Tarzan: Daughter and Son
by S.M. Scott
Disclaimer: I do not own Tarzan, Disney does. I only own the characters I made up. Take Chuimbo and Elizabeth, for example.
The Lord and Lady Danford
On the monday that Jane's Aunt and Uncle were expected to arrive, Tarzan was dressed in his late father's best suit as he always was when he intended to make his own efforts. Jane was wearing her powder-blue Paris dress, and her long brown hair was pinned up into an elegant bun. Elizabeth had on her best summer muslin dress, and Chiumba was dressed in his own best outfit, freshly bathed and looking so uncomfortable and feeling so embarassed to even have to be wearing such a thing. He couldn't wait for the first opportunity to take off those ridiculously sissy clothes off. He hated to have Terk teasing him for wearing such things.
As the ship docked at the port, Jane, Tarzan, and Professor Porter began frantically waving when they saw George and Theodora, the Lord and Lady Danford. George had a rather stiff, gentleman-like air about him, and hair that was dark red with streaks of grey running through it, and his eyes were a cold blue-grey like all Danford eyes. At his arm was Theodora Danford. Theodora was the real blood relative of Jane, since she was her mother's older sister. Unlike Jane's mother, who was willowy and curvy, the Lady Danford was less blessed in the looks department. She was tall, thin, angular, with an almost boyish figure. Her dark brown hair was tied back into a much severer bun than Jane's, with not one hair out of place, and her dress was also quite as plain. There were many gossiping upper-class ladies back in England who whispered that her dress was the despair of Mayfair society. But Lady Danford had no time to waste on extravagant decadence and vain frivolity. She was no longer the young bride she used to be, and lived strictly by the rules of propriety and order, and was Victorian to the core. She had certainly not approved when she had first learned that Jane and her father decided to stay in Africa. She had believed when she had gotten news of her niece marrying a man from outside of England that both Porters had lost all of their senses. Theodora had wondered why Archimedes hadn't better sense than to allow it. But, she saw Tarzan dressed for the occasion and thought, hopefully, that maybe the Porters had taught him something.
"Auntie Theodora, Uncle George," Jane went to greet them first. "It is truly wonderful to see you both again!"
"Spiffing to see you both in Africa." Professor Porter added.
"Ah yes, it is good to see you again, Archimedes," George said as he shook the Professor's hand cooly. "Still one for studying nature, I see. Perhaps some things never truly change after all." Tarzan then offered his own hand. "You're George, Jane's Uncle? I'm Jane's husband, Tarzan." But George did not shake Tarzan's offered hand. "Yes, Jane has wrote to us and told us all about you. You aren't quite what we had expected, with that outfit, you could almost be called a true gentleman. Ah well, at least you're halfway there."
Although the humans were too busy with the family reunion to notice, Terk and Tantor were hidden behind some trees, listening in. "Just where does that stuck-up Danford guy think he's getting off, calling our buddy 'half a gentleman' and looking down his nose at him? Oh, what I wouldn't give to pummel the overdressed shmuck like a termite!" But Tantor said, "Quiet down, Terk. We aren't even supposed to be here eavesdropping. Besides, you remember what the Porters always told us? It's all a part of their culture."
"So what?" Terk snorted.
"So you should at least show some respect for their culture. I don't like it either, but they are still part of Tarzan and Jane's human family. Whatever problems they may have, this time, we may need to stay out of them."