Eleanor Andrews slammed the door of the train carriage, panting with the exertion of running down the platform, her chest very much heaving. And it was a chest that could heave!
She was late catching the train. Not her fault. She had planned the journey carefully, but everything had gone wrong. Holdups of one sort and another. Her plan to change into her frock in the Ladies' Powder Room had gone out of the window as she crossed London. Things going so wrong and making her later and later. Just to catch the train became her object and she had made that -- just. A booked ticket and so a train she just had to catch. Hopefully she could find a compartment, she was travelling first class, either an empty compartment or one with just a lady or two sitting within it where she could swap jeans and tee shirt, all now rather damp with perspiration, for her frock, jewellery and so on.
But again, her luck was not in that morning. The train quite crowded and so she had to settle for a compartment with four besuited gentlemen seated within. Not even one lady. That was going to be a problem and one not easily resolved. Could she change at the wedding itself? But where? The vicar might be a bit surprised at a young lady wanting to use the vestry to change! She could hardly go to the hotel she was staying at as there would not be time. Her planning had been careful and had allowed for some holdups but, even so, had gone awry. Her appearance in the compartment galvanised the gentlemen into action. Immediate help with her large case up onto the metal rack with its string netting. She had lugged it across London and run up the platform with it so it was not as if she could not have done the action, but it was kind of them, and she thanked them.
Eleanor sat in the compartment looking both out of the window and at her travelling companions. Clearly businessmen and successful ones at that, reading the Times or else open folders of papers on their knees.
"Going home, going to see your parents?" enquired one of the gentlemen, bearded and a little portly. It might have been the case, going home from university for a few days, but it would have been completely the wrong direction. Eleanor was not doing that and said 'no', and that she was going to a wedding.
"Not dressed like that!" He meant it jokingly, her blue jeans and yellow tee shirt clearly not wedding attire. No doubt he expected she would have plenty of opportunity to change. Indeed, the wedding might not be until the morrow.
Eleanor grinned, "Not really, I've a frock to put on and so on. Same colours though, yellow with a blue sash."
"That will look delightful. I hope it won't have got crumpled in your suitcase. A spot of ironing perhaps?"
"Not much chance to do that. I've got to change by the time we reach _______. "
"On the train? It's going to be a bit of a squeeze in the 'loo' at the end of the carriage, isn't it?"
And Eleanor was pleased to talk and explained how her best laid plans for the morning had gone awry, how she should already be dressed ready for the wedding. "I was hoping for an empty compartment, a ladies' only compartment or at least one with just ladies in."
"Quite."
"I just haven't time to get to the hotel. The 'Unicorn', and then on to the wedding. I've got to go straight to the ceremony. No time. I'd it all planned."
There was a pause and then the gentleman ventured again. "It's not as if we are not married men, and with young daughters like yourself."
What was he suggesting?
"You could, I suppose, still change in here. We could keep watch, and not look, of course." And he introduced himself and his companions, all heading for a meeting.
To Eleanor the 'and not look' seemed a little improbable, but she did not have too much choice. She needed to change -- had to change.
"That would be most awfully kind."
Her suitcase lowered once more and placed on the spare, cushioned seat. Eleanor opened it. Understandably the men looked and there, right on the top, neatly held by two criss-crossing straps were the items of rather fancy underwear she had brought. Brides sometimes enjoy the idea of really nice underwear under their bridal gowns, perhaps but only perhaps also for the later pleasure of the groom. Only perhaps because that presumes women dress for men rather than for other women, or their own pleasure. Nice to feel pretty all over. Pretty gown, petty undies! Eleanor felt the same. Had decided white stockings and a lacy suspender belt along with matching knickers and brassiere would be 'fun' under her yellow frock. And, you never knew, perhaps she might hit it off with a nice young man at the wedding and... well, things sometimes happened!
Of course, all this meant, Eleanor's change of clothes was going to be a complete change. Not simply down to her bra and pants and then the yellow frock pulled over it all, but she would need to take everything off. Indeed, be momentarily, she could be quick, stark naked in the compartment with the four gentlemen. And to imagine they would not look? Pull the other one! Eleanor was tall, blond and shapely. Moreover, she had a rather fluffy and generous furry patch -- not that the gentlemen could know that in any detail, but they might already be wondering.
They were all looking at her underwear in the case as she undid the straps. But where to put things? The problem of changing in the train 'loo' so immediately becoming apparent. It was going to be hard enough in the compartment. Could she get her frock out and hang it up on the luggage rack? She had a coat hanger. That was the easy part, though moving her undies and trying to make them stay on the inside of the lid of the suitcase when it was propped up against the seat's back was none too easy. Had there been a nice lady there she could have handed them to her, and she could have placed them in her lap. Not really appropriate to ask one of the gentlemen to hold her 'smalls'.
Frock hung up, the rest of her suitcase on display. Her pretty shoes, her washbag, her other clothes, her knickers for the day after the wedding and so on. Luckily she had not brought Mr. Williams, her intimate 'massager' with her. Not good for the men to have seen that nestled there on her knickers. They would then have had more than a shrewd idea what she liked to do before sleep!
"Lovely frock. What can we do to help, or do you just want to sort yourself out? Perhaps the blinds?" He did not mean those over the window. Who was going to see in as the train rushed through the countryside, but those to the corridor. Limiting who might see to... just those in the compartment. It did feel more private, and the gentlemen were being so very helpful.
The gentlemen were all nodding and smiling as they looked across at her. Helpful faces; concerned faces; all reassuring.
"You have make-up and lipstick to go on?"
She did. Ordinarily she would apply all that before putting her frock on, best not to have colourful pigments out and about with that on. "If you don't mind. If I could impose, I rather fear I'm going to monopolise the compartment a bit. Well, here goes then."
She reached for her tee shirt to pull It off. Pull it off in front of all those gentlemen. It sort of required courage. "I'm awfully sweaty. I'd thought I'd have so much time, but I just had to run for the train."
"Glowing," smiled one of the gentlemen, a sandy haired gent with round, silver glasses. "Ladies don't sweat, they just glow!" Suitable and friendly chuckles all around.