Transition Plan Chapter 55 – In His Majesty's Service Part 4

Jack was absolutely taken by Jeanne's attractiveness, despite her wearing the ill-fitting and dirty French Army uniform. Her long shiny black hair was worn 'up' in a bun for some degree of relief against the heat. Her exposed slender arms were smooth and olive colored, though she had several bug bites and scratches. She was beautiful to him, despite having a lot of jungle debris all over her. Her face was grimy but still stunningly pretty. It was clear from her grimace and cast down eyes that she had no desire to be here, and she, even more than the adults, looked exhausted.

Jack wondered in thought, "Why did she and her mother come with the Army men? They don't belong here and the Germans will hurt them. And why isn't she wearing a fancy dress?"

Every civilized girl in England he knew did. He was even more surprised to see this girl in an altered, dirty, small adult's uniform because the French paid much more attention to fashion than the British. All the English girls of peerage Jack knew always wanted to dress up in the latest French fashions, and talked about it all the time, much to his total annoyance. Jack knew from the stories of his mother and father's romantic beginnings that even his mother had come to the jungle at first in high fashion. Jack's encounters with girls and high fashion were usually during the stuffy social parties his mother and father had to conduct at the Castle. On Bastille Day nearly a year ago, Jack had met the French Ambassadors' daughters, one older and one younger than he was. They both had totally vapid personalities, but clothed themselves in the most amazing dresses from Paris.

This girl, seemingly his age, was completely different in her scruffy uniform. He was intrigued by her. He had to meet her.

Jack could not place her heritage. He'd seen other races besides his. He knew normal Frenchmen, like most other Europeans, had light-colored skin. He had many Nigerian tribal male and female friends and their parents with their completely dark brown skin and met other African tribesmen with a wide variety of attractive shades of brown skin. He'd seen the mocha brown complexion of the East Indians, a former British colony, as more and more of them came to England, and the Asians. He had never seen a girl like this with olive-hued skin. The other female, obviously this girl's mother from her features, had slightly darker skin, but both were otherwise the same color. He guessed that the man in charge of these soldiers was her father because of her eyes and few other details.

The girl's done-up long tresses, her smooth olive skin and haunting, piercing hazel eyes fascinated him. Girls were normally a necessary evil, especially his annoying baby sister. He'd never 'liked' any girl. Ndidi was just a friend, though he thought she was pretty, with her trim body and legs, long neck, beautiful big brown eyes and smile, close-cropped jet black curly hair, with a single leather strand around her waist and several beaded necklaces and wrist and ankle bracelets like all the other Nigerian girls and women.

But he had to attract this girl's interest without alerting any of the soldiers, sailors, her mother and her father to his presence. So Jack did it the best way he knew how, like any other eight year old boy would do to get the attention of a pretty girl.

He pestered her.

He picked some berries and nuts and carefully threw them at her, hitting her on her uniform, arms and hair. At first the girl brushed them off with eyes cast down in a continual scowl, but soon realized the rain of berries and nuts was no accident. She raised her eyes, and started to look around, and then gazed up into the tree canopy.

Josephine noticed her distraction and asked, "What's wrong, Jeanne?"

Jeanne replied, "Oh nothing Mama, I just felt like I heard or saw something.

"It's just your imagination, dear. We'll be there soon."

That triggered Jeanne's pent-up anger, "You've said that for weeks, Mama. This is exhausting. I am so tired. I have never been more uncomfortable in my entire life. I know you and Papa saved my life. Twice. I just wish there had been a safer place to stop along the way. I thought France owned all of western Africa. I am so tired of walking in this horrible stinking jungle, afraid that everything will kill us just as dead as the Germans would have."

Josephine tried to be patient for the millionth time in the past few months with her daughter, "Remember we didn't have a choice, Jeanne. We'd both be dead or prisoners if we hadn't escaped with your father. With the British we will be very safe. Especially with Count Jonathan Clayton of Greystoke, who has a vast estate here in Nigeria, is a very powerful man, and has much influence over the native tribes. Even the German trade companies still do business with this man. They respect him."

Jeanne just sighed and slogged along the trail, head down and pouting as she did constantly.

As they trudged on, Jack continued to play his game. Her frown got worse, and he saw those hazel eyes go narrow as she scanned the trees looking for her tormentor. But Jack was a boy, and boys never knew when to quit to get a girl's attention.

The tattered Special Forces squad took a very welcome break, and everyone found a place to rest for a few moments.

Jeanne curled up near a cool, soft, moss-covered rock away from the others. She wanted some distance from the smelly soldiers with all their crude habits. At least this resting place didn't have any creepy crawlie things. She opened her canteen and poured the warm water into the cap that served as a cup. It had a flat, metallic taste. At least it was wet.

A flower dropped into her cup. It smelled like lemon and it gave the stale, warm water a nice, tangy flavor.

A couple of pieces of juicy fruit then landed in her lap, offered as a snack. She looked up, but only noticed a rustling in the leaves above her. She whispered in her natural French, "I know you are up there, monkey. I'll find you. And I'll get even with you for teasing me for hours."

Grudgingly, she appreciated the flower and fruit. It was kind of cute, no matter what kind of animal did it for her, "But thank you for the food. And the flower."

Jack wanted to impress her. But it had the opposite effect, because Jeanne's anger and resentment was so deep from being stranded in the jungle for survival.

Jeanne was very tired, like the others, and soon fell into a deep sleep. Jack also took a nap, but tried to be on alert should something change. Being relatively inexperienced in stalking prey over a long period, he slept too deeply and too long. In their exhaustion, the Frenchmen also made mistakes in their jungle trek together. One was life changing. As the soldiers and Colonel and Madame Jacot wearily awoke and dragged themselves back on the trail, they failed to notice Jeanne still napping in her hidden refuge.

…

Several hours later, Jeanne woke up, yawned, stretched, and felt for the first time in a long time refreshed. She realized it was completely silent around her except for jungle noises. She stood up, and looked around. No one was there. She cried out. There was no response. She yelled louder but the jungle lushness absorbed her cries quickly. Her shouts startled Jack awake and almost fell out of the branch. He immediately realized he'd overslept, missed the soldiers departure, but noticed that the girl was by herself in the jungle. He could not believe she would be left behind. He immediately wanted to help.

Jeanne was alone, and lost, and didn't know which way to go. She whimpered. The soldiers had not cut a trail to leave this less dense area, so there was no trace of the direction of their travel. She was frightened being stranded.

Jack made a couple of ape noises, and he pelted her with nuts again, just to let her know she wasn't entirely alone, and to make her feel better. It didn't help, and his actions actually made her angrier, being alone in the jungle with an annoying monkey. Jack was just another eight year old boy clueless about women at this point. He shifted in the trees. The leaves were thin enough she finally saw a fleeting movement of his tanned body, which she mistook as fur.

She lashed out and shouted into the trees, "I'm lost, monkey. My family left me. Now I'm alone. I know you're up there, monkey. Stop teasing me. I don't like it. I need to find my parents - not have you bother me. I can fight back you know. I'm a daughter of a soldier. I'm not like those dainty, frilly girls in the city. I'm not helpless."

Jack knew he had to make real contact with her, but before Jack could emerge from the canopy and could speak to her to give her reassurance, Jeanne grabbed the slingshot her father had fashioned for her from wood in the jungle and a spare set of sailor's suspenders to defend herself. She grasped a rock, and fired into the rustling leaves. It hit Jack right in the side of his left temple. He blacked out and fell from his perch. He was not up very far, and fell on his back with his arms and legs sprawled wide into a clump of very large soft leafy plants. As usual for all his forays in the jungle, all he had on was his bow, quiver, and knife.

Upon seeing Jack's limp body before her, Jeanne's eyes flashed wide open, dropped her jaw, held her hands to her suddenly cherry-red flushed cheeks, and exclaimed, "Oh dear… he's not a monkey. He's a boy. And a boy who's completely… uh… oh, no…"