T ommy didn't care how it looked to anyone in that moment. All he cared about was her.
T he moment the car had exploded, his first instinct was to shield Sophie, to protect her. His mind had only fleetingly moved to Finn, and then that the Lees had done this, and then that his car was a ball of smoke and flame. But all that paled to the realization that Sophie could have burned up with it all.
S o he ran to her, and he held her in that delicate space between the moments that followed.
" Sophie, shhh...it's okay..." he whispered to her when he realized she was crying and trembling with fear and confusion. The explosion only shook him because he could have lost her, otherwise he wouldn't have batted an eye at it. He reminded himself that she'd never seen anything like that, so he dropped to his knees in front of her.
" Look at me, Sophie. It's alright. You are alright." He promised her. He had allowed himself more time than he should have to cater to her. He knew he was wasting precious seconds, but she was worth every one of them.
" John - take Finn and get Arthur. Have one of the other boys find Polly. Go." Tommy straightened and resumed his cold, calm demeanor, his armor for getting through each and every crisis so far. He was the general relaying orders and John instantly obeyed, running off as a crowd started to gather and some Specials showed up.
" Sophie, I need you to go inside and make sure the children are safe. Lock the doors and don't let anyone in but family. Do you understand?" He asked her, and she nodded, taking off and darting back through the betting den to the Shelby family home. She took the stairs two at a time until she was staring at four fussy but otherwise oblivious children. Closing the nursery door behind her, she took baby Henry into her arms, and sunk down to the floor.
H er mind and body reeled at the shock of moving through innocent joy to confusion to sheer terror in a matter of moments. There was the bullet for Tommy that she found and now this?
B ut that wasn't the only thing her mind was struggling to comprehend. The other was the change she had seen in Tommy. For the briefest of moments, he held her to him after the explosion and it was the first time she had embraced him since before the war.
A nd beyond that, he had been gentle with her. He touched her softly and looked her in the eyes as he told her she would be okay. Then his expression had changed so quickly that she wondered if what had transpired between them had even happened. Or had she imagined it?
E ven then, holding Henry, she could smell Tommy on her dress. It was smoke and the sharpness of whiskey and the bitter earth of a scent she couldn't quite place. So different from the hay and sandalwood and hops he smelled of when she had hugged him goodbye five years prior.
She was puzzled by how she had seemed to be waiting for him to touch her like that since she arrived back in Small Heath. Beyond when he had offered her his arm walking back from the stables and when she had slapped him across the face, they hadn't touched in any significant way. He was always repelled by her, never drawn towards her.
" Sophie, my God." Polly burst into the nursury, frantic, an dropped to her knees next to Sophie. All Sophie could manage was to cling to Polly, with one arm wrapped tightly around the older woman's shoulders, and her other arm still clutching Henry. She allowed herseld to finally cry into the crook of Polly's neck. George and the twins' confused questions and the sudden commotion downstairs punctuated by Arthur spewing profanities faded into the distance until all Sophie could hear was her own breath choking in her throat.
~ o0o~
"T ommy wants to speak to you in his office."
P olly's voice was soft when Sophie opened her eyes to her darkened bedroom and saw the thin silhouette of the Shelby matriarch standing in her doorway. Memories of the afternoon forced themselves back into her head: the explosion, crying in the nursery, and sometime after that Polly telling her to lay down and rest. And Tommy's arms around her...
S ophie sat up and turned on her bedside lamp. The house was quiet and the shadows under Polly's eyes were dark. "I don't know what about." The question that was on Sophie's lips faded, "But I saved some supper for you for when you are done."
S ophie grabbed the cardigan hanging off the back of the chair next to her writing desk and headed downstairs and over the threshold to the adjacent offices. The door to Tommy's office was ajar and when she stepped inside, Tommy was head down in the middle of writing something.
" Polly said..."
" Did you get some rest?" Tommy cut her off, not looking up, his hand tensed as he wrote.
H is sudden concern flustered her and she stammered out a noise resembling a 'yes'. Since she had arrived back in Small Heath, he had seemed to care less if she had slept out on the street and she wasn't quite convinced he slept at all himself.
" Sit down. There are a few things I want to tell you. And I have a favor to ask."
" What are you writing?" She asked as she sank down into the chair opposite his desk. He was quiet for a long moment before folding up the piece of paper and taking and envelope out of his desk drawer, stuffing the letter inside.
" I'm sorry about Henry, but it had to be done." When Tommy finally spoke, it was with much less lightness in his voice. He looked up but didn't quite meet her eyes - just stared off in the distance over her shoulder.
" I don't think you are sorry."
"So you don't accept my apology?"
"I'd rather have no apology at all than an insincere one." Sophie reasoned. She knitted her brows together as she tried to understand. It was late, she was tired and scared, and she had hoped he wanted to speak to her about what had happened that afternoon, not how he had bullied a member of his own gang out of town for going to see a film with her.
"He said I was making a mistake. Said that you were half in love with him already. That you two deserved a chance to figure things out." Tommy drew the lie out from himself easily and forced himself to look at her to see her reaction to his words. In reality, Henry hadn't said much to him, too scared to do so. But he had to know if Sophie had developed feelings for him. He needed to.
Sophie shook her head in confusion, "I barely knew him, Tommy. I'm not in love with him..."
Tommy closed his eyes, sick to his stomach that her answer didn't bring him all of the relief he had hoped to feel. And embarassed that he didn't know her better. Of course, Sophie wouldn't get wrapped up in love so quickly. Not his Sophie.
"...But regardless, he shouldn't have had to leave. And I don't know why this is important right now. Not when..." Sophie stopped. She didn't even want to speak it aloud.
"Not when you and Finn almost died." Tommy stated and blinked hard, his eyes watering from the late hour, "You deserve to know why, Sophie. Why there was a bomb set to go off in my car intended to kill me. I found another one of those bullets like the one you found in Princesses' stall. With my name on it. In the office. You see, there is this family, the Lees, and Princess was their horse before I brought her to Small Heath. They didn't agree with my methods for taking ownership over her."
S ophie nearly laughed. Only Tommy could make stealing sound so ordinary.
" Curly thinks the horse is cursed and wants to put her down. But I promise you that won't need to happen. Uncle Charlie is moving her tonight though. And I promise that I'll stop all this before it goes any further." Tommy finished.
" How?"
" I can't tell you that, Sophie."
"Of course you can't." She rolled her eyes, " Well, will you take me to see Princess?" Sophie didn't want the desperation to leak into her voice, but some of it did. She was relieved her horse wouldn't be put down, but earlier that morning she cried her tears into Princesses' mane and had grown attached to her over the past several weeks.
" Only after you do me the favor I mentioned." Tommy nodded and pushed the envelope he had been holding across the table to her. Sophie took it and flipped it over in her hands. It was adressed to Ada and Freddie.
" Are you making them leave too? Is that you answer to everything?" Sophie stood up, her immediate instinct to crumple the note and throw it away. Why was he like this? He was so unrecognizable.
" It is a peace offering. But I don't know where Ada is. So I need you to give this to her as soon as you can." he asked, calmly, his blue eyes now the ones looking up at her.
" Tommy, I don't know where they are either." she admitted.
" Ada will come around. She always does. And it will be you she wants to see, not me. Let me know once you've given the envelope to them and I'll take you see Princess."
~ o0o~
T ommy hadn't slept in two days, which was a problem considering Cheltenham was only one more sleep away and he needed to be focused. The stolen guns, Billy Kimber, and now the mess with the Lees were oppressive forces that not even his opium pipe was a match for.
A nd he knew it was because now he felt he had something to lose.
W hen he had held Sophie in his arms and realized that she could have, and probably would have, opened the door to his car to get out with Finn if he hadn't pieced the Lees plan together. He felt a fear he hadn't in years.
Tommy had become hardened to death. He knew he had plenty of enemies and that one day, likely sooner than later, he would die. His brothers were soldiers and they made their own choices. He had practically written off Ada, and Polly was more formidable than any of them. He didn't fear for their lives. Not in the way he did for Sophie.
W as it because she was innocent in all of this, caught in the crossfire of something she didn't understand? Or was it because feeling her softness against him had stoked his physical desire for her to unbearable heights? Did it matter?
H e didn't have the energy to unpick the reasons, but the dread of her getting hurt haunted him. Maybe his answer was to run away to London himself. Or further. So far that she wouldn't be real to him anymore.
B ut she was so real; she was the most vibrant thing in Small Heath, and he was reminded of that from where he sat in the Blinders' private booth in The Garrison. The door to it was open since he, John, and Arthur weren't discussing anything serious, just drinking. For now. The pub was fuller than it had been in weeks, and some of the working men just off their shift were singing, very off-key. Sophie was sitting on a bar stool next to Uncle Charlie, smiling and giggling at the singing. Tommy's eyes were drawn to her again and again.
S he hadn't forgiven him in the way he had hoped since he had spoken to her in his office, but she had returned to her warm and friendly self at work. To his knowledge, she hadn't given the envelope to Ada yet, but still promised she would. He could wait - other things were more pressing.
T he din of the pub was so loud that no one heard or put thought into the front doors slamming open and another group entering. But when a loud call of, "Is there any man in here named Shelby?" broke through the drunken chorus of song, silence fell quickly and all eyes turned to the suited man and his group who had just entered. The man's hair was slicked back, and he had a gun in his hand.
T ommy wasn't surprised. He had been expecting Billy Kimber, but as was his typical course of action those days, he hadn't told his brothers. He motioned for John and Arthur to keep silent, and when his eyes searched for Sophie again, he found her staring back at him, fear was etched across her face.
A nd a silent question. Am I safe?
A nd it broke his heart when Kimber fired a shot at the pubs' ceiling, clearly getting impatient and he saw Sophie shudder. It was a question he couldn't answer yet.
T ommy stood up and left the booth, walking out to the middle of the pub, "Grace, get these men a drink. Everyone else go home." All of the patrons didn't wait to be asked a second time, streaming past him and emptying out the pub. Pre-emptively, he held up his hand and caught Sophie's eye again, silently telling her to stay where she was.
H e knew it was selfish, but he needed her here for this. Had planned it down to the moment. And he also felt that he couldn't keep her safe if he didn't have his eyes on her.
T ommy gestured for Kimber to join him at a now empty table, and John and Arthur flanked him. Kimber's two men sat down as well. With shaking hands, Grace set down two bottles of whiskey and glasses for them all and Tommy told her to go home.
S ophie, still glued to her seat , panicked as she watched Grace grab her purse from behind the bar and leave without so much as a second look. Although she was wary of Grace, being alone made her feel even more vulnerable.
" Ms. Davies." Tommy finally said, formally, jerking his head for her to join them at the table. It was then that she knew Tommy had something planned that was beyond her comprehension at the moment.
" You know, I've never approved of women in pubs, but when they look like this..." Kimber smiled, looking Sophie over as she approached and sat down next to John, who squeezed her hand under the table.
I nside, Tommy's blood boiled at the comment, but he kept calm, having expected it and indeed, needed him to find Sophie as beautiful as he did, "I assume this man you've brought is your accountant. Well, Ms. Davies is my accountant."
K imber scoffed, but took a drink of whiskey and continued. "You know, a few weeks ago, I never heard of ya. But now that you've fucked me over, you lot have my undivided attention. So, which one of you am I talking to anyway. Who's the leader."
" I'm the oldest." Arthur snarled.
" Clearly." Kimber laughed, "But I've been told the boss is Tommy, and I think that must be you." Kimber's gaze landed on Tommy.
" What do you want?" Tommy asked.
K imber's accountant cleared his throat and spoke up, "There were suspicious betting patterns at Kempton Park. A horse called Monaghan Boy. He won by a length twice and then...finished last with a thousand pounds bet on him."
" You fixed the race without my permission!" Kimber stood up and started to yell, "I'm fucking Billy Kimber, I run the races and you fixed one of them, so I'm going to have you shot against a post."
S ophie's stomach turned; she was sure she was squeezing John's hand so hard it was purple.
" Mr. Kimber." Tommy stood as well and tossed something to Kimber, who paused to examine it. "Look at it. A bullet with my name on it. From the Lee family. You are also at war with the Lees, am I right? The Lees are attacking your bookies and taking your money and you can't control them. You need help. We can provide that. They are doing a lot of talking at the fairs and they have a lot of kin. They're saying the tracks are an easy target because the police are busy with strikes. We have connections and know how they operate. Together we can beat them."
T ommy spoke so calmly and seemed so sure that Kimber stopped his erratic pacing.
" Maybe we can reflect on this and make arrangement for a second meeting?" Kimber's accountant squeaked out.
" I admire what you've done, Mr. Kimber," Tommy continued, "You've built a legitimate business and it would be an honor to work with you."
" Nobody works with me, they work for me." Kimber shook his head, and tossed a coin from his pocket onto the floor, condescendingly ordering Tommy to pick it up.
" Tommy..." Sophie breathed out, and Arthur and John pushed their chairs back, ready to fight, but Tommy raised a hand to halt them all again. He picked up the coin and this seemed to be enough to placate Kimber.
" We'll be at Cheltenham tomorrow. We'll continue this conversaton there. Bring her." Kimber pointed at Sophie and then they were gone.
