Lotho Sackville-Baggins Is Missing by Kathryn Ramage

Milo picked up an extra pipe for Frodo from the mantelpiece in his and Peony's room, and they went out through a side-door into a small, fenced-in yard under the steep slope on the southern side of the house. They could hear Merry and Pippin come out through the kitchen door to play with the children on top of the house, but were blocked from view by a row of trees.

Milo filled Frodo's pipe first, and gave it to him to light while he filled his own. "So, Aunt Dora offered you and Angelica this house?" he asked in a casual tone that sounded false.

Had someone been listening at the door, Frodo wondered, or had Milo and Peony heard the old lady make the same kind of offer to Angelica on other occasions? It hadn't surprised Angelica; rather, her response to Dora's offer suggested that she had heard it before.

"She did, but I don't want it," Frodo told him frankly. "I've no use for another house, and I've no more intention of marrying Angelica than she does me. You know how Aunt Dora is--she must manage everything for everybody. Old ladies like nothing better than to make matches. If they don't have children of their own, they'll marry off everyone else's! You and Peony want the Old Place, I presume?"

Milo nodded. "We are hoping for it." As Milo lit his own pipe, Frodo noticed that the knuckles of his cousin's right hand were bruised and scraped. "That's why we came here--to help look after Aunt Dora, and to give ourselves a bigger home. Aunt Dora's got so many extra rooms she never uses, and we've got four children and who knows if there might be more? The cottage my father gave us when we married just won't do for a growing family, and besides," he added reluctantly, "it's too expensive for us to keep a house of our own right now. If it weren't for Aunt Dora's generosity, we'd have to rent a bungalow like a laborer's family, and put all the children into one room."

"What about that property you have up around Needlehole?" When Milo looked surprised at the question, Frodo explained, "Merry and Pippin were telling me last night about your quarrel with Lotho over it."

"Yes, well," Milo answered. "It's more Peony's quarrel than mine--and Porto's and Angelica's father, Ponto's. But it's only right that I look after my wife's interests. It'll be the children's interest too one day."

"Why would Lotho want it?" Frodo asked. "After all, he's always been after Bag End. Is it worth anything? Is there even a house or farmstead on the land?"

"Not a livable one! I went up to look at it once last summer, just after Peony's father died. There's a little smial with trees atop, and the roots have grown in through the ceilings and walls inside. There's an old stone barn with the roof falling in. It needs plenty of work to repair it, but once that was done, it might do. I never thought that our Pimple was much of a farmer. He has all that land in the South Farthing where he grows pipeweed, and as far as I know, only goes down to nag at his agents. But from his interest in the place, I can only guess that he hopes to settle down there. I don't think he wants to share a home with his mother any longer." Milo chuckled. "Perhaps that's why he was after two houses--he meant to see Lobelia installed at Bag End once he got it away from you! Or perhaps he wanted both because she's led him to believe he had a right to both. That'd be just like Lotho, wouldn't it?"

"Couldn't you sell it to him?"

"As a matter of fact, all of us talked the matter over when Lobelia first began to make her fuss. We agreed that if she were to offer us a fair price for the property, we'd accept and divide the money between us--but we certainly didn't intend to give it over for nothing. Lobelia never did make us any kind of offer, and Lotho's carried on in the same line. It's rightfully his, he said. You know that Lotho's always had a better idea of his own rights above anybody else's."

"Yes, that's so," Frodo agreed. "He only offered to buy Bag End from me when he thought he could get it no other way." He wondered if Lotho had been annoying Peony's brothers, who also had part ownership of the coveted land, with the same zeal, or if he had focused his attentions solely on her and Milo; everything Frodo had heard seemed to suggest the latter.

"Perhaps he'll make us an offer too," Milo said with a laugh. "Peony and I would rather have the money, and he's welcome to the farm. The only value the place has as it is is from a local family who've put some of the land to use, and pay us rent to do so."

"Not the Puddlesbys?" asked Frodo.

Milo looked surprised again. "Yes. You know them?"

"I only heard the name yesterday."

"And the story of Miss Daisy too, I've no doubt!" Milo smiled, but he also began to look nervous. "Did Merry and Pip tell you everything we said at the Green Dragon last night?"

"Only the interesting bits," Frodo replied lightly, to allay his cousin's fears. Milo mustn't think that he was being spied upon. The truth seemed to be the best course. "You must know that I've had my share of trouble from Lobelia too, and would like to avoid more of it if I can. I'm anxious to find out where Lotho's gone before she starts making accusations. Do you mind if I ask you, Milo: How did you get to hear of Daisy Puddlesby?"

Milo still seemed nervous, but he agreed to answer. "It was when one of the Puddlesby sons came down to Hobbiton to give us our quarterly rent, not long after Lotho had begun to trouble us. He mentioned that Lotho had been paying court to his sister. I'd heard that Lotho and Lobelia had been cool with each other, and even heard some gossip about a girl he wanted to marry, but I didn't know who it was. Once I heard Daisy's name, I guessed that Lotho must have gone up that way to have a look at the farm last summer, just as I had, and met her then. I saw at once what he must be after that land for!"

"Do you think that's where Lotho is now?" Frodo asked him.

"I suppose so," said Milo, after a pause. Then his expression brightened. "Yes, that must be it! Oh, not the old farmsmial--no one could live there as it is--but why couldn't he have gone to stay at the Puddlesby farm or somewhere else nearby? Don't you agree, Frodo? Why, I'll wager he's up there with his Daisy now! Where else could he be?"

Frodo did think that this was the most likely answer, and yet it seemed to him that Milo had pounced on this solution rather too eagerly. In spite of his knowledge about Daisy Puddlesby, the idea had obviously not occurred to him before Frodo suggested it.

For the first time, a real and unwelcome suspicion began to tickle at the back of Frodo's mind. Milo seemed afraid that the true answer to Lotho's disappearance lay elsewhere, in something more unpleasant. What reason did he have to think so? Did Milo know more about this mystery than he was telling?

When they finished their pipes and went back into the house, Frodo found that Sam had moved the tuffet to sit closer to Dora's chair; he had retrieved the ball of yarn that had rolled away from her, and was working to untangle the unwound skein while the old lady chatted with him on friendly terms.

"What a sweet boy your friend is, Frodo!" Dora patted Sam's cheek affectionately. "So helpful and polite. You must bring him by more often."

"Yes, Auntie," Frodo promised. "But we really must be going now. Thanks so much for having us."

The two made their farewells and left the house.

"I'm sorry I had to leave you," he murmured to Sam once they were outside. "I hope Aunt Dora wasn't too difficult. It looks as if you got on very well with her."

"She wasn't so bad," Sam acknowledged. "Only... she wanted me to tell her who it was you'd betrothed yourself to."

"What did you say?"

Sam blushed. "I told her it was a secret."
You must login (register) to review.