Armand’s First Letter. Amelia’s First Letter. Cathy’s First Letter.

4 January 1026, Bois-de-Bas, Armorica

Dear Amelia,

To address the most important matter first, your bonbons arrived in perfect condition. I can personally attest to this, for my daughters insisted on sharing them with us. Lest you think them moral prodigies, I am saying that Annie gave me one and Maggie gave Amelie one, keeping the rest for themselves and Jackie, little Bart being small to know that he was being left out. I rejoice that it was a small bag, or we would have had to confiscate it and dole out the contents a little at a time.

Thomas and I—I refer, of course, to Dr. Tillotson—have begun to work on our own Langston Circuit, but it has been heavy going. This is not due to any inherent difficulty in the process, I hasten to say. Thomas perfectly understands the wizardly aspects of the circuit, and Jérôme has explained the forming to me. No, the issues are far more mundane.

When Thomas joined us here in Bois-de-Bas I had thought to house him with John Gamble. John has a house to himself, a house provided for him by Tuppenny Wagons, a house that is quite large enough for two. Moreover, when my dreams of establishing a new university here in Bois-de-Bas have been realized, I expected both of them to be fellows of the university’s college of wizardry and to reside in community there. What better way to get started than to have them begin now?

I had not taken into account the attitude of John Gamble toward anyone in any way related to Victoria’s College in Edenford. He studied there; he was derided for his peculiar interests, which is to say, his interests in combining wizardry with various mechanical creations; he left; and as we all know he has grown more eccentric with each passing year.

Confronted with Thomas Tillotson, a fellow of Veronica’s College—for though he has broken with the college he chose not to inform them until after he had left Cumbria—John has chosen to see him as an enemy. When he is not casting loud and violent aspersions at Thomas he is hiding sullenly in his room, and in neither case is he accomplishing anything of value.

It is quite unfair, for they had little to do with one another during John’s time there, and Thomas is naturally quite taken with John’s recent work. I have hopes of patching things over once John calms down, but I cannot think it will happen while the irritant remains in the house.

Therein lies the trouble. Bois-de-Bas has been growing, and housing is scarce. It is the depth of winter here, the snow is high, and we can do no building until the spring. Amelie and I would have him to stay with us, but our guest room is occupied by two new apprentices, and will continue to be until we build the new guild house.

We had thought to have Thomas stay at the Two Sloops, but I fear the inn has become popular with the elite of Mont-Havre due to its beautiful and unusual situation. Jack is willing to house him, but that would be asking Jack to forgo a great deal of money, money which the inn needs to expand.

We are installing a cot and some simple cooking gear in Thomas’ workroom at Tuppenny Wagons, and working to convert part of the same building into an apartment for visitors from abroad. I hate to send him there; the wagonworks is a lonely place at night, and a man of his stature should not be forced to camp out in the middle of winter all on his own. I should rather send the apprentices, but the apprentices need supervision and Thomas does not.

Some might say that the solution is to remove John Gamble from the situation; but we cannot very well do that, either. We have no better place to house him, and as he is your brother-in-law we cannot very well cast him out in the snow. Besides that, we owe him: even should he never produce another idea of value, his whirligigs alone bid fair to pay his rent and materials costs for the rest of his life. More, I have hopes that if we can remove the irritant from his home that he will settle down and provide us with another interesting idea or two.

I have twice now referred to Thomas Tillotson as an irritant, which gives me a great pain; for I have found him to be all that is amiable and a man of great learning. Truly, I delight in his company. And with his help, I have already made one grand discovery: when we build the new college, I need not reserve rooms for John Gamble.

We hope to have Thomas’ living arrangements taken care of in the next few days, after which things will be calmer; and so I hope to have more progress to report by this time next week. I trust that you will find it possible to forgive our lack of progress.

In the meantime, do enjoy the biscuits; they are my favorite of all Amelie’s baked goods, and go very well with tea.

Your somewhat frustrated cousin,

Armand

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Photo by Dmytro Koplyk on Unsplash