Yessa paid the students before she let anyone touch the furnace.
She counted their wages onto the workshop bench, waited for each to check the amount and put the signed repair schedule beside the coins. The girl who had found the bent stay tried to leave her pay in her tool bag.
“Take it home,” Yessa said. “Tools have enough hiding places.”
The girl grinned and tucked the little purse inside her coat.
Iven watched from the other end of the bench. He had slept well, eaten twice and arrived with his repaired brown coat buttoned over a clean shirt. Neri’s stitches were finer than the original seam. She had made him promise to return the landlord’s safety pin before finding anything else to tear.
He meant to keep the promise.
Vara opened the funding book.
The restoration had its money. Three ward associations had committed a fixed part of their demonstration allocation, the college had accepted a short hire after restoration, and the union’s training fund paid the students’ supervised hours. The agreement covered the work already identified, a measured trial and return of the carriage if the longer project did not proceed. A contingency required another signature rather than an engineer quietly absorbing the cost.
