Mirari reached across the table and picked up a pitcher of hot chocolate and refilled her glass. "I've known a few musketeers. I suppose Charles knows some, but I don't know."
Betsy just shook her head; she had images of Michael York and Chris O'Donnell running through her head.
"Oh, by the way," said Denis, fishing in his pocket. "Cyrano asked me to give you a note."
"I wonder if it's a love poem," Mirari speculated. "He seemed quite taken with you, Betsy."
Betsy ignored her friend as she scanned the brief note.
My dear Betsy,
Regretfully, I must cut my visit to Grantville, and our association short. A situation in France has developed that I must deal with. Unfortunately, this means that I must put aside my work on Our Miss Brooks. I realize now that I do not yet have the skill to write in the way that the story demands. However, I have heard of another up-time story that I think I that I may adapt. It is about a lunatic red-haired woman who repeatedly falls into trouble. I believe I have enough material to adapt this into a series of comedies. I shall call it I Love Betsy.
Betsy crumpled the note in her hand and growled.
"Bad news?" Mirari asked.
"When I see that boy again," Betsy said between clenched teeth, "he's got a lot of 'splainin' to do."
Paper Mate
February 1633, Saalfeld
Veronika Vorkeuffer stuffed the envelope containing her latest assignment into the post box and smiled as she heard it hit the bottom with a satisfying thud.
"Still wasting your time trying to 'improve yourself,' I see," an unpleasant voice said from over her shoulder. "It's not going to help you catch an up-timer. They aren't interested in girls like you."
Veronika turned to face the man whose marriage proposal she'd recently turned down. "I'm not interested in marrying an up-timer," she said truthfully.
Nikolaus Rorer snorted his disbelief and walked off. Veronika waited for him to enter the Saalfeld council office building before she headed for the reception and typing pool in the same building.
She was greeted by her co-worker, who'd obviously seen the encounter. "What did the creep say that upset you?" Catrin Schmoller asked.
"He accused me of wanting to marry an up-timer."
"Which you of course immediately denied. After all, why would any self-respecting woman want to marry an up-timer? I mean, what do they have to offer a girl, other than a lifestyle to die for?"
Veronika had to grin at her friend's mock outrage. "I don't think all up-timers are rich. Haven't you noticed how many of their wives seem to hold down jobs? I don't want to go out to work; I want to be a stay-at-home wife and mother."
"If you married Nikolaus you'd be a stay-at-home wife and mother."
"Nikolaus doesn't want a stay-at-home wife. He wants a stay-at-home slave. I should never have mentioned I ever worked as a housemaid." Veronika shuddered at the memory of her years of drudgery. "There is no way I'm going to return to that kind of life."
"You'll be lucky to find someone able to afford for you not to go out to work, and can afford someone to help around the house."
Veronika dropped her head and sighed in resignation. "I know, but I can dream, can't I? Meanwhile, I'll concentrate on gaining my GED and a better job."
Schwarza Gewerbegebiet
Gottfried Spengler stopped at the turnoff to Merkel's mill, looked at the distant mill, and sighed heavily.
The man he'd been chatting with all the way from their rooms at the single men's accommodations looked at him with concern. "Why the big sigh?" Friedrich Stisser asked.
"Working for Heinrich isn't turning out as well as I'd hoped."
"What's your problem? I thought you were in charge of everything?"
"I am, but I don't have the authority a master in his own mill would have, and Heinrich insists on being consulted about any changes."
"Well, consult with him and then do what you want. He needs you more than you need him."
"Unfortunately, that's no longer the case. There are too many journeyman papermakers out there just waiting for the opportunity to run a mill, so I have to waste time explaining the benefits of anything I want to try to someone who doesn't know anything about making paper."
"That's what you get when you allow just anyone to own a craft shop. At least Heinrich Roentgen is a master brick-maker."
"It's the fault of the up-timers and their lack of understanding about guilds. They see them as completely bad."
"Whereas they are really only slightly bad?"
"Okay, I admit it, I have criticized the guild. But at least under the guild system, the people running the business actually have to have worked in the industry. Now we're starting to be run by the accountants, and you know what the up-timers say about that."
"Nothing good," Friedrich said. "What is it you want to do that Merkel objects to?"
"I want to try making paper using wood, but Merkel thinks it's too risky."
"Can you make paper out of wood?"
"The up-timers did, and they made a lot of it."
"What do you call a lot?" Friedrich asked.
"One factory up-time could make more paper in a single minute than I currently make in a week. In a single day, one up-time factory could make more paper than all of England imports in a year."
"It's much the same story in brick-making. Some of the up-time kilns could make up to a hundred and fifty thousand bricks a day."
The two men stared at each other. "We have a long way to go to catch up," Gottfried said. If Merkel isn't interested in letting you make paper from wood, what about going out on your own? Can you afford a mill of your own?"
"My savings are enough for a regular mill, but I'll need to borrow if I want to take advantage of the advances in papermaking technology. However, the big problem is finding a source of wood. Everything local already has someone's name on it, and while I could move to somewhere where there is spare wood, I need access to people with the technical knowledge to help me with the chemistry."
"You are a bit stuck. If I hear of someone local with some spare wood, I'll let you know. How much do you need?"
"If I could get a couple of dozen trees a week, I could match what I'm making at Merkel's."
"Fifteen reams a day?"
"Of good quality writing paper," Gottfried said.
"What's so special about good quality writing paper?"
"It sells for a hundred dollars a ream. Paper for newspapers sells for only fifty dollars a ream, but you do get twice as much newsprint per ton."
"Hang on, half the price for twice as much paper? Surely that makes for the same income?" Friedrich asked.
"Same income, but the costs are higher. You are, after all, making twice as much paper."
"Well, I wish you luck."
Gottfried snorted. "I'll need it."
****
Gottfried arrived at the usual tavern after work and fell into a chair. "Merkel's gone too far this time."
"What's he done?" Friedrich asked.
"He brought in an up-timer consultant to Taylorize the operation."
"What is Taylorize?" the man on the other side of Friedrich asked.
"Oh, sorry. Gottfried, this is Caspar. He started work at the brick works today," Friedrich said.
Gottfried reached out and shook the man's hand. "Pleased to meet you. It's an up-time term, Herr O’Keefe says the idea is to take a complex task, such as making paper, and break it down into a series of simpler tasks. It means that you can make paper with people who haven't served an apprenticeship."
"So Merkel won't need to employ you any longer?" Friedrich asked.
"No, he'll still have to employ me, or someone like me, to set everything up and make sure everything runs smoothly. The real saving is he can replace the skilled workforce with a cheaper, unskilled workforce and still keep production levels up."