He reached the door first and quickly lifted the children and Bruno, one after the other, over the deep steps and deposited them inside the carriage. He turned and helped Helga up the iron steps, then gave Diana his hand. She gripped his fingers tightly; he was conscious of a subtle warmth emanating from the contact. Ignoring that, as soon as she was inside, he followed.
To the boys, waiting eagerly in the corridor that ran the length of the carriage, he said, “Second door along and keep Bruno with you.” To Diana, he said, “You, Evelyn, and Helga should take the last compartment.”
Diana nodded. “And you and the boys will be in the next one along.”
She opened the door and urged Evelyn—somewhat overawed by all the noise—ahead of her. Once Diana was inside, Helga followed.
The boys had already gone into their compartment. Toby could hear their eager voices as they exclaimed over this and that.
He turned and found the porters waiting behind him, weighed down with the bags.
The older porter raised the bags he carried. “Which go where?”
Toby directed, and the luggage was duly passed into the correct compartments.
Diana and Helga accepted their bags and stowed them away in the racks and beneath the lower bunk bed.
Toby handed his and the boys’ luggage to Roland and Bryce to pile on the long bench seat.
Finally, all the luggage had been brought in. Toby thanked the porters and tipped them generously, then went into the compartment he would share with the boys. With the rapid facility of the frequent traveler, he soon had all their bags appropriately stowed, much to the boys’ intrigued interest.
With that done, Toby stood just inside the corridor door, dragged in a breath, then turned to the wall between their two compartments and knocked on the connecting panel. He slid across the catch on their side, then heard fumbling on the other side.
A second later, Diana opened the panel. She saw him and smiled. “That’s handy.” She looked into Toby’s compartment, then drew back. “That will give the children more space.”
Bruno, who had already nosed around their compartment and had been lying on the floor, was the first through the door, eager to check the scents in the ladies’ space.
Evelyn, seated on the lower bunk bed, laughed as the dog ran to her to be petted.
Toby looked into the ladies’ compartment. As he’d expected, it was identical to the one he and the boys would share, with two fixed bunk beds on one long wall, one above the other, and a long bench that could be made up into a third bed along the opposite wall. There was enough space to walk comfortably between the bench and the bunks, and a small table jutted from beneath the window opposite the corridor door.
Bryce tugged Toby’s coat. “What about food? We didn’t bring enough.”
Toby grinned. “There’s a dining car farther up the train. From dinnertime on, we’ll be taking our meals there.” The hotel had packed a hamper for lunch, and Helga had brought sufficient biscuits to feed Bruno for some time.
Toby thought to add, “The water closet is at the other end of this carriage.” He couldn’t think of anything else they currently needed to know.
Roland and Bryce had peeked into the other compartment, but showed no inclination to join Evelyn and Bruno.
Instead, Roland fixed Toby with a wide-eyed look. “Can we go and see the engine now?”
Toby glanced at Diana, but she didn’t object. He inwardly sighed and looked at the boys, who were eagerly, hopefully waiting. “All right. But you must stay with me.”
The boys cheered. Under cover of the noise, Toby murmured to Diana, “Please tell me Evelyn doesn’t want to come.”
Diana met his eyes, then turned and said, “Evelyn, the boys are going with Papa to see the smelly, smoky, dirty engine. Do you want to go, too?”
When Evelyn, who was busy tucking Rupert the Bear under the covers, wrinkled her nose and shook her head, Toby exhaled. He ducked his head and murmured in Diana’s ear, “Bless you.”
She laughed and waved him to the open door of his compartment. “You’d better hurry, or they’ll get away from you.”
Stifling a curse, Toby turned and went. He stepped into the corridor to find the boys waiting, jigging impatiently, by the still-open carriage door. He closed the compartment door and went to join them.
“Can we jump down?” Roland asked.
“Carefully, but let me go first.” Toby slipped past them and went down the steps.
After scanning the immediate area, he stood back and beckoned, and one after the other, with wide grins on their faces, the boys landed confidently on the platform.
