Anna
Lance Corporal Freddie Worth. The name rolled off Anna's tongue as natural as if she'd said it all her life. She wouldn't have been able to tell in his uniform - the hat hid his face - just how handsome he was. He was like every American girl who watched Pride and Prejudice and swooned over Mr. Darcy's idea of what a proper English gentlemen should look like.
"What are you doing in Windsor, then?" Freddie asked once they both had a new pint and a table for two in a dark corner of the pub. His accent definitely wasn't posh, but still incredibly sexy. There was a musicality, a bounce to it that she loved to listen to.
"I just graduated college and I have wanted to travel the world for as long as I can remember - we never got the chance when I was growing up. My parents suddenly had some money and they asked what I wanted, so here I am."
"Just like that?"
She nodded. "It's been kinda crazy. I started in France - a few days in Paris, then Bordeaux and the beaches."
"The beaches, huh?" Freddie grinned.
She playfully slapped his arm. "Not those beaches. But who knows? Maybe one day."
"And England after France?"
"No, after France I did a few days in Spain. Then England."
"Where to next?"
She shrugged her shoulders and took a sip of beer. Her mother's voice echoed in the back of her head. "Don't let people know you're traveling alone. Don't tell strangers your itinerary." Her parents had almost said no to the trip. They hated the idea of her hopping from country to country, by herself, in a completely different time zone, with an ocean between them. Her mother, especially, worried about strange European men and what they'd do to a pretty young woman, but Anna couldn't find a friend to go with her. They'd all either started jobs immediately after graduation, or couldn't afford the trip, and her parents couldn't afford to foot the bill for a second person.
Anna begged, she pleaded, it was the only thing she wanted. They discussed safety measures ad nauseum until Anna could have written a hundred page dissertation on the subject. She knew she needed to be careful with this random guy in this random pub in this little English town, but she'd approached him. He was a royal guard, and he had a nice face and warm smile. She told herself not to trust him, but what harm could there be in a little flirtation?
"Spontaneous, huh?" he said. "Well, if I can make some recommendations..."
She nodded and leaned closer. "Yes, please. Do you travel a lot with the - um, sorry, is the Royal Guard part of the military?"
"Queen's Guard," he corrected. Anna blushed, but he hadn't said it to chastise. "and yes, the British army. [My regiment is in the Welsh Guard]."
"Oh, are you from Wales?"
"My family is, but I mostly grew up in Bristol and Oxford. My sister still lives in Oxford."
"What about your parents?"
He shifted in his seat. "Both died. Dad when I was six. He was a Lieutenant and wanted me to join up, so I did when I was eighteen. Mom passed a couple of years ago - cancer."
"I'm so sorry." Her instinct was to take his hand, but both of his were wrapped around his pint glass.
"Not your doing," he said.
"I'm still sorry. I can't imagine-" she paused and took another sip of her drink. She was blowing this. Talking about dead parents wasn't flirting. He must think she was such a stupid American.
"How about those recommendations?" he asked, and she breathed a sigh of relief at the change in subject. He began telling stories about his best friend, Harvey, and all of the places they'd traveled together with their regiment. She didn't talk as much as she normally would have, content to sit and listen to him. She thought Harvey and his other friends must be quite the amazing people for Freddie to speak so warmly of them, and found herself wondering if would ever be possible for someone like him to speak warmly like that about someone like her.
