by Eric Flint
* * *
"Good evening, Herr Dauer. So good to meet you." Chad welcomed him broadly. He'd decided to wear a navy pin-striped suit, brilliant red silk tie and an oxford blue buttoned-down shirt.
"I am happy to meet you, Herr von Grantville." Dauer began formally but stopped when he saw Chad lift his hand.
"There is no 'von Grantville.' Just Herr Jenkins. It is not our custom," Chad said mildly. "Will you join me for a sherry?"
"Thank you, Herr . . . Jenkins." Dauer took a small glass of sherry.
"Prost." Chad toasted Dauer. One sip down, he continued, "Every now and then I insist my entire family dine together formally. I hope you don't mind."
"Oh, no, sir." Dauer was intimidated by Chad's easy familiarity and was uncomfortable wearing his best clothing. Dauer usually wore a heavy leather apron, leather trousers and a sleeveless linen shirt when he worked. Even so, he would never be willing to forego this opportunity.
"My son says you are a genius in iron, which is why I asked you to come to Grantville. I have a need for some iron to be cast and worked, really something I think would be elementary for someone of your skills. We will discuss it further after dinner." Chad ended his comments when Debbie came toward them.
Debbie was wearing a scalloped-neck, electric blue gown which fell to just above her shoes. "Good evening, dear." She took Chad's hand. "Will you introduce us?"
"Herr Ulrich Dauer, this is my wife, Frau Deborah Jenkins. Deborah, this is Herr Dauer, the master smith I told you about. A glass of sherry?"
Debbie smiled. "Thank you. I believe I will."
Ten minutes after Chad been expecting them, the girls came downstairs. "This is my daughter, Fraulein Melissa Jenkins and our houseguest, Fraulein Gertrude Wiegert who is continuing her studies in Grantville. She's originally from the Palatinate but the war . . . well, you understand. Her younger brother and older sister are currently living in Jena. I believe you've met her sister's favored suitor, Joachim von Thierbach."
Both girls were graceful in their dresses. Missy's was patterned on her mother's dress. Gertrude's was based on one worn by the daughter of Duke Johann Philipp of Saxe-Altenburg. Sewing machines and the proper materials in the hands of some of the older women in town could work wonders.
A few minutes later, Chad's mother, in a fashionable dark green suit, came into the room. "Sorry I'm late. I hope you'll accept my apologies." She smiled at Dauer and took her seat.
Debbie selected a Vivaldi CD for their dinner music. It would be followed by Pachebel and Bach. Dinner itself began with a white wine and green salad with shredded carrots in a vinaigrette dressing. Afterwards a bottle of merlot, some of the last in their cellar, was brought in. Chad poured the wine shortly before the sliced roast beef, baked potatoes and steamed green beans with the last of their slivered almonds were put on the table. Debbie had been in the kitchen all afternoon, much to the dismay of the German cook they'd hired for the evening. Then Debbie had gotten another woman from the refugee center to help their maid, Christina, serve the food.
Dauer, of course knew none of this. He watched as Chad and Debbie left their salad forks on the salad plate. Then how they used the dinner fork and knife for the rest of the meal. He knew of the potato but had never imagined that it would be eaten by humans at any time, unless in extremity. Upon tasting it, he found it to be, well, edible but rather bland, even with butter, salt and pepper.
All the while, Chad, Debbie and Chad's mother kept up a spirited conversation about the current political situation, business and music. They frequently asked Dauer his opinions based on his being native to these times. Also about his experiences traveling around the region. He easily recognized the primacy Herr Jenkins' mother had over the family, quite unlike his own grandmother. What threw him off the most was the easy familiarity Missy and Gertrude had, conversing with everyone including the grandmother. In all, Dauer was amazed by the high level of discussion and the total absence of gossip.
Then Missy asked, "How does your apprentice feel about coming to Grantville?"
"I don't discuss such matters with him, Fraulein Jenkins," Dauer responded. He was about to go farther but saw Chad's stillness and direct look. Not to Missy's question but to his answer.
A moment later, the crème brulèe was brought in. Smiles burst on Missy and Gertrude's faces as the bowls were placed before them. The creamy custard topped with a thin layer of sugar caramelized under the broiler was a rare treat.
"One of my favorite desserts but harder to make now that sugar is more expensive than I care to pay," Chad commented. His spoon cracked through the thin crust into the custard.
"It's exquisite," Dauer burst out. "Cream I've had, even flavored creams but never prepared in such a fashion. I've had sugar, of course, but I've never seen it melted and used as a crust."
"Our standard dessert at supper would have been ice cream, possibly with some fruit." Debbie smiled. "The fruit was often shipped in from thousands of miles away during the winter. We would get both the fruit and the flavored ice cream from a local market. We stored it chilled or frozen here in our home. All too soon the machine we use to keep it cold could break. We'll have to reinvent a method to keep things frozen some time in the future."
"Amazing." Dauer's mind circled. "To be able to put inventions on a time schedule. I used to make regular experiments but I lost my notebooks when my home was destroyed by raiders. I lost all my wealth at the same time. I . . . haven't experimented since my wife died in childbirth."
The entire Jenkins clan looked at him with sympathy. Chad spoke first. "I don't know that experimentation will be necessary for what I want. But it seems to me you might want to start replicating your experiments."
Dauer nodded.
* * *
After dinner Dauer accepted the chair Chad offered in his home office. "An amazing family you have, Herr Jenkins. I never imagined women could be so intelligent."
"They're gifted with as many brains as men are, perhaps even more." Chad gave a faint smile. "The difference you've seen is that the women in my family are allowed to grow in knowledge. Kinder, Kirche und Kueche are all very well, but not overriding. My wife and mother attended universities. One theory is that more educated mothers have more intelligent daughters. Personally, I don't think it's in the blood. If the child sees her mother doing intelligent things, she is encouraged to do intelligent things herself. If you had the opportunity to observe my son with women, I think you saw he does not dismiss them as mindless idiots.
"Likewise, I make the blanket assumption that everyone can learn. Some actually cannot learn due to limitations of their minds, some are only able to reason to a certain extent, but the rest try to live up to my expectations. I've been disappointed but not all that often. The reason I bring this up is because of your attitude towards your apprentice."
"What about him, Herr Jenkins?" Dauer looked stubborn. "His parents paid me money to train him and I'm training him. He is learning, even if I have to use the stick on him regularly."
"That's just the problem." Chad gestured widely. "Long before my time we found that while you can make a donkey go forward with a stick, once you stop hitting him, he stops moving or moves slowly. On the other hand, if you encourage him, praise him when he actually accomplishes something, he will want to keep moving faster and faster. Those are the classic carrot and stick approaches to education."
"Herr Jenkins! I have tried and tried to do that but he is like your donkey. I have to get his attention. My master beat me regularly until I spotted him making a mistake one day. I didn't tell him and the iron was ruined. I kept the pleasure of that knowledge in my heart. I then began to find out how much more I could learn that my master did not know or was doing wrong. Unknown to him, I began my experiments. I became a journeyman easily and then a master. Unfortunately, I found that I was still working with fools like my old master."
"I understand, Herr Dauer. It is difficult, so difficult, not to have excessive pride in your gr
eater knowledge, isn't it? Life was good when you were in your own town where the people recognized your worth. But then in Jena? You only irritated them. Of course they knew your skills but if someone continually berates you as a fool, do you allow him into your own house?"
"I suppose I wouldn't, Herr Jenkins. But still . . ."
"No buts. Fortunately you're here in Grantville where the local blacksmiths cannot reject you. On the other hand, if you are to work with my people, I insist that you treat them with as much respect as they give you. They will not know as much as you do about iron but I guarantee the American workers will know scientific facts you never imagined. You know something, they know something. I also insist that you treat all German workers with respect, including your apprentice."
"You can't make me do that." Dauer's chin was lifted in bitter refusal and he glared at Chad. "He's my apprentice and I'll treat him as I see fit!"
"All right then, so be it." Chad shrugged and flipped his hand sideways. "The coach leaves for Jena tomorrow morning at ten. Be on it." He couldn't enforce it but Dauer didn't know that. He did know nobles who could and would.
"You would throw me out of Grantville because I will not relinquish control over my apprentice?" Dauer gasped in shock.
"No. Because you are refusing to change!" Chad slapped his desktop. "You're refusing to even try! That's why! I have no use for someone who will not try. If Galileo Galilei was in my employ, I would dismiss him for the same reason. He may be a great scientist but I would not use him."
Dauer was aghast. Herr Jenkins would dismiss Galileo? How much brighter a star was Galileo than Dauer himself? It never occurred to him that . . . "It is that important?"
"My son and I have at least one thing in common." Chad spoke in earnest, his eyes boring directly into Dauer's. "The true worth of an individual is not based on his wealth or position. It is based on his heart and a willing mind. Of course there will be those who will attempt to deceive you. There will be those who cannot or refuse to learn. Let someone else worry about them. But most, most will try to learn.
"Explain in an orderly fashion to your apprentice why certain things happen. USE Steel can help with the chemistry aspect. I personally know very little about iron but let me show you something."
Chad lifted an old technical manual from the shelf behind him and put it on the desk in front of Dauer. He opened it to a page showing an exploded view of a carburetor. "See that?" Chad tapped the picture. "My father trained me how to take apart and put together that type of machine when I was younger than Albert. I had no idea how to make any of the parts but I knew how to put them together properly because he taught me their order."
Dauer was fascinated by the incredibly detailed drawing. "So many individual parts."
"That's nothing." Chad flipped the pages to one showing an automobile engine. "There are hundreds of parts in that, all made to a precision measured in hundredths of an inch. Thousands of people shared their knowledge and experience over less than a hundred years in order to build this. For one type of machine which had ten or more competitors. Do you understand?"
"I will have to think about this, Herr Jenkins." Dauer was apologetic. "I am willing to learn. I always have been. It's just that it's hard to change."
* * *
Chad closed the front door behind Dauer and gave a huge sigh of relief. He cupped his hand over his mouth to sound like a PA system. "His Most Serene, Glorious and Puissant von Grantville has left the building." Chad draped his suit jacket over the back of a chair, unbuttoned his collar and whipped off his tie.
Missy laughed as Chad sat down on the living room couch. "Dad, I knew it was going to be a 'von Grantville evening' but I hardly expected you to give him the whole 'von Grantville treatment.' I mean, we could hear you pounding your desk."
"Was all that necessary?" his mother asked.
Chad grimaced and rubbed his palm across his right cheek. "Unfortunately, yes. I hate being that forceful. Chip wrote that he was abusive to his apprentice. I had to shut down that kind of behavior immediately. Might be allowable in any other part of Germany but I don't need anyone I'm doing business with getting arrested for assault and battery. The smiths in town probably wouldn't think of mentioning it."
"It occurs to me you were as arrogant as him," observed Eleanor.
"Yeah. But I have to psych myself up for it. I figure he's been working on it since he was an undersized kid in grade school. I'll bet he was apprenticed to a smith because the smith was the strongest man in his town. Might be a hell of a scrapper."
"Have some coffee." Debbie brought him a steaming mug. Cream and honey, the way he begun drinking it after the new coffee began arriving. She sat down next to him after he took his first sip. He put his arm over her shoulder. "So how did it go?"
"Good. Good. I've got him thinking along the lines I wanted. I'll close the sale tomorrow. Have to make it quick or he'll find just how much work he can get without me, even not having his own forge. Right now he's willing to change because he wants this job so bad he can taste it. He'll be unhappy once he finds how I conned him but he's smart enough to get over it fast. If nothing else, all his fellow smiths are doubling up or more in rooms while he has a whole up-time house to himself and his apprentice. That's genuine prestige these days."
"This is a sale?" Gertrude asked. Since Gretchen brought the attractive teen to Grantville from Jena last October, she'd become a member of the Jenkins family.
"Sale, agreement, contract. Whatever. In the car business, ninety percent of the time I only had one shot to make the sale. So I initially showed Dauer respect in front of all of you and the comforts available here. I'll bet he noticed every single one, from the music to the silverware. By the way, wonderful, just the perfect dinner, dear." Chad gave her small shoulder a squeeze and kissed the top of her head. "Then in private I had to get certain issues blasted through his arrogance."
Missy nodded emphatically. "Yeah, that bit about 'Oh, I never ask my apprentice for his opinion' got to me. I couldn't believe it. I mean, Mom would never teach kids like that. Right, Mom?"
Debbie started chuckling and then burst out laughing, joined by Chad. "No," she finally admitted, wiping tears from her eyes. "But there have been times. Oh, there have been times when I wished I could. Including you and Chip."
"Excuse me, but I don't see what was unusual in Dad's treatment of Herr Dauer," confessed Gertrude. "Dad's far more lenient and generous than any freiherr would have been towards even a master smith coming to work for him. I doubt Herr Dauer has eaten with any freiherr's family. He is a craftsman, they are noble. It just doesn't happen. Like you had Veit tell him, it's a great honor."
"True," Eleanor said. "But remember we're not like the rest of Germany. Chad, how many times have you had your salespeople or mechanics over for dinner?"
Chad wrinkled his brow in thought for a moment. "Here? Maybe a dozen times, mostly Christmas parties when times were lean. Normally we had them at Toothman's Restaurant in Farmington. We did have that party for Bob Szymanski so he could propose to Darlene." Chad snickered. "Then she almost swallowed the engagement ring he planted in her piece of cake. Most of our parties are for people from the church or the Lions."
Debbie looked at the mantle clock. "It's almost eight, girls. If you've got your homework done, you can watch TV. After you've changed out of those clothes."
Eleanor was frowning.
"What's the matter, Mom?" Chad asked.
"Just thinking. Perhaps you're taking this 'von Grantville' thing too far."
Chad gave a slight shake of his head. "I don't think so. I spent months in the woods with the timber cutters. While Estes Frost and the other up-timers all called me Chad, most of the down-timers still called me Herr Jenkins. This is after I was swinging an axe, eating the same food, sleeping in the same bunkhouse and going to town only a little more often than they did. I think the down-timer loggers thought I was like one of those eccentric English gentlemen and had a screw loose.
>
"Dauer's one of the few who ever called me 'von Grantville' and I stopped that right away. Once this contract is in place, I'm going to insist on Chad and Ulrich. Saying Herr all the time is boring. I admit I'm not as egalitarian as some people would like but as long as I've got you and Debbie standing next to me with sledgehammers, I don't think it's going to be a problem."
"Sledgehammers, huh!" Debbie snorted. "That's not at all lady-like. We ladies use hat-pins. Three inches long. You still have some around, don't you, Mom?"
* * *
Ulrich Dauer didn't get much sleep that night. Early the next morning he knocked on Chad's door. "Herr Jenkins, I will do as you wish on one condition. That I be allowed to learn what those men at USE Steel know."
* * *
Dauer and his apprentice, Albert, watched as Chad demonstrated the wringer later that morning. Then as he disassembled it onto the workbench. Dauer looked at the few parts and his forehead twisted, mystified. "I can hardly believe you brought me here to make these parts. They're child's play."
