Content Warning: Little Lady Blinder is a Peaky Blinders story, and as such here are your general warnings for canon mentions/ instances of violence, drug use, alcohol use, smoking, sexual content, swearing, mental health issues, PTSD, character death, prostitution, pregnancy, war, and time-period typical discrimination (racism, sexism, ableism). These themes are likely to exist throughout the fabric of the story just as they do in the show. There may also be mentions and references of potentially sensitive topics such as bullying, sibling teasing, nightmares, sickness, injury, medical intervention, police violence, suicide, physical punishment/ discipline methods typical of the time period, underage alcohol consumption/ smoking/ drug use as the story unfolds. I have made an effort to add individual chapter warnings for sensitive subjects that may go beyond canon-typical content or topics/ themes that have been requested.

The presence of these themes/ topics within the writing does not serve to illustrate that I condone or support them. This is a work of fiction and should be treated as such. Please take into consideration whether any of the above-mentioned themes/ topics will upset you prior to reading.

Chapter Content Warning: canon-typical content.

A Piece of Work

1919

There was a commotion coming from out on the lane and Clara knew it would be her older brothers making their way towards the shop. Being that it was still early in the morning, the business wasn't yet open and the house had been nearly silent for an hour or more. The only noise came from a few Blinders already in the shop and the quiet conversation taking place between the Shelby twins who were sitting at a table just beyond the shop doors, enjoying their last few days of winter recess.

"Fuckin' Tommy!"

Their eldest brother's voice boomed, reverberating off the walls and furniture as it traveled. The sound carried through the wood of the front door and the whole of no. 6 Watery Lane's front parlor before it reached Clara's ears. She flinched at the words themselves, but more so at Arthur's tone. She could nearly see the spittle flying as Arthur shouted, but Clara knew that was only her imagination.

Arthur was nearly always shouting lately, and it was usually about something Tommy had done. While she was used to it, the shouting at and about Tommy, the familiarity didn't make it any easier to digest.

And while Clara loved that their boys were home, safe and whole, there had been a whole lot less shouting when it was just her Finn, Ada, and Aunt Polly.

Despite their hearing Arthur making a fuss outside, both kids smiled when John and Arthur came through to the dining room. Cross as Arthur could be with Tommy, he didn't ever take it out on the kids, and the twins knew that, being as they'd rarely been the subject of Arthur's shouting, rarely been the subject of anything other than Arthur's cuddles and smiles and undying support. Arthur ruffled Finn's hair before moving to place a kiss on Clara's hairline, his mustache tickling her as she pushed him away, giggling.

Arthur and Clara watched the other two brothers engrossed in a hushed conversation, mischievous smiles on their faces.

Ever since getting back, John and Finn had taken to sharing secrets, getting up to what most generally labeled as no good, as if John had forgotten that the twins were barely older than his own children. He was well on his way to corrupting his younger brother and not a single member of the family had much to say or do about discouraging it, aside from the occasional telling off by Polly.

Shaking his head at the younger Shelby boys, Arthur turned his attention back to his sister. "Where's Aunt Pol, princess?"

"She went down to the church. Said we didn't have to go since it's our day off, but we have to come on Sunday."

Arthur smiled. "I'll come with you Sunday."

Clara returned the gesture, offering a nod of acceptance.

"And our Ada? Where's she?"

Clara shrugged, returning her attention to John and Finn. She knew very well that her older sister was with Freddie Thorne. She knew that her sister had stayed the night with him like she did up to four nights each week but Clara possessed enough sense to not tell her brother that.

Before the boys came home, Ada had explained to Clara the importance of the Shelby girls sticking together, against the boys, against their overly perceptive aunt, essentially against the world. It had been the first time in her life that Clara felt her sister thought of her as something more than a child, a baby to be cared for and played with. Even if she didn't particularly like giving half-truths to Arthur, or full stop omissions, Clara had every intention of upholding her sisterly responsibility.

"And Tommy?"

Arthur already knew exactly where his younger brother had whiled away the early morning hours. He heard all about it on his way over to the shop, an impressive feat considering Arthur lived just a few doors down from no. 6.

Again, Clara shrugged her shoulders, another sisterly responsibility upheld. "We had breakfast and he left. I think he had an appointment."

"Okay," Arthur conceded. "Okay, Clara girl."

Arthur didn't believe his sister knew any more beyond that. Still brandishing the sweet, rounded cheeks of childhood and brilliant, shining eyes, Clara was the baby. To Arthur Shelby, sweet and innocent was just about all he'd considered the girl could ever be.

"New book?" Arthur nodded towards the red hardcover in her hands.

Clara smiled up at him, keeping the book flat in her lap.

Arthur's face brightened as he clasped a hand on Clara's shoulder. "That's our brilliant girl, always reading, best marks in the fucking class."

"Well, someone had to give us Shelbys a good name at that school," John commented. "We all know Finn isn't cuttin' it."

None of the Shelbys before her had been very accomplished in making a good name for the family, not in the academic sense.

Arthur had made an effort, but he wasn't scholastically inclined. He was rubbish with numbers and spelling.

Tommy had possessed the mind, but he had done only the work he wanted.

John had been willfully resistant to the idea of learning, losing interest in a subject halfway through a lesson and preferring to set his sights on charming the class.

Ada had been exclusively uninterested in books and math, seemingly more concerned with boys and gossip and her social circle.

Finn simply struggled to keep up in school. He often quit before giving things much of a chance. It didn't help that Finn had a sister more than willing to help with his assignments so the two of them could get on to other pursuits a bit sooner.

That left academic success to Clara as she possessed both the mind and the willingness to try, as well as an interest in anything new to her. She could occupy herself for hours with nothing more than a book or something she could tinker with.

The boys made their way into the shop and Arthur continued with his complaining to John and anyone else who would listen. He grumbled about Tommy doing the Chinese trick with the horse, grumbled about Tommy not considering the family opinion, grumbled about how he was the one supposed to be running the business. He pushed the men in the shop for more information, but none of them had much to say in return as they hadn't known a thing about it.

It was only Clara Shelby who knew a thing or two about what Tommy had been up to, but she kept her mouth shut and continued with her reading from the spot beside the fire.

Tommy had told his sister about his plans that morning over breakfast. She hadn't known that her brother was testing her when he said he had a secret she wasn't to share with the others. Tommy was already relatively confident that he could trust Clara. Even at ten years old, the girl possessed far more innate cleverness than the rest of his siblings seemed to have put together and with a fair level of consistency, Clara had proven herself to be dependable, almost to a fault. Even though she couldn't always be trusted to do exactly as instructed, Tommy knew he could trust his Clara with a secret meant for the two of them.

As Arthur continued complaining about Tommy's actions that morning, and then about Tommy in a more general sense, Clara resolved to stay out of it, favoring the company of her book. Finn seemed oblivious to the complaining though as he edged his way through the doors left open by Arthur and John. He was always gravitating towards his brothers, shadowing them whenever he could manage it, settling easily into the shop's routines.

Clara didn't follow Finn as he ventured through the doors. She had her book to occupy her, and she wasn't one for heading into the shop these days anyhow, not since Tommy had declared that an illegal betting shop was no place for a pair of ten-year-olds. She had never truly liked the shop or being around all the loud, pushy men making bets anyway, not really. Clara had liked dealing with the numbers and being a help, contributing to the family, but Tommy had taken away the work and the numbers and encouraged her interest in books and school instead, so the shop wasn't so enticing to her anymore.

While Clara wanted little to do with the potential trouble that came along with disobeying a rule set by her older brother, one that had the general support of Aunt Polly by this point, Finn still routinely pushed the boundary when he could get away with it. But as no one other than Tommy made much of a fuss if the kids made their way into the shop, no one said a word as the boy made his way about the shop.

1918

The young Shelby twins had technically always been banned from stepping foot inside the shop, a rule which had been forgotten during the war and reinstated almost immediately upon the boys' return from France.

The day after coming home, Tommy had descended the stairs after a night of fruitless sleep to find Clara standing on a stool in the shop. He watched, eyebrow raised, for a moment as the girl wrote out the names and odds for the upcoming race on the chalkboard in near-perfect penmanship while her twin brother held the list up so she could see. They were chatting amongst themselves, Clara explaining something about the odds to her brother, the pair of them paying little attention to the sound of approaching footsteps.

"What're you doing in the shop, eh?" Tommy asked, still standing in the doorway.

"Working," Clara answered casually, never once stopping with her writing, her eyes shifting only between the paper in Finn's hands and the chalkboard.

"Not anymore. You've got school."

"Yeah, but we gotta get the shop ready and—"

"You've got school. Let's go."

Tommy held out the hand that he hadn't settled in a pocket and waved them over.

Finn dropped the paper on the nearest desk, but he stayed there watching the exchange between his brother and his sister. Clara made the hint of a whine, something that wasn't committing to an open rebellion, but when combined with the look Tommy saw passing over her face, showed she was actively considering it.

"But the list—"

"John will do it when he gets in."

"But Finn and I do the lists. It's our responsibility."

"Not anymore. Your responsibility is school and doing what you're told. Now, come down off the stool," he said, watching as she contemplated his order.

"But it's still early and John doesn't know how Aunt Polly likes 'em done. There's a new way."

Tommy smiled to himself for a moment. The twins weren't used to him anymore, he knew that. He and Arthur and John weren't the authority. They were nearly strangers. They were the long-lost brothers the kids wrote letters to, the brothers they remembered through photographs and stories and fuzzy, unreliable memories. He had work to do in reestablishing the way of things. Tommy fixed her with a look, effective even though he was across the room from her.

"I don't think either of us will like it very much if I have to say it again."

"C'mon, Clara," Finn mumbled, pulling his sister's hand.

Tommy watched as something shifted in the girl and she climbed down off the stool. He waited, remaining patient, curious even, while the twins walked across the room at a pace slower than he had seen them move since they were merely toddling around the parlor.

When the twins stopped in front of him, Tommy bent down to meet their eyes. "The two of you forget who's in charge around here, eh?"

"Aunt Polly's in charge," Clara answered. "She said just 'cause you boys come home doesn't mean we don't have to listen to her anymore."

"Well, she's right about that. You always listen to your Aunt Polly," Tommy answered, looking between both twins before he settled his eyes on Clara. "And now you've got a whole house of family to tell you what to do on top of it. We'll talk about the new way of things on the way to school, eh?"

"But we don't need an adult. We walk to school on our own, Tommy," Finn said.

Tommy hummed. "What do you think, Clara?"

"Aunt Polly lets us go to school on our own. We're big now, Tommy."

"Bigger than when I left, I suppose. I'll walk you today so you can show me how big you've gotten, figure out what other trouble Aunt Polly's been letting you two get up to."

"If we say yes, can we stop by to see the horses?" she asked.

Tommy shook his head. "The yard's not on the way, Clara. You know that."

"It's kind of on the way," she offered. "It's only a little out of the way. And we're too early. And we haven't seen Uncle Charlie in ages."

Tommy looked at them both. "You two still like seeing the horses?"

Clara and Finn nodded.

"We got a new horse," Finn said. "Clara named her Lavender."

"And I've been helping Curly train her. Uncle Charlie gave me a book on horses."

Tommy nodded. The kids had been busy during the war, working at the shop and helping out at the yard, traipsing through the streets of Birmingham without an escort, reading his old, worn horse books, becoming little people with opinions and plans of their own.

"Do you help too?" he asked, looking at Finn.

Finn shrugged. "I do the racing. I'm probably even faster than you now."

"You're not faster than Tommy. You're not even faster than me."

"I am so!" Finn answered.

"And it's not just about racing a horse," Clara said. "You have to know your horse, take care of her, respect her, right Tommy?" She didn't bother to wait for an answer. "Finn doesn't take care of the horses, just races them."

Even being unsure of Tommy and unsure of the prospect of changing rules, Clara had already fit her hand inside of his. "I can introduce you to Lavender."

Tommy nodded. "Alright, horses and rules and school, then."

1919

Finn didn't come back to his sister's company until nearly half an hour later, not until one of the men forced him out of the shop just before opening. He had somehow managed to get a cigarette while in the shop and got to work lighting it as soon as he sat down.

"You're not supposed to be smoking," Clara said, barely pulling her eyes from the page.

"Well, Tommy said you're not to be reading his books," Finn answered. "You're too little."

Clara wondered how Finn even knew that the book belonged to Tommy. She had snuck in and out of the room right after her older brother left that morning while Finn had still been fast asleep in his bed. Plus, Finn could barely read, so she knew he hadn't recognized the title.

"I'm not too little. I'm already in chapter two and I just started it today," she answered, letting the silence settle between them until Finn got the cigarette lit.

Clara placed the book on the table, picking at the skin around her fingernails. "Arthur's awful mad at Tommy still?" she finally asked.

"Tommy's fixed a race," Finn answered in such a tone that it sounded as though he knew precisely what he was talking about and he didn't approve. "Gonna start a fight, probably, a war even."

Finn took a deep puff of the cigarette before holding it out for his sister to try. She sucked on the rolled-up paper, feeling the smoldering warmth fill her lungs before her brother suddenly yanked it from her lips. Clara scowled at him before a cough forced itself from her chest.

"You breathed in too much, silly," Finn said, shaking his head.

"You scared me," she answered. "Let me try again."

"No, smoking's not for little girls anyway."

"I'm not a—"

Clara heard Tommy's voice. He was just outside the front door, speaking to someone out on the lane before he had it opened all the way, paused on the threshold while he finished his conversation.

"Finn!" she whispered.

In the short moment the twins had before Tommy came inside, Finn tossed his cigarette towards the fire and Clara slid the book she was reading out of view, just beneath the table.

"Arthur's mad as hell," Finn offered, a weak attempt at distraction that did little to divert their brother. Tommy's gaze had already done a sweep over the room, over his youngest siblings. He had already taken it all in, cataloging their various indiscretions despite not revealing any immediate indication of having done so.

"He is, Tommy. Really mad. He was shouting for all Watery Lane to hear," Clara chimed in.

Tommy nodded his head. "What do a couple of ten-year-olds know about hell?" he asked, picking up the cigarette butt and tossing it into the flames after presenting it to both kids.

"I'm eleven Sunday. Maybe Clara doesn't know a thing, but I do." Finn delivered a smirk in Clara's direction and Tommy's eyes followed.

"And I'm eleven Monday. You're barely any bigger than me, Finn."

"You're still the baby."

Clara stuck her tongue out at Finn and he swiftly returned the favor.

"Tell him I'm not, Tommy."

Finn fought hard to maintain his place in the pecking order. Although they were twins, Finn was older by somewhere in the vicinity of a couple of hours. Their births had spanned two days, with Finn being born late at night on the tenth of February and Clara being born in the early hours of the eleventh. They had never shared an actual birthday and Finn hadn't let her forget her station since the days following birthday number four.

"Enough of that," Tommy chided as he tapped Finn over the head with his cap. "What have you got there, Clara?"

Tommy raised an eyebrow as he looked at her, waiting for the answer.

"Nothing," she answered, settling the book on her chair before sitting on top of it.

A sly smile briefly touched Tommy's lips. He took two steps across the room and pulled the girl up in his arms. Tommy settled his sister on his hip, a spot she was nearly too big to be occupying, and he picked up the book in the process, briefly glancing at the title. He waited for Clara to meet his eyes. "What have I told you about reading my books?"

Instead of answering, Clara placed her arms around Tommy's neck, clammy fingers interlocking where his shirt collar met his skin. She took the opportunity to nuzzle against her brother's chest, hiding her face as the dark blonde waves fell over her arms.

"Tommy," she whined into the fabric of his suit.

"Clara," he echoed.

Tommy set his sister down with her feet on the chair before him. They stood almost eye to eye but Clara settled her gaze on the curling edge of the carpet. Tommy waited with an eerie calmness Clara had come to associate with trouble. Under his intense scrutiny and the prolonged silence, she felt a near-immediate compulsion to fill the quiet, to give Tommy whatever he wanted.

Her first inclination was to run and if she wasn't afraid the repercussions would be steadily worse if she went off to be alone instead of facing his questions, she would've.

"But I finished every book in the house and we haven't gotten another."

Clara stomped her foot as she said it, sending the stool into a wobble which would have ended with her on the floor if it weren't for Tommy steadying her. He tapped her with the book, a small warning designed to get her attention. Finn snickered but a glance from both Tommy and Clara quieted him.

"It isn't fair, Thomas," she said.

"I'm Thomas, now, am I?" he said, setting the book down on the table.

She watched the book leave his hand before continuing.

"Yes, Thomas. It's not fair. Finn was smoking a cigarette and saying bad words and teasing and going into the shop and he didn't get in trouble and I got punished just for reading. You let him get away with everything. And you don't let me get away with anything...Thomas."

Tommy suspected that his younger sister had picked up the use of "Thomas" from their aunt. When Polly was displeased, a similarly aggrieved tone and his full name came from the woman's lips as well. Out of respect for the girl, Tommy didn't laugh though it amused him to see the display of force from the baby of the family.

"You were smoking, too," Finn shrugged, his indignant voice breaking through the quiet that settled in while Clara and Tommy stared at one another.

Clara's face shifted and she narrowed her eyes at her twin.

Tommy cleared his throat to regain her attention. "The two of you aren't meant to be telling on one another. You're meant to stick together. That's what we do in this family."

Finn nodded once before looking back to the fire and Tommy turned to Clara. "And I hold you to a higher standard than the rest of them. You're smart and you're a proper lady, not a Peaky Blinder. And no one here's getting punished."

"It still isn't fair, Tommy," she answered, pouting. Clara considered his inquisition and his accusatory tone to be akin to punishment.

He ran a hand through her hair, stopping to place his palm on her cheek.

"The world often isn't, Clara." Tommy picked the book up, holding it out to her. "Put this back and we'll get you another later today."

"Can I pick it out myself?"

"Can you behave for the rest of the day?"

"Of course," she said.

"No more smoking, no sneaking into the shop, no fighting," Tommy said, glancing at Finn as well.

Clara nodded eagerly, holding out her hand to him.

"Then it looks like we have a deal, Miss Shelby," he said, shaking the little hand.

Clara leaned forward, pecked him on the cheek, and hopped off the stool with the book in her arms.

Tommy glanced at Finn as Clara ran up the stairs, taking a deep breath. "Sisters, eh Finn?

The boy shook his head, rolling his eyes. "She's a piece of work, she is," Finn answered, having frequently heard his twin sister described as such.

"That she is," Tommy agreed before making his way into the shop.