They received no further news until the evening. Later in the afternoon, Frodo took Sam to call on Aunt Asphodel for tea and gave her a gossipy account of the morning's events while perched rather gingerly on the plush settee in her tiny parlor.
"Aunt Del wanted to hear about Lady Iris and Mr. Pumble-Took, not the ugly way Lady Iris met her death," Frodo explained as they walked back to the inn. "She takes no interest in finger-prints."
"I noticed you didn't mention them," Sam observed. "Nor what you thought about it all, any more'n you'd tell me... not `til I found out how to get it out of you. D'you want to play another game after dinner?" His arm was around Frodo's waist as they walked and, spite of their being in the public street, he let his hand drop slightly as if he meant to pat Frodo's bottom.
Still feeling a bit sensitive in that area, Frodo danced quickly away from the touch with a laugh. "Not the same game tonight! With any luck, we'll be riding home tomorrow and I don't fancy bouncing for miles on a saddle. Perhaps when we are home, if Rosie's out with the children." He hadn't been spanked since he was ten years old, and he certainly hadn't found the experience enjoyable then! But that had undoubtedly been punishment, for some long-forgotten naughtiness, and this distinctly wasn't. He'd always known that Sam would never do anything to hurt him, and fortunately Sam was beginning to trust himself in this respect too; once he'd gotten into the spirit of the game, he'd given such a delicious paddling that Frodo had held out some time before he'd surrendered and explained what he believed had happened to Lady Iris.
As they approached the front of the inn, they saw that the local shirriff, Culby, was waiting for them. "He's been found, Mr. Baggins," the shirriff announced. "That gent you sent us after--they caught up with 'm just short of the Hay Gate in Buckland."
"He was trying to leave the Shire?" asked Sam.
Culby nodded.
"Where is he now?" asked Frodo. "Did you bring him back from Buckland? Has he been arrested?"
"No, Mr. Baggins. Chief Horrocks and Chief Muggeredge over to Buckland are keeping him at the hut by the Hay Gate. He won't be budged, and he won't speak a word, save to say he wants to talk to you. You'll come back with me?"
"Yes, of course." It was a long ride, but Frodo had to go. He'd waited all day for this, and was as eager to talk to Florisel as Florisel was to talk to him.
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