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| Chapter 1:� Rumors in which Rose Cotton's world falls apart |
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| They came back, and� that was all that mattered. It was only just over a year they were away, but it was an awful year. At first I didn't even know they'd really left. Well, I knew Sam was going off to Crickhollow with Mr. Frodo, after Frodo went and sold Bag End to those Sackville-Bagginses |
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| The Sackville-Bagginses, Mistress Lobelia and her son Lotho.� That's a whole other story, that is. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| But Sam - of course he would go with Mr. Frodo.� He was just silly about Mr. Frodo; he was like a squire with his knight, something like that.� He would have followed him to the ends of the earth, and I guess he really did.� Followed him into Mordor, anyway, and that's about as near the end as I want to hear about.� And he brought him out again, what's more, and back to the Shire. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| But I'm getting ahead of myself.� I'm that muddled in the head these days, seems I can't tell a story straight.� | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| They went off to Crickhollow, like I said, and I was pretty miffed.� Sam and I had been keeping company several years by then, and I thought he really cared for me.� I wasn't� sewing my wedding dress yet, but I thought I knew who I'd be marrying, when the time came!� And then that last summer before they left, it seemed like everything changed. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| I couldn't put my finger on it, what was wrong.� Sam still came up to the farm three or four times a week, and we walked out together, or went on picnics with my brothers and his sister Marigold.� Sam made us all laugh, like he always had, reciting poems he'd made up, or singing some song he'd learned from Mr. Bilbo when he was a lad. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| But it wasn't the same.� He seemed to be only half with us, and where the rest of him was at, I couldn't figure out.� There was an expression in his eyes, like he was looking in as much as he was looking out, if you take my meaning. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| �And he didn't say nothing about me coming to Crickhollow.� When I first heard about the move, I thought, well, here's our chance to get married.� Mr. Frodo'll be needing a housekeeper as well as a gardener, in his new house.� Even if it's a lot smaller than Bag End, he surely won't expect Sam to do all �the work, the gardening and cooking and cleaning, everything.� So I thought, you watch, girl, Sam will speak sometime this summer.� Any day now, he'll speak. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| But he didn't speak, and the summer was over.� The day before Mr. Frodo's birthday, he came by the farm and took me for a walk.� I thought sure he'd speak then, finally, but he hardly said a word the whole time.� When we got back he stopped by the big tree at the end of the lane, and put his arms around me. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| "I won't come up to the house right now, Rosie," he said.� "I'll just say my good-byes here, where there ain't no one watching." And he hugged me so tight, I thought he'd squeeze the breath right out of me, but I wasn't complaining, not me.� And then he kissed me, just once. "I'll come back as soon as I can, Rosie. You take care of yourself now." | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| And then he was gone, back along the road to Hobbiton, and it was so dark under the trees, I couldn't even see him after the first few steps.� I didn't see him again till more than a year later, when he came riding into our yard on that pony, all done up in chain mail and helmet and not looking like my Sam at all.� | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| It was only a few days after he left that Fredegar Bolger came back from Crickhollow, and my brother Jolly saw him at the pub in Bywater.� He was laughing about it at breakfast next morning. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| "Frodo Baggins must?ve had some housewarming party, is all I can say, because if you ask me, Fatty Bolger is still drunk!� You should've heard the story he was telling last night." | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| My father looked up from his plate. "Mr. Fredegar Bolger, is that who you're talking about, Jolly?" | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| "Uh, yes, Da.� Mr. Fredegar.� But Da, you should've heard him - what a story!� He says they all took off at the crack of dawn, the very next morning after Sam and Mr. Frodo got there - Sam and Frodo and Merry Brandybuck and Pippin Took, and a string of ponies, right through the Hedge into the Old Forest, if you please." | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| "The Old Forest!� Why that's crazy, that is!� Nobody goes in there, nobody with any� sense," said my mother. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| "Of course not, Mum.� I'm telling you, it's a crazy story, and it gets worse.� So Mr. Fredegar's all alone at Crickhollow - he wasn't going into the Old Forest, not for Mr. Frodo nor nobody.� He's in the house alone, and in the middle of the night the house is attacked by spooks!� They come in the front door, and he runs out the back and all the way to the nearest neighbor,� a mile off.� Must be the most exercise he's taken in a year.� The neighbors sound the alarm and the whole of Buckland is out there chasing around in the dark, looking for Mr. Fredegar's burglars.� I wish I'd been there to see it!" | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| He flung himself back in his chair, laughing fit to bust, and I had to twist his ear to get his attention. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| "Never mind Fatty and his spooks, what's happened to Sam?� Did they really go in the Old Forest?� Are they all right?" | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| "I don't know, Rose; all I know is what Fa--� Mr. Fredegar was telling us.� He never said if they came out of the Forest, only that they went in." | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| "And did he say why?"� my father asked. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| "No,"� Jolly said, sober now.�"No, he just said they took the ponies and went in at first light, and he said good-bye to them at the Hedge.� Seemed like they were all afraid of something, and they left him behind to sort of guard the house.� Funny person to choose for a guard, if you ask me." | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| "And then someone came and broke in - sounds like maybe they did need a guard," said my Da. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| "Well, if you can believe any of it!"� Jolly exclaimed.� "But the whole thing is crazy, Da.� What's to be afraid of?" | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| That's how innocent we� were then. What's to be afraid of?� This is the Shire, for pity's sake.� Nothing ever happens in the Shire.� | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| But even then, when we didn't know to be afraid,� I couldn't rest; I was in a dither to know that Sam was safe.� I badgered Da about it until he threw his napkin down on the table, exasperated. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| "All right, Rose!� I can't take time from the harvest, and I can't spare the older boys.� But Nibs can drive the pony cart out to Buckland and see if he can get any news. Will that satisfy you?� Likely enough he'll find it's all some prank dreamed up by Merry Brandybuck, or him and Mr. Pippin, to tease Mr. Fredegar." | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| But when Nibs got back, two days later, he went straight to Da without a word to me and� a look on his face that froze the questions on my lips.� They went in the tack room at the back of the barn and closed the door.� A quarter of an hour later, Da� called me in. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| "Rose," he said, and cleared his throat.�";Rose, my dear girl - I'm afraid it's bad news, Rosie." | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| I felt my knees buckling and�I sat down on a stool, staring at him. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| "Nibs asked all round the neighborhood, and it sounds as if Mr. Fredegar's story is true after all.� Crickhollow was broken into, certainly, and there's no one living there now.� There was trouble of some sort, they think from the Old Forest, and they raised the alarm but they didn't catch anyone.� No one has seen Sam, or Mr. Frodo and his friends, but they did find signs that someone had taken a string of ponies through the Hedge into the Old Forest.� And there's no sign that anyone has come back out." | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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