With the broken glass shards on his foot, James, holding the hand of a rather nervous and afraid scarlet's hand, ran till as he reached the railway station. As they reached, the train numbered 30453, a LSWR N15 King Arthur class proudly called King Arthur had arrived and was on its way to its mother land - scotland as its last journey.
Scarlet and James boarded the train as the train started to chug its way out of the grand Manchester station. As they sat down in a seat,with an awful cry of pain James screamed, "these stupid glass pieces!"
Scarlet took a look at James's foot and gasped,"how did you even run with this glass pieces james!. Just let me take a look at it" and she started to remove each and every piece of glass that was stuck to James's foot as James cried in pain. After removing the glass shards, scarlet took the first aid kit and wiped off blood before tying the wounded area with some cloth.
As the pain in James's foot reduced, Scarlet hugged James's arm and asked him,"Do you think that we made the right choice to leave Manchester? ….. I mean without telling Mary or Ronan". James answered, with a serious face, "Scarlet, what you ask is right, but I do not want to get them into this mess ok?"
By noon the train reached Edinburgh. The driver himself hopped off his cabin and opened the doors and made his final announcement that he and the beauty that hauled them throughout the English country are going to retire from the railways. People standing at the edge of each platform waved their last goodbye at King Arthur.
With sadness filled heart, As James and Scarlet walked out of Edinburgh railway station, he noticed how tired she looked. Her face was red from all the running, and she kept rubbing her stomach. Her eyes drifted toward a nearby café, where the smell of pastries filled the air.
James realised she hadn't eaten since morning. "Hey," he said softly, leaning closer to catch her attention. "Let's get something to eat. You look hungry." as she started to faint a bit, she took her inside a nearby cafe. There, for his surprise, he saw a familiar face of his father's friend, luca.
Luca, is Greek, but was born in london. He became friends with Edward at a young age. As they grew older, Edward became the duke of Manchester and Luca became the controller of British railways.
Luca, seeing James, went to him and started to speak. "Hi James, it's been a long time since I've seen you. And how's your father?"asked luca. "Hi uncle, I am fine thank you. My father, he actually, died on the way from denmark." replied james. "I am sorry for your loss, anyways I noticed, who is this girl?, is she your friend and why are you in Edinburgh anyway?" replied luca. With hesitation james replied "It is that, we actually fled away from manchester because mom tried to separate us"
Luca was a bit interested, and what James told reminded him of the old days when he helped Edward and Isabella to run away, when Isabella's father caught them.
He laughed and he offered to help them to escape as he already helped James's father to escape out of london. Luca, concerned, dialled Mary to inform that James had a lover and they are trying to flee England, while James and Scarlet were served with some club sandwiches and a milkshake.
Mary, after hearing what he told, a bit angry, asked him which route they were taking to escape. Luca told her it's via Scotland to ireland. She asked him a favour that if he could send them via Manchester, as they want to see him too. With much hesitation, he accepted to send them via manchester.
By six in the evening, he asked the railway men to swap the mail in a British Rail Class 35 to a furness railway K2 class, then he asked the men to attach an empty coach at the end to each train, and he asked the men to put the fruits and vegetables in theBritish Rail Class 35 in the mail car to make no suspension.
He also asked them to reschedule all the express trains and fast freight coming from England an hour earlier and the flying flower from Ireland an hour later.
By midnight, no trains were coming from England nor Ireland and both the trains were ready to depart. Luca promised James and Scarlet that the train is going to Ireland via Glasgow, but he lied, he made them sit in blossom while the other was filled with mannequins.
The train departed and both of them went parallel until glasgow. Then the trains split, blossom went down to England and the other stopped and reversed back to edinburgh.
With relief, James and Scarlet fell asleep. After four hours, James woke up and he found themselves in a station. He wondered if they have reached Dublin and got down to see the station board.
He got down and saw a familiar building, the grand manchester station, he wondered if the junction they crossed had made blossom to go down to england and in fear of being caught, he got back up and closed all the windows of the little coach and stood at the door to block off anyone who tries to enter the cabin.
In ten minutes, the train was about to leave the first platform, then two people came running down the street and hopped on the balcony of the little coach. James jumped in fear as he heard a thud behind the door. He opened the door and found none other than Mary and Ronan.
His heart slowed down seeing them and sighed. Mary started to shout at him,"how can you even try to run away, without informing me James, i didn't know she was your lover, i thought that you were friends". Scarlet was startled by the sound and woke up and was surprised to see Ronan in good health. Scarlat thanked Mary, but Mary didn't listen to her and continued to argue with james.
With the argument between James and Mary reduced, they have already reached Milford port.
There the ferry was waiting to leave, but an express mail overtook them and took the spot on the ferry. Seeing the old attachment behind the ferry, Scarlet gave the idea to board the coach and blossom on the attachment, as the mail cares have already been removed in manchester.
They are loaded and have set sail for a new life. In four hours they were supposed to have reached Dublin, but midway, the chains that held the attachment snapped, and the attachment floated into the seas of europe. By 6 in the morning, the attachment floated to an unknown island. On seeing a barge coming, the port crane pulled in the barge and aligned to the tracks.
Then the coach and blossom's chains were unbolted and the port workers drove blossom and attached the coach and a driver drove it to the only station on the island.
"Everyone wake up now, we have reached Dublin"shouted Ronan as he saw a new station, when he opened his window for air. Everyone woke up and got down the little coach.
"This doesn't look like Dublin, we might have been dropped at a different place",exclaimed Mary, looking at the new place.
Then an old lady came to them, and asked them if they were new to the place, and if they had been lost.
James reassured her that they intended to go to ireland. "No my dear, you are in wisperford. This place is far far away from England and Ireland." said the lady. She continued,"and, you boy, you look awfully similar to our king, let me show him to you", James, hearing this, was shocked. She took them through the countryside with lots of trees and plants. They reached the centre of wisperford and the castle and houses looked different from what they had seen.
The lady entered the room and announced,"my king, since a long time, now we have got some visitors" and showed the king, james, scarlet, mary and ronan.
The king and the queen looked at James so curiously and realised that he was their grandchild. They came down running and hugged him and cried,"oh! James, it has been so long since we have met you dear". But James hardly recognised them, but as he saw them, he got a glimpse of a memory of playing with them in a park.
He cried as the memory came into his mind and hugged him even more. He introduced Mary to them. Then his grandmother asked who is the lovely young lady. James shyfully said, "She's my lover. Mom tried to harm her so, I ran away"
"You have chosen a lovely girl my dear" said his grandmother in a lovely tone and they were given rooms in the castle. They rested for the night.
The next morning, everyone woke up to a surprise, the doctors arrived to inform that his grandparents were at their least healthy.
James and Scarlet worried about their health. As the news spread, most people came in the castle. James said don't worry. But the king declared to the people, "my days are very less, so i am dethroning myself and going to make my grandson your new king.", he continued,"i will not do it unless my people accept it". As he finished, many voices said in loud tone, "yes my king, what you did till now has always been successful"
Before his grandfather could say something, he told him, "grandpa!I'm not ready to be a king. Besides, I want to marry scarlet". The whole throne room went into a flurry of whispered conversations and anxious glances. Then the king called in his chancellor to arrange the wedding in the church and the day after the coronation. "As you please my king '',said the chancellor and went to do the decorations and everything.
Scarlet grabbed James's hand and ran to a balcony and told him that she would support all his decisions, but marriage was an unexpected word. James reassured her that everything is going to be alright. They kissed and James's grandmother saw it and in shyness went away. In shyness, Scarlet also ran to her room.
In a week, the wedding was conducted with the presence of the neighbouring kingdom of brassfield. "I, James taylor, take you, Scarlet connor, to be my wife, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better for worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, till death us do part" james completed his vows and they exchanged their rings. Then the king announced them as husband and wife.
The next day, the coronation ceremony took place and the king of brassfield also brought his son, Aaron, who is the new king of brassfield, who was crowned the morning before James's coronation.
"James Taylor, do you accept to take this responsibility by taking the crown and the laws of this land and protecting these people? '' the Emeritus said to James . "I do '' James proceeded. "Scarlet connor, do you accept to support your husband, the king and his decisions and laws" the Emeritus said to scarlet. "I do" scarlet proceed.
"Now i pronounce the new king and queen of this kingdom of whisperford" the Emeritus declared. There was appreciation and acceptance found in the peoples faces.
The coronation ceremony went as such and the feast was the best of all, thought james. Then from nowhere, Aaron stood up and asked the new king, "sir, i step forward to bring an alliance from the kingdom of Brassfield, I Aaron copper, request for your acceptance". There was silence and James asked scarlet, she without hesitation, told him to accept the alliance.
James stood up, filled up two glasses with wine and gave one to Aaron and told him, "this is for our union", a toast of two new nations.
After the ceremony, everyone went back to their home. Aaron's father was so proud of his son that for the first time in his life, he had made a choice by himself.
That night, James and Scarlet spoke for some time and went to sleep. Before going to sleep Mary wrote a letter which stated that James had married scarlet and had been crowned as the king of whisperford, where surprisingly their grandparents were alive.
The next dawn broke and somehow, the letter reached isabella. She read the letter with a bit of happiness that her son is happy, but at the same time, she worried about how they got to the island.
After reading the letter, Isabella went to the market to get her some food. There as she bought some bread and vegetables, she was stabbed by an assassin. The news shook manchester. Somehow, Luca got the news and went to her funeral.
There he found Mary's letter and found that they had reached, but not Dublin. On seeing the address, he wrote a letter about Isabella's incident. The letter reached Mary the next day.
After reading the letter, she fell in tears and ran to James and told him about the incident. James, after hearing that, fell to the ground and in a hushed voice said, "they finally caught her." Scarlet too felt sad for what had happened to her mother in law.