The Case of the Long-Lost Cousin by Kathryn Ramage

The Bagginses, Burrowses, and Angelica Whitfoot and her children arrived in a group just before tea-time. Frodo came down to the front gate to meet his guests. He could see that they were all eager for news about the results of his investigation, but no one dared asked with Miss Baggins and Aunt Dora among them. After Frodo had greeted the party and invited them up to go up into Bag End, where Sam stood waiting at the front door, he detained Angelica.

"Well?" Angelica demanded in a whisper as they walked up the steps behind the others. "What did you find out?"

"I have some good news, and a difficulty we must all discuss together," Frodo murmured. "Tell me--Does Doriella know I've been away?"

"She knows, Frodo, but since you'd just come back from a journey, she didn't take special note of you leaving again so soon. If she suspects it's because you've been investigating her--if that's what you're asking--she keeps it to herself. She hasn't been in the least nervous about it." Angelica gave him a sharp glance. "But it's good news, you say? Then she is a fraud! But who-?"

"Wait, and I'll show you." They went into the entry hall, where the others were shedding their coats and cloaks. With so many hobbits crowded into so small a space and every one of them responding in turn to Sam's welcome, there was a great deal of noise. The younger children were clamoring for treats with their tea. The false Miss Baggins, who had not been to Bag End before, exclaimed over what a charming home it was.

Frodo's voice rose over the commotion, directing them all to go into the best parlor. "Tea will be laid out there shortly," he told them. "I also have some other guests I brought back with me, whom I hope you'll all be pleased to meet." Angelica gave him another sharp and curious glance, but Frodo didn't meet her eyes; he was gesturing to lead the party down the hall.

The parlor door had been left open. Mrs. Odlum sat on the sofa, as instructed, with Eudo on one side and Eudora on the other. Sam's children were also in the room, since their playmates, the young Whitfoots, were expected. When she entered the room with Aunt Dora, Miss Burbage saw the trio on the sofa immediately. She froze in mid-step. Frodo, who stood on Dora's other side, thought his false cousin would have tried to retreat if there weren't so many people in the hall behind them, blocking her escape. Before Miss Burbage could say or do anything, however, Eudora had jumped up from her seat and raced toward her.

"Auntie Marda!" The little girl threw both arms around her aunt's waist.

"Marda?" Porto seized upon the name. "Not Doriella?"

"Why, Dorie, who is this child?" asked Dora. She peered down at the girl clinging to her supposed niece. "Do I know you, my dear?"

"Aunt Dora, this is Eudora Burbage," Frodo explained. "That lad over there on the sofa is her brother. They're your niece Doriella's children--No, not this lady's children. This is Miss Marda Burbage, their father's sister. She's only been posing as Doriella. You can't deny it, Miss Burbage, not after Eudora has identified you by your right name."

Marda didn't try to deny it, nor did she try to free herself from Eudora's enthusiastic embrace. She stood glaring at Mrs. Odlum. "Why did you bring them here?"

"'Twas Mr. Baggins who brought us," Mrs Odlum answered. "I'm sorry, Miss Marda. I didn't know it'd be trouble for you. He said he was the little un's uncle and he was taking us to meet his family."

"He said we had cousins!" Eudo piped up. He had been regarding the Burrows boys hopefully.

"Which is all perfectly true," said Frodo. "Here they are! Eudo, come and meet your cousins. Eudora dear, look--here's your cousin Myrtle and her brothers, and this little girl is Willa." This was enough to make Eudora let go of her aunt. "You'll have a tea party of your own in the parlor across the hall while the grown-ups talk over some boring business in here. Nel-" Elanor been had bouncing around excitedly since the guests had come in, "you can be their hostess, but let someone older pour out the tea."

Elanor was delighted to take charge of the younger party and lead the group of children across the hall, where Hazel and Mrs. Parmiggen were just setting out plates full of sugary cakes. Sam took each of the twins by a hand and went to oversee the pouring of hot liquids. Dora followed him out; she was more interested in making the acquaintance of her new great-niece and nephew than in hearing the truth about the woman who wasn't really her niece.

"Now what's all this about?" Ponto demanded of Marda after the children had gone. "If you're not our cousin, then why have you been calling yourself so?"

"Where is the real Doriella?" asked Peony. "Is there such a person?"

"There was," Frodo said. "She's dead, I'm afraid."

"But those are her children?" asked Angelica. "You're quite sure of it, Frodo?"

"Absolutely. I traced Dudo Baggins' daughter from the town where she was born to the vault where she and her husband were buried just a few weeks ago. It's a long story, which I'll be happy to tell you all later. There was some confusion over her true name--she seems to have called herself Daisy rather than Doriella for a time--but I'm certain that she was my cousin, and so are they." He gestured toward the room across the hall, where the shouts and laughter of children could be heard. "If anyone has a claim upon the Old Place through Uncle Dudo, it is those two children."

He turned to Marda, who had taken a seat on the sofa beside Mrs. Odlum. It had been rather cruel of him to spring a trap on her this way, but she'd meant to deceive his elderly aunt and possibly defraud her young nephew and niece; she deserved what was coming to her.

All she said in reply to Frodo's charges was, "Her father used to call her Daisy. That's what she always told us. Her stepfather adopted her and gave her his last name, but she insisted on being called Daisy as a girl so that she'd have a name that her real father had given her too. And it was what my brother used to call her."

Porto and Ponto sputtered at this irrelevancy, but Frodo asked her, "What did she tell you about the Bagginses?"

"It was you she talked about," Marda told him. "The famous detective. We first heard about you in Burridge when Mrs. Budling went missing and you found her. Then when we heard about that awful business with the Uphill-Tooks, Dorie started hinting that she was related to the fine folk there somehow. I thought she meant the Tooks, but she told Murgo and me later on that you must be a cousin of hers. Her father's name was Baggins and he'd come from Hobbiton, just like you. She said that her father's family was nearly as rich as the Tooks, and she ought to write to you one day and see if she had any money coming to her from a rich old aunt or uncle."

"We aren't as rich as the Tooks," Angelica's mother Golda said modestly. "Not nearly."

"You're all very rich compared to us," Marda responded.

"Is that why you came to Aunt Dora?" asked Angelica.

"For money? Yes!" Marda answered bluntly. "You have so much. Why shouldn't I have some? When my brother and Doriella died, all they left me was a little pottery shop and the children to bring up. I thought of Dorie's rich relatives. Maybe Dorie had something coming to her from her father's people. She thought she did. I didn't know much about them except for the name and a place called Hobbiton. So we left Burridge to see if I could find out more. When we stopped at that inn down the road near Tuckborough, I asked about the Bagginses. I learned about Miss Baggins being Dorie's father's sister and about the Old Baggins Place. I came here by myself. It was easier to say I was Doriella, that's all. The children have a right to a share--you said so yourself, Mr. Baggins."

"They do," Frodo agreed, "but you don't. I wish I could believe you'd come to us for Eudora's and Eudo's sake, Miss Burbage, but if you were honest, you would've brought them here with you in the first place and told my aunt who you really were, instead of leaving them in Mrs. Odlum's care at Green Hill. You never meant for us to know about them, not after you'd introduced yourself as Doriella Baggins. Once you told that lie, you could never tell the truth. What if Aunt Dora did leave you the Old Place? How could you bring the real Doriella's children here to live without explaining who they were? Even if you'd instructed the children to call you Mother, one was bound to slip up sooner or later and give the trick away."

"I never meant to live here."

"What then? Would you take whatever Aunt Dora gave you and settle somewhere else? Would the children see any of their inheritance, I wonder?"

"Yes, of course!" Marda insisted.

"Eventually, perhaps," Milo said dryly.

Several other members of the family looked as if they were itching to make even nastier remarks, but Frodo didn't want this scene to become a barrage of insults. He meant to keep to the point: What was to be done with the imposter now that she'd been exposed? He'd discussed this question with Sam before the Bagginses and Burrowses had come, and had decided how to deal with her most effectively.

"Miss Burbage, I will give you some money," he told her. "Not as much as you might've been hoping for, but it must do. Mrs. Odlum wishes to go back to Burridge as soon as possible, and you'll go with her. I'll pay for your journey. It's too late for you to leave tonight, so after you have your tea, you'll go back to the Old Place to pack your things and be ready to make your departure from the stable yard at the Ivy Bush Inn first thing in the morning. I'll send you something regularly hereafter to see that you aren't left in want, and to ensure that you don't trouble my aunt again."
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