This chapter takes place after the end of S2E6.
It's very early in the morning when he knocks at her door, 2 days after the Derby.
She opens the door and takes him in a tight embrasse, pulling him inside.
He smiles, pushing his face in the crook of her neck.
"I have read the papers, the assassination was all over the front pages. There was even a mention of Campbell's murder. But not a word about you, no arrest mentioned. I was so relieved …"She takes his head in her hands, "... But then there was no sign of you being alive either. I didn't hear from you for 2 days! How can you leave me in the dark for so long ?! "
Tommy is a little shameful but also amused, "I'm sorry, I should have sent Finn as soon as I could to reassure you. I haven't thought you'd be so worried."
"you promised you would find me and tell me everything, of course I was worried."
" I had things I needed to finish first."
"How did it go?" Grace asks, caressing the scar on his eyebrow.
"As planned."
"What was that plan?"
Tommy explains to her the assassination of the field marshall, the Irish and Campbell's association, the Derby, the licenses…
Grace still has questions, "You're saying you didn't trust Campbell to keep you alive after the field marshall was killed. How did you escape his men?"
Tommy is thoughtful, as if he is assessing what he is willing to share with her. What he can share of the past 72 hours. He hasn't talked to his family about his kidnapping or the agent of Churchill saving his life. Why would he tell her that? Can he trust her? He has trusted her with the information of his involvement in Russell's assassination. But if he tells her what happened in the field, he would have to admit how scared he has been, how powerless he has felt.
She is waiting for him to make up his mind, her face opened, her eyes searching for what he isn't telling her.
"Campbell's plan almost succeeded. The UVF's agents took me to a field for my execution. I thought I was going to die. I thought this was my final hour. I thought about you."
She is feeling her heart pulse in her chest.
"Then one of them killed the others. Telling me that I was more useful alive than dead for Churchill."
She senses that he wants to tell her more.
"Grace, I am trying to turn things legal, but they see me as the perfect tool, the ultimate criminal."
"I know."
"I haven't told the family about the kidnapping. They don't need to know that side of business."
"Why do you tell me?"
"Because it's the part that has kept me awake at night. It's the part that I have no control over. With Sandini, Solomons I have plans. I know them, I understand how they think. I can play my cards. But with this political business, I'm not the one in charge. I've nothing to gain from it. "
"You've found a way to benefit from the last mission, you'll always find a way."
Tommy smiles now, "I'll be one of the richest men in London soon, you'll see. We already are the biggest family in Birmingham. There's no way for anyone to do business without dealing with us."
Grace is smiling back at him, "I have always known you would succeed. You have the drive and the intelligence to achieve everything you set your mind on."
"Would you help me? I want you in my life Grace."
"Did you forgive me?"
"I forgave you a long time ago. I admire your determination, your fearlessness. I respect that you accomplished your mission without deviating, that you made the sacrifices needed to achieve your goal."
"You weren't my mission. Hurting you or your business wasn't my mission. I was placed as an undercover agent to discover who had the guns and to recover them. My drive was that they couldn't end in the possession of the IRA.
They have assassinated my father, Tommy. He was the only family I had left. I would have done anything to ensure that they didn't get their hands on arms which would further destroy my country."
"Freddy wasn't part of that plan."
"No. But I was an agent with access to information. I've used them. Would they forgive me?"
"Polly never will."
"Does it matter to you?"
Tommy comes sit beside her on the settee: "I'll deal with it. I'm used to being at the end of Polly 's wrath, you'll charm Arthur out of his begrudgement"
"I know what I've done. I know the consequences of my choices, I have thought about it every day since I left.
I can't promise that going back, I wouldn't do the same again. I needed to achieve what I had come to do. But I regret so much the harm I've inflicted you in the process.
You opened yourself to me and I hurt you. You've trusted me with your heart and happiness. I crushed it.
Can you still trust me with your heart? I feel that you are guarded around me, I fear that your trust won't come back and we'll end up hurting each other even more. Can you let your guard down?"
She doesn't feel the tear running down her cheek until his finger catches it.
He whispers her name "Grace…"
She interrupts him, she needs to say everything that has weighed on her chest for two years, "I know who you are. You know who I am. I was honest with you. I haven't lied to you about who I was, just what I was doing…You can talk to me, I understand you and I feel that you understand me. We can share everything." She pauses before adding, "If only you feel that my secrets haven't broken our bond irremediably."
Tommy taking her face in his hands, "I trust you Grace. I've missed you, I've missed what we had found. I need you. I got used again to being on my own, to be in my head all the time.. It may take time for me to find the way to open up again. But it's just there, I can feel it."
Their bodies haven't forgotten how to show their love. Their lips to cherish, their hands to caress each other.