Thursday morning before the march

"Thanks," Cotton said and turned towards the woman they'd pointed out. "'Scuse me," he said, touching his hat to the woman. "I'm after Jenny Ross. Don't s'pose you've seen her anywheres around, have you?"

Eliza looked at him in surprise and then broke into a smile. "Oh, all you rifles...! She ain't here. Anything I can do for yeh?"

"Not unless you know why my Maggie decided to stay in Coimbra." He sighed and his shoulders slumped a little. Though, maybe Jenny wasn't here because she'd stayed with Maggie. And if Joe Newbury found her, that meant she would have two friends with her.

Two friends... but not her man.

"Maggie? Maggie's right over there! Oh, you mean that Maggie Evans, dontcheh? Don't know about her. But Jenny stayed in Coimbra too; some friend of hers hurt and taken to hospital. She took her things and left, Jenny did, just before the march."

"Jenny's in Coimbra with a friend who's hurt," Cotton repeated. That must be his Maggie. "D'you know what sort of 'hurt' her friend was?" he asked, hoping this woman knew something more than vague rumour and could give him, even indirectly, some more concrete news of his girl.

"No." Eliza finally grasped the serious nature of his inquiries. "Sorry. She just said - well I thought she had met a man in town, and the hospital was just a story. But she didn't actually say it was a man. I seen her hand a note to one of the 27th boys, and I thought it was a goodbye note to some man she was leaving for a new fellow back in town, and who could blame her? Or maybe she and her man had fought - she looked sad, like she been crying." Now that she had begun, Eliza was keen to express all her theories on the matter. "Maybe her soldier had beat her new man, and that's why he was in the hospital! Or maybe--!"

"Or maybe it's my Maggie - Maggie Evans - who's in hospital, and that's why she brung a note, 'cause it was one of the 27th who give it me."

And there could only be one person who could have put Maggie in hospital. And if it was him, then it was all Cotton's fault, for persuading Maggie to come with him in the first place.

"Oh." That shut her mouth quickly enough. No wonder the poor fellow looked so upset. "That... could be. Maybe. Owen Williams that brung you the note? Coulda been, then, maybe." This was an uncomfortable sort of thing for Eliza, and she barely knew this fellow or his girl. "I hear my Betsy cryin', sorry. I hope you'll find your Maggie, I do."

"Thanks for your help," Cotton said, touching his hat before turning to head back to his own Company.

Maggie, hurt and in hospital... that could certainly explain why she'd stayed in Coimbra and left her things behind with the Rifles.

And if Hakeswill had had anything to do with it, he'd swing for the bastard. He'd promised to protect Maggie and had only dragged her into danger. She'd never forgive him for that, never.