Chapter 219: Smith & Wright Son

Editor: nnpdad

When Jaques, the Smith, finished tutoring his apprentice in the mystic art of nail making, he came over to greet us with a quizzical smile on his face. He wasn’t a man who much tolerated interruptions of his busy schedule; that’s why I thought he would probably resist sending anyone out recruiting. It didn’t take long for him to make himself clear that he had too much work and too many untrained apprentices as it was. Adding more to the mix would simply slow things down further. As good a blacksmith as he was, his personality wasn’t much suited for leadership; he was not bad at tutoring but completely uninterested in anything but his craft. I didn’t blame him, singular focus tasks fit his personality to a tee. He was probably the most skilled and talented blacksmith on the frontier but as usual, talent and business acumen usually don’t go hand in hand.

I needed to find a good partner smith to team with him and handle the customer relations side of the house. It would probably be best to find him an administrative assistant, too, to keep the business running well. He flatly turned us down and went back to his forge, as quick and neat as you please. I’d simply focus on adding a senior smith with more business chops to work for him. Smithing was the only focus of our Jaques Forgeron.

Lunch time was upon us that quickly and we broke up to allow each of a to grab a quick snack and check up on other pressing matters. The temptation was to push on through without stopping since I was headed north after dinner, but as a group we resisted and stuck to schedule. It was a bad idea to run yourself ragged when trying to make sound decisions; that’s how bad ideas are implemented. I was running against a daylight clock while at the same time I wanted to have my wits about me should the unexpected occur and the day run late.