FOOLS GOLD

A TRAIN RIDE

                                  𝐏𝐚𝐫𝐭 𝐎𝐧e The one with the fallen suitcase.

           "𝐎𝐡 𝐞𝐱𝐜𝐮𝐬𝐞-𝐦𝐨𝐢!" Jane Ives was bustling through the crowded train station. She held onto her black velvet coat and slipped through the people.  She didn't like crowded places like this, but she had gotten used to it, having grown up here all her life.

She needed to get to the Chateau de Versilles. She was meeting her father outside for an.. Urgent meeting. Right now, it didn't seem like she was going to get very far, she was already two minutes late for her train.

She was hurrying and she could swear she had run into three different people. She was usually classy, but now was not the time to be graceful, so she swore like a sailor all the way to the two o'clock train.

She had finally made it, and the doors were just about closing when she hopped on board. She swiped a bead of sweat  from her brow and released her suitcase  from her tight grip. It tumbled over instead of staying on the solid floor. She bent down to pick it up before a hand beat her to it.

"You know, a lady like yourself shouldn't be bending over like that in a train full of men. Who knows who your showing your knickers to." The owner of the hand seemed amused. Her eyebrows furrowed. Almost instantly, her hands went down to smooth out her skirt.

"Don't worry your pretty little head though darling, I couldn't see your knickers if I tried." He laughed. She didn't find this amusing at all. Her nostrils flared.

"Surveille ton langage!  You.. You dog! " She wasn't amazing at English, but she could listen to it pretty well. He chuckled at her words.

"Ah, so we have a frog here then eh?" He raised an eyebrow. She didn't understand why he had called her a frog, did she look like one? She had heard of a lot of nicknames for a french person, but a frog was not one of them.

"Pardon? La grenouille?" She tried her hand at English, " If there is anyone who looks like a frog it is you! "

"Moi? Oh non, Je suis tres mal et tres fâché!" He mocked her french accent. She didn't know why he was mocking her accent when he had one of his own. It seemed British, but not fully? She was also perplexed. Did he know french?

"You-you know french?" She questioned. She stared into his eyes and it seemed like she wouldn't be able to exit.

"It would be pretty stupid to come to France and not know french. But no, I don't know french, I lived in Canada and picked up a bit of french there, but I moved to England ten years ago." He looked down at his hands and back at her. That explains the semi British accent she thought.

"Do you know English then?" He looked at her.

"ah.. not much?" She smiled sadly. Her family had a lot of money, but they were one that didn't care for girls education.

"That's well and dandy then. Say, what's your name, darling?" He leaned against a beam and awaited an answer.

" je m'appelle.. Eleanor, Eleanor Hopper." She was not going to tell a random man on the train her real name. She just used the one that she always prepared when she confronted a stranger.

He snorted. "Even your name sounds french." If only he knew.

"And what is yours?"

"Well, I generally don't tell strangers my name, but for a pretty gal like yourself, why not? My name is Michael, but call me Mike, Mike Wheeler."

She giggled. God, British names were so different from those that she's heard. "Okay, Michael, but call me Mike, Wheeler, what is a guy like yourself doing here in France?"

Like on cue, the train stopped and people clambered off. He took a pen from his pocket and grabbed her hand. He wrote down a few digits. "That is for me to know and for you to find out. Call me." And with that he walked out of the train.

British people were so suave.

She looked down at the number on her hand and smiled. She contemplated calling the strange foreigner now, but decided not to, not until later...

She sat down on one of the chairs and awaited the next stop. She kinda missed the curly haired brit now....

A/N I'm so sorry if I got any of the British slang, or french phrases wrong. I'm not fluent in french and I'm not an expert in English slang. It would be nice if someone PMed me and corrected me, but please don't be harsh. Also, this story might only be like five-ish chapters and the chapters will be fairly short.