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Chapter 3

The car stopped right in front of the train station and Charles got out of the car and went to back of the car and opened the trunk. He leaned over and pulled out Victoria and Jackie’s bags.
“You think we will be able to sleep on the train?” Jackie said as a porter came up to the car and took the bags from Charles.
“ I’m not sure, Charles do you know what kind of tickets we have?” Victoria asked as they walked into the station.
“ I’m not sure what kind of tickets you have my lady, wait by the benches over by the sign broad, while I park the car and then I’ll get the tickets for you.” Charles said as he pointed over to the benches that were under the sign broad.
Victoria nodded as she watched Charles head out the door and the porter came over to them.
“ We are going to wait for our driver he is going to get our tickets for us, and he asked us to wait for him right over there.” Victoria said as she pointed over to the benches.
“ Yes ma’am I will be waiting right here with you then.” The porter said as they walked over to the benches and Jackie and Victoria sat down.
Five minutes later Charles came back inside the station, but coming over to the girls he went over to the ticket agent and picked up their tickets.
“ We are ready to board when ever you are my lady.” Charles said as he came up to the group and handed the porter the tickets, and the guy just nodded.
The porter lead the way to the front of the train and Victoria noticed that the car was a little different from the rest of the cars on the train.
“ Um… Charles what is this all about?” Victoria said as she the stopped next to the car just as the conductor came up to them.
“ Excuse me but this is a private car.” The conductor said as he came up to them.
“ Here you go sir this is person who the car is for, The Duchess of St. Ives.” Charles said as he handed over the tickets and other papers.
“ My Lady please forgive me, and welcome aboard.” The conductor said as he bowed to Victoria before pulling down the steps and helped Victoria on broad the train.
“ It’s ok, I’m still getting over the fact that I have a title, and I’m of Royalty too.” Victoria said stood aside to let the porter on so he could put their bags in the rooms.
“ I’m sorry to hear about your uncle, he was a great man.” The conductor said as he came abroad and led Victoria inside the car.
Victoria stopped in the middle of the coach and saw a small seated area and then dinning area.
“ Wow this car is beautiful, it’s like a small travel trailer.” Victoria said as she looked around the very regal coach.
“ Thanks your uncle had it specially built because he had to have way to travel from Land’s End to London and back again.” The conductor said as looked at his clock and saw that he it was five minutes before last call for tickets.
“ Cool, well I can tell that you need to get back to work, and I believe I will try to get comfy for the long ride to Land’s End.” Victoria said as Jackie came into the living room area.
The conductor bowed before leaving the car and headed back to his area between the other cars.
“ Man you need to see the sleeping areas, of course you have the largest room, and one other small sleeper room, then another room that has four bunk beds.” Jackie said as she sat down on the couch.
“ Great I’m going to see this room, be right back. Oh Charles what do we do if we get hungry?” Victoria asked as she started for the small hallway.
“ There is a call button right here and it goes to the diner car which is right behind us and the cook will fix our dinner and bring it to us. Thank Philip and you have a great day.” Charles said to the porter as he left the car.
“ Ok, well let me see this car and try to relax some.” Victoria said as she opened one of the doors and saw that it was restroom.
“ Yes my lady, if you need anything just let me know and I will get it for you.” Charles said as he nodded his head before sitting down at the dinning table and pulled out his lap top and turned it on.
Victoria went to the next room and saw that it was her bed room and it even had it’s own bathroom too.
She went over to the bed and sat down on it and found it very comfy, and then she laid down and found it to her liking.
After five minutes laying there she heard the whistle and the conductor yelling all abroad, and then felt the jerk of the car and the train began to move and head out of the station.
“ Hey Vicky are you ok?” Jackie asked as she tapped on the door and opened it and stuck her head into the room.
“ Yeah I’m fine, just a little tired, I think the jet lag is finally catching up with me, I’m just a little nervous about seeing this place, and just over whelmed with about everything, who would have thought when I leaned about my uncle’s death and his will, that I would have learned that I would have a Royal title, and that I’m really Royalty.” Victoria said as she sat up and getting up from the bed.
“ Yeah in away that is so cool, and it’s hard to believe that I’m the very best friend of a real Duchess.” Jackie said as stepped aside so that Victoria could get out of the room.
“ Ok but do me one huge favor, don’t tell anyone when we get home, I really don’t want anyone to know ok.” Victoria said as they enter the living room area and sat down so that way they could see some of the city go by as they headed down to Cornwall.
Two hours later the train was making it’s first stop on its way down to Cornwall.
“ What would you like for dinner, there is beef, chicken and fish, and here are the list of veggies you can have with your main dish, and there is a salad too.” Charles said as he came up to ladies and handed them both the menus.
“ Cool and how do we get our dinner?” Jackie asked as she looked up from her menu.
“ You can give me your order, and I will call the diner car and put in your order.” Charles said as he wrote down what he wanted for dinner.
“ Ok that sounds great, I would like to have the stake, medium, with corn cob and mash potatoes, with a beer please.” Victoria said as she put down menu on the small coffee table.
“ Ok and for you Jackie?” Charles asked as he finished writing down Victoria’s order.
“ I would like the same thing, but I would like a bake potato instead of mash. And beer too.” Jackie said as she too put the menu down and looked over Charles’ shoulder and saw some of the country side that was in the window behind him.
“ Ok, got it, would guys like to try some of our English Ales.” Charles asked as he looked down at the list of beer.
“ Sure that sounds great, if you are having one then I’ll have the same thing.” Victoria said as she picked up the book that she had been reading.
“ Ok, and for you ms. Jackie?” he turned his attention to Jackie.
“ Sure why not, I always wanted to try English Ale.” Jackie said as she grabbed her book too and began reading it.
Charles nodded before going over to the phone and dialed up the diner car and put in their dinner orders.
Twenty minutes later the three of them were sitting at the dinning table and eating their dinner.
“ So you are going to be with us the whole time we are going to be here?” Victoria asked as she finished up her mash potato.
“ Yes ma’am, I’m to be your driver, while you are down here. And I’m to hand over the keys to you when we get there.” Charles said as he took a sip of his Ale.
“ Ok I take it that the Manor is outside of the town of Land’s End then?” Victoria asked as she too took a sip of her drink.
“ Well it’s more like between Penzance and Land’s End, you see Land’s End, is more like a theme park type place, and you can’t have cars there.” Charles said as they finished up their dinner, and someone from the dinning car came and took away their dishes and gave them another Ale.
“ I see, I do remember seeing picture of the manor when I was a little girl, and is it near the ocean or something like that?” Victoria asked as she remembered her mom showing her a picture of a manor house by the ocean.
“ Yes ma’am it is by the ocean, and part of it over looks the cliffs.” Charles said as the waiter came back with their dessert.
Victoria said as she took piece of her cake and ate it.
“ Mmm. This pie is great here have a taste.” Jackie said as she slid her plate over to Victoria so she could have a taste of the pie.
“ Mmm you’re right, so what game would you like to play.” Victoria said as she finished up her cake, and getting up and found some games in the small closet area.
“ Um… is there a game of Clue.” Jackie asked as she pushed her plate away from herself.
“ Yeah there, is would you like to play the game with us Charles?” Victoria asked as she pulled the game out of the closet and coming back to the table.
“ Sure that sounds great.” He said picking up the plates and putting them on the coffee table.
It was an hour later they were pulling into another station and they were going to stay there for an hour, and it then Victoria thought it would be a good idea to call it a night.
Going to her room she got undress and put on her night gown before laying down on the bed and turning out the light and falling sound asleep, and five minutes later both Jackie and Charles did the same thing and climbed into their beds and falling sound asleep.
As the train chugged on down the rails through the night, and making more stops along the way and dropping off and taking on passengers as it makes it way southward to the town of Penzance.
Where Victoria is going to learn a very dark secret of the manor house that she just inherit from her uncle.