Aunt Lula had said that she mightn't stay for long. At the beginning of their search, Sam would have thought he'd be relieved to hear her say so, but by the time they returned to Hobbiton, he was sorry. He'd liked her the moment he'd met her, and only liked her more as they became better acquainted. The three-day journey home, which carefully avoided the road through Gamwich, gave them plenty of time to talk. Aunt Lula had a wealth of stories to tell about her travels, and was eager to hear of the great journeys Sam had made with Frodo, but their conversations often turned to his mother and those months after her death.
"I always wrote Bell, wherever I was, and she wrote back whenever I had a fixed address," Lula told him. "When she was expecting her last baby, she asked me to come to Hobbiton. Fen was planning a trip into the far northlands. Normally, I would've gone with him, but we both agreed that this would be a good time for me to go for a nice, long visit. It'd been years since Bell and I had seen each other, and I'd missed her. She was the only one who approved my marriage to Fen. She'd had troubles of her own when she'd gone to marry your father, Sam dear. So to Hobbiton I went. I took a cottage for myself, and lived there for nearly three years. Fen came to join me after while. When poor Bell took ill, I did my best to nurse her and was at her side at the last. She asked me to look after you little ones."
"Why didn't you?" asked Sam. "Why'd you go off again? Was it... was it because of the Gaffer?"
"We've heard that you quarreled with Gaffer Gamgee over the upbringing of the children," Frodo added, "or that you simply left to join your husband."
"Fen left Hobbiton after Bell's funeral, and when I saw things had been fairly settled in my sister's household, I went after him," Lula answered, "but there was more to it than that. It was time for me to go. If I quarreled, it wasn't with Ham. There was an awful, interfering woman who lived next door. She always criticized the way I looked after the children, as if she knew better. She was jealous of how I'd made myself useful in the house, of course, and afraid that I might take it up permanently. She once said I wished the children were mine. Well, perhaps she was right about that. I never had a child of my own, you see. It wouldn't have been easy for Fen and me to take children all around the Shire with us if we had, but I was envious of my sister's six--and darlings every one of you--just the same. If I'd stayed much longer, I would've become like a mother to you, in your own mother's place. I might've truly thought of you as mine. I was sorry to leave you all, Sam, but I thought it for the best."
They arrived in Hobbiton that evening. Rather than wait until morning, Lula asked that they stop by Number 3 on their way up the Hill before going to Bag End. The Gaffer and Marigold had just finished their dinner when Sam knocked on the bungalow door. When his sister answered, her eyes went with at the sight of the lady who stood with him and Frodo.
"Marigold, this here's our Aunt Lula," Sam introduced them. "We've found her,"
The Gaffer, hearing this, rose from his chair and came to the open door, beaming. "Is it..? Why, it is! Lu, how long it's been since I saw you last, and you haven't changed a hair since."
"Oh, I've changed a hair or two," Lula replied, laughing, and took him by the hands. "How have you been, Ham?"
Within a few minutes, the two older hobbits had settled by the sitting-room fire and were talking together as no one else were in the room. Sam had meant for his aunt to stay the night at Bag End, but as she showed no sign of ending her conversation with the Gaffer, and he was sure that Frodo must be weary after their long journey, he asked Marigold to bring Lula up the Hill when she wished to find a bed. Then he and Frodo went up to Bag End without her.
Lula never did come up to Bag End that night, and Sam went back down to the bungalow in the morning. His sister was alone in the tiny kitchen, making a pot of tea, but there was no sign of the elder pair.
"They didn't sit up talking all night?" he asked her.
"No, only half the night," answered Marigold. "After we saw Dad to his rest, 'twas too late to go up the Hill and wake you and Rose, so I made up the bed in your old room for Auntie. She's still asleep, but I thought as I'd have breakfast ready for her as well as Dad when they rise." The kettle over the fire began to whistle, and she took it off its hook and poured the boiling water into a little brown pot. "I never seen him so happy, not in a long while, as he was last night talking to Auntie about Mum and the old days when they was all young. It'll be good to have her about for awhile, but 'tisn't a great matter anymore if she doesn't stay."
"No great matter anymore?" Sam echoed. "What d'you mean?"
"I had a word with Tom after you and Mr. Frodo went off, to tell 'm as how we mightn't have to wait much longer to be wed. Tom said he'd for me waited long enough. He'd no objection to coming to live here with me and Dad, and going off every day to do his work at the farm, so long as we could be married at last. Whether Auntie stays to look after Dad or no, we'll be wed in a month."
"Marigold! That's wonderful news." Sam gave his sister a quick hug and kiss. "If any wife could make that Tom Cotton behave himself proper, it'd be you."
While they were talking about Marigold's wedding plans, the Gaffer came in to breakfast. He was very cheerful this morning, smiling to himself as he sat down to wait for his bacon and eggs. "A fine woman that Lu's turned out to be, for all she was a wild lass once. Thank ye, Sam-lad, and thanks be to Mr. Frodo for bringing her to see me. How do the two of you like your aunt?"
"I didn't get much chance to talk with her last night, but when I told her about me 'n' Tom, she said as she'd help me with my dress and such," said Marigold. "I'm glad she'll be here for the wedding."
"I like her," Sam said, "and she won't be out of place, in Mum's place." He braced himself, and said what he felt had to, "If you're to marry her, Dad, I won't mind it a bit."
"Marry?" The Gaffer stared at him in surprise, then chuckled. "Now what put such an idea into your head? I told you I wasn't planning to marry again, Sam-lad, and even if I was, I wouldn't marry my Bell's own sister! Lu is too like her, and like a sister to me. But that's just why I thought o' her. It's a comfort to have someone from the old days by me, who remembers Bell as I do and can talk with me about her."
Sam was surprised--he had misunderstood his father's reasons from the first--but he saw the truth of it now. Aunt Lula could give the Gaffer just what he and Marigold couldn't: memories of their mother.
He stayed at the bungalow long enough to see Aunt Lula and had a bite of breakfast with his family, then went back up the Hill to Beg End, where he knew Rosie would be waiting for him to return for breakfast there. Rosie was feeding the baby and had kept a plate warm for him. Frodo's tray sat ready on the end of the kitchen table; before he settled down to his second round of bacon and eggs, Sam took the tray and carried it down the hall to Frodo's room.
While Frodo ate, Sam told him what the Gaffer had said. Frodo wasn't surprised.
"Yes, I thought the same when we started out," he admitted, "but once we came to Foxglove cottage, I knew that even if that's what the Gaffer intended, it wouldn't come off. Your aunt Lula isn't the sort for him."
Sam would never call himself a great investigator, but this once he knew exactly what clue had led Frodo to see the truth. "She didn't have no garden at all," he said.
"Yes, exactly. I can't see the Gaffer wanting to marry any woman who cared so little for flowers. Mrs. Scuttle would have a better chance, if you'd care to have her as a stepmother."
"No thank you!" answered Sam with a huff.
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