They discussed the case over dinner. Frodo made Merry and Pippin laugh at how he'd been caught out when he and Angelica had called upon the Bilburys, but didn't laugh with them. While the others speculated about where Camellia might be--concealed within in the Wood or flown elsewhere?--Frodo did not voice the darker suspicions that were growing in his mind.
It was only after Merry and Pippin had gone to their room, and Rosie to hers, that he spoke his worst fears. Before joining Rose, Sam stopped at Frodo's bedroom door to see if he wanted anything; he'd noticed how Frodo had been quiet over dinner and eaten little.
"Aren't you feeling well, Frodo? I can get you a nice cup of warm milk," he offered, "or a hot water bottle, if it'll help you to sleep."
"No, Sam, thank you," Frodo answered. He lay curled in bed, but had not yet blown out the candle on the nightstand. "But there is something you can do for me. I've been wondering if you'd mind going back to Frogmorton tomorrow to speak to Betula Root."
"Again?" Sam's face fell in dismay at this unexpected and unwelcome request.
Frodo gave him an apologetic smile. "I know you're sick of the sight of that horrid girl, and I can't blame you, dear Sam, but it is necessary. We haven't heard all of her story yet, and we need to. I'm sure she knows more than she's telling. Do you think it's possible that she could wish harm to Camellia Stillwaters?"
"Harm?" Sam echoed. "Well, I don't know as she'd have a particular reason to want to hurt her mistress. The little wretch was out for what she could get, I'd say, but she might've stolen those letters out of spite as much as anything else."
"And when Rolo returned them to us, her spite was thwarted?"
"I suppose so," Sam answered, but he didn't see where Frodo was headed with this line of thought.
"Could they have intercepted Camellia's letters to take them back?"
"How?"
"They might have stolen them from the courier's bag when he stopped in Frogmorton, if they'd known he was carrying the packet I'd sent her," replied Frodo. "But how would they know that? No. You're right, Sam. I don't see how they could have got them that way.
"If Camellia were coming to visit her aunt and uncle, she would take the Road by way of Frogmorton." Frodo drew up his knees to hug to his chest and considered this. "We know that she meant to come. She wrote to them, and Angelica, to expect her. I don't believe she meant to depart so abruptly on that particular night--she didn't take anything with her--but leave she did, for whatever reason. She would certainly pass through Frogmorton. She might have stopped at the inn, and met Betula there. Yes, that's possible. And what about that ne'er-do-well stable-lad? If he'd wished greater harm to the lady when he sold her letters to Rolo, he would've felt thwarted too."
Sam regarded him with perplexity. "What're you saying, Frodo? That the two of 'em made away with her? What's all this talk of doing her harm?"
"If it wasn't those two, perhaps she did arrive at the Bilburys," Frodo went on musing, wandering deeper into his own thoughts; his mind had been turning upon disturbing possibilities for some hours, and now it all came tumbling out. "She might've told them how unhappy she was in her marriage, and that she meant to go away with the boy they disapproved so much of. They would certainly not agree to that. Her uncle said he'd rather see her dead. Is she lying in a ditch somewhere along the road, just as he said? If she is, why hasn't she been found yet?
"And what about Rolo? Whether or not he's telling the truth about Camellia's whereabouts, there's more to that lad than he lets on. Are he and Betula connected? Was the 'dreadful mistake' Camellia wrote Angelica about loving him? He could have kept watch to see when I went to the post office and followed the courier--it would be a moment's work to remove the packet from the mail-bag without the courier's noticing. What if he returned to Budgeford with them? In spite of what he claims, we know he didn't go home to the Wood right away. He was seen in Budgeford, in the orchard with Camellia. Perhaps he took the letters to confront Camellia with them, as proof that she still loved him. He asked her to fly with him. But what if she didn't go? What if she refused him? Your old gardener may be right, Sam, when he says that Rolo tossed her into the river. But if that's so, I don't understand why he would give the letters to me when he might have kept them.
"If it wasn't Rolo, it could be that husband of hers. I can't believe he loves her. He married her for her money, I'm sure of it. What if he came home earlier on that night than his mother says he did and saw her with Rolo in the orchard? It would have been an ordinary tryst, not a plan for flight. Val could have caught his wife as she returned to the Hall, quarreled with her. He could have thrown her in the river. What was he doing on the Bridge, looking into the water? She surely must be farther down the Brandywine than that. They didn't find my cousin Mentha until she came to the rush marshes where the Withywindle meets the river above Haysend."
"Frodo!"
Frodo stopped and looked up to find Sam staring at him, alarmed at this outpouring of morbid theories.
"You're talking like she's dead. Do you really think she is?"
"I hope very much that she isn't, Sam," Frodo answered. "I hope I'm wrong, and that she's alive and well, wherever she is. But I am terribly afraid for her. We must return to Budgeford."
"And stop at the inn at Frogmorton to talk to that Betula," Sam yielded to Frodo's wishes with a sigh of resignation; it was inevitable. "I'll go tell Rose we'll be leaving in the morning." As he turned to leave, he added, "And I'll tell her I'm sleeping here tonight, just in case."
In case of what? Frodo was momentarily puzzled, then as Sam went out, he understood; after listening to him talk, Sam was afraid he was about to have another bad turn, and didn't want to leave him alone.
He had meant to let Rose have Sam to herself until they returned to Budgeford, but he was glad Sam would be with him tonight. The company was most welcome. The last thing Frodo wanted was to lie alone in the dark with these terrible thoughts in his head. How much more terrible, if one of them proved to be true!
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