Clearing the Heir, Part 3

(In which the author seeks to answer the question: how did Bilbo come to adopt an heir?) 

This story continues the story presented in Chapters 1 to 4 of Clearing the Heir and Chapters 5 to 8 of Clearing the Heir, Part 2.

Brief synopsis of Part 1:

Just before Yule, Otho, Lotho and Lobelia Sackville-Baggins pay a call to Bag End, armed with papers for Bilbo to sign to officially declare Otho his heir. Lobelia’s intention to stop over at Bag End and take inventory of the smial’s contents over Yuletide is interrupted by the arrival of an urgent message: Paladin Took, travelling through Bywater on his way with his family to Brandy Hall for Yule, has collapsed with a high fever. Would Bilbo, as a bachelor with no young children or other family who’d be put in danger, be willing to offer Paladin and his little family shelter until the good farmer might be well enough to travel? (Assuming he did not die of the fever, that is.) 

Of course Bilbo generously opens his home to his Tookish cousin’s family and finds himself minding three young lasses whilst Eglantine nurses her husband in Bilbo’s best guest room. 

Best of all, Lobelia changes her mind about spending Yule at Bag End in the presence of a potentially deadly fever. She departs, taking Otho and Lotho with her but promising to return soon. 

With Eglantine’s diligent care, the local healer’s efforts and Bilbo’s help, Paladin manages to fight off the fever. His recovery is both good and bad news, for Bilbo is quite sure that Lobelia will doubtless descend once again upon Bag End when the Tooks depart, whether they return to Whitwell or go on to Brandy Hall which was their intended destination before the fever struck. 

Brief synopsis of Part 2:

Bilbo carries out his plan to drive Paladin Took’s family to Buckland for Yule. Along the way, he enjoys young Pimpernel’s company and ponders the benefits of taking in a young hobbit. As he reaches Bucklebury on his way to Brandy Hall, he drives into the middle of a snowball fight between teens and tweens of Hall and town, including Frodo. As Frodo is about to throw a very large missile, he is jostled by another tween, spoiling his aim, and instead of flying over the waggon, the snowball smacks into Bilbo’s face. After Bilbo wipes the snow out of his eyes and calms the jittery ponies, all the combatants have fled. Welcome to Buckland and Glad Yule!

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