Thursday morning before the march

Maggie had awakened quite early, though without intending to stay awake. In the entry to the house where Captain Vickery was billeted, she crept out of her blanket to step out into the courtyard. Cotton stirred beside her, but she told him not to mind, and he was asleep before she returned. Particularly as she did not return.

Cotton shifted, not quite awake, and reached for Maggie. The fact that his arm didn't encounter her jerked him awake and he blinked, frowning drowsily. "Maggie?" he said, his voice thick with sleep. There was no answer and the chill that went down his spine woke him fully. He sat up. There was no reason to worry, of course; she'd probably gone to the latrine or something.

He stretched before getting up to check the water in the kettle. They'd all want a cup of tea before moving out this morning, he knew that much. But he couldn't quite dispel the worry in the back of his mind.

Someone knocked on the door. It was one of the boys, a bugler, smiling sleepily at him. "Morning. Got a note for Captain Vickery from Mister Brady. Just when he wakes up, no hurry." He stifled a yawn as he handed the paper to Cotton.

"Hullo, Joe, Cotton said, taking the note. "Don't s'pose you seen Maggie anywheres about, have you?"

He was porobably worrying over nothing - he really hoped he was - but why hadn't she come back to their billet yet?

"No," he said, and then gave a blushing grin. "Saw Jenny though, and she held my hand! Well, squeezed my hand for a minute because I gave her some tea. She sure is pretty. And your Maggie too, of course."

"I'm worried about her, Joe. She slipped out in the night and ain't come back yet - and she's left her shawl behind, see." He held up her green shawl, the one she'd lent him after his flogging.

"Oh." Joe didn't know what to say about that. "Maybe... Maybe she went along to see Sarah. I see them together a lot. Or Martha?"

"Maybe," Cotton said doubtfully. "If you see her, tell her I'm worried about her, will you? And that I've got her shawl here."

He finished rolling up his blanket and strapped it to the top of his knapsack. "You want a cup of tea?" he asked as the kettle began singing.

Cavender grinned. He had already had a cup of tea, but a second one wouldn't come amiss. "I would, thanks." He looked around the entryway that served as Cotton's temporary home. "Nice place, this is. Captain sleep in there?"

Cotton nodded. "Think he's still asleep, so don't go talkin' too loud, will you? Though I know you prob'ly wouldn't."

He took the kettle off the fire to make three cups of tea. "I'll do one for Maggie when she gets in," he said. "No need to pour her one yet and have it go cold, after all."

Cavender watched him happily. "Thanks, Gable. It's a bit chilly out there still. Maybe get warmed up later. I kind of wish we weren't leaving already. It's been good staying put for a couple of days."

He hoped Maggie had taken her other shawl with her, if it was as chilly as that. He handed Cavender a mug and picked one up for the Captain.

"I'll be back directly minute," he said and tapped on the door to the Captain's room, before opening it and slipping in to wake the officer.

He smiled as he accepted the mug, wrapping his hands around it to warm them, though it quickly became too hot. He watched as Cotton slipped through the door. It was hard to imagine going into the captain's room to wake him up with a cup of tea. It was almost hard to imagine the captain sleeping at all, he realized, as he pictured the captain lying on a bed dressed in his full uniform and his eyes open and alert.

"Captain, sir, time to wake up," Cotton said, putting the mug down and shaking Vickery's shoulder softly. The motion combined with the soft chiming of Vickery's watch and the officer fumbled for it, peering blearily at the dial.

"Brought you a cup of tea, sir," Cotton said. Vickery nodded and propped himself up on one elbow to take the mug.

"Thanks Cotton," he said, inhaling the aroma.

Cotton nodded and slipped back out to where Joe was sitting with his own mug.

And here came Cotton, back from the holy of holies. Cavender had never been this close to witnessing the waking of a sleeping officer, and he was highly curious. He looked at the door as Cotton shut it. "How do you - what do you do to wake him?" he asked in awe, whispering even more quietly now that the captain was awake in the next room.

Cotton grinned, despite his anxiety about Maggie's whereabouts. "Just shake him gently, tell him it's time to wake up and there's a cup of tea for him. He's the same's the rest of us like that," he said and picked his own mug up.

Joe shook his head in amazement, unable to imagine "gently shaking" a sleeping officer. He would as soon shake a sleeping bear in its den! He swallowed his tea and set down the mug. "Well I'd best be back and tell Mister Brady that I brung you the note. You'll see he gets it? Thanks for the tea! I'll tell Maggie you're lookin' for her."

"I'll give it him, Joe. And any time you wants a cup of tea, you know where I am."

He hoped that the lad would find Maggie and that he was worrying for no good reason. Though if she didn't get back soon, he'd go out looking for her, just to set his mind at rest.

Joe grinned and set of towards Lieutenant Brady's billet, feeling warm and cheerful and whistling as he went.

It was a bare five minutes later that Cotton put his head round Vickery's door again. Maggies still hadn't returned, and he was getting worried about her.

"Sir? Can I... Can I go look for Maggie, please, sir? Only, she've gone off somewhere and I dunno where, and she ain't come back yet, and I'm worried 'bout her, sir."

Vickery lowered his cup of tea, looked up and saw the concern on Cotton's face. He opened his watch to check the time. "I can give you no longer than half an hour, Cotton," he said. "If you can't find her within that time, she'll have to catch us up."

Cotton nodded, relieved, and left, closing the door behind him. The first people to ask about her would be the other women, so he made his way to where Sarah Palmer and Martha Jacklin were packing their things up.

Sarah looked at him with surprise as he explained the purpose of his visit. "I thought she was staying with you."

"She was, only she slipped out in the night some time, and I ain't seen her since. Left her good shawl behind and all. I thought mebbe she'd come to see you."

Cotton was really starting to worry now. If anything had happened to her, he'd never forgive himself, never. Not after what they'd already gone through...

The women shook their heads. "Could she have woke early to go marketing or something in the town?" Sarah suggested. She couldn't think of any other reason why Maggie would be gone so early in the morning.

Town! That was something he hadn't thought of. He shrugged. "Dunno, but I'll go and see," he said, and darted off, running for Coimbra and its central marketplace, which, though small, might be where Maggie had gone. He didn't dare think what he would do if she wasn't there.

In the market square, sellers were only just beginning to set up their tables and wagons and stalls, it still being quite early in the morning. There were a few redcoats stumbling across the square, men from the 33rd who had been carousing in the night, but most of the soldiers and camp followers who had needed any supplies or food items had purchased them already, planning in advance for this morning's departure.