A Duchess in the Pacific

Fourteen

What are men to rocks and mountains?

-Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice

"you know I really can't thank you enough for introducing us." Linda said in between breaths.

Duchess looked up from her card came with Hoosier to see Linda and Chuckler cuddling and kissing. Duchess furrowed her brow and scoffed.

"yeah sure. Just save the rest of the bases for your own privacy." She remarked and went back to playing cards with Hoosier. Not that neither Linda nor Chuckler heard her.

"Straight." Hoosier laid his cards down with a smirk on his face. "Sorry, Sweetheart."

"No. I'm sorry, sweetheart." Duchess responded, "Flush." She finished and laid her cards down on the bed.

"Mother of Christ. Is there anything that you're bad at?" He said annoyed and reshuffled the cards for a new game.

"Maritime navigation? Huh, Dutchie?" Irene suggested with a laugh. She was sitting next to Runner and they were looking at a comic book together.

"Hardee har." Duchess replied with a smirk.

"Duchess, we ought to get back soon." Lisbeth said checking her watch. Duchess reached out and grabbed Hoosier's arm to look. She exhaled.

"Yeah you're right." She admitted and stood up. "C'mon, kids."

"Oh but you just got here." Sid said, sharing a glance with Lisbeth, who looked away bashfully.

"yeah can't the other girls man the tent for a little longer?" Runner suggested as he stood up.

"We promised them we would trade off at 2100." Lisbeth answered

"Don't worry, stud. We'll be back again." Irene said as she hung on Runner's arm. Then she leaned in and kissed him on the cheek and pawed at it to smudge off her lipstick. Runner flicked his eyebrows up at her.

"Okay please lets go before I witness a conception." Duchess stated and reached to pull Linda off of Chuckler.

They finally left the tent and made it across the way to the nurse's tent, trying not to be suspicious. Duchess was amused by the situation. It had been a few weeks on the island, and because the boys hadn't gone into battle yet, they're really wasn't much for the girls to do. Except keep a tight ship and deal with the occasional accidental cut, infection, or sickness from the men on the island.

"It's nice of you to share your boyfriends with us." Irene said as they made it back inside and traded off with Jean, Barb, Carol and Sherry.

"yeah some nice fellas you got there." Lisbeth added.

Duchess chuckled. "My pleasure."

She was actually very glad to be able to unite her two groups of friends. And she thought it funny, in a way. How not so long ago she was content to say that she had no friends. And saw no one really outside of her parents and the house staff. Now here she was with two sets of friends and it felt good. It felt nice. She suddenly understood what had been missing all those years, why she was such a sourpuss all the time. It wasn't that she was snooty, she was just used to being alone and wore her loneliness on her like an old pair of socks, unaware of there being anything wrong with them. But now she had her bare feet in the water, in the sand, on the hard ground. She felt steady and warm. And in the time spent with the girls, she had become as protective of them as she was with the boys. It really did feel good to see them all get along. And some got along very well.

"So you never... with any of them? Linda asked straightening up.

"Oh so now we're censoring ourselves?" Duchess asked and chuckled. "No. none of them." She answered.