Page 84 of The Unknown Birds

There they slept and ate and slept some more. Though Hawkins threatened calisthenics to ensure the regiment didn’t grow soft, he must have known he’d risk a full-on mutiny if he actually tried.

On the fourth day of rest, the weather was especially fine, one of those perfect spring mornings that could remind a person they were human. The whole company sat lazing in the sun like feral cats, soaking up the cozy warmth as though storing it to see them through another winter.

Raised voices drew Ashley’s attention, and she lifted her head to see a soldier held prisoner between two tall MPs. His head hung low as Hawkins lambasted him with relish. She couldn’t make out the words the captain yelled, but the soldier’s slouch and vacant expression sent a tingle down her spine, before they hustled him into the barn and away from prying eyes.

She glanced at Rook beside her, who had pushed up on his elbows. “Steady on,” he whispered. “I saw him too.”

Billy Merle.

“Perhaps he was captured? Or injured?” Dusty suggested. “And he’s only just returned from hospital today?”

“Then what are the MPs for? Suppose even Hawkins couldn’t blame him for being hurt…” Ash argued.

Rook didn’t say anything at all, but his posture was tense, his expression grim.

They ate their evening rations outside, no one going near the stuffy barn. An uncomfortable pall had fallen over the sunny day. While they were eating, Captain Hawkins finally emerged to walk among them, and Ashley braced herself for whatever he had planned. No matter what unpleasantness he might rain down on her and Rook, she was determined to bite her tongue against retort.

“Privates.” He offered a stiff nod to her and Dusty.

“Captain,” they replied with all due grace.

“Lance Corporal,” he added, turning his attention to Rook.

“Sir.”

“You’re on special assignment. Report to the field behind the barn thirty minutes before dawn, sharpish. Don’t be late.”

Rook’s face went ghostly pale. “Sir?” he repeated, his voice barely more than a growl.

“Is there a problem?” Hawkins asked, almost gleeful.

“Special assignment, sir?” Rook echoed, setting down his stew and pushing it away.

“Did I stammer?”

Rook stared at the ground. “Is it a firing squad, sir?”

Ashley’s stomach wrenched, threatening to toss up the meal she’d only just eaten, as the captain’s self-satisfied smirk turned big and righteous.

“It is an order, Lance Corporal.”

“No,” Rook said softly.

Ash braced for the inevitable explosion, but Hawkins continued to smile the horrible smile of an adder about to launch upon its prey.

“Private Merle has been tried and court-martialed. He will be executed for cowardice and desertion as defined in the Field Service Regulations. It is your duty to carry out that execution.”

“It’s customary to pull guns from a neighboring regiment,” Rook replied.

“If you refuse my order, I shall have you up beside him,” Hawkins snapped, daring Rook to say no just one more time.

“Then have me up beside him,” Rook said, refusing to meet Ashley’s eye, as though he knew she was pleading for him to hush. “Merle’s not right in the head. He’s a broken kid who needs to see his kid.”

“Then he must wait until his kid joins him in the hereafter.”

“I won’t do it,” Rook said.

“If you refuse, then Ashley shall be blindfolded at dawn as well.”