A/N: Sorry for the long delay! I promise I have not given up on this story and will continue with it! Looking forward to hearing from all of you!
Chapter 12: Burn
~o0o~
"Shhh…that's a good girl" Sophie coos as she gently brushes out Princess in the stables. Her eyes are still swollen from crying well into the early morning before she dozed into a few fitful hours of sleep. Polly had tried to talk to her during breakfast, but she ate as quickly as she could and then rushed to the shipping yard to be with her only true friend beyond Ada. Princess comforted her in so many ways, even if she could only listen to Sophie recount the night before. The only thing keeping her from buying a train ticket back to London is the gorgeous white horse that Sophie has brushed until she is gleaming like a slab of marble.
"Hey there, Soph," Sophie turns to find John, momentarily obscured by the morning light filtering through the wooden planks of the ceiling as he walks closer.
"Hello," she says softly. She doesn't know how informed he is about the events of the night before, but judging by the sheepish look on his face, he knows enough.
"Ada said I would find you here," he elaborates and reaches out a hand. He's holding a folded note that Sophie hesitates to take. "Come on now, Tommy wanted to give it to you himself but I didn't think that was fair."
After hearing that, Sophie takes the note and rips it open to get to the contents, her eyes quickly scanning it and then going back to the beginning to truly comprehend it. "I hate him."
She lets the note drop onto the hay-covered ground. It was short and in Henry's handwriting although they both knew they were words he didn't want to write.
"He's not too far, Soph. A quick train to London and you can see him. I'll buy you a ticket if you want and Tommy will never know…"
"Tommy always knows," Sophie sighs. Her eyes are wet thinking about how surely Henry's choices were to leave Birmingham or be shot. Sophie naively used to doubt Tommy could point a gun at another man and shoot to kill outside of the war, but she wasn't blind to it anymore. "He's cruel to do this."
"He takes, that's what he does." John shrugs. He took Lizzie, now Henry. "And I feel responsible. I told Pol and she gave in to Tommy". Sophie gave her adoptive dad a sad smile. It would have come to this eventually. The alternative lingers in the air between them. At least Henry isn't dead.
"I'm going to take Princess out for a ride. I won't be back until later – you can tell Tommy that." Sophie says as she heads for Princess' saddle.
"I will, along with the many other things on my mind" John says, patting Princess on her hind leg before leaving Sophie alone once again. A few moments later, Sophie has her horse saddled and takes off west of the docks as fast as she can.
~o0o~
"I have my dress."
"Hmm?"
"My dress. For Cheltenham?" Grace searches Tommy's face for any clue as to what he is thinking as she cleans glasses across the bar from him. Although only two feet of counter separate them, they may as well be on different continents.
Tommy finally looks at her as he gently taps the lip of his glass for a refill. She grabs the dark rum and pours a few fingers worth. Its just the two of them and the waning afternoon light and has been for an hour. With Campbell breathing down her neck, the silence is wasted time for Grace. But all Tommy wants to do is linger in it, replaying the night before and this morning. Sophie's hurt. Henry's anger. John's sadness. Polly's disapproval. He crossed a line this time.
Grace's comment tugs him unwillingly back into reality. The races are two days away and his mind should be focused on the job that lies ahead. "What color is it?"
"It's red." Grace smiles as he finally engages with her.
"That'll be a nice color on you." One drink and half of his glass is gone. As much as his mind wanders elsewhere, he needs Grace for Saturday and he can't have any more women angry with him.
The compliment is enough for her and he leaves a few extra quid for her on the bar when the lot of his shop comes piling in for their after work drinks, filling the Garrison with thirsty Blinders. John isn't among them and Arthur ignores him. It's clear to him as ever that Sophie has all the Shelby brothers by the heartstrings in one way or another.
Tommy leaves the pub and turns down Watery Lane. John had told him earlier that Sophie had gone for a ride on Princess right before he had tore into Tommy about what an arse he was. He didn't fight his younger brother about it. He agreed. All he wanted to do was apologize to her. Henry had to go, there was nothing changing that. But he needed her to forgive him.
When he walks into the house, Polly is gone but she hears John's voice drifting down from upstairs as he desperately tries to get the girls to go down for a nap. He opens the doors into the offices and betting den. He expected them to be empty, but the light reflecting off of something on the long table in the middle of the room catches his eyes.
"John!" Tommy yells out, trying to keep his voice even but it ends up tinged with panic. What is sitting on the table is another bullet crudely etched with his name. The Lees had been here in the short interim between the end of the day and now and they could still be close.
"JOHN!" Tommy yells again and slams his fist down on the table. He's been too distracted. First they were in the stables and now on their street and in their home. It should have never gone this far.
"What the fuck, Tom?" John runs his hand through his cropped and slicked back hair, out of breath from running down the stairs.
"Go in the safe and get two guns."
"What the fuck is going on?"
"Do it." Tommy lobs the bullet at John, who catches it and turns it in his hand, understanding. He digs in his trouser pocket for his keys and unlocks the cage in the middle of the den before heading to the safe. He unlocks it, grabs two handguns. A quick count tells him that no money is missing. "Where is Sophie?"
Tommy paces the offices, looking anywhere for signs of the Lees. A trap, a trip wire, anything not right but he can't find anything out of place.
"She's out in the alley playing in the car with Finn." John tells him. Old enough now to be bored with childish games, Finn likes to practice being a Blinder and pretend driving Tommy's Royce and Sophie always indulges him.
"Fuck." Tommy takes off out the back door, clutching the handgun John brought to him. Just as John said, Sophie is in the passenger seat of Tommy's car with Finn in his oversized cap and hands on the steering wheel. He can hear John right behind him.
"Sophie, take Finn and get out of the car…" Tommy doesn't know if his gut is right on this one, but he won't risk it.
"It's harmless fun, Tommy" Sophie rolls her eyes when she sees him. He already ruined the night before and her morning and she'll be damned if he ruins Finn's little enjoyment.
"Soph, get out of the car." John's voice is shaking. "How did you get in there?"
"We climbed in, like we usually do…" Sophie freezes, her arm around Finn who is still pretending to race down the streets of Birmingham. She can tell that something is very wrong. "We don't have the keys."
"Just come out the way you went in. Don't open the door." Tommy tells them both. He's thankful it's the convertible parked in the alley. If they would have had to open the door…
"Come on, Finn, time to go inside." Sophie grabs Finn by the waist and helps him up over the low driver's side door and John grabs him from the other side. Tommy shoves the gun in the waistband of his trousers and heads to the passenger side to help Sophie out of the car as carefully as possible. He takes her hand and she uses her other to steady herself on his shoulder as she climbs out. He holds her around the waist as he helps her to the ground.
"Tommy, what's going on?" John is already leading Finn back into the house and Tommy is crouched down, inspecting the chassis. When he stands up, there is clear emotion on his face, more than she has ever seen.
"Stand back, Sophie." He says, walking back around to the drivers' side of the Royce as she backs away to the opening of the alley. Tommy fumbles for the car key in his pocket and pushes it into the lock. He turns it and in one movement pulls the door open and dives in the opposite direction.
With a deafening bang, the engine explodes, then the chassis, until the Rolls Royce is engulfed in flames. The passerby on Watery Lane have stopped at the head of the alley to look as Tommy runs to Sophie and takes her in his arms, pressing her against him as they watch the flaming car and both imagine what could have been.
