Wedding Bells in Oporto

With a smirk, Newbury hefted up his pack and followed Cotton out. "That's assumin' the women're any sorta ready, themselves."

It was quiet. He knocked again and shifted nervously infront of the door. What if they've gone already? He sighed and cursed his stupidity of getting lost when it mattered most. He knocked again, placing a hand onto the handle to open it. Even if he knew the girls would've been elsewhere, even if they intended to change, he had a mind to imagine all the riflemen out and the ladies having the use of the whole room.

"Hello?"

The door opened to reveal a woman he had never even seen before. "Well what're you doing standing there knocking on the door of your own billet? Come inside, if it's inside you want, and don't bother us in our corner." It seemed by now as if every Englishwoman in Portugal was in the room, and many non-English besides.

"Thank you miss." The rifleman said softly as he entered, flustered.

"'scuse me ma'am. Where may I leave this?" Pye asked after a quick glance about the room. He held his parcel, nicely placed in a wooden box, which was indeed heavy but atleast it had protected what it held inside. "S' for t' bride n' groom." He said timidly, seeing how many girls there were he felt even more aware of his own misgivings.

Cotton came down the stairs and stopped dead. He'd never expected that so many folks would turn up - and they hadn't done anything yet! He shook his head in disbelief before continuing down the stairs.

"Hello there, Zack," he said cheerfully. "Here, let's get out o' here and leave the womenfolk to it; they won't want the likes of us hangin' around, after all."

"'ey Gabe." He smiled and hurried to the man. "I've got this, for you.. n' Miss Maggie." He held out the parcel. "'s got... well is got summat you said you was missing." He grinned. "Where's we going then? Out? ter where you will marry?"

The clock was chiming the quarter hour, a quarter past eight. Martha Roper looked out and smiled. "Time, lads. Run along to the square and we'll follow shortly. You all right, Gabe?"

"All right?" Was he? He wasn't sure how he felt. "Middlin' fair, I s'pose." He grinned. "Can't b'lieve it's me weddin' day, that's what." He grinned. "See you ladies out there, then."

Pye blinked,and lowered his hands with the parcel then with a sigh placed it on the sill. They'd pick it up from there hopefully, it was theirs anyway. Stepping out of the way, he was back outside, looking at his clothes and making sure they looked their best, even with a few swipes of his hands across them. There, no dust there. He knelt and did the same to his trousers. Better, not perfect but he'd been busy with other things anyway. With a smile on his face he looked back at the door. Best get to the place first. See it was neat and ready. He'd heard earlier where they were meaning to have the ceremony and so broke into a run, to see it fit first.

Martha saw him run and shouted after him. "Hey, Pye! Zachy Pye! What about this box?" He certainly was an impulsive young fellow, and full of energy to be running about first thing in the morning.

Zachary made a sharp stop, which nearly had him fall. Not because he'd wanted to but more, because the ground wasn't as agreeable to short stops as the young lad was. He paused, turned around. Luckily he hadn't gone that far, as not to have heard Martha, or been able to reply.

"That'un's for Miss Maggie and Gabe." He answered approaching. "Jus' be gennle with it.. got' .." He flushed and ran back, standing by Martha as he spoke more hushed. "Got.. sumthing sweet for them. ..Cake.. " He looked embarrassed and foremost just shy, as if bringing that in had been a crime. He hadn't expected someone shout after him about the box, or even to have noticed it there!

Martha's face broke into a smile. "That's awful kind of you. Run along then and I'll make sure she gets it."

"Yes miss! Thank you miss!" He smiled. He turned, then turned back, looked startled as wether he should give a bow or something in sign of respect to a lass. Did something half way through. Blushed as red as his collar and cuffs. "Good day miss." He said, being at a loss to say anything else and then awkwardly turned again and went off in the same direction as before.

Cotton headed out to the square, and stopped dead as he turned the corner. It wasn't the same place he'd been to ten minutes ago. It couldn't be. The poor orange tree in the corner had lost a good amount of its blossom from the lower branches and the square was decorated with blossom and ribbon and bits and pieces of brightly-coloured cloth.

He grinned. "Well, there's a nice surprise," he said, and blinked at the sight of the borrowed broom, its handle wrapped about with coloured ribbon and a sprig of orange blossom tucked into its straw.

Sarah Palmer appeared a moment later, herding riflemen before her like sheep. "Go on, go on, oh hurry up Johnny. Jed, Jed, where's the captain? Tell Joe he can start with his bugle now. Stand over there." And then she disappeared from the little square, presumably running back to the house.

Vickery had finished his rounds and was heading back to his billet. There was a lot of bustle going on and he shrugged. It wasn't every day they had a wedding, after all.

Well, wherever they were holding it, it wasn't at their billet. People seemed to be heading round the corner and he went with them to find a small plaza had been decorated. There was a broom lying on the ground near the fountain and he smiled to see that it had been decorated too. Cotton looked a little bewildered by everything that was going on.

Pye chuckled watching as the poor riflemen were missing all but white woolly coats and to make the sound the sheep made, to fit the picture. They gathered in the square, and the young lad joined them. He appeared by Cotton's side for a moment just to grin and say: "No goin' back, Gabe."

After a moment he added. "Though you'd be mad if you wanted to." He took a step back and smiled. It was all very new to him. And he wanted to see this broom jumping that meant a marriage in a way. The place was rather beautiful. With the flowers on the ground and some more on the tree, with the broom wrapped in a colourful ribbon which made it look all the more special. It felt a bit like spring, a new start come from the end of winter. And it was so, marriage seemed to be a new start and a bright future, if Gabriel and Maggie were concerned.

He noticed a few redcoats appear too, but hold their distance. A few locals might also have been seen, though their appearance was much more out of curiosity - or in the cases of the Portuguese women camp followers, also with the relation to knowing Maggie. But the majority of those were with Maggie, which , Pye guessed, was still at the billet house.

This was it. Newbury brushed some dirt off his jacket and let out a long breath. He had no reason to be nervous, this wasn't him getting married. Then he grinned. Cotton was one lucky beggar.

He pulled his shako off and ran a hand back through his hair, making an attempt to straighten it, then he fitted the battered old shako back on. Everyone else was outside now, or moving that way, and he had to go out there too.

"Bit more'n you thought it'd be?" He asked Cotton, once he'd found the other rifleman. The decorations and turnout were impressive for such a professed 'simple' ceremony. Naturally. This was the Rifles, wasn't it?

"Jus' a bit," Cotton said in answer, staring round at the transformed square. "It was only s'posed to be small, like. Nothin' as fancy as all this." He hadn't wanted anything big, after all, and suddenly wondered what his wedding would have been like if he'd been back home in Kent.

He couldn't believe the effort the women had gone to - and this was for a ceremony that would only really take five minutes, and wouldn't be accepted as actually meaning anything by any parson. "Hope Maggie likes it," he said, and looked around for her, nervously. "Hope she don't think this was anythin' to do with me, neither."

Zebulon Palmer started to say something, but he was drowned out by the bugle as Joe Cavender announced the arrival of the bride, only slightly preceded by the women who had been helping her. The women parted to let her walk through the little crowd, but she stopped and laughed to see how sweetly transformed the square was.

And not only was the square bedecked with ribbons and flowers, but so too was Maggie herself. There was only so much that could be done to her simple faded blue dress, but someone had loaned her a straw bonnet with a white ribbon wrapped around the crown and more of the dainty orange blossoms tucked into it, matching the bouquet that Cotton had made for her.

"Pretty sure she'll like it," Newbury told him with a grin. "Hard to think she ain't looked forward to this all too."

He turned partially when he saw movement in the gathered crowd and his grin broadened. "Well ain't that somethin'."

It certainly was something. "She'm beautiful," Cotton said, when he could speak again. He didn't see the fact that her dress was faded, or that her bruises were only just fading themselves. To him, she looked like a proper lady, and the radiance in her face made him smile with pleasure.

The lass was beautiful. Even if her dress was a faded blue, it only made her look as though the dress was lighter, more like the sky in spring. The bruises were still there, starting to fade. Still, as if the radiance of her smile, the happyness she carried on her face, erased them, they were barely noticable now.

Pye smiled, and watched her approach, he noticed how baffled Cotton was. How stricken with her, now as he was before, only the poor lad seemed to forget how to breathe. Nobody could take that against him. Not really.

As well, it was a special day for him, perhaps not a marriage according to the rules, but this was as good as they could have in such a short time and place. The flowers, orange blossoms looked so pretty, adorning the girl's hat like bright golden brooches, though looking much more fresh, better. A white ribbon was a contrast, and almost as a tuft of cloud on the sunny sky, it made her really look like a lady.

Maggie came to stand next to Cotton and slipped her hand through the crook of his elbow. "Hello," she said, smiling merrily up at him. "So, what now?"

"Hello, lass," Cotton said, looking down at Maggie as she took his arm. "You look... You look beautiful, sweeting." He indicated the broomstick. "Will we?"