Who the H invented Valentine’s Day? Because I’d like to take him out back and shoot him. I should have known something was up because Junie and Emerson were both smiling at me when I started my shift. Junie’s old auntie is still alive and Emerson says I have to spend my Friday driving her so she can have her Valentine delivered, and to whom? That old freeloader of a wino Crumb. And Emerson, the DICK, won’t even let me have the steam carriage for the rest of the weekend, just Friday. I’d scheduled it so me and Tobias could do some exploring down to Dunsany, now we’re only going to have time to drop off supplies.
This SUCKS.
So I’m going to be spending Friday driving Mumsy around again, and she won’t just want to go just to see the messengers like she always does, she’ll want to go all over the place. She better not get us arrested with her klepto antics, I am NOT going to the magistrate with her!
I can’t believe how fast Tobias is catching up on mathematics. I went to the Academy and got the study materials for the entrance exams there, rather than getting something from the Church library, since he gets all uptight about anything associated with the Church. What is with that? I am going to have to start doing those study problems too so I can stay ahead of him. He has so many questions and he is so excited about the problem sets. What a dork!
He likes sunlight more now. He used to shy from it, always staying in the shadows and turning his head away from bright lights, but now he likes to stand in the window for that little time that we have after the sun clears the rooftops and before it goes behind the clocktower. I usually pretend I’m asleep to see what he does.
I should have made a date with Njalli. Maybe Junie will change her mind if I say I’m taking Njalli out for a Valentine dinner. It still screws up my plans for the weekend, but at least I won’t have to drive the Old Bat.
Tobias stands in the window, arms stretched downward, relishing the warmth of the brief hour of direct sunlight. His face tilts upward as he composes his thoughts:
Thomas, I know the voice of depression still calls to you. I am with the Friend now, and so much stronger. You must squeeze drops of the sun from your own ambitions and the glance of your beloved, while I am standing in the true warmth of the world. Can you even remember the glory of it? If you would stand here in the light, even for this one hour, and feel true warmth again, you would not deny me this.
Dear Tobias,
Your skills as a scribe have not waned across all these decades. Your script touches me like fine wine or sublime works of art. I gaze upon your letters for hours at a time without even reading the words; each line flawless. It surprises me not that you were a favourite of the fathers before Father; uncovering inherent talents was always their strength.
Tobias, your missive troubles me. It pains me to remind you that in times past even the possibility of insubordinate behaviour met with swift justice. However I no longer find the thought of such justice as appetizing as I once did. Perhaps it is true that something is happening to us as we age; others have described feeling sensations and desires which have lay dormant so long as to be almost forgotten.
I tell you this because I believe it is not too late. I have a task I wish you to complete. Take the Friend if you must— but watch him closely, I am not sure of his motives. Complete the task and I will overlook this recent obsession with the sunlight.
I want you to find Father’s notes— the ones he presented to the fathers before him. It will not be easy to return to that place but if there are answers they may be found within those notes.
Tobias, I sense that this is a time of great confusion for you. Therefore I will assign Leviticus and Mortimer to keep an eye on you. Don’t worry— you will not even be aware that they are present.
Sincerely,
Thomas
Squire, I need you to clean outside around the Gangplank before you take the steam carriage on your errands Friday. Take a large bag and a broom handle with a nail stuck in one end— there seems to be a lot of litter blowing about outside. You don’t want one of those stray sheets of paper getting caught in a cog or belt. While your at it, go do Dee’s place next door, let her see just how conscientious we are as neighbours… in fact you might as well do the length of Prince Dakkar.
By the way— how did you know my middle name was ‘Reginold’?