𝑩𝑬𝑳𝑳𝑰𝑪𝑶𝑺𝑬 | 𝑛𝑎𝑟𝑛𝑖𝑎 𝑥 ℎ𝑎𝑟𝑟𝑦 𝑝𝑜𝑡𝑡𝑒𝑟

𝐶𝐻𝐴𝑃𝑇𝐸𝑅 𝐼𝐼

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　　 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐒𝐓𝐄𝐀𝐌 𝐓𝐑𝐀𝐈𝐍'𝐒 𝐂𝐀𝐑𝐑𝐈𝐀𝐆𝐄𝐒 gently rocked from side to side as it huffed to its destination in London. The glossy black paint of the locomotive absorbed the spring's sunlight, radiating more heat than the sun itself. The wheels rolled over the train track, the painful screeching of steel on steel was dampened by the hissing of the air-pump and the whistling release of the purely white and poisoned black steam.

The train was stuffed to the brim with students from Hendon House and Saint Finbar's boarding schools, who were all eagerly waiting to be home for the Easter holidays. While some had the luck of making it into a private compartment, others had to be seated in a wagon with forty other passengers.

There was no air-conditioning and with the heat that late April had brought along, everyone tried to get a closer seat to the single-pane windows, which let in a cool breeze from outside the speeding train.

Every seat and booth was covered in red velvet, the closely woven fabric slightly moist from the sweat of the passengers. It tended to be itchy against bare skin this time of year, but no one on that train would know that. The boys wore their long, khaki trousers and the girls had to wear their knee-length skirts.

Florence was uncomfortably loosening her tie. It had blue and yellow stripes and came down to her bellybutton, but it was wrapped too tightly around her throat for her liking. She couldn't wait to be home and get rid of the horrible skirt she had to wear. The prospect of only a few more weeks until she would no longer have to go back to her boarding school was exciting her, making the insufferable clothing a little more bearable.

'You're going to ruin your tie that way,' Lucy snickered opposite her, a playful grin displaying on her face.

Florence let out a short-lived chuckle as she watched the Thames flicker by, the water of the river glistening with reflected sun rays. 'If only I cared,' she retorted and stood up. She reached out to her suitcase above her seat and without a second thought, she swung it over the railing and made it land next to her with a thud. 'We're almost at King's Cross Station.'

Her fair skin had a slight blush from the heat and it beautifully complimented her crystalline-blue eyes. Her plump lips formed into a smile at the thought of getting out of the train and she pushed her blonde hair back over her shoulders.

Lucy glanced upwards at her suitcase, but decided that it was too early to retrieve it and stayed seated. 'Peter said he would be waiting for us on the platform,' she said and folded her hands before laying them in her lap.

It became a little darker in the compartment when the train came to a halt at King's Cross Station. The sound of the smoke and exhaust gas being emitted through the stack and the whistle of escaping steam wasn't enough to mute the ear-wrenching screech that the train made when it slowed down to stop. The vast building of the station had two massive glass domes which allowed those who were waiting to look up into the sky.