Training Day, Evening, Rifles

"Mister Jaeger. Listen, you don't know any reason why he'd suddenly get all interested in the 5th, d'you, Maggie? Only, he come in, and starts askin' all sorts of questions, like are we goin' to be parading anywheres near 'em termorrer. Mister Jaeger was askin', I mean. Not the Captain." He grinned at that. As if the captain would go asking him about things like that.

She shook her head. "Don't think I know anybody in the 5th. Do you?"

"No. He started askin' me about one of the Majors, though." He chuckled at that. "Me, a Rifleman. I might be batman to the Company commander, but that don't mean I know any other officers from another regiment. 'Specially not personal-like."

She laughed. "Well I certainly don't know any majors either. Maybe their major was impressed by the displays today and spoke to him about it. Was Mister Jaeger the one that got hit by a rock?"

Cotton nodded. "Well, I don't think it was quite a rock. He had a small cut, mebbe an inch long, here." He indicated just above his eyebrow. "Looked more like he'd got hit with a stone or summat." He looked puzzled. "But why would he ask whether I knew a Major, an' what the Major was like, if he'd already met the officer he was askin' about? That don't make no sense."

"Oh. Well who knows. Maybe that's what he's talking about with the captain. Maybe they'll have to work together." By now the fire had grown steady and crackling, and Maggie attached a line across the mantel where she could hang the damp shirts. "Are we leaving tomorrow then? After the review?"

"Don't you hang them so close they'll scorch, lass. Done that to me other shirt an' reckon I ruined it."

He hooked the kettle onto the trammel hook over the fire and sat back down to see to Mister Jaeger's rifle.

"I dunno if we'm leavin' tomorrer. I mean, if the review don't start till nine o'clock, an' he - the Gen'ral - wants to inspect ev'ry regiment, we'll be stood there till noon at least, an it'll be too late to start marchin' then if we wants to get anywhere afore sundown."

She grinned. "Well I do like having a house. Not that it's our house or even that we get to sleep here. But it makes a nice change, just having a place that's indoors." She looked around the little room. "Maybe I could pull a couple of chairs over, and run a line between them to hang the clothes. The captain won't mind, will he? Not the chairs, but I mean just seeing a bunch of things drying. Oh, if we can still be here tomorrow I can wash your coat and it can dry overnight!" Somehow the realization made her happy, and she squeezed his waist. "Gabe, let's just stay here forever. A fireplace and some chairs, and it feels like home."

He grinned and hugged her back. "It don't take much to turn a place into home, does it, Maggie? And so long as you don't try trippin' him up, I don't suppose the Captain'll mind what you do. Though it'll take longer than overnight to dry me jacket off. It's proper thick wool. I reckon... I reckon I might be able to get the worst off if I brush it. An' I've got all me equipment on over it tomorrow, anyways, so I reckon that'll hide the worst of it all."

He rested his chin on the top of her head, holding her close. "What sort of place would you like to live in, Maggie, lass? I mean, well, after all this war's done an' we go back to England."

She laughed. "A house with a fireplace in it, and some chairs. And a roof and some water." She smiled, not able to look up and see his face, but it was cozy standing there tucked under his chin. How tall he was if he could do that! Taller than Jem. She had never really noticed before. But of course, she was used to most men and even most other women being taller than herself. "And a proper bed, with a quilted cover on it. Oh, it would be so fine to have a home, wouldn't it? A place to stop and stay, no more moving about." She looked around the little room. It was just a back entryway really, probably an entrance for servants and merchants, backing onto a little courtyard where she had done her washing. Perhaps it had been a mudroom where riders could take off their dirty boots. But even this little back room was more house and home than she had. "What is this place, anyway? Was it someone's house?"

"Aye, that'd be grand, Maggie. Roses over the door, an' it'd be just like where I grew up, it would." He smiled. "I think so, lass. We got the servants' bit, an' the Captain's got the boots's cubby-hole. Or summat like; I don't really know how it all works. It's a roof, anyways, an' much better than what we usually got, ain't it? It's got a proper fireplace an' all, an' that's real nice."

She was wearing her green shawl, he noticed and frowned in concern. "Here, lass, I hope you didn't have too much work to do to get that lookin' all clean an' nice again." Well, what he meant was, he hoped he hadn't got too much blood all over it that day, but he didn't want to say that and remind her of it.

She looked down at the shawl and grinned reassuringly. "Don't you worry. You yourself said that I'm a... a bloomin' marvel. It's good as new." She gave him a sideways glance. "Are you going to sleep here?"

"Thanks for lendin' it me. It was... was real nice. I 'member, when any of us was poorly, when I was a kid, Ma used to wrap us up in her shawl, an' sit with us. It... borrowin' your'n, well, it 'minded me of that."

He looked around the little room.

"Dunno why not, lass. There's a proper fire, an' it's dry. An' I'll be near the Captain if'n he wants me for summat."

"And I could stay with you? Would he mind?"

He grinned at the idea the Captain might object. "O' course he wouldn't mind. He knows you'm walkin' out with me, after all. Only, won't Sarah Palmer and the others think I'm up to no good with you if you stay here with me? Me bein' a common soldier, after all."

(OOC - time for Riflemen to find their beds. *wraps self in a blanket and curls up near the fire*)

She laughed merrily, her eyes dancing in the light of the fire. "Up to no good? If Captain Vickery has no objections, then I don't see what Sarah Palmer can possibly have to complain about, common soldier or not." She laughed again and then turned to run out to the yard and the rest of her washing. She knew what he meant, of course, but at the moment she didn't care.

He grinned. If necessary, he could take himself outside - the place shared a stable clock with the house next door, and he could sleep quite comfortably in the stable loft. But of course, that was if Maggie was worried about sleeping in the same room as him. He didn't want to make her uncomfortable in any way, after all.

A few minutes later she pushed her way inside, her arms full with the wash tub and heavy wet clothing. "Starting to rain!" she gasped as she kicked the door shut behind her. "As if I weren't wet enough already. I splashed all down my front when I was lifting out that blanket." The wash tub gave a dull thud as she set it down in front of the fire. She strung up her drying lines between the two chairs and began to hang the wet clothes on them. "What will you do for the review if it's raining tomorrow? Will he still make you stand there for hours anyway?" He, of course, being the general Sir Arthur Wellesley.

Raining? Well, that wouldn't help with anything, would it?

"A bit of rain never hurt nobody, lass," Cotton said as the kettle began to sing. He lifted it off the hook and set it down before digging his battered tin mug out. "Water's hot. Would you like a cup o' tea?" He carried right on talking, though, letting Maggie give him her cup or not, as she chose.

"The plans is all in place for a review tomorrow. Can't call it off just a-cause of a bit o' damp weather, or he'd never get anythin' done. We'll just have to take care to make sure the rifles have their locks wrapped an' their muzzles stopped up, that's all."

"Tea, yes!" she cried eagerly. She gave him a mischievous grin as he poured her a cup. "You know, that can't be true that a bit of rain never hurt anybody. I'm sure people have caught their death of cold in rain, or powder's gone damp and rifles haven't fired... I think they should just call a halt to the whole war while it's raining, and we can stay here. Why don't you go in there and tell the captain."

Cotton snorted. "Tell the captain the war's off 'cause it's rainin'? He'd have me sent to Bedlam f'r bein' mad an' thinkin' I was the Gen'ral. Or I could tell him you said they ought to stop the whole thing till it dries up a bit, an' see what he says then. Prob'ly that I oughtn't listen to a woman."

"Well I'll tell him then. You just go in there and tell him that I have some important matters to discuss." She sat on the edge of her chair and stared into the fire. "At least we won't have to sleep on the wet ground."

"He's with Mister Jaeger right now." He bent to his knapsack and unfastened the straps holding his rolled-up blanket, which he shook out before wrapping it round Maggie's shoulders.

"Jus' you take it easy for a bit, lass," he said.

And so she did, sighing happily wrapped in the blanket and cradling her hands around the cup of tea, her head resting against the back of the chair. It might be only a servants' back entrance, but it was warm and (mostly) dry. A contented sort of weariness caught up with her at last, having been following her for several days, and she fell asleep before her tea was even cool enough to drink.

Cotton arranged a corner near the fire for her, finding a spare shirt for a pillow before carefully lifting her up and carrying her over to the corner where he lay her down, gently easing her head down and tucking his blanket in round her. He'd have to raid her things for a blanket for himself, but she wouldn't have a problem with that, he hoped.

He hadn't poured his own tea yet, so, taking her cup, he picked the Lieutenant's sword up and sat near her, humming softly as he worked on cleaning and polishing it.