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You're certain Gordon is just hoping to see Mabel again at your party (not that you'd invite her, of course) but it has been a while since you've held any kind of festivities. Most of your past birthdays were spent waking up before dawn, prepping the boat for the day's work. It would be nice to share some of your good fortune. Even the reeve holds a lavish festival once a year, during the solstice, if only to maintain good relations with the villagers and make his job easier when it comes time to collect taxes. Even so, you can't help but think of Mabel's parting words. What if she wasn't alone in that opinion? You wouldn't want people to think you're a miser or some sort of anti-social hermit.
So, you set aside a portion of the silver to hold a celebration at the end of the month. The rest you bring to the reeve, to lend out on your behalf. He does not himself do any lending. Even the money that the fishmonger borrowed didn't actually come from the reeve's own hands. Usury is looked down upon by the church, and the reeve, not wishing to get on their bad side, is careful to avoid it. Instead, all the money passes into the hands of the resident goldsmith, who in turn sends it to the port cities in east, to members of his extended family, where, in turn, it is used for commerce with places as distant as the holy land. Regardless of the success or failure of these ventures, the city merchants pay a percentage back to the goldsmith for the silver they borrow and this the reeve deducts from rents he is owed or the lord's taxes, hoping to fool God (or at least the church) with accounting trickery.
The 250 silver you intend to give to him will net you twenty silver a month, which, deducted from the rent on your boat and the taxes you owe to the lord, will mean you will only owe 85 silver each season. The only drawback is that once the silver is sent out, it cannot easily or swiftly be returned. You may have to wait up to a season to get back the full amount, depending on the safety of the roads and the prevailing mood of the merchants.
The other issue is, of course, having to deal with the reeve. He prefers to do such business face to face, so you must put on your Sunday best and go to visit with him at his palatial residence. The one to greet you at the door, however, is neither the reeve nor his daughter, but someone foreign to the village. He appears about your age, though much more finely dressed, and rather weak and sickly looking, with an expression on his face as if permanently reacting to a bad smell. The reeve is out on business, it seems, but will be back soon. The stranger invites you inside to wait for him. You can hear Amelia call out to him from within, asking who it might be. He answers that it is "some provincial, probably here to ply the reeve's charity".
You decide to:
>Wait outside until the reeve arrives
>Accept the invitation and wait inside, preferably in silence
>Chat with this rude stranger and Ameilia
>Write-in
