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The Proposition  by Lindelea 4 Review(s)
Everlight18Reviewed Chapter: 17 on 6/7/2014
It would be tempting to 'throw their lot in with Lotho' if your family would be protected. To the other hobbits it looks like what they have done. Hope Gundy can get the warnings quickly to the others.

Author Reply: Hope Hally can get to Gundy soon. At least the weather is taking a hand, making it less likely that Hobbits will be out and about and get caught by skulking ruffians.

LarnerReviewed Chapter: 17 on 6/4/2014
Oh, I suspect he's right about getting thrown into the Lockholes for poaching--sounds right up Lotho's alley. At least the Hobbits nearby were spared the watch for a few hours. Hope Gundy will carry the warnings on.

Author Reply: I think Gundy will become an expert at starting rumours without anyone being able to trace them back to him...

I can just see a greedy Lotho claiming all the trees and game and streams, and what he can't claim, he seems to be happy to spoil (as in pouring filth into said streams). A sour, grasping fellow, who learned his lesson too late, if Frodo was right about him near the end.

Garnet TookReviewed Chapter: 17 on 6/2/2014
This story just gets more and more detailed as it goes. I hadn't really thought about the wellbeing of Esmeralda since she is the Thain's sister. The ruffians could certainly make her a target to get to Paladin.

Hally really is a very wise hobbit. He can see that, if he and his family weren't playing this dangerous game already, it would could be very tempting to become a colaborator to protect those you love.

I am glad the men are out of the smial for the moment. :)

Author Reply: I hope it doesn't get bogged down in too much detail! So much of this story is actually background material for other stories... But I'm growing to love these formerly peripheral characters the better I get to know them. Funny how it works out that way!

(I'm glad they're out of the smial, too! Whew.)

Thanks!

TariReviewed Chapter: 17 on 6/2/2014
I've never had goat's milk, but goat cheese is delicious.

I can't wait for that darn Lotho to get his comeupins He's so evil.

Author Reply: The funny thing is I can't bear goat's milk. I remember being told that super-fresh goat's milk in a herd with no resident males is indistinguishable from cow's milk. It's not. (At least to me; I can still taste that musky-goat-smell aftertaste that I get from goat's cheese and older goat's milk.) I think it's so cool you can keep these small creatures and get milk, butter, and cheese from them. I just wish I could stomach the product.

Alas, poor Lotho. He's greedy, yes, but I don't think he envisioned the terrible evil that he helped bring to the Shire. Frodo pitied him, after all (and Frodo is much wiser than I am), so I follow his lead in being sorely grieved. And he ended badly, so I suppose he paid for it in his last weeks of life (after Lobelia was taken to the Lockholes) and in his ending.

But you're right. Sometimes he makes me so mad... But he's a great foil to show Hally and Rosemary's compassion and good sense!

Thanks!

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