Genesis: the Beginning and the End | Band of Brothers

【Ｃｈａｐｔｅｒ １８ － Ｉｌｌｅｇａｌ】

Chapter 18 - Illegal

It was not going well.

Margaret had nearly missed the first bus. And the first bus was delayed. Which meant she missed the second one and had to wait 20 minutes for the next one to come along. After that, things went smoothly – she was just late. Quite late and she hated it.

Mid evening. It was mid evening. She was due for an early evening meeting.

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.

It was not going well.

Now she was panicked and her mind running rings around her body, a whirlwind in her brain.

If she could walk on water, and it would've gotten her there quicker, she would've traversed the pond.

But no.

Then she realised she had no idea where The Blue Boar was.

So there she was, a spy, lost in a village. An English village! Her only choice was to wander.

Instinct guided her, but only a little because then it was noise that she followed.

It had been commandeered, and was an officer's mess but Margaret was sure that most of the soldiers in there were not officers and should not have been in there.

Scanning and scanning the room again, she almost missed Lieutenant Winters in the corner booth. But there he was, looking in her direction, waiting. Thankfully he didn't call her, nor wave her over, allowing her to just weave between tables and slip into the booth, opposite him.

Lieutenant Nixon was there too.

And Welsh and Compton.

"I wasn't expecting a group discussion."

At least Harry laughed. That eased her a little, but the other raised eyebrows her snarky comment was met with made her defences skyrocket.

She didn't even know if Compton knew what was happening here.

They sat in silence, until a waitress managed to come over and asked if she wanted anything.

"Honestly, I don't know what I want or care what you bring me but please, something filling because I have hardly eaten all week."

The waitress looked a little bewildered but nodded anyway and left Margaret with the four Lieutenants.

Winters looked like he wanted to ask a question, but also that he was looking for permission to begin.

"You asked for a week. What do you mean you've hardly eaten all week?"

"Well when you've been away from home for 7 or so years, you're not going to have much in the cupboards are you?"

She was still uncomfortable, and kept glancing from one of the three that she knew knew the whole story to Lieutenant Compton.

Subtly of course. She was trained to be subtle, but could be as subtle as a brick when the situation called for it.

This was not one of those situations.

The loudness and yet the silence of it all was suffocating, deafening. Too much and too little all at once. Could somebody please just tell her if Compton knew the extent of what was happening?!

Taking matters into her own hands, she turned to him and studied him, scrutinising him. But only for a moment.

"Do you know what's going on here? Because if you don't, you really should leave," she was almost sneering, but he would not be deterred so easily.