The Magician's Sons

Chapter 51

Jasper wrapped his arms around Copernicus and pulled him onto his knees, holding him close and tight. The boy let out a shaky sigh, unfathomably relieved.

"Copper, have you ever kept a secret too long?" Jasper began at last. There was a little quaver of nervousness in his voice.

"I reckon I have. What d'ya mean by 'too long'?"

"So long that, even when you know the secret ought to be broken, you're afraid to do it. You see, some secrets are made to be kept forever and always, and some secrets are made to be kept only for a while. Then, at the right time, the truth of the matter is supposed to be spoken and made known."

"Did you keep a secret too long, sir?" Copper asked sympathetically.

Jasper nodded his head. "Yes. I should have told this story years ago. But I didn't. Now, it is going to cause a horrible stir when I do tell it."

"Will it be a horrible stir to me too?" Copernicus asked with curiosity growing.

"No, I don't think so. I think you will understand it very well. In fact," a smile grew over his worried face, "between you and me, it rather makes things better! It is between me and someone else that it will cause a stir. Listen carefully. I will tell you the whole story."

Laying his head on Sterling's shoulder, Copper obeyed with interest.

"Twenty years ago, I fell in love with a beautiful lady named Evangeline. And three years later, we had a little son whom we named Norman. This is going to shock you, and it is very sad, but our little boy died not a day after he had been born."

"What?" Copper gasped, starting up.

Jasper gave a tearful smile. "He would have looked like Evangeline with fair hair and blue eyes. But we lost him, and our hearts were broken," he said huskily.

Copper's head was filling with questions, but he didn't dare to speak. He could see what a struggle it was for Jasper to tell the story at all, and he knew his only option was to be patient.

"A few days later, I took a long walk—longer than I had intended. It began to grow dark, and so I turned around quickly to come back home. But before I reached it, I heard the faint cry of a baby and saw a figure in the mist. As I drew closer, I could see that it was a woman." A memory of the lady's impoverished state made him pause with a shudder of deep remorse. "She didn't see me as I came up," he carried on, "but I watched her step into an alleyway, and there was enough light to show me that she was carrying a child. I could hardly believe my eyes, but the next thing I knew, the poor woman was laying her baby down on the cold pavement. She was going to leave him there. Perhaps she had been hoping that someone would find him and take him in. Whatever her thoughts were, I couldn't watch her abandon the child without speaking a word to her.

"I learned that she was very poor; she was starving to death. Her husband had died at sea." The man spoke haltingly, as if trying to choose his words very carefully. "When she saw that I was watching, she begged that I would take her baby away and save its life—and oh! How could I have turned away from her pleas? How could I not accept this son who had come to heal my and Evangeline's hearts after our loss?

"I took the child in my arms, and I tried to offer help to the woman. But there was little I could do in the end. I had brought no money with me. She refused all other help, so I took the one valuable thing I was carrying, my golden pocket watch which I had recently purchased, and I impressed her to take it.