The train station had all of the familiar parts every train station had but it also had the feeling of newness that stoked Micah's sense of adventure.
Her body jolted slightly as the train came to a stop and she jumped up from her seat to quickly take her luggage down from the rack above. Boots clicked on the pavers and the calls of whistles carried over the heads of the crowd as she jumped from the coach door to the station platform, careful not to snag her dress on the way. She closed her eyes as she breathed in chilled air mixed with train steam and the smell of people. Yep, that was adventure!
"Out the way! Coming through!" The cry sounded right behind her, giving her a fright. She turned quickly to see a portly gentleman with a face turning red from either annoyance or cold attempting to exit after her. A hasty apology and a quick scrabble for her trunk were all she managed before she made a getaway from the confrontation.
Excitement warred with anxiety as Micah checked for the hundredth time that her papers were in order and her purse was secured in her pocket. She clenched her slip in her hand so tightly that it might break, afraid that she might drop it and loose it forever amongst the crowd.
Micah quickly moved along with the throng of people headed out of the gate, clutching her paper slip tightly to her chest. The steel frame of the wrought iron gate seemed to be inviting her into a new world. The world beyond the railway line. She smiled and almost squealed with excitement as she passed through the gates of the station, her neck craning as she strained to glimpse what lay beyond the crowd in front of her.
The crowds seemed to magically disperse the moment she was out. Each person seemingly knowing exactly where to go or what to do. Micah's excitement seemed to have hardly arrived before anxiety took over again. What now?
She stared blankly at the cobbled road in front of her. Movement pulsated around her at dizzying speeds as porters moved luggage, carriages were driven into line, people embarked and disembarked constantly. Something akin to fear and also confusion washed over her and she quickly blinked to hold back the sudden feeling of wanting to cry. She grabbed her trunk and all but ran to a slightly less-busy looking corner by the station wall. Grasping her belongings tightly she took a deep breath of the chilly air.
"Cough, cough cough!" Coal smoke and city dust threatened to choke her as she coughed out what was left of her breath. 'This is... not what I though it would be.' The small thought came quietly and was brutally discarded into the depths of her mind.
Micah shook her head and rubbed her cold hand against her coat to regain some warmth. Slowly and with extereem care, she unfurled the slip of paper in her grasp.
It was an old envelope, the contents lost either to time or carelesness. The crest of a chimera on a blue shield was stamped on one side with two words typeset in bold underneath.
Whervington Manor
On the other side of the envelope, in ink so faint it was barely legible, were the words 'Butler Dover.'
Micah stared at the crest, scanning between it and the neverending stream of coaches and people coming and going from the train station. 'She sent them a letter, they know I am coming, so where are they?' she couldn't help but mumble her misgivings as her search grew longer and her hands colder.
People in long coats and fine leather boots walked briskly to and from waiting carriages. Horses stepped and clicked their hooves against the stone in protest of the noise and the crowds as their coachmen kept them in check and called prices to would be travelers.
Every now and again there would be a coachman that seemed to be searching for someone specific and Micah would grab her trunk tightly hoping they had come. Reality was cruel though, with one after the next finding their passengers and driving off.
The midday sun was nowhere to be seen through the thick smog of the city, and Micah's eyes had began to sting as she kept watch. The crest burned into memory as her paper was once again clutched tight amongst her fingers. Hopelessness had just begun to rear its head when she saw him.
She sat in shock for about three seconds watching the young man, scarecly past boyhood, reign in the horse he was controlling just beyond the line of coaches. Underneath his large fur coat she could see the vest of his uniform, and an emblem too small to make out from the distance but in a shade of blue that could not be mistaken. Micah quickly unfurled her paper and double checked. Doubt rose within her, as the blue on the paper crest was slightly faded, a little different.
'Do you want to stay here until night?' she mentally chastised herself, 'Coward! The worst that can happen is a little yelling. I'll just go a bit closer and check the crest.' Steeling her resolve, she grasped her trunk and stepped out into the milling throng of people. Bumped and shoved more than once, she kept a tight hand on her trunk and her coat and she strode forward, wary of light fingers.
As she came into smelling distance of the horses she noticed the young man was embroiled in a heated argument with one of the coachmen. About what she couldn't care less, her eyes were on the carriage he was driving. On the door, painted on with blue and green, was the crest she had been waiting for.
A smile couldn't help but burst out as she hopped down from the path onto the cobblestoned road.
Almost instantly she stepped back again as a coach sped past where she had been standing not a moment earlier. The wheels spinning dangerously close to her face. Her heart raced as she quickly remembered that this was the city, a place that did not follow normal rules. Mind whirling, she reeled from the sudden near encounter with death.
"...okay miss? Miss?" Micah startled back to awareness. Her fingers dug into the handle on her trunk as she looked up to face the voice speaking to her. Surprisingly, or perhaps not so, it was the young man with the chimera crest, who had somehow managed to squeeze his carriage in amongst the coaches without her realising.
She blushed as she realised he was still waiting for her to respond, "Ah, sorry. Are you from Whervington by chance?" she asked, doing her best to sound polite and unafraid, though her fingertips were turning white from exertion.
The young man smiled but didn't answer her question "So you are here to go to the manor, Miss...?" his sentence trailed off into an unmistakable question.
Micah almost blushed again but the cold helped her fight it down. "Stein, Micha Stein. Yes, I'm to be starting work there. Though, my transport is rather late I'm afraid." The sentence was out before she could bite her tongue to hold it back. 'Stupid Micah, stupid! Mother said to be polite.' Internally fuming at herself she brandished a polite smile to diffuse her language as much as she could.
"Hahaha! Yes, rather late indeed!" the young man laughed off the snide remark as Micah let out an almost inaudible sigh of relief.
"So sorry about that, I was caught up in business. You haven't been waiting long I hope?" He flashed a rougish smile as he jumped off from the drivers seat and reached for her luggage.
Micah smiled in turn and shifted her body to shield her trunk behind her. "Not too long. I wonder, are you the said transport sir?" Her eyes skimmed over his mud covered boots and dirty trousers, still clearly well made even through the travel dust. The horse was well cared for as well and there was the crest, he seemed legit, but she had to make sure. 'Mother always said not to get taken advantage of.' She thought as the smile never left her face yet her body language spoke volumes about her doubts.
After a shocked pause the young man smiled gently and took back his hand. It was his turn to hide an embarrassed flush. "My apologies Miss Stein, I should have introduced myself first. Richard Terral at your service, stableman and porter to his Lordship. I'm here to bring you to the manor and hope you'll relinquish your luggage before I am forced to move on." Richard nodded to the many coaches moving past hoping to get into the line on the roadside.
Satisfied, Micah let him take her trunk and fix it to the back of the cartiage before accepting his assistance in climbing up.
"You've been to Whervington before I assume?" He asked as he checked she was seated securely.
"Of course." she said with more confidence than she had. She wouldn't tell him how rarely nor how long ago. That would just be embarrassing.