Cotton on Trial

Again Maggie felt like digging in her heels. Why did she have to explain this part again? It rankled because it was where she had made the stupid, stupid error of telling Cotton to let her take it. She had persuaded him, she had been the one to hear the voice in the night, and she was the one who had let the watch be discovered right under the nose of a redcoat officer.

"He let me look at it. To read it," she answered obstinately.

"Was that why it was in your pocket? Whose idea was it that you should retain the watch?" What would she reply, he wondered, watching with keen interest. The tip of his tongue moistened his lips as if he were nervous.

Oh, Maggie. Just tell him it was me, 'cause I don't want you to be in trouble as well. I can take it better'n you can, I know. Cotton watched her, full of sympathy for the quandary she was in.

How could that bloody lieutenant ask her that? Make her dump her own man in it that way... there weren't no call for it.

She cringed imperceptably. She wouldn't lie to save her skin, at least not at the expense of someone else's, especially Gabe's - but it was a fearful thing. She had seen women whipped before and - oh God help me! she thought to herself. But when she answered, she sounded perfectly calm. "Mine. It was my idea. Because I'd heard the thief last night and he had frightened me."

Maggie!

Cotton looked at her in shock. They were going to flog him for sure... there had been no need for her to say that. He really, really didn't want them to whip her, too.

If only he could go over to her and hold her, protect her from people like that Lieutenant Waldegrave. But he was still on trial, under guard, and couldn't move an inch towards her.

She could sense Cotton staring at her, but she didn't dare meet his eyes. Her heart felt a physical pain of fear.

It had been a perfectly reasonable question, thought Edrington, if it had been intended to show that the guilt lay with the Rifleman. But the woman's answer had thrown that into doubt. His glance flickered from her, defiantly staring at the lieutenant, and Cotton, who looked stricken as he worked out, probably quicker than anyone, what her words might mean.

Edrington caught Waldegrave's eye and shook his head slightly. "Do not pursue the case against the woman," he had advised. "It will weaken the case against the man, and do nothing to show the equaity you demand."

Waldegrave was annoyed. He could carry on - he ought to carry on, to show the woman was guilty. But the primary purpose of this court martial was to prove the charge of theft against the Rifleman, not the woman. That too could be pursued later, possibly with better evidence.

"You suggested to the Rifleman that you should keep the watch," he repeated. "Did he agree to this? And what were you to do with it?"

Maggie realized she had been staring at the lieutenant - not looking into his eyes, but she had been staring at his buttons, twinkling in the firelight while her imagination formulated the process of her own punishment. It would be just what she deserved for doing this to Gabriel. Would they arrest her now or wait till after? Would they hold another inquiry, or would this be enough? Would all the men have to watch the whipping, and would Cotton be disgusted? What if she couldn't bear it? Who would take care of her afterwards? Maybe Sally Green would do her the favor. She'd taken care of Sally when she had the fever. Maybe Private Williams could find her and ask...

She mentally shook herself awake to answer the question. The court martial was still going on. There was more.

"Yes sir, he said I could take it and he'd talk to Captain Vickery first chance. I was just going to keep it safe in my pocket until then."

"Thank you, Miss Evans." That was all he needed from her - the Rifleman had taken the watch for the officer's bag, and passed it to the woman. Or allowed her to take it away. Almost certainly, when questioned, the young man would stoutly claim that it had been his idea - Waldegrave had seen the anguished looks he had been casting at the woman, and could use that anxiety to help him prove his case beyond doubt.

He looked towards the Colonel and said: "Unless Captain Vickery wishes to question her, I think we have finished with Miss Evans. For now."

The Colonel nodded and looked towards Vickery.

"Maggie, roughly how long would you say it was between finding the watch, and the column beginning to march again?"

Maggie was distressed, and angry at herself for being distressed. Cotton was the one with more to lose, with the threat of harsher judgment. She had no right to feel such a dread for herself. But it was strange that she had not foreseen that the lieutenant would make her condemn herself. She had been thinking of Cotton, trying to make sure she wouldn't say the wrong thing - he was the one who had been taken under arrest - but of course she was the one who deserved the punishment. She was the fool who had talked him into keeping the watch out of the bag. She was the fool who had let Annie Lawson find it. She was the fool who had lied (so stupidly!) to the lieutenant. Well, perhaps Cotton would be safe. Perhaps if she was the only one taking the punishment - no. No, he would still be disgusted. He would condemn her too.

And now here was Captain Vickery. She had always liked Captain Vickery, especially ever since Jem had gotten his promotion. Suddenly Captain Vickery made her want to cry. Time? How much time. Of course, she could have used the watch to know exactly how much time, if she had thought of such a thing at the time. "I don't know, sir. A few minutes? We were all in a bit of a rush."

"A few minutes. Not long enough for Cotton to have returned from the baggage at the rear of the column to his Company at the front, give me my boat-cloak and tell me that I had somehow managed to acquire a fellow officer's watch. More so as I was in a discussion with one of my Sergeants at the time."

He sighed a little. Maggie had really been a credible witness, and he couldn't think of anything he needed to ask her to elaborate.

"Thank you, Maggie. I do not believe I have any more questions for her at this time, my lord."

She nodded and then shivered as one of the soldiers gestured her away. She found a place to stand near Private Williams, and as she stared at the ground she wished they would just shoot her now and have the whole thing done with. Heartsick, she couldn't even look at Cotton.

Waldegrave watched the woman walk away to rejoin the private from the Inniskillings who had arrived with Sharpe. Strange company that man kept. What he really needed was to ask Cotton some questions, but first...

"Captain Vickery," he said, quite politely, "do you intend to give evidence before this court?"

Well, of course there hadn't been enough time for him to tell Vickery about it. And being as he was Vickery's batman, he'd have been able to get five minutes with the Captain, to tell him about it, easier than almost anyone else in the Company.

If he'd had more time and hadn't said anything, that would look bad for sure. But he hadn't, had he? So how could they prove he'd wanted to keep it, then?

They'd manage it, somehow, he was sure. It did look bad... and how was Maggie doing, after all that? She'd moved off, away out of his line of sight, and he couldn't turn round to look for her.

"Yes, I do, Lieutenant. Thank you."

"Then my question can wait until then." He hoped that would unsettle him, but there was more than one question to ask the Captain, even if the answers he wanted were purely negative.

"My lord," he said formally. "Much of what I have to prove will come out of questions I intend to ask the accused Rifleman Cotton, who is, I assume, to be called as a witness by his defence. If not, I would ask for the right to call him myself. But even without that, the bones of the case can be seen from what the woman Evans has said: Captain Padstowe's watch was in Captain Vickery's bag; Cotton removed it from there, and did not mention it to the Captain. Instead, he passed it for safe keeping to the woman Evans, and it is a matter for conjecture at this point what she would have done with it, or what Cotton would have done, if I had not chanced upon it." He stepped back, and Colonel Edrington nodded in acknowledgement before turning to Vickery.

"If you do intend to call Cotton at some point, then you can start your defence. There does seem to be a case to answer."

"Very well, my lord," Vickery said. "I call Rifleman Cotton."

The Rifleman swallowed but stepped forward and took the Bible as bidden, swearing the oath.

Vickery clasped his hands behind his back. "Earlier this afternoon, I asked you to fetch my boat-cloak from the baggage. Would you please tell us what happened then?"

Cotton swallowed. "I saw Maggie and was jokin' with her about the weather before I opened your bag, sir. I was about to pull your boat-cloak out when I saw that there was summat lyin' on top of it. I didn't know what it was at first, so I picked it up and found it was a pocket watch. I thought at first that it was yours, but you've always got yourn on you. And I turned it over and realised there was some writin' on the back, so I axed Maggie to read it for me."

He shrugged. "I can't read, you see, sir," he said to Edrington. "An' she said it said J M Padstowe." He sighed. "An' I didn't know what to do; the column was goin' to start marchin' in a few minutes, an' I had to get right up to the Rifles at the front. I thought of puttin' it back, safe, only if someone had put it in there, they could've taken it away again. An' I didn't want to take it with me 'cause if I'd got caught with it, someone would've thought I'd pinched it, like. So it seemed safest for Maggie to look after it, until we could tell the Captain, sir."

He looked directly at Edrington. "An' there weren't time to tell him then. I'd had to run from where I left Maggie, and was told to fall in as soon as I'd handed the Captain his cloak, sir."

"Have you ever been in trouble for theft before, Rifleman?" Waldegrave asked, though he thought he knew the answer.

"No, sir. Not once, ever."

"So why did you think you would be 'caught' with the watch, and suspected of stealing it, between leaving the baggage and reaching Captain Vickery? You were not afraid to take him his boat-cloak in case you were suspected of stealing that?"

"'Acause it's my experience, sir, that the one time you don't want summat to happen is just the time it does happen. 'Sides, a boat-cloak rolled up small looks like a blanket or summat like that, and a watch looks like a watch. And the watch has got someone else's name on it, sir."

Maggie nodded, frowning. Of course officers were always quick to judge the common soldiers - or the women. Of course they did.

"And you were not worried that the woman - Miss Evans - might also be in danger of being 'caught' in possession of the watch? When you gave it to her - for safe-keeping, as you described it - what did you expect her to do with it?"