Railway Station

[rix_scaedu]

 This piece came from wyste's prompt of a sensible reaction to an arranged marriage set in a railway station.  It came in at 1,571 words and is not set in a previously existing world.

Gadalee Andreson arrived at Limerstaw Railway Station on the eleven thirty-five flyer from Grigstaw.  She was accompanied by her paternal aunt, Amnestra Styurvan nee Andreson, two lady's maids, a travel courier, and all their luggage.  The courier organised porters to transport the luggage to the platform that the South Coast Express would be departing from at twelve forty-five, and the four women got themselves out of the way by going to the ladies' conveniences and then to the station café for a quick lunch.

The four women did not sit together in the café.  The maids, Dural and Pounder by professional name, sat at a table for two, happily ate the daily fish and chicken specials respectively, and drank a copious amount of tea.  Gadalee and her aunt, in contrast, sat at a four-person table in the middle of the room.  It was prominently marked "Reserved”, and it took an appreciable amount of time for their expected dining companions to join them.

The eleven twenty-eight limited stops train from Iglow Moor had been delayed at Sycrase Junction by a broken-down troop train.  Everything considered, Ferison Edman thought they had been lucky to arrive at Limerstaw at eleven forty-two and not well after noon.  As it was, he and his great-uncle, Phiras Edman, were late for their lunch appointment in the station café.  Ferison sent his valet to arrange for all their luggage to go into the cloak room, and Phiras instructed his much older valet to get a table for the two manservants in the café.  When the Edman men arrived at the dining table that their lunch companions were already seated at, they bowed, and the ladies nodded back.  The older woman smiled at Phiras Edman and said, "Uncle Phiras, it's so good to see you again!"  She turned to Ferison and said, "And you must be young Ferison.  Your uncle has told me so much about you!  I am Amnestra Styurvan and this is my niece, Gadalee Andreson."

Ferison bowed again to both ladies as the older woman went on, "Please, you must both sit down.  As Gadalee and I have to be on the twelve forty-five to Evenstaw, I've taken the liberty of ordering the soup for us all."

"Perfectly understandable," replied Phiras as he took his seat.  "Our train was held up at Sycrase Junction - nothing that we could do about it I'm afraid."

"Excuse me," said Gadalee, "but 'Uncle Phiras'?  I didn't think that we were related."

"Yes," agreed Ferison.  "That, I recall, was rather one of the points of this arrangement."

"Oh, didn't anyone explain?" Amnestra smiled.  "Uncle Phiras is my godfather.  He and my parents were all at the same posting when I was born, and I needed a godfather, so he took on the job." 

"Well, that does explain the connection," Gadalee smiled too.  "So, Mr Edman, I understand that you're in negotiations."

"I don't actually do negotiations," he clarified.  "I do a lot of the background work.  Organising locations, clarifying requirements, making sure all the equipment works - that sort of thing.  And they tell me that you have local contacts?"

"Yes."  She smiled back.  "I... network.  I shop locally.  I flirt appropriately.  I make friends with other ladies posted to the same location.  I spar socially with various...rivals. " She added with consideration, "I'm at the stage where a husband would add a certain substance to my position.  I could, for instance, as a wife, host mixed gender dinner parties - which is something I cannot do as an unmarried woman."

"I am also at the stage where being married would enhance my ability to perform my duties.  Clarifying requirements, for instance, is often easier in a less formal setting, over drinks or a meal.  As an unmarried man, my ability to host unmarried female associates or even married couples is more limited than if I were married."  He smiled and added delicately, "Sometimes I also need to dodge women who read more into my profession work than I intend - or they pretend to and then aggressively pursue their own agenda without regard to my interests.  Several ladies have tried to importune me quite recently."

Gadalee admitted, "I have had allegedly romantic approaches from men I wouldn't trust my contacts' identities and information with."

"You would trust me with that information?"  He was smiling but his tone was serious.

As their soup was served, she replied lightly, "You come with excellent character references."

He nodded in acknowledgement and replied, "That's good to know."

"We should all eat up," observed Phiras, "As the ladies have a train to catch shortly.  Will you be staying in Evenstaw long, Miss Andreson?"

Gadalee swallowed her soup.  "For the length of the trade fair, at least, although I may be visiting with my older sister, Mrs Mabellna Contremor, for a few weeks after that.  She's organising a dinner for early next month and asked for my help.  I've told her that I'm happy to assist, if the press of other matters permits me the time."

"Isn't she married to Quimallas Contremor?" asked Ferison.  "I went through secondary school with his younger brother, Japhist."

"Yes," replied Gadalee.  "Japhist's in the army now, or so they tell me." The rest of the table silently acknowledged that what one was told was not necessarily the truth or the whole truth."

"Perhaps," suggested Ferison, "when I'm finished with the matter I'm pursuing at the moment, I could visit you in Evenstaw?  It looks as if my next stop after the matter I'm travelling to today will be in relation to the trade fair."

"That would be lovely," Gadalee gave him a smile.  "We expect to be staying in Styurvan House until the end of the trade fair.  After that, as I said, I may be staying with my sister."

"I will look forward to it," promised Ferison before addressing his soup so that the lady could eat hers.

Later, on the South Coast Express, last stop Evenstaw, Gadalee commented to her aunt, "I think that went well, don't you?  Lunch, I mean."

"As a first meeting, yes it did," agreed her aunt.  "Sometimes these things can be awkward, particularly when you know that everyone that knows the two of you has been talking about this for some time.  Your father and his have almost agreed on what the marriage settlements will be, if you two suit, but you knew that.  He's a very personable young man, too, and that never hurts."

"Clean in himself and with his clothes well looked after.  That never hurts either," pointed out Gadalee.

"If I may say miss," offered Dural from her backward facing seat, "he seems to be a gentleman whose valet can take pride in his work, if you know what I mean.  Pays for the dressing, takes his man's advice, is neat in himself and has his clothes tailored for how he plans to use them."

"Weapons?" asked Gadalee.  "Aside from the boot knife and the pistol?"

"Not that I could pick, miss," confirmed Dural, "but very good tailoring can hide a lot."

At much the same time, back in Limerstaw, the two Edmans were sitting in a plush lounge bar and drinking a glass of post-lunch spirits.  "She's a nice gel," commented Phiras.  "The niece takes after her too."

"Still have an avuncular eye on her, uncle?"  Ferison grinned.  "She is a married woman old enough to have grown children - I would have thought your godparental responsibilities were done."

"Eh, she might be all that," replied Phiras, "but that husband of hers could still..... Let's just say that she still might need my help one day.  What did you think of Miss Andreson?"

"As you said, she's a nice gel.  Well put together.  If I might be appreciative, some of her features are very nice indeed but she's never going to be judged a reigning beauty of society.  I believe I would be very happy to look at her over breakfast every morning for the rest of our lives."

"Your father, your Uncle Drukus, and I thought you might like her," replied Phiras.  "The family's politics might not quite be ours, but their loyalty to the crown and state is undoubted.  They've got money too, which is never amiss when it comes to marriage contracts.  Plus, we can do with a conduit into their faction in the senior ministry staff."  He sipped his drink.  "I noticed that neither of you quite told the whole truth of your work."

Ferison feigned a look of shock.  "In a café in full view and hearing of who knows how many people, whom we assume to be simply members' of the general public?  Because you know it’s entirely possible that not all of them were simply members of the general public."

"True.  So true.  Will you be pursuing the relationship to Evanstaw?"  His uncle sipped again.

"Yes," Ferison said firmly.  "I like her, and I think we could do very well together.  I know the marriage is done deal, but she and I could enjoy a little courtship and ease our way into conjugal bonds.  If all goes well, we could be married in the spring, and that would put us ahead of the familial timetable."

"Just in time for the navigation rights talks?"  His uncle raised his glass and added, “I hope it all goes well for you then.  Cheers!"

Comments

[kengr]

As always, you have a refreshing take on things.

I will be looking forward to more. Of this, or any of your other stories.