The Sackville-Baggins home was tucked in under the southern foot of the Hill. It was a neat and comfortable smial, but Lobelia had never liked it, for she had envied Bilbo's home at the hilltop from the first moment she'd seen it when she'd come to Hobbiton as a bride. Or so Bilbo had once told Frodo years ago.
Frodo began with a simple search, even though Thimula assured him that she'd looked everywhere she could think of; it wasn't the will itself he sought, but some clue as to its whereabouts. Since Thimula had been unable to find it, he guessed that Lobelia had sent it out of the house, perhaps in the care of some friend. If that were so, it was hard to imagine why that friend hadn't come forward at Lobelia's death, but Frodo believed it was the best course of action. With Thimula's permission and assistance, he went through Lobelia's possessions in her bedroom. He looked over the books on her shelves. Lobelia did not have many--some notebooks full of recipes, one or two books of poetry that Otho had apparently given her when they were courting.
He paid special attention to her correspondence, which was stored neatly in an old writing desk. These letters went back over many years. Lobelia had kept many mementoes of her late husband and son; every letter either had written her, beginning with Otho's letters to her during their courtship and ending with Lotho's last letters when he'd gone away on business to his pipeweed plantation in the Southfarthing, seemed to have been saved. Frodo believed that Lobelia had only cared deeply for these two and no one else in her lifetime, and he felt some sympathy for her. How bitter and miserable these last few years must have been for the old woman! There were also a few letters from her Bracegirdle relations; Lobelia hadn't bothered to keep copies of her own letters, but by the replies of her relatives, Frodo could tell that he and Bilbo had figured frequently as a topic, and she had not written of them in kindly terms. Among these were letters from Thimula's mother, written when Thimula was a girl. Mother wrote of daughter in glowing terms and often hinted at visits though Thimula had never visited Hobbiton before last year.
While all this cast some interesting light on the character of his aunt-by-marriage, there were few recent letters, and no sign that Lobelia had sent anything to her northern relatives lately. The last letters in the desk were dated five years ago, just after Lotho had died, when Lobelia had moved back to Hardbottle to live among her own family. Frodo looked over the few, brief black-bordered notes of condolence, none of which mentioned the questionable circumstances of Lotho's death. There was nothing that referred to her recent will.
"And Aunt Lobelia mailed no packages or large letters in the months before her death?" he asked Thimula.
"No. I carried all her letters to the post-office myself, since she hadn't felt well enough to go out herself since before Yule. There weren't very many, and all of them short notes. I'm sure there was nothing like a will enclosed."
Sam, meanwhile, had directed his attentions to the kitchen. He looked into every pot and piece of crockery on the shelves, then tested every brick of the stove and stone on the hearth to see if any were loose and concealed a hiding place. He found nothing. They did not stop for luncheon but Sam, with the help of the maidservant, since the cook had been dismissed shortly before Lobelia's death, made sandwiches.
"What about the garden?" Frodo came up with this new idea after having a bite to eat. "Could Aunt Lobelia have hidden something there?"
"It's possible, but I never saw her go out-of-doors after midwinter," answered Thimula. "She was feeling very poorly during these last months and rarely got out of bed. When she felt well enough, she would sit by the fire--here, in her room, or in the kitchen or best parlor, wrapped in her shawl."
"Sam, will you go and have a look?" Frodo requested. "You'd know better than I the signs of a disturbance among the plants or anything else that looks wrong or odd."
Sam consented and was about to go out when there was a knock on the front door. The maid answered it, and showed Tom Cotton in.
Tom regarded Frodo shyly as he entered the bedroom, and his face went red; he had avoided Frodo since last autumn, and their occasional meetings since were always awkward. Taking off his cap, he gave Thimula a bow and "Beg yer pardon, Miss," before bowing his head again in Frodo's general direction. "It's Sam I come after," he explained, and turned to address his brother-in-law. "Sam, Marigold's called Mum up to Bag End and wants you to come home quick as you can."
"Is it Rosie-?"
Tom nodded. "She's near her time."
Sam turned to Frodo. "I've got to go to her," he said apologetically.
"Yes, of course! Go! I'll manage here. Don't think of me--you have other things to think about. I'll have my dinner at Aunt Dora's or the Dragon, so I won't be underfoot." Frodo put a hand on Sam's back to send him toward the door. Tom bowed again, and followed Sam out.
"I can give you dinner here," offered Thimula. "Mimsy leaves after tea-time, but the neighbors have been so kind--there's plenty in the larder."
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