Chapter Fifteen
Fritz
Not that she would admit it to anyone of course, but to be truthful, what happened next was partly Saiorse's own fault.
Out here on the platform, in the warmth of the early afternoon sunshine, with the loading of the luggage van of the train now almost completed, people were, at last, finally beginning to board the waiting carriages, and where friends and relatives had come to see them off, making their heartfelt farewells.
Sitting on the all but empty luggage trolley, swinging her legs to and fro, Saiorse was most frightfully bored. She had been stuck here on the platform for some considerable time, while Danny and that unspeakable wretch Robert had gone off with Da and Uncle Matthew to look at the silly engine. Of course, if it hadn't been for her cousin Robert, Saiorse would quite willingly have gone along with her brother Danny, but not because she wanted to see the locomotive; she didn't, but, it would have meant time spent with her beloved Da.
And, it was because she had chosen not to go with her elder brother and her cousin, for what had seemed ages, although it had only been ten minutes or thereabouts, that Saiorse had been forced to endure what she viewed as the decidedly infantile company of both young Rebecca and her brother Simon, along with her own younger brother Bobby; the boys having done their level best to keep Rebecca happily amused, Simon by making growling noises and letting her play with his stupid teddy bear Oscar. But, with preparations now being made for the train to leave the station, in search of their seats, and accompanied by Aunt Mary's maid, Nanny Bridges had shepherded her three young charges onto the train, Rebecca, Bobby and finally Simon with soppy Oscar the teddy bear clutched firmly under his arm.
For her part, Saiorse had had more than enough of Rebecca, Simon and Bobby, and so, flatly refused to go with the others, declaring loftily that she would stay put, exactly where she was, seated on the luggage trolley, either until her Ma came out of the waiting room, or else her Da returned from looking at the engine.
"Have it your own way then Miss Saiorse" had said Nanny Bridges, deciding that she really had quite enough to do looking after Miss Rebecca, Master Simon and Master Bobby. And, after all, to be truthful, apart from the fact that Miss Saiorse was a handful, decidedly temperamental and likely as not, and for no good reason whatsoever, to suddenly go off half cock and flare up like a Roman Candle on Guy Fawkes' Night, the Branson children were not really her concern.
Saiorse sighed. Da and the others had still not returned from the engine and, as yet, there was no sign of Ma, nor indeed either of Aunt Mary or Aunt Edith, all of whom, Saiorse assumed, must still be closeted in the waiting room. Saiorse sighed again. Goodness knows what it was they could be finding to talk about in there for this length of the time. Yes, she was most definitely bored, and glancing about her, Saiorse looked for something to do to help her pass the time. It was then that she saw it and, because she was bored, and for no other reason than that, once having seen it, she now decided to investigate it further.
For his part, Fritz, too, was equally bored, but more than that he was also now distinctly annoyed: indeed, seriously so.
To begin with, he had been perfectly content. Curled up under the luggage trolley, where it was both cool and shady, as well as out of the way of all those nasty booted feet, patiently awaiting the return of his mistress and his young master, Fritz had soon drifted off to sleep, his slumbers made the more enjoyable by a particularly vivid dream of some of the savoury delights on offer in the enormous vaulted kitchen at Rosenberg, and to which Fritz himself was especially partial, assuming of course, that his young master could manage to avoid the ever vigilant eye of the cook Frau Eder and liberate some of the choicest delicacies for Fritz's own personal consumption.
Occasionally whimpering with undisguised pleasure, beneath the luggage trolley, Fritz was dreamily continuing to contemplate the competing merits of Wiener Schnitzel and Surschnitzel; or rather, at least he had been, until one of the ghastly children, seated on the luggage trolley just above his head, had disturbed his reverie and woken him up by making all kinds of ridiculous noises. Eventually, thankfully, those had at last stopped, the children had left shortly afterwards, or so Fritz assumed, and, that being the case, he had once more closed his eyes and was just drifting back to sleep when he felt a sharp tug on his lead.
Fritz opened one enquiring dark brown eye.
Having heard the sounds of contented snuffling coming from somewhere beneath the luggage trolley, Saiorse had followed the trail of the scarlet lead from where it had been tied to the handle, thence downwards and under the trolley, Kneeling on the platform, peering in, and seeing a slight movement in the shadows beneath the luggage trolley, at one and the same time, Saiorse jerked hard on the lead whereupon Fritz had opened his enquiring eye, and saw the young girl kneeling on the ground, looking in at him.
Until now, Saiorse had never encountered a dachshund, and for his part, Fritz had never encountered an Irish colleen, but he had had the misfortune to encounter children, and as a result, Fritz considered himself something of an expert on the breed.
With the exception of his young master, it was Fritz's considered canine opinion that whatever their parentage or nationality, children were nasty, naughty, noisy little things who patted, petted and pulled at him, when all Fritz really wanted was to be left alone. Accordingly, he eyed the now proffered, outstretched, open palm, along with the extended fingers, with a mixture of outright suspicion and downright hostility. From past experience, Fritz knew what they betokened, and, while he might be many things, preternaturally stupid was not one of them.
The outstretched pink palm moved closer still, was now but a hair's breadth away from the little dog's face.
At that, Fritz decided he had had enough and, given the circumstances, simply did what came most naturally to him. Beginning to bark noisily, Fritz the dachshund opened his little mouth, and nipped with all his might. At which point, and in quick succession, three things happened.
Saiorse screamed and hastily withdrew her hand, rather more shocked than hurt.
The door to the waiting room flew open.
And Fritz, in a desperate attempt, at least as he saw it, to escape the cloying and unwanted attention of Saiorse, now trotted out from beneath the luggage trolley as fast as his short, stubby, little legs would carry him, blissfully unaware of course that his leather lead was tied to the upright handle of the four-wheeled trolley.
The scarlet leash duly paid out, further and further, until it quickly reached its full extent, whereupon the lead then suddenly snagged, pulled tight, jerking Fritz to an abrupt halt causing him to sit down in surprise, hard on his little bottom, on the surface of the platform: leaving the taut leash stretched several inches above the ground, directly across the doorway to the station waiting room.
It was most unfortunate, indeed singularly so, that it was at this precise moment that the door to the salle d'attente now flew open and a sandy haired young boy hobbled headlong, as fast as he could, out onto the platform, shouting angrily at Saiorse in a language which she did not understand.
"Lass den Hund in Ruhe!" yelled Max angrily, his blue eyes smouldering, fixed glaringly, and to the exclusion of anything else, upon the dark-haired girl and who was the focus of his anger, so much so, that he was completely oblivious to the presence of the lead now stretched tautly across the doorway of the waiting room.
At the sound of both the rapidly approaching, albeit shambling, footsteps, and the angry shouted words, Saiorse had whirled about, indeed had half risen to her feet from off the luggage trolley, just as the young boy caught the toe of his right boot beneath the unseen leash, twisting his foot, and tripping him up. Pitching forward, Max sprawled headlong into Saiorse, knocking her off balance, the impact of the collision pushing her backwards over the trolley.
And, at the same time, from somewhere close behind the two of them, there came the frightened, horrified cry of a woman, the sound of which caused people standing nearby on the platform, and even some of those passengers who had already boarded the train, to turn their heads in startled amazement, to try and see what it was that had happened to occasion such a dramatic outburst.
"Ach mein Gott! Mein Schatzi! Nein! Max!" screamed Edith.