Chapter thirteen: Rocket's Tail


"Well, talk about drama on the opening day." Polly states. "Losing a waitress when it's so busy."

"She's got a good head on her shoulders." Arthur states. "She'll be fine."

Thomas says nothing as he watches Kate move Gracefully over towards a fully seated table. She speaks to the teenage girl at the table, who squeals in delight, jumps up and hugs her. Her family looks stunned, but happy. Kate has a brief word with them as the girl hurries towards the kitchen. She shakes hands with the father before turning away.

"What do you think she did?" Arthur asks.

"Looks to me," John states. "like she just hired another waitress. I've heard from Harry that she pays well, so, the girl was a fool not to hang onto that job."

He says nothing again as he watches Kate. She hurries to Lizzie, appears to apologize to her and after picking up a menu, surveys the tightly packed restaurant. He hadn't thought there'd be any business for a restaurant in this area, but clearly, he'd been wrong.

Thomas catches a glint in her eye and realizes Kate has something up her sleeve. Lizzie follows Kate towards a table, one with a reporter. The reporter stands up as Kate introduces him to Lizzie. To Thomas's shock, the reporter actually shakes Lizzie's hand, steps aside to seat her as if she was a grand lady. Lizzie, look as if she's about to start crying because of the simple gesture. Kate walks away from the table, a satisfied smile on her face. Then, she notices him watching her and she turns, avoiding his gaze.

"What did you do to her Thomas?" Polly demands. "I can sense the tension between the two o you."

"Yeah, did you yell at her again?" Arthur asks. "She doesn't normally mind talking to us, but now, she's going out of her way to avoid being near you."

Polly questioned. "What happened between you two?" Thomas exhales, opting to remain silent until he has a drink in his hand. "Did you force her into your bed?"

Thomas glowers at her. "I don't think of her like that."

"Bull." She snaps. "I've been here five minutes and I can see the way you look at her. You think you're in love with that barmaid, but I know better. It's this one your eye keeps going to. So what did you do to her?"

Thomas is silent for a long time before stating. "Kimber wanted her for two hours." Polly stared at him, along with John and Arthur. "Kate agreed to it. Nothing happened though."

Arthur is furious. "You handed her over to Kimber?"

He holds Polly's burning gaze. "She made her choice, I didn't force her."

"You're a fool. Handing the woman you care about over to scum like that."

"I don't care about her!" he snaps, refusing to admit that there may be a strange pull towards her. "Kate just happened to be there, Kimber wanted her and she agreed to it."

"She hated Kimber, but she went because you asked her." John grins at him. "Why do you think she did that?"

It takes all of Thomas's control not to rip that toothpick from John's mouth and stab him with it.

"Maybe you two care about each other more than you think." Polly states quietly. "I'm not a fool."

He decides he needs to get a breath of fresh of air. As he stalks out of the restaurant, Thomas notices the reporter is deeply engaged in conversation with Lizzie, which she appears to be enjoying.

He stomps out of the building and hastily lights a cigarette. He doesn't know what he feels for Kate. He thought of her as a nuisance, but that stupid kiss she didn't remember kept tormenting him. He remembered too much, the way she'd tasted, the way she'd clung to him and the scent of her hair. The one thing that remained imprinted in his mind was how perfectly she'd fit in his hands. But he couldn't approach her.

He was tormented by the look of betrayal on her face after she'd run out of Kimber's place. He felt guilty about how quickly she seemed to forgive him by cleaning his wound. He hadn't spoken to her since, even though he was burning to talk to her, he couldn't bring himself to say a word to her.

"Mr. Shelby?" at the sound of Kate's voice, he turns towards her. She's uneasy, he can see that, but she's not going to back down. "I need your food order to send to the kitchen so you all can receive your food together."

"Not hungry."


Kate exhales and glances at the menu. She writes the American fried chicken for his order and fills it out to how he might like the sides. She steps inside the restaurant and hands the menu to Abigail, who's awaiting her to hand the order to her. "Here you go."

Abigail scurries back to the kitchen with the order. Kate notices the Shelby family attempting to casually watch her, so, she steps back outside where Thomas is grinding his cigarette out on her porch step.

As he moves to step off the porch, she catches his arm. "Where are you going?"

"My family's irritated with me, so," he glances around. "I'll be back another day."

"You're not going anywhere. Get back here." Thomas lets out a huff and sits on the edge of the railing, avoiding her gaze. She steps towards him. "I told Polly that our arguments aren't any of his concern." His brow rises in amusement. "I'm not sure what it is about you but," she shakes her head as she leans against the railing. "you bring out the worst in me sometimes." He chuckles. "I've yet to make a man who can make me as mad as you."

"The same." He shakes his head. "I could almost strangle you sometimes."

"I've already got where I'd bury your body, should I decide to murder you." The bland ways she says that, causes him to faintly smile. She closes her eyes and leans forward. The smallest touch causes her to open her eyes and look at him. He'd locked his finger with hers. He's looking at her, as if wondering how she feels about him touching her. Kate smiled faintly at him before saying. "If you're trying to apologize to me without saying the actual words…you could at least hold my hand properly."

He almost smiles at her and squeezes her hand. "At this point, I feel I owe you an apology."

"Don't apologize to me because you think I deserve it." she says softly. "Apologize to me because you mean it."

"I do mean it though. I am sorry about that Kate, the whole thing with Kimber."

Kate nods. "And I'm sorry too, for hitting you with my purse. I didn't know you had razor blades attached to your hat."

He laughs. "At this point, you should start calling me by my Christian name."

"Alright then Thomas."

"People call me Tommy."

"I'll call you Thomas." she says with a smile. "Tommy is the name for a boy, you're a man."

"Suit yourself." He looks away from her, staring up at the sky.

"Why do we fight like this?" Kate asks with a sigh. "You've no claim to me and I have no claim to you. Yet we fight as if-

Words fail her for a moment, but Thomas finds them. "As if…we mean something to each other?"

Kate flushes slightly, but she nods. "Yes."

He shrugs and avoids her gaze. "I don't know."

"Me neither." She crosses her arms. "I disapprove of a lot of things you do such as passing me off to Kimber, the way you rule this place. However, I do admire your loyalty to your family; you do have your honorable moments. On occasion, you can be kind and gentle, I've seen it." he glances at her. "I'm really hoping things work out with Grace. I saw you smiling while you were dancing with her at the club." That memory tormented her. He looked so happy and for some reason, it had made her only too aware that she had no one in her life to hold her. "That's the only time I've seen you smile. It was nice to see."

"Why," he turns towards her and looks down at her. "are you so concerned for me, Kate? You're always jumping into things with me that don't involve you. Why?"

"I don't know, I guess…it's because I pulled a bullet out of you in France." She explained feebly. "I guess, there's an unexplainable bond there. You have a bond with the men you fought with; I have a bond with the men I saved. I don't know many of them." She holds his gaze. "And…it's I know the loneliness you have, I see it in your eyes and I know it matches the loneliness in my soul. I guess, that's why I keep hoping things go well with you and Grace." He takes a step towards her, but she doesn't back down. "You survived a war and you're fighting another one here. If there's ever a man who needs and deserves love, it's you."

Thomas studies her face carefully. "I don't…know what to say to that."

"You don't have to say anything." Kate states. "You don't owe me anything. We're just friends."

"Kate, you just built me up far higher than anything I deserve." Thomas exhales. "Someday…some very lucky man is going to have you as his wife." she blushes as she rolls her eyes. "I mean it, you're good and caring. I've never met anyone like you. You'll find someone to make you smile again."

She smiles sadly. "Thank you but…I don't think I'll ever fall in love again."

"You will." Thomas reaches out and gently strokes her cheek with his thumb. "You're too comely to stay along for long. And when you do, that lucky man is going to have a woman who'll love him far more than he can ever imagine."

Kate inhales deeply. "Thank you."

For a moment, they just stand there looking at each other. Kate inhales, deeply as Thomas studies her closely, his blue eyes threatening to keep her rooted to the floor forever. Thomas shifts towards her and for a moment Kate thinks he's going to kiss her. That thought doesn't scare her, it's the realization that she's actually curious about what it would be like to kiss him.

"You should go back in." Kate steps away from him. "Your food's probably arrived by now and your family's waiting."

"Yeah." He clears his throat. "Come on, I'll take you back inside."

"We should go in separately." Kate crosses her arms across her waist. "Don't want people talking about us."

He nods as he turns on his heel and heads back inside the restaurant. He doesn't say a word to her and for a moment, Kate thinks that he's angry with her again.

Kate exhales as she looks upwards at the black sky, very few stars are visible. There's a weird tension in the air tonight and she doesn't like it. She'd wanted Thomas to kiss and while she was relieved that he hadn't, there was a strange ache inside her that made her fear he'd become the only one to make it go away.

But she wouldn't allow that. She wouldn't allow herself to fall in love with a man like Thomas Shelby. As she entered back into the restaurant, their eyes met for a moment causing her heart to stir in her chest. One thing became shockingly clear to her and it frightened her.

She had feelings for Thomas Shelby and she had no idea when or where they had come from.


Idcam: Polly is going to like her in this one. Thomas will find out about it, but not until chapter 16. (There will be 37 chapters to this story.) Chapter 19 is the one everyone's waiting for.