Chapter 9
Bessy had spent the night after telling her family about the pregnancy, tossing and turning. Tommy had taken it better than she had thought he would, John and Finn were to be expected, her uncle and Curly too, Polly and Arthur were another story, one she knew she'd have to face sooner rather than later. So, after she had finished the books in the shop for the day, she had kissed Elijah at his desk, received a loving pat on the back from John, and headed off to where she knew she would find her oldest brother; tucked away in a pub. Bessy pauses in the doorway to the side room she now knew was occupied by Arthur, muttering words of encouragement to herself before pushing the doors open. There, as she had expected, was her beloved brother, stacks of papers and books strewn across the table, the air thick with cigarette smoke and a nearly empty bottle of whiskey by his side.
"Hi." Bessy says softly, letting the door swing shut behind her.
"Hello." Arthur grunts, not looking up from the books in front of him.
"Are you ok?" She asks, pulling off her coat and laying it folded on the back of a chair.
"Yep." Comes Arthur's short reply, creating a frown on Bessy's face.
"You've been avoiding me." She says lightly, half teasing.
"I've been avoiding you?" Arthur asks incredulously, finally lifting his head to look at Bessy as she nods, sending him a hint of a smile.
"Yes."
"That's funny, Bess."
"You have!" She protests, dropping into the seat opposite him. The pair sit in silence for a while, Arthur slumped back against the leather chair, staring into his glass of whiskey that was surprisingly still full.
"You could have told me." He finally says quietly, downing his drink before raising his eyes to meet Bessy's.
"What?"
"You could have fucking told me, Bessy." He repeats, slamming his glass down on the table. "Instead of shouting it out in the middle of a fucking meeting."
"Arthur..." Bessy whispers, watching as his hand clenches around the now empty glass.
"I thought we told each other everything." Arthur spits out, voice low and gruff with emotion.
"We do..." Bessy replies gently, reaching her hand out to cover Arthur's, tears stinging the back of her eyes.
"We did." He snaps in reply, moving his hand out from under hers, pouring himself another generous helping of whiskey.
"Arthur, please."
"You're keeping it?" He asks shortly, bringing the glass to his lips.
"Of course!" She exclaims in shock, brow furrowed as she watches Arthur glance down at her left hand. She quickly covers it with her right, pulling her hands into her lap. "You don't have to be happy about it-"
"I'm not happy about it."
"I don't care, Arthur. I'm having this baby, and I'd like you to be part of it's life. You can't seriously be angry?"
"I am." He protests, folding his arms over his chest.
"Ada wasn't married when she got pregnant with Karl!" Bessy shoots back, causing Arthur to fall into silence, unable to argue with her point. "I'm sorry you're upset." She sighs as Arthur shrugs, tears welling in her eyes. Bessy rises from her chair, moving to sit beside Arthur who keeps his eyes locked on the table. She gently winds her arm through his, tucking her body close to his, which remains rigid with tension. "I want you to be happy, Arthur." Age grunts in response, bringing his glass back up to his lips. "I want you to be a part of my baby's life. I want my baby to grow up with their Uncle Arthur around. I want you to teach them everything you taught me." Bessy watches Arthur's face for any kind of movement, softening slightly at the very slight upturning of his lips. "Arthur? Please-"
"You'll be a great mum." He states, pulling his arm free of Bessy, who frowns despite his statement. She lets out an internal sigh of relief as he repositions his arm around her shoulders, tucking her body into his.
"You think?"
"I know."
"And you'll be there? With me? Helping me?"
"I'm not sure how much help I'll be," he grunts in reply, raising his eyebrows. "But I'll be there. Of course I will." Bessy could tell by the frown lines etched on his forehead that he still hadn't forgiven her for her outburst the previous day, nor was he particularly happy that she and Elijah were having a baby, yet she knew her brother well enough to know not to push the point further, instead curling herself under his arm.
"Maybe I'll call the baby Arthur the third if it's a boy." She teases, finally eliciting a small smile from her brother.
"You'd better." He mutters making Bessy laugh as she lays her head on his shoulder.
"What are you working on?"
"Just checking through numbers. You were always better at this than me." He replies, reaching forward to pull one of the ledgers off the table. "Now lets have a look at these, eh."
"Like the old days?" Bessy asks with a smile, leaning forward to rest her elbow on the table, head in her hand as she scans the writing.
"Like the good old days."
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"Bessy?" John shouts as he shuts the doors to the betting den behind him.
"In the living room!" Bessy calls back, John making his way through the house to find her.
"Oi. What the fuck are you doing? Eh?" He exclaims as he enters the living room, finding his twin stood on a stool, on her tiptoes trying to reach for a book balanced on top of the book case. "Get down from there. Fucking hell, Bessy-Jo!" Bessy turns to look at him, rolling her eyes as he rushes over, hands ready to catch her if she falls.
"I'm perfectly capable of standing on a stool to get a book, John." She chides, stepping off the stool nonetheless, John's hands resting lightly on her hips until she touches the floor.
"Move." He instructs, pointing to a spot behind him, Bessy moving there with a sigh, knowing her brother was not going to take no for an answer. "Which one did you want?"
"The blue one." Bessy replies, pointing to the top of the book case. "No! Not that one, the one at the end." John lets out a huff, passing the book down to Bessy.
"How did you even get those books up there, eh?"
"I didn't." She states, curling up on the sofa. "Finn or Eli put them up there for me. It was the only place left." John shakes his head at this, carrying the stool back to the corner of the room. "What? I can't help that I'm small!"
"Yeah, a fucking..."
"Don't say it!" Bessy jokes, her eyes twinkling with laughter as she holds the book up, ready to throw at her brother's head, John holding his hands up in surrender.
"Why do you even keep all these books? You remember them word for word anyway." John asks as he sits down beside Bessy.
"Sometimes I find something new." She says, lifting her legs to lay them in John's lap.
"Bullshit." John states, shutting his eyes as he rests his head back on the sofa, Bessy giggling at him. "There is nothing you miss, or don't remember Bessy-Jo."
"Hmm," she hums in agreement, tilting her head to watch her brother shake his head at her. "I just like to keep them. Someone else will read them one day." John shrugs, eyes still shut as Bessy lays the book in the lap. "Did you need something?"
"What, a brother can't just want to come and spend time with his twin?" John asks, opening his eyes to look at Bessy who raises her eyebrows at him.
"I guess so..."
"Look. I just feel like, I don't know, left out? Out of the loop? Cast to the side?" John says, cutting Bessy off before she could say anything else, sitting upright, elbows resting on his knees as he rubs at his eyes. "I mean, you saw how it went when I tried to speak up at the last meeting. I got fucking shot down."
"John..." Bessy rolls her eyes again as John interrupts her for a second time.
"Then Esme went on a fucking rant about moving to the country and raising chickens. How are the boys going to take me seriously in the company if that's our long term plan, eh?"
"John." She tries again, leaning forward to cup his cheek in her hand, forcing him to stop and look at her. "If that's your long term plan, I think that sounds great. You'd get the best of both worlds. Going back to our roots, with all your babies and the woman you love, and being part of the company in some way. You know the boys would never kick you out, not completely anyway. The business is growing John. You can see that. And I know it's scary, and it's big, and it's unknown. But you wouldn't be in the position you are, working alongside the boys if they didn't think you could handle it. You're on the front line of the betting side of the business, always in the shop keeping an eye on things. Always at the races. John. They took you to London with them. You're in. You're safe."
"But Pol said..." he starts, Bessy cutting him off this time.
"Oh go on, what the fuck did Pol say?" Bessy groans eliciting a chuckle from John.
"That I ask too many questions. I need to start being the man with all the answers." Bessy nods slowly, biting her lip at the confusion evident in her twin's eyes. "Did you know about London?" He asks, before she has chance to comment.
"The expansion?"
"Yes."
"No." She replies with a shake of her head.
"Exactly." John snaps, pointing his finger at her. "That's exactly my point. We didn't fucking vote-"
"I'm sure Tommy knows what he's doing." Bessy says gently, laying her hand on John's arm which he shakes off, rising from the sofa.
"And then they blow up our fucking pub-"
"Tommy said that wasn't to do with London, he's dealing with it-"
"Tommy, this. Tommy, that. We're all Tommy's fucking parrots!" John exclaims, waving his hand around in the air.
"John." Bessy states, reaching out to her brother who had begun to pace in front of her.
"I've had enough, Bess."
"John-"
"This is not right-"
"John!" She exclaims, grabbing his arm as he passes her again, finally gaining his attention. "Sit down. Come on."
"What the fuck do I do Bess?" Bessy runs her hand over John's back, resting it there as she curls her legs underneath herself, moving forwards to wrap both arms around her twin. John immediately turns, hugging Bessy back as she shakes her head.
"I don't know, John. Honestly. I think you're doing all that you can. And the boys will see that." She replies, giving him a tight squeeze.
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"Can we talk?" Bessy asks, popping her head around the doorframe of Tommy's office.
"If it's quick. I've got a meeting in 10 minutes." He replies, barely glancing up from the paperwork at his desk. "Did you get those forms filled in that I needed?" Bessy throws a wad of paper down onto the desk, the forms landing right on top of paper Tommy was working on.
"They just need your signature on the bottom." She states as she drags a chair around to Tommy's side of the desk, resting her head in her hands until he looks up at her. "Are you done? You said you've only got a few minutes." Tommy mutters under his breath, sitting back to look at Bessy, waiting for her to start talking. "It's about John."
"What about John?" Tommy asks, leaning back in his chair.
"He feels like you don't let him in the same as Arthur." She replies, Tommy rolling his eyes before turning back to his paperwork. "Tom."
"And what are you? His fucking messenger now?" He snaps. "First Esme. Now you. Does he not have the fucking balls to talk to me about this himself?"
"God you can be such a fucking prick," Bessy mutters, pinching the bridge of her nose.
"If John wants to be more involved, he needs to keep his pants on, and get on with things. Stop fucking around." Tommy states. "Are we done now? I've got work to do." Bessy doesn't respond, pushing back her chair and slamming the door behind her as she leaves the office, all of the men in the shop looking up, following her with their eyes as she storms back through the den.
"Bess?" Finn calls as she passes the desk he was sat at. "You ok?"
"Just fine." She grounds out, stepping through the double doors to the house, slamming them shut behind her too.