The first half of the drive home was made in silence with Tommy glancing at me out of the corner of his eye. I had reassured him that I was fine but I knew he wasn't convinced. "He seemed really nice." I told him. "Nice isn't really going to fit into this family." he replied. I nudged my arm into his. "I'm nice." I laughed. He raised an eyebrow at me, a smirk on his face. "He will fit in really well, as long as you lot don't scare him off. He's smart, studying accounting. Could help me with the books." I told him, looking back at the road. "I didn't realise you needed help with the books." Tommy commented, looking at me. "I don't necessarily. But it might be nice to pull back a little, if there was someone there we could trust to do it." I replied.
"That cottage calling to you?" Tommy asked, his voice was light but I knew he was concerned. "Getting out of Birmingham is calling to me." I laughed, trying to mask the seriousness in my voice. "John won't want to leave Birmingham." he told me, matter of fact. "I know he won't and I don't want him to have to make that choice but I feel like I'm suffocating in Small Heath, Tom. I think he can see that." I admitted as we turned on familiar roads. "Things seem like that at the moment, Eves because we've got a lot going on. It'll pass." he dismissed.
"And what if the feeling doesn't?" I asked, turning to look at him as we pulled into Watery Lane. "I don't want you filling my brothers head with any grand ideas of escaping. I need him and you concentrating on the job at hand. After that you can speak to him about leaving Birmingham together but not before, do you hear me? The feeling will pass, Evelyn, and you better not distract anyone else with it." Tommy told me firmly as he stopped in front of the house.
"Go on in, I'll be there in a minute." Tommy told me, ending the conversation. I nodded at him and opened the door, not wanting to be around him any longer. I went into the house through the front door, taking the stairs two at a time and hoping no one would notice. I closed the bedroom door behind me, quickly removing the simple dress and replacing it with a black knee length skirt that hugged my curves and a long sleeve dark blue sheer blouse. I quickly unlaced the boots, pulling them off and shoving them under the bed before finding some tan stockings.
I was pulling up my second one when there was a knock on the door. "Evie?" Finn's voice came through the door. "One second!" I called back, clipping my stockings to the garter belt and pulling my skirt back down over my thighs. "Come in." I called, sitting at my dressing table and untying the fabric holding my braid. The door opened and in came Finn and Isaiah, closing the door behind them. I looked at them through the mirror, their faces giving away their motive for coming to me. "What's happened?" I asked, running my fingers through my braid, letting the curls fall around me.
They looked between each other. "Sit down, you're making me nervous." I told them gesturing to the bed. They both did as they were told. "Tell me what's happened." I instructed, applying some kohl to my eyes. "We were training, down at the fighting rings. Arthur was there as well." Finn started as I applied mascara to my lashes. There was another silence. "Fuck sake. Just tell me." I demanded, turning to look at the teenagers. "Arthur killed a boy. About my age. They were fighting and he lost control." Isaiah told me, watching me nervously. "Fuck sake. Tommy and I go away for one fucking day." I muttered. "Where is Arthur?" I asked. "He's with John." Finn replied. "Right, you two need to talk to Tommy." I told them, quickly putting some dark berry lipstick on my plump lips and standing.
"Can't you speak to him?" Finn asked. I turned to look at the pair. "No, I cannot. You're Peaky Blinders, you wear the caps, so act like it." I told them before stepping into a pair of black heeled pumps. "C'mon." I told them, opening the door and leading them out.
I leant against the desk in Tommy's office, arms crossed against my chest, and looked out the window as Tommy walked in. I watched him speaking to Scudboat. "Right, Tommy is here now. I'll stay but you'll both have to speak to him." I told them, my eyes going back to them. They both hung their heads as Tommy came in, shutting the door behind him. Tommy looked at me and I simply shrugged my shoulders, gesturing to the teenagers. He put his hands in his pockets, leaning against the wall and facing the boys.
"All right. What happened?" he asked, watching Finn and Isaiah closely. Finn looked up at his brother before his eyes darted to me. "It was a fair fight." he began, looking at Isaiah to back him up. "Yeah. Arthur just caught him with a good one." Isaiah added, looking at me and not Tommy. There was a moment of silence before Tommy pushed off the wall. "I saw the body. Don't fucking lie to me. I saw the body. What fucking happened?" Tommy told them, anger rising. Both boys hung their heads for a moment. "I'm not family, I'm saying nothing." Isaiah replied, looking at me before looking at the floor.
Finn watched Tommy and I a moment, thinking about what he should say. "Arthur, he's blown a few times lately. Six, seven. It's like he's not there in the head. He can't even hear 'stop'. Or even his own name." Finn began, my eyes flickered to Tommy. He was looking at his brother but I knew he wasn't with us, his eyes glazed. "And then he cries." Finn finished. Tommy nodded. "Right, listen to me. That's two fucking stories. Your brother killed a boy. There were witnesses, there will be questions, get your stories straight. It was an accident. Fuck off." Tommy told them, both boys instantly getting up and leaving.
"They came to you first?" Tommy asked, lighting a cigarette. "They did. I told them they had to speak to you." I replied, uncrossing my arms and placing my hands either side of me on the table. Tommy scoffed. "You're being big bad Thomas Shelby and forgetting to be big brother Tommy." I reminded him, watching him closely. "So what does that make you? Big sister Evie?" he questioned. "It means that they trust me not to go off on one because they or someone else has made a mistake." I countered. "Mistakes around here get people killed." he replied. "They do, Tommy. Or they get people kidnapped or beaten or raped." I told him, raising an eyebrow at him.
He turned away from me. "Finn is still a child, Tommy. You cannot hold him to the same standards that you do John or Arthur. Everyone is doing their best." I added. "Sometimes, their best isn't good enough." Tommy told me, his back still to me. "Well, maybe you need to remember we are your family, not your employees." I countered before standing up. "You get away with a lot, Tommy. Cut your brothers some slack." I added before walking out.
I walked into the kitchen, closing the doors behind me. "You look like you could do with some tea." Polly said, going over to the stove and pouring me a cup. "Just bloody Thomas and his hard fucking head." I told her, sitting down in a chair as she handed me the cup. The smell hit my nose as I lifted it to my mouth, I fought the whirling in my stomach as I took a sip. I couldn't keep back the bile as I ran to the sink, throwing up for the second time that day as the cup smashed to the floor.
"What did you put in that fucking tea?" John's voice asked as he came over to me, holding back my hair and rubbing my back as his brother had done earlier that day. "I didn't put anything in the fucking tea." Polly countered. "Maybe if she was eating more than a bit of bread a day she wouldn't get sick." she added and I could hear her cleaning up the broken china. I rolled my eyes as I rinsed my mouth out from the tap. "I'm fine." I told them both, taking the cloth that John offered me to wipe my mouth as I stood straight.
"How's Arthur?" I asked John, putting the cloth on the side. "Not good." he replied. "But don't worry about that, you get some rest. Lily's asleep in the pram so why don't you take her up with you?" he suggested, gesturing towards the pram by the back door. I nodded as he kissed my forehead, giving me a quick squeeze. "I'll come wake you up in a few hours, if you're not up." he promised. "You'd better start closing up the shop." Polly told him, getting up from cleaning the spilled tea.
Lily had stirred as I picked her up, whinging as I carried her up the stairs. It had taken around half an hour of rocking and shushing her but she eventually went back to sleep. I was just putting her down in her cot when there was shouting downstairs, startling the baby and making her cry. "Fuck sake." I muttered, picking her back up into my arms and rocking her gently. "It's okay, baby. Mumma's got you." I whispered, kissing her head. The shouting continued downstairs and I could tell it was Arthur and Tommy. I rolled my eyes, balancing Lily on my hip and leaving the room.
As I walked into the living room, I saw Arthur had Tommy up against the mirror. "Arthur!" I shouted, putting a hand to Lily's head to keep it to my shoulder so she couldn't see her uncles. Arthur looked over his shoulder at us, slowly releasing Tommy from his grip. But Tommy kept hold of him, moving so Arthur was looking at himself in the mirror. "Look at yourself. Take a long, hard fucking look at yourself." Tommy told him as Arthur began to cry. Tommy released him, letting him sink into the nearby chair. Tommy walked to us and then stopped, turning back round to go back to Arthur. He quickly unloaded Arthurs gun and smashed the bottle of whiskey in the fireplace, causing Lily to start crying again.
Without speaking, Tommy came over to me and took Lily from my arms. He cradled her against his chest with one arm while putting his other one on the small of my back, guiding me from the room and into the kitchen. Once the door was closed we could hear shouting and crashing from next door. "He'll be alright, Eves." Tommy assured me, moving his hand from my waist and putting his arm around my shoulders, pulling me into him for a hug. He knew I hated it when Arthur was like this, even before the war when Arthur would come home drunk and be shouting about something or other, I would run into Tommys room. Ada would sleep through it, used to the noise from her brothers, but I could only sleep tucked safely into Tommys bed with him beside me. He would whisper stories about the little gypsy princess that would ride off on her horse with her gypsy prince.
"He'll be alright." he repeated as I rested my head on his shoulder and put my arm around his waist. "I'm sorry about earlier, you were right." he added. "What did you say?" I asked, a hint of a smile in my voice. "Shut up." he laughed, squeezing my shoulders. "No more talk of running away, you hear? You feel like you're suffocating, John or I can take you out with the horses for the day. We need you round here, Eves." Tommy told me, kissing my hair. "I'm sure everyone would be just fine without me." I responded, watching Lily as she slowly closed her eyes. "You know that's not true." he muttered.
A/N What did you think?! Evie has now met Henry/Michael and there was a lot of Evie/Tommy in this chapter.