After the Skirmish

She handed him his bowl and leaned her head on his shoulder for a moment before taking another bite. "I hate to be a bother, but... was there any tea over there?"

"Tea? Prob'ly. Means gettin' up though, an' I was just gettin' comfy down here." He grinned and shifted a little, preparing to get up and locate some tea.

Well, that was frustrating. Newbury wanted to follow, but if he did it would look strange. Smothering a grimace, he sat down several paces from Maggie and Cotton.

"There's some here," he said, offering the mug to Maggie.

"Oh, I don't need to drink yours, Joe. No, Gabe, don't bother just now. We can have some when we're done eating. It's good stew."

"Miss Evans's right, Cotton, enjoy your rest." Newbury grinned and stood up again, pleased at the relative lack of difficulty of such a movement. "I been sittin' all day, about time I did some movin' around. You'll have your tea by time you're done with the stew."

It wasn't wholly honest on any account, but there was no helping it. He set off in the direction Jenny had disappeared in without waiting for any kind of answer.

"Oh..." He was gone before Maggie could protest, but she smiled at Cotton, glad for a moment alone together. "He's a real sweet heart, is Joe, though he will keep calling me 'Miss Evans.' Gabe, I'm so glad to be home - back with you, I mean, in camp."

"He's a real good lad, ain't he? And I'm real glad you come back, more glad than I can say." He smiled at her. "And you'm walkin' out with me, so why shouldn't he call you 'Miss Evans', bein' polite-like?"

"Just seems funny is all," she replied with a grin. She looked down at her hand and fiddled with the ring, rotating it around and around her finger. "Gabe. About what we were talking about before..." She looked at him shyly. "Well, I'd really like that, getting married to you. But," she added hastily, "I want to know for certain first whether... if I'm going to end up... to know whether there's a baby or not," she finally managed to say. "And then you can decide."

"I already decided, Maggie. If there's a babe, I ain't leavin' you to bring up a bastard. I ain't. And, you don't know that there is. But I can wait, though as soon as you're sure, one way or th'other, you'll tell me, won't you?" He shifted a bit closer to her and slipped an arm around her waist.

She nodded. "I still want to wait and see. I'll let you know when I figure it out. Thing is, I don't know how long that takes." She turned her head to look up at him. "I don't know much about all that. You probably know more than I do, having so many younger brothers and sisters." She clutched his other arm and pulled it across her protectively, and suddenly she found herself crying. "I'm scared, Gabe. It doesn't stop. It just keeps going on and on!"

"Oh Maggie." He tightened the embrace, not so much that it would hurt, but enough that she would know he was there. "Oh, sweeting. It'll be all right, lass, I promise it will. Shhh. You're safe now." He starting rocking her gently. "Easy, lass, easy, hush now," He was murmuring a stream of words, comforting, not saying anything but letting her know he was there.

After a while she dried her eyes and smiled, feeling embarrassed. "I'm sorry. I wish I was brave. You're brave, Gable. You're brave enough for both of us, I guess."

"You are brave, Maggie," Cotton said, risking loosening the embrace so he could fumble one hand up to untie his neckcloth. He pulled it from round his neck and held it out to her. "You come back, an' that took a fair amount of courage to do, I know it did."

She accepted his neckcloth and blew her nose in it without thinking. "Oh. Sorry..." She laughed a little. "I guess you won't want to be wearing it now."

He chuckled. "It'll wash out easy enough, won't it? Can just fold it the other way, anyhow, if I can't wash it tonight."

She gave him a skeptical look that was half smile and half grimace, though by now the evening light was so faded that it was hard to tell. "I think it might have been harder to go back to Lisbon, really. For a little bit I actually wondered about staying in Coimbra at the convent, but it was an eerie place. The nuns were all right, but the other women - well it was a hospital, and it was - I just wanted to get away. It felt like a prison. Or like a quieter version of Bedlam somehow."

Cotton grimaced. "Never went near the cottage hospital, back home, without feelin' spooked, somehow. They looked after you all right, though?" He smiled at her, and went to brush a loose strand of hair away from her face, only he found himself winding it around his finger instead.

"Yes. When I first got there, though, I was all confused. Jenny brought me there. Did I tell you that? I can hardly remember. I think I had fainted or something when she found me. Oh Gabe!" She was crying again, now sobbing. "I was so scared! I was so scared! I thought he was going to kill me and he choked me and I couldn't breathe, or shout...!" She doubled over and wept into the crook of his elbow. "I was so scared and all I could think of was that I was going to die."

"You cry all you want, lass, I'm here an' it's all over now. I've got you, an' you're safe now." He pulled her close, putting his arms around her again and holding her tight. He found himself rocking her a little. "You get it all out now, sweeting. Shh. You just cry as much as you want, an' I'll be right here."

She stopped with a sudden gasp, trembling with the effort to hold back the flood. She ventured to whisper, "Is... is Captain Vickery... in the tent?" She would die of mortification if he had heard her sobbing. Camp followers were supposed to be brave, strong women, and after all of his kindness she felt like an absolute child. Why could she not control herself?

"Didn't see him go in. It's all right, don't fret yourself over that. You just have your cry and then tell me about it. If'n you want to, that is." He rubbed her cheek gently with a finger, and dropped a kiss on her head.

She sniffed and blubbered, laying her head on his arm, but she was by now too tired to continue at that level of weeping. "Don't you need to... don't you ought to go and wait on the captain?" she asked, clinging to him in spite of her words.

"He can cope without me for one night. He'll probably borrow Joe Newbury, or Roper, or someone. Beats me why he didn't pick Joe for his batman, though - used to be a footman or some such, I think. An' me, I was only a farm labourer. Strange old world, ain't it?" He was stroking her hair as he spoke. He liked the feel of it under his hand and hoped she might find the motion soothing.

She was not listening. "Don't... you won't get in trouble?" she sniffed.

"No. He knows what happened - leastwise, he knows some of it. He'll be all right. 'Sides, there ain't much to do tonight aside from waitin' table an' Roper or someone can do that easy enough." He caressed her cheek reassuringly. "He wouldn't ax me to run after him tonight, not when he knows you need me more'n he does right now. He's prob'ly havin' supper with the Lieutenants, anyhow. Said as how he would one of these days."