Chapter Text
Bella Baggins sighed as she closed the door behind Bobby Bolger. She knew that she couldn't afford to refute his attempts at courtship, he knew she couldn't afford it either, but still her heart was heavy. She was nearing 36 though and as was shire law if she wasn't married or at least engaged by her 36th birthday she would lose everything to her Cousin Otho and his odious wife Lobelia and spoiled son Lotho.
Still, she was waiting until the very last minute before she accepted her fate and agreed to marry Bobby, and he knew it too. She had heard from her cousins Primula and Drogo that Bobby had been telling his friends he planned to propose to her on the eve of her birthday so she had to say yes. Not the great romance she had pictured as a faunt and yet that was where her life was heading.
Shaking herself from her thoughts Bella headed into the kitchen for a cup of tea before she headed out the front to end her garden and then perhaps a smoke. Reminiscent of the afternoons she would spend with her parents and a young tween, too young to worry about courting offers but too old for it to be acceptable that she run wild through the shire as she had when she was a child.
By the time she finished tearing all the weeds out of her garden (which was very therapeutic, especially when she was imagining each weed was someone who was pushing this stupid marriage rule at her) it was close to sunset and she sat on her little bench and soaked in the last rays of the sun as she puffed on her fathers old pipe. The smell of longbottom leaf and the feel of the grass under her feet bringing pleasant memories of simpler times to the front of her mind.
She hadn't realised she was starting to dose until she was startled awake by someone clearing their throat. Looking up she saw an old man leaning on a staff, his grey hat and robes seeming ratty and old at the same time as appearing to be of great quality.
"Good Evening, Gandalf, what brings you by this late and without warning?" She greeted her mother's dear friend with a slight bit of trepidation, knowing it likely wasn't going to be anything good.
Before the wizard could open his mouth, likely to spin some rather infuriating sentence she spoke again "best come in I suppose, the roast chicken I've got going will be enough for the two of us, I can whip up a quick salad and I've plenty of bread rolls from Bobby Bolger that we can have as well." And without waiting for an answer she turned on her heels and into her smial.
Dinner was enjoyable, the two relaying old stories of her parents to each other in fond remembrance. It wasn't until desert was served - sweet honey and almond cake that was her mother's secret recipe and cups of lavender tea - that Gandalf finally let her know why he was really there.
"An adventure! Honestly Gandalf you should know well enough that nobody in the shire would be looking for an adventure, maybe you should try the Bree-Hobbits for I can assure you there will be none here who will agree to leave."
"I remember a young girl who would spend her days looking for adventure beneath every rock in the shire and would beg to join her mother and I on our journeys to Rivendell, where has that dear Bella Baggins gone?"
"She grew up, her parents died and she grew up. I'm past my coming of age, nearly 3 years past and as such I must marry. The girl who longed for adventures is now a girl about to be tied into a marriage to Bobby Bolger of all Hobbits lest she lose everything to the thrice damned Sackville-Baggins." Bella breathed heavily before putting on a polite smile and flattening her skirts "Now, Gandalf, you of course must remember where your guest room is, you are very welcome to stay the night."
Rising with a look of shock and sadness following Bella's outburst Gandalf moved off, bending low to give the girl a hug "Goodnight my dear Bella."
"Goodnight Gandalf, and please, its Belladonna now, nicknames are entirely unrespectable."