Wedding Bells in Oporto

Maggie awoke during the night, shivering and in a cold sweat. Her heart was racing from a terrible nightmare, but she knew immediately on waking that it was only a dream. She lay there for a moment staring hard at the darkness, alert and confused, and also disturbed by the strange sound of silence. Something was different, and therefore wrong.

Then she remembered that of course they were indoors. They were sleeping inside that great heap of a house in Oporto, Gabe at her side and Captain Vickery just upstairs. The rain seemed to have lessened, and there were none of the other usual outdoor noises. Someone was snoring, and it was cold and damp. She tried to feel for her shawl, but then remembered that she had hung it up by the fire to dry along with most of her other things, her pack having been soaked through. Even the chemise she was wearing now was still slightly damp. But the main reason for her chill, she discovered, was that she had thrown off her blankets during the dream. Thrown them where, she could not tell. Her hands brushed around the immediate area, trying to avoid disturbing other sleepers.

Something brushed against Cotton's face and he brushed it away irritably, pulling his blanket tighter against him, reaching for Maggie. She wasn't where she'd been lying, though something else touched him lightly. He blinked awake, reaching for his rifle before remembering it was standing in the corner, and not within arm's reach, for the good reason they were in a town and the French had gone.

Something had disturbed him though and it was a moment before he realised what it could be. A thrill of happiness ran through him as he remembered, growing a little more wakeful, that Maggie had come back to him.

"Maggie? That you?" he said in an undertone, his voice thick with sleep. "You all right there?"

Maggie jumped a mile when a voice spoke her name, but of course it was only Cotton. "Gabe! I'm looking for my point... my brickle... my..." She realized that she was still half asleep and not making much sense. Her teeth chattered and she abandoned the search, curling herself tight next to him with a shudder. "I'm cold," she managed to explain.

"Cold?" She was too; he could feel her shivering. "Here, sweeting," he said, fumbling his own blanket from where he'd wrapped himself in it earlier. "If... Well, if you don't mind," he added, wrapping it around her too. That might be a bit closer to him than she'd have liked, of course, especially considering what had happened to her, and they weren't married yet. He was prepared for her to push him away, even as he put his arms around her to try to help her warm up a bit.

But she didn't push him away. She nuzzled closer like some sort of burrowing animal and curled into as close an approximation of a ball as she could, tucking her head and feet well under the shared blanket. She was still shivering, but she felt warmer and safer already. The blanket smelled and so did Gabe, but they were familiar smells and therefore comforting in the moment.

He smiled and held her a little closer. She'd tucked her head under his chin and he smiled at the scent of her hair, mixed with the familiar smell of woodsmoke. He shifted one arm to tuck the blanket closer around her, before draping it across her shoulders again.

But something was still nagging at her brain. Something not right, unfinished business She lifted her head back out into the air, squinting her eyes even against the dark. "I can't find my breckle... my brisk..." Cotton would understand. He would know what was wrong and would make it right. She closed her eyes and waited.

"What?" he said, having slipped back quickly into a state that was more asleep than awake. Obviously something was bothering Maggie, but he was too stupid with sleep to be able to figure out what. "Don' worry 'bout it, sweetin'," he murmured, though something made him wake up a bit more. "Your... breck... Your blanket?" He didn't want to move to go looking for it; he was perfectly comfortable like this.

She replied with an inarticulate creaking whine, her head buried again.

Whatever that meant, Cotton didn't know. He just put his arms around her and tried to reassure her as best he could. "It'll be roun' here some'rs, we'll find it in the mornin', all right?"

She sighed. Well as long as he was willing to share his blanket... And in another moment she was sleeping.

He smiled and stroked her hair, feeling strangely comforted by the trust she showed, that she could sleep in his arms like that. It was a pleasant way of lying, he thought, in that sort of half-asleep way of being asleep yet consciously thinking. And he drifted off to sleep too.

When Maggie woke again, she was very warm and very entangled. Part of the problem was that the blanket was over her head, the air underneath hot and stifling. The other problem was that Cotton's arms were wrapped around her. She did not want to wake him prematurely - it was still very early - but she decided to pick her way out from his grasp. As she was extricating herself, she was brought fully awake by the startling realization that this was the morning that they would be married.

He mumbled something and turned to roll over, pulling the blanket around him a little tighter, but loosening his grasp round Maggie as he did so. Some part of his mind was aware that there was no reason for him to wake up yet, so he didn't, settling down as Maggie extricated herself from his arms and their shared blanket.

Maggie sat for a moment hugging her knees, staring down at her husband-to-be with a mixture of emotions. The thought of getting married this morning was... startling. And yet it was what she wanted, certainly. So the best thing would probably be not to think at all, lest her thoughts should get the better of her resolve.

There was no time for thinking, at any rate! She jumped from her sleeping place, quiet as possible, and tiptoed across the room to the dead or dying fire where her garments were hanging, along with everyone else's. Last night there had been time only to wash her clothes, no time at all to prepare anything, other than searching for a broom. But Martha had loaned her a length of pale ribbon. There might be at least time to sew it into the neck and make her blue dress a bit more presentable, if she could have some light to work by.

Something wasn't quite right, or had changed somehow. Cotton blinked awake to find that Maggie had got up. He sat up, pulling his blanket around him as he realised how cold he was.

He smiled across at Maggie. He was going to marry her today! He couldn't quite believe she had said yes to his clumsy proposal. He shivered a little under his blanket, before getting up and putting it aside. "Here, lemme light the fire for you," he said. "We can put the kettle on an' have some tea, then, an' all."

She smiled sleepily. "Could use a cup of tea, aye. And some fire. And some light too. I'm trying to find my needles... Gabe. What time are we gonna get married? Only if the bridge is done and they bring the baggage across and things I'll have something decent to wear and all, maybe, and - do you know when you have to march out?" Naturally she expected him to have the answers immediately upon waking. Surely an officer's batman would know all of these things.

"What?" He yawned, and turned to clearing the cold dead ashes out of the fireplace. "No idea. They might even send one of the other comp'nies after the Frogs. That'd be nice. 'Cause then I could stay here with you." He paused and dragged his jacket on, no bothering with all the buttons right now. "It won't be right away, I don't s'pose."

He started laying bits of wood in the hearth, before pulling his tinderbox out. "I dunno when they'll have the bridge done, neither. It was pretty bad when I seen it."

She fussed with the wood impatiently, thinking, planning, fretting. "I don't even have a proper bonnet I can wear. Jenny has a pretty little straw bonnet but she's on the other side of the river. And nothing of Martha's would fit me. I can't wear my old white cap. But I can't go bareheaded. Do you think it's going to keep raining?"

"Maggie, I'd marry you if you was wearin' me forage hat," Cotton said, pausing from where he was getting his flint and steel ready. "It ain't your hat I'm marryin', it's you. And seein' as you and Martha managed to get over last night, I don't see why Jenny won't be able to get across this mornin'." He struck a spark and had to blow the tow into life before he could speak again. "I think... I think it'll let up rainin' for a bit, but it'll likely close in again later." He smiled across at her.

The thought of marrying in his forage cap made her smile. "Guess I'd have to be a bit jealous if you wanted to marry my hat." She helped herself to some of the tow to urge the fire into life, poking it at the side. "Let me do it, let me do it. You can get us some water, aye?"

"Wasn't talkin' of marryin' your hat, was I?" he said, surrendering his tinderbox to her and wiping his hands on his trousers. Water might not be a bad idea, actually, all things considered. He glanced around the room; so far they were the only ones awake.

"You all right? After... after all that?" he said softly. The bruising had faded a little, but it was still visible and hadn't yet reached the yellow stage.

She shrugged. "I'm right enough. Why? What are you looking at?" She obviously could not see her own face, but she peered anxiously at her arms and chest by the light of the fire. Looking down at her fingermarked collarbone she remembered again that she was still wearing Jenny Ross's chemise, her own having been rendered useless. She pulled the neck of it a little higher, unusually embarrassed in front of her bridegroom. "I've got some... ugly bite marks a bit down lower. They don't hurt so bad now but they're... disgusting to look at."

"Oh, Maggie." He stepped a little closer and rubbed her cheek gently with his finger. "You'm beautiful to me, Maggie. Sweeting." He tipped her head up a little to look into her eyes, feeling suddenly clumsy with his words. "It don't... it don't matter, them marks. They'll fade quick enough. I just care that... that you'm all right, see. 'Cause I love you."

"I know you do," she answered with a little smile. "I'm just lucky I caught your eye before all of that. Oh, Gabe." She gave him a sudden kiss. "I'm scared but I'm still awfully glad you're marrying me. I don't know how I got by without you all those months after Vimeiro. I mean... Well you know what I mean. Of course you were there, but I was still alone."