Here was the connection he'd been looking for! Uncle Merry had an heir after all, although one it would be somewhat awkward to acknowledge. Was he desperate to keep the child's parentage a secret? Was that why these murders had been committed--Merimas knew, and Eliduc had been about to find out? Frodo decided that he must talk to Milli that very afternoon, to find his answer.
While the others were discussing the matter excitedly, he and Sam left the drawing room. Uncle Merry was in the front hall, and Frodo stopped to tell him, "When Merry comes back, will you please inform him that we've gone into Newbury. I want to have a word with Milli Pibble--or should I say Todbrush."
He'd hoped that the name would produce some reaction, but Uncle Merry stared at him blankly, as if the name meant nothing to him!
"I believe you're acquainted with her," Frodo pursued, "and her little boy?"
His uncle's face darkened. "What are you insinuating, Frodo?"
"Nothing, only that I mean to find the truth." And he went out, Sam at his heels.
As they left Brandy Hall, they met Merry and Pippin and the aunties returning from Bucklebury. The ladies were somber, but Merry was obviously fuming and Pippin was smirking. Sensing that this wasn't the right time to tell Merry about his decision, nor his suspicions of Uncle Merry or the astonishing information Sam had delivered regarding Milli--though Merry would certainly hear this last when he spoke to their cousins!--Frodo only said that he was going to chase down an important clue and mightn't be back until dinner-time.
After the ladies had gone in, he took Merry by the arm and asked, "What's wrong? Has something happened?"
"Oh, nothing. Hy Bunce was there with his mother," Merry explained tersely, "and Pippin made a silly ass of himself."
"I only said it was pleasant to see him again," Pippin protested with wide-eyed innocence. "And why shouldn't I say it? He's a nice young lad. He doesn't have much of a chance with Celie, and I've got to find somebody to keep me company. Nearly everybody else is married these days except for you and Frodo. If I'm not quick about it, those Marishe girls will catch him." He sighed. "Oh, very well--if you don't approve of Hy, then what about Marly? This isn't a good time to start up with him, since the poor thing's all torn up over his brother, but if I give him a bit of time-"
Merry huffed. "I don't care what you do," he retorted, "or who you do it with. Just don't come and tell me about it." He stalked briskly across the lawn toward the Hall.
Pippin grinned at Frodo and Sam. "He cares," he said before he ran to catch up.
Frodo and Sam rode into Newbury, but parted when they reached the green. Frodo wanted to question Milli privately about this delicate and personal subject. While he was at the Pibble house, Sam would go into the sherriffs' guardhouse to see if they'd found the weapon that had killed Eliduc, and then wait for Frodo at the High Hay.
Milli lived with her mother and son in a bungalow on the other side of Newbury. An elderly hobbit-woman was working in the tiny front garden, kneeling and digging with her hands through a pile of rich, dark earth in a wheelbarrow. Little Jem was seated on the grass nearby, playing with a collection of carved wooden toys. They both looked up as Frodo approached the gate.
Frodo looked down at Jem, who was about four years old and staring at him with wide brown eyes. He'd seen the child a dozen times, but had never really looked at him closely before. Was there anything of the Brandybucks in that solemn little face? Jem did bear some resemblance to Celie's Mungo--both being chubby, muffin-faced, dark-curled toddlers--but there must be a thousand infant hobbits throughout the Shire who looked the same. Nothing marked him as Berry's child.
"What is you want, young sir?" asked the old woman as she sat back and brushed the dirt from her fingers.
"Mrs. Pibble?" Frodo had never seen Milli's mother before, but this must surely be her. "How do you do? I'm Mr. Baggins, Milli's employer. Is she in? I'd like to speak to her."
"She's in," answered Mrs. Pibble. "Just washing up the tea-things. She'll be to the cottage first thing in the morning, as usual."
"Thank you, but it can't wait 'til she comes tomorrow." Mrs. Pibble was regarding him with suspicion and mistrust, and Frodo wondered why. Everyone was of course nervous and wary lately, with a murderer about, but she seemed to have some particular hostility toward him. "May I come in, please?"
"Let 'm in, Mum!" Milli called out from inside the bungalow through one of the windows, and came to open the door. "Good afternoon t'you, Mr. Frodo," she said with a curtsey. "Whatever brings you here? 'Twas a surprise to hear you talking to Mum."
"I was just telling your mother I wanted to talk to you, Milli. It's rather a personal matter, but I think it will help with my investigation."
Milli nodded solemnly, as if she knew what he was referring to and had been expecting this. "Come in, Mr. Frodo. It's all right, Mum. Let 'm past."
Mrs. Pibble moved grudgingly to the other side of her wheelbarrow so Frodo could come in through the gate and up the paving-stone path to the door without climbing over her. The elderly hobbit continued to watch him warily as he entered the house, until Milli shut the door.
"You mustn't mind Mum," said Milli as she showed Frodo into a tiny but neat sitting room. "She worries for me."
"Does she think I'm the murderer?"
"Oh, no, 'tisn't that! She doesn't like me working for one o' the young gents from the Hall. She hasn't since Master Merry came and asked me if I wanted the work, but she can't argue against it as it brings us in some good money. I always tell her you're Master Merry's friend who we'd heard so much talk about afore he went off, and it's safe as deep-dug smials for me to keep house for you. I tell her you never been a bit improper with me, but she worries over it just the same, remembering my old troubles at the Hall."
Frodo realized that she had confused him with Pippin, but she understood the situation perfectly: a pretty maidservant couldn't ask for a safer employer.
"That's what I've come to ask you about, Milli," he said. "Your 'troubles' at the Hall. I haven't spoken of it before--I didn't want to embarrass you by prying into something that was none of my business, and if it weren't for the murders of Merimas and Eliduc, I wouldn't pry now. But I think there is a connection. I've heard a story today about you and my cousin Berilac, and why you live apart from your husband."
"Mr. Berry?" Milli looked puzzled. "I know what awful tale you heard, Mr. Frodo. That was what Jeb thought when I parted from 'm, but there was never anything in it."
"Then Berilac isn't your little boy's father?"
"No, of course not! I never had a thing to do with him."
Frodo was confused now as well. If she were telling the truth, then there was nothing in the gossip at all. Jem was not Uncle Merry's grandson and potential heir. And yet, Milli had expected him to come to her with questions--if not about this, then what?
Then he understood. It wasn't Berilac at all. He had found the girl who'd been involved with Merimas, and Eliduc's remark to his brother about her identity being a surprise now made sense. She'd been under his nose all the time, just as Sam had said.
"Milli," he asked, "was it Merimas who courted you?"
She nodded.
"Was he-" Frodo paused. "Was Merimas Jem's father?"
"You mustn't think badly of Mr. Merimas," Milli answered. "He was a gentleman, through and through."
"Milli, I hardly think his treatment of you makes him a gentleman."
She shook her head, her opinion unswayed. "That wasn't his doing, Mr. Frodo. 'Twas mine. Now, Mr. Berry, he was the one to watch out for. If you was a pretty maid in service at the Hall, you learned that quick enough! When Mr. Merimas saw how Mr. Berry was always after me, he put his foot down and said there'd be no more of it. He looked after me, to see I wasn't troubled again. He went out walking with me if I had errands, or saw me home back to Newbury when I had my afternoons off. I was grateful to him, and I showed him so. There was no harm in it.
"I think he might've married me. He said he wanted to, as it was only right, but his mother, Missus Mellisaunte, and Lady Esmeralda and Missus Hilda said he ought to marry Miss Celie, and he was honor-bound to do as they wanted. 'Twas for the best, and I never made him any trouble about it, nor said a word to anybody. No scandal ever touched Mr. Merimas over me. When I saw I needed a husband quick, I had Jeb Todbrush, who was wanting to marry me before I went to work at the Hall and was ready to take me up when I said I'd have him. Things was fine, 'til Jeb heard the gossip about Mr. Berry and wouldn't believe me when I said there was nothing in it. I never told 'm about Mr. Merimas, you see. I didn't, and wouldn't."
Frodo was stunned, and had to sit down. Of course, it was obvious now, the need for so much secrecy between Milli and Merimas that no one had guessed the truth. From childhood, little hobbit boys, especially among the gentry, were taught the proper way to behave with girls: One was always polite and protective, and one simply didn't play with them sexually, the way one might with other boys; kissing was the most that was acceptable for a courting couple. Gentle-hobbits were brought up to be particularly mindful of their treatment of the lower social ranks. The worst thing a gentleman could do was abuse his position of power and trust over a servant. This was why Berilac had always tried to keep his exploits among the maids at the Hall a secret from his father and family, and why Merimas could never breathe a word about the girl he really wanted to marry. It wasn't that Milli herself was objectionable, but even admitting to walking out with a girl in the Brandybucks' service would be a disgrace.
Frodo was very well aware of the onus of breaking this rule, for he was guilty of it himself. How gentlehobbits were supposed to behave to their servants hadn't weighed heavily upon him while he and Sam were far from the Shire, after all they had been through together, but he'd begun to feel it once they'd come home. To many people, the worst part of the scandal if they were discovered wouldn't be that he had fallen in love with another boy, but that he had taken his gardener into his bed. He'd taken great pains since their return from the quest to bring Sam up in the world and see that he was no longer a servant.
"Did Merimas know?" he asked Milli.
"I never told 'm, but I think he must've guessed after Jeb went to the Hall that one time and made such a fuss," Milli answered. "We barely saw each other to speak to since he married Miss Celie, but I'd catch him sometimes, when he came for her and her little boys at Crickhollow, looking at my Jem like he was wondering." She gazed at him earnestly. "You won't tell more'n you have to about this, will you, Mr. Frodo? I'd hate for any harm to come to him, even in memory, nor to my Jem. I wouldn't want Missus Celie to find out, as her and me have been friends."
"I will tell no more than is necessary," Frodo promised. Now that he had spoken to her, he still wasn't certain where the connection lay. Even if it wasn't true, had Uncle Merry believed Jem to be his grandson? "Was this what you were afraid I'd come to ask you about?"
"No." Milli was silent for a moment, then went on softly, "I know you've been asking around Newbury, Mr. Frodo, and looking for somebody that saw Merimas and knows where he went the night he was killed. I didn't want to tell you afore, as it'd only cast a bad shadow on his memory now he was dead, but I see as I have to."
"You saw Merimas the night he was killed?"
She nodded. "He came here to me."
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