27th May, morning; with wagons

When he finally awakened the next morning, Newbury discovered that the army had gotten on the move again. He'd slept through it all. They'd covered some ground too, by the look of it. Well damn. He grinned and laid his head back against his pack. For once, he didn't feel guilty for sleeping in. There was something pleasantly indulgent in it.

His initial attempt to move, however, quickly put paid to any lingering feelings of contentment. Damn it all but his knee had stiffened up after a few hours in mostly the same position. Wonderful. Newbury cursed quietly and tried to bend the knee. It hurt a fair bit, but the joint obeyed. Would it hold his weight? After the antics of last night, he wasn't sure. But he had to get out of the wagon soon, because his bladder felt uncomfortably full.

"Here goes," Newbury muttered to himself, pushing aside his blanket. He pulled himself up into a sitting position before slinging his good leg over the back of the wagon. With his weight balanced on the wooden back of the wagon, he tried to pull his other leg over so he could drop to the road. It would have been a successful manoeuvre had not his foot caught in the end of his blanket. Both Newbury and his blanket came out of the wagon to land in an ungraceful heap on the road.

Surprisingly, however, all he could do was laugh at the absurdity of it.

"Ey!.."He jumped back in surprise when a mass of green and gray came tumbling out of the wagon. It was Newbury, which wasn't the unexpected part. But his falling out right out of the sky was. He was laughing which would make any sane man wonder about the sanity of that rifleman. Pye blinked, startled and knelt by the man's side, the wagon slowly tattering onward as if nothing had happened. The horses might've made a slight indication of hearing something fall, their ears twitching back, but made no attempt even to look.

The next wagon came past them, with a very slight adjustment to its direction so that the laughing rifleman wouldn't be trampled underfoot. The draught animals of this one did spare Newbury a curious glance, twitching their ears in his direction and making sure to see whether he would pose any danger. With a slick snap across their backs, their minds were set back on the road. The funny odd man forgotten. He wasn't a danger anyway.

Pye offered the fallen man a hand to get up, not asking whether he was alright, since he didn't exactly appear to be. He didn't give him any 'wisdoms' on how he should not have been ruining his knee or how he could've asked the wagon to stop before disembarking. Newbury knew that himself, and if he didn't, he just learned it. "'ere Joe."

What a way to start a morning. Newbury grinned foolishly and untangled his feet from the blanket. The fall had hurt some but he barely noticed. A little pain didn't matter at all in the face of his returning sense of glib contentment.

"Mornin'," he greeted the shadow standing over him as he lurched unsteadily to his feet, blanket in hand. "There's a nice crease in the road there."

Smirking, Newbury shuffled back toward his wagon to toss his blanket back in. Now he was upright again, it was time for a piss.

"Morning." Pye greeted and watched Newbury hobble back to his wagon, throw his blanket in and make a turn, probably to start the morning with some sort of relief. He gave him a nod and a slight shrug. It was best he was let to do his thing. He didn't need to be babysitted and followed all the way to the side of the road.

Newbury looked to be in a rather good mood. Smirking, laughing, grinning, it was as if he'd won something, or just been told he wouldn't need to worry about money or food for the rest of his life. Pye shrugged. Just the other day he'd seemed upset, he'd also looked ready to turn himself in. Afterwards Pye hadn't seen him all since having to accompany Vickery to the provosts to say his part. Whatever it was, the yesterday had been forgotten. It could have to do with something he remembered hearing late in the night.

And something he remembered seeing earlier that day. If it was that, Newbury certainly had reason to be merry, relaxed and all that. Pye knelt down to pick a pebble and then wiped it off.

It was rather a nice day today, especially after the disaster that yesterday had ended up being. Willow, for once, was behaving and he found himself whistling tunelessly as he walked along. Things were looking up, he decided.

And Newbury tumbled out of the wagon he'd been riding in, making Cotton blink. "You all right there, Joe?" he asked, even as Pye offered him a hand up. "That looked like quite a tumble."

"Weren't so bad," Newbury answered, not bothering to dust himself off. He picked his way to the side of the road, ignoring the twinges in his knee. "Seems a nice day, don't it?"

They'd probably think he was cracked, but he didn't care.

"S' good to see you in a fine mood, Joe." Zachary said, preferring the rifleman to be too merry as opposed to, very upset. His knee seemed to hold, another thing that the wagon punishment was excellent for. It would let Newbury finally have some rest!

"..um, " He looked at the sky which looked dark and gloomy. "It ain't raining... so, might be nice."

"I won't ask how the knee is," Cotton said, though Newbury was limping so it must be pretty stiff. "Had a good sleep?" he asked instead, remembering the few days he'd spent in the surgeon's wagon not long ago, and the pleasure of being able to sleep for as long as he'd wanted.

"No, not rainin'. For once." Newbury grinned broadly. "Aye. I did. Musta been plain wore out."

He wasn't about to admit just why that was, either. Not everything needed sharing. Instead, he turned his back to the other two so he could relieve himself in some semblance of privacy. A good sleep indeed...

"You didn't miss much. " Pye slipped his pebble into his pocket. later he could lick it and keep himself from feeling thirsty. His canteen had been half empty. He turned to look to the opposite side of the rifleman, catching sight of the camp followers, and the mam that let him have some food. The lot chatted as they walked. "Hmm, 'cept, you hungry Joe?"

That was better. Suitably relieved, Newbury refastened his trousers and shrugged. "Not really," he replied. Later he would be, but there were some scraps of rations in his pack somewhere. He'd make do with those.

"Anythin' worth notin' happen today?"

"Dunno. Don't think so. Not unless you include the Captain's order from yesterday... he din't say how long that was goin' to be for, did he?" He adjusted the hang of his sword bayonet. "Think there'll be time for a proper brekuss or whatever when we stop. You know what it's like back here, after all."

"What order?.. t' one that has us stayin' here?" He asked, and stretched, not even making an attempt to hide a yawn. "'s been pretty... calm like. Really. None of them bothersomes came about, n'.. well everything else went right as it always goes." He shrugged.

Ah yes. That. Newbury shrugged, unconcerned. "Aye. It doesn't much bother me what happens when. Too nice a day for worryin' over things."

"The one that's got me holdin' his leash everywhere he goes," Cotton replied in answer to Pye's question. He grinned and started whistling The Girl I Left Behind Me, breaking off to remark, "I'm just lucky I didn't leave her behind, though."

"Joe.. you drunk?" Pye hadn't known Newbury for long to know whether he had moodswings, but from yesterday he looked like a completely different man. He dropped his gaze. "Mean no offence." He blinked at Cotton. "Holdin' his leash?" Oh, so everybody was in love? Cotton certainly was in heaven, and Newbury acted somewhat like it. That made Pye think.

Drunk? No. He grinned and flexed his knee a bit. "Nope."

"Then, what's up with you two?" Pye asked, looking between the two men. They were both acting a bit like children, and quite strange. Neither was drunk, one sang, the other grin and laughed and didn't feel pain. Pye thought he knew what it was all about but still he asked. If an answer came, so the better.

"Drunk? No. Why'd you ask?" He frowned at Pye, not understanding quite what the lad was worried about. "It's a new day, ain't it? No point worryin' about what happened yesterday, or what might happen tomorrow. 'Sides, it's nice an' sunny, there ain't no reason to be fair mis'rable, is there?"

"Aye, ain't that just so." Newbury scratched at his tousled hair and looked skyward. "Fine day for walkin', sure."

"You're all a.... well.. can't be lying ter say that I haven't seen you this happy since you got married.. n'.. I haven't even seen Joe here like that since..., since ever I think." He shrugged and smiled. "..guess it's a nice weather but... if it don't have lots of food with it.. there's no reason ter celebrate it, no." He grinned.

"Din't you have any brekuss this mornin'?" Cotton asked. "We'll have to see what we can do about that when we stop, then, won't we? And I ain't bin married above a couple of days, anyhow, an' last night was the first time I got to see Maggie since the weddin'." Not that they'd done much of anything, though that wasn't anyone's business but his and Maggie's, after all.

The only thing Newbury did was smirk as he stooped, carefully, to swipe some pebbles off the ground. Let 'em be confused. He was feeling buoyantly cheerful but the reasons for it were only his to know.

"I did a little. When I came, mos' was gone. N' then I had ter put 'few things away n'.. it was real little." Pye scowled. Of course he was often hungry. Not always, but often. When he approached the camp followers with the question of getting some food, they'd chased him off properly. But he didn't mean to tell that. And he earned himself more bread for his chick for free too. Maybe going back and forth with them, would be productive, just as long as they didn't decide to throw stones. Those were hardly edible and they hurt if hit by them.

"Use up yer think well, Gabe. Time here, with the wagons." He nodded. "Where's your in range of them camp followers, an' her."

"You should stick with us, then, Zack," Cotton said, adjusting his rifle again. "Ain't no call to wander off when us Rifles stick together. Better that way, I think." He grinned. "Goin' to make the most of bein' here an' all. Not that I'm slackin', o' course, bein' here 'stead of up with the Comp'ny, you mind."