Apple Pies for Welcome by StarSpray

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Apple Pies for Welcome

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1389 (Shire Reckoning)
Spring

"Good morning, Aunt Dora!" Daisy said brightly as she sailed into the room, little Tosto on her hip. "Is Dad here?"

"Good morning, dear," Dora said, leaning back in her seat to accept a kiss on the cheek. "Your dad took your mum to Michel Delving to buy some cotton. How's our little one?"

"Oh, he's a terror," Daisy laughed as she deposited Tosto in Dora's outstretched arms. "Who are you writing to today, Aunt Dora?"

"I received a rather horrid letter from Lobelia Sackville-Baggins a few days ago. Oh, dear, and Tosto's gone and smeared it all up." Dora couldn't quite bring herself to be disappointed. She loved writing letters, but Lobelia was perhaps the least pleasant of her correspondents, always passing snide judgments and wanting the worst gossip. Not that Dora ever gave her any, but Lobelia did have rather a talent for twisting things around.

"Oh, I can't wait to see the Sackville-Bagginses again," Daisy said, taking a seat herself.

"Good gracious, whatever for?"

"Why, to see the looks on their faces! Haven't you heard what Cousin Bilbo's gone and done? He's fetched Cousin Frodo back from Buckland, to live with him at Bag End! And he's going to adopt him as his heir, all formal-like. You and Dad will have to sign the will, I should imagine."

"Well! That's the best news I've heard all week, Daisy!" Dora had always hated having poor young Frodo living all the way out in Buckland. She had wanted to bring him back home to Hobbiton straight away, after the accident, but Dudo's wife Amity had taken dreadfully ill that year, and her health had been so fragile ever since that bringing another child to live with them had been impossible. "But Bilbo didn't say a thing to me about it."

"I don't think he planned it very thoroughly, Aunt Dora," Daisy said. "You know how queer he can be about things."

Bilbo was eccentric, and quite pleased with himself about it, had been ever since that odd business with the Dwarves. But he wouldn't do something like this on a mere whim, even to upset the Sackville-Bagginses. But Dora didn't say any of that; Bilbo knew what he was about. "Well, then. I shall have to go over there to welcome Frodo properly to Hobbiton. Tomorrow, perhaps." She tweaked Tosto's nose, making him giggle. "Shall we bake some pies this afternoon, then? A proper welcome requires a good pie."

"Frodo likes apple, I remember," Daisy said. She set Tosto in his high chair at the table with some toys, and rolled up her sleeves while Dora got out the flour and a basket of apples from the pantry. "Aunt Primula used to make the most wonderful apple pie," she added wistfully.

"It was my mother's recipe she used," Dora said. "I copied out a book of recipes for a birthday gift once. But I hardly ever get to bake my own apple pies, since your dad takes them all to make cider. Fetch my recipe book, will you?"

By the time Dudo and Amity returned from Michel Delving they had baked a great many pies, including three apple pies for Dora to take to Bag End the next day. Dudo and Amity had, of course, heard the news already, since very little in the Shire traveled faster than gossip, especially when Bilbo Baggins was involved. Everyone agreed it was the best thing Bilbo had done in quite a long time: Bagginses belonged in Hobbiton, not out in Buckland. And it was hard to imagine Brandy Hall being a good place to raise children in any case—a regular warren it was, with new rooms needing dug out all the time as the family grew. Dora had visited a handful of times with Drogo, when he was courting Primula and just after they were married, and the sheer business of it all had made her itchy.

Hobbiton was much nicer.

The next day Dora carefully tucked the pies, and a batch of scones, into a large hamper, and set off across Hobbiton. It was a beautiful spring day, with flowers bobbing in the breeze along the path in a host of colors, all sweet-smelling. Dora had loved to pick spring flowers when she was a girl; she'd gathered them up by the armful and taken them home where she and her mother set them in vases all about the house. Perhaps she would pick some on the way home.

Bilbo greeted Dora warmly. "Cousin Dora! Come in, come in! Frodo's out in the garden with young Samwise, but they'll be in momentarily. Tea?"

"Tea would be lovely. There's scones in there," she added as Bilbo took the hamper, "and some pies. Frodo still likes apple, doesn't he?"

"Oh yes. I'm glad you came, Dora," Bilbo said. He set the hamper on the kitchen table. "I was going to invite you to dinner tomorrow, in fact. I want to talk to you about Frodo."

"Is something wrong?" Dora asked.

"No! No, nothing like that. Only…" He paused, taking unnecessary care in unloading the hamper. He still looked so very young—not a day older than when he'd returned from that ridiculous adventure, when they'd been auctioning off all his things. What a wonder that had been! It was still talked about sometimes in the pubs, or so Dudo said. Bilbo sighed. "I'm not quite certain what to do. Raising a child, I mean. It's why I didn't adopt him sooner, if you want to know the truth."

"He's a tween, Bilbo," Dora said, amused. "You aren't going to be changing nappies." Bilbo looked horrified at the very thought. "And he's a good boy; I don't think he'll give you any trouble."

"I'm more likely to get him into trouble, you mean," Bilbo said, eyes twinkling.

"Just so long as you don't take him off to fight dragons, or whatever it is you do out there in the Wild," Dora said primly. And more seriously, "Just be firm when you need to, and try to remember what it was like for you in your twenties—although that may be difficult, it was so long ago."

"I have a perfectly good memory, thank you very much, Dora," Bilbo said. "And, well, mostly I'm a bit concerned about him living here with just me. You know what Brandy Hall is like; it's a tremendous change, coming here after all that."

"You'll just have to host more parties, then," Dora said. "Or send him around to Dudo and Amity and me. Daisy and Tosto visit us most days, and it would be good for Frodo to get to know his cousins."

"And there's nothing like aunts for doting," Bilbo said. "Thank you, Dora. Oh, and I'm drawing up a new will next week, or the week after, and I shall need witness signatures. Will you and Dudo…?"

"Yes, of course!"

Frodo and Sam came into the kitchen then. "Hullo, Aunt Dora!" Frodo exclaimed, coming over to kiss her cheek.

"Hello, Frodo my dear. How are you?"

Bilbo invited young Sam to join them for tea, but he made his excuses and left. It was just as well; the poor boy wouldn't have been able to contribute much to the conversation, which centered around Buckland and all the gossip that Bilbo and Frodo had brought back to Hobbiton with them. It was a merry meal, and afterward Frodo walked Dora home, carrying the hamper. "Don't let me forget to give you the pie recipe," Dora told him as they strolled down Bagshot Row; he had been thrilled to find out it was Primula's. "And don't be shy about dropping in for tea whenever you like!"

"Will Aunt Amity mind?" Frodo asked. "Uncle Bilbo told me she's often ill."

"Pleasant company does her good," Dora said. And Bilbo hadn't been wrong, when he spoke of aunts and doting—and this poor boy needed some doting and some mothering, if Dora was any judge. Oh, she was sure Primula's folk had done the best they could, but there were so many children at Brandy Hall, after all, and even if his mother was a Brandybuck, Frodo was a Baggins, and he belonged here in Hobbiton, with other Bagginses. "Oh, let's pick some flowers here—these daisies would look lovely by the kitchen window."

They picked far more than would fit in the vase by the kitchen window; they nearly filled the hamper with flowers growing along the walk home, and once there Frodo happily helped Dora arrange them and place them in suitable spots around the house. It felt much brighter afterward, the way simply opening up the windows couldn't manage. Daisy, Griffo, and Tosto came by, and Frodo happily stayed for supper, playing with Tosto in the garden while Dora and Daisy cooked and Griffo peeled potatoes.

"It's so very nice having Cousin Frodo here," Daisy said, watching Frodo roll a ball back and forth across the grass with Tosto. "I knew it would be, of course. He looks an awful lot like Aunt Primula, doesn't he?"

"I think he looks rather like old Bilbo," Griffo remarked, as he picked up the last potato. "Aunt Dora, are we mashing these?"

"Yes, we are. Put them in that pot over there, thank you, dear." Dora picked up a knife to start chopping carrots. "Primula was Bilbo's first cousin, you know. Her mother was Mirabella Took—one of the three Remarkable Daughters of the Old Took, as they were called. Belladonna especially got up to all kinds of adventurous things in her youth, before she married Bungo and had the sense to settle down before Bilbo was born."

"I hope Bilbo has the sense to settle down now, with Frodo come to live with him," said Daisy. Dora agreed.

But two days later, she decided it was unlikely, as she watched Gandalf stride up the the lane to the Hill.