26 May; With the baggage

Why on earth did the provost have to speak such damn good Portuguese? And what were they saying? Jenny glared at her compatriot as she dragged her along, hoping he would not notice their escape.

"Give the box here," he directed in Portuguese, before changing smoothly to English. "You may stop there, the both of you."

"What?" Jenny turned wide, blue, innocent eyes back at him.

She turned, her hands on her hips. "Din't do nothin', did us."

Before Maria could say no, Dores was already lifting the box and holding it towards the provost. "Here sir." She said and shoved her friend away. Maria did looked to sulk, though atleast the other two girls would be in trouble, and that was a good reason to smile for.

He took the box and balanced it carefully on his saddle bows. A brief initial search revealed fabric and assorted other pieces, though nothing that might determine the box's origin definitively. There was a name carved on the inside of the box's lid, however, that did not seem very Portuguese.

"It is your box, you say?" The Provost asked, ignoring the two Englishwomen for the moment.

Jenny shivered.

"The fabric is, the box itself.. not quite so. It is at present." Maria chose a bad time to speak honestly, but she felt that finding such a box elsewhere and having used it to transport her goods, would have been a good explanation too.

"Indeed. And where did you come by the box?"

"You can buy some good calico from Mrs. Dawson," Jenny said, as if trying to persuade the Englishwoman. "You'll still get your dress. It's not worth a fuss."

"..The box, I found." Maria did not lie, of course. "..Abandoned and discarted, prolly couse it was broken up. But, I chose it anyway. Can't do without, in these scarce times." Dores looked at her friend. "May we go, now sir?... we don't want any harm to anyone."

"I still had it first. Would've bin all right if those two hadn't come along," she muttered back, folding her arms and glaring at the two interfering Portuguese girls.

"Shut up, you idiot," Jenny whispered, pinching her hard.

"Found... on the road here?" The Provost shifted in his saddle to look down at the two Englishwomen. "The box came into your possession first, you say? The same question applies. Did you find it on the road?"

She slapped Jenny's hand away. "Din't find nuffink on no road. Sir."

"Then be silent," he told her. He was not convinced that any of them were guiltless in this matter, but he was increasingly sure that it was fortunate he had come along at that particular moment.

"They did not have it first!" Maria protested, and Dores seemed just to wish they could leave, and that her friend had listened when she had said this wasn't a good idea at all!

"Not at all. My friend here was just looking to purchase some cloth." Jenny gave the provost her sweetest smile. "These good women seemed to misunderstand."

The Provost regarded the two Portuguese women levelly. "You have not answered my question," he reminded them.

"On the road.." Maria answered rolling teh fabric that she still held in her hands up a bit.

"So it was taken as loot." He was not surprised by that. It was what he'd known all along.

"Loot? ..Portuguese don't loot, sir." Maria said haughtily. "Not like some of the men I've seen. French or even British, sir!" She crossed her hands over. "Like that woman too."

The Provost shook his head. "It is looting if it was taken from the road-side, for as you can see, the French have abandoned all of their baggage." He spared a glance for the two Englishwomen. "Regardless who undertakes such a practise."

"We only took the box. If you think we should leave it lying, we will. But the fabric was already ours!" Maria lied now, but the man could not prove that the fabric was anything but theirs. There were no names on it, no marks of ownership and if they had been, they would probably not have been French.

"We just needed something to carry it in!"

"I have found," the Provost said, almost lazily. "That where one item is taken as a prize, others have as well."