Soldiers Don't Cry, The Locket Saga Continues
The Locket Saga began with When God Turned His Head where long ago, Kanter Thorton gave Drusilla a locket to symbolize his love for her. In Soldiers Don't Cry, The Locket Saga Continues their daughter Elizabeth treasures the locket.
Despite Elizabeth’s patriotic loyalties, she falls in love with a British officer. As young children, Elizabeth Thorton and Philip Randolph met in the frontier of Western Pennsylvania in 1763. For years, the Atlantic Ocean separated them, but now in 1774, the conflict brewing between the British Empire and the American colonies brought them back together. What is it that keeps Phillip from remembering his childhood and how is it the key to his and Elizabeth’s love for one another?
Despite Elizabeth’s patriotic loyalties, she falls in love with a British officer. As young children, Elizabeth Thorton and Philip Randolph met in the frontier of Western Pennsylvania in 1763. For years, the Atlantic Ocean separated them, but now in 1774, the conflict brewing between the British Empire and the American colonies brought them back together. What is it that keeps Phillip from remembering his childhood and how is it the key to his and Elizabeth’s love for one another?
Soldiers Don't Cry
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Soldiers Don't Cry
Phillip Randolph closed the porthole window and turned back toward his friend and the cabin boy. “I simply prefer to do my boots myself.”
“Oooo, touchy, are we, Phillip?” Gerald taunted. “I love it when I upset you. Getting you upset used to be a rare occurrence, but lately you’ve been on edge.”
Phillip regained his aloof composition. “I just have a specific way I like them to be done, and I don’t think a boy can do it as well as I can.”
Phillip turned back to the window.
“You may leave now, boy.” Gerald said to the cabin boy who still stood at the door.
The boy left and Gerald closed the door.
“You’re a strange one, Phillip Randolph.”
Phillip pointed an angry finger at his friend. “And you have the nerve ridiculing me in front of a cabin boy!”
“I understand why you are upset, my friend. I just wanted to see your temper. It is such a rare thing, but ever since we were assigned to Boston, you have been different. You have been preoccupied with something. Would you mind telling me what it is? Are you preoccupied because you’re going back to America for the first time in years?”
“Yes, I realize I am distracted and, yes, I know I am distracted because I am returning to America. Did I ever tell you that I am adopted?”
“Yes, you told me your father, now Major General Randolph adopted you and brought you back with him to England. I believe you have told me a thousand times! I can’t count the number of times you’ve reminded me since we started this trip,” Gerald rolled his eyes.
“I’m touchy? What about you? You did ask you know.”
“I know, I know, it’s just you’ve been so different since we found out about this assignment.”
Phillip turned his gaze back to the window. “I remember. . .”
“I thought you said you couldn’t remember anything about your life in America?”
Phillip continued to stare out the porthole. He watched the gently rolling waves at a calm ocean, much calmer than earlier in the journey. “I said I don’t remember most of my childhood. I thought I told you I do not remember anything except for the last two months. Those last couple of months, however, I remember quite vividly. Of the rest of my eight years in America, I remember nothing.”
“You don’t remember anything except for the last two months in America?”
“Exactly, I remember nothing at all of most of my childhood,” Phillip opened the porthole again and felt the sea spray on his face. The spray tasted salty on his lips.
“Don’t you think that’s odd?"
I guess,” Phillip said absently. “But that’s just the way it is.”
“Why don’t you remember?”
Phillip felt the cold yellow brass of the window frame in his hand; he suddenly felt queasiness in his stomach. He shook his head. Shaking his head seemed to relieve his anxiety.
“I don’t know. Some traumatic experience, I guess. My father told me I was attached to a supply train, and Indians attacked that supply train. The only survivors were me and the scout.”
“And you don’t remember the attack?”
“Not one minute of it.”
Phillip knew what to expect next from Gerald. Gerald was terribly predictable.
“So what was so important in those last two months you were in America that you can’t see to forget?”
Phillip anticipating Gerald’s reaction grinned, “Well, I met a girl. . .”
“A girl? Phillip, you cannot be telling me you remember a girl! You? Are you saying you remember a girl in your life that remains so important to you that you not only remember her, but she occupies your every thought now, years later? She must have been some girl.”
Phillip grimaced. “Come on, Gerald, I was just eight years old.”
“All the more reason, you’re now twenty and she is all you can think about. Now I think I know why you’ve never looked at another woman.”
“Don’t be silly. I find women attractive.”
“It’s not the same. This one you have remembered for twelve years. Most of the girls you meet you don’t remember beyond the last dance you attended.”
Phillip laughed. “You have a point.”
“You bet I do. I thought maybe you preferred boys”
“No, I’m not and never have been interested in boys.”
“I realized you weren’t interested in them because you’re oblivious of their existence too. So tell me about this marvel of womanly flesh,” Gerald gestured with his hands for Phillip to continue.
“Her name was, probably still is Elizabeth Thorton. I remember her as a cute little five-year old with pigtails. What I remember most about her was her little mouth could always put into words exactly what came into her mind. She always said what she thought.” “She impressed you and she was only five-years old?” Gerald did not sound impressed.
Phillip signed. “Must be about seventeen now. I wonder if she still says whatever is on her mind.”
Gerald shook his head. “Probably not, my sources tell me Bostonians are as straight laced as they come. If she does speak her mind, she will more than likely be one of those Daughters of Liberty we have read about in the gazettes. Proper Puritanical women are seen and not heard.”
“Well, we’ll see, won’t we?”
“What do you mean, by ‘we’ll see’?” Gerald turned to look at Phillip eye to eye. “Oh, no, don’t tell me.”
Phillip smiled into his friend’s face and nodded. “Yes, you have guessed correctly. I have arranged for us to say at the Mayford house. The Mayford house was where I stayed just before I crossed the ocean to go to England when I was a child.”
“Mayford, what does this have to do with Elizabeth Thorton?”
“Oh, didn’t I tell you? Elizabeth Thorton is the half-sister of Rachel Codman Mayford. Elizabeth went to live with her sister after her entire family was massacred outside Fort Presque Isle back in ’62.”
“Great!” Gerald slammed his fist into the ship’s bulkhead. “Great! We are risking the possibility of staying at a Rebel’s house in Boston all because you want to see a girl. That is my modus operandi, not yours! Oh yes, I forgot. This is no ordinary girl. No, she is a girl who you knew back when you were eight years old! Don’t you see what’s wrong with that?”
Phillip shook his head. “It’s not the way you’re making it sound. Elizabeth’s brother-in-law Peter Mayford is a shipbuilder and merchant, and he is a very loyal Tory. My sources tell me he remains loyal to the crown in the political climate in Boston.”
Gerald frowned. “What if your sources are wrong? It would not be the first time they were wrong either, you know. It does not make sense, if you asked me. You say this man is a shipbuilder and merchant. Did it ever occur to you the reason we are going to Boston is to enforce the parliament’s order to close the same port where this man does business? You say he is a Loyalist. What makes you think closing the port hasn’t swayed the man to be a Son of Liberty?”
“Relax my friend, you read too much from those anti-colonial tabloids. Come on, old chap, you’ve got the Sons of daughters of Liberty on the brain.”
“So what do you think our mission in Boston is? We are crossing the Atlantic to stop the Sons of Liberty and the rest of those rebels. This isn’t a pleasure cruise we’re on, you know.”
Phillip beamed. ”I am probably more aware of what our mission is than you are, my friend. I am telling you, you do not have to worry. We will be in the home of a Loyalist, the home of an old friend. You don’t have to worry about us getting our throats cut in the middle of the night by crazed rebels.”
“What if they’ve changed since you were here all those years ago? Perhaps they will not remember you. What if they are not Loyalists, Phillip?”
“Then we’re get our throats cut in the middle of the night. Seriously, Gerald, I met these People. They are good people. They will treat us like royalty. You just wait and see.”
“I guess I’ll just plan to sleep with my eyes open. You have not been in contact with them for twelve years, my friend. A lot can happen in twelve years.”
“I hope a lot has changed in the past twelve years. You know I’m not expecting a five-year old girl.”
Gerald gave him a sideways glance. “Why Phillip, you devil, I would never have guessed you were adventuresome. I am looking forward to meeting this Elizabeth Thorton, after all.”
Phillip, suddenly, did not want Gerald meeting Elizabeth. Gerald was the “adventuresome” one. He actually seemed to enjoy getting into trouble, because he always seemed to make it a point to find it wherever he was. Boston, of course, would be no different. If there was, trouble to be found, whether it was on the battlefield or in the tavern, Gerald would make sure to be in the thick of things. If the reports they received in London about Boston were true, Gerald would not be disappointed. Phillip, however, did not want Gerald causing trouble in the Mayford home, and he really did not want Gerald to meet Elizabeth because Gerald thought himself a lady’s man.
Phillip, on the other hand, was a saint compared to his old friend. He avoided all kinds of trouble by always playing by the rules. He was not the kind of person to break ranks. He was more disciplined than most of King George’s officers were.
Phillip turned his attention back toward the window. His thoughts returned to the girl he wanted to see again. “My first memory was of her, you know.”
“Are you still talking about the Thorton girl?”
“Of course,” Phillip nodded and continued. “I remember every minute detail of the evening I met her. I remember when the soldiers told me I was a drummer boy with the guard of a supply train destined for Fort Schlosser. I remember they told me that my supply train had been ambushed. Can you even imagine how it feels when someone tells you something about yourself that you know you should know, but you cannot recall that information? It is like you getting drunk, coming home, and not being able to remember how you got home. Only I woke up and discovered I did not remember anything about who I was, or anything about me. I could not remember any of it. It was as if I was told a story about someone else. They said they found me wandering near Fort Presque Isle. Maybe if I would had a chance to get my bearings, if I met someone knew me before was able to tell me more about myself. I do not know. All I know is that almost immediately we were on our way east. Then in Boston, Colonel Randolph adopted me as his son. We left America. Just like that, I was the son of a great soldier.”
“You’re not a bad soldier yourself. You are too good, if you ask me.”
Phillip let out a sigh. “I am too good is a true statement. The Colonel made a similar comment on my last fitness report. He wondered if I thought there might not be something wrong with me. I do not know. All I have ever known is soldiering. From the day my father adopted me, I was groomed as a soldier. Even before my training, I was a soldier. On the day I first met Elizabeth Thorton, I was already a straight-backed, backpacking, gun-toting little soldier ready to carry out his next mission.”
“Which was . . .?”
“I was in charge of caring for young Miss Elizabeth Thorton.”
Gerald chuckled. “You were in charge of a five-year old, how quaint.”
“Not so quaint,” Phillip retorted. “She was probably the toughest assignment of my military career. The girl was a keg of dynamite. She saw right through the soldier act and saw the little boy beneath. Even at five years old, she saw me as an eight-year-old playing soldier.”
“But you were a soldier.”
Phillip shook his head. “No, Father put me in charge of her because he thought I’d play with her. Not me! I did not know how. She started crying right there in the colonel’s office and do you know what I said?”
“What did you say?”
“I said, ‘soldiers don’t cry’.”
“You were insensitive,” Gerald agreed.
Phillip shrugged his shoulders and looked Gerald right in the eye. “She stopped crying immediately, wiped the tears from her eyes, and stubbornly set her little jaw and looked me right in the eye. You’ll never guess what she said next.”
“No, I haven’t got a clue, “Gerald found the tale amusing. “Tell me.”
“She said ‘I don’t care if soldiers don’t cry because little girls do!’”
Both men laughed together. Gerald laughed so hard he fell back onto his bunk. “How delightful, how simply delightful. She sounds like a charming girl to say the least. I guess she told you!”
Phillip nodded. “She saw something most other people have always missed.” Something even I did not see. I am a soldier, Gerald. I am too much a soldier. You have said so yourself. There is something in me, which does not quite fit. An elusive part of me, I cannot reach, but. Elizabeth saw whatever it is and pointed it out to me. I believe she’s the key to me finding out who I truly am.”
“You’re setting yourself up to be hit on your blind side, Phillip. You don’t know anything about the wiles of this woman.”
“Wiles huh? Well, I will at least know where my blind side is. Something is wrong with me. Oh, I can appreciate a woman, and I am nervous before a battle, but there is still something missing. Things do not faze me but things do not excite me either. There is something wrong with me and she saw my weakness from the start. She was the first one to put it into words. I think maybe she’s a key to solving the mystery of my life.”
Gerald stood up and up his hand on his friend’s shoulder. “She was a five-year-old, for God’s sake. What could she see? You act as if she was a goddess or something. “
“Maybe she is.”
Phillip brushed his friend’s hand from his shoulder.
‘You’ve never seen her. I remember she had the most beautiful hair and eyes, and she was spirited. I admire her spirit. I don’t know how any mortal could be so perfect.”
He turned again to stare out over the waves toward the West. His destiny, he knew lay beyond those waters at the colonial city known as Boston.
“Oooo, touchy, are we, Phillip?” Gerald taunted. “I love it when I upset you. Getting you upset used to be a rare occurrence, but lately you’ve been on edge.”
Phillip regained his aloof composition. “I just have a specific way I like them to be done, and I don’t think a boy can do it as well as I can.”
Phillip turned back to the window.
“You may leave now, boy.” Gerald said to the cabin boy who still stood at the door.
The boy left and Gerald closed the door.
“You’re a strange one, Phillip Randolph.”
Phillip pointed an angry finger at his friend. “And you have the nerve ridiculing me in front of a cabin boy!”
“I understand why you are upset, my friend. I just wanted to see your temper. It is such a rare thing, but ever since we were assigned to Boston, you have been different. You have been preoccupied with something. Would you mind telling me what it is? Are you preoccupied because you’re going back to America for the first time in years?”
“Yes, I realize I am distracted and, yes, I know I am distracted because I am returning to America. Did I ever tell you that I am adopted?”
“Yes, you told me your father, now Major General Randolph adopted you and brought you back with him to England. I believe you have told me a thousand times! I can’t count the number of times you’ve reminded me since we started this trip,” Gerald rolled his eyes.
“I’m touchy? What about you? You did ask you know.”
“I know, I know, it’s just you’ve been so different since we found out about this assignment.”
Phillip turned his gaze back to the window. “I remember. . .”
“I thought you said you couldn’t remember anything about your life in America?”
Phillip continued to stare out the porthole. He watched the gently rolling waves at a calm ocean, much calmer than earlier in the journey. “I said I don’t remember most of my childhood. I thought I told you I do not remember anything except for the last two months. Those last couple of months, however, I remember quite vividly. Of the rest of my eight years in America, I remember nothing.”
“You don’t remember anything except for the last two months in America?”
“Exactly, I remember nothing at all of most of my childhood,” Phillip opened the porthole again and felt the sea spray on his face. The spray tasted salty on his lips.
“Don’t you think that’s odd?"
I guess,” Phillip said absently. “But that’s just the way it is.”
“Why don’t you remember?”
Phillip felt the cold yellow brass of the window frame in his hand; he suddenly felt queasiness in his stomach. He shook his head. Shaking his head seemed to relieve his anxiety.
“I don’t know. Some traumatic experience, I guess. My father told me I was attached to a supply train, and Indians attacked that supply train. The only survivors were me and the scout.”
“And you don’t remember the attack?”
“Not one minute of it.”
Phillip knew what to expect next from Gerald. Gerald was terribly predictable.
“So what was so important in those last two months you were in America that you can’t see to forget?”
Phillip anticipating Gerald’s reaction grinned, “Well, I met a girl. . .”
“A girl? Phillip, you cannot be telling me you remember a girl! You? Are you saying you remember a girl in your life that remains so important to you that you not only remember her, but she occupies your every thought now, years later? She must have been some girl.”
Phillip grimaced. “Come on, Gerald, I was just eight years old.”
“All the more reason, you’re now twenty and she is all you can think about. Now I think I know why you’ve never looked at another woman.”
“Don’t be silly. I find women attractive.”
“It’s not the same. This one you have remembered for twelve years. Most of the girls you meet you don’t remember beyond the last dance you attended.”
Phillip laughed. “You have a point.”
“You bet I do. I thought maybe you preferred boys”
“No, I’m not and never have been interested in boys.”
“I realized you weren’t interested in them because you’re oblivious of their existence too. So tell me about this marvel of womanly flesh,” Gerald gestured with his hands for Phillip to continue.
“Her name was, probably still is Elizabeth Thorton. I remember her as a cute little five-year old with pigtails. What I remember most about her was her little mouth could always put into words exactly what came into her mind. She always said what she thought.” “She impressed you and she was only five-years old?” Gerald did not sound impressed.
Phillip signed. “Must be about seventeen now. I wonder if she still says whatever is on her mind.”
Gerald shook his head. “Probably not, my sources tell me Bostonians are as straight laced as they come. If she does speak her mind, she will more than likely be one of those Daughters of Liberty we have read about in the gazettes. Proper Puritanical women are seen and not heard.”
“Well, we’ll see, won’t we?”
“What do you mean, by ‘we’ll see’?” Gerald turned to look at Phillip eye to eye. “Oh, no, don’t tell me.”
Phillip smiled into his friend’s face and nodded. “Yes, you have guessed correctly. I have arranged for us to say at the Mayford house. The Mayford house was where I stayed just before I crossed the ocean to go to England when I was a child.”
“Mayford, what does this have to do with Elizabeth Thorton?”
“Oh, didn’t I tell you? Elizabeth Thorton is the half-sister of Rachel Codman Mayford. Elizabeth went to live with her sister after her entire family was massacred outside Fort Presque Isle back in ’62.”
“Great!” Gerald slammed his fist into the ship’s bulkhead. “Great! We are risking the possibility of staying at a Rebel’s house in Boston all because you want to see a girl. That is my modus operandi, not yours! Oh yes, I forgot. This is no ordinary girl. No, she is a girl who you knew back when you were eight years old! Don’t you see what’s wrong with that?”
Phillip shook his head. “It’s not the way you’re making it sound. Elizabeth’s brother-in-law Peter Mayford is a shipbuilder and merchant, and he is a very loyal Tory. My sources tell me he remains loyal to the crown in the political climate in Boston.”
Gerald frowned. “What if your sources are wrong? It would not be the first time they were wrong either, you know. It does not make sense, if you asked me. You say this man is a shipbuilder and merchant. Did it ever occur to you the reason we are going to Boston is to enforce the parliament’s order to close the same port where this man does business? You say he is a Loyalist. What makes you think closing the port hasn’t swayed the man to be a Son of Liberty?”
“Relax my friend, you read too much from those anti-colonial tabloids. Come on, old chap, you’ve got the Sons of daughters of Liberty on the brain.”
“So what do you think our mission in Boston is? We are crossing the Atlantic to stop the Sons of Liberty and the rest of those rebels. This isn’t a pleasure cruise we’re on, you know.”
Phillip beamed. ”I am probably more aware of what our mission is than you are, my friend. I am telling you, you do not have to worry. We will be in the home of a Loyalist, the home of an old friend. You don’t have to worry about us getting our throats cut in the middle of the night by crazed rebels.”
“What if they’ve changed since you were here all those years ago? Perhaps they will not remember you. What if they are not Loyalists, Phillip?”
“Then we’re get our throats cut in the middle of the night. Seriously, Gerald, I met these People. They are good people. They will treat us like royalty. You just wait and see.”
“I guess I’ll just plan to sleep with my eyes open. You have not been in contact with them for twelve years, my friend. A lot can happen in twelve years.”
“I hope a lot has changed in the past twelve years. You know I’m not expecting a five-year old girl.”
Gerald gave him a sideways glance. “Why Phillip, you devil, I would never have guessed you were adventuresome. I am looking forward to meeting this Elizabeth Thorton, after all.”
Phillip, suddenly, did not want Gerald meeting Elizabeth. Gerald was the “adventuresome” one. He actually seemed to enjoy getting into trouble, because he always seemed to make it a point to find it wherever he was. Boston, of course, would be no different. If there was, trouble to be found, whether it was on the battlefield or in the tavern, Gerald would make sure to be in the thick of things. If the reports they received in London about Boston were true, Gerald would not be disappointed. Phillip, however, did not want Gerald causing trouble in the Mayford home, and he really did not want Gerald to meet Elizabeth because Gerald thought himself a lady’s man.
Phillip, on the other hand, was a saint compared to his old friend. He avoided all kinds of trouble by always playing by the rules. He was not the kind of person to break ranks. He was more disciplined than most of King George’s officers were.
Phillip turned his attention back toward the window. His thoughts returned to the girl he wanted to see again. “My first memory was of her, you know.”
“Are you still talking about the Thorton girl?”
“Of course,” Phillip nodded and continued. “I remember every minute detail of the evening I met her. I remember when the soldiers told me I was a drummer boy with the guard of a supply train destined for Fort Schlosser. I remember they told me that my supply train had been ambushed. Can you even imagine how it feels when someone tells you something about yourself that you know you should know, but you cannot recall that information? It is like you getting drunk, coming home, and not being able to remember how you got home. Only I woke up and discovered I did not remember anything about who I was, or anything about me. I could not remember any of it. It was as if I was told a story about someone else. They said they found me wandering near Fort Presque Isle. Maybe if I would had a chance to get my bearings, if I met someone knew me before was able to tell me more about myself. I do not know. All I know is that almost immediately we were on our way east. Then in Boston, Colonel Randolph adopted me as his son. We left America. Just like that, I was the son of a great soldier.”
“You’re not a bad soldier yourself. You are too good, if you ask me.”
Phillip let out a sigh. “I am too good is a true statement. The Colonel made a similar comment on my last fitness report. He wondered if I thought there might not be something wrong with me. I do not know. All I have ever known is soldiering. From the day my father adopted me, I was groomed as a soldier. Even before my training, I was a soldier. On the day I first met Elizabeth Thorton, I was already a straight-backed, backpacking, gun-toting little soldier ready to carry out his next mission.”
“Which was . . .?”
“I was in charge of caring for young Miss Elizabeth Thorton.”
Gerald chuckled. “You were in charge of a five-year old, how quaint.”
“Not so quaint,” Phillip retorted. “She was probably the toughest assignment of my military career. The girl was a keg of dynamite. She saw right through the soldier act and saw the little boy beneath. Even at five years old, she saw me as an eight-year-old playing soldier.”
“But you were a soldier.”
Phillip shook his head. “No, Father put me in charge of her because he thought I’d play with her. Not me! I did not know how. She started crying right there in the colonel’s office and do you know what I said?”
“What did you say?”
“I said, ‘soldiers don’t cry’.”
“You were insensitive,” Gerald agreed.
Phillip shrugged his shoulders and looked Gerald right in the eye. “She stopped crying immediately, wiped the tears from her eyes, and stubbornly set her little jaw and looked me right in the eye. You’ll never guess what she said next.”
“No, I haven’t got a clue, “Gerald found the tale amusing. “Tell me.”
“She said ‘I don’t care if soldiers don’t cry because little girls do!’”
Both men laughed together. Gerald laughed so hard he fell back onto his bunk. “How delightful, how simply delightful. She sounds like a charming girl to say the least. I guess she told you!”
Phillip nodded. “She saw something most other people have always missed.” Something even I did not see. I am a soldier, Gerald. I am too much a soldier. You have said so yourself. There is something in me, which does not quite fit. An elusive part of me, I cannot reach, but. Elizabeth saw whatever it is and pointed it out to me. I believe she’s the key to me finding out who I truly am.”
“You’re setting yourself up to be hit on your blind side, Phillip. You don’t know anything about the wiles of this woman.”
“Wiles huh? Well, I will at least know where my blind side is. Something is wrong with me. Oh, I can appreciate a woman, and I am nervous before a battle, but there is still something missing. Things do not faze me but things do not excite me either. There is something wrong with me and she saw my weakness from the start. She was the first one to put it into words. I think maybe she’s a key to solving the mystery of my life.”
Gerald stood up and up his hand on his friend’s shoulder. “She was a five-year-old, for God’s sake. What could she see? You act as if she was a goddess or something. “
“Maybe she is.”
Phillip brushed his friend’s hand from his shoulder.
‘You’ve never seen her. I remember she had the most beautiful hair and eyes, and she was spirited. I admire her spirit. I don’t know how any mortal could be so perfect.”
He turned again to stare out over the waves toward the West. His destiny, he knew lay beyond those waters at the colonial city known as Boston.
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