The Fake Dating Spell novel · Chapter 20 of 24

Chapter 20: Who Pays

The horses came at a gallop across forty paces of snow.

Four hundred bowstrings drew back as one.

"Hold," Tavish said, not loud.

The sergeant, at the head of the line, took a long breath through the gap in his teeth.

"Hold!" he roared.

The lances were thirty paces off, then twenty.

At fifteen, the captain in the grey cloak at the head of the charge hauled on his reins and threw up a fist.

The line stumbled to a stop in a spray of snow, horses blowing, with every bow in the Keep trained on their chests.

"You were told this garrison deserted," Tavish said.

He walked out alone and stopped between the lines, a big man with a torn sleeve and the Queen's writ in his hand.

"You were told I was a traitor. You were promised a season's pay."

"A season in gold," the captain said. His eyes were on the bows. "Paid on the wall."

"By whom?"

"By the lady."

On the parapet, Sabine had her hand over her mouth, coughing, her eyes streaming from the pepper-smoke.

She straightened, and the silver seal swung on its chain.

"Ten thousand crowns," she called. "To any man who rides that scum into the snow. It is in my sleigh."

"Show them," said Wynne.

She had not meant to say it aloud.

She walked out beside her husband, wiping the black ink off her hands on the green gown.

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