Chapter 90

Rosie wriggled against him, her arse nestling right against his crotch. A fairly pleasant way to wake up.

He tightened the arm he had slung over her waist and she gave a happy, sleepy little sigh, bringing her own hand down from where it had rested in front of her face on the pillow to laying gently atop his.

"Morning," he rumbled in her ear.

"I'd like it not to be," she replied, her voice croaky with sleep.

He grinned and pressed a kiss to the back of her head.

He wasn't sure if she had meant anything salacious by her comment or if she was simply keen to stay asleep, comfortable and warm in the bed - but whether she had meant it to or not, it played the night before's events in front of his eyes again.

They had sat in the kitchen after Finn had gone up to bed – she'd made tea and filled him on how her meeting had gone (they were going to meet again on Tuesday night, following her first few days of work, after seeing where Arterton put her, but she was, he could tell, excited to feel she might do something that would make her precious difference) and after she had told him about it he had taken her on his lap, reminded her what a good girl she'd been to ask his permission before she'd gone in the first place and then he'd carried her up the stairs, laid her down in his bed and lifted her dress, stroking her to orgasm, twice.

The first time had been through a combination of quick movements across her cunt, the second had been after that, when her dress had been discarded completely and he'd been holding her in pretty much the same way he was now, he'd trailed his hand between her legs and stroked her slowly and rhythmically until she'd tipped over with a contented little groan.

"Tommy -Tommy, please, I want this to be good for you too," she'd tried to say afterwards, turning to face him, slowly moving her hand down his chest.

He'd grabbed her wrist to stop its course, flipped her over and landed a few hard smacks, growling, "What did I tell you?"

"But what if I don't touch you but - but like - like what you did when we were in the car, Tommy?" she'd pushed.

He had thought on it for all of a few seconds, grunted and grabbed her hips up so she was on her knees with her face pressed into the bed and starting thrusting into the cleft of her arse. By the time he had cum she had been flat on the bed and he had been on top of her, only bracing a bit of his own weight on his hands. It had been messy and sweaty - hot, tangled and inelegant. But he'd come close to that same respite he'd experienced earlier in the night - when he finally stopped thinking and just did.

That was the real reason he'd never undressed her past her underwear, why he fantasised about her spread open under him but never acted upon it, though he knew she was willing. For all she said she trusted him, he didn't trust himself. Because in those moments, his mind left him.

The freedom of it was his biggest weakness - and he both feared it and craved it.

"Suppose I should go get Lily," she muttered, making no effort to move.

"I'm sure they'll be more than fine - probably been up half the night," Tommy replied, also making no effort to loosen his hold.

When he had gone to collect Rosie the night before he had been informed that Katie had invited herself to stay with Pol for the night too, since Lily was there.

"Yeah, I imagine Polly could do with a bloody rest since she probably got none with the two of them in her spare room."

That was probably quite accurate.

"It's early, we can stay here a while yet."

"Just five more minutes," she said, her eyelids fluttering closed again.

He wasn't entirely convinced she'd stick to her five minutes, but he had no complaints as he concentrated on feeling the slow expanding and contracting of her stomach as she breathed.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

An hour or so later they were both up, washed and dressed and Polly had been granted some peace and quiet, with Katie being sent back to her own house to wash and change and Lily being brought back to number six, where she had done the same and was currently sitting across from them at the kitchen table, finishing the last of her toast. Almost as soon as it was done she was on her feet, ready to whizz straight back out the door.

"Wait a second," Tommy called after the child.

She turned to look quizzically at him.

"You and me are going to the yard to see your horse," he told her, "So you can just sit for five minutes while I finish my tea and then we'll go."

"But Tommy! Everyone's-"

"Ah-ah!" he cut across her sharply, shaking his head, "I don't care what everyone's up to, you have a horse to look after, you told me you understood that."

She pouted and came to him, climbing up into his lap, bouncing a little as she implored, her eyes as wide as they could be, "But could we go to the yard later?"

"No."

"Why?"

"Because I said so."

Because she was going to have to learn that taking care of a horse meant giving up certain freedoms she'd previously taken for granted, whether she liked it or not and there were no two ways about it, so she'd be as well learning it quickly.

Though, he had to admit, despite what he'd said - part of him did care enough about what 'everyone' was up to that it was more alluring than the horse she'd cried over being gifted not two days before. Still, he had cut her off and he wasn't going to backtrack now.

She huffed, which he ignored, and settled on his lap, helping herself to his watch and turning it over in her hands, pulling on the chain - and he was daft enough to be thankful for a moment that she was settling without further argument when the back door swung open and Katie came flying in.

"You coming?" she demanded without any preamble.

"Can't," Lily sighed, dejectedly and dramatically, "Need to go see my horse."

There were times Tommy struggled to align the Lily on his lap now with the Lily who had come home with him just under a year ago, hiding behind his legs and following him around, unsure about being left with Ada or Polly, nevermind the idea of running off with other kids. He was pleased for her, of course, in that she did have her place amongst other kids her own age - he knew it had been lacking before - but it hurt his heart a bit too, mourning the loss of the child he'd had whilst at the same time loving the one in her place.

"Lily, I don't think I like that tone," Rosie said - her voice perfectly calm but eyeballing her sister in a way that made her squirm just the same, "Sounds quite ungrateful to me and you know how I feel about that."

Katie glanced at Rosie then pushed, "But can't you go after?"

"No, I already asked," Lily replied, just as Rosie demanded, "After what, exactly? Just what is the big excitement of this morning?"

"Finn and Isaiah-" Lily started to say and then trailed off as Katie glowered at her.

"Finn and Isaiah what?" Rosie prompted sharply.

"Nothing," Katie answered, crossing her arms.

Lily looked slightly nervously between him, her sister, who was sitting with an eyebrow raised still expecting an answer and Katie, who was clearly not keen to give one.

"Get it told Katie," he told her, "Or I'll wash your mouth out for keeping it from me."

She sighed, "They're going to show us all the boxing!"

Tommy relaxed, wondering why Katie had stopped Lily from telling them that in the first place - he had known that was going to be the case with the way they boys had reacted to the match - but he realised a second later that, in this instance, Katie might have the measure of Rosie better than he did.

"They're going to what?" she demanded, "What does that mean, they're going to show you the boxing? Are they planning to fight out there?"

"No, they're just showing us all the punches!" Katie replied, rolling her eyes as if that were obvious, but Rosie had started responding before he even had a chance to tell his niece off for the eye rolling.

"Showing you the punches - absolutely not! No way! No!" she said, her tone getting the clipped, quick, staccato way it sometimes did, shaking her head as if she could expel the words she'd heard that had made her uncomfortable back out of her ears, "Boxing isn't a game, and it's certainly not for little boys and kids out on the street!" she turned to him, "Thomas - you get that stopped!"

He blinked slowly at her as she regarded him with a hard stare from across the table.

"Thomas!" she snapped, standing up and balling her hands into fists and putting them on her waist as he obviously took too long to answer her for her liking.

"Rosie - they're just playing, they're not going to get hurt," he told her, trying to keep from showing his amusement at her, before, unable to resist, he added, "And if they do it's the two of them and it's outside, they'll not be making a mess of your carpet."

"That's hardly the point!" she shrieked, "They're children Thomas, for God's sake - you don't let them leave the bloody lane without permission so they can't get hurt and yet you'll stand back and let them lamp one another whilst the rest of them watch."

Thomas. Again.

"Boys will be boys Rosie," he said with a shrug.

"These two aren't boys," she said, pointing at Lily and Katie, her eyes still boring into his, "What if they were standing about when one of the boys goes flying and knocks them over, eh? Or what if one of them misjudges of their bloody punches, eh? Eh?"

"For God's sake - right - I'll have a word," he told her.

"You bloody better!"

"I said I'd have a word," he repeated, putting an edge into his voice.

She glowered at him, not entirely unlike Katie actually, then went about the cupboards, banging them and rattling plates and making a production of making more tea and asking Katie if she wanted any toast.

His niece shook her head.

"Tell you what," Rosie said, smiling in a satisfied way, "Why don't you just go to the yard with Lily and Tommy Katie, hmm? See your Uncle Charlie, meet the horse, have a play on his boat?"

He could see all over Katie's face that she didn't want to give up her chance to watch Finn and Isaiah showing the kids what they'd seen the night before, so he threw the kid a bone, shaking his head, "No, that won't work today I'm afraid. Lily needs to learn about the horse just me and her until she's got the hang of it, she doesn't need the distraction of this one in the way."

Rosie's small little lips rolled away practically to nothing as Katie relaxed.

"You'll have a word though?" she said finally.

He nodded - and she humped and sat back down, adding milk to her tea and stirring noisily.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

"Need to get you some more yard clothes, won't we my little love? Otherwise your sister'll be cursing me," he grinned down at Lily who giggled in return and slipped her hand into his outstretched one as they left the yard to make their way back to Watery Lane.

As it was, he rather suspected Rosie would be cursing him anyway. Before they'd left she'd suggested Lily put on the trousers Polly had made for her to ride in, but it was him who had brushed the suggestion away, saying she wouldn't be doing much real riding that morning and wouldn't need to bother.

And, in fairness to him, it wasn't actually the short ride he'd let her make around the yard that had mucked her up.

She wasn't filthy exactly, but a few hours at the yard - brushing down her horse, having the short ride and then being allowed to climb around the bales of hay, the dusty old pile of barrels and boxes that Charlie had left at a back wall and on and off the boat that was tethered - albeit all whilst he was very much watching her out the corner of his eye as he and his uncle exchanged words on some shipments he needed to make to London - had left her, well, had left her slightly less than pristine.

As was the child's quick way, whatever disappointment she had been feeling about missing out on the boxing had given way to excitement once her horse was back in front of her, the lure of watching Finn and Isaiah punch each other a distant memory in comparison to her reality.

He rather wished it had stayed nothing more than a distant memory for everyone when he pushed open the door to number six to see Katie standing looking delighted by the kitchen doorway and to hear a screeching of, "Is that Thomas? Thomas - is that you?"

He exchanged a wary glance with Lily and, by the time he'd looked up, the banshee behind the screeching, the one who had replaced his usually sweet little loli phabai, was in the doorway, demanding a sacrifice of his blood it seemed.

"You get in here right now! You come and look at what you've done!"

He raised a brow and cleared his throat before speaking with a slight warning in his tone, "Not sure what I'm meant to have done when I've been at Charlie's all morning?"

"Get in there and have a look!" came the shrill reply, her stabbing her hand wildly behind her in the direction of the kitchen, the warning in his voice ignored, her annoyance eradicating any sense she might have had.

He dropped Lily's hand, clicked his tongue and went to go past the redhead, giving her a stern look to let her know he didn't appreciate her tone - but she didn't look remotely chastised, instead she jerked her chin up even higher and glared at him as he followed the direction of her pointing.

John was sitting up on the worktop by the sink, his fist stuffed in his mouth to stop himself from laughing, his face as red as Rosie's hair with the effort of holding it, Arthur was standing by him, grinning widely and Katie was leaning against the wall by the doorframe, looking like all her Christmases had come at once. He was sure his beration at the hands of the older Jackson sister was the cause of his brothers' amusement, but the source of Katie's joy, he reckoned, was rooted in the state of the kids slumped around the table - though it was undoubtedly buoyed by hearing him be spoken to like he was a schoolboy who'd been caught eating sweets in class.

"You said you'd have a word!" Rosie snarled accusing from behind his back.

He looked calmly over his shoulder at her then turned to eyeball Finn, who was shifting in his seat.

"And I did have a word," Tommy said, keeping his tone totally neutral, feigning complete calm before springing forward and boxing his youngest brother's ears for him as he demanded, "I take it my word went right in one ear and out the bloody other, eh?"

"Ouch! Geroff!" Finn shouted, his hands - still clutching a bloody cloth that he'd been holding to his lip - flying up to wrap around his head as he protested, "It weren't my fault!"

"Aye and pigs can fly," Tommy grumbled under his breath as Rosie grabbed at his wrists squealing, "You leave off him, he's got a split lip!"

"Aye and he can get a thick ear to mind him to listen too, eh?"

"Well, he should have listened," said Rosie, seeming somewhat mollified to realise he had indeed had the word he'd promised her he would, "But they've all paid for not listening I suppose."

He cast a glance over George, who had a swollen and puffy eye that he was holding a wet cloth to, and Isaiah, who, like Finn, had a bloody cloth in his hand, this one held to the boy's nose.

"Where are the twins?"

"Polly's taken them for clothes for the school starting back next week," John said.

He glared at his brothers, "Who's watching the shop then?"

"We are," Arthur replied, "Us two. Right here."

"Right here puts you in the kitchen, not the shop."

"Closer than being at the yard though, eh?" John grinned, still too amused by the way Rosie had come down on him to let him take his authority back.

He felt himself bristle, "I was working - I was arranging transport of one of our orders for one of Danny's leads."

"How was it, eh? Did you get lots of work done at the yard precious one, eh?" Arthur asked Lily, who had followed him into the kitchen and gone over to stand by his older brother.

She nodded up at him and smiled - and Tommy felt himself relax, just slightly, as a result of it. She had grown and changed since her arrival, sure, but Lily would, he was positive, always have him wrapped right around her finger. Her happiness was his.

"Uncle Tommy, can I go to the boxing too next time?" George asked.

"There won't be a next time," Rosie snapped immediately, "It's not for little boys - look at the state of the three of you."

"We're not little boys!" George protested, insulted.

"You are little boys - and ones with no common sense at that," she replied, crossing her arms and frowning, "And if you didn't have a swollen up face I'd take a leaf out of his book," she nodded at Tommy, "And smack you around the ear for your stupidity."

"Ah, there we go lads," Tommy said, smiling a little, putting an arm around her waist and hugging her to him, "Took her the best part of a year but she's finally learned how to handle Shelby kids. Mind the days when your ultimate threat was taking away cake, eh?"

He kissed her head and she rolled her eyes, then straightened up out of his grasp and made a show of saying she was going out the back to get a fresh cold cloth for George.

"Right," he hissed down at the three kids at the table as soon as she'd disappeared, "We're saying goodbye to the lessons then, eh? What the fuck was so fucking hard about doing as you were fucking told?"

He reached out and smacked the backs of Finn and George's heads in quick succession, only leaving Isaiah out of it because he couldn't reach.

"It weren't my fault!" Finn repeated his earlier protest, "We went down the other end of the street like you said! It was Gillian's mum, she saw us out her window and came out and went came running to the shop to tell him," he pointed at John, "About George - and Rosie came out!"

"She was in doing her ledgers," John shrugged.

"They were doing good Uncle Tommy," Katie piped up, "Gillian's mum and dad are just dead nosey."

"Dead nosey," he repeated, rolling his eyes to the skies, "Well if you're trying to do something without getting seen a good idea would be not to start doing it right in front of someone who you know is dead nosey's house!"

"Finn," Rosie's voice came from the doorway.

Tommy half flinched at the sound of her voice as he looked up to see her standing with a fresh cloth and her eyes trained not on his youngest brother but on him. He wondered at what point she'd come back within earshot of the kitchen.

She cocked her head, kept her eyes on him and continued, her voice and face dangerous, "What words exactly did Tommy have with you earlier about this boxing?"

"He said if we kept it out of your way and didn't bother you with it he'd get us proper lessons."

Tommy thought lightning bolts might be about to shoot out of Rosie straight at him. Unable to continue facing her he looked at Finn, shaking his head in disbelief at his youngest brother, who was looking obliviously back at him, then met Arthur's eyes over the top of the boy's head.

"That kid needs educating Tommy, he really does," was his oldest brother's statement, whilst John was once again dying of laughter next to him, slapping his leg in delight.

Tommy pinched the bridge of his nose and squeezed his eyes shut, resisting the urge to throttle Finn before he started to try and speak to her, "Rosie, look-"

"No! No you just be quiet," she snarled over him, holding up a hand and glaring so fiercely that he did, "You, change that for this," she continued, speaking to George and slapping the fresh cloth down on the table, "You two," she pointed between Finn and Isaiah, "Once the bleeding has stopped wash the areas gently and put some cream on them."

"Are you not gonna-?" Finn started to ask but she cut across him, her voice suddenly perfectly calm, "No Finn, I am not going to."

"But Aunt Pol's not here either!"

"No, she's not. You can have the help of one of those three eedgits," the redhead replied, gesturing between him, John and Arthur, "Make your choice as you see fit. I'm washing my hands of the lot of you for now, I'm going to do my ledgers in peace and quiet and ignore you all."

She swept imperiously across the kitchen towards the shop doors before turning back as if with an after-thought, "Oh! And no bloody cake for any of you for a week."

John stopped laughing rather abruptly as the door shut behind her.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

Tommy spent most of the day swinging wildly between ensuring no one thought he gave a damn about her annoyance with him and desperately trying to placate her - storming by the desk she was working at without a word to go to his own office, chainsmoking, coming out to ask John what they were looking like they'd made on the bets for the boxing match, only for his brother to advise he should ask her since she was doing the ledgers and for him to decide that, actually, he didn't really need to know in that minute, running to the butchers before it shut to buy a joint of lamb for their dinner that night to save her the journey and throwing Finn and a couple of his friends a look so filthy it froze them in their conversation when he walked by on the way home.

"Bought you the stuff for dinner," he offered her gruffly, coming to stand by her desk after he'd put it in the kitchen.

Most of the shop staff were away home, Arthur had gone off the pub and it was only her, John and Pol - who had returned from town to be filled in and look a little too pleased about it for his liking - left in.

"If you've bought a cake I'll put it in the bin," she told him sharply, not looking up from her work.

She wouldn't put it in the bin, she thought food wastage was a sin of the worst kind - a trait left over, he imaged, from the days when she had gone hungry herself at the hands of Molly Jackson or from days where she'd scrimped and saved all her money just to feed herself and Lily for a week at a time - but he could see her taking it round to one of the other houses and handing it in to them rather than letting any Shelbys eat a piece when they were all in disgrace in her opinion. He'd seen her talk sometimes with other women out on the street, she knew more than he did about which houses would benefit from a free cake to stop it going to waste.

"I've not bought a bloody cake, woman," he growled, determined that, whilst he wouldn't have tried to go around her ruling, he wasn't going to sound like a meek little boy about it either.

She 'hmped' in reply. He lit a cigarette and went through to the kitchen, slamming the door behind him and ignoring his aunt and brother. He had the distinct impression they were dragging out the end of day count to bear witness to the results of what he saw as Finn's stupidity.

Dinner was a slightly subdued affair, topped off by Lily asking about a sweet afterwards and Rosie offering her a biscuit in place of her usual dessert. If it hadn't been that he was also in disgrace with the redhead, he'd have offered the child tuppence and told her to get Finn to walk her to the sweet shop - but he was, so he said nothing whilst she dejectedly went off with her biscuit.

His sympathy for the child, however, didn't stop him from taking the opportunity she presented him to show Rosie he was on her team when quarter to eight came and went and she didn't appear home.

He saw the redhead glance at the clock and was on his feet immediately, throwing the door open and striding purposefully out, spying Lily and going to her, growling down, picking her up tucking her under his arm without any preamble and taking her home without giving her a chance to say her goodnights to the blond girl she was standing with, the one he'd asked about Katie the night of the fire.

He closed the door, dumped her on her feet and reminded her, "You are supposed to be in for quarter to eight madam!" - punctuating his words with a couple of smacks that got her dancing about the front room trying to escape him.

"It was Sarah! She kept asking me about things!" Lily insisted.

"Well if you think answering Sarah's more important than obeying your rules, we're obviously not making the consequences of your rule breaking good enough!" he snapped, "What did your sister tell you would happen if you came in late again?"

"Tommy, no!" she replied, shaking her head, "No spanking! Please?"

"That's up to your sister, if it were up to me I'd have you over my knee right now," he told her sharply, both of them looking to Rosie - who had quite evidently sussed what he was at and seemed to be biting the insides of her mouth to try and keep her unamused countenance.

"Lily, you start getting ready for bed - I'm not pleased with you but Tommy's given you some smacks so we'll call it done for tonight - if there's a next time though, I will turn you over my knee, you understand?"

Lily nodded and ran off, daring to throw him a slightly dirty look over her shoulder once she was out of reach, which he ignored.

"You told her the last time it would happen the next time you know."

"I know," she nodded, her amusement slipping into her voice, "But I'm sure having you out to drag her in will have made enough of an impression on her."

"I didn't drag her, I carried her," he replied, sitting on the sofa and chancing to give her a smile and see what he got in return.

She gave him a proper smile, climbed into his lap and kissed him, which he returned, threading his arms around her and smiling against her mouth.

"You talking to me again then?" he asked her with a grin.

She rolled her eyes, still smiling softly, "Turns out I don't much like it when I'm not talking to you."

"It's not to my taste either."

"Besides," she smiled, just a little too satisfiedly for his liking, "You'll get your own comeuppance Mr Shelby."

"Oh?"

"Uhuh - you think you're mr 'I make the rules and everyone obeys them and doesn't question me whilst I ignore what everyone else's concerns are'," she told him.

He raised a brow, "Now I'd hardly say that's fair. I've told you I'll always consider-"

"Oh, it's fair," she declared, cutting across him, "But see Tommy, you're an idiot if you reckon they're showing one another this boxing for the fun of it - they're teaching each other."

"Teaching each other are they?" he asked, hiding his smile and tucking a piece of her hair behind her ear, too pleased to have her on his lap and speaking to him to be worried about whatever it was she thought she had to hold over him.

"Uhuh."

"Any why would they be doing that?"

"Cause this fighting with the Irish kids has been brewing all summer and it'll come to a head soon enough," she said sagely, quite sure of herself, "Finn and the rest of the boys'll go and have it out and you'll get to see exactly what it's like when you give orders and they get ignored because someone else thinks they know best - and then I'll be quite satisfied and we'll be even."

"Oh, that was you giving me orders this morning was it you little wench?"

"It was Mr Shelby."

"And who exactly do you think you are giving me orders?"

"Get uppity all you like Tommy, but you're going to see what comes of you not heeding my advice."

"Downgrading from calling it orders to advice - smart move, sweetheart, cause you know better, don't you?" he hummed, gripping her arse and squeezing.

She moaned and wriggled against him and he was kissing her quite hungrily when Lily came padding back down, clad in her nightdress and ready for Rosie to take her out the back.

"Alright my darling girl, off you go and put that child to bed - and once you're done I'm going to show you just how satisfied you can be," he grinned, kissing her lightly and smacking her arse as she slid off his lap.

Thank you as always for the comments and messages!

Thank you so much as well to the people who have sent me Tumblr asks this week, it's been so much fun answering them.

Felucias - happy birthday, I hope you had a good one!