Shadow in the North

Chapter Fifty-Seven - Time Flies

Mr Thornton was always eager to return to his family after any trip away from home, but as his train pulled into Milton-Northern, he alighted from his carriage with an eagerness of foot which outdid his usual haste to return the mill house. Johnny had turned six some months ago, and had longed for a special set of trains which he had long coveted from his closest friend, Matthew Lyndhurst. Matthew's trains were a gift from his Aunt Edith, and came highly-recommended from his older cousin, Sholto. Matthew - like his parents and grandfather Hale - was a gentle, caring boy, and quite readily shared his expensive trainset with Johnny Thornton, but Johnny was not able to play with his young friend every day, and so did not have unrestricted access to that trainset, as he would have liked.

Many an afternoon at the Lyndhurst's new, large family home - in Newnham, (close to Milton Library to appease Mr Hale) - had ended in Johnny's tears and dark scowls, for - although he was loath to say goodbye to his young friend - he regretted being parted from those shiny, hand-made trains even more. Indeed, Johnny - a quiet, reliable boy of sharp mind and hidden gentleness - was often thought mature beyond his years - much like his father - and yet, those trains always reduced him to tears, and provoked such dark looks from the young lad, as to fairly make Isabel throw back her head in laughter; so like her husband was her son. Mr Thornton, in turn, had felt quite badly for his son, and did not like to see the lad's tears, so he had quite readily offered him a sixth birthday gift of a very fine set of trains from Milton's sole toyshop.

Johnny Thornton, was, however, only a boy of five years, and so his avaricious heart felt no compunction in rejecting the inferior trains, and he insisted that he would have nothing less than the expensive set his friend had, and which could only be purchased from London. So piqued had Mr Thornton's temper been, at his son's ingratitude and uncharacteristic immaturity, that he had retracted his offer of the Milton trainset - or any other trainset - and told his son that he could not have a birthday gift at all!

Young Johnny had sobbed, and pleaded with his grandmamma to change his papa's mind. Mrs Thornton - who doted on the lad (he was quite identical in look to his father; only lacking in height and sideburns) - would have readily intervened and seen her precious grandson's wishes met, but for the fact that the coveted trains came from London. Not favouring London at all, and feeling her grandson's rejection of the Milton trains, to be a slight on the place that was her home, Mrs Thornton had refused Johnny's pleas and said that the trains could not be had. When she had suggested that he ask for tin soldiers or a fine automata instead, Johnny had merely grimaced, and with a heavy scowl, had declared, -

'Soldiers are no different than dolls, Grandmamma, and boys do not play with dolls. Only trains will do!' Upon hearing his son's haughty censure of the gift Mrs Thornton had thought to buy the lad, herself, Mr Thornton - having refused his son any gift, merely as an empty threat - determined that his son was sadly spoilt (for which he wincingly blamed Mrs Thornton, who favoured Johnny above all other grandchildren), and should therefore receive not a single present.

Tears had ensued, and a refusal to eat any dinner, which irked Mrs Thornton greatly, for Isabel insisted that once a child was capable of sitting in a dining chair, they ought to eat with the family, rather than in the nursery. Thus, both parents and grandmother were forced to look upon Johnny's scowling face - his arms crossed stubbornly and defiantly over his chest. He had such a striking likeness to the mill Master when he was displeased, that Isabel laughingly thought her son must have made a study of his father, simply so that he could perfect the ultimate expression of piqued displeasure.

Johnny's dinner untouched, Mr Thornton had risen from the table, wordlessly taken his son's hand, and walked with him to the boy's bedroom. There, he sat upon his son's bed, and placed the long-limbed lad upon his lap.