13th June: Vickery's fury

The camp was as lively as ever. Pye sighed. He followed behind Captain Vickery in a quiet, subdued manner, fearing the worst. The fact that they have not returned to camp first ,to be called back to Vickery at a later time, but that they were going directly towards his tent, did not bode well for either of them. It was a terrible sign, and that only depressed the lad further.

He had not noticed that they have even reached the tent, and had taken a step forward nearly bumping into the man infront of him. Taking a quick step backward he straightened. He wondered when the rabbit would need to be taken out of the knapsack and given to the captain, but decided to keep quiet and do so, only upon a given order or.. if that would have helped their case.

There was silence then, and though the rest of the camp went about their business, though he could hear singing from somewhere, which was soon joined by another before a shout silenced both of the wishful charmers and the singers of romantic serenades.

They were far enough that an inquiring ear could not catch the conversation, but those invited to the 'feast' would certainly hear all that Captain Vickery had in mind to say and show.

Vickery had no idea how to deal with the two miscreants. No; that wasn't strictly true. He knew how to deal with them, he just wasn't sure precisely how to proceed when dealing with two men who spoke two different languages and yet had become friends.

"Do you know why you are here?" he began, clasping his hands behind his back as he looked from one to the other.

Pye nodded. There was no question why they were here. They were not present when called, they went on a wild goose chase - well honey chase - and they had been found still outside camp. Pye knew why he was there too. He should not have gone at all.

"We...we learned English and German...'lots..." He murmured even though he thought that their being together and learning the other's language was not exactly going to save either of them.

Vickery raised an eyebrow. "And since when did a man have to leave camp to learn either English or German?" he inquired.

"It...is easier to see.. when you talk about something..." Pye answered quietly. This again was true. Just not the whole truth. He could not have known as well, what a certain animal was, if not shown. Not everything could be seen in camp.

"..we promise this was an event that ..that wasn't usual fer us..wouldn't be." He hastened to add.

Vickery narrowly avoided sighing. "Do you, in fact, have any reason for being where you were, when I was parading the Company and had explicitly told you, Pye, that you had to be easily found at all times?

"..no good reason,sir." Pye dropped his gaze apologetically. "...I... I know, sir." He stammered.

"I was not deserting. Neither of us was." He stated that firmly, so that there would be no doubt that although they should not have been out there, him even less, that thought had not been on their minds!

"We thinked we practise and ... practise to talk, and practise to advance, meine ich ... and then we hear shots and ..."

Freddie tried to support his friend and draw some of Vickery's fury onto him, but his English wasn't in the least up to it, so he rushedly continued in German:

"We didn't intend to go so far, but when we heard shots, we had to look, and then we saw that it was our own people getting killed by French and we had to help. That's why we went farther and stayed out longer than we intended. And p-please don't be mad at Pye, Sir. It had been my idea and I talked him into it."

His face had gone redder and his voice more stammering with every sentence, but he valiantly struggled through his little speech. Now he he looked at the Captain pleadingly and repeated very softly: "It was my idea, Sir. I'm sorry."

Hmm. That altered things slightly. "Did Pye tell you that he wasn't allowed out of camp?" he asked Rottländer, rethinking the verdict and sentence a little in the light of this new information.

Pye looked at Freddie blankly. What was he saying? It was all German to him and he hardly understood a few words of it. But hastened as it was, and with so many words, the lad lost him in about the first sentence.

He frowned when Vickery did no better and spoke in German as well. He could not retaliate when he did not know what was said. He could only observe and note that his name was used. Several times.

"...Sir?" He tried, his frown deepening.

"No, Sir, not directly. But I said we would not need to go that much out of camp, but then ... there wasn't ti... we just concentrated on the fight. I'm sorry, Sir", he repeated, hoping that repeating it once again would help.

"I didn't know. I wouldn't have asked him otherwise. But I said it was only a very little way."

"I am gratified to hear that," Vickery said. "As you seem to require extra drill, you shall have extra drill. For the next week, when your duties are over for the day, you will report to Sergeant Müller for an hour's drill."

He turned to Pye. "When you feel it necessary to leave camp, for any reason whatsoever, you will report to me first for a ticket. And you will help Cotton with his duties until further notice." His tone became a little sharper. "You will be within call unless your duties take you away, is that clear?"

"Sir." He had no idea what the two men spoke about in German, but he certainly understood what punishment Vickery had for him. "...Yes, sir." He flinched and lowered his gaze.

"..Sir, I am sorry, sir." Did his punishment mean that he would act as a batman's assistant? Cotton would not like it, having another lad around him all the time. He frowned.

Freddie looked at Pye out of the corner of his eyes - he didn't dare to move his head too much at the moment. The punishment he had received wasn't that bad. An hour of extra drill each day meant that he would become a better soldier, and although the drill was not comfortable, he knew he could do it. He had been horribly afraid that the Captain might decide that he was not fit to be a batman after all, but he had been spared, and for a moment he had to struggle not to look too relieved.

Pye however ... The relieve fled when Freddie had puzzled out Vickery's words. It appeared his friend was under constant surveillance now. Freddie felt his stomach tighten in sympathy. It hadn't been Pye's fault, so why was the Captain handing out such a sentence and let him off the hook lightly? He wanted to protest, to set this right, but how could he do so? The Captain was an officer, and just because he let him off too lightly didn't mean that Pye's sentence was overly hard by army standards.

With a small gesture of helpless sympathy at Pye, he gave the required reply to Captain Vickery. "Yes, Sir!"

His voice sounded somewhat crestfallen, but at least the unusual load in his shako helped him to keep his chin up and his posture unmoving.

He turned back to Rottländer. "You did not know the restrictions that Pye was under at the time, of course. However, he did not tell you, so he is in the wrong. That you were able to help against a French attack is to your credit, and I have taken that into account."

He looked across to Pye and switched back to speaking in English. "Do either of you have anything further to say?"

"Sir....Permission to...learn with Rottlander here? Him English... me German?" He bit his lip and lowered his gaze. "...We didn' mean no harm.." And ever more quietly. "Didn' mean ter go far."

Freddie started to nod eagerly at that, and only at the last moment remembered that he shouldn't. He was faintly sweating by now; not so much because of the Captain, that was going as well as could be expected, but because of the little surprise still under his shako and was going more soft and sticky with every moment. He didn't even dare to think what would happen if for instance a small trickle of honey would sneak out and run down his forehead.

Trying to sound both honestly repentant and pleading, he seconded Pye's plea: "Yes, please, Sir! We really didn't."

Finding his English still lacking the right words, he repeated in German again: "I told him it wasn't more than a little bit off. Then he didn't have time to tell me."

"Certainly you may both teach each other," Vickery said. "Right. You may be dismissed. And Pye? You can give that rabbit to Cotton to cook, thank you."

"Sir. ... What do I tell him? That the rabbit is for the officer's mess, sir?" He was glad they were dismissed, because it meant they can both just get away with their honey. Of course, this meant that after the last question, he was giving salutes and having himself and the other lad scampering in the direction of some privacy. After that, anything would be game though the honey had to remain a well hidden secret or else hell might break loose a second time!

Vickery nodded. "Yes." He was aware that Cotton would probably contrive to let those in his mess have some of it at least, but if he didn't know about it, officially, he couldn't say anything about it. "If there is nothing else, you may go."

Freddie exchanged a look with Pye, then came to attention.

"Thank you, Sir!"

Before any additional mishap could occur, he ducked out of the tent, clutching the vizor of his shako.

They may have lost the rabbit, but they still had the honey (although Freddie doubted by now that he would be able to get it out of his hair without Pye's help). They would have to solve that little problem quickly and he probably should report to Sergeant Müller for his additional drills, and Captain Torrington certainly would want some tea by now, but after this he would ask Cotton whether he would let him help cook the rabbit. Cooking it would be nearly as good as eating it himself.

And perhaps he could fix something out of their own rations for Pye? If his friend had to suffer under this unequal sentence, than Freddie fully intended to compensate him in what small way he could. Besides, he was curious: Why had Pye been forbidden to leave the camp? Or rather, why had he been expressively forbidden by the Captain himself?

"Sir." Zachary turned on his heel and hastened away from the captain. He chose to have a bit of space between themselves and Vickery, and once they were far away he would speak again and they could see to that hidden stock of honey.

Walking at a brisk pace he felt unhappy, though surprisingly relieved that the punishment had not been that of the redcoat line. Alas, being so restricted was similar to having been under guard and he wondered if he would even get a permission to see his friends in the 33rd, or whether he would be told off by the captain for it.

Well,.. right now they were relatively alright, which was something. At the right distance he finally spoke: "...going to..get that honey outta yer hair now...wot'.. wot' did you two talk about in German?"

Freddie peered sharply upwards, as if to see straight inside his shako.

"Yes, please. It is ... klebrig. Staying together?"

He made a beeline for the back of Captain Torringtin's tent. The Captain was once again sitting at his desk outside, and if they were caught there ... Well, they could say that Pye was helping him with the Captain's gear or that it was the Captain's honey or ... In truth, he simply couldn't think of another place at the moment.

"I have tried to tell him what ... happend. He asked ... did you tell me that you must stay in camp." He paused, then asked: "Why did you not tell me?"

It wasn't that they would have done something differently then. If Pye would have been willing, Freddie would have gone gladly. It was that now Pye was much more guilty than ... It was confusing.

"Sticky. ...it's when it stays together. Sticky." He offered, surprised that they might go in the direction of Captain Torrington's tent. Perhaps there was a good reason that they went to a place, that was safer from the inquirying eyes.

..I forgot." Pye averted his gaze to Friedrich. "Well.. I thought we would be back real fast.. and...I was not completely unattended to. You was there, so I was not alone. F'course.. two wrongs don't make a right." He hesitated.

Freddie blinked at Pye, unsure why the other lad had stopped. Then a suspicion crept in.

"You do think ... I would ... no! I just wanted to know. The Captain ... he überraschte ... sur ... surbrised me with his ... when he asked."

Otherwise he would probably have lied and said that he had known.