Page 8 of Winter Magic on Railway Lane

Ethan rolled his eyes. ‘Yeah right. As if you really wanted me hanging around in your love nest upstairs.’

‘Oh no,’ said Ryan, with a grin. ‘Three is most definitely a crowd. So I’m quite glad that you’ve now got your own place.’

‘My point exactly,’ said Ethan. ‘But seeing as I’ve invited myself over for a Sunday roast, then you won’t exactly have time to miss me.’

‘So how long are you staying this time?’ asked his elder brother in a pointed tone.

Whereas Ryan was now happy to be back in Cranfield full-time, Ethan still found the place unsettling and full of painful memories of his parents’ disastrous marriage. Therefore he tended to stay only a couple of weeks at a time before moving on to the next work contract far away.

‘Long enough to wind you up,’ replied Ethan, with a grin before his smile slipped. ‘Actually, because that shopping mall in Seattle isn’t ready yet, I’ve got about a month until my next contract starts, so I thought I’d take some time out to get my new home in a decent state. Maybe I’ll even have some furniture by then.’

Ryan looked surprised but pleased. ‘Great,’ he said. ‘Dad and Grandad will be pleased. We’ll all enjoy having you around for a bit longer. Well, maybe right up until the time when we can’t stand the sight of you.’

‘Feeling’s mutual, bro,’ said Ethan with a wink. ‘And you’ve only got until the start of November.’

Despite their banter, Ethan was warmed by his brother’s reaction. After so much time apart over the past decade, theyhad begun to grow closer once more over the past year and Ethan was actually looking forward to spending a bit of time with his family over the next few weeks.

He headed outside along the single track to the large train workshop a few yards away. In the old days when the railway had still run, the workshop had been used to service the modern trains. But when they had stopped running twenty years ago, his dad had had the incredible idea to renovate the full-sized steam engine that had been in the back of the workshop for as many years as Ethan could recall.

Bob’s obsession with the steam engine had been one of the reasons that their mum had finally declared enough was enough and moved to Spain with her lover. They spoke occasionally, but she had pretty much drawn a line under her life in Cranfield and, it felt to Ethan, to her two sons as well.

With their grandad widowed, the two older men had hunkered down in their combined grief and worked on the steam engine each and every day. It had needed major renovations to even get the engine going once more, but part by part, day by day, year by year, slowly the train had been repaired until finally it was ready to go out on the tracks for its first journey in more than fifty years.

He found his dad and grandad already in the driver’s cab and looking excited. Ethan knew how much this day meant to them both.

‘Good morning,’ said Ethan.

‘It certainly is,’ replied Eddie, with a grin. ‘A great morning, in fact.’

‘Morning,’ replied Bob, also beaming from ear to ear.

‘Everything looking okay?’ asked Ethan.

‘All set and ready for her first run,’ Bob told him.

Ethan was feeling equally excited as he climbed up to join them in the driver’s cab. But there had been one worry that he kept him awake the previous night.

‘We’ve definitely contacted the right authorities about taking it out on the track, haven’t we?’ asked Ethan, a little worried about his dad’s laid-back approach to rules and regulations. He’d always assumed that’s where he had inherited it from.

His grandad nodded. ‘Oh yes,’ replied Eddie, smiling. ‘You wouldn’t believe the forms we’ve had to fill out and all the endless inspections to make sure that it’s safe.’

‘It’s a fire-breathing dragon on giant wheels moving through the countryside,’ said Ethan, glancing at the large steam engine. ‘I’m not surprised that everyone wants it to be safe.’

‘She’ll be fine,’ said Bob, reaching out of the open cab to pat the massive side panel.

‘I thought you were going to repaint it?’ remarked Ethan, glancing over the rusty red paint as he climbed up into the driver’s cab to join them.

‘No time,’ replied Eddie. ‘We wanted to get it going first.’

Ethan blew out a long breath. ‘So what’s the drill here? Who’s in charge?’ he asked.

‘Not you, son,’ said Bob, laughing. ‘Your grandad and I will be the drivers, keeping an eye on the track as well as all the gauges.’

Thankfully, it was quite a simple set-up with the water and temperature gauges the main ones to watch.

‘And what will I be doing?’ asked Ethan, glancing down at the blue overalls that his father had given him to wear.

‘Stoking the fire,’ said Eddie, pointing at the large pile of coal next to them.