The Kindred's were the last to leave, and Gottfried stood beside Veronika as she handed Herr Kindred his free sample. "I'm sure you'll be impressed with the quality of that paper, Herr Kindred."
"I'm sure I will, and I'm very impressed with your young lady," Lyle said.
"Yes, why ever didn't you bring Veronika along to the Chamber of Commerce dinner?" Mary Jo asked.
"I thought it was a business affair," Gottfried muttered.
Mary Jo giggled. "Oh dear, you poor thing." She turned to include Veronika in the conversation. "Your man here was absolutely swamped by the young daughters and granddaughters of members of the Chamber of Commerce, all intent on sinking their hooks into the owner of a paper mill."
Gottfried stood taller and prouder when Veronika failed to say he wasn't her young man. However, he knew he had to say something to assure her that he wanted to be her young man. "I thought I'd never get out of there in one piece."
"So next time, take this delightful young woman," Mary Jo said. "I'm sure she's capable of protecting you."
"Next time, I will." He smiled at Veronika. "If you'd like to, that is."
"I'd like that," she said.
September 1633
Gottfried stood at one end of the paper hall looking back at his mill. He still wasn't making roll paper, but his mill was the most efficient paper mill in the Confederated Principalities of Europe. No, make that the world.
"It's safe to leave it in my hands, you know," Friedrich Stisser said from beside him.
"That's very easy to say, but she's my baby, and I worry."
"Yes, but you also want to experiment with new techniques."
"Yes, I do." Gottfried sighed. He just had to learn to let his baby go; otherwise he'd never have time to experiment with techniques to make chemical pulp. "I'm having trouble with the scale model wood-chipper."
"There you are then. You go off and play with your wood-chipper and leave the mill in my capable hands."
Gottfried had wanted someone he trusted to help in his mill and Friedrich had leapt at the opportunity to get away from making bricks. However, he wasn't a trained papermaker, and Gottfried worried.
Friedrich grabbed him by the arm and marched him to the back door before pushing him toward the separate shed where he was building his chemical pulp mill in miniature. "Go on. You'll never make any progress if you can't trust me."
Gottfried was torn. The mill was making thirty reams a day, and everything was going well. There wasn't anything that should go wrong, but there was a world of difference between should and could. "If you have any trouble . . ."
"Call you. Now stop worrying and go."
Saalfeld
Veronika and Catrin were working their way through yet another pile of tax invoices when Andreas Rottenberger burst in. "The Spanish have invaded the United Provinces."
"What? Invaded? Where did you hear that?" Veronika asked.
"The radio net," Andreas said.
Veronika glanced at the cheap radio by the counter that was tuned into the Voice of America broadcasts. "There's been nothing on the radio."
"Not that radio, the radio net. There's a bunch of us amateurs with our own transceivers, and the net's full of news about the invasion. Apparently the Spanish destroyed the Dutch navy."
"You should take your story to the papers. I'm sure they'd be interested," Catrin said.
Veronika shot Catrin a glance. She was looking at Andreas with her dreamy "isn't he cute" look. Then what Catrin had suggested hit home. Newspapers. And newspapers needed paper. Gottfried had to be told about this. She shot to her feet and ran for the coat hangars. "Catrin, you look after the office."
"What? Where are you going?"
"To see Gottfried. The newspapers are going to be printing special editions, and he needs all the forewarning he can get to ramp up production for the extra demand."
"But what about your job here? Nikolaus is sure to complain."
Veronika barely paused as she put on her jacket and grabbed her hat and gloves. "Let him do his worst. This could be important for Gottfried."
****
Gottfried was happily watching the two-foot length of one-inch diameter wood disappear down the chute into his hand-operated chipper as he wound the handle when he thought he heard someone bellowing his name. He stopped winding, and there it was again. A familiar feminine voice was calling out for him. He hurried over to the shed door and opened it, to see Veronika running towards him. "Veronika, shouldn't you be at work?"
"This is more important. Andreas says the Spanish have invaded the United Provinces. The papers are going to want to print special editions as soon as possible, and we have to make sure they have enough paper."
Gottfried was struggling to understand what had Veronika so excited. "Who is Andreas?"
"Andreas Rottenberger."
Gottfried shook his head to indicate he was still none the wiser.
"Andreas has a transceiver, and he's in contact with other amateur transceiver operators. He says the net is full of the story. We have to act fast."
"Net?" Gottfried was still lost. "And why do we have to react fast? Actually, who is 'we'?"
"The mill has to act fast. The papers are going to want extra paper on top of their regular order to print the extra editions."
"How do you know the papers are going to print extra editions?"
"Do you want to be able to read the full story about the disaster in the United Provinces?"
Gottfried nodded.
"Right, and so will everyone else. Show me the store room. I want an idea of what we have in stock."
Gottfried was swept along to the storeroom where he stood and watched while Veronika checked out the piles of paper all ready for collection.
"Schmucker and Schwentzel? Since when have they been buying our newsprint?"
"That's their first order. They're planning a line of cheap fiction."
"Right, well, they can probably afford to wait a couple of days for their order. So that's another twenty reams we have uncommitted."
"Uncommitted!" Gottfried protested. "They have a contract for that paper, to be collected tomorrow."
"Yes, but what time tomorrow?"
"Noon." Suddenly it dawned on Gottfried what Veronika was proposing. "We can't sell Schmucker and Schwentzel's order to someone else and make it up tomorrow. There is not enough slack in the system to produce an extra twenty reams by noon tomorrow."
"You're wrong, there's a whole fourteen hours a day of unused capacity."
She had a point. The mill was only working a standard ten hour day, but Gottfried could see plenty of problems. "The workers will never stand for it."
"So pay them extra. Just make sure we have enough paper to meet the demand, otherwise they might move to another supplier."
Gottfried had been the first papermaker in the area to use coppice wood, but others had followed his lead, and his was no longer the only mill making paper from wood pulp. It was just the best located one. "We won't have enough wood ready to be ground."
"Stop thinking of obstacles and just get to work. If you need more wood, go and get it. Meanwhile I've got some letters to write. Do you have someone who can run the letters to the printers in Rudolstadt and Grantville?"
"Caspar's son can run your letters, but why do you want to send any out?"
"To let people know we're ramping up production to meet the expected need, and to tell Schmucker and Schwentzel what we're doing, why, and reassure them that their order will be available on schedule."
Gottfried was impressed, he was also aware that time was passing. He dropped a kiss onto Veronika's lips and hurried off to get things organized.
Later that morning
Gottfried was busy checking the quality of the latest batch of pulp when Friedrich slithered up beside him.
"You'll never guess who I found sitting at your desk in the office."