[*Varda*]

I, personally, feel that I would have noticed something odd was going on, and the White Council appeared to be taking no notice of it. What I would have done, however, is a completely different matter.

Although Gandalf seemed to be unaware of Saruman's turn to evil, he did seem to be very busy during those years as he tried to find out if the ring was truly the One Ring. Perhaps too busy to really dwell on what Saruman was up to.

And if he did discover earlier Saruman's treachery, what could he really have done? Openly attacking him would simply draw more attention to themselves and possibly bring disaster. It would possibly also lose any secrecy of taking the ring to Mordor, as both Sauron and Saruman would be more aware of what was going on and the rest of Middle Earth attempting to rise up against them. I think that discretion was the best way forward.

~*Varda Elentari*~