A Grimm Warning (The Land of Stories, #3)(54)

“Doesn’t look like there’s anything direct to Monte Carlo,” Conner said. “We’ll have to stop in Paris where that thick blue line ends and then get on the thin dotted orange line.”

“Your knowledge of travel terminology is so impressive,” Bree joked.

They stood in line and zigzagged to the ticket counter with the other early-morning travelers. The ticketing agent had frizzy red hair and huge bags under her eyes. She drank coffee from an enormous mug like it was water.

“Next?” she said.

Conner and Bree approached her. “Two tickets to Paris, please,” Bree said.

The agent looked at them like they had asked to borrow her car. “Do you have a guardian accompanying you? Or an unaccompanied-minor form signed by your parents?” she asked.

Bree and Conner froze. Both of them had somehow forgotten that being fourteen-year-olds might set them back on this trip.

“We… we…,” Bree began but nothing else came out.

Conner panicked and looked around the train station for a solution. In a far corner he saw a very elderly woman sitting in a wheelchair all by herself. Her hair was teased up into a large pouf and she had a full face of makeup on. She somberly stared at the floor as she held a purse and small suitcase on her lap.

“We’re traveling with our grandmother,” Conner said.

“We are?” Bree asked. Conner gestured to the old woman in the corner. “I mean, we are,” Bree continued. “Stupid me, make it three tickets to Paris,” she said back at the ticketing agent.

“That’s your grandmother?” the agent asked.

“Yes, that’s Granny Pearl,” Conner said. “She doesn’t speak a lick of English so she’s asked us to buy the tickets.” Conner energetically waved at the old woman. “Just one more minute, Gran!”

Pearl, as they christened her, was rather confused as to why two young strangers were waving to her in the middle of a train station but decided to wave back with a friendly smile. She also appeared to be a little senile, which was working in their favor.

The ticketing agent shrugged and checked the ticket options. “The only availability we have for three on the next train is in a first-class compartment,” she said.

“Great, how much?” Conner asked.

“Two hundred pounds each,” the ticketing agent said.

Conner gulped. “Boy, that’s a lot of weight, ha-ha,” he said. “We’ll take it. Good thing Granny Pearl gave us lots of money.”

He exchanged cash for the tickets and walked quickly away from the ticketing counter and toward Pearl. Bree glanced over her shoulder and saw the ticketing agent suspiciously glaring at them over her coffee mug.

“She’s still watching us; what do we do?” Bree whispered to Conner.

“Grab the old lady and get on the train, I guess,” he whispered back.

“We can’t kidnap an old woman!”

“What other option do we have?”

Their hearts were racing—they were about to commit the biggest crime of their lives. They leaned down to the old woman and quietly spoke to her.

“Hello there, would you mind doing us a favor?” Conner asked her.

Pearl just smiled blankly at them—he had guessed correctly; she didn’t know a lick of English.

“Wer sind Sie?” she asked.

“What did she just say?” Conner asked.

“I think she said, ‘Who are you?’ ” Bree said. “She’s German.”

“You speak German?”

“Only a little bit—my real grandma was born in Germany.”

“Ask her if she wants to go on a trip with us,” Conner said.

Bree licked her lips and tried translating. “Would you like… um… eine Reise with uns?”

Pearl blinked a couple times, causing her head to move slightly.

“I think that counts as a nod—grab her and let’s go!” Conner whispered.

Bree grabbed the handles of Pearl’s wheelchair and they pushed her toward the security line. Pearl smiled as cheerfully as ever, clearly without the slightest clue what was going on. They handed their tickets to the man at the security check and he carefully looked them over.

“Ich werde entführt,” Pearl told the man casually.

Bree panicked and nervously burst into fake laughter. “Oh, Granny, you’re so funny!” she said loudly. “You’ve been making jokes all day.”

The man handed back their tickets and allowed them to move forward.

“What did she just tell him?” Conner whispered to Bree.

“She said, ‘I’m being kidnapped,’ ” Bree whispered back.

“Oh,” he said, and guiltily looked down at their captive. Pearl’s big smile never left her face. “She’s taking it very well, then.”

They pushed her wheelchair all the way down the platform and boarded the car at the front of the train. The train attendant folded her wheelchair and stowed it with their luggage. Conner and Bree helped Pearl up the steps into the train and into their private first-class compartment. It was very luxurious for a pair of teenage runaways and a kidnapped old woman. It had red cushioned seats and white drapes over a large square window.

They gently sat Pearl down and took the seats across from her. Conner and Bree sat very still and watched Pearl like she was a poisonous animal until the train pulled away from the station. They were convinced at any minute she might start screaming for help, but she never did. Pearl just kept on smiling and contentedly watched the land move outside the window.