even a week ago! Women don't generally know a baby's on the way for two or three months. Besides, you never had a chance to be alone with Isigo to do anything about it."

"We didn't," she admitted, her face bright red. "Even if we were alone, I couldn't ask Isigo to- Not 'til we're married. And he wouldn't. He wouldn't have wanted me to say I was having a baby, if he'd known before. But Mama and Papa don't know." She regarded him with an anxious look in her eyes. "You won't tell them, Frodo, will you?"

"No," Frodo assured her. He had fulfilled his obligations to the North-Tooks by finding their daughter, but he would not betray her. "I wish you'd left it to me," he said. "I might have managed it better."

Diamond shook her head. "You don't know Mama and Papa like I do. They'd never let me marry Isigo any other way. They hate him."

"They'll blame Isigo for this trick in any case. And you know that they'll realize the truth for themselves in a few months' time," Frodo pointed out.

"I know, but then it'll be too late," Diantha replied. "Isigo and I will be married with their consent, and they won't be able to take it back once it's done. That's all that matters. We'll be all right, Frodo. And maybe we'll have a baby for real on its way by then."