Chapter 106

"I'm going to John's," Tommy told Rosie on his way back through to the front room, passing by where Finn was still in her arms on the stairs.

She nodded upon hearing him but didn't look up, her eyes busy drinking in Finn's face as if life on earth depended solely upon her memorising every inch of it.

He was half tempted to try and squeeze Finn's shoulder or something, but the kid's back was to him and Rosie seemed to have the comforting of the boy in hand, so Tommy stuffed his hands in his pockets and made his way through the empty front room, feeling oddly alone, frowning as he wondered where the baby - who could generally be counted upon to be talking to him even if no one else was - had got to, and feeling the frown ease just a little when, seconds later, he opened the front door to find her sitting on the street outside it.

"What're you up to my little love?" he asked, stepping over her then crouching down, putting a hand under her chin, pushing her face up to his, taking in the tear stained redness of it.

"Rosie said I had to go play outside."

"Don't look like you're doing much playing."

She shrugged, her eyes downcast even as he held her face up.

"You upset at Finn being punished?"

She screwed her face up and he waited whilst he watched her think, letting her work it out before she eventually pushed herself to use her words and explain, "I know he did a bad thing. But I don't like when he's upset."

Tommy glanced at his watch, then figured his brothers and aunt could wait and took a spot down by her on the street, lighting a cigarette, rolling it across his lips and thinking to himself for a second, before he spoke up, "Shows what a nice kid you are, that you don't like people being upset. When I was little, I was always pleased to hear John or Arthur catching it."

"Katie was pleased," Lily replied, her face a bit perturbed looking, "She said she was going round to get a laugh at Finn."

Tommy nodded to himself. He'd known fine well she hadn't been out there because she was conveniently heading to the outhouse.

"Well, Katie didn't get to watch I'm afraid - she got sent off on a job for me."

Lily blinked up, "I could have done a job for you."

There was a small note of annoyance in her voice. Upset for Finn still refined supreme on her face, but she did her best at giving him a rebuking glare, obviously feeling overlooked.

He smiled and laid a heavy hand on her hair, ruffling it a little, "Ah, was just a job to keep her busy and out of Finn's hair. He wasn't needing an audience."

"That's what Rosie said to me when she made me go out."

"Wise woman, your sister."

Lily sighed, "How long do I need to stay out for Tommy?"

Tommy tried not to laugh - you'd have believed, to listen to her, that the child had been thrown out by the scruff of the neck and told she'd be allowed back in when pigs could fly.

"Hard to believe you're the little mischief maker who's nearly had her backside smacked on multiple occasions for not coming in when she's meant to, eh?" he teased, nudging her, "Usually you're looking like you do now because you're being made to come in, not because you're out."

She gave him a rather tragic look, her eyes massive and watery, unwilling to find any amusement in the situation and unapproving of his attempt to make her do so.

"Ahh, c'mere my little love," he said, opening an arm to her.

She slumped against him rather than hugging him and it hit him that, for all Finn was getting a hold from Rosie, if he'd been the one to hold the boy then he'd have gotten the other side of the bloody hold. He'd said to Ada, that night he'd tried his damndest to give her a good fright, that giving a hiding was hard. And it was. He felt as drained as he imagined Finn did.

Slightly selfishly, he pulled Lily properly onto his lap, not caring that he was sat outside on the street, and put his arms around her, laying his face on top of her head, wishing with all his might she'd put her arms around him right then - even as tiny as she was, it would have brought him some comfort.

He must have done something right at some point, because she did and he let out a heavy breath of relief, ruffling her hair with the intensity of it.

"That's my best girl, eh?" he murmured into her blonde head, smiling a little as she nodded into his chest at his words.

"Alright, you listen to me, eh?" he said, after he'd held her for a while, feeling himself steady as he did so, leaning back a little so he could see her face, "You're probably good to head back in whenever you like, but do you remember after you got your last spanking - Finn came in to see you, didn't he? When you told him it was alright and Katie had already told you a spanking was just the cost of having fun sometimes, eh?" he raised an eyebrow and gave her as stern a look as he could muster.

It must have been passable because she bit her lip before muttering that yes, she remembered.

"It's your turn, alright? You kids can support one another in a way me and Rosie can't, cause we're the adults and you're the little ones, you understand?"

"Finn's one of the big ones," Lily answered, her nose wrinkled a little.

"Amongst you lot, maybe," he agreed, trying not to look too amused, "But not in comparison to me or your sister, or John or Arthur, eh?"

She nodded slowly.

"So I need you to be a good little sister to him, eh? I know you will be anyway - cause you're nearly as upset as he is at him getting his backside tanned. But I need you, when you go in, to try and cheer him up for, eh?"

A very serious look came over her angelic face at that, her resolution to do well at her task clear and she nodded vigorously.

"That's my best girl," he encouraged her, "Now - I need to go along and see John and Arthur and Aunt Pol, I'll be back later, alright?"

He helped her up out of his lap and onto her feet, ruffling her hair and telling her, "You guard the fort for me til I'm back, hmm?"

He felt better than he had done as he went down to John's and pushed the door open, heading through to the kitchen and finding John, Polly and Katie.

"Arthur's working at The Garrison," Pol told him acidicly - letting him know that, although she'd come to his meeting, he was not yet forgiven for his support of Rosie's 'show' with Ada.

Tommy scoffed. Just pour it instead of drinking it, that was what he'd told Arthur the day he'd taken him to The Garrison, told him it was his. Rosie's advice about giving him a focus had been solid. Arthur hadn't seemed to take any more turns since the last one. But whether Arthur was pouring instead of drinking was anyone's guess.

"So if you want him here, you'll need to go get him yourself. I've told Katie she's not allowed out the lane," Polly went on, "And she's especially not allowed anywhere near the pubs on a Saturday night."

He realised Katie was looking at him a little warily, as if she expected him to be angry with her for this.

"You're alright, off you go, get the last of your night before you get called in for bed," Tommy told her, nodding his head in the direction of the door, ruffling her hair a little as she made her way by him, looking relieved.

"You going to be calling her in?" Pol asked John sarcastically, raising her eyebrows and dragging on one of the long, thin cigarettes she favoured.

"Won't be much longer before I'm married and there is a mother to be calling her in, will it?" John replied, seemingly to Pol, but the question was directed at him.

Tommy sighed, he knew he couldn't avoid that conversation forever.

"You said you wouldn't do it without my blessing."

"You saying you won't give it?" John asked, furrowing his brow.

"Let me think on it a while, eh John?"

"You know what Molly Jackson does for a living Tommy and you've brought her daughters into the family," Pol chimed.

"Yeah - yeah I know," Tommy snapped, frustrated. Lizzie Stark's line of work had been Pol's own argument against the marriage, not his. "It's not that - it's just that I want time to think on it. Things are dangerous just now. Coppers are watching us, any additions to the family are a potential leak."

Polly snorted, "Dangerous thanks to who?"

John was narrowing his eyes, opening his mouth preparing for some sort of retort.

"Where's George?" Tommy asked quickly, hoping to get to the point before they got any further down the line of Lizzie Stark marrying John, a line he'd managed to avoid and was hoping to keep avoiding until he had a good way to divert it.

"Out, why?"

"You take him out the back?"

"Nah, just gave him a couple of whacks for getting caught. Told him I might let the reform take him, show him what happens when he gets caught - give him reasons not to again. He started bawling so I think it got through alright," John shrugged, unconcerned.

"Fucks sake John!" Tommy roared, half ready to march John out the back never mind George, getting a slice of satisfaction when John flinched at his shouting.

"Wha'?" his brother asked, his eyes large and startled, surprised by Tommy's anger.

"Caught what?" Polly demanded, her eyes flashing between the two brothers.

"Caught on trespassing on the railway line - wandering down it trying to get themselves bloody killed," Tommy growled, his eyes not leaving John's face, "Which Finn's been given a good hiding for. Brought home by the police - after being taken to the station, having their fingerprints taken and their records set up. There's a fine to be paid and if it isn't they go to the reform for a stint."

"And you told him you were going to let him get sent?" Polly shrieked at John, her eyes blazing, her annoyance with the younger Shelby taking over her annoyance with him for a second.

"Aye but we'll pay the fine, won't we?" John said, looking uncomfortable, his hand going to the back of his neck, rubbing a little, taking a few steps back the way, as if to try and get out of the line of sight of Tommy and their aunt's eyes being trained on him.

"Not the fucking point, John," Tommy snarled, bawling his hand into a fist then slamming it down on the table in frustration, "There's been enough trouble between you and him, why would you leave him thinking you'd let him get taken away?" He slammed the table with the start of each new sentence as he continued, "Rosie's told you. I've told you. What exactly is the fucking problem?"

"I'm not fucking you Tommy!" John shouted back, suddenly red faced and fuming, that temper that never did lurk too far behind the jokes and the good nature rearing out, but still looking to Tommy the way he'd looked every time he'd displayed that temper as a kid, bumbling about, too much speed and anger and not enough control or thought, "I can't fucking… I fucking can't, alright?"

"Can't what?" Tommy demanded.

"I don't know what to fucking do!" John half shouted, half sobbed.

Tommy didn't give any visual reaction to realising that that was exactly how close John was to the edge. That was the voice he'd heard John speaking to Rosie in, the night he'd been half howling to her.

I think I see Martha's face frowning at me and shaking her head and telling me to do better – so I try and then their fucking faces break my heart and I can't fucking stand that so I just leave. That was what he'd said to Rosie.

Tommy supposed he was lucky John has stayed in the house and not fucked off to The Garrison.

But if that was how near John was, then he was needing it out his system, needing to let it out so he could calm down, then the cycle would start again - but there would be a period of calm in the middle.

"You give him a hiding, you tell him it's cause he's risked his fucking life and you tell him you're angry as fuck with him for his fucking stupidity but that you're not going to let anyone take him," Tommy replied, letting his voice fill with disgust that John hadn't done that without needing to be told.

"Easy as that is it?"

"Aye, it fucking is."

The fact he hadn't held Finn after the hiding he had delivered didn't need discussed at that moment.

"Why don't you just fucking do it? Go on ! Take over that like you take over everything else!"

"That what you want, eh? That why you keep failing - cause you're hoping if you fuck it up enough I'll come in and tidy your mess for you so you can continue on drinking and larking and not being a fucking father to your kids?"

John came round the table and shoved him, hard but clumsily.

"Don't like the truth, eh?" Tommy goaded.

Polly was making noise in the background, saying something, but Tommy couldn't make it out, too busy squaring up to John, who was pushing him again.

"Shoving me like a little girl, can't even fight your own brother like a man, can you? Go on John. Have a try - try being a fucking man, for once, eh?"

John's shoves turned to punches at his taunt and Tommy had to grit his teeth not to grunt, to endure them. He'd had plenty of experience taking John's violent little tantrums but, for all his goading, his brother was a man now. And he had more strength than he'd had when he'd punched into Tommy as a kid in anger at him not getting his own way. Not that he had much more technique.

He let John reign the blows until he tired and the fists were coming on him with as much force as Katie's might have and then he put his arm around his brother's shoulders, holding him in something that was in between a straight jacket and a hug. John's head collapsed onto Tommy's shoulder and everyone assembled pretended not to know that there were tears soaking into Tommy's jacket as the two brothers stood where John had forced them, into a corner of the kitchen.

Tommy took a few deep breaths, letting John have the time to do the same before he patted his back, squeezing him, "You're alright brother, you're alright."

"I don't fucking know what to do," John said, so quietly Tommy didn't reckon it had carried even to where Pol was sitting, watching the two of them with narrowed eyes.

"I know. But we're going to sort this, eh?" Tommy said, lifting John's head out of his shoulder, holding his brother's face with both hands, ducking his own head to force John's dipped, red rimmed eyes to meet his, "I'm going to help you sort this. But I need you to give me time, alright? Cause whether Lizzie Stark is the right person to help you isn't - isn't something I'm convinced of, alright?"

"She'll have me though, Tom," John almost whispered, his voice a little desperate.

Tommy shook his head, able to reply truthfully, "Her willingness isn't reason enough."

"We can't all find angels hiding in Small Heath, Tommy," John said, to which Polly snorted derisively, "Angel indeed!"

"So sometimes it might be worth looking outside of Small Heath then, eh?" Tommy replied, electing to ignore their aunt, tugging at his jacket to straighten it and side stepping John, walking around the table, taking Pol's eyes off the corner where John was standing, giving his brother some privacy to gather himself as he continued, "Anyway - the fact things are dangerous at the moment… Finn and George got records made today. And we don't need Campbell having records of them, or any reason to be able to haul them in at his whim. We need rid of them. Need them destroyed."

Polly's mouth went to a very thin line and she nodded. She understood what was at stake. She'd lost her own children before to the authorities. She wasn't going to risk it happening again.

"The station has people in it round the clock, you can't guarantee a fire would destroy them before it was put out," John pointed out, wiping his nose with the back of his hand, staying in the shadow of the corner, shrouding himself in it.

"No. Besides, that could come back on us."

"I take it you have a plan, Thomas?" his aunt snapped, glancing at John then putting her eyes back on him, "Why don't you get on with spitting it out."

"You remember when Rosie helped the kids turn over the sweet shop?"

She nodded, her face grim. Rosie wasn't anywhere near being forgiven by Polly, that was clear.

"Same technique. Basic but solid. Distract, take whilst the attention is elsewhere."

"And the details? How are you planning to cause this distraction?"

Tommy reached into his pocket and put the piece of paper with the names and addresses on the table.

"Had Finn make this up for me, that's every kid who was with them today. Fourteen of them all in. We're going to pay the fines for them all."

John gave him a questioning look, not following.

"Getting fourteen files out at once to mark the fines as paid means getting two slipped away without being noticed will be easier. We'll get a receipt for every fine paid, meaning we pay Finn and George's and if anything gets said we have the proof their case was closed and we don't let the coppers take them for new records - if the station has lost them, that's their problem."

"And having the receipts of fines paid to deliver to the parents of the other kids will win you a lot of affection," Pol admitted, though reluctantly.

He nodded, "Exactly."

He wasn't entirely sure he trusted Moss. He hadn't forgotten that Campbell had raided half of Small Heath. An act of community charity would do them a few favours, remind people it was better to be on the side of the Peaky Blinders, who looked out for them and bestowed kindness at times, than to be on the side of the coppers who had done nothing for them but ransack their homes.

And all the business sense aside, what he'd told Finn still counted. He didn't want kids sent to that reform.

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

"Where's your brother?"

"Which one, Uncle Tommy?"

"Don't you be Uncle Tommy-ing me in that voice - you know fine well who I'm looking for."

"He's not wanting to be found."

"Katie," he growled in warning.

He watched her jaw tighten, not unlike his own.

"I told you to find him and tell him I wanted a word and to make sure he was around here. You disobeying me?"

"No! I did tell him!" she protested.

"Then why isn't he here?"

"He doesn't want to talk to you! That's not my fault!"

"Where is he?"

She glowered, unwilling to tell.

"I'll turn you up and redden you until you talk, chavi. You know I will. So if he won't come to me, you best tell me where he is."

Her mouth worked furiously, though no sound came out, her little dark brows knitted.

"Katie, where is he?" John's voice interjected behind them, his brother having followed him out and over to where he had called Katie to, pulling her away from some of the other kids, noting that Lily and Finn weren't amongst them.

"He doesn't want to talk to you Daddy," Katie said, her voice going a bit softer under her father's gaze, her face smoothing just a touch.

Funny, that he was the one more likely to dish out the discipline, but Katie was quite happy to push her luck with him and give him a little too much backtalk for comfort - yet under her father's quiet words she became less sure of herself, despite the fact Tommy was quite sure John would have let more of her tones fly than he did. It was like even she knew that John's nerves were frayed and to be trod gently around.

"Katie girl," John said, crouching down and holding out his hands to her, waiting until she'd come to him before he continued, "Your da did another stupid thing. We all know I make a mess of it sometimes, eh? But I need the chance to fix the mess too. And I can't fix it if he's hiding from me. So I need you take me to him, so I can fix it, eh?"

Katie considered before nodding slowly, then, glancing to him, she shook her shoulders a little and said, "Just you Daddy. Not all of you. He'll not speak to me if I take you all."

One might be forgivable, she reckoned. More than one, not so forgivable. Fair call.

"Thatta girl, Katie," John told her, squeezing her and straightening, taking her hand in his, "You lead the way."

Tommy stood silently, smoking and watching his brother and niece disappear out of sight down the end of the street. He'd need to find out from John where she took him, where George went when he wanted to be alone. How many more rounds of this he would need to go with John and the kid before he got John settled, he didn't know.

He didn't acknowledge Polly as she came to stand beside him and asked, her voice sharp, "So who are you looking at outside of Small Heath?"

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

He pushed open the door of number six and lingered in it, surveying the scene. Rosie was on the sofa, Finn lying on his front with his head on her lap, her fingers trailing through his hair, scratching at his head in that way she sometimes scratched his, that way Tommy loved. Lily was sitting on the floor by Rosie's legs, with her back against the sofa, her book in hand, reading slowly and stiltedly from it.

"Cowardly," Finn corrected her pronunciation.

"Cowardly," Lily repeated obediently, "lion."

The two kids appeared so engrossed in the task at hand that they didn't seem to notice as he shut the door and continued to watch them and his heart panged a little.

But Rosie heard him, she caught his eye and smiled, reaching out a hand over the back of the sofa for him to take in his own and squeeze.

"There's room for one more," she said, nodding at the sofa.

"Is there? Seems you and the boy have it all covered," he replied, not sure he was entirely as welcome as she'd have him believe.

Finn and Lily finally looked up upon hearing his voice.

"I reckon you'd fit," Rosie said, glancing down, "What do you think, Finn, we manage to squeeze him on?"

Finn nodded, rolled to his side and curled up a little, moving his legs to open the second seat.

Feeling grateful, Tommy sat. He took hold of the curled legs and straightened them back out so the kid was as he had been, but with his hand laid on the back of Finn's leg, squeezing it in a small gesture that was meant to be some kind of thanks, some kind of comfort, some kind of reconciliation.