Frodo sent a note to the Old Place the next morning to tell Peony and Angelica that he was grateful for their assistance, but his investigations in Hobbiton were finished for the present. He didn't tell them what he suspected; why upset Angelica about her friend's fate until he was quite sure what that fate was?
He sent a second, private note to Milo, asking if he could find out if Mr. Bilbury had been out of town even for a day around the time that Camellia had disappeared. Any information Milo discovered was to be sent to Frodo at the Three Badgers Inn in Budgeford.
He, Sam, Merry, and Pippin left Bag End at mid-morning. They reached the Polwygle Inn in Frogmorton before noon, and stopped briefly.
"No more than a half-pint each," Frodo warned his cousins as they went into the common room, "otherwise we'll be here all day. I mean to be in Budgeford before nightfall." He did not intend for them to remain here longer than it would take to speak to Betula and find out what he wanted to know.
But when they went to the bar, another maidservant attended them. Betula was nowhere to be seen.
"Where's the girl who usually serves here?" asked Frodo. "Betula. Is she not working today?"
"Oh, her." The barmaid shrugged as she set down the first pair of ale-filled mugs, then turned back to fill another two from the keg. "Bet's not here anymore. She's gone."
While Frodo asked the maid and the innkeeper if any who fit the descriptions of Camellia or her uncle had been seen at the inn about two weeks ago--and was informed that one or two hobbits who looked like Mr. Bilbury had been there around the beginning of August--Sam went out to the stable to see if Betula's grandfather had also gone. He was relieved to find Palgo Root watering the ponies.
"That's right--the girl's run off," Mr. Root confirmed bluntly in answer to Sam's questions. "No, not with Jorly. He's still here." He nodded to indicate the sullen stable-lad, who was lurking at the back of the stables.
When Sam looked his way, Jorly scowled back at him and said, "It's all your doing, Mr. Detective. It was you who came between us and spoiled it all! You put her to flight with your prying and asking questions of her. Bet couldn't take no more of it, and off she went!"
"Where to?" Sam asked, but neither Mr. Root nor Jorly had any idea.
"Did you believe them?" Frodo asked once the foursome had resumed their journey.
"I don't think they know where she is," Sam answered. "They both sounded angry, just as they'd be if she left and didn't tell 'em where she was going. She's run off, I'd say."
"Yes, but that's what everyone thinks of Camellia Stillwaters too."
Sam looked surprised, and Merry and Pippin more so, for this was the first inkling they had that Frodo thought something was very wrong with Camellia's disappearance.
"You don't think any harm's come to her?" asked Sam.
"I don't know," Frodo admitted, "but Betula did have secrets that someone wouldn't want her to tell. And now she's missing too."
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