Flash Fiction Challenge With A Twist

An Unlikely Matchmaker

Damnation! The Field Marshal’s daffy daughter was sashaying down the promenade in her nightgown again.

The lieutenant sighed. When he’d sworn to preserve the integrity of the 171st Regiment, he’d never imagined their greatest foe would be the commander’s only child.              

The lonely little strumpet had become his nemesis, the veritable death knell of his precious career. Even so, he could not sacrifice himself for the sake of his fellows.

For though Jasmine was pretty enough to ogle, there was naught between her dainty ears, and thus suitors fell away like flies in the autumn chill.

With no one daft enough to court her of their own volition, his options had long since dwindled away. But a fresh thought struck him now. Perhaps a social climber would be more suitable than a suitor.

There was just such a man at his disposal. The fellow was sorely lacking in comportment and diplomacy, but he was a shrewd enough soldier that such a proposition would be most welcome.

And that’s how the avowed bachelor, pugnacious Private Percival Pendergast, got himself affianced to the feckless offspring of the century’s most infamous and stentorian military leader – and garnered himself a hostile historical mention.

This two hundred word insanity comes to you courtesy of John M. Bell's delightful challenge.