Gottfried's brows shot up in surprise. 'You know about making paper?'
'Only what I read in the library.'
'Now why would a young lady be reading about papermaking in the library?' Gottfried asked, wondering how she'd answer.
She blushed, but stayed mute, confirming Gottfried's suspicion that she had read up on papermaking because of him. He looked her up and down, adding further to her rising color, and he definitely liked what he was seeing. 'I've already sunk too much into the project to just give up, so I guess I will still build a mill, even if I have to make paper that's good for nothing better than the newspapers.'
'Why would the paper you make only be good for newspapers?'
Veronika-he'd finally realized her name was printed on the card pinned to her jacket-sounded indignant on his behalf, and that made him even more interested. 'Straight ground-wood pulp contains something called
'And nobody's going to care if their weeks old newspaper goes yellow?'
'That's right. Besides, I can make nearly twice as much paper from ground-wood pulp as I can from chemically pulped wood.'
That evoked a wrinkled brow from Veronika. 'If you can make twice as much paper from ground wood, why would you ever want to use chemically pulped paper?'
'Because with chemically pulped wood I can make high quality white paper that doesn't yellow as it ages,' Gottfried said
'But can't you already do that using rag?'
'Yes, but I want to use wood pulp.' Gottfried was most emphatic about that. Wood really was the material of the future. Rag suffered from shortages of supply forcing up the price of paper. 'It would have been a fine challenge to make fine white paper from wood pulp.'
'Ah, so it's an ego thing.'
'There are sound economic reasons for wanting to make white paper. It commands a much higher price and . . .' Gottfried suddenly stopped talking and stared straight into Veronika's eyes. What he saw there had him pointing an accusing finger at her. 'You are laughing at me.'
'No, I'm not.'
'A likely story.' Veronika wasn't even trying to be convincing. 'Just you wait. Before summer I'll be producing paper in my mill.'
'But it'll be ground-wood pulp suitable for nothing but newspapers.'
'Don't be so mean to the nice man, Veronika.' The other woman, Catrin, if her name card was to be believed, smiled at Gottfried. 'Veronika's really interested in how paper's made.'
That was too good an opening to miss. 'Maybe you'd both like to be shown around the mill where I work?'
'Yes, when would be convenient? Saturday afternoon?' Catrin asked.
'I'll be expecting you. Do you know where Merkel's mill is?'
Catrin nodded.
'Until Saturday afternoon.' Gottfried sent one last lingering gaze over Veronika and Catrin before he walked out of the office.
****
'How could you?' Veronika demanded the moment Gottfried was out of earshot.
'It was easy. You should be thanking me, you know. You've now got the perfect opportunity to further your acquaintance with your journeyman.'
'He's not my journeyman,' Veronika said.
Catrin smiled. 'But it's obvious he could be.'
With the heat building up in her face, Veronika knew there was nothing to do but return to work, and dream about Saturday afternoon.
Gottfried sat down outside the main entrance to Merkel's mill to await his guests. Beside him, already sitting his chair back on its legs, was Friedrich, who'd lost no time in inviting himself along when Gottfried had mentioned his guests.
'Are you sure they know where to come?' Friedrich asked.
'If they didn't know where Merkel's mill is, I'm sure the one called Catrin will find out.'
'What's she like?'
'Catrin? She's a pleasant enough youngster, but a bit forward.'
'No, not her, the other one. The one you're interested in. What'd you say her name was?'
'Veronika. She's smart, with a sense of humor. Did I tell you how she poked fun at me wanting to make white paper?'
'Just a couple of hundred times. So, is it serious?'
'Who knows? She might not even be interested in marrying me.'
Friedrich snorted. 'Of course she's interested. You're a journeyman planning to build a mill. I'm surprised all the young women aren't sniffing around.'
'Not many know I'm planning on building a mill. So you really think Veronika might be interested in me?'
'Not you, the mill.'
Gottfried almost responded by tugging Friedrich's chair further back, but a couple of shapes walking up the path stopped him. 'They're here.'
Friedrich let his chair fall back on all four legs and shot to his feet. 'Well, come on, let's go and meet the fine ladies.'
'I hope Catrin takes a shine to you,' Gottfried muttered as he got to his feet.
****
Gottfried stood right behind Veronika feeling the warmth of her body as he pointed out the features of the Hollander beater. 'The Hollander beater was invented by the Dutch, hence it's name. That heavy roller rotates, dragging the rag between it and the bedplate, shredding the rag into a pulp. It also generates a current so the contents of the beater are properly mixed.'
'Is it much of an advantage over the old techniques?'
Gottfried smiled into her upturned face. 'You wouldn't believe how much better the Hollander is. Previously we had to hammer the rags into pulp, move the pulp to a mixing vat, and then mix in the sizing agents. The Hollander does it all in one operation.'
'And when the beater has done its work you drain the pulp into the headbox?' Veronika asked.
'Yes.'
'It's just like the description in the monograph in the library. But where is your Fourdrinier table?'
'That's one up-time innovation we can't get to work. I don't know what the up-timers used, but everyone who has tried to make a proper Fourdrinier table has hit the same problem-the constant flexing of the wire mesh belt around the rollers causes the wires to break. What we've done here is to replace a single mesh belt with a belt made up of regular paper molds.'
'What sort of advantage is that over the old way?'
'By mechanically filling the molds we can get consistent paper using unskilled labor, and we're making paper at twice the rate a skilled journeyman could make it the old way.'
'But if there's no skill element in papermaking, doesn't that mean you're not needed?'
That was Veronika poking fun at him again. He almost dropped a kiss onto her nose. 'I am needed, but mostly just to set everything up, and to keep an eye on the workers.'
'You mean you're just a supervisor? I can't think of anything more boring than that.'
'That's why I want my own mill.'
'But you'll want to use the same machines in your own mill, won't you?'
'I have my own ideas for a better system.'
'So you're looking for job satisfaction in producing the system, not the paper?' Veronika asked.
Gottfried stared at her. He hadn't thought of it that way. 'Well, yes, I guess so.'
'And will you be able to get enough satisfaction out of developing a production system to make up for making
