26 May; With the baggage

Pye didn't take that long. He may not have only gone in the direction of Newbury's earlier parade, but had gone a few times, left and right of the road, keeping a watchful eye out for the provosts. When he returned he seemed more heavily laden, a risk he had been willing to take.

He smiled at Cotton as if there had been nothing but a nature call that had gotten him to remain behind and hooked both his hands on the dark belts that crossed over his chest and beneath which the straps of his backpack cut into his shoulders.

"Gabe." He nodded a greeting to him and smiled. ".. back 's I said." He hesitated. "Everything's alright you know. Don't get yer hair all gray over us." He sounded very cheerful.

"What with you an' Newbury both, I don't see how I'll not go grey," Cotton returned. "You look cheerful, anyhow, which is summat, I s'pose." He sighed. "Reckon we'll be stoppin' soon, afore it gets dark. You know what to do when we make camp with the baggage?"

"..'other than fetch some water..? Or what do you mean?" Pye grinned and gave Cotton a quick nod. "Can't not be cheerful. Them provosts got their gobs shut, couldn't do nothin' to Newbury, or either of us. Didn't you see how disappointed they were?" That was some confident talk from the lad.

"...didn't do nothing wrong, Gabe. N' neither did Newbury. Not this time, not really." He shrugged. "But....everyone's on edge 'round them buggers.." Well, really now, Pye seemed to have a strong opinion about something, and it wasn't food..

"Fetch water, or firewood to make a fire. Start preparin' dinner - though we can leave that to the women, seein' as we'm with them. Unload Willow here an' find water for him, an' mebbe see about findin' a decent bit o' pasture for him for the night, if there's any to be had." He took his shako off and ran his cuff over his forehead. "I'm glad about that, Zack. Don't want you to get in any trouble, not after what happened with Joe an' me. Though I dunno why he let you stay with us, when we'm the ones back here as a punishment."

"We'll find a decent spot for Willow. Better than fer them cavalry." Although, he would probably choose to give the animal a wide berth if he could help it. They were evil, and that was it, and he hadn't yet had an opportunity to be shown different.

"..Captain Vickery you mean?" He asked and for a moment, being reminded of the captain, actually took the smile of his face. It quickly reappeared as he didn't want Gabe to get the wrong idea. "He.. well he asked me 'wot I'd have liked. I said I'd stay back with you, ter keep learning from you." He said with a slow nod. "So he agreed to it. Though I don't think he wants me to learn to get in trouble, just the .. fireing n' fighting, n' knowing to be a proper rifleman."

"Then we'll have to show you all that. Wouldn't want you to get in trouble for not knowin' stuff when you haven't bin shown, would we?" He put his shako back on. "The cap'n's all right, really, so long as you don't push it with him. Treat him straight, an' he'll be straight with you, I mean."

"No, wouldn't want to get in trouble for that!" Pye was serious no matter what Cotton might've been at that moment. "Just..you can take your time now. Be with Maggie, your lass. 'couse.. who knows when you will be able ter be with her for long when we return to the lines." He smiled warmly. "I'll be 'round then, so I can wait." He adjusted the straps of his pack. He needed to be careful for a while, but the camp would be very soon in coming, and then he could relieve himself of the heavy pack and its load.

"..wouldn't dare treat the captain anything but that, Gabe...,Would be daft if I did. Anybody'd be daft if they did."

"I'll show you. Mebbe tomorrow I'll be able to pas Willow off to Maggie or someone to look after. Even if I can't, I don't mind answerin' questions." He grinned. "Captain ain't so bad as all that, though he won't let folks forget their place when they'm talkin' with him. I know you wouldn't, though; you ain't like that."

"..Gabe, don't burden Maggie with things 'couse of me." He smiled cheerfully. "I ain't worth it." And looked on ahead. Questions they could do. Questions could be asked on the march, could be answered there too. Especially now that they were following with the wagons and didn't exactly need to be quiet.

"Wouldn't forget my place. 'private.. or.... er well a rifleman. He's an officer. These two won't ever be equals. " He shook his head.

"You got to be shown sometime, ain't you?" he remarked. "Sure you'm worth it - you'm a Rifleman, after all. She'll understand." He grinned. "You know Rifles officers do the same trainin' we do, 'fore they'm allowed to take any sort of command, even of a squad?"

"...That's a lie, Gabe. Officers buy their place! They have horses, n' they don't walk, or do same things. Don't do drill either. I'm a ..uh green.. but not that green." He scowled, not believing what Cotton just told him. Officers that went through the same training as riflemen, common soldiers. That was such a blatant lie, even he, who wasn't as well educated in the ways of the riflemen, would not fall for!

"But..what you said.. aye. Need to know how to do things better, just so I don't endanger you, out there." He smiled. "Though I dunno, when I might start endangerin' just one..." He shrugged. He thought it would be a pity to loose all those things he'd picked up, but as for what they might do to the provosts, perhaps it wasn't such a great pity at all.

"It's true, honest it is!" He chuckled. "I thought same as you, 'zact same. Nearly had a fit when I fell in, me first drill with the Rifles, an' someone wearin' an officer's sash fell in next to me. He was wearin' the same jacket as the Captain does, sash an' all, with a cross-belt, waist-belt, rifle an' all, like I had. Couldn't believe me eyes." He shrugged. "They have to learn all the drill an' how to fire a rifle an' everythin', afore they'm allowed to do anythin' officers us'lly do. Though they have their own rooms - even Rifles officers don't live in the barrack rooms with us, back home, o' course."

He indicated Pye's rifle. "Don't think we can give you any shootin' practice out here, which is a shame. But you know what to do with that, don't you? Sort of, anyhow."

"I do. Shoot." He stated matter of fact. He still didn't believe that an officer would fall in the same as a private rifleman. Why Gabe was teasing him, he didn't know, but really. An officer just didn't do that! They knew orders, fairly enough, they bought most other things and if soldiers were unlucky, they knew very little but had an ego to match.

"..Gabe, please. Ye can try, but you ain't foolin' me. Captain Vickery, ever doing that with us? Could only see that if you was drunk and imagined it!" He smiled and gripped his rifle, as if afraid it would be taken from him.

"I promise you, I ain't pullin' your leg. Captain Vick'ry knows how to fire a rifle as well as you or me - though he ain't so good as the most of us, 'cause he don't do it so often. He just don't carry a rifle - most officers don't, of course. Only officer I ever seen with a long-arm's that Mister Sharpe, of the 95th." He shrugged. "The Captain knows what sort of work it takes to keep a rifle clean, an' he knows how to do it, an' what to look for on inspections, too."

"Alright.. I guess I'll believe you that , this time. But..if I learn different.." Well he didn't know what he'd do, just he wouldn't be very happy he fell for it so bad. At the mention of the other rifle officer he looked quite thoughtful. "...So's.. is it true, what they say about this Sharpe? That he's not a proper gentleman at all?.. that he's a bastard?" He arched a brow. "I heard it said, ..t' sergeant mentioned 'im too." Hakeswill, he was, but he didn't think the name mattered.

He glanced at the rifle again and then added: "...Ah.., well, he better know to look for things.. rifles are essential after all. if it busts right when you need it..., one'd be wishing they did a better job n' their officer took greater care to see their mistake."

"I dunno 'bout Sharpe, on'y what I've heard. An' aye, there are rumours about him not really bein' an officer - not a gentleman, I mean, like the Captain is. An' to get to be an officer, well, there ain't so many men manage that. But he carries a rifle like you an' me, which I never seen any officer do afore." He shrugged. "I don't think he'd be an easy officer to... to have in command, him. I'm glad we've got Captain Vick'ry, that's about what."

"Couse he ain't got a gentle birth?" It felt something rather unnatural to consider an officer that might've been just as he and Cotton before. He had to be a really strange, maybe an awful sort of an officer. Captain Vickery certainly wasn't. But Captain Vickery was also a proper officer and so he knew how to act all since birth.

".. I don't know anyone that managed it but him then. .." Though that wasn't very impressive. He knew too few people to be a good judge. "Do you know ..um.. does Captain Vickery regret not having a rifle?" Perhaps if he did, he would as easily have claimed one. Maybe he would be looked at strangely by his superiors and subordinates, but he could get away with it.

"I dunno anyone that managed it neither, 'part from Mister Sharpe." He shook his head. "No. We'm better shots than he is, I think - least, we do it more often than he does, so we get the practice an' he don't. I have seen him shoot, though, an' he ain't so bad. But he thinks there's enough of us that he don't need to have a rifle. Mebbe that's why Mister Sharpe's got one - he ain't got so many men, after all."

"..He don't.." He agreed. Sharpe had fewer men, and those looked rather tattered and worn. Even so. "Why don't he get them, then?...like Vickery did. Got more of the redcoats to join, didn't he?.. If Sharpe is so short on men. .can't he do like our officer?" He arched a brow, thinking it completely logical that one would try to collect what one was missing. It was the same with food, when hungry one collected and ate the food and when one was out of water in their canteen, one hoped not to get in trouble for it. Er, he meant, to refill it.

"He ain't here 'ficially, like, y'see. Got cut off last winter durin' the retreat - Sir John Moore was the gen'ral, back afore Christmas, see, an' he only had a real small army. We got sent back to Lisbon - the whole of the 60th - an' he took the rest of the army north to Corunna, which is a long ways north of here, with the Frogs chasin' him all the way. An' durin the retreat, Mister Sharpe an' his men got cut off. That's why they'm still here, 'stead of in England with the rest of the 95th." He shrugged. "They ain't got no supplies or nothin' to kit a new recruit with anyhow, not like us, see."

"Could.. lend them something for a proper price.. Can sew their collars n' cuffs up the way they want to. " Pye mused and wondered if this mister Sharpe liked or regretted being left behind with just the few men that he had. "..Why don't he ...hmm.. join with us?.. it'd be more numbers.. 'tleast. Though dunno what else." He shrugged. He wasn't one for 'politics' of the officers. He was just hungry and in anticipation of what he had to do, if hopefully all would go as he imagined.

"We ain't the same regiment as them - an' even with the Rifles, I know I'd rather be with the 60th than put in with the 95th, if things was the other way round." He adjusted his rifle on his shoulder, thinking. "An', well, I don't think he wants to come under the command of another officer. For sure I know Captain Vickery don't like it, when it's us comin' under the command of an officer from some other regiment. Even 'tween us and the 95th, we do things diff'rent to them sometimes."

Pye listened curiously, and wondered if what Cotton had said was only the natural rivalry, that wasn't all that surprising, or if perhaps Hakeswill's nattering over Mister Sharpe were perfectly correct. Not that he'd nattered often. The man was an enigma, the cruel sort even. "Why?" He asked. He was new in the rifles and though he felt quite satisfied where he was, he wondered why Cotton thought that even if given a chance, he would have never considered taking it. "I mean,.. I'm not saying I would, or that you should, jus'.. why do you feel like that. Like....t' reasons for somebody's actions... don't need to say if you don't want to." He smiled and shrugged.

"It's just, well, we ain't no better or worse than them, not really. But it's the sort of feelin' you get about your own regiment, if it's a real good'un, I mean. I can't 'splain it prop'ly, but you'll understand how I mean one day, even if you don't now." He tugged at Willow's halter again. "C'mon, you stupid mule, you. Pick it up, can't you?"

"Smack it on the rump... er.. her, it always works when the cavalry does it." Pye grinned. So it was just the feeling of belonging to one group, which was always the finest and best. Well, it wasn't always, if the officers were bad, but if the men weren't, then one could still identify with those.

"What do I have to know.... to become a proper rifleman?" He hesitated and grinned again. "Other than gettin' in trouble all t' time?"