1 June, late: a sleepless night

"Fair enough," Paol conceded, laughing.

Crouched among the other prisoners, Janet had been watching the two closely. She still felt a twinge of guilt about the bread, but it was the rather more uncomfortable twinges of hunger that concerned her now. Her schemes had gotten them both in trouble already, however, so this time she wanted to be sure.

The taller of the two soldiers seemed familiar, but it was some minutes before she could place him as the Frog whom Jenny had been working on earlier. Hadn't he knocked Jenny down when she asked him for water? Janet frowned, glaring silently at his silhouette. He had helped drive off that other bastard, but that was only to help his mate. Still...

After several more moments of watching and listening, she made up her mind. "Go and ask the one with the pipe if he has any food," she whispered to Polly.

Polly bit her lip.

"D'ye think I should?" she whispered back. Janet seemed to know more about these things than she did, but Polly still was worried. Still, if they had food...

"You're hungry, ain't you?" Janet asked, then more gently, "It'll be fine, love. And I'll be real close by, a'right. Just slip right up to him and say, 'j'ai faim'. Jay fam. A'right?" She grinned suddenly. "We'll make a proper scrounger of you yet."

"Jay fam," Polly repeated obediently. It felt weird to say, and she giggled slightly, grinning back at Janet. "Jay fam."

She hesitated. "Th' one with th' pipe?"

The two soldiers had fought away the other Frenchmen, so she supposed they had to be at least somewhat nice. And, Janet certainly seemed to think it was worth the risk. Polly squared her shoulders and stood to approach the soldiers. She could do this.

Getting closer to where they sat, however, Polly felt her resolve weakening. They were still soldiers, still French, and the small red-haired one looked quite the fright now that he was so bruised. She stopped a few feet away, feeling terribly unsure.

Paol regarded the girl uncertainly. She seemed familiar, but it was a moment before he could place her as one of the friends of the fair haired prisoner in whom the officers had been so interested. He had been told her name as well, though at the moment he felt fortunate simply to be able to recall his own.

"Uh...Hullo?" he tried after an awkward pause.

Both soldiers were staring at her now, and Polly shrank back a little. Although, she seemed to recall that what the tall one said was a greeting of some sort. Well, that was certainly a promising start. She offered a tentative smile.

"J-" she started, and her voice came out a tiny squeak.

No, she reminded herself, brave like Jenny or Janet. She tried again:

"Jay fam."

Femme? She had a wife? No... She was a wife? Was her husband one of the other prisoners?

Paol looked helplessly over at Roux and mouthed "Quoi?"

Roux shrugged, equally confused.

The girl started to look distressed, and said again: "Jay fahm."

"Oh!" Roux said. "Faim. She's hungry."

Oh.

Food. Right. Dropping to his knees, Paol dug through his pack and retrieved a small, cloth-wrapped bundle. Inside was a hard, crusty lump of dubious quality, the remains of his bread ration. He hesitated – it wasn't much, but he was hungry, and just a bit embarrassed to offer the nondescript, semi-petrified bread to the poor girl – then with a shrug, he let the wrapping drop back into his pack.

Without rising, he held the food out towards the girl, at arms' length as he might with a skittish, wild creature.

"It's not very good," he added, speaking softly. She might not understand the caveat, but it seemed wrong somehow not to say anything. "I think they mix sawdust with the flour. And you can chip a tooth on that crust, if you're not careful."

Roux dug into his own pack as well. He pulled out his own unfortunate chunk as well.

"And some for your friend, too, aye?" he said, cheeks flushing slightly.

Polly took both pieces of bread in surprise. She hadn't truly expected either of them to help at all - and to get two pieces of bread was well beyond her hopes.

"Th-thank ye!" she said, a grin spreading across her face. "Thank ye both ver' much!"

"Bloody hell," Janet murmured, peering over Polly's shoulder. "You're a genius, you are."

She smiled her thanks at the two soldiers, arching her brows merrily when she managed to catch the younger one's eye.

Janet's attention brought the blush on Roux's face out in full force.

"Not right to let girls go hungry," he muttered, looking down.

Janet could not quite make out what he said, but his manner was clear enough. "Careful, love," she laughed, "Blush much harder and that hair o' yours might catch fire."