The Duke and Duchess of Glasex, their daughter, Lady Anne, and Fiona
the cat stood on the platform of the Glasgow train station. They
watched their luggage being loaded onto the elegant Royal Scotsman
train. Its wooden sides gleamed in the sunshine, relic of a more
civilized by-gone era, when train travel was more than just a fast
way to get from place to place.
Lady Anne was dead
chuffed to finally have the cat she always wanted. Fiona, a black and
white Norwegian Forest cat with long and soft fur, stood patiently on
the end of the leash the girl was holding. Anne had always wanted a
cat to walk and show off and now she had one.
Fiona, on the other
end of the leash, was thinking thoughts about how much money she was
being paid to be this girl's bodyguard so she would put up with the
indignity of being walked like a dog. Fiona was on constant alert
watching all the comings and goings around them. She was secure in
the knowledge that the leash was MEOW issued and had a special
release mechanism if she needed to get away to do her job. Lady Anne
only thought she was in charge.
Soon enough the call
for “All Aboard” came and the Glasex family embarked on to the
train. The Duke and Duchess were shown to on of the double cabins
while Lady Anne and Fiona were settled into one of the twin cabins
next door. Fiona claimed the bed opposite the door to the train
corridor. No one was getting into this cabin without going by her.
Lady Anne was left with the bed at the far wall, but as that was the
bed she would have chosen herself, she was quite contented. Once the
steward left, Fiona hopped off the bed and inspected the attached
bathroom, pleased to see that beside the commode was an enclosed
litter box. She sniffed it and found it full of her favorite litter.
She decided now was as good of time to try it, so she did.
A knock on the door
sounded then. Lady Anne opened the door to see her mother standing
there. The train had left the station and it was time for tea. Anne
picked up Fiona and carried her to the dining car. On any other
train, a cat in the fine dining car would be looked askance at but
everyone on this train knew who Anne was and allowed that Royals,
even minor ones - in both status and age, were a bit different from
the rest of us and made allowances for her.
The staff had
prepared a special place at the Ducal table for Fiona. They had
brought over one of the side tables from the observation car and put
a cushion on it. Anne set her cat down on it. When the tea was laid
out before them, a saucer of the finest cream from the finest
Highland coos was placed before the feline. When the sandwiches were
served, another saucer was placed before Fiona. This one contained
tidbits of smoked salmon of sufficient quantity to keep the Agent of
MEOW quite contented for several hours.
Fiona was licking
the last of the salmon from her whiskers when the humans were
finished with their tea. Anne picked her up and carried her back to
their cabin. Fiona wasn't upset with being cat handled. If she was
going to be fed in that manner at every meal, four meals a day for
eight days, then she would be more than happy to be carried a bit
right after the meal.
Lady Anne set Fiona
down on her bed and retreated to her own. She pulled out a tablet and
proceeded to talk to her friends. She may be on a train in the wilds
of Scotland but that wouldn't keep her from gossiping about who like
Phillip this week.
A chime sounded an
hour later and Lady Anne put down the tablet. She opened her wardrobe
and found her clothes already hung up for her. Fiona watched from her
perch on the bed as Anne pulled out a formal satin gown. Clearly one
dressed for dinner on this train. Fiona wondered if that included
her.
Anne finished
dressing and turned to her dressing table and opened her small
jewelry box and fastened a necklace around her neck.
“I have a little
something for you,” Anne said as she came over and sat on the bed
next to Fiona. “Let's get that ugly collar off of you.” She
reached around and unfastened it and tossed the tactical collar on
the bed.
“Daddy got me this
one for you,” Anne said as she placed a diamond crusted black
velvet collar around Fiona's throat. For a moment Fiona panicked.
What if some thing went wrong and she couldn't alert anyone. Then she
felt the familiar vibration of a MEOW collar. This was one of the few
formal tactical collars. It didn't have the laser beams and things of
her regular one but it could communicate both directions between her
and headquarters and that was enough. Fiona doubted that if anyone
was after Lady Anne that a laser beam would help. What she needed was
the communications and this had it.
Lady Anne clipped a
matching black velvet leash to Fiona's collar and lead the way back
to the dining car. So far the trip was turning out to be the vacation
Fiona needed, but that didn't mean there weren't dangers. Fiona would
be on alert when they went on excursions away from the train but
while on the train she'd enjoy the cream, salmon and whatever other
delicacies came her way.
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