The snow was falling in gentle, silent flakes. Just then, the payout tables were erected in the square of High Redoubt. Three heavy oak tables covered in green baize cloth stood before the town watch-house. It was surrounded by fifty court spear guards and veteran sentries.
On the tables sat five iron-bound pine chests, their hasps opened to reveal hundreds of small, heavy linen pouches. Each pouch was tied with red hemp twine. It was stamped with the uncalled mark of the Office of Unfinished Claims. Then it contained five heavy silver royal thalers—an advance on the first year’s sovereign payback.
Apprentice Olla and Hester Quill sat with the master ledger, calling the names one by one from the approved muster roll of Captain Danel.
“Elspeth Garrow, widow of Pikeman John, Fourth Cohort!” Olla called out.
An elderly woman in a patched grey wool cloak stepped forward, her wooden clogs crunching softly in the fresh snow. Her hands, red and swollen from thirty years of scrubbing laundry vats, trembled as she touched the edge of the green table.
Tomas Reed lifted a heavy linen pouch from the chest and placed it gently into her cupped palms. The silver coins clinked softly inside the rough cloth with a cold, solid weight.
