Tommy stroked his wife's back as she lay on her front in the bed. She had one arm stuffed underneath the pillow, her other arm flung over Tommy's torso as he remained sat up against the pillows. Elizabeth smiled lazily at him, feeling tired after their antics from the previous night. Tommy was smoking from where he lounged, cigarette dangling from his lips.
"We promised that we would be home before Charlotte woke," Elizabeth said to her husband.
"Aye, I know, but we're goin' to 'ave break that promise," he said to her. "But I've got breakfast with Mosley."
"Ugh," Elizabeth complained and Tommy brushed her hair down her back, pushing it off to the side as his fingers brushed her neck. "Do you have to go? Can you not just hide up here with me until he has checked out?"
Tommy's lips arched. He removed his cigarette from his lips and stubbed it out, blowing a puff of smoke off to the side. He slipped down the bed until he was lying down and Elizabeth moved to rest her cheek by his neck, inhaling his familiar scent as he wrapped an arm around her shoulders. Keeping hold of her, he tried not to shiver as she tickled her fingers against his chest.
"I don't like any of it," Tommy said to her. "None of it is ideal, Liz."
"Then tell him that you have no desire to be part of his party," Elizabeth said, still stroking circles on his bare chest. "Tell him that you are too busy with work to devote time to his cause."
Elizabeth felt him continue to run his hand down her hair. She enjoyed the feeling of it. It was soothing. It was gentle and it made her feel safe. She had missed that feeling in recent times, but slowly she was getting it back. She had tried to leave him, but look where that had gotten her. She had crawled back to him. She knew who he was and what he had done, but that would not stop her seeing the good in him. She knew he had more of it than he wanted to admit.
"I would," Tommy said, voice gravelly. "Yer know that I would if I could, Liz, but I am in too deep with 'im. I know that he 'as things planned and I need to find out what they are because I don't trust 'im. I don't trust 'im not to 'urt yer to get to me…because that's what he does."
"He's so…slimy," was the only word Elizabeth could settle on. "Well, if you insist on going then please hurry up and come back. I want to go home and perhaps, Mr Shelby, we can even have another early night."
Tommy hummed contently at hearing her say that as she moved and straddled his hips, the duvet falling down her back. She bent down, kissing him slowly while he moved his hands to cup her cheeks, his lips moving against hers as her hair formed a curtain around them. She ran her hands down his chest, settling them on the hard planes of his stomach.
"Well 'ow could I refuse that offer, Mrs Shelby?" he asked of her once she had pulled her lips from his.
….
Ada had stayed at the house the previous night. Karl had remained in London, but she had ensured that he had security and a nanny to protect him. She had been playing with Charlotte when Elizabeth and Tommy had returned home. Tommy looked slightly fraught and tense. Elizabeth whispered something into his ear and patted his arm before heading towards Ada in the dining room. Ada stopped peering into the hall.
"How was your evening?" Ada asked her as Charlotte launched herself from the chair she had been sat in. Elizabeth bent down and gathered Charlotte into her arms, holding onto her and then looking up to Ada.
"Good," Elizabeth said to her. "We had fun."
"I do not doubt it," Ada responded with a wry voice.
Elizabeth shot her a smirk before pulling back and looking her daughter in the eye. "Have you been alright, Charlotte? Did you have a good night?"
"Frances made me cake," Charlotte said and Elizabeth adjusted her daughter's skirt that had gathered around her legs. "We played games and then this morning Aunt Ada walked with me around the garden."
"We collected flowers, didn't we?" Ada said to Charlotte.
"We put them in your bedroom."
"Well, thank you very much," Elizabeth said, kissing her on the cheek. "Daddy has just gone into the study. Why don't you go and see him, okay?"
"Yes," Charlotte said and took off.
Elizabeth stood up, pulling her dress down before looking to Ada. "How are you this morning, Ada?"
"Fine," Ada said with a nod of her head. "I confess that things are becoming difficult with this, however."
Elizabeth nodded, looking at the bump of Ada's stomach. She was a few months along now and it was clear as day that she was pregnant. Of course, no one dared ask questions about the father. They were not naïve enough to bother doing that. Elizabeth took hold of Ada by the arm, urging for her to come and sit with her in the sitting room.
"How has the pregnancy been?" Elizabeth enquired.
"Hard," Ada admitted to Elizabeth. "It is hard enough that Karl has grown up without his father and now I am going to have another child who will have to suffer the same. I might never have loved Ben, but he deserved to know his child. He deserved that much. He was a good man."
"I know," Elizabeth spoke and Ada sat down.
Elizabeth perched down on the settee next to her, sitting on the edge of the cushion and looking over at her. She held her hands under her knees and Ada rested hers on the swell of her stomach.
"Two children," Ada drawled, leaning her head back. "I never thought that I would have two children."
"That child will be lucky, Ada. You are a great mum," Elizabeth said to her.
Ada sat up straight again and looked slightly aghast. She held a hand up in defence, shaking her head. "I'm sorry," she said to her. "I should be more sensitive after everything you have been through, Liz. I should have thought."
"Oh…no," Elizabeth urged from her, shaking her head quickly and taking hold of Ada's arm, squeezing onto it. She smiled at her. "You don't need to apologise, Ada. I am fine…honestly…we…we have come to terms with it. We know that we cannot have anymore children, not after what happened."
"Tommy doesn't talk about it," she said to Elizabeth. "We only know that after your second miscarriage…he said you had to stay in hospital for a while."
"We…it was hard, Ada," Elizabeth admitted to her, voice low and almost a whisper. "We had to make a choice and Tommy…not once did he hesitate. He knew that we couldn't keep going through this pain. It was too much, Ada. They said that eventually my own health would be at risk and Tommy didn't even hesitate. He said that there was no choice."
"What happened," Ada couldn't help but ask from her.
"The reason why I miscarried…they found something in my womb. They said they were growing…would become painful," she admitted to her. "They said that it was causing the miscarriages. They told me that…they would have to remove the womb. They warned me that if I did that then we could not have anymore children, but they said the chance of me carrying to a full term was almost impossible."
"Jesus," Ada said in a haunting voice. "Tommy never said anything. Why did you not tell anyone?"
"We didn't want anyone to know," Elizabeth responded. "We grew distant after that. I felt guilty because I couldn't give Tommy anymore children and I couldn't protect the ones we had. I grew distant and he didn't know what to do, but that was because at the time there was nothing he could do. I had to work it out myself."
"So that's why you were in hospital for such a long time," Ada said.
"That is why," Elizabeth echoed to her. "As I said, we are both fine with it now. We came to accept it and Tommy…well…I know that he would have loved another kid, probably a boy, but he made it clear that there was no choice."
"He loves you, Liz," Ada said to her. "Despite all of his faults, loving you is not one of them."
"I know," she agreed with that. "Anyway, this is about you, Ada, and your baby. Are you sure that you are doing okay living in London on your own? If it becomes too much then you can move in with us."
"Thank you," Ada said, deeply touched by the offer. She knew that she had not always seen eye to eye with Tommy's wife, but she knew that she was good. She was untainted and the complete opposite to Tommy. "But I will be fine, Liz. Honestly, I am ready to have this baby and stuff what anyone thinks about it."
"What are you hoping for?" Elizabeth enquired.
"A girl would be nice," she admitted. "But I am not overly bothered. I will just be happy that the baby is healthy and safe."
"And that is all that matters," Elizabeth assured her, squeezing her arm. "Anyway, I wanted to ask you about Andrew. You two seemed to have a lot in common."
"We did," Ada agreed. "He was very good at political debate, I have to say. He seemed really kind and sweet, Liz…he only had good things to say about you too. He admires your determination and wants to be a part of something good. I think he feels lost since his wife died. It is almost as though he wants some purpose."
"I can understand that," Elizabeth said to her. "I am glad that you two got on though."
Ada rolled her eyes at hearing that tone. "Are you really?" she asked dryly.
Elizabeth shrugged her shoulders and tried to act innocent. "What?" she wondered. "I just knew that he was not judgmental of anything…nice…and clearly able to hold intellectual debate."
"Your ulterior motives are very clear, Liz," Ada said and moved to stand up. "But they are probably misplaced. Why would he be interested in a pregnant woman?"
"I don't know," Elizabeth said, shrugging her shoulders. "Never say never."
"Well, I think we can definitely say never," Ada responded. "I need to get going, Liz. I need to be back in London for this evening. Perhaps you can bring Charlotte down for a weekend when Tommy is working?"
"Sounds like a plan," Elizabeth said, letting Ada walk in front of her as she placed a hand to her stomach and looked down, feeling a sense of emptiness inside of her for a brief moment.
…
Tommy came up behind his wife after putting Charlotte to bed. His arms wrapped around her tightly, squeezing onto her. Leaning back against him, she rested her hands on top of his on her stomach. She felt him kiss her neck softly, the movement slow and languid.
"Is Charlotte asleep?" Elizabeth asked him.
"She will be," he promised her. "I read 'er a story."
"Hmm," Elizabeth hummed, "did she demand for another fairytale?"
"What else?" Tommy wondered back from her.
She chuckled and squeezed his hands tightly. "I told Ada about the operation today," Elizabeth spoke and Tommy kept his chin on her shoulder, both of them peering out the window onto the falling rain. "We were talking about pregnancy and she asked what had happened. I told her the truth."
"What did she say?" Tommy enquired.
"Nothing really," Elizabeth said back. "She was just inquisitive. I just said that they found something in my womb and that…well…the only way to be certain that they could get rid of them would be to remove the womb. I didn't go into detail, not like the doctor did."
"It was the only way, Liz," Tommy said to his wife. "Yer know that. If we tried to 'ave another baby the risks were too high. I couldn't lose yer."
"I know," Elizabeth said to him. "It just felt strange talking about it. We don't really mention it anymore."
Tommy shrugged against her. "There's nothin' to mention, Liz. It is what it is. We 'ave each other and Charlotte. Would we 'ave loved another kid? Yeah, of course we would 'ave, but we can't. We're 'appy us three, right? We're 'appy together."
"I know," Elizabeth said, nodding her head.
"Yer the most important thing to me," Tommy promised her. "I wasn't goin' to risk yer."
Elizabeth smiled to him, kissing him quickly as she turned around in his grip. She continued kissing him, her hands going to his shoulders as he took hold of her waist. She pulled back after a moment and brushed her nose against his. "Well, you don't have to," she promised him. "I have a check up at the doctors again in another month's time. He insists on me still going to see him."
"As he should," Tommy said to her. "I'll come with yer again."
Elizabeth rolled her eyes and went to sit down on the bed. "You don't have to," she said to him. "It is just a check up."
"I want to," he reiterated for her and moved to kneel down in front of her, arms folding over lap. "Anyway, we need to talk about yer school."
"What about it?" she asked him.
"Oswald Mosley wants to invest."
"Absolutely no chance," Elizabeth shook her head quickly. "I mean it, Tommy. I do not want his money. I do not want him involved and asking favours or thinking that means anything if he does invest."
"I said that it would be down to yer," he said. "I told 'im that this was your business venture and I was only supportin' yer."
She frowned. "So I have to tell him?" she asked.
"No," Tommy said. "I will just tell 'im that yer enough donors and would rather he invest his money elsewhere if he wishes to help a charity."
Elizabeth looked slightly impressed then. "That was very diplomatic," she commented.
"Politician," he simply explained, motioning to himself and she laughed despite herself, rolling her eyes. "I'll deal with it, Liz. It'll be alright."
"Thank you," she said to her husband, kissing him again.
"No thanks needed," he promised his wife. "Now come on, yer promised me an early night."
"You remembered that?" she said.
He hauled himself upwards and reached for her shirt, tugging it from the waistband of her skirt. "As if I could forget."
….
A/N: Do let me know what you think!
