One Alpha Two Eight - Jennifer
Sunday 6 August, 1422 British Summer Time, on board British Rail Western Region Service 1A28 from Oxford to London Paddington
It wasn't exactly the Orient Express, but if Jennifer Greene had really wanted to, she could have laid down across the three seats in the second-class compartment she was currently in. Although it might have received a disapproving look from the labourer who was sitting across her, reading the Sunday Mirror whose front page was talking about a butler who had been jailed for fraud. The back page of the paper covered a scandal in the world of cricket.
The ten-carriage train had just pulled out of Reading and would now run non-stop to London Paddington, hauled by a powerful diesel locomotive. It was a distinct sight better than the three-carriage commuter train she could have gone, but this service didn't exactly spring to a buffet car. Not that British Rail's cheese sandwiches were something you'd particular seek out unless you were desperate.
In the compartment behind her, two children were engaged in a noisy argument about a doll with a woman, probably their mother, intervening.
Once they arrived at Paddington, Jen would transfer to the London Underground for a quick ride round the Circle Line to Victoria, where she would pick up some traveller's cheques from the one place that was open on a Sunday before checking in at the Lincoln Arms Hotel, a simple bed & breakfast that seemingly offered the best value from her London hotel guide.
The day was warm and the open windows at the top provided some useful ventilation as the train rattled along, accelerating to around ninety miles an hour.
"Tickets from Reading!" came a cry down the corridor. Fortunately, Jennifer had already had her small cardboard ticket clipped earlier. Her backpack was stowed in the rope luggage rack above her, taking a rest itself on the first stage of a very long journey indeed.