Notes to Readers:

Please be sure to leave a review! They are very motivating, and each review you leave entitles you to a free cup of cyber-tea in the parlour (The Muse and I do try to make our guests feel welcome). What you are seeing here is the edited draft. (Thanks to my editor who prefers to work behind the scenes.)

Aemilia, Poor Freddy. This is a down, there are a few more ups and downs to go... hope you don't get bored and chuck the story. (Maybe I ought to have a beta go over the story with a scalpel).

Xena, well, the next chapter is not quite so much fun, but necessary, partly to explain what's wrong with Freddy.

Runaway Update: The last chapter is written! Now we just need to finish the in-between material—two chapters? Three? Not quite sure yet. Another chapter exists in rough draft and will be ready to post sometime soon, I hope. I know I promised it this week but my co-author was on vacation last week.

Expect another chapter of "Small and Passing Thing" Monday, if all goes well. My editor is helping me whip the thing into shape, chapter by chapter. Thank you for your patience. You might check the bio page at ff.net on days when no update of "Small and Passing" is due, for I will be putting up snippets of one-shot stories, another chapter of "Frogs", and will start to post either "Shire" or Pearl's story as soon as one of them is finished and my editor begins to edit.  And then, of course, there is always the possibility of a chapter of "Runaway", you never know.

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Chapter 31. The Lockholes, Revisited

At the Green Dragon all got down from the waggon and entered, save Jolly who took the ponies off to the livery. It was too cold to let them stand for any length of time tied to a post.

Frodo asked the proprietor for a quiet table near the back, away from the jollity, and his request was granted, for most of the clientele were interested in the game of darts already in progress. There was much talk and cheerful laughter and it seemed like "old times" in the Shire once again.

Frodo, Budgie, Robin and Finch settled in their chairs, sipping at the good beer and talking quietly. It appeared that Finch was taking Budgie and Robin to relations in Waymeet, a homey place that was not "home", that they might complete their recovery.

'It's so hard to be "home",' Robin said. 'You have to fight the wizard all the time there.'

'Fight the wizard?' Frodo asked and waited while Budgie and Robin exchanged glances.

'Sharkey may be gone but his Voice still lingers,' Budgie said finally. 'All the others are having the same trouble but it's worse for Robin. If he were stronger he could fight better. We've got to build him up with good food and exercise, win his health back, before we return to Bridgefields to take up the battle again.'

'Why is it worse for Robin?' Frodo said. 'Because he's been so ill?'

'No, because the wizard made him one of His "special pets",' Budgie said. 'Curse him wherever he's gone to! I hope his dreams are not peaceful ones!' Frodo suppressed a smile at these o-so-mild hobbit maledictions.

'Special pets?' Frodo asked, sipping at his beer.

'He took a liking to me,' Robin said, 'perhaps because I was different from the others.'

'He was the only tween in the Lockholes,' Budgie put in. 'He caught Sharkey's eye.'

'He'd come and talk to me more than the others; he'd bring me treats and we'd talk of home,' Robin said. 'He was always kind, and civil, and polite, and he asked lots of questions and liked to hear me talk of home and family.'

'Evil,' Finch said, 'pure evil. He used those talks to poison the thought of "home" in the end.'

'Yes he did,' Robin said steadily. He raised his eyes to Frodo's. 'He's not going to get away with it. I'm going to be well, and I'm going to be strong, and I'm going to be home someday in spite of Him and his Voice.' There was a core of stubbornness there, and plain hobbit good sense, and Frodo had no doubt that if it could be done Robin would do it.

'I'm sure it's just as hard or harder for Mr Freddy,' Robin added. 'He was the wizard's other "special pet", once Sharkey found out who he had there.'

'Saruman knew who he was?' Frodo asked, stunned.

'Yes,' Robin said shamefacedly. 'It was my doing... He came in one day, sat down as nice as you please, give me a bit of bread-and-butter, and started asking me about home and hobbits. He was nice,' the tween added defensively. 'He give me as much to eat as I wanted and when a guard came by, glaring at me for daring to speak aloud, He shook his finger in the Man's face saying, 'Do not hurt this little one; he is my special pet.'

Robin moved his shoulders uneasily as if trying to shrug off a burden. 'It give me the shivers to hear Him say that,' he admitted, 'but who was I to gainsay...Him?'

'Go on,' Frodo said, and Budgie nodded encouragingly with a squeeze for his young cousin's hand.

'He give me something to drink, "to wash that bread down, your throat must be dry", He said, and it made me feel all warm and sleepy-like,' Robin said. 'He asked about Mr Freddy then. He said, "That one across the way from you, he's not like you others from Bridgefields. He's taller, and there's a look about him..."

' "That's because he's Mr Freddy," I answers,' Robin said miserably. He pulled his hand free from Budgie's and covered his face. 'O Mr Freddy, how could I a-done that?' he wailed. 'O Mr Freddy...' Laughter from the game of darts washed over them in eerie contrast.

It took some time to calm him but finally he was ready to go on with the story. 'His black eyes, o how I remember them, coal black like a starless night, His eyes how they glowed then, and... He said with a horrid sort of delight, "Fredegar Bolger? I have Fatty Bolger here?" I knowed then what I'd done, given up Mr Freddy, and I wanted to die then and there but... He patted my arm and said, "No harm done, little one. Why, you've saved Mr Freddy's life by telling me! Had any of my Men discovered his identity they'd have hauled him out and hanged him at the end of a rope for all the good citizens of Michel Delving to see!" And then—' Robin stopped to gulp back tears.

'And then?' Frodo said gently.

'And then He calls for the chief of his Men and points to Mr Freddy's little room acrost the way and says, "That one there is another of my special pets. You may do whatever you like with him but you may not take his life. Do you understand?"

'The ruffian nods and says he understands and then He fixes him with those black eyes and says, "Let me make it perfectly clear. If that one is not here when I come on my next visit I will be extremely displeased." The ruffian says he understands and... He says, "Be sure that all your Men are aware of this," and the ruffian says he'd make it known.'

'What happened then?' Frodo asked. Robin was silent a long time, twisting his fingers together, staring down at his hands. Frodo took a breath to ask again when he spoke.

'He patted my head as if I was a little dog, said, "You'd better eat the rest of your bread-and-butter, little one," so I did, crammed it right into my mouth and He laughed He did. And then... He went acrost the way to Mr Freddy's little room and spoke to him for a long while. I don't think he give him any bread-and-butter, though,' Robin said.

He shivered. ' 'Twas the very next day, the ruffians started breaking Mr Freddy's fingers. They broke one every day, and then they busted up his hand, and then they would've started on the other hand but for the chief saying someone'd have to feed him then, if'n they took away both his hands, or he'd starve to death and... He wouldn't like that. So they started on the fingers they'd already broken, twisting and breaking them again—o I cannot, I cannot!' he wailed.

Budgie took Robin in his arms and rocked him, soothing with quiet words and patting his back. Looking to Frodo, he said, 'Do you have all you need?' It was dismissal more than question and Frodo nodded.

'Thank you, Robin,' he said, 'I have just one more question. Did the wizard visit Mr Freddy after that?'

'O yes,' Robin gulped, sniffing back tears. 'He came on a regular basis, and he was always tsk-tsking with concern over Mr Freddy's fingers, saying they'd have to "do something about that", and when he'd leave the ruffians would go at Mr Freddy again, laughing and saying, "Do something about that! We had better do something about that!" O it was horrible and I heard every bit of it and knew it was my doing...'

'It wasn't your doing, Robin,' Frodo said quietly. 'You were already in the Lockholes, being mistreated, and I understand they hurt both you and Mr Freddy the most because you two were closest to the entrance not just because you were "special pets".' His lip curled in distaste over the words. 'They were the ones that hurt him, not you.' He laid his hand on Robin's shoulder as he spoke. Budgie noticed for the first time the missing finger and wondered at the story behind it. Perhaps Mr Frodo had had run-ins with his own ruffians. In any event he seemed to understand the prisoners' hurts and fears more than other hobbits, even the prisoners' families.

'So you all hear the wizard's Voice, still?' Frodo went on, thinking aloud.

'Some times more than others,' Budgie admitted. 'Sometimes someone says something that reminds me of the Lockholes, or they do something, and I'm back there for a moment. I hear the wizard's Voice in my dreams too.'

'It's hard to sleep,' Robin agreed. 'Will we ever be shut of him?'

'I don't know,' Frodo said honestly. 'You might just have to think of it as a burden, and keep on bearing it. Hopefully it won't be such a hard task as you grow stronger.'

'The burden grows no lighter, but they're more able to bear it, you mean?' Finch asked.

'Something to that effect,' Frodo said. He had his own burden, and somewhere deep within a warning chimed. He must remain strong, keep building himself stronger with good food, good company, laughter and keeping busy. As long as he could remain strong, he would not be overcome...