Her devilish man was making plans. Something rotten was brewing in Small Heath and she didn't like it, not one bit. Tommy knew how to look at her and how to pitch his voice so she would melt and that was almost as discomforting as knowing he was after something. After buying them dinner, he buttered her up so imperceptibly it would have likely worked on anyone - except her. She knew him far too well to fall for it. Even knowing that didn't stop her from telling him what he wanted; inane gossip about the other girls, who they saw, what they were like. A lesser woman would have been jealous. Her? Well, she was merely interested in seeing how his assuredly harebrained scheme played out.

Just interested.

Surprisingly, for someone as dreamy and romantic as Lupe, jealousy was a foreign emotion. One might think she would have swooned for the first employer that promised her the stars and the moon, and every single man after. However, the brothel had all but stamped it out in her; the price to share a client with another girl at the same time was a lucrative incentive.

Thomas Shelby was a man a girl could justifiably get jealous over.

He paid and tipped generously, made the act pleasurable enough while chasing his own peak, and wasn't half-bad to look at. Lupe couldn't deny it rankled her to have him asking after Huiyin and Xiaoyu, asking who they saw, what services they were known for. He was even more interested in hearing about little Mei, Zhang's daughter, than he was in Lupe. A sharp change of pace from the last few times they had seen each other.

Mei had a… reputation in Birmingham, a reputation for certain things like reading tea leaves and telling you with unnerving accuracy when your horse would die. What use would Tommy, a man who barely set foot in a church except to induce others to sin, have for a slip of a girl like that?

"Does it matter, Guadalupe?" He'd said to her with an amused huff. Of course it did. If she lost him out to another girl… There were countless others who'd arrived at the Quarters since she had. Skinnier, prettier, younger. Oh, she knew she wasn't the only girl Tommy saw with any frequency but until that moment she'd managed a decent job at not thinking about the matter. Lupe changed the subject and the moment was forgotten by Tommy, but not by her.

It was this frustration that stewed deep inside of her that caused Cuifen to sit her down, two cups of green tea steaming between them. "Enough, Xiu Jia. I'll not have any more immature tantrums out of you. I shouldn't have to tell you this but you're far too old for such antics."

Lupe was a grown woman of twenty. "I'm sorry Cuifen, what the fuck? How dare you?" Was this God's punishment for losing her temper so frequently in recent days? There was something maddeningly smug about Cuifen's demeanor as the madam calmly sipped at the hot tea as if her outburst proved something. It didn't prove anything!

"I dare because he's just a man. A white man at that. You seem to have forgotten yourself, bird. I let you have your freedom as long as it doesn't mess with business. You and Thomas? Just business. Do your best to remember that this time. I won't give you another warning." The last time Cuifen slapped Lupe across the face had been years ago when she was younger and prone to acting out, but she seemed like to do it again now in the face of Lupe's disrespect. Hot rage bled into her muscles and her nails bit wounds into the palms of her hands. There was nothing she would not do to get Cuifen to shut up-

She'd forgotten one very important thing; to the Gang, she wasn't even a person. Tommy reminded her what it was to be human, but such luxuries were only granted to people who weren't whores. As long as anyone so much as knew Lupe sold herself for money, Cuifen and the Green Gang would keep her leashed like a dog in the street. "I'm sorry. I forgot myself. Mr. Shelby and I are just business."

"Good girl." The older woman across the table took her tea with her as she left, leaving that lone, pointed comment hanging behind her. Guadalupe was typically capable of seeing the benefits of her life, herself, her profession, and the people around her. She felt at that moment the immense drawback of feeling so deeply for someone, the drawback of being capable of feeling that attached to anyone at all.

The ruckus next morning woke her just in time to see Tommy Shelby, perched like a warrior of old on a ridiculously massive white stallion, trotting to a halt in the main courtyard of the Quarters. He looked as dashing as the Devil and twice as dangerous, with fresh razors flashing through the threadbare fabric of his peaked cap. The sun, which was permanently obscured with industrial smoke, deepened the hollows beneath his cheekbones into a skeletal false smile. Mr. Zhang dragged Mei out by the arm, the poor girl clutching a pouch of white powder with a death grip, her brown eyes wide with terror at the fearsome sight in front of her. A few words and some coins later and Mei blew powder straight into the face of the stallion which nearly reared up and kicked her in the face. She fled almost the second her father released his hold on her arm.

Lupe knew Tommy saw her, saw the white robe she'd wrapped herself in. He turned the great beast around without another word nor a glance in her direction and left the way he came.

The slight rankled her. Xiaoyu linked a slender arm with her own curvier arm, chattering away in her ear about that horse and what spell Mei put on it and what was in that powder. Lupe was far too busy sulking and cursing Tommy under her breath to pay her much mind. The sight of Zhang and Cuifen, having a harsh, whispered argument silenced Xiaoyu abruptly and stopped the girls in their tracks. They moved to tuck themselves behind a nearby brick wall, out of sight but close enough to overhear the conversation.

She peeked around the corner so Lupe could just barely see them. "We're going to go under, Zhang, if we don't do something. Anything else." The madam's face was a study in urgency. Her hands worried at each other, wringing frantically with the same tension in her voice. What were they talking about? Go under? They saw more clients than ever now that they had established regulars.

While she could only see Zhang's back, his shoulders stiff and guarded, his whispered voice sounded as clear as if he were next to them. "What can we do? There'll be policemen crawling every inch of this fucking city. Kill the opium. Now." The real profit of their brothel was opium. Come for the girls, stay for the prime quality imported Chinese opium and the laudanum in unregulated doses. Out in Birmingham, they had no competitors and plenty of demand. Lupe herself had sold Tommy bricks aplenty...

Xiaoyu, her curious, flighty, childish brothel-sister reached out and clutched her hand, fear tightening the younger girl's grip. "And let the brothel die? Go back on our contract with the Gang? We'll be lucky if they let us escape Birmingham alive." Cuifen spat back as she flipped through the ledger book in her palms, pointing at unintelligible characters as if to prove her point. The Green Gang had always kept them in stock of food and customers; she'd lived through plenty of lean times but nothing as dire as the two people in front of her made it seem. They were alone out here and surrounded by unfriendly faces who wished to either use them or chase them out. Without business, without help, and with some brand new copper watching their every move, come autumn they would starve. The girl at her side tugged at her hand.

"Let's go, Xiujia. Please? I want to go-" Xiaoyu spoke, a sob building in her voice. What could Lupe say? How could she begin to comfort her when she didn't know how to comfort herself? With a nod, she led the smaller girl back to the laundry. Xiaoyu was so young; only sixteen. She was too little to remember the year they lived off congee, when they weren't allowed to leave Chinatown at all, not even to buy meat or fresh vegetables. When filth ran in their London streets and coppers beat anyone who tried to escape. When their sailors and maids were turned away at the docks and fancy mansions. Things would never be different, and it was foolish to have ever hoped they would.

"Little sister, all will be well. We'll find a way to keep going. We always have." Lupe soothed. Now wasn't the time to frighten the other girl with talk of what was to come. They hurried back towards the laundry, feet flying like birds.

A smile forced its way onto Xiaoyu's face. If there was anything that would distract her, it would be gossip. "I don't want to talk about this anymore. Come on, big sister, what do you think that regular of yours was doing here?" Tommy. What was he doing there this morning? What did he want? What was he involving them all in? That man would damn them all, involving them in his schemes. Her sister's eyes practically begged Lupe to respond, so she hurried to speak.

"Probably something with that horse and some bet-" The horse. The bet. That's what he was fucking doing. The spell. An enchantment on the horse to throw the bookies at the race tracks. That fucking man. She cursed him with all the fervor she was capable of managing. God set a devil to walk the Earth when he made Tommy Shelby, Lupe was positive. Everyone knew Billy Kimber ran the books at the racetrack with an iron grip and a loaded gun. She didn't know exactly what Tommy was up to, what he thought he'd get by bucking Kimber's authority, but Tommy was always more hellion than good Catholic boy. If he placed them in the middle of a war with the Kimber boys… They would all die for his folly. The next time she saw him, Lupe swore she'd tear three strips out of his back.

There was no next time. After the horrible, awful day, when the opium dried up and that horse lost the race Tommy had tried to push it to win, he never came back.

She waited, she rejected every man who made eyes at her, but Tommy never darkened her doorstep in the following weeks. He'd abandoned her when it suited him and his plots. Guadalupe was a fool to have thought he'd somehow be different. Some sweet pillow talks and he was hers forever? She scoffed at herself, tears welling up in her eyes. Her fingers nimbly swiped them away before the damp could ruin her kohl. The feeling of abandonment magnified tenfold and threatened to swallow her whole. Just like her father, her mother, everyone. Everyone left in the end. Tommy hadn't even promised to stay, and like the idiot she was, she hoped he would.

He didn't even come back to say goodbye.

If Tommy wasn't going to see her, she'd go to him. She deserved it. Lupe pulled the shawl around her shoulders tighter, as if by doing so she could ward off the spiral her mind swept away in a spiral of loneliness and devastation. She moved quickly through the streets of Small Heath. Determination drove her feet, even when her mind was lost and wandering. Everyone knew the Peaky Blinders frequented the Garrison and only the men who worked in their factories drank there. With a small ounce of luck, she would be able to find someone who knew where Tommy was haunting. With a lot more luck, she might find Tommy himself.

The Garrison loomed just around the corner, the awning reflecting hints of the afternoon sun. It was quiet now for a pub. That should've been a warning, but Lupe always disregarded danger. She hurried towards the doorstep. There, with her hand about to press the mottled glass door open and with a view of Tommy sitting alone through the window, she heard it.

A voice. A woman's voice. Singing like an angel, walking this mortal plane. Guadalupe moved away from the door so she could press her face against the window with her body tucked well out of sight.

The woman was beautiful. Beautiful in a way Lupe could never be. Sunshine blonde curls and a soft, sweet, peaches and cream complexion. A serenity in her face that could rival the Virgin Mary. Incandescent

And Tommy…

Tommy was transfixed by the English Rose in front of him. In that instant, Lupe knew why he hadn't come to see her. How could she ever compete with that?

To feel so deeply for someone and watch them feel for someone else... She'd rather never feel at all. All Lupe ever wanted was for someone to stay. Instead, she had to watch him leave and stay for someone else.

Cuifen was right. Just business. Tears ran down her face as she turned and fled back towards the Quarters.