Frodo and Samantha's Wedding Night

“Frodo and Samantha’s Wedding Night”

by Andarta Wildhearth

This is my REAL email address: andarta_wildhearth@adelphia.net

a completed story

Characters: Frodo and other female character (with a catch)

no slash content

Rating: NC-17

Genre: Romance/PWP/AU

I own none of what is presented here nor do I earn money for this.

Summary: This is an alternate universe story where Samwise Gamgee is Samantha Gamgee. This story is based on the fan fiction work by Whispers of a Nameless Fear entitled, “Frodo and Sam.” “Frodo and Sam,” can be found at: www.fanfiction.net/read.php?storyid=970699
Please read this story and familiarize yourself with the plot differences before continuing to read “Frodo and Samantha’s Wedding Night.” Enjoy!


“Frodo and Samantha’s Wedding Night”

by Andarta Wildhearth

As custom was observed in the Shire, newly married couples were always permitted early departure from their own wedding festivities…..after their first dance as husband and wife…..after many toasts and speeches to the couple’s long, healthy and fruitful life together…..after their first and second and third and fourth kisses as new lovers (the latter usually being very secretive and much less chaste than the ones that came before…..)

And certainly, there would be no question if the newly weds wished to depart after Peregrine Took, future Thain of the Shire, passed out and slid off his seat at the head table (landing with a loud thump beneath it, much to everyone’s amusement) right in the middle of his sixth toast to two of his, “Bestest, bestest friends in the whole wide world, Frodo and Samantha Baggins, hey, I like the sound of that, Mer!” Thud!

No, there would be no question if Frodo and Samantha gave their farewells in Party Field to retire to Bag End. Only knowing ces ces between the not-so-newly-married couples as he took her gently by the arm to lead her to her new home…..

But Frodo Baggins noticed a subtle change in his bride’s demeanor when she returned to his side after having been absconded by a group of giggling females for nearly half an hour. Her posture was rigid and this time she stiffened at the affectionate touch of his hand to the small of her back as they spoke to Uncle Paladin and Aunt Eglantine…..


“Just one more dance Frodo, please, and then we can leave,” Sam astutely observed her husband’s lingering glancerougroughout the course of their evening together. Frodo was speaking to her less and less, and watching her movements more and more. He had not yet spoken to her of their leaving…..but he looked….. hungry…..and that made her nervous…..


“Samantha Baggins!” Gilly Goodbody exclaimed as she grabbed Sam and pulled her into a circle of twittering maidens. “We were all beginning to wonder when you would finally bag your Mr. Baggins.”

“We all think you must have left quite an impression on the lad during all those nights you spent with him during your travels,” cackled Myrtle Burrows, “Yes, you must have left quite an impression on your Mr. Frodo by the way he’s looking at you now; see?” The throng of young Hobbitesses all turned in unison to look at Frodo, who was caught staring at his bride from across the dance floor. He blushed furiously before quickly turning away from all the eyes that were upon him. In a dizzying flash of embarrassment, Sam looked down to find a highly interesting patch of grass below her feet.

“If you ask me, he’ll be coming over here to escort you to his bed, I mean, to your new home soon, especially by the looks he’s been stealing on you all night.” Samantha heard the muffled voice and laughter of which she thought was Gilly Goodbody’s as a roaring heat plugged her own ears.

‘Bag your Mr. Baggins…..’

‘All those nights you spent with him…..’

‘Escort you to his bed…..’

“Tinuviel, guide me this night,” Samantha closed her eyes and prayed…..


“Eglantine Banks Took, you know that I’m a closer kin to Frodo than you! You’re only related to him through marriage…..while on the other hand, I’m a Took by birth. So then, since I am directly related to the gentlehobbit by blood, I should have the honor of sharing the mother and son dance with him without question,” Aunt Esme argued.

“Well, well now, Esmeralda Took Brandybuck, you know full well that you are a Brandybuck only by marriage yourself. The only time you ever met Primula Baggins was on your own wedding day, and you didn’t care for her all that much back then. Now, I’m the wife of the Thain and that title affords me the honor of the mother and son dance with Frodo,” Aunt Eglantine bantered back.

“Eglantine, isn’t that your Peregrin over there face down on the dance floor right now? Isn’t HE your son, because if he is, don’t you think you ought to go and pick him up before someone steps on him? I do believe YOUR son is quite intoxicated,” Esme Brandybuck snickered as she pointed.

“Oh shite! Come on you old bat, come and help me collect him. You know it won’t be long before Paladin and Saradoc join him. They’re both smashed already, we can’t count on them for help. Besides, I feel we’ll be gathering them all soon enough,” Eglantine laughed as she grabbed her old friend’s hand.

Esme and Eglantine were barely able to help Pippin to a seat before the musicians cleared the dancing area for the Father/Daughter and Mother/Son dance. The Gaffer and Samantha walked onto the floor while Frodo stood still for a moment. He knew Aunt Esme would never forgive him if he chose to dance this particular dance with Aunt Eglantine. He knew Aunt Eglantine would feel the same way if he picked Aunt Esme. Although the hobbitesses were best friends, there was always an air of competition between them. What to do, what to do…..

He got an idea.

He would dance with neither of them.

For this d, Fr, Frodo Baggins decided to choose the youngest of all the Brandybuck lasses. He walked past both Aunt Eglantine and Aunt Esmeralda, much to their dismay, to approach a very young hobbitess. The girl was dressed in pale pink and her dark brown hair was pulled back loosely at her neck. She was a tweenager, full into her twenty-sixth year.

The girl’s blue eyes grew quite large when she realized it was she for whom Frodo had stopped. He extended his hand to her, hoping she would take it.

“Miss Celadine, you are the youngest of the Brandybuck ladies and the grand niece of my mother. You never met her in this life, but would you stand for her and give me the honor of dancing thince nce with me?” he asked as every hobbit within earshot sighed aloud. Of course she accepted.


“That lad of yours is a good fellow, Samantha,” the Gaffer said as he and Sam moved across the dance floor, “It was a good thing, you two getting together. Your ma didn’t see it, rest her soul, but when Frodo grew up, he turned out to be quite a decent lad.”

“She told me I ought not to waste my affections on someone so far above me, but I couldn’t make myself listen to her,” Sam replied. “I didn’t listen to her when she told me I ought not to follow you into the garden either. She always told me a hobbitess’ place was in the hobbit hole,” Sam laughed.

“Well, you certainly didn’t follow her words, did you?” Ham smiled and kissed his daughter’s cheek. “Sam-lass, did I do right by you, after she passed? Four daughters to raise and two sons gone on to other parts was a task.” The Gaffer reminisced.

“Da, you did just fine. We girls were happier than any family in the Shire. Daisy and May have strong families of their own now and Marigold is going to marry that oldest Cotton boy if he has anything to say about it,” Sam smiled. “Daddy, you did just fine.”

Hamfast looked over to his new son-in-law and nodded as the dance continued.

“I’m proud of you Sam-lass,” the Gaffer spoke softly to his daughter as he glanced over at Frodo again. “You’re going to make a good mother.” Sam stiffened a bit and her father noticed. “Don’t you get all nervous on me now, girl. And don’t you go getting all worried when you’re with him either. He’s going to handle you with love and thoughtfulness tonight and every night from here on out, lassie, or else I told him I’d kick his scrawny arse, ring or no ring.”

“No Daddy, please tell me you didn’t!”


“Sam-love, you can have as many dances as your heart desires,” Frodo whispered, “As many as you need lass.” He looked at her with an expression of hope, which he forcefully harnessed so as not to startle her in any way. With this said, he did not let his hands linger lovingly on any part of her body…..not her cheek, or her shoulder. His fingers touched not the softness of her hair or the gracefulness of her waist as they had done many times already this evening. He knew of her fear without ever having been told, the fear of a lass who had conquered evil and stood between her beloved and death a countless number of timeThe The fear of a lass who had never lain with a lad…..

As Frodo stepped back from her, a compassionate smile overtook his features.

“We have all the time in the entire world, my beloved,” he s. A. And as he did so the fingers of his right hand began to interlace with the fingers of Samantha’s left hand. Her left ring finger (upon which rested a mithril wedding band) met the space on his hand where once had been another ring and Frodo brought her hand up to his cheek before kissing it.

“You know not what this means to me Samantha, your decision to go against custom and wear your wedding ring on your left hand as I must now do.”

“We shall wear our rings on the same hand, husband,” Sam whispered and she felt as if she would surely faint with sudden longing and adoration for the hobbit standing before her. “By Elbereth, do you not know what you do to me? How helpless I am when I am caught by your sweet, gap-toothed smile? How your voice and your words weaken me? How your touch dissolves my fear, even when my fear is of you and what approaches us this night?”

Then Frodo smiled again and quietly laughed aloud before encircling her waist with his arms in a tight but gentle hug.

“You do the same to me, Mrs. Baggins. I can barely stand; you have unnerved me so. Your nearness makes me tremble…..and Samantha, my wife; I am terrified of what will come between us in the course of this night as well. It has been a long time since I have been with a lass, as a matter of fact, since I was a tween, and darling, I have never been with a lass with whom I was in love. Sam, believe me when I tell you that I love you so very much.”

Yet another smile overtook him, but this time he purposefully kept his lips pursed together and tilted his head to the side as he looked at her.

“Gap-toothed? But you’ve always told me how fond you are of my smile!” He puffed out his bottom lip with a look of mock indignation and pretended to pout. “You once told me you thought my smile was one of my most endearing qualities,” he winked at her.

She giggled as she buried her face into his shirt collar and inhaled. She stopped abruptly, then pulled back and looked at him with a fierceness that surprised even her.

“I love the way you smell, Frodo…..take me home, husband…..now.”

They were right…..not a single hobbit questioned the brusque and hasty departure of Mr. and Mrs. Frodo Baggins…..


As a matter of fact, only two heartbroken hobbits even noticed as the bride and groom snuck away from the wedding party. One watched the lovers as they laughed quietly and Frodo drew his bride along behind as the couple surreptitiously avoided everyone in Party Field. The first watcher had to smile to himself at the wonderfully romantic site of the bride and groom stealing themselves away.

“Be happy, my beloved,” Meri Bra Brandybuck whispered as Samantha Gamgee Baggins walked away from his love forever.

The second of the watchers was much more attentive to Master Merry than to the fawning newlyweds. Frodo Baggins and Samantha Gamgee Baggins were of no concern to her. No, Merry was the hobbit who held her interest.

She knew the Gamgee girl had broken her beloved Merry’s heart, not intentionally, but broken it just the same. Why couldn’t Merry recuperate from his love for Samantha and see that immeasurable happiness was right in front of him?

“Meriadoc Brandybuck, I’ll make you forget her if it’s the last thing I ever do,” Estella Bolger spoke softly as she began to walk across the dance floor toward her wounded gentlehobbit.


Frodo and Sam reached Bagshot Row at the edge of Party Field, laughing as they looked at each other. They stood close as he took both of her hands in his own, like he did during the wedding ceremony as they spoke their vows.

“Excuse me, Miss, but may I have permission to walk you home?” his blue eyes were wide and sparkling; and those eyes sent a wave of adrenaline throughout Samantha’s body.

Full of a peaceful kind of fear and excitement, she smiled demurely and nodded her reply. Then, for the first time in their lives together, Frodo Baggins walked Samantha home.

For the next few moments, their talk was minimal, confined only to bashful glances and softhearted laughter as they each just slightly swung the arm to their adjoining hands. They rounded the corner to the Hill and began to approach their home. After they passed the woven fence, Frodo opened the wooden gate for Sam, and she walked by, brushing against him, reawakening his hunger of earlier that evening. As the gate closed behind him he stood, watching her ascend the stone steps of Bag End. She gracefully lifted the hem of her dress as she tread ever-so-lightly up each stair, then stopped at the great green door and turned around to face him. They just stood there, looking at one another, knowing that they had moved a mountain to be where they were at that moment.

With the renewed energy of a tweenager, Frodo bounded the stairs to his home in four steps and took Sam in his arms, lifting her up to cradle her against his chest. One of her arms was instantly around his neck as their eyes met and Sam reached behind her for the doorknob to the smial’s entrance. The big round door opened slowly into the candlelit hallway and he carried her over the threshold and carefully placed her feet on the floor.

Samantha’s arm remained quite secure around her husband’s neck as her fingers now ventured into the hair at the nape of Frodo’s collar. The first action taken by the couple in their home was to share a long, deep and sensuous kiss, full of passion and promise. Their tongues gently caressed each other’s as Frodo’s hands reached for the sides of Sam’s face. So much sweetness there he could taste it. Spun sugar against his lips. Warm and now melting in his touch.

“Melda vesse*,” he whispered and moaned as she pulled away from him, his eyes now intent upon her.

Fire radiated within his gaze as she felt herself yearn for his searching touch. So unlike the forceful encounter and the fear she felt in Bree. She took a few careful steps backward and their arms stretched out between them, hands still clasped.

“Come with me, husband. I have something to give you.”

Frodo inclined his head slightly as if to ask her permission before taking a tentative step toward her. An alluring smile played across Samantha’s face before she turned to lead him down the hallway. He followed her without hesitation. She led him without reservation.


The doorway to the master bedroom was open and they came to a stop before it.

“Go inside, Frodo,” she spoke in a whisper. He stepped through the bedroom’s doorway as she gently commanded and turned to look at her still standing in the corridor. This time he inclined his head in a question, wondering why she had not followed him into the room.

“Wait here for me. I’ll be back in a second,” and she was gone before he could protest.

So Frodo just stood there, wondering to where Sam had disappeared. Maybe she had to relieve herself. Come to think of it, he certainly did. A chamber pot would have to do…..

With that taken care of he decided to remove his formal coat. No use in remaining uncomfortable while he waited. He laid it carefully across the bedside chair. He speculated upon whether or not he should remove his weskit as well, or would it alarm his bride to find the groom already half undressed upon her return?

So he decided to only unbutton it. And while he was at it, he also undid the top two buttons of his dress shirt. The sta lin linen material had suddenly become too stuffy in the warm bedroom.

Frodo decided to surprise Sam by pulling back the bed sheets for them.

‘Big mistake, now she’ll surely think I’m a horny cad.’ he hhe had difficulty tucking the linens back around the pillows.

‘Good lords, that looks terrible!’ he scolded himself. He had never been skilled in the art of making a bed, in fact he avoided doing so whenever possible, leaving that for Sam to do. A small jolt of guilt flashed through him. He realized he was going to have to change many of his ways when it came to the chores around Bag End now. No more sitting beneath trees and reading all day long. He did not feel it fitting for Sam to coue tue to cater to him as his servant. She was a Baggins now and he would make sure that her existence would change to suit her new place in his life. It was he who was now the servant of her heart.

So he changed his mind and pulled the sheets back once more. But this time he reached over and plucked a rose from the arrangement on the nightstand. He pinched the bud from its stem and spread the red petals over the pillows and sheets. She would like that.….he hoped.

And then he began to pace…..

“Sweet Children of Eru, sit down before you fall over or break something you blockhead of a Baggins, oh…..my…..goodness…..oh, Samantha!”

In his ranting he had turned to the door to behold Samantha standing there looking at him. When she had disappeared she had gone to change her clothes. And she had been transformed. No longer was she donned in a frumpy, hobbity dress in which to w..or..or wrapped up tightly in the stark white wedding gown of an unsullied maiden. So taken with his bride was Frodo Baggins that he had to quickly sit on the edge of the bed. He had never expected this.

There she stood clothed in a floor-length sleeping gown, and the material was as crystalline as the veil he had moved away from her face during their wedding service. He noticed every contour of her body beneath the cloth. He could see the outline of her breasts underneath the tight lace that hugged her bosom and torso, and his mouth went dry. Her shoulders were bared above the frillwork held up by two thin straps that stretched across her collarbone.

His breathing quickened…..

Below her waist, the material became smooth and even more translucent as his eyes noticed the outline of her legs through the cloth. Sam did not flinch as she stood for the first time nearly naked in front of her beloved. Even though he was sitting, Frodo had to grab the bedpost to steady himself.

“Oh Samantha, you are the most beautiful sight I have ever beheld.” He took in a deep breath. He had to remember to breathe.

Still he sat, drinking her in. She was the first sunrise he had ever seen.

“What are you thinking?” she whispered, shyness threatening to overtake her as he continued to stare.

“I am thinking about how helpless I am in your nearness. About how much I want you. About how I need you so much right at this moment that my entire being aches with a torment worse than any torture I have ever known. Spirit move me, Samantha, please come to me, wife. Let me know the magic of being with you now. Make me wait no longer, or I will surely fade away,” Frodo spoke under his breath as his eyes wandered fearfully from her form to the floor beneath her feet several times. Certainly he would vanish from existence if she denied him.

But she did not. Her footsteps quickly closed the space between them as he rose from the bed to meet her, and she succumbed to his awaiting arms.

“I don’t think I could have kept up the nerve to stay standing there, the way you were looking at me. I’m not used to being so laid bare…..it makes me feel…..embarrassed,” she lowered her head as she broke from his hug to sit on the bed. She quickly covered her bosom with her arms. “This night dress was not one of Daisy’s better ideas. Why I ever listen to her is beyond me.”

Frodo forced his eyes to focus on Sam’ce. ce. If he looked at her body he was certain it would make her even more uncomfortable.

“Sam-love, I know we are not at ease with each other right now. But I think one day we will be, and I imagine that there will come a time when we will find contentment both in and with each other, free of fear and embarrassment…..and shyness,” he began to anticipate that she would need time to adjust before they became intimate. “I just want you to be able to trust me, lass. Please forgive me for being too eager with you. Understand that I would never urge you to do anything for which you were not ready. I will wait for you; your needs are all that matter to me now, never again my own.” As he spoke, he lifted her hands to his lips and kissed them both before lowering them to the bed. He traced light caresses with his thumbs on the backs of her hands. “Samantha, the night gown, it is exquisite; and you, love, you are enchanting.” He reached up to caress her cheek and she shuddered beneath his touch.

“Frodo, that’s exactly like you. Just when I become a startled rabbit in your presence, you, you…..oh, you go and say something that dissolves my anxiety and makes me desire you beyond reason!” she beamed.

Samantha found herself pressing close to her husband as she leaned toward his mouth to kiss him.

“Do you trust me, Samantha?” his voice drew an unsolicited whimper from her as his lips pulled from hers.

“Yes,” she respondithoithout faltering. She truly desired him, his touch, his warmth, his need; yet some hidden doubt made her tremble. As the next kiss became more ardent, Sam found that she instinctively moved to lie back, clinging to her husband, her body begging him to follow her movements. His urgency responded as he moved over her.

“I’m so scared Frodo. No one has ever been gentle with me. I’m afraid what happened before, in Bree…..that it will be like that.”

“I’ll go slowly. I will be careful. I promise,” he lifted himself up on his forearms and looked down at her. “Oh, Sam, we will be so magnificent together. Let me show you how wonderful you can feel?” As he spoke he kissed her face, then her lips, and she moaned into his mouth when his tongue parted her teeth ever so tentatively, asking the questions that his voice had not the courage to ask. He finally broke away from her and gazed at her through half-lidded eyes. “Please let me make love to you?” he implored.

As she looked up at him she realized that in order to become a suitable wife, she would have to eventually relinquish herself to her husband. She would have to trust this part of Frodo she had never seen before. Trust her husband. She had trusted him for as long as she had known him and as she realized this, she wondered why she did not have faith in him now. He had never before nor would he ever purposefully do anything to hurt her or frighten her. He was ardent with her, yes, but maybe that was not a bad circumstance in which for her to be. A zealous lover, maybe that would be a good thing, yes…..a very good thing.

She quickly nodded her head, before she changed her mind.

“Oh Sam,” he moaned as he leaned in to her to kiss her once more. Only this time the kiss was filled with softness and care and consideration. “I promise, what happened in Bree will never happen a second time. I’ll never be rough in my love to you ever again.” He fondled her hair that had begun to spread out across her pillow.

Samantha could not contain the sharp giggle that burst from her thoughts.

“What?” a confused smile played across Frodo’s face as he gave her a skeptical look.

Another giggle. Only this time it was louder and more uncontrolled and she covered her mouth with her hands. Frodo rather liked this kind of self-consciousness in her. At least she was not fearful anymore.

“What?” now he was becoming the doubtful one.

This time she laughed openly as she threw her arms around his neck.

“It’s just that…..I was thinking…..that maybe one day…..I might…..well, want it to be like that night in Bree!” she laughed nervously. This time he answered her laughter with his own. “I’m thinking if I hadn’t been so intimidated, I might have taken pleasure from your affection that night, if we had been wed.”

“Sam-wife, I vow to fill your life with more delight than you will be able to contain,” he bent to the shell of her ear and softly nipped its apex, eliciting a restrained squeak from her. “I will never allow your head to find our bed without my hand beneath it**.”

Before long, they began the infinite endeavor of devotion and friendship that is the union of masculine and feminine. At the beginning, all that existed were their kisses, full and compassionate, burning yet sinless. He captured a rose petal and started to caress her face with it, her lips, her eyelids, the angle of her nose, the curve of her th, th, the sensitive surface below her collarbone but above her bosom. He watched her shudder and gasp as his gentle torment of her flesh continued. Her back involuntarily arched into his touch as his hand slid ever lower to cover her breast within its lace garment.

He thought of how precious she was to him and he shivered as the word entered his mind.

Precious…..

“Precious,” she whispered under her breath as their eyes met. He froze.

“What did you just say?” he asked in disbelief. She lay motionless, wide-eyed as she mastered her apprehension.

“Precious…..I called you precious…..because you are, Frodo. I know what that word actually means now, because of you. You are precious and wonderful to me, husband. Stronger than any trinket created by some vile magician.”

He laid his head to her chest and drew in a long breath.

“By Elbereth, Samantha, I should have married you years ago. I will never hesitate with my feelings for you ever again.” Frodo moved away from her to sit at the edge of the bed next to her, like a mother about to tuck in a sleepy child. He helped her snuggle her legs down under the bedclothes before he poised his hands on either side of her body. Then he became pensive. “Sam, I want to ask something of you…..and you don’t have to agree if you feel uncomfortable. But the last time you saw me unclothed, I had been brutally stripped bare. My body was ravaged and I was not of sound mind. Love, please heal me with your hands, will you, will you…..,” his voice broke as he turned his head in shame.

“Yes, yes my love,” she replied as she sat up in his arms. “I will lay you bare, if that is what you desire. There is no reason for you to be ashamed. I have seen your scars. Every time I see them, I see your sacrifice. I see how you saved this world…..how you saved me. I live because of your wounds.” As she spoke she took him in her arms and comforted him as a mother soothes a crying child. He whimpered in her embrace.

“Even now, your words have already begun your healing work,” he buried his face in her hair and inhaled her scent.

She drew back from him and noticed that the gold buttons of his deep blue weskit were undone. She lifted her hands to his chest to grab the lapel and smile as she looked into his astonishing blue eyes.

“You will wear blue more often now that I am your wife. It calls attention to your eyes, your beautiful blue eyes,” she kissed him as she took the garment and slid it down both of his arms at once. They both delighted in the feel of their closeness to one another.

So close…..

She became aware of the two open buttons at the top of his shirt and smiled again. As her eyes looked at the skin beneath the clasps she saw him swallow hard and she realized that he was tense as well. The movement of the muscles at the base of his slender throat elicited a spark within her center and she instinctively leaned forward and kissed the hollow of his neck, drawing a harsh moan from him. The sound encouraged her to lave her tongue at the spot and Frodo reached for her arms to steady himself. One of her hands found its way up to the curls at the nape of his neck while the other began working at his remaining shirt buttons. She felt his fingers softly dig into her upper arms as her tongue continued its task at his throat.

As his shirt buttons opened one-by-one, Sam felt more and more of the warmth of Frodo’s body. Even the old wound near his left shoulder burned with heat, not the chill it usually held. She slipped her hands beneath the linen to graze the silken skin beneath. Although his chest held a glow from recent work, she knew after Mabon, as winter approached, his skin would regain its pale luster. She had no doubt that his milky coloring was inherited from the Faery side of his Tookish bloodline, and she silently gave thanks to the Valar for her beloved’s elven features.

Her curious fingers found their way to his shoulders as he helped her remove the shirt from his body. His braces fell to his sides as the material skimmed down his arms. After the vest and shirt were removed, he carefully draped them over the chair where his jacket lay.

Now all that kept him from her were his breeches. She stilled with that sudden realization as her progress in disrobing him took her unaware. Her astonished expression betrayed her as she hastily averted her eyes from his.

He understood.

“I think that this time I will manage my trousers,” he said as he turned away from her and began to work on the fastenings at his waist. As he concealed his movements, Samantha refocused her eyes upon him, only this time she beheld the scope of his back. Her heart split open as she looked full upon the damage of his suffering. Horizontal scars peppered his skin and an image of the stripes across Gollum’s back came into her mind unbidden. A sob escaped her before she could contain it.

“Oh, Frodo,” she whispered, “I had no idea.”

His movement stopped and he bowed his head, not having the courage to turn to her.

“They look just like his marks, do they not? I received the same torture, so now I have the same ugliness to my skin.”

“No, my love, your injuries are nothing like his. You are not like him. You could never treat me as he did,” as she spoke, she let her hand glide across his imperfections, hoping to somehow comfort him.

He turned abruptly to her, searching her face for answers to questions he had never asked her.

“What did he do to you?” Frodo reached for her hand and entwined his fingers with hers. “You have not spoken to me of all that took place and I worry that what happened is what makes you timid when we come together.” She looked away, her mind thick with remembering.

“If I know your torment, perhaps I can heal you as well, Sam-love?” His eyes begged her for the chance to relieve her pain. “I have so much to give you.”

So she searched his face as her brow creased in distress and memory. Then she closed her eyes for comfort before she spoke…..

“You ran ahead Frodo, to get out of her cave. You were calling to me to follow you and you were laughing with joy and shouting to me. Then I saw her, this great black spider. She came between us and you didn’t see her. She lunged for you. You had no idea…..and then he grabbed me and screamed in triumph as he wrapped himself around me and threw me backward to the ground. Screaming and laughing, and then there was that horrible gurgling sound at my ear. He was on top of me…..” her voice fractured and she sobbed aloud. She tried to roll away from Frodo but his arms guided her to roll toward him as he sat next to her and sheltered her body with his own. She curled helplessly into a fetal position.

“Shh, shh, shh, shh, sweetling. I’m here, Sam. I’ll save you this time. Oh Elbereth, I’m so sorry I left you there, twice! I curse myself for leaving you so alone. Samantha, please, I love you, I want you, no matter what he did to you!” Frodo’s stomach tightened and he forced himself not to retch with dread for her. She had begun to weep openly and their tears mingled as his face hovered above hers. She drew in a breath and continued.

“And when he spoke he hissed at me, ‘At last, my precious, we’ve got her, the nasty, cruel hobbit. She is ours. We takes this one…..’ and he spat on me and tore at my shirt. He was too strong for me, he was too strong! Then he pawed at my bosom and I began to shake with fear. I was petrified. I felt sick. He was going to…..going to…..he snatched my skirts and pulled them up my legs. I couldn’t move Frodo, I couldn’t move!” This time she wailed loudly in anguish. Frodo’s heart was breaking for her as she stilled and kept on with her nightmare.

“Hened ned my arms above my head and bit at my neck and my mouth.”

“Oh Sam, I’m so sorry. I didn’t know,” he whimpered, ashamed of his behavior in Bree. Sam kept speaking, only this time in a low hissing growl.

“ ‘Sam trembles at Smeagol’s touch. Sam will be happy without Baggins. She has Smeagol now.’ He groped under my skirts and I felt him, I felt him on my leg as he pushed it against me. I was sick with terror at what he was about to take from me, rip out of me. Then I thought of you, how you needed me. I had to get to you. Valar help me, but I know not how I threw him off. I pounded at him and threw stones at him, all in a blind and panicked rage. I barely remember swinging and punching at him and then I was running, running to you…..but you were, you were…..” she stopped. She was having trouble breathing because she was crying so hard.

Frodo desperately tried to comfort her in his embrace, whispering endearments all the while.

“And then, and then,” she hiccuped, “You were alive, really alive after all. But we still had Doom to conquer, and we did, we got up the mountain, together somehow,” she suddenly became tranquil with another realization. “Except, Gollum followed us. I knew the task of keeping him from you would fall upon me in the end. And I faced him head on. I wouldn’t let him intimidate me this time, but as I drew my blade to kill him in my hate and rage he cowered before me like a beaten puppy dog and I pitied him. I pitied him! Even after he tried to violate me in Shelob’s lair, all I could do was feel sorry for him! So I cursed him, and he slowly stood before me, as if to prove to me he could still stand like a normal hobbit. He brought his face to mine, but I didn’t flinch, not this time. He punched me hard in my belly and I buckled over and fell to the ground. Now it was I who groveled at his feet as he grabbed my hair and yanked my head back. I heard dreadful words coming from him. ‘Yes, Precious, little hobbit whore knows now that the Master can never loves her likes he loves his Precious, gollum, gollum. Always thinking about his Precious, yes, his Precious, even when the nassty Baggins lays hisself on tops of her. The Precious, the Precious, yes Sam, she knows now she’s never enough for the Master, no matter what he promises her…..filthy, nassty thief!’ And then he was gone from me and I blacked out.”


*melda vesse: beloved wife (Elvish)

**This line is taken (and then reworded) from the song, “Your Body Is a Wonderland,” by John Mayer