I had made it back to my room after wandering aimlessly all over the estate, thinking hard about what I could do if Father decided I should leave. Something told me he wouldn’t just kick me out and expect me to make it on my own. I felt he would probably send me somewhere, possibly to a relative’s home, although I wasn’t sure who that could be. My grandmother was still alive, but she had a small house at the corner of Father’s estate. I doubted he would want me that close. It was hard to know what to do until I found out what Father intended, so I decided to quit worrying about it. I was just through the door of my room when a servant knocked on the frame. I looked up at him and recognized him as Father’s personal servant, Dell.
“Jasper,” he said respectfully, “your father would like for you to join him in Jarvis’ study.”
“Thank you, Dell,” I replied. “I will go immediately.”
With a respectful bow, he withdrew. Well, I thought to myself, it looks like I won’t have long to find out what Father intends! I quickly left my room and made my way nervously to Jarvis’ study. I wondered why he would want me to go there, unless it was to blame me because Jarvis was hurt. I remembered this same journey just that morning, and what a difference a few hours made!
I arrived at the door of Jarvis’ study, hesitated for a moment and then, squaring my shoulders with determination, I knocked on the door. A voice inside gruffly said, “Enter!”, so I opened the door and saw Father sitting behind Jarvis’ desk, frowning at the same ledgers Jarvis had been going over.
Looking up at me, Father’s frown just seemed to get deeper, “Where have you been, boy!? Never mind. You said you wanted to help Jarvis, didn’t you?” he barked at me.
“Yes, sir,” I replied, puzzled. Wasn’t he going to demand that I immediately pack my bags?
Just then I heard a knock at the door. Father and I both swiveled towards it in surprise. No one ever interrupted Father without his express permission, and, from the surprised look on his face, he wasn’t expecting anyone. “Yes?!” he barked.
The door opened and Thomas’ face peered in and then, seeing me there, he stepped on through. “Hello, Jasper, Father,” he nodded at us both, shifting from foot to foot and looking a bit nervous.
“What do you think you’re doing in here?” Father asked him irritably. “I don’t remember sending for you!”
“Yes, sir, I mean, no sir, but,” Thomas said nervously. “the thing is, I heard you had sent for Jasper here and, well, I thought maybe I should come and speak with you about the training we were doing. You see, sir, it isn’t all Jasper’s fault. He showed me the moves he found in a book and, well, I think they’re well suited to him and to his smaller size. We’ve been practicing them now for over a month and Jasper here, he’s real quick. If you’ll just let us show you what he can do, sir, I think you’ll see it’s not cowardly at all.”
Father’s frown deepened, “Look, Thomas, I’ll deal with you later. Right now I need to speak with Jasper alone. I….” Father didn’t get to finish his sentence as William chose that particular time to enter the still open door.
“Hello, sir,” he said to Father. Looking around at Thomas and me, he said, “Good, everyone is here. Father, I need to speak with you about Jasper here. You see, I watched him practice today and…”
“WILL EVERYONE JUST GET OUT OF HERE!!!!?” Father shouted, becoming angry. “I will deal with this later! Right now I want to speak with Jasper without all of this commentary.” Looking at their determined faces, he sighed, “Look, I’m not going to punish Jasper or hurt him. You two, however, I’m still thinking about!”
William and Thomas looked at each other nervously, “Oh, well then,” Thomas said, quickly backing out of the room.
“Yeah,” William agreed, also backing out of the room, “Sorry, sir, we didn’t mean to intrude. We’ll just go now. But if you need us…”
“GET. OUT.” Father enunciated each word separately and they quickly scuttled out of the door. He then turned to me, his eyes never actually meeting mine, “I suppose I owe you an apology, Jasper,” he said to my surprise. “But right now I’m more concerned about these ledgers and I want you to look at them and tell me if you can see anything wrong with them? For some reason they are not adding up.” He looked down at the ledgers with frustration.
I went around the desk, nervously moving over next to Father where the ledgers were. “Excuse me, sir,” I said, “but I need to be able to see them.”
Startled, Father looked up and saw me standing beside him. “Oh! Of course, Jasper. Here,” and he moved from the chair, “take a seat and tell me what you see, if anything.”
I eased myself into Jarvis’ chair and glanced down at the ledgers, pulling first one to me and then the other. I had studied with a tutor until the tutor had reluctantly told me that he could teach me nothing further. I had then continued my studies in the library until I had found a book on spells and quickly became engrossed. One of the spells I found had shown me that if I looked at something, as a whole, then closed my eyes briefly and recited a quick chant, a pattern would form which would clarify any question I had. I have found that particular spell to be of tremendous help to me over the years as I studied languages, math, scientific theory, and various other subjects. So, I studied the ledgers briefly, closed my eyes and silently chanted the spell, not wanting Father to hear. I might not have mentioned this before, but Father has always had a fierce dislike of magic and magicians. He called them all frauds and charlatans. It was much later that I learned there were others out there who had true magic and were more like me, wizards, and even others who wielded magic, but through sorcery.
“Jasper,” I heard Father say, “You actually need to open your eyes to see the numbers. If it’s too much for you, just say so. I am not going to hold it against you, after all. I mean, you’re only what? Eight years old? Nine?”
I quickly opened my eyes, looked again at the ledgers before me, and told Father, “No, sir, that’s not the problem. I just wanted a moment to think before I spoke to make sure I was correct.” I pointed at a column of numbers, “You see here, sir? If you add this column, and then here,” I then pulled the second ledger near and pointed to another row of figures. “This column represents the expenses reported and this column over here represents the funds actually paid to us. They don’t match, you see. The amount paid to us should have been much more if you go by the receipts posted of what was paid out and what was actually received.”
Father studied the row of figures in each ledger and then his face began to turn red, “Why, that thieving mongrel! He is trying to rob us! I don’t understand why Jarvis couldn’t see this.” Father straightened up and looked at me intently. “Boy, I’ve never understood how you could be so smart. I mean, as I just said, you’re only 8 years old…or…” Father brows drew down and he looked frustrated for a moment, “have you had your birthday yet? I’m losing track I’m afraid.” I started to interrupt him, but he shook his head and continued, “Whatever your age is now, you’re still too young to be able to just look at a column of numbers and be able to spot something that Jarvis says he’s been studying for days and has been unable to figure out. He knew something was off, but he couldn’t make the connection. Yet you just sit here, glance at the ledgers once, then close your eyes, and you know the answer, just like that!” Father was shaking his head, “You must get your brains from your mother.”
“I don’t know, Father,” I said, “I just seem to catch onto things real quick. My tutor said I made him feel inferior.”
“Yes, I know, Jasper,” Father nodded, “He told me you should get more learning, but from someone who could keep up with you. At least he was honest about it. He could have kept giving you lessons and taking his pay from me.” Father’s eyebrows shot up as he stilled, “Hey! If you can’t make it as a soldier, maybe you could be an estate manager, or a teacher yourself!”
He held up a hand as I started to interrupt, “Yes, I know you feel as if this new way of fighting you’ve come up with will help you on the battlefield, and it may at that. Jarvis was telling me what he had observed and he says there’s nothing shameful about it, that it relies on your quickness and agility and there’s nothing wrong with using your talents to your advantage on the battlefield. He says that’s what we do when we use our brute strength.” Father turned to face me fully for the first time since I had entered the study, “I guess now is as good a time as any to give you that apology, Jasper. I let my temper get away from me and if you hadn’t been as quick as you are,” he shook his head regretfully, “I would probably be burying you and facing a council for murdering my own son. Jarvis made sure I was aware of that fact. He was pretty angry at me himself and, if he were feeling better, he probably would have slammed his fist into me! I think he gets his temper from me, although I hope he’s got better control of it than I have demonstrated. I am sorry, Jasper. I hope you know that I never truly wanted to harm you. I simply wasn’t thinking straight. I walked into that training room and all I saw was you attacking your brother from behind. I never stopped to think things through. I should have known that Jarvis would not have allowed you to continue to fight if he believed it to be dishonorable.” Father hung his head for a moment and when he lifted it, I was shocked to see what appeared to be tears in his eyes, “I still can’t believe that I almost killed you, son. Your mother would have knocked me silly if she had seen me doing something like that. She loved you very much, Jasper. You’ve always been the runt of the litter and I think she was more protective of you because of that. “ Father heaved a deep sigh, “Do you think you can forgive me, Jasper?”
“Of…of course, sir,” I stammered out. I was so surprised at the way things had turned out, I felt as if I were in a waking dream. Was Father really apologizing to me? I mean, it was unreal.
“Well, that’s very generous of you, son,” Father said. “While Jarvis is laid up, I’m going to leave you to keep up the accounts. It also seems to me that you should be the one to confront our thieving mongrel of a merchant and get what is owed us. I’m sure you can figure the exact amount he owes us. After that, be sure to let him know he has lost our business.”
I looked at Father uncertainly, “You want me to confront him, sir?” I was, after all, only 8 years old and what merchant would take me seriously?
“Oh, not by yourself, son,” Father assured him. “You can take that duo outside my door with you.”
Startled, I swiveled toward the door, “You think they’re out there, sir? Don’t you think they left when you told them to?”
“Hah! They’re afraid I’m going to end up killing you.” Father said. All of a sudden Father slammed his hand hard on the desk, making a loud noise and startling me so much I’m ashamed to say I cried out. The door to the library suddenly slammed open and my two wild-eyed brothers came storming in.
“Good,” Father said, grinning, “You’re both here.”
I looked at my brothers, who were looking from me to Father in confusion. “Is everything all right, Father? Jasper?” William asked hesitantly.
“Yes, of course,” Father said. “I have an errand for the both of you. Jasper here has uncovered a plot by one of our merchants to steal from us. We, of course, cannot allow that. So you are both going to accompany Jasper while he collects what is rightfully owed us. I don’t want you to break any arms or legs, but a little intimidation doesn’t hurt, now does it?” Father turned to me suddenly, “Jasper, how long will it take you to find out exactly how much is owed us?”
“Do you want me to go back in the records to see if this is a habit of this particular merchant, sir?” I asked him.
“Of course. I want to know to the penny how much this thief owes us and I want it collected!” Father looked fierce. “I will not have the merchants think that we are so stupid we don’t even know when we are being cheated!”
I nodded thoughtfully. “Okay, just let me have time to go through the ledgers and I will let you know when I have the exact amount. I’ll probably need access to the receipts as well so I can show the thief proof of how much he owes us.”
Father scowled darkly, “He wouldn’t dare to question us! He knows what he’s been doing. Just get the right amount together and then go confront him.”
I sighed, looked down at the ledgers in front of me and pondered if I really wanted to say this, then decided I had to, “Sir. You are, of course, correct that he knows what he’s done and how long he’s been doing it, but there will most likely be witnesses to our charge against him. I would really like there to be no doubt that we have proof of the theft, sir. I don’t want there to be hard feelings among the other merchants. They might think we are just trying to cheat an honest merchant from his pay or something. In fact, that would most likely be his stance if we don’t have the proof. If that happens, then we might find that the other merchants may not want to deal with us.”
Father turned abruptly, “Very smart, Jasper, but I should expect that from you, shouldn’t I? Okay, you get your proof together and then take these lumbering oafs with you and collect what’s owed us.” Father turned to William and Thomas, “Where’s George?” he asked abruptly.
Thomas turned to look outside the door and waved someone in. Shortly George’s head popped through the door, “Did you need me for something, sir?” he asked innocently.
Jasper came through a difficult situation and found out he could be wrong about some things, no matter how smart he thought he was! What is next for our young friend? More stories of Jasper and his childhood years will follow.
