"It wasn't Celie she was referring to, was it, when she spoke of unhappy marriages?" Frodo asked Melly after they'd left Amarilla's smial and were heading back down the steep street. "When you arrived at Brandy Hall, you said you meant to stay on awhile, and not go back to Tuckborough. You must have told her more than you told us."
"Yes, I told Rilla, and Mama and Aunt Esme too," Melly replied. "I came home because of Merimas, and I mean to stay because Mama needs me at this awful time, but I also thought it best if I live apart from Evvy for awhile."
"What's wrong? He doesn't run about with- ah- boys or anything, does he?"
"Oh, no. Nothing like that. We don't get on, that's all." She sighed. "I knew his faults when I married him. I knew he had a weak character, but I fought to win him back even though I had the opportunity to break with him after Toby was killed. I've no one but myself to blame. If it weren't for little Addy, I'd wonder if I'd made a mistake in not accepting you instead." She gave him a sidelong glance, then laughed. "I daresay I'd be just as unhappy with a husband who disappeared from the Shire for months at a time without warning and took up with Merry."
Melly was the only girl Frodo had ever considered marrying, and he wondered now what it would be like if she had accepted his proposal two and a half years ago. Their marriage would probably not be very different from the relationship he currently had with Merry, for even if she was female, Melly was also a cousin he loved dearly, if not passionately. They might have had a blue-eyed baby boy like little Addy, since Melly had wanted a child and he would make the effort for her sake. Could he have found some measure of contentment in the sort of life that most hobbits desired, even if he'd never really wanted it for himself? For a time, perhaps. But he wouldn't have gone to Minas Tirith a second time even at Gandalf's and Aragorn's bidding if he'd had family responsibilities to keep in the Shire, wouldn't have received Arwen's gift, and would therefore still be seriously ill. If Melly made a mistake in marrying him, she wouldn't have been stuck with it for long, but she would've been burdened with an invalid before she was free.
"I daresay you're right--I would've made you unhappy in other ways." He took her hand. "You know I'll always be a friend to you if you need one."
"You are terribly sweet. Frodo. Perhaps I simply needed to come home to think things through," Melly said. "I've been so long away. The Tooks are kind, but I missed the Hall and everyone here. I was eager to leave after Mentha died, but I'm glad to be back again now. I only wish it were a happier occasion."
They walked down the street toward the dell containing the few shops and post office at the bottom of Bucklebury. As they approached the Buckle's Notch, they met Merry and Pippin coming out. If the two were somewhat prickly with each other, Frodo and Melly didn't note it as unusual. When he found out that the pair had already spoken to Eliduc and Darco, Frodo decided not to go in. Instead, they compared notes and discussed the matter while standing in the high street.
"Eli does seem the most likely suspect for striking Ilbie," said Frodo, "providing that he did it to protect his brother--who might have killed Merimas--and that he did it before he went to the Notch last night. That's entirely possible. We don't know precisely when Ilbie left us. Everyone thought he'd gone into the cottage. He may have already been assaulted while the first guests were leaving, or it may have happened later, while we were talking in the garden."
"But I don't think it was Marly who killed Merimas," countered Pippin. "He sounded so insistent about having nothing to do with it. I know, he would, even if he did do it, but I believed him."
"And there is Amarilla to consider," said Melly solemnly, for she didn't like the idea. "She does care very much for Celie, as an older sister might, and she was angry at the way Merimas treated her. Frodo, you don't think her cousin is right in what he said about her, do you?"
"I'm sure Darco only told me what he did because he wanted me to think she's up to something, whether she is or not," Merry tried to assure Melly. "The way he feels toward her, he'd say anything poisonous he could think of, just out of spite."
"Miss Underhaye may have her reasons for hating Merimas," Frodo agreed, "but I don't think we should take her cousin at his word. I have plenty of suspicions, but I need to know more before I can come to any definite decision about anyone. We still have to hear what the others have to say too."
"If you've no further need of me for the present, I'd like to go back to the Hall," said Melly. "I left Addy with Celie and the nursery-maid, but I can't leave my baby on their hands all day."
"Yes, of course," said Frodo. "You've been a great help, and I'm glad we had a chance to talk as we did. Merry, Pip, you'll see Melly home, won't you?"
"And where are you going, Frodo?" asked Merry.
"I want to have a word with Merimas's friends," Frodo explained. "I've been wondering if he told them anything of his quarrels with Celie, or that other matter. If there's any truth behind that old gossip about Merimas, his friends might be the only ones to know about it."
"Except for the girl," chipped in Pippin.
"Only we don't know who she is, if she exists at all," retorted Merry.
"Merimas's friends don't all live in town," Frodo continued his explanation. "If I go out to the Pogs farm, I'll be close enough to Newbury to visit the shirriffs before I'm through for today. I don't expect to be finished until late, so I won't try to come to the Hall for dinner. I'll hear the others' reports tomorrow--unless they've discovered something too interesting to wait, in which case, you can find me at Crickhollow."
"Someone ought to go with you," said Merry, stepped closer to him. "I'll go if you want me to."
"Then you'd have to walk home down the lane alone! Unless," Frodo added softly so that Melly and Pippin couldn't hear, "you'd like to stop the night at the cottage."
"I'd like to, but you know I can't," Merry said apologetically in the same soft tone, "not with things as they are. Why don't you come back to the Hall tonight?"
"I was thinking about it last night, but I expect I'll be too tired to do much more than go to bed after I've walked around half of Buckland. I'll be all right, Merry," Frodo promised him. "I'll keep to the roads. I won't go near the Hedge or any other lonely spots, and I won't wander around after dark."
"You ought to be armed if you're going to be out alone," Merry insisted. "Where's Sting?"
"Hanging over the fireplace in my sitting room." Frodo picked up a short piece of wood from the side of the road. "There, that'll do to defend myself if someone tries to do me harm in the lanes. I'll see you all in the morning." He turned to go around the eastern foot of the hill, toward the oldest smials in town, where Gorbulac Brandybuck lived.
"You ought to have a proper bodyguard!" Merry called after him.
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