Love Letters: A Frodo Investigates! Mystery by Kathryn Ramage

After he left Stillwater Hall, Frodo paid a call on his Aunt Asphodel in Budgeford. Budgeford was a small village, smaller even than Hobbiton, and lay two miles north of the larger town of Whitfurrows. It consisted of a cluster of buildings--the inn, a post office, a smithy and some shops, around a green--plus a dozen or so smials dug into the hills that rose on either side of the broad, shallow stream. Asphodel Burrows lived in a tidy, old-fashioned smial in the hills on the northern side, overlooking the farms and pastures of the Bridgefields and the line of the Brandywine River in the distance.

Rufus Burrows had been a hobbit of solid respectability but, like his son Milo, he was also a keen pony fancier and gambler of unreliable luck. He'd never had much money. Asphodel had brought her own fortune to the marriage, but most of what she and Rufus owned had gone toward giving Milo a gentleman's position in life. After her husband's death, Asphodel had taken what was left of her fortune, which was enough for an elderly lady to live on comfortably, sold the old Burrows' home outside Frogmorton, and moved to Budgeford. If she had gone back to live with her own family at Brandy Hall, she would have become an aged relative dependant on the current Master's kindness, much as her surviving brother Dinodas was. Here, however, her rank allowed her to queen it over her neighbors and create a small, select social circle around herself. To be noticed by Lady Asphodel and invited to one of her tea parties was considered a high honor, one much sought after by the ladies around Budgeford.

Asphodel was at tea in her tiny but elegantly furnished parlor when Frodo entered, but this was not one of her days for a great social occasion. The lady's only guest was Beryl Bolger, Fatty's and Estella's maiden aunt, who had looked after the two since their parents' deaths.

Asphodel was nearly ninety, but there were some dark strands left in her graying curls, and her eyes were a striking blue. Frodo felt a catch in his throat when he saw her: She reminded him so of his childhood memories of his mother. If Primula had lived so long, she would doubtless look very like her elder sister looked today.

"Hello, Aunties," he said. Asphodel held out her hands to him, and he went to her.

"Frodo, dear boy, welcome. I've heard you haven't been well." As Frodo leaned down to give her a kiss, Asphodel placed both hands on his cheeks and studied his face. "Yes, you are pale, but I'm pleased to see you aren't as ill as I'd feared. I'd hoped you'd be able to come and help with this baffling situation. Have you seen Verbena yet?"

"Mrs. Stillwaters? Yes, I've just been to visit her."

"She has been a dear friend of mine for ages. She's a Goldworthy, you know, by birth. A good family--not the very best, mind you, but quite respectable."

By Asphodel's standards, the very best families included only the Brandybucks and Tooks. The Goldworthys and Stillwaters were among the 'respectables': the Burrowses, Bagginses, Bolgers, Boffins, Bankses, Bracegirdles, and other well-to-do village gentry who were deemed suitable to marry into the best families. Like all the Brandybucks, Asphodel considered Frodo one of their own, even if he had the misfortune to have a different last name.

"Beryl and I have just been discussing Camellia Stillwaters's disappearance," Asphodel told her nephew. "It's quite all right, Frodo--you can speak freely. Beryl knows as much of the matter as I do, though I must say that it's all thoroughly mysterious to me. No one has seen the girl over in a week! What I find most bewildering is that her husband seems remarkably unconcerned. If I were a young hobbit, newly married, and my spouse left without a word, I would be frantic with worry. Do you imagine he knows where she's gone?"

"He says not, but I've wondered that myself," said Frodo. "I didn't like to question Mrs. Stillwaters about her own son, but perhaps you could tell me, Aunt Del..." Mrs. Stillwaters had said that there'd been gossip about Camellia since she had gone; if there was, then Frodo had no doubt that Verbena Stillwaters's closest friends were talking the most. He would like to hear what they were saying. "What have you heard about Valerian and Camellia? What sort of couple were they? Mrs. Stillwaters says they seemed very happy together until recently. Would you say the same?"

The two ladies exchanged a glance. "I haven't, of course, had the opportunity to observe the young couple as closely as Verbena has," Asphodel answered. "I've known Val since he was a boy, and the bride has been invited specially to all my occasions, but I can't claim to know her well. I was surprised when Val first introduced her. Did you meet Val, Frodo?" Frodo nodded. "Such a dandy! The lad stands out in a crowd. And Camellia--do you know her?"

"We've met. She's a friend of Angelica's."

"That very pretty, forward Baggins cousin of yours? How extraordinary! Camellia's such a quiet, unassuming girl. Sweet, of course, but with so little to say for herself you might easily forget she was there. I couldn't imagine what Val saw in her."

"She is said to be very wealthy," said Beryl.

"So are a good many other girls in the Shire," replied Asphodel. "My Burrows nieces, the Took girls, your Estella, and any one of them more spirited. Val might have had his choice. But there must have been something to draw them to each other. In spite of their different temperaments, the two never seemed unhappy. If she's left him of her own volition, I have no idea why. Val was always most attentive to her when I saw them together, and never gave her cause for complaint."

"I've wondered if there was something more behind it," Beryl said meaningfully, hoping that if there was, Frodo would tell them.

"There has been some talk of a lover," Asphodel agreed, "but one always hears such tales when a married couple parts, whether it's true or not."

"It's usually true," observed Beryl.

"Perhaps, but in this case, I doubt it. I can't see that quiet little creature having a lover, can you? Or being so bold as to fly with him! But where could the girl have gone?"

At least one thing was clear to Frodo: Mrs. Stillwaters had not confided everything to her friends. Aunt Asphodel hadn't heard Verbena's suspicions of her daughter-in-law's whereabouts.

"Where are you staying, dear?" Asphodel asked him. "At the Three Badgers Inn? Though I've never stopped there myself, I've heard it's comfortable for travelers, but it couldn't be as nice as a proper home. Why don't you come and stay here while you're investigating?"

"Nothing would please me more, Auntie," Frodo said diplomatically, "but I've brought my friend, Sam Gamgee, with me, and we're expecting Merry and Pippin to join us. I'm afraid we'd crowd you out."

Asphodel appreciated the difficulty; her smial was quite cozy and elegant, but little more than a bungalow. She could accommodate one guest, but not four.

Beryl's eyes, however, had brightened at the mention of Merry. "We haven't the room for so many guests either," she said, "but I'd be very happy to have you to dinner tonight. Can you come? We haven't seen Merry, nor Pippin, in so long! Please, bring your friend too."
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