by L G Rollins
In her silence, he continued. “Then you must call me Jasper.”
At last. Now she wouldn’t have to watch her tongue quite so much whenever he came up in conversation. “After all we’ve been through the past several weeks, it almost feels overdue for us to be calling one another Ju and Jasper.”
He chuckled softly. “I would have to agree with you on that one.”
“On that one?” Ju teased back. “You make it sound as though it is the only thing I’ve said today you can agree on.”
Jasper’s smile slipped a bit, not so much that it dropped low, but just enough that the joy behind it eased away. Had she said something today he didn’t agree with? Jasper was quite like her, Ju had learned, in that he tended to speak his mind without hesitation. Why then, did she get the distinct impression he wasn’t speaking his mind now?
Ever since their strange conversation about them being dear friends a week and a half ago, Jasper seemed to have changed. Perhaps she was mistaken, but it seemed he smiled more, looped her hand around his arm more and kept it there longer than before. When he looked at her, she could swear he was trying to communicate something, only she couldn’t figure out what.
Ju’s hand already rested inside Jasper’s elbow, but she lifted her other hand to it as well as their conversation dropped away into an easy silence.
Even Wei shu had noticed the change in Jasper. Only yesterday she’d commented to Ju that something with Jasper was different. Wei shu had said she hadn’t heard Jasper call any of the other girls by an endearment for over a week.
“Perhaps common sense has finally caught up to the man,” Wei shu had said. It wasn’t so much that Jasper lacked common sense, it was that he simple chose to live his own way. It was one of the things Ju loved about him.
Her brow creased and she pressed her lips tightly shut. No. She would stop right there. She wasn’t ever going to love anything about Jasper. Wasn’t that the whole point of their conversation last week? They were friends, dear friends, but nothing more.
Not ever anything more.
Because more meant trusting him and that meant giving him the means to hurt her. Wang and so many men before him had treated her just as well as Jasper did. Some even did more in terms of bringing her flowers or writing her love letters. In the end, they all either wanted something from her or, like her father, had left.
“Tom,” Jasper called out.
The boy stopped more than several dozen strides ahead of them. Jasper waved him back, then pointed to the townhouse they stood in front of. “This is it.”
Tom dropped the stick and careened back toward her and Jasper.
“I hope you don’t mind me bringing Tom along today,” Jasper said as they watched him together.
“Not at all. Tom is one of my favorite little people in all the world.”
“I have to admit, he’s my favorite, too.”
“You sound unsure of that statement.”
He shrugged. “I guess I’d never thought about it before.”
Tom ran up, wearing a large grin and panting heavily. “Is this your friend’s house, Jasper?”
Jasper nodded. “This is the home of Captain and Doctor Hopkins.”
“Captain?” His little boy eyes got even wider. Ju had never known a child who had such big eyes. “Does he command a boat? Does he fight pirates?”
“A submarine, actually. And funny you should mention pirates; truth is he lost his submarine to pirates.” Jasper leaned down so that he was closer to eye level with Tom. “Werewolf pirates,” he whispered dramatically.
Tom’s brow dropped and he folded his arms. “Are you rag’n me?”
Ju had never heard that phrase before. “Excuse me?”
“You know,” Tom said. “Pullin’ my leg.”
That didn’t help her. Ju looked over at Jasper for an interpretation.
“He means am I teasing him.” Jasper turned back to Tom. “On my honor, all I said regarding the Captain’s submarine and werewolf pirates is the truth.”
“Gads!” Tom said. Turning on his heel, Tom scaled the front steps in no more than four large jumps and reached high above his head for the knocker.
Jasper leaned in, keeping his voice low enough only Ju could hear. “Maybe next week we should add a discussion regarding appropriate and inappropriate exclamations to our shooting lesson. I’ve told him before not to say ‘gads’.”
“You say ‘gads’ all the time,” Tom shot over his shoulder.
Ju whispered even lower than Jasper had. “And a lesson on how to speak so as not to be overheard.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Jasper watched silently as Ju and Miss Rowley studied the translated pages before them. After sneaking into the ambassador’s embassy night before last, Jasper had developed the images and then worked with Mr. Zhi to duplicate the documents in English. He’d brought both the English versions as well as the original images to give to Brox when they finished here.
“Wo bu xiangxin,” Ju said softly, looking paler by the minute.
Jasper didn’t know what the words she’d said meant exactly, but he understood the tone and expression. He reached over the small side table between them and squeezed her hand. “Don’t worry,” he said softly. “We’ll stop him.”
Ju looked up at him, her eyes full of worry. But instead of saying anything she only shook her head, pushed the various papers on her lap back into a neat pile and placed them back on the low coffee table.
She didn’t pull away from his touch, but neither did she necessarily welcome it or even seem to want it. Her words on their walk over to the Hopkins’ echoed about his brainbox. Dear friend. That’s all she saw in him. Blast it all. He had nothing he could point to as evidence that she would ever see him as anything more than a friend.
“What do you think, Miss Rowley?” Doctor Hopkins asked from where she sat near the fireplace. She had her new tiny baby wrapped up tight and lying in the crook of her arm. Her husband, Captain Hopkins, was in the far corner of the room with Tom and his daughter, an energetic, talkative girl with more blonde curls than Jasper had ever seen upon one head.
Miss Rowley shook her head. “Some of these terms I do not understand.” She handed the offending papers to Doctor Hopkins. “But it is still clear to me he has been paying several individuals large sums of money to detain their sick family members.”
“By sick, do you mean werewolf?” Ju asked.
Doctor Hopkins nodded. “Yes. These terms, change, shift, moon cycle, they all seem to hint strongly at that.” She squinted hard. “Though it does seem a few of these words should have been translated a little differently.”
“My, uh, source,” Jasper said, “was unclear on some of the terminology in English. Specifically, the sentences regarding the scientific findings.”
Doctor Hopkins nodded again. “I doubt many of these words would be well known in either language by anyone except an expert.” She rang a bell and soon a maid entered the room and curtsied before her. “Have Thompson send someone to the London Library and find me a dictionary on the specific terms in Chinese that refer to werewolves.”
“Send Emory,” the captain called from the other side of the room. “He loved seeing the library last time.”
The maid curtsied again and hurried from the room.
Doctor Hopkins turned back to Jasper and the others. “I am a member of the library, so Emory will have no problem bringing any books he finds back to the house. Leave me with both the translated sheets and the originals and I’ll see if I can’t get a more exact picture of what studies he’s been conducting. Once I am finished, I’ll turn everything over to Mr. Broxholme. These, no doubt, will greatly substantiate the case he is building against Ambassador Leng.”
“Are you quite sure?” Ju asked. “We don’t mean to impose when your arms are so full.”
“Believe me,” Doctor Hopkins said with a soft smile, “giving me something to think about would be a much welcomed break.”
&nbs
p; “I find it impressive,” Miss Rowley said, “that you have managed to move the research on werewolves to a new level. Truly, uncharted territories.”
Jasper wasn’t having as hard of a time understanding Miss Rowley today. His ear must have adjusted itself to her strong accent.
“Thank you,” Doctor Hopkins said. “I could not have done it without the research that happened before me.”
Ju’s brow creased. “But you’ve changed how the field discusses werewolves. One would think you’ve cast off the old researchers all together, not held them up as the shoulders you stand upon.”
“Oh no,” Doctor Hopkins said as the tiny baby in her arms began to wriggle. She shifted the small thing up onto her shoulder. “We do not progress into the future by casting off the past, but by gleaning from it the best it can offer and improving on the rest.”
The bundle in her arms let out a squawk. Doctor Hopkins patted the baby’s back and whispered a soft sh-sh-sh. The bundle, however, refused to be silenced and began protesting louder.
“Oh dear, I’m sorry to cut our meeting short,” Doctor Hopkins said. “But I’m afraid he’s hungry already.”
“Of course he is,” the captain said, still seated by the other two children, pride evident in his tone. “He’s a growing boy. Can’t wait to command his own submarine just like his father.”
Doctor Hopkins gave her husband a soft smile, the only true smile Jasper had ever seen her give anyone. Though it was small, it was full of love, more than Jasper had ever seen.
Captain and Doctor Hopkins had made plans for a future, a future together with children and everything, and, thus far, things were working out for them. Not every family ended the way his own had—parents dead and children cast out to fend for themselves.
Doctor Hopkins stood, still speaking to her husband. “Well, if you are so anxious to teach your son the ropes, how about you take him while I speak with the housekeeper.” She turned to Ju and Miss Rowley. “I have a few things I simply have to address before I’m shut up in my room once more. I love my baby boy but spending so much time in my room alone is beginning to wear.”
“Of course it is,” Miss Rowley said sympathetically.
“Certainly,” Ju also agreed. “But, let me hold him, please? None of my neighbors have been in the family way in years and it’s been simply ages since I’ve gotten to hold a little one.”
“Are you sure?” Doctor Hopkins seemed a bit reluctant to hand her precious bundle to someone she didn’t know well.
“You can trust Ju,” Jasper said. “She helps with young children and babies all the time. There’s no one better suited to the task.” Granted, he hadn’t actually ever seen Ju with a baby, but he’d seen her help Wei shu with some very young students and she was great at that. He was confident that Ju knew how to hold a baby if she said she did.
Doctor Hopkins handed the baby to Ju, but not without a long explanation about holding the baby’s head and supporting his neck, complete with a detailed description of the baby’s spine and the science behind why one would hold the head just so.
Only after Ju patiently listened to her mini-lecture did Doctor Hopkins leave the room. With the captain back to entertaining the two older children with tales of submarine life and Miss Rowley once more scanning the documents for proof of foul play, Jasper was left with nothing to do but watch Ju and her tiny charge.
There was just no other way to put it; seeing Ju with that small bundle, fussing in her arms, was as lovely a sight as Jasper had ever seen. This must be why so many women cooed over babies. He’d never understood the sentiment before. But, now, with Ju shushing and gently bouncing the baby, Jasper could understand why someone would want all this. Family. Children.
That baby was a future wrapped up in a blanket.
For the first time in his life, Jasper could understand why someone would plan for a future. Why someone would care for the future. Maybe he was ready to do the same.
Now he just needed to figure out how to convince Ju to share that future with him.
***
Jasper took Ju and Tom home by way of Westwood first. It took a bit of convincing, but Tom finally left their side and made his way up the walk toward the orphanage.
Halfway to the front door, Tom turned around and ran back toward them, throwing his thin arms around Jasper’s middle.
“Please can we go do something again tomorrow?” he begged.
Ju smiled down at the boy, then looked up at Jasper and—devil take it all—she had almost the exact same trusting look Tom had. Like they both, for some crazed reason, believed Jasper could make nearly any problem go away with the flick of his wrist.
But this is what he had decided he wanted, right? A future with people he cared for? Inevitably, that meant people trusting him and depending on him.
Jasper took a deep breath. It had sounded enticing moments ago, now it felt more overwhelming. “I can’t come back tomorrow, but I’ll be by early next week. How about that?”
He expected the boy to protest, to demand that Jasper either come sooner, or at the very least tell him exactly which day he would come. Instead, Tom hugged Jasper tighter, before letting go and hurrying into Westwood.
Ju brought up how sweet she believed Tom to be more than once on their way back to his place, where Mrs. Zhi worked while a few of her friends watched over her.
“I’m not sure I’d call him sweet,” Jasper said after a minute or two of her going on.
“What’s not to like about the boy?”
“Oh, I like him fine. I just don’t think he’s sweet, as you put it.” Jasper moved up the front steps of his townhouse.
“I think people just have different ways of saying the same thing. When I say Tom is sweet, I don’t mean he’s meek or prone to sitting politely with hands resting demurely in his lap.”
Jasper laughed as he opened the door for her. “I don’t think Tom knows the meaning of demure. I’m not sure his young brainbox could even find room inside to hold the concept.”
Ju moved past him into the house, turning as she did so she still looked at him. “But when I say Tom’s sweet, I mean he’s a pleasure to be around and that he makes my day brighter.”
Jasper moved inside and shut the door. “Well, if you define sweet that way, then you, Zhi ju, are the sweetest person I know.”
Ju tilted her head and gave him a teasing smile. “My Mama raised me to be no less.”
No, he was not going to let her brush off yet another compliment. He didn’t see her as just another pretty face and he wasn’t going to allow her to continue assuming as much.
Jasper reached out and took both of her hands in his. “I mean it, Ju. You are the sweetest, most fiery woman of my acquaintance.”
Several thoughts flitted through her mind. He could see them running by behind her eyes. But he couldn’t tell for sure what they were or if she truly understood what he was trying to say to her.
The door to the sitting room swung open with a squeak. “So this is why you’ve begun ignoring me.” Mrs. Hedgecock strode toward them. “I should have known.”
Ju pulled her hands out from Jasper’s and faintly blushed as his agent, never one for subtlety, continued. “What is it with artists and their need to jump from one pretty thing to the next?”
Ju’s chin came up even as her smile fell. Jasper wasn’t fully sure what kind of a war had been raging inside her before Mrs. Hedgecock made herself most unwelcomely known, but it looked like he had just lost.
Jasper lifted a hand, ready to introduce Ju and Mrs. Hedgecock, but Ju didn’t give him time.
“If you will please excuse me,” she said. Even her tone sounded defeated. “I will see to my mama.”
Mrs. Hedgecock didn’t wait until Ju had her back turned toward them. “Now, I have been laying some groundwork. You will be most pleased. Your next gallery is going—”
Jasper held up a hand. “One moment, please.” He turned and strode after Ju. Galleries and agents could w
ait. He was done allowing Ju to think he didn’t care.
Mrs. Hedgecock called after him. “I’m not leaving until we talk.”
Jasper lifted his hand and waved so that she knew he’d heard. He was absolutely fine with Mrs. Hedgecock waiting just as long as she felt necessary. Whatever she needed to discuss with him was most certainly important.
But Ju was more important.
“Sweetheart.” Jasper caught hold of Ju’s elbow halfway between the entry and the kitchen where Mrs. Zhi’s voice mingled with Wei shu’s.
Ju tugged her elbow away from him. “It’s fine, Jasper. I understand you have business you must see to.”
Yes, Ju was quite good at “understanding”. Which normally meant her pushing him away for some reason or another. “You’re upset by what Mrs. Hedgecock said.”
She gave him a one shoulder shrug. It seemed she wanted him to think she wasn’t upset, but her lovely eyes, like usual, gave her away. “She said I had a pretty face. What woman gets upset over a compliment?”
“That’s exactly what has me stumped.” Jasper wrapped his arms fully around her and pulled her up close to him. “Listen to me, Ju. You are so beautiful, I think even a poet would struggle to express how lovely you are.”
“You think I haven’t heard that before?” she asked, her tone a touch bitter. “Every man who’s ever taken an interest in me has said as much.” Her voice dropped lower. “Especially the ones who turned out to be cads in the end.”
“You know I would never hurt you.”
“Jasper, I’m serious. Do you remember Wang?”
That name didn’t sound familiar—
“The night we met.”
“The rat?”
She nodded. “His name is Wang. He said nearly the exact same thing you just said to me once.”
Jasper’s mouth suddenly felt dirty. “You know I would never—”
“Do I? I knew Wang longer than I’ve known you.”
She actually thought he’d hurt her? “Ju, I would never do such a thing.”
She pierced him with a steady, unbelieving gaze. “You may not ever hurt me that way, but eventually you’ll find someone else more beautiful or entertaining to keep you company.”