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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