Does "flank" generally, when used as a verb, imply that there is someone on either side? I just read this in a novel:

Mr Wu, flanked by one of the Queens of Illiteracy, watched as...the two women somersaulted simultaneously off the trapeze.

(the Queens of Illiteracy were a team in a spelling contest!)

I always thought of flanking as meaning being on either side of someone - ie, someone having a person on either side - o blast, I'm not explaining it very well. But I didn't think you could be flanked by one person.

What do y'all think? what's yer sense of "flank" as a verb? can it refer to only one flanker per flankee? or have you, like me, only ever (before today) seen it used as a plural kind o' thing?