They went to Stillwater Hall that afternoon: Turlo Bilbury, Betula Root, and Rolo Bindbole. The first came at Frodo's invitation, and the other two only because Frodo had insisted. Sam kept watch over both Rolo and Betula until he left the party at Hall's front door; Frodo had another errand for him. Mrs. Stillwaters was bewildered to see so many disparate people entering her drawing-room.
Frodo went to the window and looked out over the garden with its trimmed green lawns, quiet lily ponds, and abundant flowers in bloom. He located Sam standing under a cluster of young chestnut trees, talking to the elderly gardener. There were other hobbits around, though he could not see them from here; they were waiting outside the Hall grounds with their distinctive red-feathered caps tucked out of sight.
He turned back to the little party he had assembled. "I suppose you must be wondering why I've brought you together here."
"I wonder very much, Mr. Baggins." Mrs. Stillwaters regarded the two young hobbits Frodo had brought with him with cool curiosity: Betula stared back at her, frightened but defiant.
"I assume you've got news of Cammie, and you're going to tell us at last," said Mr. Bilbury, who had taken a seat.
"Yes, I am," Frodo assured him. "Do you all know each other? Mrs. Stillwaters, I'm sure you remember Betula Root."
"I do indeed," Mrs. Stillwaters said icily. "Although I did not expect to see her in my house again."
"It is necessary," Frodo assured her, then told Mr. Bilbury, "Miss Root was your niece's maid here. Do you either of you know-?" He gestured to Rolo.
Mrs. Stillwaters considered the young hobbit. "He looks familiar... Yes, I believe I've seen him around our gardens. You worked for us briefly, earlier this summer, didn't you, lad?"
"Yes'm, that's right," Rolo said in a mumble. "I wasn't using my right name then, but I expect you know it."
The lady looked confused by this answer, and Frodo explained, "This is Rolo Bindbole."
"This is Rolo-!" Mr. Bilbury was on his feet. Rolo immediately stepped backwards toward the door, to exit quickly if he had to.
Frodo deftly moved to stand between the two and block Mr. Bilbury's path. "You never saw Rolo when he was courting Camellia?" he asked.
"No," Mr. Bilbury spoke to Frodo, but his gaze remained fixed intently on Rolo. "I never set eyes on him before."
"This boy and Betula were in league together?" asked Mrs. Stillwaters.
"We weren't, Ma'am!" Rolo protested. "I hardly saw her here at the Hall, and she never saw me to notice. That's why I went after her."
"Do you know what's become of Cammie?" Mr. Bilbury demanded.
"I don't!" Rolo answered, "I want the truth, same as you."
"That's why you escaped from us at the Inn: you went looking for Betula," said Frodo. He had already heard Rolo's explanation of the struggle he'd come upon at the inn, but he wanted it repeated for the others to hear.
"I knew you didn't believe me, Mr. Baggins. You thought I did away with her too, didn't you? So I went to find her. No harm'd come to her--she was in Whitfurrows all the time, staying with her aunt and working at the Beeshive inn. I'd found her and was trying to get her to come tell the truth, when we saw you and your friends come in." Rolo scowled at Betula. "She was going to run out the back and I wasn't about to let her. She had to tell that I wasn't the one she kept company with. 'Twasn't me who told her to take Cammie's letters."
Mr. Bilbury listened to this incredulously, then turned to Frodo. "And you take this scoundrel at his word?"
"I had grave suspicions about Rolo's honesty," Frodo admitted. "I suspected you as well-"
"Me?" Mr. Bilbury sputtered.
"Yes, when I found out about your previous visit to Budgeford. And Miss Root too, for other reasons. In fact, I could find some reason that each of you might wish for Camellia to disappear: jealousy, or family honor, or spite. That's why I wanted you here today. You are the people most intimately concerned with this puzzle--you, and the Stillwaters. I'm sorry to find Valerian's not here."
"Val is expected home shortly," said Mrs. Stillwaters. "I'm sure he'll want to hear the truth of this matter too."
"He'll hear the truth--all of you will--but perhaps it's best that we start without him..." Frodo glanced out of the window again; Sam and Mr. Rakeweed were walking away in the direction of the back garden and the orchard. When they were out of his sight, he said, "Yes, let's begin. As I said, I had reasons to suspect each one of you. You've kept secrets: none of you told me all you knew about Camellia and the circumstances that led to her disappearance, and yet each of you knows a key part of that story. I have my part too, that I've kept secret. I propose to bring the pieces together now, so we can hear the full story of what happened to Camellia."
He told them how Camellia had engaged him to retrieve the love letters she and Rolo had written to each other before she had married.
"She was extremely nervous that day when she came to me for help," he concluded his story. "She didn't want her new family to learn about her past love affair. She was especially worried that her husband would find out, just as you were anxious to keep it from him, Mrs. Stillwaters, when you asked me to find her. Neither of you needed to be at such pains--he knew already."
"Val knows?" asked his mother, astonished at this news.
"Oh, yes. He told me so himself yesterday."
"He's heard the gossip," Mrs. Stillwaters said with dismay. "I suppose that was inevitable."
"Yes, it was... but he knew about Camellia's romance with Rolo long before the gossip was widespread. You see, Val was the one who had Camellia's maid steal her letters from her writing desk so he could read them." Frodo turned to the maidservant. "Wasn't he, Betula?"
"You don't need me to tell you," Betula said petulantly.
"Yes, I do," insisted Frodo. "I'd like you to tell us your part in this, your own words. It was Mr. Stillwaters, wasn't it?"
"You know it was, but there was nought wrong between us!" Betula replied. "And him married!"
"Nevertheless, he flirted with you, didn't he?" Frodo pursued the point. "Coaxed you into doing as he asked-"
"I never did!"
"You agreed to steal his wife's letters for him. That was why Mrs. Stillwaters dismissed you: She saw you with her son and made a mistaken, but natural assumption about what you were up to."
"Yes, that is why I dismissed the girl," Mrs. Stillwaters confirmed. "I observed what I thought was an improper passage between my son and this maidservant. They were seated together on a bench in the back garden, whispering, with their hands together. I sent her away from the Hall immediately, and sent her things after her."
"He was only giving the letters back to me, saying his thanks," said Betula. "I told you it was nothing, Ma'am. I couldn't say more."
"I understand why you couldn't explain more fully--but if you had, I would have dismissed you just as swiftly," the lady countered; Betula yelped in protest. "Theft is as a good a reason for dismissal as misconduct. My actions were entirely justified."
"Is that why you took the letters with you when you left the Hall, rather than return your mistress's property, out of revenge?" Frodo asked Betula before the conversation between former mistress and maid became an outright quarrel. "Or was that part of the plan?"
"'Twas my plan," Betula responded, and continued to regard Mrs. Stillwaters with sulky and hostile glare. "Mr. Val said I could put 'em back in the desk after he had his look, but I never got the chance. I had 'em with me after Old Missus tossed me out, and he never said a word on my side, only let her think what she liked. I could've put 'em in the fire, but I thought as they might come in useful one way or t'other. 'Twould be a way to get my own back at the whole lot of Stillwaterses. I never even got a penny for my troubles, not out of Mr. Val." She turned her glowering gaze upon Rolo. "And then you came and bought 'em when we mighta got gold!"
Mr. Bilbury had been following this tale of the letters with some confusion. "So Rolo has them?"
"No, sir," said Frodo. "He was working as a gardener here, remember. He observed this exchange as well. He'd seen Val Stillwaters and Betula meet in the garden before--didn't you, Rolo? 'He plays about,' you said. I thought you meant gaming, but you'd made the same mistaken assumption about their meetings that Mrs. Stillwaters had. On that particular day, however, you observed something that Mrs. Stillwaters had not: you saw Betula put the letters into her apron pocket, and you knew what they were. You might have told me that when I asked you how you knew she had them, by the way."
"You didn't believe anything else I was saying," said Rolo. "You would've thought I was being jealous and spiteful, lying and making accusations against Mr. Stillwaters."
Frodo conceded that this was likely. "But if I had known, it might have helped me to understand what had happened earlier.
"Rolo traced Betula to Frogmorton," he continued to explain to Mr. Bilbury. "There, he purchased the stolen letters from a friend of hers, whom she had entrusted to keep them, then he brought them to me. He'd heard I was looking for them, and he wanted me to return them to their rightful owner on his behalf. I sent them, and Mrs. Stillwaters received them." Frodo tactfully left it unclear which Mrs. Stillwaters he was referring to. "That should have been an end to the matter, except that, shortly afterwards, the lady vanished.
"Since I've been asked to look into Camellia's disappearance, I've learned several important facts about her life: I've heard that Camellia and Valerian were by all accounts seen as a happy couple until a month or so ago, when she began to appear troubled. She wrote her aunt and uncle to say she planned to return to them for an extended visit. She asked Mr. Bilbury to come to Budgeford and help her carry her belongings back to Overhill." Mr. Bilbury confirmed that this was so. "In another letter to a close friend, she confided that she feared she had made 'a dreadful mistake.' I haven't been able to discover exactly what was troubling Camellia, but these points lead me to conclude that she intended to leave Stillwater Hall, perhaps permanently."
"She meant to visit her family in Overhill," said Mrs. Stillwater. "She'd spoken of it frequently, and both Val and I were aware of her plans. But if you're suggesting that she meant to abandon her marriage, Mr. Baggins, I'm sure you're mistaken. She couldn't have departed on such a journey that evening. She hadn't even packed her bags!"
"Yes, that's so," Frodo agreed. "I can only guess at her intentions. We may never know what she meant to do. And she didn't leave for Overhill that night. Before she could make her planned journey, something very odd occurred. She walked out to the apple orchard one evening... and never returned. I believe she went into the orchard to meet someone. She was last seen talking with someone there."
"It was him!" said Mr. Bilbury, glaring again at Rolo.
"Perhaps that's whom she was expecting," said Frodo, "but Rolo isn't the person who was waiting there for her."
"I'm not certain I understand what you mean," Mrs. Stillwaters said.
"Well, I certainly don't understand it," Mr. Bilbury spoke impatiently. "Enough of these games, Mr. Baggins. What's all this rigmarole about stolen letters and who Cammie did and didn't meet in the orchard? Say what you mean! Where is she? Do you know?"
"Yes, I know." He couldn't avoid the ugly and tragic truth any longer. "This will be very hard for you to hear, Mr. Bilbury, and you, Rolo--but I'm afraid, Mrs. Stillwaters, that it will be hardest for you. You may regret that you brought me into this." Frodo went to the window to look once again out at the gardens. Sam and the old gardener had returned; Sam was carrying a well-worn tweed coat and a battered straw hat. "Camellia is here. She's been here all along. She never left the grounds of Stillwater Hall that night."
He tried to broach the truth as gently as possible, but he could see that they understood: Rolo's mouth opened and shut, and his eyes filled with tears. Mr. Bilbury was no longer flushed and indignant, but ashen-faced. Mrs. Stillwaters sat silent and stunned.
Betula looked from one to another. "What d'you mean--she's here? She's run off! That's what everybody says."
"That's what everyone was meant to think," Frodo answered. "It's just what he wanted all along--a scandal suits Val Stillwaters's purposes perfectly."
"Why would I want a scandal?" Val asked, catching these last words as he came into the drawing room. "What's going on, Mr. Baggins? Mother, what's wrong? What are these people doing here? Mr. Bilbury, always a pleasure, of course, but our wayward Betula, and... Rhabdo, is it?"
"My name's Rolo--and you know it," said Rolo, and flung himself forward as if he meant to strike Val with both fists, but Frodo caught him by the arm. As he held the struggling young hobbit by the elbow, he explained:
"What I mean, Mr. Stillwaters, is that in spite of every effort to avoid a scandal about your wife's disappearance, there is one. Half the Shire talks of how she must have flown with her lover. That is what you intended, isn't it? If everyone believes that Camellia's run away, then no one will be suspicious if they never see her again. They'll be very sorry that her family has to endure such a disgrace, but they won't wonder what's happened to her. They might not even notice that she left her money in her husband's hands."
Mrs. Stillwaters, who had been motionless, now made a soft, choked sound and pressed a handkerchief to her lips.
"It was all perfectly safe, as long as Rolo was far away in the heart of Bindbole Wood," Frodo continued. "He might never had heard that Camellia was missing if we hadn't found him. If he said she wasn't with him, who would believe him? If he denied it, he'd be the one we'd first suspect, not you. But you were the one who had Betula steal Camellia's letters, and you had Rolo dig up those flower beds. I thought from the first that you knew where your wife had gone, but I didn't see until yesterday exactly what that meant. You do know where she is, don't you?"
Val stood pale and speechless. Another hobbit, an older, large and imposing male with his red-feathered cap in his hands, came silently to stand in the doorway behind him, effectively blocking the way out; he had been waiting outside for the master of Stillwater Hall to come home.
"My friend, Mr. Gamgee, has been talking with your gardener," Frodo finished. "He's found the old hat and coat you were wearing that evening when you met your wife in the orchard. I've suggested to the Whitfurrows Chief Sherriff--Mr. Horrocks, behind you--that he search for Camellia in those places where the earth has been turned up recently... unless you'd like to spare the sherriffs tearing up the garden and tell us exactly where you buried her, Mr. Stillwaters."
Site Info
We are the home of 1292 authors from among our 2552 members. There have been 2904 reviews written about our 3820 stories consisting of 10734 chapters and 29400445 words. A special welcome to our newest member, Rosamundeb.Categories
Skin Change
Donate
Help us keep one of the oldest running LotR archives available to all. Even the smallest donation helps!
Many thanks to our previous donors!
Many thanks to our previous donors!
