*One month later.*
Daisy is used to entitled men belittling her and her gender. She is used to men thinking prostitutes weren't humans, weren't people who needed looking after just like everybody else. She is used to dealing with pretentious and rotten men… and she's happy, or as happy as she can be with her heart being broken, that she can finally put these skills to use.
The house she buys in a quiet area of London, far away from anything related to the Peaky Blinders which unfortunately includes Alfie, is perfect. Or at least, it is perfect for her. And according to the sheer amount of women that had come through those doors looking for advice or refuge, it was perfect for them too.
Daisy doesn't like giving herself a label, but if she has to she's decided she is a sort of nouveau madame - a protector for girls who are in such situations she once was but not a Madam only interested in securing money. She's been through enough grievances herself to earn enough money to not have to ever worry about it again and she loves that she can put it to good use. That she can help women who have no other choice than to sell their bodies and women who simply want to. She feels like finally she has a purpose in life. She is not an orphan belonging to nobody and not a girl belonging to Tommy… she is her own person, devoted to helping strangers. She loves it. She is making a difference for the first time in her life.
The women love it too, from what she has seen. Some are withdrawn, simply come into the house, use a bed, eat some food and leave again without speaking to anyone beyond telling Daisy their names. But Daisy doesn't mind… this place is for all women seeking a place to go for whatever purpose. She is not sure how viable running this place is in the long-term but if the War taught her anything it is that the future is not certain. So she is not thinking about it.
The job of running the place is a distraction. She spends every waking moment running around helping people, buying in more beds, more clothes, more food for the girls and she likes it this way. When she does get a quiet moment to herself, her heart begins to hurt and her stomach aches in a way she knows has nothing to do with her health. She knows what this feeling is because she has felt it before - heartbreak. When she is sat on her bed at the end of a long day, exhausted, with the sounds of London leaking in through her window, she thinks of him. She thinks of the way he clung onto her that night - "not yet" - and how desperate his eyes had been. She tries to stop herself, to remind herself that she is whole without him regardless of what her heart says but she still aches. She still hurts. Which is why she attempts to stay busy all day every day. There were greater things in this world, more awful things going on in London, than her own heartbreak. She had the means to help some of these women's situations and so she would.
She remembers occasionally the 'good days' of when she was a child, the unassuming day she played with her friend Ada and she met the man who changed her life.
It's alway the unassuming days, isn't it?
It is such a day that everything changes again. She thinks that she is set in her ways now, set to live her life as a helper to young women in dire situations and she's contented with that. But it seems that once again, fate has other plans for her - it seems she is becoming a play-toy for the fates these days.
It's a quiet day in the house when he comes to her. She's sat at the table with Josie, a young blonde girl who was thrown onto the streets about her mother died, and they are both enjoying the quietness of the early morning grey-haze that seeps through the window. They can hear the girls upstairs giggling and even though neither Daisy or Josie are included, they share a smile between them as it is clear that neither of them have heard giggles for too long.
When the door opens and a bluster comes in, Daisy jumps up - another girl? Another disgruntled man who has lost business because of her?
It's a man, but not one who is in the business of whoring out girls.
A million different emotions swim through her head all at once, but the prevailing one is confusion. "Arthur?"
Arthur Shelby takes his hat off in a display of politeness she doesn't expect, smoothing his hand over his head as he glances quickly around the hallway.
He nods, his gesture saying polite but his eyes still hard and cold. "Daisy."
A cloud of worry overwhelms her as she thinks of the only reason Arthur Shelby would be here. She clings onto the doorframe as her equilibrium entirely leaves her. "Is he okay? What's happened?"
He grows briefly before realising what she's implying. "He's fine. I'm, er, I'm not 'ere for him. I'm 'ere for you."
"Are you alright, Miss Daisy?" It's Josie, her slim figure appearing next to Daisy in a display of concern and bravery - Arthur is an intimidating man.
Daisy plasters a smile on her face. "Yes, of course darling. Arthur is an old friend."
Josie nods and smiles slightly, before tottering off upstairs to join the other girls. Their morning of blissful quiet and calm has been broken.
The two of them are silent for a few moments, Arthur looking increasingly uncomfortable. "Why are you here, Arthur? What do you want?" She knows she sounds as exasperated as she feels. Tommy chose Grace and Daisy accepted that with what she thought was, well, grace. Why couldn't they leave her alone? She is trying to build a life without him in it, and now his brother is inside her safe haven.
She bloody well is exasperated.
"I need a favour."
She can't help but laugh. After everything he'd put her through when she'd first seen Tommy again, after letting her think the love of her life was dead, after all that… he thinks she owes him something?
"You must be joking," she gets out in pants through her bitter laughter.
He looks incessantly disgruntled. "It's not a joke. Although I should have said, we need a favour."
Her laughter gradually dies out after that. She sighs, placing her hand to her head to quell the headache she's already getting. "What do you want?"
"Alfie's joined up with Sabini. A lot's changed since you left. We need you to help us…distract someone so we can get a job done."
He's asking her to sleep with someone. He's actually asking her to do it.
"Forget it," she sneers. "I don't owe you anything."
"You said you'd help us before and now you're quitting? Us Peaky Blinders don't deal with quitters." He's trying to sound threatening as though he thinks it will work on her.
"Perfect! Then you can leave, because that's exactly what I'm doing." She gestures sarcastically to the door behind him and turns around to walk away, her breath shuddering. He actually asked her to sleep with someone to help him, to help the Peaky Blinders. After everything… after having her heart broken so many times, Tommy's brother has asked her to do tear herself apart one more time.
"He needs this, Daisy."
She stops slowly, not turning around yet lest he see that her angry facade is faltering. She's just tired, now. "Did he ask you to come here?" She doesn't expect her voice to sound so icy - it's never sounded like that before. She sounds sharp and hard, furious and agonised all at once.
It's Arthur's turn to scoff now. "As if he'd ever let you sleep with someone else for a job again. He might be with Grace now but…"
She turns around now. "But what?"
He looks down to his shoes as though he knows he's said something he shouldn't have. "But nothin'."
"If Tommy doesn't want me there, why are you here?"
'Tommy's not in charge of me and he doesn't see straight when it comes to you. He never has. I'm not stupid - I know he's the real leader behind all of this. But whether he admits it or not, we need this distraction from someone we can trust. From the best. So he needs you."
The words hurt to hear - he needs Grace, now. Not her. Arthur just needs what's between her legs.
"You've all taken enough from me." She starts to walk off again, her voice quieter now, less angered.
"You wouldn't actually have to fuck him. It's a Field Marshal. One of us will be there before anything actually happens between you two."
She frowns. She thought he was going to ask her to sleep with Sabini. "A Field Marshal?"
Arthur nods. "It's a distraction, so we can take over Sabini's role in the races. It's gonna be us on top, Dais. Us."
She swallows. She knows they don't exactly follow the laws but murdering someone purely as a distraction… and he's asking her to be a part of it? "I can't be a part of that, Arthur. I've done enough."
"I'll give you however much money you want for this place. Whatever you want. I'll throw money at this place until it fuckin' sparkles."
"I've got money."
"I could buy another place across London. Expand your, er, business. Think of all the other whores you can 'elp, Dais."
She hates it, hates it, but her heart starts beating faster at this. She has lots of money and she can keep this place going for a couple of years… but after that? She has no kind of true business knowledge. She only knows how to fuck someone senseless.
Arthur sees her hesitation and immediately leaps on it. "I'll make sure you get whatever you need, whatever you want. We'll run this city if this all goes to plan… I can make sure whatever you want you'll get. Just one hour of your time, Dais, at the show ground in two days. One hour."
But you've already taken so many years of my life, she thinks.
"One hour for a lifetime of helping these pathetic girls in 'ere."
I am one of those pathetic girls, Arthur. I am as broken as they are.
She already knows what her answer will be.
She will do whatever she can for these girls. Arthur knows it. She knows it.
"Fine."
This chapter and the next were supposed to be one chapter. However, it kind of ran away with me so I've had to split them up so it wasn't a huge chapter with too many things going on. So I apologise for the shortness of this chapter after such a long wait, however the next one should be up soon as it is mostly written.
Hope you're all well! Thanks, as always, for reading x