Alfie didn't like to feel out of his comfort zone, and currently being driven through the streets of Small Heath that was most definitely how he felt. Niamh was completely oblivious to his unease as she excitedly pointed out people and places she knew. Upon receiving a summons from Tommy a few days before, Niamh had been giddy with excitement to return home and to show Alfie her old stomping ground. In fact, Niamh was the only reason he hadn't told Tommy to fuck off with his demand that they visit for an important family meeting. She had been the one to answer the telephone and as soon as she slammed the receiver down, she had been upstairs packing her bag and telling Alfie all about the places she would show him. He hadn't had the heart to say no, which was why he was now half heartedly watching Niamh point out all of the different sights on the way to Watery Lane. He had no fucking interest in any of it, but he loved seeing her face light up animatedly. Also, he supposed the opportunity to wind up her brothers was a prospect that excited him as well. Especially John; he was even easier to wind up than Arthur.
"...And down that alleyway is where I had my first kiss with Pete Basildon when I was eleven."
That caught his attention and he scowled, causing Niamh to grin and kiss his cheek loudly.
"Don't worry, I didn't enjoy it, not even a bit. It was all slobbery and our teeth clashed together and Arthur caught us, chased Pete away and then smacked me so hard I couldn't sit down for two days," she chuckled.
"If we come across this Pete fella durin' our visit, I reckon I might need to be havin' a little word with him," Alfie narrowed his eyes playfully. "My fists can tell him just what I think about him touchin' my wife.."
"Are you jealous, Alfie?" Niamh's impish smirk told him that she was enjoying his envy far too much. She nuzzled his neck with a throaty laugh, nipped at skin until he erupted into goosebumps and then suckled at his earlobe until he groaned. Her hand touched his thigh, just a little too high up for it to be proper and Alfie turned his face so he could kiss her languidly, only pulling away when they went over a pothole in the road and were jolted almost out of their seats.
"You," he pointed a finger in her face, his eyes glistening playfully. "Are a naughty madam and I intend to punish you for it later."
"Promises, promises," she winked. "Oh, we're here! We're here!"
"Great," Alfie rolled his eyes. "Now the fun can really begin."
"I'll make this trip worth your while, don't worry," Niamh murmured in his ear, kissing his cheek again briefly and then jumping out of the car before Ishmael had even switched off the ignition.
Niamh was positively beaming as she waved to the few neighbours loitering on the street and when the front door opened, she let out a sort of giddy cry as she ran and threw herself at Arthur.
"By God I've missed you, girl," Arthur grinned, catching Niamh as she jumped up to kiss his cheek and he picked her up as though she weighed nothing. "It's not been the same around here with you."
"It's been a hell of a lot quieter though."
"Aunt Pol!" Niamh giggled, standing still when Polly held her at arm's length in order to look into her face. Her ever shrewd eyes searched Niamh's until she eventually smiled and pulled her in for a cuddle.
"You look happy, love," Polly murmured.
"I am, Pol. And even happier now I'm here with you lot."
"Aunty Niamh!" came excited voices from inside the house, and she ran in hurriedly to be accosted by her nieces and nephews.
"Don't worry about me, love," Alfie muttered sarcastically. "I'll just see myself in, shall I?"
Polly's face was pinched and her eyes narrowed as they followed Alfie's slow footsteps from the car to the front door. Her arms were folded across her chest and her lips were pursed as though she was ready to berate him, and Alfie found himself amused that she showed no fear of him whatsoever. Tommy might have been the head of the Shelby clan but there was no doubt in Alfie's mind that Polly was the one who actually kept the unruly bunch in line.
"Polly," he bobbed his head politely, deciding for Niamh's sake to be civil. "You look well."
"Don't think that fake act will wash with me," Polly murmured as the sounds of Niamh loudly greeting the rest of her family in the den could be heard. "I don't like you and I certainly don't trust you. Niamh seems to be head over heels for you but she's young and she always sees the good in everyone."
"That's one of the things I lo… like most about her," Alfie answered honestly.
"You're playing with her is what you're doing," Polly hissed.
"Not that it's any of your fuckin' business, yeah, but I happen to think a lot of your Niamh," Alfie growled.
"You like her because she's new and she's easily manipulated," Polly scoffed.
"Easily manipulated?" Alfie smirked. "You sure we're talkin' about the same woman here? 'Cause the Niamh I know is the one what's the master manipulator, not me. I aint ashamed to say that she manages to get whatever she wants outta me without me even realisin' it. Little witch she is."
He saw a flicker of amusement pass across Polly's face, replaced quickly by a stern facade once again.
"You gonna invite me in then?" Alfie asked, stepping closer until they were merely a hair's breadth from one another.
Polly's eyes never wavered from his and something in those dark orbs sent a shiver down his spine. It was as though she could see right into his soul and it was unnerving. He didn't like it one fucking bit, and he realised that he had vastly underestimated Polly Gray. Perhaps she was the one he ought to watch out for and not Tommy?
Only time would tell.
Alfie didn't have any siblings, and as a young child he had often wished for a brother or two to play with. But listening to the absolute fucking ruckus that was the Shelby family, he was glad he was an only child.
"I want one, aunty Niamh!"
"I asked for one first."
"No, I asked for one first actually."
"Aunty Niamh, tell him I already asked for one when she went to the loo."
John's children were arguing incessantly over the jam sandwiches that Niamh was making; John and Arthur had disappeared to do some business; Ada was bouncing her little lad up and down on her knee in an attempt to stop the boy crying after he had fallen over on his wobbly toddler legs and banged his head; Polly and Esme were talking in their horrible little gypsy language in the alcove, Esme not even attempting to hide the way she kept glaring at him; and Alfie was just sat taking it all in and waiting for the dull ache in his head from all the noise to subside.
"If you don't all shut up immediately, nobody's having fucking anything!" Niamh suddenly roared.
The children instantly stopped talking but nobody else so much as even batted an eyelid, which led Alfie to the conclusion that they had seen this side of his wife on more than one occasion. Now while, he was used to easy going and funny Niamh, he absolutely fucking knew he was going to demand bossy and in control Niamh in his bed that night. Thank fucking God he had managed to persuade her to stay in a guest house because he definitely had some reservations about exerting his husbandly righst with Polly peeking through the fucking gap in the door. She'd probably fucking curse his manhood or something equally as awful.
"Right, now form an orderly fucking line and once you've got your jam butty, fuck off and play outside, ok?" she ordered, handing a sandwich to give to Karl who immediately settled down upon taking the first bite.
"Your face is very hairy," a voice said beside him and Alfie turned his head to look at a little girl who looked exactly like her father, more was the pity. "Why do you have a crown on your hand? Are you a king or something? My dad said you're a Jew. What's a Jew exactly? And you're from London. I've never been to London before; is it nice? Is it nicer than Birmingham? I'm Roisin and I'm nine and I like the colour blue. What's your favourite colour? I like your rings. I've never seen a man who wears so many rings before."
Her small hand reached out to touch them and Alfie didn't know whether to be impressed by her sheer audacity or appalled that this little slip of a thing didn't seem the least bit terrified of him. He was also extremely curious as to how she managed to breathe because he was certain she hadn't come up for air in easily an entire minute.
"You best watch her or she'll have them off your fingers and hidden before you can even blink," Ada commented with a knowing look. "She stole money out of my purse last week and then blamed it on her brother, didn't you, Roisin?"
"No, I never," Roisin scowled. "You're a liar."
"Don't speak to your aunt like that," Alfie muttered. "Did no one teach you no manners, young lady?"
Roisin opened her mouth to retort but instead found herself closing it again and looking towards Esme who simply shrugged.
"He's right," she said, her face set into a grimace as though agreeing with Alfie left a bitter taste in her mouth. "I've already tanned your arse once today for being rude to your elders."
"And I'll happily tan it again for you," Ada added. "Do me a favour and get me some milk for Karl. I think he's getting ready for a nap."
"I'll do it," Niamh offered, jam sandwiches handed out and children outside. Well, apart from one; Roisin, who apparently was more interested in the strange man at her table.
"Have you got any more tattoos?" Roisin pulled up the chair next to him and it scraped loudly on the floor as she got as close to him as was humanly fucking possible. "My dad's got one on his chest. I can get him to show you if you like."
"Nah I think all right thanks, love," Alfie grimaced at the thought of being presented with John Shelby's bare chest. "And to answer your question, yeah, I've got a fair few like. You can't see them though 'cause they're hidden under all these clothes of mine."
"Has my aunty Niamh seen them all?" Roisin asked. "Wives are allowed to see their husbands with no clothes on. My mum and dad are always in bed with no clothes when they think we're asleep and sometimes when they think we're out playing as well."
"That's enough of that, you," Polly hurried over and smacked her on the back of the head. She might not have liked Alfie but she liked for the children in her family to have manners. After all, they weren't fucking animals. "Get your sandwich off Niamh when she comes back and then get outside with the others."
"I want to talk to Alfie," Roisin pouted. "I heard Aunty Ada tell you that you had to be nice to him for Niamh's sake so I'm trying to be nice too."
Alfie choked out a laugh at the look on Polly's face; a cross between amusement and annoyance as she eyed Roisin. He knew that none of them liked him and he was perfectly fine with that seeing as he didn't like them either, but he appreciated that Ada was at least attempting to pretend for her sister's sake.
"She's alright," Alfie muttered. "Just no more talkin' about people with no clothes on, yeah? Young ladies ought not to be talkin' about things like that."
"Why not?"
"'Cause it just aint proper, is it?" Alfie struggled for an answer, feeling slightly under pressure as Polly, Ada and Esme all continued to watch curiously. "What about… er, horses? Your lot like horses, don't ya? You got an horse?"
Polly stepped back into the alcove to resume her conversation with Esme just as Niamh returned with milk for Karl, and Alfie could have sworn he saw just a flicker of approval in the matriarch's eyes for just a split second.
"I haven't got one of my own but my uncle Tommy lets me ride his horse at my uncle Charlie's yard," Roisin explained. "He's black and I'm allowed to brush his fur and sometimes when I feed him carrots he bites my fingers."
"So that's why you've only got three fingers on that hand then? I did wonder," Alfie pointed to her right hand, biting back a grin when she looked down in horror. "Ha, made you look."
You're silly," Roisin giggled and Alfie couldn't help but smile back. He liked kids; even nosy little Shelby ones apparently. He never admitted to anyone that he actually enjoyed spending time with small humans, especially Ollie's ones who he thought of as his own blood. They were refreshing and inquisitive and he enjoyed just how much of an antithesis they were compared to everything else in his life. "Do you like dogs? I want a dog but my mum says they smell worse than my dad's arse and that she already has to clean up enough shit from us kids every day that she's not picking up a dog's as well."
"Well, I don't reckon I can comment on your dad's arse -although just by lookin' at him I reckon it probably is quite smelly to be fair- but I actually have a dog myself and he's a right smelly bugger sometimes. You just ask your aunty Niamh."
"Hey, don't you be bad mouthing my best boy," Niamh scowled playfully, pulling up the seat on Alfie's other side and taking a big bite of her own jam sandwich before offering the other half to Alfie who shook his head and passed it over to his new friend. "Alfie's just confusing his own stinky arse with Cyril's."
"Says the woman whose arse talks all night and keeps me awake."
"Alfie!" Niamh smacked him on the arm.
"No, I can vouch for that, too," Ada smirked. "I used to share a fucking room with your stinky arse."
"Sheer luck you never suffocated to death then," Alfie murmured.
"Right, that's enough the pair of you," Niamh demanded sullenly, folding her arms across her chest. "And you, Roisin Shelby, get outside and check that your brothers and sister are behaving."
"Do as she says," Polly told her. "Me and your mum are just nipping out quickly to get a few things so until we get back Niamh and Ada are in charge."
"When should we expect Tommy?" Ada asked.
"Christ knows," Polly sighed exasperatedly. "I told him to be here at four but we both know that brother of yours runs on his own schedule and no one else's."
Roisin left the table, scraping her feet across the floor just to show her annoyance at having to supervise her younger siblings, and as Polly and Esme left to run their errands, Ada announced that she was taking Karl upstairs for a nap.
"Might even have half an hour myself seeing as this little rascal had me up at the crack of dawn this morning," Ada chuckled. "When Polly comes back, give me a knock so she doesn't bollock me for being lazy, ok?"
"Fuckin' Nora," Alfie muttered when it was finally just him and Niamh alone in the now blessedly silent parlour. "I could use that niece of yours for interrogations back at the bakery. She could get blood out of a stone, couldn't she? What a right little chatter box she is."
"That's putting it politely," Niamh scoffed. "She's a handful. All of John's kids are. Although having Esme keeps them in line a bit more, I have to say."
"So they're John's kids from his first wife?"
"Yep, except for the baby," Niamh nodded sadly. "She was so sweet Martha. Killed John when she died. I didn't think he'd ever really get over it until Tommy made a deal with the Lees and had him marry Esme."
"Likes doin' that your brother, don't he?" Alfie smirked. "Marryin' his siblings off to folks what he's got trouble with."
"So it would seem, yeah," Niamh grinned, wrapping both of her arms around one of Alfie's and looking up at him with an expression that made his shift uncomfortably in his chair. "So, do you wanna know something funny, Alfie?"
"What's that then?" his voice came out quiet and croaky.
"Well," Niamh stood and bit on her bottom lip as she began to undo the top few buttons of her blouse. "Ada's gone for a sleep with Karl, the kids are playing outside, John and Arthur'll be back in a bit, Tommy'll get here whenever he fucking fancies, and Polly and Esme will definitely be gone for at least thirty minutes or more."
"Oh yeah?" Alfie played ignorant even as he got up from his own chair, ignoring the way it clattered to the ground as he stalked his way towards Niamh who was backing away towards the den which was currently void of anyone.
"Yeah," she breathed, reaching for the lapel of his shirt and pulling him to her so she could kiss him hard, her hand reaching in between their bodies to cup him through his trousers. "I've been waiting for you to invite me to the bakery so you can fuck me over your desk but I suppose Arthur's desk'll just have to do instead?"