Edie had not seen Tommy at all since then, not even when she was eventually leaving for London.
She had been in two minds to go down there, had hoped that Tommy would show up and say stay instead to her. When he hadn't she had thought about doing so instead, just to spite him, but then as she thought about the matter more she realised that London was an opportunity.
She had the opportunity to find the answers that Tommy had hid from her, and the opportunity to finish her business without Tommy being there to block her from doing so.
So after major thought, she had decided London it was, because she was going to prove to Tommy Shelby just how much he was underestimating her.
Before Edie and Ernie had left for London, they had received well wishes from one of the Shelby's, not the Shelby that Edie had been hoping for, but instead John Shelby.
She didn't mind John Shelby, he was probably her bestest friend not counting Ernie of course.
They had grown close over the years she had spent in the Shelby's circle, and he had been the first of those who didn't already know she was a woman, to find out the truth. It had been completely unintentional mind, she had been undressing in her room to change out of sodden clothing after being caught in the rain, and thinking it was Ernie's room he had stumbled in to catch sight of her cleavage.
The following day John Shelby wasn't sure what felt worse, the head splitting hangover he had or the ache in his jaw from the right hook given to him by Edie.
The first time John and Edie had met she had fought him then too.
It was the morning after Edie had been took into the Shelby house and been introduced as Eddie, an errand boy for the blinders.
"Don't look like a boy does he? More like a girl don't he?"
John had said, and Edie had sulked turning to Tommy who had looked at her expectantly.
It was a test, to see whether she could act the part well enough.
"I'm not a girl."
She retorted, trying to make her voice sound a little less high pitched.
"Even whines like one."
John continued with a laugh, only to let out a yell when Edie kicked his shin and punched him.
"Doesn't fucking fight like one though." The young Shelby had grumbled, but from then on they had been friends.
John leaves them with the promise to get pissed and party once he himself goes down to London with Tommy and Arthur.
London was very different to Birmingham.
Birmingham was noisy and full of ash and dirt and fire, and clouded by a dark and overwhelming shadow.
But London was bright and loud and full of a different kind of fire, the kind of fire from a phoenix that made it a place of rebirth and newness and brilliance.
Edie soaked in her surroundings as Ernie lead her to the street of their new house with wide eyes.
It was everything the child in her had ever dreamed of, buzzing music and chatter, beautiful women wearing dresses and shoes and jewels that were more beautiful than themselves, she laughed as she noticed Ernie was probably thinking something along the same lines, as his eyes followed a woman with cropped copper curls and an emerald coloured dress.
Edie laughed louder, when the woman turned to the pair after feeling eyes upon her, and batted her eyelashes, waggling her fingertips at not Ernie but a still disguised Edie.
"Don't worry brother, there has to be atleast one woman other than me that wont fall for your charms."
Ernie didn't seem all too impressed with her taunting, and he strode forward at a quicker pace, with clenched fists to distance himself from her.
When they reached the house they would be calling home, the first thing Edie thought was that it was rather large.
And grand.
And cold.
And empty.
The walls were white, and it was decorated with minimal furniture, lacking in a personal touch and resulting in something rather lifeless.
Maybe she was just picking it apart purposefully, because all these flaws were things that could be amended easily over time.
Perhaps, the one thing this place was lacking was actually the presence of a specific person, or perhaps there was nothing wrong with the house and actually just her.
Yes, that was it, she was the problem-she was missing Tommy.
Already.
She frowned and Ernie scoffed as he noticed her expression.
"If you don't like it then you could always go back to Birmingham."
Edie shook her head.
"It's fine. It's perfectly fine."
She muttered, as she followed Ernie through the house and into his study, her eyes setting on his typewriter.
He must have had it brought down earlier, along with the majority of their luggage.
There was a briefcase next to it which was moved out of Edie's vision quickly.
She had a feeling he wasn't hiding it because he was worried she'd threaten to burn another of his books.
"Your stuffs upstairs, in your room."
Ernie said, a polite way of telling her to get lost without making her suspicious.
"Your rooms first on the right."
He continued when she remained in his study, and she nodded finally taking the hint.
She'd figure out what he was up to another time.
Edie frowned at the boxes wrapped in ribbon that had been placed on her bed.
She definitely didn't recall them being amongst her personal belongings. As she moved to inspect them closely she noticed they came with a small card.
A card that held no message other than a 'To Edie, from Tommy'
She didn't know what to expect when she opened the first box, and so she unlaced the ribbon with nimble fingers and gently pulled back the lid.
She saw lace and flowers and chiffon in a duck egg blue colour.
A dress. He had bought her a dress.
Edie reached out to touch the soft fabric then stopped herself, placing the lid back on the box and then leaving it.
Why had he bought her a dress?
Was it to remind her that she didn't have to be the peaky blinders errand boy anymore? Or was it an apology gift?
With Tommy it was always difficult to tell what his intentions were.
A ring of their doorbell, startled Edie out of her inner turmoil, and she descended the stairs to see Ernie welcoming in Ada Shelby, or Ada Thorne as she preferred to be known.
Ada scrutinised each room of the house she passed, tuttting as she spotted the large stock of liquor the two had.
"Not much stuff in this house yet is there, I see you brought only the most important stuff first eh?"
She said with a nod towards the whisky, and in an almost synchronous movement Edie and Ernie shrugged.
"Has a reputation to keep up doesn't 'e" Edie said in response, resulting in an offended Ernie snatching up a bottle and grumbling as he dissapeared into his study saying he had to write.
"So Ada? How can I help ya?"
She asked the woman, whose reason for turning up had yet to be explained. Ada who had suddenly ended up in Edie's bedroom scrunched her nose up hands planted on her hip as she raised an eyebrow archly.
"I think you are the one who needs help right, you're not planning on still dressing like that down here are ya? Don't you have any dresses?"
She spotted the slightest bit of duck egg blue fabric peeking out from one of the boxes.
Edie's eyes shifted uncomfortably as Ada pulled it out of the box, displaying the full garment.
"Not bad, my brother bought you this eh? It'll do but tomorrow we'll get you some better stuff, something more your style."
Edie wasn't really sure what Ada meant by that, as someone who hadn't worn a dress since she was 14 and as someone who had to adapt to the minsdet of a boy, she wasn't really one to have a preference of style or really much interest in fashion.
"Well go on then try it on, and i'll put some pretty graffiti on your face."
Ernie wondered what the hell the girls were up to when he heard a long string of colourful discourse being shared back and forth between the two. It was more violent that he'd heard from drunkards back at the garrison pub, and definitely not something he'd heard from the two girls before. He peeked his head out of his study when he heard a commotion on the stairs, and was shocked to see Edie in a dress.
He found himself leaving the room altogether to get a better look at her, placing his circular lensed glasses over the bridge of his nose.
Was she wearing makeup?
"Well what do you think Mr writer?"
Ada questioned him, gesturing towards her handiwork.
Embarrassed, Edie tried to turn away, but didn't trust herself in heels and on stairs, so instead she avoided his gaze as she clutched the banister tightly in an iron like grip.
If Ernie were to tell the truth, he would have said that she actually didn't look half bad, she made a rather pretty woman, but since she always had his life he wasn't going to admit it.
Narrowing his eyes he tilted his head as he inspected her.
"I see it is a lie when they say clothes are like wings. And of course the rule that you cant change someones looks no matter how hard you try, holds true."
He sighed pretending to be dissapointed. "How can there be no change after one puts on a set of wings."
"I told you Ada." Edie, said, also agreeing with Ernie's sentiments. She felt ridiculous in all this girly get up, so no doubt she looked it to.
"Oh don't mind 'im edie, you know he's only saying that because you're 'is sister, it's what brothers do."
Ada gave, Ernie a glare that made him relent.
"I mean, I guess you look alright, n the people of london are 80% alcohol anyways so i'm sure they'll think you're beautiful or whatever."
Edie didn't seemed convinced, and she moved to take the stupid heels off her feet.
"Put them back on right now!"
Ada scolded, as if she were her own daughter.
"And come down have a walk around, you need to get used to walking around in shoes like that from now on."
Ernie nodded agreeing with the Ada, because it was just to amusing seeing his sister subject to such torment.
"Yeah, since you're all dolled up why don't you come out with me and explore London's nightlife, we'll have a few drinks and celebrate your new life, how about it?"
The people of London seemed to thrive in the darkness, men and women walked the streets in the evenings, talking and smiling and laughing without care.
Edie wondered just how many of the people that she passed were watching or being watched by a rival gang, and she wondered how many of them wore a target on their back underneath their fancy clothing.
If she focused on someone for long enough, she could see the jewelled pins in a woman's hair were actually sharpened needles, weapons that she no doubt planned to use on an unsuspecting soul, and that the man with a gun peeking out the inside of his coat was also on his way to kill someone.
Before the war this wouldn't have been normal, but now, well now it still wasn't normal.
People just liked to pretend that it was.
Which was understandable. People pretending that it was normal just for the sake of blending in, or to avoid any unnecessary trouble so that they could keep their life.
It was the way business was ran these days.
As she watches another man walk past with his gun on show-it was always the men flaunting about their weaponry, waving around their tools pretending like they actually knew what to do with them- Edie wondered further why Thomas had been so opposed to giving her a weapon of her own. If London was rife with danger, surely he would have at least shown her how to shoot. She supposed it wasn't that important though, she just had to get her hands on a gun and figure it out herself.
Ernie pulled Edie along, leading her with a sense of direction that made Edie think he had been to London before, he seemed to know the place well, knew how it operated and how to weave through crowds of particular people and open doors with a whisper of the right words.
They ended up outside of a nightclub named the Eden club, and were given almost immediate entry, as Ernie showed a smile and uttered a name to the doormen, but she had been too focused on trying to walk in a straight line to hear.
Then they were inside, consumed by an array of gold and glitter and marble.
Edie could feel the music pounding through the walls and in her ears and her blood.
"What is this place?"
She asked, partly in awe because the people inisde these wall were unlike anything she'd ever seen, doing whatever they pleased and being whoever they wished.
Ernie grinned.
"Amazing isn't it? Now come on, you can play later."
She nodded, allowing him to navigate her past tables of people and dancers, over to a man dressed in a gold waistcoat and bowtie.
"Tell him, the Writer is here would ya?"
Ernie muttered to the man, who left with an abrupt nod.
Edie pulled Ernie to a stop, brows furrowed as she realised something was going on, he hadn't just brought her out because he wanted to have fun, he had business to do too.
"Tell me what is going on right now."
She hissed, spitting venom as she leaned in closer to him.
"Don't worry, i'm doing this for you alright, you want to find out who killed your family yeah? Well i'll help you if you help me."
They slipped into a private booth and moments later, they were joined by a man with a mustache.
"Sabini" Ernie greeted the man with a firm handshake.
The Italian gangster nodded before turning his attention to Edie.
"And who is this?"
Ernie nudged Edie slightly to prompt her.
Straightening up she offered a timid smile and gloved hand.
"It's a pleasure to meet you Mr Sabini, I'm Ernie's sister," She paused momentarily, realising she could become anything she wanted.
"But please, call be Joy."