The next morning, while Sam went back to the Scuttle smial to assist his aunt, Frodo sought out Mr. Leekey at his home, a cottage near the heart of the town. While he said that the reason for his visit was to return the will, the questions he wanted answers to were foremost on his mind.
"I must say, I was surprised by Mrs. Scuttle's generosity to you," Frodo began. "She must've been extremely impressed by your services."
"I hope that in the years I worked for her, I gave her no reason to complain of me," Leekey responded with prim modesty.
"But it goes beyond no complaint for a employer to leave so much to a man-of-business she's known for a comparatively short time," Frodo pressed further.
Ramson Leekey drew himself up rigidly. His face flushed red. "I don't know what you mean, Mr. Baggins. You- you seem to be implying something distasteful."
"No," said Frodo. "As a matter of fact, I don't know quite what I do mean. When I read the will last night, it struck me as odd, and it's my business to pry into things that look odd to me. It's sometimes a nasty job, I confess. If you know her reasons, I'd be very grateful if you'd tell me what they were," he appealed to Mr. Leekey, hoping to make him less defensive and more willing to answer honestly.
Leekey struggled with himself for some minutes, but in the end his desire for Frodo not to think ill of him won out over his reluctance to speak. "When I first came to Gamwich, I presented myself to Mrs. Scuttle and I told her the truth about who I am. It isn't what I told you yesterday, Mr. Baggins, nor what the folk hereabout believe. When I left my home, Mother sent me here to Gamwich to find my father."
"Your father?" Frodo repeated the words before he understood. "You mean, you were Mr. Scuttle's son? But I thought he didn't have any children."
Leekey shook his head. "He didn't, not official-like. Mother wasn't his first wife, you see. She worked at his house for a time before she married, and again after Mr. Ramholt Leekey, as was always like a father to me, passed on. They never married, since he was married already when they met and long since parted from each other when the first Mrs. Scuttle died. I didn't know the truth of it myself 'til a few years ago. I hope you won't go gossiping over this, Mr. Baggins."
Frodo assured him that he wouldn't.
"It wasn't what I meant to do when I come here. I wouldn't go about telling people who I was and bringing disgrace on all of us." Leekey's face was still red, and he was still struggling with some strong emotion. "I was looking for suitable work and Mother- Well, Mother thought I had some claim upon him, especially since he'd no other children. She hoped that my father might help to start me off in a trade, or else provide me with a job. I always had a good head for numbers and wrote a fair hand. Only, as it turned out, he was dead long before I got to Gamwich. I thought that I might come in for something of his money. Mrs. Scuttle saw the justice of that. It was all before she'd met him, so she didn't mind what he'd done. She gave me work I was happy to have and I had a bit to send home to Mother. Him who I grew up calling Dad hadn't left her with much and she had to work at odd jobs before I was old enough to help out. I hoped Mrs. Scuttle'd do more for me in time, seeing as how this house was my father's before it was hers, but she favored Mrs. Tredgold in that. Well, that was her right and I can't complain with how she's treated me."
Mr. Leekey spoke of discretion and unpresumptuous hopes for his full due from his true father, but Frodo couldn't help wondering if there was more to his story. Had he come here only seeking employment, or had Mrs. Leekey sent her son to Gamwich in hopes of blackmailing Mr. Scuttle or his widow in order to keep their secret? Mrs. Scuttle was a respectable woman and might be willing to pay to keep her late husband's reputation unsullied. But would she give Mr. Scuttle's son a job in a trusted position, and then leave him such an enormous bequest for the sake of his silence? Surely she might've bought him off for less. Whatever the mother and son had hoped, it seemed more likely that Mr. Leekey was at least telling the truth that Mrs. Scuttle recognized the justice of his claim.
Frodo spared the man-of-business further embarrassment by asking about his parentage, and went on to his second line of questioning, "May I ask--what would happen if Mrs. Tredgold refused her inheritance? Let's suppose that she didn't accept it as a form of apology from her aunt and didn't want anything that had belonged to her? Who would it go to?"
"She could pass it on to whoever she wanted," Leekey answered. "I expect it'd go to her nephews, and I hear there are some nieces in Hobbiton."
"And another niece and nephew elsewhere. But what if she refused to do even that much?" Frodo tried to make his question more clear. "What if she hadn't come to claim her inheritance, never appeared in Gamwich after her aunt's death, nor wrote in answer to your letters to make her wishes known? As if she had disappeared from the Shire." This was as close as he thought he could come to making his true point. "What would become of the property Mrs. Scuttle left her?"
Leekey appeared perplexed by such a strange question, but he gave it serious and careful thought before he answered, "I suppose I'd go on looking after it, waiting for her to show herself. I wouldn't know she wasn't coming, Mr. Baggins. I'd keep the house up, take in the rents, and keep her money in strongboxes."
"And if she never showed up? Who would it eventually go to?"
Leekey shook his head. "Mrs. Scuttle didn't say nothing in her will. You've read it all for yourself now, Mr. Baggins, so you know as much as I do. The proper thing to do then is take it to our magistrate and let them who have some claim make it and Mr. Applegrove'd divvy it up as he saw fit."
"Mr. Applegrove?" Frodo echoed. "The farmer who owns the orchard north of town?"
"That's right, Mr. Baggins. He's our magistrate since old Mr. Elmsworthy passed on."
Frodo had met the elderly Mr. Elmsworthy during his last visit to Gamwich, but hadn't heard that a new magistrate had been recently appointed. "And you say those 'who have some claim'--you mean yourself and the Gamgees?"
Mr. Leekey nodded. "Well, I'd only put myself forth for the house, as it was my father's, if I could do it without making a scandal. I've got no right to the money Mrs. Scuttle left for Mrs. Tredgold. Ham Gamgee and his brothers and sisters'd most likely come in for that."
"Was that what you wanted to know?" Sam wondered when Frodo repeated the second half of this conversation after they met for luncheon at the Scuttle smial. "Who Aunt Lula's money'd go to?"
"Yes. I was interested in what would happen if she didn't show up to claim her inheritance."
"I've got my own will already writ," Lula interjected. "I don't see any need to chance it over this. Except for some odds and ends that'll go to friends, it's all divided equal between my sisters' children. I've no other kin. Any magistrate'd see the justice o' that when it came to what Aunt Edda left me. But why d'you think I wouldn't show up in Gamwich, Mr. Baggins? Auntie and me had our quarrels, but I'm not so unforgiving that I'd stick my nose in the air and turn down boxes of money if she wanted me to have `em."
"D'you think Ham or me or one of my sisters'd knock Aunt Lula over the head for her money, Frodo?" Sam asked, joking.
"No, Sam," Frodo answered with a laugh. "I consider that most unlikely. But I wondered if there was someone else who might benefit from her disappearance." He turned to Lula. "Mrs. Tredgold, you said that people were surprised to see you return to Gamwich. Can you tell me specifically who?"
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