Bigger Army Diplomacy

XVI

        "Where have you been? I got his letter a week ago!"

Normandy dragged what appeared to be her husband's servant that he mentioned in his letter into an alley. She was frightened, sure, but Normandy had gotten his letter a week ago, so that could mean that the servant was wandering around the whole town, being the opposite of cautious, which was not what Normandy nor Vichy wanted.

"I was tryin-" Normandy cut her off with a wave of her hand. "Hush. We don't want to be seen, especially now that you've probably blown our cover!"

The young lady gulped, which Normandy almost had a problem with, but she figured that it was illogical of her to berate the girl. Normandy took a deep breath. "Vous êtes Avignon, non?"

Avignon nodded.

"Good."

"What do you mean, 'it's my fault'? What- How could I even get him sick?"

Jack was starting to get suspicious of his fiancee. This really was- well, Northern had rarely gotten sick before she and her mother came. Then, all of the sudden, she came and the person with the strongest immune system in the family suddenly had the weakest.

"Think about it!" He then repeated what his mind kept saying to him. France just shook her head in what looked like disbelief. Or amusement. Though, in his shaken state of mind, he figured the latter was more plausible. "Still, how could I have gotten him sick?"

"Food poisoning-"

"Those aren't the symptoms of food poisoning!" She threw her hands up.

"How do you know so much about food poisoning?!"

Everything went silent. Jack's uneven breaths were the only sound that filled the room. All too late, he realized his mistake.

"Yeah," she huskily said. "How do I know so much about food poisoning?"

It's not always the best feeling in the world when someone brings up the death of your best friend. I thought about going back to my room, and I did.

While I was walking there I remembered the conversation that I and Jack had earlier, before this whole mess.

One Week Earlier (Correct me if I'm wrong, but is this the first time I've used a flashback? Impressive.)

"You know, any of this could kill us," France stated indifferently, taking a bite of her food.

"That was uncalled for." When France didn't say anything, he continued. "What do you mean?"

"I was eating something with a friend, back in 1795. We'll call him... Pole," France decided to use her friend's favorite pseudonym, in honor of him. And also, being friends with the mentioned person wasn't the greatest asset, especially with a person like Jack. Though she could tell that Jack knew who she was referring to.

"I think we were drinking something. Tea perhaps?" France laughed in reminiscence. "That sounds like something Poli- Pole would do. Though I think he probably had a few shots of vodka."

"Someone put iocane powder in his drink," France's tone slowly became more somber. "I never saw him again."

Yeah, great. Sometimes, I just hate the man. Actually, all the time I hate the man. But he's tolerable most of the time, I suppose.

I decided I needed to get out of this suffocating place. Away from anything, away from him. I just needed to be free.

France quickly put on some boots and a traveling cape, however, she didn't plan on traveling. No, she just needed to get out into the countryside, like how she used to be back when she was younger. Those days seemed like a million years ago. Probably because they were a million years ago to France. With all the shit that was happening in her country and his, it all felt like it happened a long, long time ago.

Damn. Politics seemed to follow her wherever she went, no matter how distant she put herself and the city and country. Gone were the days where she could've just left all that behind. Gone was her childhood.

These thoughts plagued her as she pushed her way out of the palace and into the city. From there, she found the city gates and made her way out into the countryside. She relaxed for a minute and let her feet drag her anywhere.

Then she panicked.

She was lost.