Erika waved as I helped my employer down from the train. She smiled as she hurried down the platform to us, and I was glad she had apparently come alone to pick us up. She was usually more forthcoming when Claudia wasn't around.
A half dozen other passengers had got off the train. Some were being met, and there were also a couple of cabs waiting. There was no station building, just the two platforms and a small parking lot. The sky was still overcast, but at least it wasn't raining at the moment.
Erika squeezed Jan's hand and craned her head up to kiss me on the cheek. I noted that she had gone rustic to some extent. She wore sturdy walking shoes, and her skirt and jacket were tweed, over a simple yellow sweater. There was a plain gold chain around her neck, and she wore pearl earrings. She had blonde hair and pale blue eyes, and she was probably around twenty-five.
"I don't see any guards or shackles," my employer observed with a smile.
Erika laughed. "I was never arrested. Jason just overreacted. But we'll tell you all about everything after you're settled."
As we negotiated getting our luggage to her car (and Erika nearly carried the largest suitcase herself, until I managed to grab it first), Jan said, "I hope this isn't a problem, but I would really like to eat before we go to the house. That was a long ride, and I get light-headed if I go too long without food."
This was typical, I thought, as I worked on keeping a straight face. It was completely true that my employer needed to eat on a regular schedule, and one of my main duties was making sure that this happened, but she never mentioned it to other people.
That is, she never mentioned it when it was actually true, and we'd had sandwiches on the train. But she was perfectly willing to use it when it served her purposes. Which it did right now, since she wanted to get all the information she could out of Erika while it was just the three of us.
I wasn't sure how Erika would react to this, but she smiled and nodded. "That would be fine. I'll just call the house and tell them we'll be a while. It will be good to catch up on things."
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