“That’s a classic, and will look even better when I put it onto my laptop and print it out”
Isabella put her arms around Jerry’s waist and snuggled up to him. Jerry smiled. Isabella glanced around and caught a peek of a very suave, sophisticated and extremely handsome young man. She instantaneously took her arm from around her husband’s waist and walked to another side of the balcony. Jerry looked mystified but did not say anything. They stayed on the balcony for about another half hour then Jerry went back to the still unlocked room for a nap. Isabella went back to the room about ten minutes after Jerry went. She saw Jerry was asleep so she re-did her makeup put on a shorter skirt, took off her sweater and put her finest blouse and went looking for that young man she saw earlier.
Isabella eventually found the young man she was looking for. He was outside on the balcony where she had been earlier. Isabella deliberately made a fuss of opening the big heavy door to the outside so the young man would notice her. The young man ran his eyes from Isabella’s head to toes and back up again. As he did this Isabella flickered her eyelids and posed as if she were modelling for a magazine. She asked this young what his name.
“Francesco” was the smooth reply, “And yours?”
“Isabella,” she said all innocently.
“That’s an incredibly beautiful necklace you are wearing there.”
It was an elaborate 24-carat gold and diamond necklace. On the gold it had the words ‘From my mind to the depths of my soul I yearn to achieve all of my goals’ engraved on it. Also when the diamond caught the sun it gave off the greatest glorious glow that could only be compared to the twinkling stars in the night sky.
“Thank you, it was given to me by my husband on our honeymoon”
“Very romantic. Who was that old man you were with earlier?” Francesco said.
“Nobody.”
“What do you mean nobody?”
“Well he is my…………….business colleague”
“What ever you say. Would it be acceptable if I took you to dinner tonight in the restaurant carriage?
“Yeah but I’ll have to talk to my colleague. He might not like that”
“Would you rather spend a romantic evening with me where we will get to know each other a bit better or stay in your room with your somewhat lacklustre husband”
“See you at seven thirty at my room, Room 23.”
At that point Isabella went back to her room with a certain swagger. She got in to the room and Jerry was asleep on the bed.
“Ha loser,” Isabella muttered under her breath.
She carried on unpacking the bags that she had left earlier. Out of one of the locked inner pockets in her suitcase she pulled out a small bottle of Bombay Sapphire Gin to get to a small pot with opium in it.
“What gets me through the week without dying of boredom.”
She was just taking the lid off the top pot when Jerry twitched and snored, Isabella instantly hid the pot in the pocket. She looked around and realised he was still asleep. She got the small pot out of her pocket, took the lid off and took a very small snort of the opium. She then rapidly sealed up the pot and locked it up in her suitcase again and started to unpack the rest of it. Isabella started to try on dresses for her date later that evening. She went through four and then finally decided on a short black slinky dress and a black woollen cardigan. Still on a bit of a high she turned on the small radio Jerry brought with him and stared to listen and sing to it.
Jerry woke up hearing the singing of his wife.
“What’s going on?” Jerry muttered as he was getting up.
“Nothing, I was just singing to the radio.”
“Ok fine,”
“Oh darling, I will not be able to take you out to the restaurant carriage for a meal tonight because I have to finish this assignment by the time we get to Roma and you know how important my work is to me. I hope you understand.”
Isabella replied with concealed jubilation saying,
“I understand entirely”
“I’ll make it up to you I promise.”
“Do I get to choose how?” Isabella said in an appealing manner.
“What, or how ever, you want sweetheart.”
“Are you sure?”
“Of course.”
“That will be fun.”
**********************
There was a knock on the door of Room 23 and Isabella, who was all dressed up but still in the bathroom, quickly ran to get the door. Isabella opened the door slightly and there was a man standing behind it.
“Are you ready for the time of your life?” he said.
“Let the games begin” was the reply from Isabella.
“Who is that at the door darling?” Jerry asked.
“Nobody, dear.”
“Quick let’s go” she whispered to Francesco. And they quickly escaped.
“Where are you going?” Jerry shouted, but they did not reply because they were too far away to hear.
“Quick in here,” Isabella said and she dragged Francesco into a storeroom where she engineered it so she fell on top of him. Francesco was just about to say something when she swiftly placed her hand over his mouth and told him to be quiet.
They heard Jerry shouting, “Isabella where are you?” a few times then they heard him sigh and then his footsteps going away from them and finally the room door slam shut. They reluctantly got out of the compromising position in which they found themselves in inside the storeroom and went off to the restaurant carriage.
“Who was that?” Francesco said.
“Tell you later.”
They got to restaurant car and were escorted to a reserved table in the corner of the carriage. The table was extravagantly decorated with red roses and in the centre of the table was a bottle of Bollinger champagne in a bucket of ice.
“Holy crap, this is all for me,” Isabella screamed in amazement.
“Yes it is.”
“Why?”
“Shhh don’t speak just enjoy. So who was that who was shouting?”
“I don’t want to lie to you so I will not. It was my husband but only in name. When I am on my own I do what I want when I want and how I want. Because when I am with him I have to ‘eat healthily and have a healthy life style because you’ll live longer’ but when I am on my own I am an animal.
“Why are you married to him then?”
“Money, the only reason I am here is because of him”
“There is no love at all”
“Yes there love but I mainly needed security and when I saw Jerry I made the first move and he never let go but I wish he did sometimes”
“Is that the reason that you ran off with me today?”
“Yes.”
The two of them carried on flirting during their meal.
“Excuse me I just have to go to the bathroom.”
Isabella went off to the bathroom and Francesco took some pills from his pocket and dropped them into Isabella’s drink. She came back, took a sip of her drink and felt very unstable and light-headed. Francesco got up and helped a very intoxicated Isabella out to the back of the train to the balcony, took her necklace off her neck, recited the words off it ‘From my mind to the depths of my soul I yearn to achieve all of my goals’ and placed it in his inside jacket pocket. He then gave her a kiss on her lips, picked her up and dropped her off the back of the train. Francesco tapped his jacket where the necklace was and walked off.
He walked swiftly back to his room. He went through the restaurant and dropped a small bundle of money on his dinning table as he walked past. He was just about to open his door to his room when he saw a single well-dressed woman going in to her room.
“Hi, I’m Francesco, you look lonely. Would you like me to comfort you” was the frequently used words he said to this woman and as always she could not resist his charm and good looks.
It was getting very late and Jerry was worried so he began to look for his wife. He searched the train from top to bottom and back again and still could not find her. He was very worried now and started shouting, “Isabella”, at the top of his voice but little did he know his wife was lying, a bloody mess, on the train tracks about twelve miles back.
