Part Three

Eighteen months later…

Jasper sat at his desk in the little nook beside the kitchen with bank statements and other papers spread all around. Somewhere, he had miscalculated something and he was determined to find the error. His concentration broke as Jim’s dogs began to bark, signalling a visitor. Hearing Jim call them and the barking stop, he focussed back onto his task.

He heard the firm knock at the front door, and Jim’s call of “I’ll get it!” followed by the fifteen-year-old’s heavy footsteps as he ran across the house. The door opened and Jim greeted the caller with a note of wariness in his voice. Jasper thought it prudent to move a little closer. With a frown, he set aside his problem and crossed into the living room.

“Is this the Frayne residence?” a man’s voice asked. “Would you be James Winthrop Frayne the second?”

“If you don’t mind, could I ask why you want to know?” Jim answered.

“Who is it?” Jasper asked, coming up behind him.

“My name is George Rainsford,” the man explained. “I am an attorney, seeing to the affairs of James Winthrop Frayne of Sleepyside-on-the-Hudson. I found this letter among his effects and thought I’d see whether its writer still lives here.”

Jim stared at it and slowly shook his head.

“But you are Mr. Frayne’s great-nephew, aren’t you?” the man persisted. “I’ve known him for years and you bear quite a striking resemblance to him.”

“Please come in, Mr. Rainsford,” Jasper offered. “Let’s sit down and we’ll explain.”

“So he did get the letter. He just didn’t want to know,” Jim muttered.

“We can talk about that later,” Jasper answered. “Mr. Rainsford, you’re right. This is Jim Frayne. His late mother wrote that letter right after she moved here about three years ago. After she died a year and a half ago, I became Jim’s guardian. My name is Jasper Reynolds.”

The other man nodded. “Well, Jim, I’m sorry to tell you that your great-uncle has died recently.”

Jim shook his head. “I didn’t know him.”

“Perhaps not. But he knew about you and he has left you his entire estate.”

Again, Jim shook his head. “But why? Mom wrote to him, but he didn’t answer. We went there, but he wouldn’t come to the door.”

Mr. Rainsford sighed. “I’m sorry to say that your great-uncle got rather strange after his wife’s sudden death. I hadn’t seen him for some years myself, and we were once quite good friends. Some of his decisions were not what I would have wanted for him.”

“You were his last relative,” Jasper pointed out. “A lot of people set great store on family.”

“You don’t,” Jim snapped back.

Jasper shrugged. “True. But I don’t think your uncle was a bad man, the way some of my relatives were bad men.”

“You’re saying I should accept a legacy from a man who wouldn’t have anything to do with me when I needed him?” Jim asked, with a note of challenge in his voice.

For a long moment, Jasper considered the question. “It took me hours to even begin to grapple with the question of what I should do with my father’s bequest. I think you should give this problem the same attention.”

Jim frowned for a long moment, then nodded. “I suppose that’s fair.”

“What does the estate consist of?” Jasper asked.

“To begin with there’s the house and grounds. Like the name suggests, there’s ten acres of land,” Mr. Rainsford told them. “After his wife died, Mr. Frayne took all of his money out of banks, sold all his other assets and placed all of the money in a trust for Jim, but I couldn’t tell Jim this until after his great-uncle had died.”

Jim sighed. “So, he couldn’t have helped us, even if we’d asked. He’d tied up all of the money.”

“I imagine there must have been a certain amount in cash, and he could have made changes to the trust if he’d chosen to,” the attorney answered, “but for the most part, that’s correct.”

“We should at least go and look at the house, Jim,” Jasper suggested. “You should see it for yourself before you decide what you want to do.”

This time, Jim sighed more deeply. “Okay. I’ll do that.”

“There’s one other thing,” Mr. Rainsford mentioned. “A friend of mine has just bought a house near Mr. Frayne’s. He mentioned to me that he was at school with your father, Jim. He’d very much like to meet you.”

Jasper watched the complex emotions that washed over Jim’s face. Sleepyside, it seemed, held the answers to all of their questions, sooner or later.

“I’d like to meet him, too,” Jim answered. “I haven’t got anyone in my life who knew my Dad.”

“I’ll give you some details,” the attorney offered. “And of course there will be formalities to deal with concerning the estate, but I’ll guide you through the whole process.” He stood up. “It’s very good to meet you, Jim. I’ll look forward to seeing you again. You’ll hear from me soon.”

After he’d gone, Jim stood by the window, staring after him with a look of discontent on his face. For a moment, Jasper considered just going back to his paperwork and leaving Jim to his thoughts, but something in the teenager’s manner led him to stay.

“Do you think I’m being unreasonable?” Jim asked, suddenly.

Jasper hesitated for a long moment. “No. I think you have the perfect right to feel aggrieved that he received the letter and chose not to do anything about it. On the other hand, I don’t know how Mr. Rainsford would have found you if your uncle hadn’t kept that letter.”

“I don’t think I want the estate,” Jim told him. “I don’t think I want anything to do with my great-uncle.”

“I can understand how you’d feel that way,” Jasper replied. “On the other hand, as your guardian, it’s my job to make sure you don’t make hasty decisions that you’ll regret. I chose, ultimately, to accept the legacy from my father, but to quarantine those funds from my own assets. I chose to only use the money he left me for altruistic purposes – the exact opposite of his values. And it’s given me the freedom to be as generous as I want, whenever I come across a worthy cause, or someone in need.”

Jim shot him a look. “Like me and Mom.”

Jasper shrugged. “You knew that already. Initially, I just helped you both because I saw that you needed it. I didn’t mean to get involved in your lives; it just happened. I’ve helped plenty of other people, without so much as getting to know them.”

“And you think I should do the same?”

“No. I think you should decide for yourself what to do with the money. I’m telling you what I decided, as an example of an unconventional choice.”

Jim nodded, but looked away. “Okay. I’ll think about it.”

They drove down to Sleepyside the next day to take a look at Ten Acres. Jim spent the ride silent and broody and Jasper let him be. They arrived while the sun was still low in the sky, before the day had time to get hot. Jasper eased the car up the rutted drive to the house, which looked even more sad and neglected than the only other time he’d seen it.

Jim got out of the car without a word and let the dogs out. Lucky and Bandit bounded down and followed Jim as he set off to explore. He gave the house barely a glance, apparently far more interested in the land.

Jasper circled the house and decided to try the back door. Inside, he found dirt and piles of junk; the stairs to the upper floors boarded over; squalor and neglect. As he stood in what had once been an opulent room, looking down at a grubby mattress on the floor, he could almost feel the guilt and shame of its former occupant, his feelings of worthlessness and self-loathing, his bitterness and regret. He no longer needed to wonder why James Frayne had not reached out to his great-nephew. The man had nothing left to give, and enough pride left to see how far he had sunk.

The sound of dog’s claws on the kitchen floor heralded Jim’s arrival.

“This is pretty bad,” he commented, frowning at his surroundings. “I’d hate to see what would happen if someone came in here with a lighted match.”

“We’ll hire a crew and get it cleaned out,” Jasper decided. “Whether you want to keep the house or sell it, it will need to be done and I don’t see any reason why we should do it ourselves.”

A mouse skittered across the floor and Lucky bounded off after it, knocking over a pile of old newspapers and filling the room with dust.

“Heel!” Jim ordered, struggling to get the word out before being overcome by coughing.

Lucky came to heel, looking downcast.

“Let’s get out of here,” Jasper suggested, and they made a hasty retreat.

“The house is terrible, but I like the woods,” Jim commented, as they walked back to the car. “There’s a barn back there, too, which could be fixed up. Maybe I could get a horse.”

Jasper, who didn’t know a thing about keeping horses, nodded absently.

“That’s one of the things I don’t like about where we are now, and probably the only thing that would convince me to move,” Jim continued. He paused for a moment, listening.

Then Jasper heard what had caught Jim’s attention: the sound of horse’s hoofs. Moments later, a man astride a big, black horse came into view. One glance at Jim was enough for Jasper to realise just how badly he’d miscalculated. Jim’s eyes were on the horse and his expression spoke of deep longing.

“You must be Win’s son,” the man declared, and Jim’s gaze snapped up. “I’m Matthew Wheeler. I was at school with your father.”

Jim introduced himself and Jasper, as the other man dismounted. Jim’s eyes kept straying to the horse.

“This is Jupiter,” Matthew Wheeler added, to complete the introductions.

Jasper stood back and let them talk, wondering all the while how to make up for his failures. The two seemed to have so much in common, right from the first moment. Jasper knew, in that moment, that Matthew Wheeler was the person who had been missing from Jim’s life, the person they’d been looking for all this time. He also knew that there was another missing piece that he hadn’t even noticed, because Jim had never said a word about it. But the way forward now appeared obvious.

Lost in his own internal calculations, Jasper snapped back to attention when he heard a question addressed to him.

“I’m sorry. I must have misheard,” he said. “Could you repeat that?”

Jim looked at him strangely, but asked, “Would it be okay if I went riding late this afternoon? Or were you wanting to head home before then?”

“Of course you can do that,” he answered. “Our plans are elastic.”

“Well, on that note, I’ll be going,” Wheeler mentioned, mounting his horse once more. “It’s very good to meet both of you.”

They replied in kind and watched him ride away.

“What are you scheming about now?” Jim snapped, as soon as the other man was out of earshot.

Jasper turned to him, startled. “I’m not sure I was scheming about anything. Being here, and seeing you talking to your father’s friend started some trains of thought, and maybe I was a bit distracted while pursuing them.”

“You were thinking about how to manipulate me into doing what you want,” Jim accused.

Slowly, Jasper shook his head. “Actually, I was contemplating the ways I’ve failed you and how I can make it up to you.”

The teenager’s simmering resentment drained away and he took a step back. “What do you mean?”

Jasper made a helpless gesture. “I’m an indoor kind of guy. I didn’t understand. You grew up on a farm – an actual farm, not just in an old farmhouse with a big yard. I thought I was doing pretty well, supplying bikes and dogs and open spaces. But it wasn’t enough, was it?”

Jim looked off in the direction in which Matthew Wheeler had gone. “We had a big, black horse a lot like that one when I was young. I haven’t been on a horse since before my Dad died.”

“And I saw how much you wanted to, as soon as that horse arrived on the scene.” He sighed. “So, yeah, maybe I was scheming. But I was planning out how I was going to get you at least access to a horse, if not one of your own, depending on whether you decide to stay where we are, or move somewhere else.” He took a breath, hoping that Jim really had calmed down. “And I guess I’m now thinking that we should move down here.”

“And if I don’t want to?”

Jasper smiled. “You know me: a contingency for every occasion. We’ll use Plan B. Or C, D or E, if necessary.”

Jim nodded and his shoulders relaxed, but he didn’t meet Jasper’s eyes. The current storm might be over, but another threatened on the horizon.

A few days later, they returned to Ten Acres to check a few things out before they laid down their plans. Jasper and Jim had debated the merits of staying versus those of moving for hours each day, with the verdict tending in each direction at different times but never actually settled. Jasper had promised Jim that he would have the final say and that he could take as long as he needed to make the decision, but in his own mind the best course would be to move.

“I still think the house will be nice, once it’s cleaned up,” Jasper commented, as they walked inside, “but if you don’t end up liking it, you can just sell up and live somewhere else in the area.”

“And how long do you think it’s going to take to get it nice?” Jim asked, with a note of scepticism in his voice.

Jasper shrugged. “Depends how much we’re willing to pay. Speaking for myself, I’m ready to spend whatever it takes to make it ready fast. And the first item on the agenda is going to be getting someone to come and clean out all that junk.”

“I knew it!” a voice grumbled, somewhere close behind them.

Jim and Jasper both spun on their heels.

“Sorry. We didn’t mean to sneak up on you,” one of the two teenage girls explained – though not the one who had spoken first. “We saw you arriving – Trixie lives in that house down there in the hollow; this is Trixie, by the way, and I’m Honey, and I suppose you must be Mr. Reynolds – and thought we’d come up and say hello.”

“Honey is Mr. Wheeler’s daughter,” Jim added, in explanation. He had evidently met both girls before.

Jasper told the girls that he was pleased to meet them, adding, “Jim and I were just taking a look at the house. We’re still in two minds about what he wants to do about it. Would you like to take a look, too?”

“Would we!” Trixie grinned. “I’ve been longing to see inside for almost as long as I can remember. But old Mr. Frayne didn’t like me, so I never came near.”

The three teenagers settled into easy conversation and Jasper moved a little apart from them to let them talk. He opened the back door and they all entered.

“I was just telling Jim that I thought the first thing we should do is hire someone to clear out all the junk,” he explained, when they were all inside. “I think that will make it a lot easier to decide what to do.”

“Oh, please, Mr. Reynolds! You can’t do that,” Trixie blurted.

“Why on earth not?” he asked, looking around at the mess that surrounded them.

“Because the old miser hid his treasure in here somewhere,” she answered. “We need to find it first.”

“Trixie!” her friend chided, in a low voice. “That’s not polite!”

Jim just shrugged. “He wouldn’t have anything to do with me when he was alive. You can call him whatever names you like; I won’t mind.”

“I seriously doubt that there’s a treasure,” Jasper added. “The money was perfectly well accounted for, as far as I could see.”

“I’m sure there’s something hidden here,” Trixie insisted.

Jim looked from the two girls to the room and back again. “It wouldn’t hurt to look, would it?”

Jasper opened his mouth to pour cold water on the idea, then closed it. If Jim wanted to indulge his new friends, who was he to stand in his way?

“Fine. We can delay a little while,” he replied, instead. “But I think we should get started on the clean-up as soon as we can. If I give you a week, will that do?”

Trixie nodded. “Yes, I’m sure we can find the treasure in a week. You’ll see.”

Jasper smiled at her enthusiasm, but did not share it. The only thing she was likely to find here was junk.

One week later…

To Jasper’s amusement, Jim spent time every day that week in Sleepyside. The primary attraction was almost certainly Jupiter, but Trixie and Honey came in a close second. In that time, the three of them went through every room of the old house, but without much luck. They discovered an unknown key hidden in a pile of newspapers, but since no one could find a lock that it fit that didn’t amount to much.

He met the three teens at the house on the afternoon of the last day and had to suppress a smile at the disappointment he saw on the blonde girl’s face. She barely noticed as Jim’s dogs sniffed around the edges of the room.

“Nothing?” Jasper asked, as he entered.

“Nothing,” Jim confirmed. “But we can be pretty sure that we’re not throwing out a fortune by accident, now.”

“I was so sure it would be here, in the room where he slept,” Trixie commented, while frowning at the various parts of the room in turn. “It should be here but it isn’t.”

Before Jasper could give a consoling answer, a mouse skittered across the makeshift bed. Jim’s dog Lucky rushed at it with glee, teeth snapping. Bandit joined in the chase and soon both of them were running circles, kicking up dust wherever they went.

“Heel!” Jim ordered, and both dogs came to him at once, but not before one or other of them had ripped open the mattress with a loud rending sound.

“Ah, great,” Jim grumbled. “That’s just… Oh.”

All eyes turned to the mattress. Between the edges of a long tear could be seen a considerable amount of money.

Honey broke the silence by giggling. “What was that you were saying about throwing out a fortune by accident, Jim?”

He knelt down beside the mattress and started pulling out the notes. “Well, I don’t think ‘fortune’ is the right word for it, but this is more than I expected to find. And Trixie was right; it was here in this room.”

“You were exactly right, Trixie,” Jasper told her. “I apologise for my disbelief.” He shook his head. “I wouldn’t have believed that if I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes.”

“So, are you satisfied now?” Jim asked her.

Trixie shook her head. “I’m not sure.” She shot Jasper an apologetic look. “I mean, yes, I think that’s the thing that I was sure was here. I’m not sure that it’s the only thing, but I think it’s okay, now, to throw out the junk. If there’s anything else, it might be hidden under the floorboards, or something like that, and we won’t be able to get to it until the trash is cleared out.”

Jasper cast a look around them. “That sounds like a good plan. I didn’t think it could get any worse in here, but it definitely has – especially in the last ten minutes.”

“I think it’s time for the culprits to go outside,” Jim decided, looking at his dogs. “No more mice for you two. It makes too much mess.”

A month later…

Seated at the small desk squeezed into the corner of the room he was using, Jasper sorted through his papers and sat back to think about what should happen next. They had moved into Mrs. Vanderpoel’s house to more easily supervise the work at Ten Acres, which was coming along at a good pace. Jim had decided that they would move there, as soon as it was habitable, and he would go to school in Sleepyside with Honey, Trixie, and Trixie’s brothers.

A tap at the door preceded Jim’s entrance by a moment.

“This is yours.” Jim held out an envelope. “I opened it by accident.”

“Thanks,” Jasper answered, reaching out to take it. He froze when he saw the look on Jim’s face. “Is something wrong?”

The teenager frowned. “You tell me.”

Slowly, Jasper took the envelope and glanced at it. There had been two envelopes like this one – one addressed to him, and one to Jim. They had come from a bank where they both held accounts.

“A bank statement?” he asked, drawing it out. “I don’t think there’d be anything that you need to worry about here, but you’re welcome to read it if you want to.”

“So I can see how much money you’re spending on me?” Jim asked, with a sharp note to his voice.

Jasper stared for a moment. “I don’t see how this bank statement would tell you that. I don’t keep your expenses separate from my own.”

“But you keep a track of what you’re spending on me. How much has it been?”

For another moment, Jasper hesitated. “I’m not sure what you’re asking me, Jim.”

The red-head’s temper flared. “You know exactly what I’m talking about!” he shouted. “Just answer the question, okay? I’m tired of the secrets and lies.”

He glimpsed Mrs. Vanderpoel’s worried face through the open doorway and took a calming breath. Instead of speaking, he snagged two account books, which he had just been working on.

“Take a seat,” he offered, turning the chair to face the bed.

Jim stared at him for a long moment, then complied. Jasper sat on the bed, facing him, and offered the two account books.

“The red one is my personal finances. The blue one is the funds I inherited from my father,” he explained. “Examine them for yourself, and see if you can figure out how much I’ve spent on you in the last month.”

After a frowning moment, Jim opened the red book and turned to the current page. His brow furrowed as he tried to make out what the entries meant. After a few minutes, he put that book aside and opened the other one.

“I know I don’t talk about what’s in there,” Jasper told him, rubbing a hand up and down his own thigh as he spoke. “I feel like it’s an invasion of privacy for the person I’m helping if I do. So, I’d appreciate it if you didn’t talk about what’s in there, either, except to me.”

Jim turned page after page until he’d scanned through the whole lot. “This can’t be right. My name isn’t here. Not even once.”

Jasper thought about it for a moment. “No. I don’t suppose it is. Your mother’s is the first one.”

“But her name is only on the first page,” Jim persisted. “I don’t understand.”

He shrugged. “She stopped being just someone I wanted to help and started being a friend.”

“I don’t understand why you keep lying to me!” Jim burst out, tossing the book aside and rising to pace the small room.

“I’ve always told you the truth,” Jasper countered. “And I think it would help a great deal if you told me what it is that’s been worrying you.”

A stubborn frown settled on Jim’s face. “You haven’t always told the whole truth.”

“I haven’t lied by omission, either, if that’s what you’re suggesting.” He drew a breath. “Please, Jim, whatever it is, just ask me straight out. I can’t answer this nebulous suspicion.”

The teenager stopped short near the doorway. Jasper watched the play of emotions on his face, until suddenly Jim came to a decision.

“What is it that you get out of this situation?” Jim demanded.

“Financially? Nothing.” Jasper shrugged. “Money isn’t important to me. I like the things it can do, but I don’t make decisions based on monetary gain.”

“Then what?”

For a long moment, Jasper debated with himself on how much to say.

“Why don’t you answer?” Jim snapped, when the silence had apparently extended for too long. “What are you hiding?”

“I’m just not sure how much of this you actually want to hear,” he explained. “But I guess the important points all start on the day that I went to Rochester to see about my father’s estate.”

Jim shook his head. “What does that have to do with me?”

“I’ll get to that in a moment.” He paused to gather his thoughts. “I went and saw the lawyer and he sent me to the house with a request that I go and get the safe open, because he hadn’t been able to. So, I went to the house and I opened the safe without any troubles, but then when I sorted through the contents, I found out why the lawyer had pretended he hadn’t been able to open it.” He grimaced. “Let’s just say that my father’s dishonest dealings went a lot further than anyone suspected. And since the lawyer was pretending he hadn’t seen this stuff, it was up to me to decide what to do about it.”

“You decided to use the money to help people,” Jim summarised, with an impatient gesture.

Jasper shook his head. “Not then, I didn’t. I drove around until I found a diner, then I went inside to think over what I was going to do. I was there for probably three or four hours and at the end of that time, I had a detailed plan. I was going to get my affairs in order, and then I was going to burn my father’s house to the ground. And then, when I was sure it was destroyed, I was going to kill myself.”

“But why?”

“I wanted to wipe any trace of my father from the earth – including myself. I didn’t think I deserved to continue existing. Why should he leave a legacy behind himself? He’d been a despicable human being and I wanted everything of his to be destroyed.”

“What changed your mind?”

Jasper looked away, into the past. “I left the diner and I was looking for where I’d parked my car. The lot was an odd shape and there were a row of parking spaces kind of beside the building. I got to the corner and I stopped because I heard voices: a man’s voice, threatening violence to a boy. And I remembered the waitress had a son, who’d left with a stoop-shouldered man, just before I left.”

“Me. And Jonesy,” Jim deduced.

Jasper nodded. “You needed someone to save you from him. That much was plain. And so I decided to abandon my plan for the time being and see if I could be the one to do that.”

“How?”

“That was the tricky part. I knew I couldn’t just tell her – why should she believe me? I needed to find a way to have her discover the problem for herself, which is why I decided to clean out the house and sell it.” He shrugged. “It gave me a good excuse for hanging around Rochester, and for visiting the diner often. And when I got started, I found that your mother could use some of the things that I would otherwise have thrown out.”

“You gained her trust by bribing her,” Jim accused.

Jasper shook his head. “No. By that stage, I genuinely liked her and wanted to help her. And anyway, somewhere along the way I’d made the other plan, the one I’m still following, of giving away all of my father’s assets. It felt good to give her things that she could sell, or pretty things that she could enjoy. And when the time came to help her escape, it was easier to get her to accept old stuff than actual cash.”

“You told her that I was hurt.”

He nodded. “I did. And of course I could guess what had really happened, but I suggested to your mother that maybe you’d had a fall at practice.”

Jim thought about that for a moment. “Did you ever tell her the truth?”

“No.” He frowned. “At the time, I thought I was almost done and it wouldn’t matter. Later, I didn’t want to burden her with the knowledge. She felt guilty enough already.”

“Hold on. Why wouldn’t it matter?”

Jasper shrugged. “I was going to leave. I intended to find more people and causes that could use my father’s money. And when it was all gone, I was going to go back to the original plan, just without the fire.”

“Why didn’t you leave?”

He looked down. “A couple of reasons. The big one was that it was obvious that your mother needed more help. And underneath that, I think I’d already started to fall in love with her. Over time, my love for her became the dominant reason for everything I did.”

Jim stared. “You’re telling me this now? Why didn’t you tell her?”

A soft, sad smile crossed Jasper’s face. “She knew. Of course, she knew. But a romantic partner wasn’t what she needed and I respected that. If she’d had more time, it might have been different later, but I’ll never know, now.”

Jim closed his eyes and rubbed them with his hand. “I don’t know how to feel about this.”

“That’s a big reason why I didn’t tell you,” Jasper pointed out. “I set out to save you, but you and your mother saved me instead. I regained my self-respect and gained a reason to live. And when she was gone, I resolved to honour your mother’s memory by raising you to the very best of my ability. I know I haven’t always done a good job, but I’m willing to be corrected.” He paused a moment. “Is there something that needs to be corrected, right now?”

“My attitude?” Jim asked.

“I meant, about me.”

Jim smiled. “Yeah, I know. But I think I’ve been wrong, and I’m sorry.”

“I’m sorry, too. I should have told you some of this earlier.”

Jim shook his head. “I don’t think I was ready to hear it. I’m not sure I’m ready right now. But thanks for telling me. It’s cleared a lot of things up.”

Jasper smiled and watched him go, hopeful that the corner had been turned. It had hurt to talk about some of those things, but if it helped Jim it would be worth it.

Two weeks later…

Jim whistled as he strolled into Mrs. Vanderpoel’s house one afternoon. Jasper heard him call a greeting and the murmur of voices as he and their hostess started a conversation. He pushed back from his desk and went to the kitchen to join them.

“I’ve always liked the Belden children,” Mrs. Vanderpoel was saying, at the moment he entered. “The eldest boy must be around your age.”

“So, they’ve arrived back from camp?” Jasper asked.

Jim nodded. “I think we’ll all get along together pretty well.” He hesitated a moment. “And I think we’ve made the right decision.”

Jasper shook his head, not understanding. “What decision is that?”

“The decision to move to Sleepyside,” Jim explained. “I wasn’t sure it was a good idea, but now I think it’s the best thing we could do.”

“I’m glad you think so,” he answered, and he meant it. “I didn’t want to pressure you, but I couldn’t help but see the advantages.”

Again, Jim nodded, then he seemed to change the subject. “Honey wants us to be a club and she describes it as one big, happy family. We’re thinking of calling ourselves the Bob-Whites of the Glen.”

Revelation flashed in Jasper’s mind. Here was the last missing piece – the thing he knew that Jim needed, but that he could not provide because he didn’t know what it was. Over the last few weeks, he’d been thinking that Mrs. Vanderpoel herself was part of the solution, a surrogate grandmother figure, who could fill that gap. But this development showed that Jim needed more than that. He needed a whole extended family – something that Jasper himself had never really missed.

“Sounds like fun,” he told Jim. “And it’ll be a help when you start at your new school, to know some people already.”

“Yeah, I’m glad about that.” Jim smiled. “But I wanted to thank you.”

“What for?”

“For seeing what I needed, before I did. For helping me get it, even when I thought I didn’t want to.”

Jasper shook his head. “I’m pretty sure that’s over-stating the case. But you’re welcome.”

At that, Jim left the room.

“He’s a dear boy,” Mrs. Vanderpoel observed. “I’ll miss having the two of you in the house when you move to Ten Acres.”

“We won’t be far away and I’m sure we’ll see you often,” he answered. “We’ve both been very grateful for your help and companionship.”

“I’ve loved having you here.” She patted his hand. “But I know that you need to take that boy to where he belongs, among the other young people.”

“And the horses,” Jasper added, with a smile. “Yes, that’s what I was thinking, too.”

“You’ve had quite a journey to get to this point.”

He nodded. “That’s true. But now, I think, I’ve found his home. And in finding it, I’ve found my own purpose, too.”

“You’ve had your own journey, while Jim has had his.”

“I have.” He paused for a moment. “This isn’t the path I intended to take, but it’s the most worthwhile thing I’ve ever done. And I’m satisfied with that.”

The End

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