Hello, just a heads up that Knick Knack Paddy Whack was also updated earlier today. If you're reading across both I recommend reading Chapter 3 of that before you read this. As always, it's not necessary to read any of the offshots, but the events of Chapter 3 of that one frame the kids' side of what the adults walk into in this one, so if you're doing both you're probably better doing Knick Knack's latest update before this one.

That aside... On with this one :)

Chapter 92

Tommy found himself relaxing on Wednesday night in a way he hadn't since Monday. Knowing Rosie was done with her three days and her meeting, knowing she was home and exclusively his – or, well, his and Finn and Lily's – for the next four days eased something in his chest and he was happy to find himself after dinner sitting at the kitchen table as she pottered around, doing her dishes and looking through her cupboard, making a list of what she needed to get in and the jobs that needed doing.

"I'll go to the washhouse tomorrow I think," she said, the end of her pen in her mouth as her eyes trailed down the piece of paper she'd been scribbling on, "Then I need to go through Lily's things before school starts back next week, see if there's anything needing bought – if there is I can take her to town on Friday. I'm sure most of her things from before summer will do her fine, I don't reckon she'll really need anything until the cold comes and then she might need new boots, last year's coat should still do, it was bought new thanks to you and your ridiculous ways, but better safe than sorry. Do you think Katie'll need anything? I know Polly took the twins at the weekend but what about Finn and George?"

He shrugged, "Women's business – consult Pol."

She rolled her eyes, "Women's business other than when you take her shopping and arrive back with four pairs of shoes and fancy dresses. And I notice she's away out in that yellow one today, by the way."

She had still been in her nightdress when Rosie had left and then she'd come downstairs wearing the yellow dress and her cream coloured shoes and asked him to help her with her hair, presenting him with the yellow bow they'd got in Harrods to match the dress.

"Quite the little ray of sunshine this morning aren't you, eh?" he'd said, taking her on his lap and pulling her hair into his fist and securing it with the bow at the nape of her neck.

She'd patted her head and frowned at him, "That's not how you do my hair."

She was quite the little woman, quite particular about her hair and her outfits, for all she was still a baby.

"Is it not my little love?" he'd replied, trying not to laugh at her indignance.

"No, you brush it out and put the top half of it in the bow – or you can do one braid and hold it with the bow at the bottom."

"Alright, we'll try again," he said, releasing her hair and combing his fingers through it in lieu of a hairbrush, before doing as she'd asked and gathering the top half up and tying it, letting the bottom half spill around her shoulders.

"That better?" he asked.

She touched her head again, feeling at his work before she nodded. He could see fine well for himself that it wasn't as neat as Rosie would have made it, but Lily was content with it and that was the main thing. He'd used to sit Ada in the kitchen and do his best for her, but she'd get frustrated with him and make him do it several times over until he got it right. At one point he'd gotten almost good at the braiding, though he didn't reckon he'd know how to do it now.

"Well she'll grow out of it if she doesn't wear it," he shrugged at the redhead, who had an eyebrow raised at him.

She rolled her eyes, "It's got plenty of wear left and if she takes a growth spurt upwards I can add some extra material to the bottom."

He shook his head, amused at her, "Or we could buy her a new dress."

"Wasteful," she returned, shaking her own head.

He got up from his seat, put his arms around her from behind and kissed the exposed bit of skin between her dress and her hair as she bent over her list.

"Think of how wasteful I'd be without you here to keep me in check, eh?"

She turned her head to smile at him, their mouths finding one another's, his arms moving around to slide in front of her, pulling her up and to him, squeezing at her small waist, running up and down the curves of it.

She gave in to it for a while, before she stood back and said, "Tommy, I have work to do."

"You've been at work all week," he grunted, "I've missed you."

"I missed you too," she smiled, reaching up to peck her lips to his, "But even more reason to let me get this organised, get the kids to bed and then I'm all yours, eh?"

"Promise?" he smirked, putting his hands on her face and gently kissing her forehead, then the tip of her nose, followed, finally by her adorable little mouth.

"I promise," she nodded, placing her hand atop his and nuzzling her face to it, turning to kiss his palm.

He went through to the front room, glancing at the clock on the side, where it stood slightly in front of a framed picture of Lily and a penguin from their trip to London. He had taken some photos of Rosie, when she had grudgingly permitted him to, but she had refused to allow any of them to be displayed in the front room - the picture of her and Lily with the elephant was on his desk though, as was one of the three of them taken on their last day in front of the hotel.

The clock informed him it was nearly half past seven, so he lit a fresh cigarette and picked up the paper, shaking it out and scanning it quickly for any news regarding communists or the IRA and, finding none, heading back to the start to read it properly. Not long really, Lily would be in soon and by the time Rosie and the child had gone through that bed time routine of theirs, Finn wouldn't be far behind and then they'd have peace and quiet.

It was all very civilised, he thought in a rather self-satisfied way. True, neither of the kids were technically their kids and Rosie wasn't his wife. On paper they were a hodge podge of people who just happened to live under the same roof. But when he'd been little, running off to sleep at Charlie's Yard or out in the pasture so as to avoid his father – or simply to get out of the house and get peace and quiet – the only thing consistent about number six had been the state of upheaval.

What he had now was what he'd wanted back then when he closed his eyes and looked to his future. True, he'd never wanted to take over the family business as he had done, he'd never had that drive, never, as a kid, understood the concept of money or poverty. And even once he had done, the drive hadn't been the same as it was now, he hadn't been interested then in making sure he took back from the cavalry officers of the world what they had taken from him. He had always had pride, he reckoned. A man had to have pride, in himself, in what he did and in how he looked after his family – he'd learned that at his grandfather's knee and known even back then that his own father's lack of pride was part of the problem.

But even as a kid who'd known he wanted to have enough pride to look after his family, he'd wanted to work with horses, to have a wife and a few kids and find out what a normal family was like. He wanted what he thought every other house on the street had except for his.

This, sitting in his front room with the paper whilst his woman faffed around in the kitchen and they were waiting for the kids to go to bed so they could be alone, this was what he'd fantasised about. He wanted to bottle the feeling of content that Rosie had brought to his life when she'd moved in and taken up the role of the woman of the house. The feeling of content he'd gotten from taking the child on his lap that morning and doing her hair. Even the feeling he'd got taking Finn off to the boxing match, being the kind of father figure who spent time with his kids and knowing they'd go home to Rosie waiting at Polly's for him to take them home.

Sure, they were a hodge podge – but they were his family and he was pleased with his luck as far as they all went.

Ironically however, his placid, relaxed reflections were interrupted by Rosie snapping with irritation, "Where is that child? She's been told enough times about being back in here by quarter to eight."

She appeared in the front room, crossing it and going to the door to stick her head out.

Tommy smirked and turned the page of the Birmingham Evening Dispatch, "I got her in the last time, your turn my love."

"Oh I'll get her in - and she'll regret that it's my turn once I get my hands on her, I made it perfectly bloody clear the last time she was late in," Rosie said, twisting her head, "I don't see her, she must have gone to John's or Polly's - as if she's not been told about that too."

He could see the irritation in her, and figured it was down to the fact the child in question had been told plenty of times – and explicitly told what the consequences would be the next time she failed to be in on time.

Rosie went out the door and he shut the paper over, standing up to go lean in the open doorway and watch her march down the street, her annoyance clear in the set of her shoulders. He was annoyed himself now, the child hadn't come in to tell them she was going to John or Polly's and he had told her enough bloody times about it. Still, it looked to him like Rosie was going to deliver the spanking she'd promised and he'd make sure to tell the little toerag that she was in trouble for being late and for not being out the front where she'd told them she'd be so she knew that factored into it.

It was as he watched her walk down the clear street that he noticed – well, noticed its stark clearness. The street was entirely devoid of kids, there was a group of three or four women standing at the other end but no one else was about as far as he could see. He realised too, that it was quiet. Too quiet. He couldn't hear kids playing - which even if they'd been out the backs, the noise should have still travelled. He didn't like it. He stepped out onto the street, pulling the door over behind him, following her down to John's - where he presumed he'd also find Finn, who had also been told enough times about keeping him informed of where he was going.

As it turned out though, neither Finn nor Lily were to be found at his brother's.

"The kids ain't here, they're playing out," John was saying to Rosie as Tommy reached them.

Rosie sighed, "Well they must be at Polly's, come on - you can get Katie and bring her in, she should be in by now too."

"Katie comes in when she's ready - they all do," John replied, rolling his eyes, "Doesn't matter what I say and I can't be arsed fighting them every night on it."

Tommy shot John a look, but kept quiet. They had to deal with the kids first.

The fact was, Katie had been told by him to start being in by the same time as Lily – and given what Katie had told him the other day about George running away until he knew John would be in the pub, he wasn't actually convinced that his orders were being disobeyed so much as he was half convinced John wasn't home most nights to know.

"Are Jack and Alfie still out?" Rosie asked.

John nodded.

"For Christ's sake John!" the redhead snapped, turning on her heel and striding off towards number seventeen, the two Shelby men on her tail.

Her ire with John began to dissipate, being replaced with worry when Polly echoed John - that the kids weren't at hers either.

"They're not out the back, I would have seen them when I was doing the dishes," Rosie said, biting her lip.

"We'd hear them if they were out the backs," Tommy replied, voicing his earlier thoughts.

Rosie exchanged a look with his aunt and even John began to shift slightly uncomfortably.

"Look, the good thing is they're all missing together," he said, trying to alleviate their worry a little, "They'll have buggered off somewhere they shouldn't and have lost track of the time."

"Where would they have gone though?" John asked.

He looked to Rosie, "This nonsense with the Irish kids – you did say you thought it was still going on?"

She nodded, looking slightly nervous. She'd told him that was what was behind the boxing and she'd been quite smug about it too, telling him he'd find out what it was like to give orders and have them ignored – but she'd reckoned on the boys heading off, not on Lily being with them.

"So the chances are Sparkbrook then," he said, fishing in his pocket for a cigarette, rolling it across his lip and lighting.

"If she's gone to Sparkbrook I'm going to murder her," Rosie said through gritted teeth, clenching her jaw so he could see the muscle working.

Tommy watched the women at the bottom of the street watching them and wasn't surprised when one of them began to approach.

"Excuse me," she ventured, "Are your kids-"

"Not here when they should be?" Polly cut across her, "That's about the gist of it."

"Yours missing?" Rosie asked.

The woman nodded, then inclined her head to indicate the other women who had stayed where they were, "All of ours are."

"So the whole bloody lot of them are off to Sparkbrook then," Rosie said, shaking her head, her hand going to run along the necklace he had given her.

Despite the disappearance – and, by extension, disobedience – of the kids, it gave him a thrill to know she seemed to wear the necklace constantly.

"Sparkbrook?" the woman questioned.

Polly explained that they knew the kids had been fighting with the Irish kids.

"If my Richard's in Sparkbrook his dad'll have him," the woman commented, clicking her tongue before turning and shouting down to the other women, "They reckon the kids have gone to Sparkbrook."

The door next to John's opened and a man appeared on the street. He strode down to them then said bluntly, "Did I hear you say the kids are in Sparkbrook?"

"Your Gillian missing too?" Polly asked him.

He nodded, "Her mother's beside herself with worry, she's trailed all over half of Small Heath, we never reckoned to try Sparkbrook."

"No need for looking for them, they'll be back. Half of them with bloody noses no doubt, but they'll all have gone together and be back together."

"Not like the girls to go fighting though, especially not my Sarah."

Polly snorted, "I can well see Katie in the middle of it."

"Most of the girls'll have just gone to watch," Tommy said, shaking his head, "They won't get involved with the fighting."

"What about the Sparkbrook girls though? What if they want to fight? Someone better go get them," one of the other women said, twisting her apron in her hands.

"Oh leave 'em," her friend said, "Teach them not to wander if they get caught up in it."

"Gillian's going to get a lesson in not wandering when she gets home, whether she's been caught up in it or not," the man from next door to John said grimly.

There was a chorus of agreement and a window swung open above.

"Kev!" the man at the window shouted down, "Is your Gillian in?"

"Nope, none of them are - the reckoning is they've gone to Sparkbrook for a fight with the Irish kids," the man, Kev, replied, "Your Danny with them?"

"Seems like it. I'm going to tan him when he gets back if that's where he is," the man shouted back, his face furious.

The window slammed shut and what seemed mere seconds later the second man had joined them.

As curtains twitched at windows and more heads came out of doors, the group of parents on Watery Lane swelled. Even the parents of kids who were a bit older and not quite due in yet noticed the commotion and soon found themselves being filled in on the adventuring off that had happened.

Arthur appeared out, wanting to know what was going on and Tommy dispatched him to Jeremiah's house to ask if Isaiah's location was known or unknown. They returned together, confirming that the Jesus boy was, as Tommy had suspected, with Finn.

"Oh Christ, here we fuckin' go," John muttered as a man turned into the street, clearly coming home from a late shift.

"What?" Rosie asked.

"You know how our kids reckon Tommy's the strictest man in bloody Birmingham?"

She nodded, only the flicker of a smile crossing her lips at the comment, too preoccupied with the worry and anger he knew were doing battle in her over Lily.

"Well they're wrong - that's him. Paul Clayton, son's got the same name."

"Oh you just don't like him because he turned up at your door that time," Polly scoffed.

Rosie raised an eyebrow.

"The kids were down the cut, where they shouldn't have been, and if I remember rightly there was some fighting going on then too, though it was infighting not with the Irish kids," Polly explained, "Anyway, they get caught, he gives Paul a hiding then drags the kid around every other door on Watery Lane where there's a boy to tell everyone where their kids had been and what they'd been doing."

"Aye, an' I told him where to go."

"You didn't tell him where to go so much as you shut the door in his face," Polly snapped, still annoyed about it, "I found out about it in the bloody wash house and had to go give George the same as every other kid then make it known I had so that John didn't start a bloody fight with the neighbours over the antics of the bloody kids."

"You should have left it," John muttered, also still annoyed about it, "Needed put in his place - knocking on doors and snitching. Bad character if you ask me."

"He's a neighbour," Polly hissed, but she was quiet as she noticed people were within earshot and, though talking to one another, not guaranteed not to be listening.

Tommy tossed his latest cigarette on the ground and reached over to squeeze Rosie's waist.

"She'll be alright," he offered in reassurance.

"She'll be alright till I get my hands on her," Rosie replied, her voice grim.

He saw Polly raise an eyebrow and look slightly impressed out of the corner of his eye – he was well aware his aunt liked Rosie a lot, more than she liked him at times he reckoned, but he knew the woman thought she was too soft with the kids.

"Sparkbrook, fucking Sparkbrook?" Paul Clayton Snr started shouting - someone had obviously explained the situation to him whilst John and Polly had been filling Rosie in, "I'll give him fucking Sparkbrook."

Tommy watched in silence as the man strode by them, disappeared into a house, reemerged with a strap in hand and set back off the way he'd come.

"See what I fuckin' mean?" John said, rolling his eyes.

"Well, once he finds them if they are all together they'll all reappear together," Polly said, not looking like she approved of the man either, for all her insistence of getting along with the neighbours, "So we better figure out how we're doing this."

"I'll take Finn, you take George," Tommy said to John, "Polly grabs Katie - can you handle Katie and a twin?"

She nodded.

"Right, you grab Katie and Alfie," he instructed - Alfie was the easier of the twins, he'd know he was caught and probably stand in the corner glumly until it was time for his hiding, Jack was more likely to try and outrun them, then stay out for as long as he could until someone found him and dragged him in.

"Arthur - Jack?"

His brother sighed then nodded, probably wishing he'd just stayed in.

"What am I doin'?" Arthur asked.

"He's five Arthur - just put him over your knee until he's learned his lesson."

"So I'm not takin' him out back?"

"He's five."

"Dad strapped me when I was five."

"Dad was a sadistic cunt."

He glanced at Rosie. Her arms were crossed and her jaw was tense - he knew how nervous she was and he moved slightly closer to her, so she could feel his body next to hers.

He could remember how angry he'd been the first time he'd pulled Ada properly over his knee rather than just swatting her. She'd been 'playing' with a cash box that they'd just spent half an hour searching for and he'd been about to go put a gun to the heads of the few workers they'd had back then when he'd heard a crash from her room. He'd gone upstairs, presuming she'd fallen and hoping to god she hadn't hurt herself only to find the crash was the box hitting the floor and coins going everywhere. He'd seen red, sat on her bed, yanked her over his lap - and then been overtaken by a fit of nerves. Doubt and fear had set in - but by that time he'd pulled her over his knee and the only thing that had pushed him to go through with it was that he'd figured he'd lose all her respect if he gave up at that point having gone as far as he had. He'd given her a dozen or so very light smacks, then set her on her feet and told her to pick up all the cash whilst he'd gone out to the hallway to try and think clearly. His clear thinking had told him he'd done the right thing - though probably not enough of the right thing even if she had wriggled and cried like a bloody hellcat - and he'd got it together to go back in, supervise the rest of the picking up and then take her - sitting - onto his lap to comfort her. But still, it stayed with him how much it had taken out of him to go through with it that first time - and he'd come to it having grown up with it, having been on the receiving end of it plenty of times.

"Do you want me to deal with her?" he murmured in her ear.

She shook her head, "No. It can't just be you."

"You sure?"

She nodded without saying anything else, so he rubbed her back a little and they both listened to Polly ruminate on whether or not she'd actually take the back of her hairbrush to Katie - as she'd threatened plenty of times and never actually followed through with doing.

They didn't wait much longer, like a scene in a picture show where pebbles on the ground started to tremble before the stampeding cattle even reached the street, the signs that the kids were all hightailing their way back to Watery Lane arrived before the kids themselves did - the shouting that had been conspicuously absent earlier hit their ears along with the pounding of sprinting feet and then the wave appeared to crash through the street, though there was nothing as elegant as water about it. The kids at the front skidded to a halt when they saw the mob of parents that awaited them and those behind crashed into them, sending children everywhere. It was an easy task then for the parents to pick off individual children, simply grabbing those who had fallen to their knees by their ears and dragging them to their feet and off in the direction of their respective houses.

George was one of the ones at the front and it was Katie who flew into him when he stopped, the two of them ending up in a heap on the ground for John and Polly to untangle. Katie was covered in black marks - as were most of the girls that he could see. It looked to him like the girls had been hiding in a coal heap whilst the boys were fighting - and there was enough dried blood on faces that confirmed they had been.

"Sarah! Look at the state of you!" one woman was barking as she grabbed the blonde girl he recognised from the night of the bonfire - presumably Sarah - by the arm and started smacking her on the street, "I'm going to scrub you in the lane before I let you in the house - and I'll not bother heating the water because I'll be warming you up as soon as you're in the door!"

The girl did the usual dance of trying to get away from the smacks, dipping her hips under like a pro, but her mother was even more of a seasoned professional, stopping only so she could grab another child with the hand she had been smacking Sarah with and begin to shake him profusely, her scolding this time lost under the boy's bawls.

Tommy couldn't see Finn yet but he saw Isaiah - sporting a swollen lip - and was fairly sure he saw the boy mouth the phrase "Oh fuck," to himself as soon as he saw Jeremiah waiting for him, arms crossed and stern expression on his face. He tried not to laugh and kept watching as more and more kids appeared in the lane - the twins coming somewhere towards the end of the middle and Arthur surging forward, splitting the group of kids like Moses through the tides to grab Jack by the collar and start hauling him in the direction of his own house rather than John's.

The man who had gone for them appeared then - dragging his son by the ear and shaking the razor strop at him. Tommy kept his face impassive, but his instinct was to frown. For all he knew they needed to keep the peace with their neighbours, he didn't reckon he liked Paul Clayton Snr. The kids would have come back sooner or later without him going and humiliating his son in front of them all, alerting them to the time that the summer sun had mislead them all on.

He had just about started to start worrying - properly - about Finn, when his brother appeared, bringing up the rear along with the youngest kids. He was shouting over his shoulder to "Hurry up!" and yanking something behind him - that was obviously what was slowing him down - and as they came further up the street Tommy felt vaguely pleased to realise the bundle his youngest brother was straining to pull along behind him was Lily. Pleased to see that Finn had stuck by her, grabbed her hand and not let go, not leaving her to get home in an every man for himself mentality like the rest of the kids had obviously taken on. Not so pleased to see that the black, ragged little bundle clutching his hand was Lily.

If the other girls had gotten themselves marked by the coal, she looked like she'd laid down and taken a nap in it. The entire front of her once yellow dress was black, her skin had turned grey and even her hair had a cast to it like she'd aged. If Sarah had been getting scrubbed in the street for her marked dress, Lily looked like a carpet beater and a horse brush would need to be called in to scrub her free of the dirt on her. He chanced a look at Rosie, and he reckoned he didn't fancy being the filthy child on the receiving end of the look on her face at that moment.

Finn caught his own eye, looked around at the scenes of children being scolded, smacked, shaken and dragged by various appendages to the doom of their own homes, then looked back at Tommy and gulped. Tommy indicated the space in front of him with a flick of his eyes and Finn began to trudge up to him, resigned and looking determinedly at the ground.

"Get out the back," Tommy said simply with a jerk of his head towards number six once the two had arrived in the designated space and Finn mumbled something, dropped Lily's hand and went.

"You just consider yourself lucky I'm not taking you out the back Lillian Jackson," Rosie was snapping, grabbing the hand of Lily's that Finn had so recently relinquished, "You have been told! You were supposed to be in by quarter to eight and we've already had a discussion about that - and you know fine well that you're supposed to let us know where you are at all times! And look at the mess you're in - why of all the children to come back to this lane tonight are you the filthiest? Haven't I told you about looking after your things?"

"Rosie!" Lilly wailed in response to the tirade, "Rosie everybody went! I had to go!"

"You had to do no such thing," Rosie replied, her voice all matter of fact and indicating there was no point in arguing with her as she pulled Lily down the street and towards the house.

He glanced around, making sure all the Shelby kids were accounted for and then followed them, listening to her scold, "You had to come home by quarter to eight, let us know where you were going and not ruin that expensive dress Tommy bought you in London - you didn't bother doing anything you actually had to do, did you?"

"Rosie! Was an accident!" Lily protested, trying to twist free of her sister.

"What was?"

"I fell!"

"So that's why you're filthy, eh?" Rosie asked, raising an eyebrow at the child, who screwed up her mouth in a displeased fashion and didn't answer.

"And where did you fall?"

"In coal," Lily muttered, kicking the ground.

"And where was the coal?"

"At the paddy's," Lily replied.

Tommy hid his laugh and managed to say, quite sternly, "In Sparkbrook you mean?"

She looked at him and didn't answer, her lip trembling in a way that indicated fine well that she knew where she'd been.

"The Paddys live in Sparkbrook," he told her, "And you know what Sparkbrook isn't? It isn't Watery Lane, where you were meant to be and it isn't even Small Heath - it's a whole other area and it's an area you are certainly not allowed to go to."

"But everybody went!"

"Yes, and everybody's getting a damn good spanking for it, same as you will," he told her, "So next time you can think about whether it's worth sleeping on your stomach just so you can go fall in some coal."

"Tommy! Tommy - no!" Lily shouted, giving him a pleading look, "It wasn't my fault!"

"Oh it was most definitely your fault, you little madam," he told her, "You made your own choices. And there's no point wasting those big eyes on me - it's your sister's knee you're going over, I've got Finn to deal with."

"Rosie!" Lily shrieked, both shocked and worried, "Rosie! No spanking!"

"Lily, you were told - I made it perfectly clear that the next time you were late in you'd get a spanking and not only were you late, you weren't even in the area and you're covered in muck," Rosie told her, reaching the door of number six and pushing it open and the child through it, "Though first of all you can go stand in the kitchen while I scrub you before you turn the whole house black."

Lily stood in the front room looking up at them both with her best big sorrowful eyes, but neither of them were swayed - with the child home safe and in one piece the worry had subsided to anger in the redhead and for his part he'd have been perfectly happy to turn her up and give her a good spanking if Rosie hadn't been feeling up to it. She'd earned one, they all had.

"Lily - kitchen. Now," he told her, echoing Rosie's words and closing the door behind him.

She opened her mouth as if to say something, then looked at her sister's raised eyebrow and thought better of it, scuttling on through. Rosie sighed and followed, swinging the cupboard open and bringing out the tub and bath brush, casting a critical eye over the child and disappearing out the back with a pot to fill up with water.

"Tommy," Lily begged him, "Please - everyone went. Tell her everyone went!"

"We know everyone went - in case you missed it we weren't the only adults out there who were panic stricken wondering where you lot had got to and if you were alright."

"I'm sorry! I won't go again."

"No, you damn well won't," Rosie snapped as she re-entered and set the pot onto the range to heat, her movements sharp and angry.

"Do you realise how worried we were Lily?" he asked, raising an eyebrow at the child.

Her fingers went to her mouth and she watched her sister cross back to the cupboard and pull out a bar of soap then go back to the stove and begin the process of lathering up the bathbrush.

"Take those shoes and socks off and stand in the tub," Rosie instructed, using her eyes to point at it.

Lily moved at a glacial pace to obey and her sister seemed to move all the faster for it, grabbing at the first arm and scrubbing at it then repeating the process on the other before wetting the brush from the pot and scrubbing them both again.

"Tommy - could you pass me a towel - and a face cloth, could you wet it in the clean water for me - thanks," Rosie instructed him as she knelt in front of the tub, scrubbing at Lily's legs.

The line on her skin of where her socks had been covering and where they hadn't was almost comical, and it was only then really that he began to appreciate the level of dirt that she'd managed to get into her clothes as he looked at the discarded socks lying next to one of the kitchen chairs. He passed Rosie the wet face cloth and she wiped at Lily's face - her touch surprisingly gentle for the mood she was in.

"Right, that'll have to do," she declared, throwing the cloth down with a damp thud into the tub and briskly drying the child off before offering her a hand and saying, "Come on, let's go upstairs and get this over with."

"Rosssieeeeee!" Lily whined, taking the hand and climbing out the tub but shaking her head.

"Don't you Rosie me, you knew what was going to happen."

Lily dug her heels in and refused to move, trying to yank her hand back out of Rosie's, but her older sister simply took the stride back to close the distance, smacked the child and told her, "Either you walk with me or I'll pick you up and carry you upstairs - your choice."

Lily stamped her foot and pouted, being rewarded with another smack - this time from him.

"Don't make it worse by disobeying, get on with your sister," he told her firmly, "Otherwise I'll redden you down here first before you get up the stairs."

She twisted on the spot, looking between them, her eyes filling with tears, probably feeling ganged up on, and then moved when Rosie tugged firmly on the hand she was still holding and allowed herself to lead her off up the stairs.

He stood where he was in the kitchen, pinched the bridge of his nose and wondered what to do. Did he follow Rosie and Lily? He wanted to make sure that Rosie was alright doing what needed to be done - but she had told him she was going to do it because it couldn't always be him. She had claimed this spanking for herself to deliver, she wanted to do it. And that was fine by him, but he wasn't convinced she knew emotionally what she'd signed up for.

And he had Finn waiting outside for him, his brother's stomach probably in knots as he stood awaiting his own fate.

Well, Finn had waited plenty of times, he decided, and stole off up the stairs.

He didn't go into the room, just stood outside - that was what was best, he'd be on hand if he was needed, but they didn't need to know he was there if Rosie didn't need him.

"Alright, arms up till we get that dress off," Rosie was saying, to a protest and a foot being stamped, from the sounds of it.

"Lily, it's filthy - we're taking it off and folding it inside out until I get it to the wash house to see if it's salvageable or not. And you'll be helping me with that tomorrow by the way, not going out to play. Now, arms up!"

"Rosie, Rosie it's not fair," the child protested, but her voice sounded muffled, as if she was speaking through fabric of a dress being pulled over her head.

"What's not fair Lily?"

"If I'm getting spanking and not going out tomorrow," the child mumbled.

"And why is it fair that I've to give up the things I had planned to do tomorrow to go to the wash house and try and save your dress that you've made a mess of?"

"You're an adult," was the argument.

Rosie snorted, "Yes, who has to fix your things when you don't take care of them. The spanking is your punishment for where you went tonight and for not being in on time, taking you to the washhouse is to make you understand the consequences of you not looking after things are the work that it generates – and it's only fair that if your actions generate the work, you should help do it."

"What's generate?"

"Creates. Makes. Causes," Rosie said then sighed and said, "Right, come on, let's get this over with."

"Rosie no! Please! One more chance – I promise I'll never be late in again!" Lily squealed.

"I intend to make sure you won't be little miss," Rosie replied.

The first smack landed and he could guess that the child's petticoat was very much still in place from the sound of it.

Still, that didn't seem to make much difference to Lily who squealed and began to cry instantly – probably far more from the experience of being over her sister's knee for the first time than from any pain that Rosie might be causing.

Another three smacks followed and then Rosie asked, her voice tight like her throat was dry, "Are you learning your lesson?"

He didn't hear the response but Rosie went on, "Good. Now I know the last time you went wandering we drilled into you that being at The Cut was the problem – and it was a main part of the problem – but wandering out of the lane in general will always result in a spanking for you, do you hear me? It's not going to happen again Lily, am I clear?"

There was a yelp as another couple of smacks landed.

"And you'll be in on time every night going forward or I'll simply stop you from going back out after dinner, do you understand?"

There was a sniffled yes and a 'hmm' from Rosie before another two smacks landed and then he heard Rosie saying, "Alright. Stand up. Now, I don't ever want to do that again Lily, but I will if you endanger yourself, you hear?"

He could tell she was on the verge of tears herself. For all he could tell that the spanking Lily had received had been light, he knew it wasn't something that would feel light to either of the sisters.

Lily was crying openly and he listened as Rosie said, "Alright, come here, that's you, that's it done – and as long as you do as you're told we never need to go through that again, alright?"

He stole off down the stairs, still making his mind up about what he was going to do about his brother.

Finn was waiting out the back like he'd been told – and for all he'd gone off to Sparkbrook, Tommy had to admit the kid was fairly obedient most of the time.

"Sit down," he said, pointing at the wall with the doubled over stop he held in his hand, having taken it off the wall on his way through the kitchen.

Finn looked confused for a second, then sat, nervously, squirming a little. Tommy supposed that was to be expected, he knew from experience that if your arse was imminently in danger there was a tingling in it that made sitting on it slightly difficult.

"You waited for Lily, didn't run off without her," he said, taking a seat next to Finn.

The boy blinked and shrugged.

"I'm proud of you for that, I noticed none of the other kids were looking out for each other, all just sprinting home trying to avoid trouble."

He lit a cigarette and inhaled, wondering if Finn was going to say anything – but the kid stayed mute.

"It proves to me, Finn, that you're a good phral to Lily, like we talked about before, eh?" he said, nudging his brother with his elbow.

Finn gave a slow nod, clearly not sure where this was all going.

"Thing is Finn," Tommy continued, exhaling some smoke into the air and listening to the sounds of someone who was still in the process of experiencing their parent's wrath drift out through an open window from one of the nearby houses, "You won't get it until you have kids of your own – but giving out a spanking is as bad as getting one in a lot of ways. Rosie's just given Lily one, the first proper one she's ever given, and she's going to be wrung out."

Finn stayed silent, but he nodded as if he understood – though Tommy knew he wouldn't.

"And for Lily's part, well, she's used to catching it from me now that it's not a shock to her in the same way, but it'll be a shock to her tonight that she's caught it from Rosie. She'll need to process being upset from her spanking and being upset over the fact it was her sister that dished it out."

"Yeah, I get that," Finn said cautiously, as if he wasn't sure he was saying the right thing.

"I told you after the boxing Finn, being a man – it's about protecting our women, looking after them, eh?"

Finn nodded.

"And you didn't do that when you let Lily and them go wandering to Sparkbrook after you."

"That wasn't my fault though – we told them not to come but Katie said she'd tell you we were goin' Tommy, and we had to see the Paddy's off, they've come here loads!" Finn burst, suddenly impassioned.

Tommy rolled his eyes and flicked his cigarette ash to the ground before he continued, "But you did do it when you waited for her and brought her home."

"Yeah, well…" Finn said, trailing off and looking at the ground.

"I'll make you a deal Finn, how about that?"

Finn turned his head and blinked up at him, clearly wondering what the hell he was at.

"Those two," Tommy said, pointing up at the bedroom window with his cigarette, "Are going to be down soon so Lily can brush her teeth and whatever before she goes to bed. It's been a big night for them, so I'm going to let you off with your hiding as long as you go be a good phral to Lily, go in and see her before you go to bed – make sure she's alright, eh? There's a comfort you can bring her by telling her it'll be alright in a way that she'll not believe coming from me or her sister, eh? You'll remember from when you and Ada would huddle together after one or both of you had caught it, eh?"

Finn nodded, looking slightly dazed.

"Good. So you take care of the little woman, and I'll take care of the big one, deal?"

"Yeah," the kid nodded, the look of amazement, like it was finally sinking in that he was avoiding the strap and couldn't believe his luck, spreading across his face, "Deal."

"Alright, in you go then," Tommy said, nodding his head in the direction of the door, "But Finn – you don't go making the mistake thinking this is a free pass. This is me weighing up what you did right against what you did wrong and deciding it lands in your favour, alright? You're not too big for a good hiding and if I catch you at Sparkbrook again, Lily or no Lily, you'll be our here getting your bare arse tanned, you got it?"

Finn's eyes went wide as he gulped and nodded, the amazement receding slightly to allow for a healthy dose of nervousness to join it on his brother's face.

Good. Wouldn't do for the kid to get cocky.

He was right though, about Rosie and how wrung out she was. After Finn and Lily had disappeared up the stairs he found her on her hands and knees in the kitchen, scrubbing at the floor like she was trying to scour through it.

"You alright my love?" he asked, knowing fine well she wasn't.

"I'm fine," she replied, her voice the usual clipped way that indicated she was anything but fine.

"C'mere a minute," he crooned, putting a hand on her back, rubbing it a little and sliding round to take her hand when she sat back on her knees, using it to pull her up and pull her against him.

She was stiff at first, then she seemed to sag slightly against him.

"I know it was difficult sweetheart," he murmured, kissing her head, "But you did the right thing and I'm so proud of you, you hear me?"

She nodded and sagged slightly further at the words. He held her for a good few minutes, running a hand continuously through her hair and down her back, holding her to him with the other around her waist, murmuring praise about how well she'd done and how difficult he knew it had been for her and how proud he was of her in her ear.

"What can I do to make you feel better, eh?" he eventually asked.

She shrugged and stood straight, taking herself out of his grasp, crossing her arms against herself, less like she was angry and more like she was trying to hug herself, to comfort herself. He felt an irrational stab of annoyance that what he had been saying hadn't been enough.

"What can I do, eh?" he asked again, closing the distance she'd put between them, standing behind her, putting his hands on her waist and kissing her head.

"I- I don't know Tommy," she said, closing her eyes tight and shaking her head, slightly agitated, "It's just – I feel – God it sounds so stupid…"

"It's not stupid sweetheart, you did a very difficult thing tonight."

"I just feel all pent up Tommy. I feel like if I was a normal bloody woman I'd have a good cry and that would empty me out and I'd feel better, but I can't cry on demand and usually doing something useful would make me feel better but I've been scrubbing at the floor and I don't feel any better at all!" she rushed out.

She sure as hell sounded like she was on the verge of tears, but he could see that for all her throat sounded thick, her eyes were dry.

"Sweetheart – listen to me a second, eh?" he said, squeezing at her waist, "Now, you've done absolutely nothing wrong and I'm very proud of you for what you did tonight, you understand?"

She gave a short, curt little nod.

"Good. But we've talked before about the different types of spanking you can get my darling, and sometimes if you need an emotional release, a good spanking can get you it, eh?"

She froze in his hold as she thought about it.

He kissed her cheek and rubbed his hands up and down her waist until she relaxed.

"Do you want a spanking darling?" he murmured in her ear.

"I don't… I don't know," she whispered back, her face hot and red.

"Alright, let me phrase it a different way," he said, landing a kiss on her cheek and spinning her round to face him, moving his hands to her face and tilting it up so her gaze met his, "Do you need a spanking?"

She took a couple of deep breaths, her face betraying all of her turmoil before, her voice so tiny he barely heard her even though he was in front of her.

"Tommy, I…I think so."

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