Chapter 43
Matilda Thornton ran through the downstairs floor of her home squealing in excitement. It was her second birthday and she was eager for the planned party at her Aunt Abigail's Café to begin.
Matilda noticed her parent's attention on the new baby that had arrived only two days earlier. She realised this baby was already a big part of their once small family, and she found it somewhat displeasing.
Tilly stopped running through the house and stood by her Mother who was rocking her crying sister in her arms. She stuck her fingers in her ears, not liking the foreign noise that was coming from her newborn sister. Taking one hand from her ear while looking up at her Mother, she tugged on her skirt to try to gain her attention. After receiving no response from her once extremely attentive Mother, she ran off to find her Father.
"Rosemary's here." Elizabeth called out as she looked out the front window of their house.
"She's not driving you girls into town, is she?" Jack asked, concern apparent in his voice. He was thankful for Rosemary's offer as he knew travelling by wagon would be an uncomfortable journey for Elizabeth so soon after giving birth. However, the idea of Elizabeth and his daughter's being driven into town by Rosemary sent him into a slight panic.
"Don't worry, Lee has promised to drive us in." Elizabeth replied as she smiled and gave his upper arm a gentle squeeze as she passed him on her way to the front door.
Tilly forgot about the wanted attention from her parents and rushed past them as she made a dash for the front door. Along her way she ran into her Mother which caused her to topple over. She then picked herself up and continued to make her way to the door as if nothing had happened.
"Slow down birthday girl." Jack said, as he chased after her and scooped her up in his arms. "Mummy's holding Abby, you need to be careful."
Tilly nodded her head in agreement before squirming to be let out of her Father's arms. Jack placed her back on the ground and she rushed to the door. Her mind was solely fixed on seeing her best friend Johnathan Coulter, and riding in his parent's car to the party.
Tilly turned the door knob, but the door failed to open. She looked back to her parents for help as she jumped up and down on her toes anxiously, waiting for one of them to open the door.
Elizabeth opened the door and Tilly crawled under her arm, eager to get outside.
"Happy Birthday Tilly." Rosemary exclaimed as she gave Tilly a big smile.
"John?" Tilly asked after her friend, not fussed about birthday wishes for the moment.
"He's in the car with Uncle Lee."
Tilly hurried out onto the porch, down the steps, and went straight to the vehicle.
"Sorry about her manners, she's a tad excited today." Elizabeth apologized.
"I understand. So, you ready to go?"
"We've been up since the crack of dawn, Tilly made sure we were ready a long time ago." Elizabeth laughed, informing her friend. "Could you hold Abby while I get my basket?"
"Of course, you don't even need to ask." Rosemary said, taking the newborn from Elizabeth's arms.
Rosemary cooed and fussed over the baby as she rocked her in her arms while waiting for Elizabeth to return.
A few moments later Elizabeth returned to the front door with Jack in tow and they all headed outside.
Jack helped Elizabeth into the back of the car where she sat with the three children while Lee and Rosemary sat up front.
"I'll meet you at Abigail's soon." Jack informed her. He'd planned to ride Sergeant into town as he knew there wouldn't be enough room in the vehicle.
Elizabeth nodded and smiled as Jack placed a kiss on her cheek.
"All set?" Lee asked just as Jack shut the car door.
"All good." Jack replied as he nodded to Lee, and watched the vehicle drive off before heading to the barn to get Sergeant.
Jack rode Sergeant hard into town, not wanting to miss Tilly's surprise when she arrived at her party.
Once arriving in town, he didn't bother stopping at the livery, he jumped off his horse and tied him up outside the Café. Looking around he noticed the sea of children gathering out the front of the Café. He eventually spotted Elizabeth and Tilly and went over to meet them.
"Let's head inside. I'm sure you don't want to be standing around here too long." He said to Elizabeth, knowing she needed to rest.
Jack picked up Tilly and they made their way into the Café. As they entered the dining room, Jack grinned as he noticed Tilly's jaw drop at what she saw.
The dining room had been cleared and a large table had been brought in which was covered with a white table cloth. The table was decorated with vases of white and pink roses and numerous pink candles.
"Jack, did you do this?" Elizabeth asked almost speechless. She knew this was exactly the kind of thing that he would do.
"I put in a special order with Cat Montgomery for the pink candles, but Abigail helped me with the rest."
"It's amazing." She replied looking over at him and giving him a smile. "But not as amazing as you." She said before placing a kiss on his cheek and his dimples made an appearance upon hearing her words.
Tilly's eyes sparkled as she watched the flames on the pink candles and Jack and Elizabeth shared another smile as they noticed the big smile on their daughter's face.
"You like the candles huh?" Jack asked Tilly and she nodded while not taking her eyes off the candles.
"You did good Daddy." Elizabeth said, leaning into his side as she held their sleeping newborn in her arms. "I knew even before we were married that you'd be the most amazing Father, but you never cease to amaze me."
"Tilly is like her Mother, and I know how much she likes candles." Jack said, pulling Elizabeth in closer to his side.
"You'd be correct there." Elizabeth said, looking up at her husband, but was then distracted as Abigail made her way over to them.
"Happy Birthday Angel." Abigail said to Tilly.
"Daddy got pink candles!" Tilly exclaimed as Jack placed her down onto the ground.
"He did, and I love your new dress."
"Mummy made it." Tilly said proudly, and then she proceeded to spin around in circles to show everyone how it twirled.
"Mummy did good." Jack said, copying Elizabeth's sentiment from earlier. He felt extremely proud of his wife's sewing skills, and both Elizabeth and Abigail noticed.
"It's beautiful Elizabeth, and it matches the candles perfectly." Abigail told her, she was also pleased at Elizabeth's sewing ability.
"That was the plan." Jack added. He had been watching Elizabeth work on the dress almost every night for the past two weeks and had taken a remnant of the material and given it to Cat to match up with the candles.
"You really are something aren't you Jack Thornton." Abigail said, giving him a smile.
Jack shrugged feeling somewhat humbled.
Just then Elizabeth noticed her newborn daughter start to fuss in her arms.
"She's likely hungry, I should nurse her before this party gets started."
"You can use your old room upstairs if you like, I know it's probably a little noisy down here for her." Abigail suggested, noticing all the children running through the café.
"Thank you." Elizabeth said.
While Elizabeth went upstairs to nurse their daughter Jack stayed downstairs. He watched Matilda with Johnathan as they played ring-a-rosie with some of Elizabeth's students.
A while later he felt a familiar hand slip around his arm and he looked to his side to see his Elizabeth.
"The kids are having fun." She said, as she noticed the smile on her husband's face as he watched his daughter with the other children.
He nodded and averted his attention to Elizabeth.
"Abby sleeping?" He asked.
"Yes, she's in the bassinet out in the sitting room."
Half an hour later all the children were seated at the table with their plates full of party treats.
Abigail had made a copious number of pancakes which Elizabeth had decorated with strawberries and blue berries, to make faces on them. There was also pop-corn, cupcakes, cheese sandwiches, and Abigail had even made ice-cream.
After eating, Jack organised the children into playing a few party games. He started to notice after half an hour, the games were becoming a disorganised chaos, the children were so excited that they were unable to concentrate. Elizabeth noticing the chaos naturally stepped into teacher mode to help Jack out.
"Children." Elizabeth called out.
Upon hearing the all to familiar voice of their teacher, all the children stopped what they were doing and looked over at Elizabeth
"How about we all play Mountie Jack says…" Elizabeth called out while realising it had been over a month since she had been in front of the children, however it felt as natural as if she had never left classroom.
The children squealed and jumped up and down as they recognised the familiar game she was suggesting.
"You play "Mountie Jack says" with your students?" Jack asked his wife, giving her a questioning look.
"Well in the classroom it used to be "Miss Thatcher says" and then it got changed to "Mrs Thornton says" but since you're hosting the games today it will be "Mountie Jack says.""
"Alright." He replied and then looked back at all the children who were eagerly waiting for him to start the game.
"Mountie Jack says… put your hands on your head." Jack said as he placed his hands on his head and all the children copied him.
Tilly jumped up and down in excitement as she waited for the next prompt from her Father.
"Mountie Jack says... show your Mrs Thornton scary teacher face." He called out before doing his best impression of Elizabeth's scary teacher face.
As soon as the children saw Jack's impersonation of Elizabeth they all howled with laughter. Even Tilly was familiar with the term and was in a fit of giggles as she stood in front of her Father.
Jack smiled at the children's response and then looked over at Elizabeth. She had her hands on her hips and was glaring at him with her serious scary teacher face. He wiped the smile from his face upon seeing her, and as the students noticed Elizabeth, it encouraged them to further roar with laughter. Before long Elizabeth broke out into a laugh herself and Jack's smile returned. She went over and placed a kiss on his cheek, partly as an offer of apology and partly because she thought he looked so adorably cute doing his impersonation and playing with the children.
Upon noticing the kiss, the children stopped laughing and began to giggle, all of them except Tilly who was so used to seeing their display of affection.
"Alright children." Elizabeth started. "How about we bring out the birthday cake?"
Jack noticed the colour in her cheeks and he grinned as he knew right away that she was trying to distract the children.
The distraction worked, and all the children cheered upon hearing about cake.
Elizabeth headed out to the kitchen to collect the cake and upon entering the kitchen, heard her newborn start to whimper.
"Hey pretty girl, you're awake just in time to see your big sister's cake." Elizabeth said picking her up out of the bassinet while hoping the sound of her voice would sooth her daughter.
Abby did stop crying once in the comfort of her Mother's arms and Elizabeth walked back into the kitchen where she found Abigail placing two pink candles on the cake.
Abigail had made a chocolate cake at Tilly's request. She knew the two-year-old had been disappointed her Mother was unable to make it, but when she told Tilly she would make her a big pink cake, the little girl had become very excited.
"They're ready for cake?" Abigail asked Elizabeth.
"They sure are."
Abigail carefully picked up the cake and the two women headed back into the dining room. Abigail placed the cake down on the table and all the children gathered around to see. Jack picked up Tilly so she could see above all the taller children. He placed Tilly on his hip and with his free hand, and Abigail's help, he proceeded to light the candles. Tilly noticed her Mother come stand by them and she gave her a big grin, showing how excited she was. Jack also noticed his daughter grinning, as well as the dimples that appeared on her cheeks. Other than her dimples and long eye lashes, she was all Elizabeth, and Jack didn't mind one bit.
Elizabeth smiled back at her daughter and placed a quick kiss on her cheek before Tilly returned her attention to the candles.
Jack stood back so a few of the small children could stand in front while Tilly had a good view of the cake from up in his arms.
Everyone proceeded to sing Happy Birthday and then Tilly did her best at trying to blow out the candles, finally getting them out with Jack's help.
Once Tilly had eaten her cake she ran around the room with the other children before returning to Jack and Elizabeth's side. She tried to climb onto her Mother's lap but since Elizabeth had a sleeping baby in her arms Jack took hold of Tilly and pulled her up onto his lap.
"Want Mummy." Tilly sulked as she looked over at her Mother.
"Mummy's busy with your sister right now." Jack told her as he placed a kiss on top of her head.
Tilly sighed and relaxed back onto Jack's chest as he wrapped his arms around her. Before long, Tilly's eyes began to flutter open and closed, and Jack and Elizabeth realised it was time to head home.
"The birthday girl looks tired." Rosemary stated as she walked over to Jack and Elizabeth, noticing Tilly who was now asleep. "If you want to go, I can let Lee know."
"That would be wonderful Rosemary." Elizabeth replied, appreciating the fact that they would be getting a lift back home in the Coulter's vehicle.
Rosemary headed off to find Lee and left Jack and Elizabeth alone with their sleeping children.
"You look tired yourself." Jack told Elizabeth. "You go home, and I'll help Abigail clean up."
"You will do no such thing." Abigail said upon hearing Jack, and she gave her friends a smile.
"Abigail you've done so much for us already." Jack told her.
"It's nothing, and I insist. After all, you have a newborn and a family to look after. Go home, Becky and Cody will help me clean up."
"Thank you Abigail." Jack and Elizabeth replied in unison as they stood up.
Elizabeth gave her friend a hug, and then Abigail gave one to Jack.
"I'll see you both tomorrow." Abigail said, and she smiled as she watched the Thornton family leave the Café.