Tommy's Wedding Part 2
Glancing up from her conversation with Michael, Edith frowns as Tommy plucks the champagne glass from between her fingers, reaching behind him to hand it to the passing maid.
"Thought I told John to keep you off the alcohol, eh?" He grunts, leaning over Edith to pour her a glass of water, pushing it into her hand that was still hovering in midair, his sister staring up at him in shock. "Don't need to be dealing with you throwing up on my wedding day." Reaching out to pinch her cheek, Edith swats his hand away, growling as she ducks out of his reach. "Behave." He warns, pointing a finger in her face. "Last warning. And you, watch her. Clearly our brother isn't doing a very good job." Patting Michael on the back, Tommy stalks away, leaving Michael snickering into his hand at Edith's hard glare following her brother to the end of the table.
"He's bloody boring." Edith grumbles, dropping her head into her hand, drowning out her brother's voice as he commands the attention of the room, opting to swirl the ice around her glass instead. Edith was happy for Tommy, truly, she was; he had been happier since Charles had been born, a touch more like the old Tommy but part of her still couldn't forgive Grace for what she had done to their family all those years ago, she wasn't sure she ever truly would. But nevertheless, she had put on a smile for her brother's big day. Drawing her attention back to her brothers, Edith rolls her eyes at John's drunken shouts, raising them to glance down to the end of the table where Arthur was rising to give his speech.
"Here we bloody go." She mumbles with a chuckle, shuffling her chair closer to Michael's and leaning towards him, resting her head on her hands on his shoulder. "Bloody sing?" She laughs, repeating John's words, Michael scoffing under his breath in response. "Does he not know Arthur will shatter all the bloody glasses in this whole fucking house if he attempts that?" Settling back against Michael's side, Edith drops her cheek to his shoulder, eyes glued to Arthur as she winces at his choice of words, groaning under his breath. "Why didn't he just fucking stick to the agreed speech? Oh god, not the war! Make it stop!"
"It's a wedding, Arthur, tell a joke." Michael cuts in, Edith patting his chest in a silent thank you, letting out a chuckle at his next comment. "Good God, he's still going."
Winding her way through the crowds of people after dinner, Edith speeds up as she spots Tommy on the other side of the room. Gathering her dress in her hands, Edith rushes across the room, waving hello to people as she passes, quickly following Tommy into the hallway.
"Tommy!" Pausing and spinning at his sister's call, Tommy waits for Edith to catch up, coming to a stop in front of him. "I've not seen you all afternoon." She states, resting her hand on her chest to catch her breath from her run across the room. "Are you ok?"
"Fine." Tommy replies abruptly with a nod. "Go back to the party."
"But...aren't you-"
"I'm going to find Grace." He tells her, reaching out to squeeze her hand lightly at the concern written on her face. "I'm fine. Go and find your brother."
"I have." Edith jokes, stepping forward to wrap her arms around Tommy who gives her a short, tight hug before releasing her with a pat on the back.
"A different brother." He teases, reaching out to tweak her cheek. "Go. Go on."
"But what if I want to spend time with you?" She whines, pouting up at Tommy and fluttering her eyelashes. "My favourite brother."
"I'm your favourite brother now, am I?"
"Right now you are." Edith replies cheekily, rocking on her heels with a playful grin. "Please, Tommy!" She whines again, drawing out the vowels. "I wanna dance with my big brother."
"You have three other big brothers out there to dance with." Tommy counters, pointing back towards the room the pair had just excited. "Plus a cousin, an uncle and a Curly. I'm sure Johnny Dogs'll give you a whirl around the dance floor if you ask nicely."
"Arthur's like an oaf and keeps stepping on my toes, John's too busy cracking rude jokes at the cavalry men, Finn's dancing with any girl he can get his hands on, Michael's run off with a toff somewhere, Johnny Dogs disappeared about five minutes ago, and Charlie and Curly won't dance with me." Edith lists off, ticking each man off on her fingers. "Now Isiah..."
"You stay away from Isiah Jesus. He's not a good influence on you." Tommy warns, pointing his finger at Edith.
"Fine. No dancing with Isiah... I'll add that to my growing list of men Edith can, or in this case, can't, dance with." Sighing at the dramatics his sister was putting on, Tommy reaches up to pinch the bridge of his nose. "I just wanna dance with you." Edith admits, deflating visibly. "Tom?"
"Not now, Edith." He replies gently, reaching out to squeeze her shoulder. "I've got something to deal with, and later, I'll give you a spin around the dance floor, eh?"
"Thought you said you needed to find Grace?"
"What?" Tommy grunts, pulling the tin of cigarettes out of his pocket. "Yes. Something I need to deal with, with Grace." Humming suspiciously, Edith peers up at Tommy once more, meeting his eyes with a sad smile. "Go and enjoy the party, Edith."
"I'll just go find Ada." She sulks, pursing her lips into a pout.
"Good idea." Tommy mumbles around his cigarette. "Find Ada now, and when I'm done, I'll come and find you and we'll have a dance. Alright?"
"Alright." Edith agrees with a sigh, watching as Tommy goes, turning on her own heel to head back out into the party in search of her siblings.
It doesn't take long for Edith to find a family member in the multiple crowded rooms of Arrow House, hanging back to wait for her Aunt and Grace to finish their conversation before she could step in and gain her Aunt's attention. Yet their talk of the business going down that evening sent a chill running through Edith's veins. Moving quickly away from the pair, she heads towards the large windows at the side of the room, peering out for any sign of her brothers, but finding none, she turns away, dropping down onto one of the few free sofas and observing the rowdy crowd in front of her. Her eyes keep moving around the room, hoping to find a brother in the mass of people, who would come to scoop her up and involve her in whatever was going on tonight. She didn't really care to partake in whatever Pol had been discussing with Grace about the Russians, but the horse races she had been hearing murmurs of all night had sparked her interest. However, with no sign of any family members searching the room for her, Edith decides to take matters into her own hands, and head out towards the gardens, more so to get some fresh air than to find her brothers, yet if she did stumble across said horse races, she wouldn't be too displeased either.
"Where's Edith?" Tommy asks as he storms through the drawing room not half an hour later, whirling back to face Polly who shakes her head slowly, lifting her arms in a shrug. "Fucking hell."
"I'll look for her." Polly calls as Tommy turns away, shaking his head as he goes, calling back over his shoulder.
"No. Stay here. I'll send Finn." Searching the crowd for his youngest brother, he changes course as he spots Finn leaning against the wall, clearly flirting with the young girl beside him. "Finn." He snaps, grabbing his brother's jacket and pulling him away, throwing the young girl a glare as she squeals out a short protest. "Go and find your sister. Now." Nodding at Tommy's command, noting the harshness behind his tone and knowing what was about to go down, Finn moves away from his brother, pushing through the crowds of people in search of Edith.
Meanwhile, perched on the bottom step leading into the garden, Edith leans her head against the stone banister, lifting a cigarette to her lips. Faintly, in the distance, she could see the smoke of a burning fire blowing over the trees at the edge of the gardens, the shouts of men carrying her way as the wind blows her hair into her face. And when a gunshot rings out above the noise, Edith barely even jumps, instead rolling her eyes at the sound.
"No fucking fighting." She mutters to herself bitterly, pushing up off the step with a chuckle. Turning at the sound of her name being called, Edith rolls her eyes again, finding Finn stood at the top of the steps above her, face flushed from his rush to find his sister before the gunshot rang out.
"Edith," Finn calls again, making to move down the stairs. "I uh, let's go and dance, eh?"
"I'm good thanks." Edith mutters, lifting her discarded heels from the bottom steps and making her way back towards the house, brushing past Finn as he passes her, stalling on the steps to turn and watch her go, hands outstretched at his sides in confusion.
"You said you wanted to dance!" He shouts after her, jogging up the steps behind his sister.
"Yeah," Edith laughs with a shake of her head. "Three hours ago, Finn."
"I'm offering now!"
"It's ok, I know what you've been up to." Edith sighs, pushing through the balcony doors, frowning as the loud music hits her. "Horse races, and fights, and Russians. Right?" Without waiting for a reply, Edith moves away from a stunned Finn, ignoring his calls of her name, and opting to skirt around the busy drawing room, sticking to the darkened hallway instead. "It's ok, Finn. Just go back to the party." Sighing as he realises he was getting no where with Edith, Finn spins on his heel, rushing off to find his brother once more.
"It's over, right?" He asks breathlessly when he finally finds Tommy, clasping his brother's shoulder tightly.
"It is. For tonight." Tommy replies, frowning at his brother's flushes face. "What's wrong with you? Where's Edith? I thought I told you to find her."
"You did." Finn breathes out, still fighting for breath from running around the large house. "I did. But too late, she heard the shot. And she knows what went down tonight. I'm sure of it. And now she's ignoring me. I just think... I think maybe you should go and find."
"Find...fuck." Pushing out a sigh, Tommy reaches up to pinch the bridge of his nose, shaking his head lightly. He really, really didn't want to be dealing with a pissed off little sister on his wedding night, but he knew, that if Edith had heard the shot that she would undoubtedly be worrying about her brothers, and if one of them didn't find her and reassure her they were all ok, she'd never sleep, and they'd all have hell to pay for with a grumpy, exhausted Edith in the morning.
Humming in reply to the knock on her bedroom door, Edith rolls over, peering over her shoulder at the figure who was now filling the doorway.
"In bed already?" Tommy teases, stepping into the room, shoving his hands into his pockets as he does. "It's barely midnight."
"I was tired." Edith replies quickly, rolling on to her side to face her brother fully. "You finished with the party? Sounds like the dancing's still going on."
"It is." Tommy agrees, nodding his head. "Was looking for my favourite sister to give her a spin around the dance floor."
"Ada's downstairs." Edith scoffs, rolling onto her back, staring up at the ceiling.
"Who said Ada was my favourite?" Tommy asks, Edith letting out a bitter chuckle in response.
"I overheard Pol and Grace." Edith admits, dropping her eyes from his searching ones as he sighs, reaching a hand up to pinch the bridge of his nose. "Don't be mad at them. They didn't know I was there. Was waiting for a dance with my favourite brother." She huffs out teasingly.
"Finn?" Tommy teases, just as she had with him. "I'm sorry I didn't hang around to dance with you, I had-"
"Business. Yeah, I know. You always do." Edith laughs bitterly, shaking her head. "Doesn't matter, Tommy. It's your wedding night, just go and have fun."
"I came up here to give you that dance I promised, and I'm not leaving until I get it." Tommy states defiantly, holding his hand out towards Edith who eyes it wearily. "And that smile. Haven't seen it much tonight. Looks like you've not enjoyed myself."
"I enjoyed myself just fine." Edith protests, dropping her head to the side. "I've been smiling plenty, just so you know. You've just been too busy to see it."
"Fine, then I want to see how those six years of dance lessons have paid off."
"They were ballet classes, Tom-"
"Those ballet classes didn't teach you a ballroom step or two?" Sighing, Edith rolls her eyes, dropping her book onto the bedside table, realising her brother wasn't going away without a fight.
"Tommy, if you want a fucking dance, you'll have to get out so I can get dressed again." Edith interrupts her brother jokingly, sliding her legs off the edge of the bed and rising to stand in front of him. "Unless you want me coming back downstairs in my nightdress?"
"No." Tommy replies quickly, turning to step back out of the room. "I'll see you downstairs."
"See you downstairs." Edith replies with a sigh, shutting the door behind him, turning to rest against it with a smile as he moves back down the hallway.
"What's going on?" Edith asks, passing her brothers and coming to a stop in front of Tommy who stubs out his cigarette, holding his hand out towards his sister. "Why are you all just stood here?"
"This is a queue." Tommy replies with a small smile, motioning to the other three Shelby brothers and their cousin who were all leaning against the wall of the drawing room. "For a dance with the famous Edith Shelby."
"Famous?" Edith squeaks out with a laugh, brow furrowing in confusion. "What on earth are you on about?"
"Edith Shelby!" John exclaims, throwing his hands up into the air. "Don't tell me you've never heard of her! Famous dancer from Small Heath, Birmingham; world renowned ballet dancer!"
"Even got a bloody signed picture of her!" Arthur cuts in, pulling a slightly crumpled picture of young Edith, dressed in her ballet tutu and slippers, roses in hand from her very ballet recital, her signature poorly forged across the bottom.
"Don't think I did a bad job really." Finn jokes, motioning towards the scribbling of his sister's name.
"Well I've never seen this famous Edith Shelby dance," Michael offers with a shrug, pushing off the wall. "Personally, because of that, I think I should be further up the queue, not at the end. She might be worn out by the time she makes it to me."
"Nah. Not our Edith!" John states with a chuckle, reaching out to ruffle his sister's hair. "How about it then, Miss Shelby? Will you do us the honour?"
"Of course." Edith replies with a giggle, winding her arm through Tommy's.
"So what happened tonight?" Edith asks through a long yawn, slumping against Arthur on the sofa they had both collapsed onto after nearly two hours of dancing, bouncing from one brother to the next and then back again until they had all excused themselves, Edith only just managing to persuade Arthur to stay for one more dance.
"What?" He grunts, half asleep himself.
"I heard gunshots."
"No you didn't." Arthur states, shaking his head.
"Yes. I did." Edith reiterates, pushing up on his chest to look him in the eye. "And you smell like a bonfire."
"Remember what I told you?" Arthur asks, cupping his sister's cheeks.
"No, Arthur. You couldn't be less bloody specific if you tried. What?" She replies sarcastically, pulling her head out of his hold.
"Don't ask questions. Keep your nose out of our business-"
"Boring!" Edith sings, pushing completely out of Arthur's arms and rising from the sofa.
"Where do you think you're going?" He questions, brow furrowed as he watches a slightly tipsy Edith sway her way across the room.
"To find that boy Finn tried to scare off earlier." She replies simply, turning in the doorway to throw him a cheeky smile. "Sleep well, Arthur!"
"Edith Mary Shelby, don't you fucking dare. Get back here right now!" Arthur shouts, jumping up from the sofa as Edith slams the door, giggling as she runs down the hallway away from his angry shouts.