A Duchess in the Pacific

Five

I love you as certain dark things are to be loved, in secret, between the shadow and the soul

- Pablo Neruda

Duchess stared cautiously at the river of water in front of her. She scrunched her face at it. She truly did not want to get in it. But foxhole dirt and sweat was caked onto her face and in her curly hair. She needed to rinse off, and the thicket of the jungle provided more privacy than the barren beach of the ocean. She pinched the bridge of her nose and internally groaned. How much longer am I going to be on this island? She thought to herself. It had been nearly two weeks and there was still no indication that they were leaving the island anytime soon. The bombing hadn't stopped, if anything it was happening with more frequency. Duchess never got used to it, she didn't consider it something that you could get used to.

She turned her head to the right. Manny was standing with his back to her, keeping watch. When Chesty told her that Manny would be the one to accompany her she wanted to die on the spot. She stared at the back of his head, drifting her eyes down his body. Even the way he stood, with his bowed legs spread and his broad shoulders stiffened, made Duchess heat up. When her eyes reached his feet, she forced herself to refocus.

She shucked her clothes off rather quickly, placing them on the bank. She dipped a foot into the water. She expected it to be cold, but it was warm to the touch and the water coated her body like Vaseline. Duchess grimaced at the sensation.

She submerged herself until you could no longer see her body from a viewpoint of the riverbank, not that Manny was looking. He stood with his back to her, his gun positioned and his eyes shifting, making sure nobody was coming. Though admittedly, knowing that if he turned around he could see Duchess' cream colored bare skin, was enough to make the hair on his neck stand up. He knew now how Lot's wife must've felt.

Duchess scrubbed away the dirt and grime of the past 14 days as best as she could. And, although she really didn't want to, she forced herself to get her hair wet and rid it of any atrocities. She finished as quickly as possible and returned to her clothes on the bank. Putting her pants back on first. She grabbed what was left of her silk nightie and groaned at it, this time out loud. During the day, it was far too hot to wear the uniform jacket, so naturally she became accustomed to just wearing the top of the nightie. But that meant that it became incredibly worn and tattered and was now barely hanging on by a thread.

"Something wrong?" Manny asked after clearing his throat. Duchess jumped slightly at the sound of his voice.

"Oh it's nothing. It just my shirt... It's ruined. I'll have to just wear the jacket from now on." She spoke back throwing the nightie to the side and picking up the jacket.

Manny nodded his head and bit the inside of his cheek. He looked around him to make sure the coast could be unguarded for a few moments. Then he lowered his gun and took of his jacket and then his white undershirt.

"Here. Take it." He said, holding the shirt out to his side.

Duchess looked at it with wide eyes. Now seeing his back completely bare she could see every muscle in his biceps and shoulders clearly. Her cheeks were pinkening and her throat getting dry. She advanced towards him, feeling unconfident in her control of her body. With the uniform jacket haphazardly covering her chest she reached out and gently took the shirt from him.

"Thanks." She uttered.

Slipping it on, the cotton material hugged her chest and fell loose about her waist. It was far more comfortable than the nightie, even if she knew that Manny had probably been wearing it for quite some time. Manny put his jacket back on and grabbed his gun.