Twin sisters Adriana
and Abigail
Archibald were both medical students at Edinburgh University and they were
travelling home to Downshire for the Christmas Holidays on the sleeper.
It would have been a quicker journey if
they’d flown, but Adriana was a nervous flyer and Abigail didn’t want to make
her fly if she wasn’t happy and they both quite enjoyed the train.
Their destination was Turnoak-Under-Hawthorne, a large
rambling village, originally settled in the 12th century on the
sparsely wooded slopes on the Northern fringe of the Finchbottom Vale about 5
miles from Purplemere, and it was everything you would expect from a Downshire
Village.
The Archibald family had lived in the village for many years and were of
the landed gentry and the girls had been educated at Carrington Chase, which was Downshire’s version of Roedean, although
those in Downshire thought it was the other way around.
They were
identical twins, Adriana was the older of the two by an hour and was five
foot two with bobbed flame red hair and a pale complexion, green eyes and had
cutely freckled cheeks.
Abigail was two inches taller than her sister and had fewer freckles but
more hair, she was also the quiet one of the two sisters and relied on Adrianas
boldness to help her in social situations.
Also aboard were lifelong
best friends, Gary Stanley and Will Finch, who were also heading south from
Scotland, but in their case, they had been studying languages at St Andrews and
lived in Abbottsford.
Despite the
fact the four of them were all from Downshire and had all been at Edinburg for
two and a half years they had never crossed paths, that was in part because
they studied very different subjects and probably more significantly because
the boys had never got the train before
The only
reason they were on the train that December was that Will had an inner ear
problem following a bad case of flu.
But when they
did meet up they hit it off immediately
and the guys were instantly attracted to the girls, not a love at first sight
kind of thing, but close, and that was before they’d even heard the Archibald girls
speak in their posh Carrington Chase educated voices.
As it was a week before Christmas there was a great atmosphere on the
train, which was aided by the fact that the majority of the passengers flauted
the rules and smuggled liberal quantities of alcohol on board with them.
The Archibald twins were stunningly
beautiful and even wearing their ultra-casual travelling outfits they were
still drop dead
gorgeous girls, and as the journey progressed they were not short of admirers,
male and female, and under normal circumstances they would have flirted along
with the them, the male ones at least, but they had both fallen for the
language students, and they made that perfectly clear to any interlopers.
They managed to commandeer a four-seat
table, with the girls on one side and the lads on the other, and primarily just
chatted, mainly about Edinburg, and amazed each other with the number of places
they all frequented and the amount of acquaintances they had in common.
The atmosphere in the carriage was not
unlike the student’s union on a Friday night as the cheap wine and cider
flowed, but although some of
the passengers were partying hard on the journey Will was on mineral water
because of his issue with equilibrium.
Adriana glanced sideways where Abi and
Will were sat facing each other across the table, each resting on their
elbows.
But she had tired of the conversation even
if Abi hadn’t so she slipped quietly away from the table and took Gary with her and when she looked
back the other two hadnt even noticed that they had gone.
The moment they left the bar car Adriana pushed him into the nearest
corner and kissed him and his response was instantaneous.
But the kiss was short and sweet as there appeared to be a constant flow
of people between the carriages and the toilet.
Gary tried to resume but Adriansa evaded his lips,
“No not here” she said and walked away “Come on”
And then she ran giggling down the corridor and he ran after her until she
stopped abruptly at the end of the car, where she stood fingering her hair and
chewing her lip while she waited for him and then he kissed her.
Abigail suddenly became aware that Adriana and Gary had gone
“Theyre not here” she said “Where did they go?”
“When did they go?” he asked and they both laughed
They were really enjoying eachothers company and the conversation but the
more they talked the more she wanted to kiss him, but she couldn’t.
If Adriana was in her situation and wanted to kiss him he would already
have been kissed, but she wasnt bold like her twin, she was the shy one so she
couldn’t take the kiss she wanted.
Unfortunately Will was no better, he normally relied on alcohol for his
bravery, but he wasn’t allowed to drink, so they both carried on and made the
best of the situation, and just kept enjoying eachother.
Which they did for the next five minutes or so until the train came to a
jerky dissordally halt and they found themselves nose to nose.
“Nice” Adriana said and kissed him again
“Very nice” Gary said
“I agree, but we’d better get back” she said
“Ok” he agreed reluctantly
“Do you think they’re wondering where we are?” he asked
“Hardly, they probably haven’t even noticed we’ve gone” she said, “And if
they have Abi will just say “oh there you are” and carry on with the
conversation”
They were
laughing when they entered the carriage but stopped abruptly when they
discovered Abigail and Will were still sat facing each other
across the table, each resting on their elbows, but were now leant forward
engaged in a very tender kiss.
Adriana and Gary looked at each other,
smiled, nodded and retraced their steps and resumed their own kiss.
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