The story I am about to tell could only have taken place in Britain in the romantic days of rail travel. In those days there were still real trains hauled by steam locomotives. The only pantyhose were the so-called tights worn by women playing male roles in pantomime. Women normally wore fully-fashioned stockings and held them up with suspenders, which I discovered from reading pulp fiction were known as garters in America.
The day it all happened, I was just turned 18 years of age. All these years later, the erotic images in my mind of what happened on that day are as vivid as ever. I have to confess though that over the intervening years the whole affair has assumed an increasingly dreamlike quality.
Before that memorable day, my sexual experiences had been strictly limited. Like most youths, I had groped inside girls' blouses on the back row of the cinema on Saturday afternoons. Otherwise, my experience came from the pages of books. I had been an avid devotee of 'girlie' magazines and erotic literature since my early teens. That was when I first became aware of my growing sexuality and discovered the exquisite pleasures of masturbation. Photos of scantily clad girls in revealing lingerie acted as a starter button for my often nightly attempts to appease the hormone-fuelled throb between my legs. However, I'm digressing – on with my story.
It was the middle of the long summer vacation and I was killing time before starting medical school later in the year. I had been to visit a school friend who lived in a small town some miles from the city where I lived with my parents and my sister. He and I were going to medical school together.
On my way home I had caught the early evening local train that stopped at every station. It was one of those trains with carriages that were not interconnected, each being divided into separate compartments. These compartments ran the width of the carriage and had two rows of seating facing each other about four feet apart. There was no corridor, just a door at both sides of each compartment for boarding or alighting from the train. Once the train was in motion you were cocooned in a private world.
Taking advantage of the fact that we were both over 18, my friend and I had popped into a local pub for a couple of pints before I boarded the train. The train had been quite full but at the last station before the end of the journey, my compartment emptied and I was alone.
Maybe because of the beer or because it had been a hot day I was feeling a little drowsy. I moved to the seat by the window overlooking the platform. I knew from previous experience that this last leg of the journey took at least 30 minutes. Sometimes it took longer, especially if repairs were being made to the long tunnel just before the end of the line. I had already taken off my jacket because it was so warm. I loosened my tie and the top of my shirt and closed my eyes knowing that if I fell asleep I would not miss my stop.
Just as the guard's whistle blew and the train started to move I was startled out of my doze when the door into the compartment flew open. A flustered looking young woman wearing a dark lilac skirt with a short matching jacket and carrying a small case almost fell into the compartment. She collapsed onto the seat opposite in some disarray. Sitting up hurriedly, she pulled down the hem of her skirt but not before she'd given me a view of shapely nylon clad leg that gave me a sudden frisson of excitement in my crotch.
The new arrival appeared to be around thirty years of age. The most striking thing about her was her hair. It was medium length, lightly curled and a warm auburn colour with red highlights. Her green eyes were set in a classically lovely face. She had invitingly sensual lips made up with a glossy dark red lipstick and her complexion had that translucent quality that so often accompanies auburn hair. She was about 5 feet 4 inches tall with shapely breasts, a slim waist and nicely rounded hips. She was a real beauty with the kind of figure that, in the days before emaciated models took over the fashion scene, was not only much admired by men but also envied by women.
I could see she wore a white lace top with a modest high neckline under her jacket. She had on a small burgundy coloured hat that exactly matched her high-heel shoes. Her skirt was a tailored fit around her shapely hips and tapered to a knee-length hemline. It also had a discreet slit up the right side extending some six inches above the knee. I never figured out how women managed to wear such tight skirts but I was glad they did because it made them walk with short steps so that their derrières gyrated most provocatively.
To complete an altogether enticing picture, my new travelling companion was wearing shiny gunmetal grey nylons. They had darker grey seems and point heels and I found myself tingling to my fingertips with sex-fired excitement as my imagination conjured up a vision of dark stocking tops stretched taught and stark against creamy alabaster thighs.
As she recovered her composure and the train picked up speed, she removed her hat, remarking that it had been lovely day and what a warm evening it was. I nodded in agreement and offered to put her case on the rack above her seat. As I bent to pick up the case I became aware that she was wearing an exotic spicy perfume with overtones of what I have since discovered was sandalwood.
"Thank you," she said and then, "I see you've taken off your jacket. I'm so hot after my rush for the train I think I should do the same."
Without rising from her seat, she shrugged her jacket back off her shoulders. The tight fitting top that she wore tucked into her skirt was fashioned from a fine, open-patterned kind of lace. It did not appear that she was wearing much underneath except a small almost transparent brassière. Certainly, her shapely breasts were clearly visible jutting out firmly. Prominent rosebud pink nipples were encircled by surprisingly large coffee-and-cream areolae. Thrusting against her diaphanous bra, they showed provocatively through the lacy material of her top.
Believe me it was a seductive sight and. I felt myself stiffening inside my trousers. I hurriedly picked up a newspaper that I had bought earlier and tried to hide my excitement and the bulge in my trousers behind its pages. Apparently unaware of her effect on me my companion folded her jacket carefully and placed it by her side. I could not resist taking another look at her over the paper I was pretending to read only to see her looking at me.
"Perhaps this blouse is a little too revealing," she said, "but it's so cool I couldn't resist wearing it on such a hot day. What do you think?"
I managed to mutter something noncommittal like, "I think it's very nice," and again sought to hide my confusion behind my paper. She must have recognised my discomfiture and sought to put me at ease. "Have you been on the train long?" she asked.
"Just under an hour." I replied. "I've been to see a friend," and then somewhat proudly I added, "we're going to medical school in September."
"That's wonderful," she responded, "I used to be a nurse in a hospital until I married last year and moved down here. My husband is a surgeon and we live not far from the station where I nearly missed this train."
The only response I could think of was a banal, "Do you like it there?"
"Well, it's very beautiful where we live but it is rather remote. My husband is often away and I do get rather lonely," she said almost wistfully.
Then to my utter astonishment she added, "I find it very difficult to sleep when I'm alone. I go for long walks in the countryside to tire myself out. It keeps me from drinking too much and helps me to sleep when my husband is not in bed with me. Even then, I wake up early in the mornings feeling tense. It's like having an unquenchable thirst or an itch that I can't scratch."
She finished by saying, "That's why I'm on this train. When it's too warm for walking, I take a trip somewhere. Today I'm off to town for a couple of days shopping. I do find riding on trains relaxing and like today, I sometimes find a compartment with a nice travelling companion. It provides me with company. A little harmless escapism you know."
She must have thought she'd said too much or was embarrassing me again because she fell silent. Then before I could offer to help, she stood up, kicked off her shoes and hitched up her skirt to step up onto the seat to reach into the case I'd place on the rack. This gave me a close-up view of her shapely rounded bottom. It was clear that she was wearing as little under her tight skirt as she had on under her blouse. I could see the outline of a pair of tiny knickers that I imagined might be made of the same lacy material as her top. The outline of her suspenders was also clearly visible. She had even hitched up her skirt far enough for me to see an expanse of shiny nylon clad thigh and most of her stocking tops.