The difficulty was catching Lina Scarby alone. Frodo thought it best to confront her first out of his aunt's presence, to be absolutely sure of his culprit, but he didn't see how he could manage it.
He'd been standing beneath a grove of shady trees below the little hill in which Prisca's smial was burrowed for a quarter of an hour, considering the problem, when the front door opened and Lina emerged. She hurried swiftly along the lane and didn't see him until she was passing the trees, when Frodo stepped out to detain her. "Miss Scarby?"
She stopped and whirled to find him standing beside her. "Oh, Mr. Baggins!" One hand went to her chest. "How you startled me! Are you going to see your aunt?"
"Yes, eventually," he answered. "But first, I thought I might walk with you for awhile. There are some things I want to say." When she went a few steps farther along the lane, he followed her to show that he intended to accompany her. "Where are we going, by the way?"
"I'm on an errand for Miss Prisca," Lina replied, and stopped walking to face him. "She asked me to take those pearls of hers to the jeweler in Bywater so they can be restrung."
"Then it's all the more important you don't undertake such an errand alone. May I see them, please?" Frodo could exercise the authority of a gentlehobbit when he had to; he spoke in no-nonsense tones and fixed his eyes on hers as he extended one hand. Lina hesitated and her face lost some of its color, even though there was little to begin with. For a moment, he thought she was going to refuse or even turn and try to run, then she took a small velvet bag from her skirt pocket and surrendered it to him.
Frodo opened the bag and poured its contents into the palm of his other hand. He counted the pearls to be sure they were all there, as well as the gold clasp, before he returned them to the bag and tucked it into his waistcoat's inner breast pocket. "I'll take charge of these, if you don't mind, Miss Scarby. After that last incident, I want to be quite certain that nothing else happens to them. I'll see that they get to the jeweler's safely, and back to my aunt again."
Lina's eyes had widened when he'd pocketed the pearls, but she said nothing. Frodo felt sure now that he was right; an innocent woman would have ruffled at the suggestion that she couldn't be relied on to carry out such a task by herself.
He pressed on, "I feel rather responsible for these pearls, you see. My Aunt Prisca engaged me to investigate their theft. I do know who took them. I know how they came to be in that pie at my Aunt Dora's, and I know who baked it. There's very little about this whole peculiar business that I don't know now."
"I don't understand what you're talking about, Mr. Baggins," she answered, meeting his eyes levelly.
"Don't you? You tried to cast suspicion on other people, my Aunt Dora and my cousins, but the truth of the matter is that you had the best opportunities of anyone to steal from Aunt Prisca. You know where she keeps her jewelry box, and where she keeps the key. It would only take a moment to open it whenever she isn't in her bedroom and take whatever you like from it, whenever you liked--although I guess that it wasn't very long ago. You put the pearls in your pocket and when you had a little time free, dashed over to see your sister at Mrs. Lumbly's to hide the pearls in the sugar bin. You thought they'd be safe there until you could find a better hiding place. The important thing was to get them out of the house right away, isn't that so? If my aunt noticed her pearls were missing, you and your belongings could be searched without fear. But you didn't count on your sister using so much sugar so soon. Stewing cherries for pie, I am told on good authority, requires a great deal of sugar."
He waited for her response to this accusation. When it came at last, it surprised him. "Do you know what it's like to be at the constant beck and call of a bad-tempered, invalid old lady?" she hissed.
"No," he admitted, "but I imagine it can't be very pleasant." He thought of the things his friend Thimula had told him about nursing her aunt Lobelia through the final months of life. He also recalled the sharp, barking tone Prisca always used to summon Lina, and he could understand how even a placid-tempered nurse's patience could wear thin after hearing that day after day. "You have my sympathies, Miss Scarby, but all the same, it doesn't excuse thieving. You might've left her employ at any time if you were unhappy. You'll have to leave now regardless."
"Then you'll tell her?" asked Lina.
"Yes, certainly. She'll want very much to know. But since the pearls have been restored to my aunt and I suspect she'd rather not bring the shirriffs into this, I'll give you the chance to go and pack your things before I explain it all to her. I think you'd better be out of her house before the pearls return to it." Since he did have some sympathy for her, he asked, "Do you have somewhere to go tonight? Will your sister, Mrs. Crump, give you a bed?"
Lina nodded.
"May I ask--Did your sister know you'd hidden the pearls in her kitchen at Mrs. Lumbly's? Did Mrs. Lumbly know?" Frodo doubted that the two were involved. Mrs. Crump would've been more careful with her sugar if she'd be aware of what was buried in it. The most he could say against her was that she'd concealed the fact that her sister was working in Aunt Prisca's household. And as much as it might tickle Mrs. Lumbly's sense of humor to see Prisca's pearls taken from her, Frodo didn't believe she would risk the theft of so valuable a piece of jewelry merely for a prank. But he had to be sure.
"My sister knew nothing about it," Lina insisted. "I won't have her disgraced and lose her place over this too. Just let me go, Mr. Baggins."
"As you wish." Frodo gave her a little bow and gestured toward his aunt's smial to indicate that she should go and pack her bags now.
She understood. "Thank you, Mr. Baggins. You've been more kind than I deserve."
Frodo thought that he detected a note of sarcasm in this last sentence, but Lina had already turned away from him as she went back toward the smial. Frodo watched her head toward the front door and he was about to go the other way to take the pearls to the jeweler--then he reconsidered and decided that he ought to keep an eye on her while she packed. The pearls were safe, but who knew what else might end up departing with her? Aunt Prisca would think him as big as fool as the rest of the Bagginses if he allowed that to happen.
He ran to catch up with her before she went inside.
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