I was admitted into Frederick’s study almost as soon as I arrived at the count’s manor. The heavy oak door opened with a low creak, and I stepped into a room that smelled faintly of wax, ink, and old parchment. A fire crackled quietly in the hearth despite the mild weather.
In the seat that would normally be reserved for Fredrick sat his steward, Casper, framed by the high-backed chair and the tall window behind him. Light filtered through thin linen curtains, casting soft lines across the polished desk. He immediately rose and bowed low, one hand pressed neatly to his chest.
“Count Bicman, it is wonderful to see you again.”
“It is good to see you as well, Casper,” I said with a nod, brushing a bit of dust from my sleeve as I stepped further into the room. “How have things been since Fredrick left?”
“Much the same.” He straightened smoothly, folding his hands behind his back. “He didn’t care too much for the political side of things. He was much more interested in getting to the battlefield.” His face remained neutral, though there was the faintest tightening around his eyes.
“And you let him go before he had an heir?” I quirked an eyebrow as I moved to the chair opposite the desk, resting a hand on its carved back before sitting.
“The campaign season is mostly on the downswing,” Casper said, returning to his seat with measured grace. “And after the initial push that Turabe made, they have been breaking their teeth against our fortifications.” He reached for a small stack of reports he had most likely been working on before I came in, and shifted them out of the way. “The new crossbow is helping with that. Turabe is paused while they work out a strategy to overcome the crossbow and the lightning raids the horsemen are making.”
“I am sorry, I am not going to be here for his wedding this winter. Unfortunately, I have my own duty.” I leaned back slightly, the chair creaking under my weight.
The corner of Casper’s mouth rose just a fraction. “Marriage to someone with royal blood does not seem like such a terrible duty. Something most counts can only dream of.”
I gave a wide smile in return, though my stomach twisted unpleasantly. “You are correct indeed. Marriage to Lady Erica will be a great blessing for my county.”
The words tasted like ash.
With the niceties out of the way, Casper shifted forward slightly, fingers steepled atop the desk. “I have to admit I was surprised to receive your letter. I am most curious to know what you found so important that it could not be shared via a letter or messenger.”
“To be honest, I thought of just sending Edward down here,” I said, sliding my gloves off and setting them on the desk. “But I felt I needed to get out of the county for a bit. Meet with some other people.”
Casper nodded, his gaze steady, assessing. “Understandably. Sometimes I would like to do the same. It seems like every time I turn around, someone needs something.”
“And now I need something from you,” I said.
“I am at your service,” he replied smoothly, “as long as it is in the best interest of Vaspar, I am happy to help.”
I pulled out some documents from a leather portfolio, the stiff paper whispering as I set them on the desk. A contract, along with several rough designs and layouts for a few buildings, was spread between us.
“I would like to establish a presence in the Vaspar market again.”
Casper’s eyes lit up, the first genuine reaction he had shown. He leaned forward slightly, scanning the documents. “You seek to rebuild the publishing house?”
“Not quite,” I said, tapping one of the layouts with a finger. “But almost as good. I want to establish a bookstore and café.”
Casper’s gaze flicked up to mine, sharp now. “You wish to keep the book making in North Cove?”
“I think that would be best,” I said evenly, “considering how much money we lost when the last publishing house burned down.”
“That seems like sound reasoning.”
Translation: we both knew it was complete crap, but he couldn’t say that out loud without risking offense.
Casper shifted the papers slightly, aligning the edges with careful precision before looking back up. “An interesting pairing. Why a café next to the bookstore?”
“So that people may taste the delicacies of North Cove and listen to book readers.”
“Your candy?” Casper’s eyes lit up again, this time with something closer to genuine interest.
Personally, the candy was only so-so. We needed to separate out the molasses to get a cleaner sweetness before it would really stand out. Just wait, Casper, I will conquer candy and then conquer the world.
“That, among other things,” I said, offering a small smile. No need to spoil the surprise about our chefs just yet.
“Well,” Casper said, leaning back slightly as he considered, fingers tapping once against the armrest, “the land where the publishing house was is still available. But I am guessing you want something a little closer to the central plaza.”
“As close to the noble district as possible,” I said. “Since they will be the primary clients.”
“For that,” he said, “you will have to buy or rent the property from the current owners. We have a man who handles delinquent land payments. If you contact him, once we negotiate the cost of you operating as a foreign merchant, I recommend retaining a lawyer to sort things out. He will be able to find you exactly what you are looking for.”
I grimaced, rubbing the back of my neck. “I was hoping you would know of a place, but with how busy you must be, I see that was a foolish thought.”
I leaned forward, resting my forearms on my knees.
“Why don’t we get down to business?”
We spent the next hour going over terms, costs, and permissions. The fire crackled softly in the background as papers were handed back and forth, quills scratched, and deals were finalized on fresh parchment. By the end of it, both of us had given a little and gained enough to walk away satisfied.
Eventually, the tension eased, and the conversation drifted into safer waters. Casper asked a few idle questions, his tone casual, but his eyes sharp—probing for details about North Cove.
I answered just enough to be polite, keeping my cards close to my chest.
*****
Now that business was taken care of, I went out on the town to figure out what I could pick up from the markets. I visited a few shops to try out new pigments. I was trying to find a way to add a touch more depth to my paintings. Within a few months, I was sure I would be asked to paint a whole slew of nobles, and I was going to have to bring my “A” game.
We had been making great strides back at North Cove towards finding new colors and mixes. We were able to achieve a shimmering effect using a particularly interesting beetle. I don’t know how the kids figure this out. But they scraped off a layer inside a beetle shell, then crushed it up finely, and we suddenly had something you could mix with other powders to give a shimmer. I hadn’t used it on any of my public art pieces yet. It would be one of the secret weapons I would use when I went to the capital.
The shopping trip was productive in many ways. I got a collection of minerals that I mostly had no idea what they were. Some were used for dyes, and some for helping finish metal. At the apothecary, we found sulfur, which we didn’t need, there was also what I was pretty sure was arsenic. Not sure I wanted it, but bought it anyway. Bought a blue and green powder they called vitriol, which looked similar to what we got from the copper plates. The green was from iron and the blue from copper.
I visited a bunch of local craftsmen, looking for any ideas that might jog my memory on something that may be useful or perhaps something I could bring back with me to North Cove to work on or improve. It always amazed me what the R&D team came up with once they were pointed in a direction.
The best thing that I found, though, was at the stone quarry about five kilometers outside the city. The very nervous foreman, or whatever you called him, was taking me around explaining everything as if a wrong answer would be his death.
“What is that!” I shouted. Pointing at a Hamster wheel.
“Uh… my lord. That is our crane.”
“Yeah, I can see that, but why does it have an oversized hamster wheel attached?”
“Hamster wheel.”
I had come a long way towards acting like a proper noble, but at the sight of this contraption, I lost all my decorum.
“I have got to check it out? I will pay you a gold to send your men on a lunch break.”
His eyes went wide. “Of course, my lord.”
“Let’s go.” I practically ran towards the machine. Scaring the workers half to death.
I circled around the machine a few times. The system of pulleys on this thing was much more intricate than anything we had in North Cove. I turned to look at the foreman. “So someone just climbs inside this and walks, and it lifts the load.”
The foreman nodded. “Yes, my lord.”
Ok, this was getting annoying. “You know etiquette dictates that you only have to say my lord at the beginning of a conversation. You can cut that out, and our conversations will go much faster.”
“Oh…Um…Yes, my… Uh… Yes.”
I smiled at him. "See, that’s better. And don’t worry. I will not get upset at you. I will probably be the nicest count you have ever met. Ok, I am probably the only count you will ever meet, I doubt Fready has many occasions to visit quarries.”
I jumped into the hamster wheel and started walking. The rope holding the platform, which was loaded with a large amount of stone, began to lift. I had to put my hands out in front of me and grip the wooden slats, but this was so easy it was ridiculous.
I slowly started to work the wheel backward until it was on the ground again.
“I need the engineer who created this thing. Wait, never mind, that’s not your problem. Casper owes me a favor. I will have him find me one." After walking around a little while longer, I headed over to Ferdinand's drapery.
Upon entering the shop, I saw his son, Jasper, arranging sample cloth on a shelf. As I entered, he turned to look at me and immediately dropped the cloth he was holding. With a wide smile and a gleam in his eyes, he rushed up to me. “Count Bicman,” His normal enthusiasm bleeding into every word. "It is so good to see you. It has been far too long. Yes, far too long. And your clothes are so fascinating. Are you going to try to start a new trend among the nobility? Hmmm… It may work, but I fear it will not be supported among the more, shall we say, traditional nobility. The embroidery, however, is superb. You must tell me where you found such a master. Love the color of the shirt, it contrasts well with your scarf. The cost of the cloth must be very high. Though I would not expect anything of less quality to be worn by a noble such as yourself.
I smiled and interrupted the man. “Jasper, it is good to see you as well. And I came here today to specifically show you the quality of the cloth we are now producing in North Cove.”
Jasper's eyes went wide. “This cloth and embroidery came from your county.” Then he smiled. “Of course it did. I can see you are a count who expects perfection from his workers. You mentioned showcasing. Does that mean you have some to sell?” His voice was eager.
I do indeed. "I have 25 meters of various materials and dies. Some are even embroidered. Why don’t we get your father, and we can discuss your acquisition of the cloth?”
For the first time, Jasper had nothing to say. He just fled the room to go get his father, Ferdinand. I sent a few servants to go get the cloth.
After a lengthy negotiation, they finally purchased everything I had on credit. I was finally ready to make one last stop for the day. Time to get some livestock.
Jamie
Jamie knocked twice and waited five seconds, then she knocked three times and waited two, finishing with three knocks.
She heard the heavy bar being lifted, and finally, the door was open. Keeping her hood up and her head down as she swept through the oversized door and past two guards as if she were the owner of the manor. During the day, it was a service entrance. Fullers, carpenters, and meat vendors used the door constantly during the day. It was known for other services at night, hence the nickname, “mistress's entrance.”
She strode confidently up to the back door of the manor, where the kitchens were located. Two guards saw her coming and straightened. They were both familiar with her presence, though she never spoke a word to them or lifted her head. She gave them the hand gesture required, and they ushered her in. The narrow stairs that led up to the office and guest quarters on the second floor creaked with age. Jamie kept telling herself she needed to remind someone to fix that. She and her escorts stopped at the door to Casper's bed chamber. The guard knocked three times, and the tired voice of Casper came from the opposite side.
“Come in.”
The guard pushed open the door. Well-oiled hinges prevented even the slightest noise. Jamie smiled at the knowledge that Casper hated squeaky doors.
She entered without a word, and as soon as Casper nodded to the guards, they left.
Jamie yanked off the cloak with a sigh and hung it on a peg. “Even in the evening, it is stifling under that thing.” She complained.
Casper nodded, “We all do what we must.”
“You're not the one having to live like a fugitive, Casper. I had to take the fall for everything while you get to play the part of a good little servant.” She snapped back.
They sat in silence for a moment before Jamie finally sighed. “At least tell me you found out something interesting from Lord Bicman.”
“Not as much as I would like. He is not as easy to read as he used to be,” Casper said as he walked to the table and poured some wine into a finely crafted bronze cup. Walking over to where Jamie had taken a seat, he handed the goblet to her. “He came to discuss opening a bookstore and a cafe.”
“Not a publishing house?”
Casper shook his head. "He doesn’t want to share those profits anymore, and I don’t blame him. Now that he has built a better road to Malcomp, he could load twenty books into a cart with a contingent of guards and have the books here in six days. He wants a smaller shop near the noble district to sell them from.”
“He should just sell them at the auction? He wouldn’t have to pay for the space.” Julie thought this was obviously a poor decision on Amos’s part.
“I get the feeling that the cafe is the reason he needs the space. He will probably have an art gallery as well. Or at least sell the paintings he puts up on the walls.”
“An art gallery?” I have not heard of one of those.” Jamie leaned forward, intrigued.
“I actually heard about it from one of my contacts in Carok. Apparently, Amos had his cousin set one up. He displays the art for a month. Allowing people to come and look at the art and then at the end of the month, he sells the paintings and puts new ones up.”
“That is an interesting idea,” Jamie said. Her eyes are already glowing with interest. As she raised the cup to her lips to take another sip.
“Not an original. My contact also told me that people are claiming he got the idea from the continent where such things are becoming popular.” Casper said as he walked back to the fine oak table where he poured himself a cup.
“I don’t think so, didn’t he set up something similar on his last year's visit to Vaspar?” She swore. “I should have followed up on it.”
“Why are you so upset?”
Jamie frowned, deep creases running across her forehead. “I need to unravel the man. Figure out how he works before he is married. It will be a lot harder once he is married. Every eye in the kingdom will be on him then. Why can’t he just be a normal noble? Expand his fields and play petty politics. He is a piece on the board that I cannot predict. I don’t like it.”
Casper smiled, “If he played by everyone else's rules, he wouldn’t be nearly as interesting. Or quite so wealthy.”
Jamie shook her head. “He certainly doesn’t act like a wealthy noble.”
“Really? I know you or your people were spying on him in the city, just like mine. Tell me what he bought.”
“Everything,” Jamie growled, “He cleaned out the apothecary shop, bought resins and glues. He tried to buy ideas and recipes where he could. He sent several of his men in different directions, trying to pry secrets out of tradesmen.”
“Exactly, if my estimates are correct through his books and paintings, he may make as much as Count Yarbeth this year. Add in the playing cards, I will have to show you those, and he could possibly beat out the top three, and they don’t even realize it. Then he turns around and spends it all on food for his people, ideas, and every possible spice or mineral that comes to our dock.”
“What is the man up to?” Jamie said while standing up. She began to pace. “Did you find out anything about the armor?”
Caper gave her a deadpan look. “Do you honestly think he would tell me about the most valuable of his ideas? And I am not foolish enough to ask.”
“Do you think Sophis was able to get it out of him?” Jamie said with a sour look on her face.
“Stop making faces or you're going to develop wrinkles. I doubt Amos was foolish enough to give it to Sophis.”
“He was fool enough to supply it to most of his men.”
Now it was Casper’s turn to frown. He set his goblet down. “If Baron Sophis was able to get anything out of Amos, I believe that is how he did it. That is one weakness that is easy to exploit in the boy. He cares too much.”
“Perhaps that will be our lever as well.” Jamie grinned.
Casper’s face went flat. “Watch yourself, Jamie. Do not mess up the relationship we have with the boy. He knew what he was doing when he sent the story of the Kayver who laid the golden eggs.”