CHAPTER 2

MY KENYAN DIARY: CHARLES JAMES

I imagine that Charles will need to grab whatever moments he can in order to keep his diary and that his entries will be quite short most of the time. He's just about to head off in search of Lane.

Just scribbling a couple of lines before we head out to look for Lane. Am all togged up in combat gear, Bergen and gun beside me on my cot, waiting for the call to brief the men in the ops tent. Still some work to be done by the intelligence crew tracking the possible whereabouts of the Al Shabaab insurgents who have her.

I'm struggling to keep my full attention on this mission. Have just caught up on the BBC news that there is a new outbreak of fighting in Kabul and am really worried about Molly's safety. Will try to contact Qassem when we get back from this mission and check up. If I talk directly to her, I'm likely to lose my cool and to start blubbering like a scared kid.

I never knew she had the power to make me cry, me, big, old tough Captain James. As I watched her walk down the aisle to me, tiny thing that she is, on Dave's arm, looking so beautiful in her sleek white gown, with the biggest smile I have ever seen, I felt my heart stop for just a fleeting moment. Out of nowhere, a tear from each eye ran down my cheek and I truly understood what tears of joy are. When she reached me and Dave put her hand in mine she murmured,

"Me, I've always loved a man in his Number Ones with all them sparkly bits and swords and things, Bossman. You look amazing," And she reached up and wiped my tears away, this time with a small smile, just for me. Even in her killer heels, it was quite a long reach for her and my best man, Elvis Harte, raised his eyebrows at me and then winked at Molly as he caught on to what was happening.

"I love you, Charles," she whispered.

"You are just so beautiful," I replied. The minister cleared his throat and my tears stopped at the absolute joy I felt.

Fuck, I have to get my head back to the situation with Lane. These Al Shabaab fuckers are likely to think that it's a good idea to kill a pretty English woman, probably after parading her in front of TV cameras and getting her to say shit about the British Army leaving Kenya . Those intel boys are taking too long. We need to get going.

Just thinking back to Molly again. First time out on patrol at the FOB, the Afghan insurgents had intel that there was a woman soldier in the new platoon and they targeted her straight away. She was terrified of course, but it was her first time under fire. These Somali insurgents have used the same tactics, taking Lane rather than any of the men. She's had a lot of experience so I hope she can hold her cool till we get there. Get there we will, no terrorist bastards are going to get away with hurting one of my soldiers like this.

Will need to finish this shortly and go find out where that intel is at. We MUST get underway.

Oh, shit, Mansfield Mike. Haven't had any news about him yet, will phone the hospital from the intel base. Hope he's OK. The lads would be devastated if he's been killed. Don't know how I would tell Molly. Mansfield was one of her favourites. She looked after his terrible Celtic skin and defended him against the others when he claimed his mother said he looked like Prince Harry and they all mocked him. I'v always thought he's a bit like the character that Ian Lavender played in "Dad's Army", that mummy's boy, Private Pike. Though he was toughening up on this mkission.

Don't think I can let her know if the news is bad. Even if they no longer qualify as "Under 5's", they're still her boys, "numpties" she calls them. Me, I think "louts" is closer to the mark and "loudmouths" particularly in Fingers' case.

Got to go…

I really did appreciate the reviews for his first diary entry. Of course he's thinking about Molly all the time…he hasn't been married very long and I'll bet the long nights are difficult, for them both. Please continue to review, that's what keeps me going when I think my stories are a bit trivial