In Oporto

It took only a few minutes to walk the couple of blocks to where Vickery was lodged, Sharpe showing them the way, but it felt like hours to Maggie as she thought back over their conversation. What had possessed her to speak so openly to two strange officers? But she knew the answer. Without thinking of it, she had seen in Padstowe's pale face and wounded arm that if any man was likely to understand, it would be him. It was a surprise, a shock even. She stopped walking.

Miss Evans had stopped walking as if she had remembered something. Sharpe turned to her, concerned. "Are you all right, Miss Evans?" he asked, worried.

She was getting soaked standing there in the rain. It had been rather pointless to dry off inside only to go out again with the weather the same. But she barely noticed the rain now.

"What happened to Captain Padstowe?" she asked. "When he was attacked, what happened?" She had little right to ask, but she felt suddenly that she needed to know.

"I don't know all the details, but he was beaten up and left for dead," Sharpe said. "I think he was kicked as well as punched. Whoever did it took his money and his watch, and left him for dead."

"But he didn't see him?"

He sighed. "No. But there's no doubt who it was, despite that."

"Come on, Maggie," Martha said, "Keep walking." Maggie fell into step beside her again.

"Why did he do it? Attack the captain, I mean. Not just for his watch and his money! It'd be too dangerous, wouldn't it?"

Sharpe sighed. "Back in Lisbon, he wanted the girl of some Private, who stood up to him with your Cotton's help. He tried to set the Private up for attackin' me, when he did that himself, and Captain Padstowe was his defending officer and got him off. So now he's got a grudge against the Private, Cotton and Captain Padstowe. It might seem daft, but there it is."

"Private Williams." She remembered the things that Williams and Sharpe had told her the night of Cotton's trial, and suddenly it all made much more sense. "And he attacked you too?"

"Aye, jumped me from behind. I reckon Williams saved me life by scarin' him off when he realised there was a witness." He shrugged. "Hakeswill's had a down on me for years, which is why he jumped me."

Maggie shuddered, wondering why the monster had left her alive, but by now they had reached the house.

Sharpe looked reassuringly at Maggie before knocking on the door. It was opened by a Rifleman who threw a startled salute at him before seeing Maggie, and turning to call for Cotton.

It was Zeb Palmer, God bless him. Martha was already chatting away and pushing past him, asking where her husband was, and Maggie smiled up at Sharpe looking tired but relieved. She had half expected it to be the wrong address again. "Thank you, Mister Sharpe."

"My pleasure, Miss Evans. If there's owt I can do to help, just let me know, won't you?" He looked up, smiling. "Here's your Cotton, now. You're in good hands with him, I know."

"Gabe!" Her face was transformed by her smile as she propelled herself into his arms, forgetting the lieutenant altogether.

"Hello, lass," Cotton said, putting his arm around her and saluting with his free hand. "When did you get here? I wasn't expectin' you till the morn'."

"I wanted to come tonight and tell you, and Martha wanted to come and find Ben anyway and we came on a boat." She was beaming up at him now, her face glowing with happiness, a complete reversal of how she had looked only minutes before in Padstowe's room. She glanced around shyly at Lieutenant Sharpe. "Mister Sharpe helped us here," she explained to Cotton. "We kept getting wrong directions." Then she planted a quick kiss on her rifleman's cheek, feeling by now much more at ease in the lieutenant's presence. "Gabe, let's get married."

"Married?" He blinked at her, feeling suddenly stupid, caught off guard. "What, now?"

She laughed and kissed him again, then smiled apologetically at Sharpe. "Not now, Gabe. But - what about tomorrow? Can we do it tomorrow? Are you marching tomorrow? It doesn't have to be an official wedding, I don't mind! But," she looked shyly at Sharpe again and spoke to Cotton in a private voice, "I talked to Martha about it and I talked to the surgeon and... it's all right!" There was no child growing inside her, no remnant of the monster. She was purged and free.

But now that her overflowing joy of good news was delivered, she looked up at him in sudden doubt. "You do still want to?"

Sharpe nodded, grinning at them. "You should do it, Rifleman," he said and left them to it, heading away into the rain. Cotton didn't even see him go.

"Want to? Of course I want to, Maggie," he said, still stunned by the sudden turn of events. "Are you... are you sure?"

"Yes!" she exclaimed.

He grinned to himself. It seemed that particular episode was going to have a happy ending. He wondered how Padstowe would react when he heard of it. He couldn't hope for a better result; Cotton and his girl were good for each other, from what he'd seen. They'd make each other happy.

He wondered what Stephen would make of it, after watching them in the tavern the night before leaving Lisbon. He thought the doctor had been proved right in his judgement of their relationship, anyway

"There's... there's no child?" he said, still feeling bemused. He shook himself out of it and picked her up, spinning her round. "Official or not, I want folks to come. You reckon... you reckon Captain Vickery'd give you away? Or... would you prefer me to ask Joe Newbury to?"

She laughed and leaned her soaking head on his shoulder as he set her down again. "I don't care if it's Boney himself. I've seen Joe, though - you should have seen the look on Jenny's face - you weren't hurt, were you? They'll be over when the bridge is done. It's almost done. And my donkey and all the captain's things - will the captain give us permission? Please can we do it tomorrow?"

"I'm all right. Joe's done his side in again. And... let's go and ask him, shall we? The Captain, I mean." He brushed her wet hair back away from her face. "He's got no reason to say no, after all, but let's ask."