Cheltenham had gone well from what John and Arthur had told me. Even though John was trying to shield me from a lot of what happened, Arthur was more than willing to go into detail about everything. Tommy had even come to me, telling me about Grace and Kimber. I had told him off about that. Grace was a sweet girl but I did not trust her and I thought he was stupid to show her any of the business.

John had been very protective of me over the last week since we found out about the pregnancy. It was sweet and I appreciated it, however he was beginning to arouse the suspicion of Tommy and Polly. It was bad enough that he told them I wasn't going to Cheltenham but he had also told me to work in his office every day, instead of out in the shop.

The shop was just closing up and John was running late as usual to lock up. Polly and Tommy had just gone out, they had told me to leave and that John would be back in five minutes but I felt bad for Scudboat so started to help him cash up in John's absence. Looking at the clock, I knew that I still didn't have to leave for another fifteen minutes to make my appointment with the woman, silently hoping that John would be here in time. Scudboat had already locked and bolted the front door and was counting out the coins as I went into Tommy's office, looking for some more money bands. We both heard the creaking at the same time, I saw Scudboat look towards the kitchen as I looked through the window at him. "John?" he called out, as I carried on looking for some money bands.

Suddenly the kitchen doors crashed open and a group of men barrelled in, shouting. I watched as Scudboat went for his weapon but two of the men grabbed him before he could do anything. One of the other men, steadied a shotgun at his face. "This is for Cheltenham." he declared before knocking him out with the handle of the gun. Then he noticed me and grinned. I grabbed a paper knife from the desk and held it out in front of me as the men began to file in. "Well, well, well. What do we 'ave 'ere?" he laughed, looking me up and down. "You're John Shelby's girl, aren't ya?" he stalked closer to me, as I continued to hold the knife out. He had a bandage around his head which, going by Arthurs detailed story of Cheltenham, told me that this was Erasmus Lee.

Once he was in reaching room, I jabbed forward, hoping to catch him off guard. However, he quickly saw and backhanded me round the face, sending me crashing to the floor. One of the men came over and picked me up onto my feet, holding my hands against my back as I fought him. I tried kicking the approaching man but he quickly grabbed my throat and told me to stop. I did what he asked, biding my time. "Now, you are a pretty one. I can show you what a real man can do." he told me suggestively, trying to look down my dress.

I brought my knee up sharply between his legs, causing him to let go of my neck and double over in pain. He dropped his gun but quickly regained himself. He grabbed the hair at the back of my head, pulling my head backwards to look up at him and ripped open the top of my dress. His eyes quickly went to the thin chain and locket that always hung around my neck. He looked shocked. "Where did you get that?" he questioned, turning over the locket in his grubby fingers. He had released his hold on my hair slightly so I spat at him which made him tighten his grip again, making my eyes water. He dropped the locket between my breasts and wiped his face off with his sleeve. "You're a feral bitch. Must be why the Shelby's keep ya around." he spat. "Now tell me where ya got it." He shouted. "It was my mothers, my father gave it to her when they married." I told him through gritted teeth, pain prickling at my scalp. "If 'er daddy gave that to 'er mama, you know what that means." one of the men said. "Aye, we need to take 'er to Zilpha." the man in front of me said. He released me from his grip and bent down to pick up his gun. "Sorry, princess." he told me as he swung his gun at me and I blacked out.

John POV

I looked at the papers on the desk before kicking the stool out of my way. "Jesus Christ." I said, leaving my office and going into the main room with the others. Arthur was pouring Scudboat a drink as he held a cloth full of ice to his head. "What the bloody hell happened here?" Arthur asked, looking around the room. "The Lees. All of them. Cousins, nephews, even their bastards…" Scudboat explained, "They've taken anything they can lay their hands on." Polly told us.

"Is our Evie okay?" Scudboat asked. I turned slowly to look at him, I saw Polly and Tommy look at each other out of the corner of my eye. "Why wouldn't she be? She went to visit her friend down Great Barr." I told him, slowly walking towards him. Scudboat looked nervously between Tommy and Polly. "Tell me she left when we told her to." Polly demanded. Scudboat shook his head. "Fuck sake! They've fuckin' taken 'er!" I shouted, kicking anything within sight. "Calm down, we will get her back." Tommy told me, voice level. "Calm down? Calm fuckin' down!" I shouted again, running my hand through my hair. "She's fuckin' pregnant, Tommy."

Everyone was silent for a moment. "They won't hurt her or that baby." Polly assured me, coming over to try to calm me down. "And how the fuck do you know that?" I shouted, pushing her away from me. "Because she is one of them." she snapped back. We were all stunned at that. "Her father was their King and her mother asked me to look after her when she caught wind of a hit on him. She is royalty to them and they will treat her as such." She told us all, hands on hips. "And you didn't think to tell any of us that she was a Lee?" Arthur questioned. "She doesn't even know it herself. She knows she was born gypsy and that is it." Polly replied.

"They left these." Tommy interrupted, holding up a pair of wire cutters. My stomach sank and I momentarily forgot about Evie. "Wire cutters. Why would they leave that?" Polly questioned, looking at Tommy. "Nobody move." Arthur told us all. "I think our friends are playing the game." Tommy said, looking between Arthur and me. Polly was getting frustrated. "What game?" she demanded, walking towards the offices. "Aunt Pol. Don't touch anything." I told her sharply, holding my hand out so she wouldn't move. "Erasmus Lee was in France." Tommy began to explain. "Shit…" Scudboat exclaimed beside me, slowly rising to standing. "Whenever we gave up ground to the Germans, we'd leave behind booby traps, set up with wires. We'd leave wire cutters as part of the joke." Tommy explained to Aunt Pol. I looked around the room, "Somewhere in here there's a hand grenade." I said. Polly swore behind me. "Attached to a wire." Arthur continued. All four of us were slowly moving around the room at this point, trying to spot the bomb. "Don't move any chairs or open any doors. Go easy, John Boy. Go easy."

"Boys, no. It's not in here. If it was in here, it would have blown by now. It was my name on that bullet Erasmus sent. He's set up a trap all right. But he's set it up just for me." Tommy told us before quickly leaving.

A/N A very short chapter but didn't want it to be too long. What did you think about Evie secretly being a Lee and the way John told the family?