Gormbard was pleasantly surprised when he arrived in Michel Delving. Having passed one small village after another what he found at Michel Delving was a fairly large town. The Market place was full of traders and even a musician or two, at once Gormbard felt more at home. When he asked around for lodgings he was given directions to an Inn called The Bird & Baby, which was a lot bigger than the previous Inn and the room he rented had a small round window that looked out towards the collection of burrows that consisted of the Michel Delving’s bank, post office and town hall. Gormbard enjoyed his first few days in Michel Delving, many of the Hobbits in town had at least travelled to other villages in The Shire and a few had even gone as far as Bree. Thankfully this small minority had heard nothing of the Lowbanks so Gormbard was confident the reasons for him being in the Shire would remain a secret.
One afternoon Gormbard climbed the large hill that sat above the Bird & Baby Inn and came across the Mathom House, a curious place with an eccentric collection of oddments that had been gathered over the years and were now on display, each with a small card with neat precise handwriting telling either what the item was or a best guess as to what it may have been. The whole collection was presided over by a Master Baldwin Foxtail, he and Gormbard spent many hours going through the fascinating objects. Master Foxtail was most interested in the Hobbits history both in the Shire and beyond and he was particularly interested in tracing the Hobbits migration across the land many centuries ago.
When he asked of Gormbards profession and Gormbard said he was a Burglar Master Foxtail almost leapt up in delight. He had a position within the Mathom House for a good Burglar, he wanted a Hobbit who was prepared to do a bit of travel, knew their letters and numbers well, and was capable of acting in a discreet and confidential manner when needed. This all sounded too good to be true to Gormbard, who fitted the role perfectly, so he accepted the offer of work at once. He would be given a wage plus a bonus or two and his own room within the Mathom House.
Gormbard threw himself into his new role and enjoyed it immensely. A lot of the time he would be sent to visit the homes of Hobbits who wished to donate various family heirlooms to the Mathom House and it would then be Gormbards job to log the new items and investigate their history using the collection of books kept in the Mathom Library. Gormbard also ran errands on behalf of Master Foxtail when correspondence was too important or too secretive for the Quick Post to be trusted with.
Gormbard was happy in his work and he hoped that this would be the fresh start he had been looking for.
