Chapter 2
She was going to hide.
That was the grand plan.
Hide, miss her four o'clock time, stay hidden until after six o'clock and then she'd go in, pretend she'd just lost track of time and undoubtedly be sent straight to her room because she'd wouldn't be all scrubbed and wearing the stupid dress her parents would want her to be wearing to show her off in the big room. But - and this was the genius stroke - other people being there meant her parents wouldn't leave their party to bother with her and by the next morning they'd likely have forgotten. Or if not forgotten entirely, the immediate anger would have disappeared and she'd just be told off rather than actually punished.
The key thing, Nancy figured, was to make sure people knew she was about so no one started looking for her any earlier than the designated four o'clock.
She realised that might prove harder than she'd thought though - she'd have less people to show herself to than she'd bargained on as it turned out her dad and Charlie were heading off to the pictures.
"You can come too, Nancy," her father told her over lunch, in what might have seemed a generous invitation if it hadn't been followed by, "Keep you out of your mother's hair for the afternoon."
She scowled at him - as if she'd be in her mother's hair!
He raised an eyebrow - and she reckoned he was gearing up for telling her to straighten her face, because he had a fixation with the faces that she pulled, even when he was the one causing them - but her mother spoke first, taking his attention.
"It's too much of a risk - I need her ready in plenty of time," she protested hurriedly, her eyes flashing, "I need to get her and Ruby - and myself - ready and I don't have time for her running in late. There's a schedule, Thomas."
"I'll have her back in plenty of time," her father promised, smirking slightly as he teased, "Besides, you're exaggerating my love, you just need to get yourself ready - Frances will get Nancy ready. Ruby can get herself ready, can't you Rubes?"
Ruby nodded, the rollers that had come loose bouncing as she did so. She'd become determined to get her hair to curl in the last few months, and she and Lily had spent an hour the night before winding her wet hair around the sponges and pinning them into place. She'd leave them until the last possible moment to unpin properly, but some of them had come loose overnight and she looked a bit like some kind of perverted medusa.
"I need to oversee it, Thomas," their mother insisted.
This was the thing about the bloody dinner parties - her mother got into a right snit ahead of them. Nancy would admit that her mother was usually alright, if slightly fussy about mess and dirt and a lot of the things that just seemed to happen without Nancy really meaning for them to - and very fussy about school and report cards. But despite the fact that she kept bloody well organising them, Nancy got the impression that her mother might hate the bloody dinner parties almost as much as she did, unless they were just family ones.
"Lily'll help too, won't you sweetheart?"
Lily nodded, but still Mrs Shelby argued, "Lily and I have too much to run over ahead of this dinner - and she needs to get ready herself too. She won't have time to deal with the children."
Nancy stuffed a sandwich in her mouth. Her mother was in the sort of mood where nothing anyone said was going to be right - and she'd learned when her mother was in this sort of mood that saying nothing at all - except for giving two word "Yes Mum," or "No Mum," answers to her questions - was the best course of action. But Nancy struggled with that so eating would keep her mouth busy for her so she didn't get her mother's wrath turned on her. Her dad really ought to take a leaf out of her book.
"Rosie, sweetheart," he ploughed on, his voice becoming slightly firmer, "You need to calm down. You're going to be wonderful - you always are. Lily will be great too because she always is, eh my little love? Raised by a great woman to become one." He broke off to smile at his eldest before going on, "And the proposals you have are well thought through, financially viable and ultimately take a lot of hassle off of the council so you're not going to have any problems. So just… just breathe darlin', eh?"
"Tommy!" her mother whined her father's name in exactly the way that if Nancy whined it would get eye rolls - but her dad just cocked his head, held her mother's eye for a moment, the two of them having some kind of silent exchange, then he pushed his chair back and stood up, coming around behind her chair and putting his hands on her shoulders, squeezing them.
"You're going to be great, my love," he said, repeating his sentiment, kissing the top of her head, "You've a track record in getting what you want, you know. And you deserve to get this if it's what you want."
She sighed and twisted around a little in her chair to look up at him, her voice going quiet as she told him, "I really, really want this Tommy. And not just for me - for those children."
He nodded, his hand moving to cup her face as he said, "I know."
"And I'm nervous," she said, her voice still agitated in spite of Nancy's father's best efforts.
"Oh, you don't say, couldn't have guessed," he told her, his gruff sarcasm as gentle as he could make it.
"I just need tonight to go right-"
"Which it will!"
"Mummy, it'll be great," Ruby piped up, reaching over to squeeze her mother's knee from her seat next to her, "You know you'll be great."
"Thanks sweetheart," their mother replied, giving Ruby a tight, tired smile and patting her hand, before turning back to their father, "I'll just feel better about it if you leave Nancy here where she can be kept an eye on. It's different for you and Charlie - you just need to get washed and put a fresh suit on - she'll be needing scrubbed, and her hair will need time to dry properly too."
It was to be one of those full on, hair washing kind of baths! Nancy gritted her teeth at the thought. There was very little she hated more in life than having her hair washed - she always seemed to end up with soap in her eyes no matter what way she tipped her head. She was half convinced Frances did it on purpose, to get her back for how much of a fuss she always made before she was eventually wrestled into the bath in the first place. But it was a point of pride, not to go gently.
"She will - but if she comes with me I'll be bringing her back and depositing her straight into Frances' waiting arms."
Both her mother and father looked at Nancy, and she sank down in the chair, picking up a fresh sandwich and examining it intently so as to avoid their eyes. Her father was giving her that look that suggested he knew what was going on in her head, knew that she was planning to hide and miss the party.
Nancy's people were Gypsies - and theoretically it was only women who had powers - but Nancy, Ruby and Charlie all reckoned that their dad had The Sight, just like their Aunt Polly. Both their dad and their Aunt Polly just seemed to know when they were being lied to, no matter how well thought through the story they were being given was, and somehow whenever any of the Shelby kids were planning something, Nancy's dad and Aunt Pol would suddenly seem to start wanting to keep them very close at hand - as if they knew as soon as they were left alone that the plan would kick off. Nancy's oldest cousins and her Uncle Finn all said it had been the same when they were little.
Lily was the only one who disagreed - she insisted they all just had guilty faces and that their dad could see through it. But Lily wouldn't hear a word against their father - he was perfect in her eyes and if it was him against anyone, no matter what he had done, the other person was always wrong. Katie reckoned that was just because Lily had grown up and forgotten all the times when they were kids when they'd run afoul of Tommy Shelby. ("Plenty of times she was baying for his blood just the same as the rest of us when we were young, Nance, don't let her kid you. Ask Uncle Arthur if you don't believe me - we'd go into The Garrison and chew his ear off about what your dad was doing to make our lives miserable and kill all our fun, so he'll back me up that she had plenty of moaning to do.")
"Tommy, she's better just not being given the opportunity to wander."
"If she wanders when she's out with me she knows fine well she'll be brought back on the path I want her on and she'll walk that one with a sore backside for her trouble."
"I know sweetheart," Nancy's mother sighed - and Nancy bristled at the softness of the tone and that her mother had called her father sweetheart in response to him threatening her ability to sit, there was nothing sweet about that! -, "But let's just try and minimise the possibilities for conflict today, eh? There's too much at stake for family squabbles and upsets, eh?"
Nancy bit furiously into the edge of the sandwich she'd been investigating when she'd been avoiding the parental gaze that had been turned her way. She hadn't cared for how they had been peering at her, like they were looking into her head and seeing her plan - but she really didn't care for it when they talked about her like she wasn't even there when she was.
"Alright then," her father acquiesced, bringing his mouth to her mother's after she whispered a soft "Thank you," that Nancy more lip read than heard.
"Told you - you're good at getting what you want my girl, eh?" her dad said, smiling, kissing her mother again before straightening up and eyeing Nancy, "Looks like there'll be no Destry for you today Nance. Can't say I didn't try."
She wasn't the slightest bit bothered, but she shrugged and did her best to look as if she was disappointed.
"Destry?" her mother said, frowning, "That's an old one, isn't it?"
"Same name, different film," her father explained, "You're thinking of the Tom Mix one - this one's got your man from your Mr Smith in it."
"I did like that one, Mr Smith Went To Washington," her mother nodded.
"Goes to, Mummy," Ruby corrected, "Mr Smith Goes To Washington. Jimmy Stewart."
"That's the one. Well, if it's any good maybe we could all go tomorrow, hmm?"
"I'm not going again tomorrow if I see it today with Dad!" Charlie said, pulling a face.
"Your Aunty Ada used to see things back to back over and over again," their father grinned, "She'd pay in first thing Saturday morning and sit there all day, watching the same two films showing one after the other til they chucked her out."
Their dad had more or less raised their Aunty Ada and Uncle Finn, and Nancy reckoned she could understand why her Aunty Ada probably would rather sit in the cinema and watch the same two films on repeat all day than have to have listened to her father for the same amount of time. Whilst her mother - dinner parties and being too interested in Nancy's school work aside - was usually alright, her dad had been in the last war and ran the whole family like they were the military too. Nancy figured if he had got his way and taken her to the pictures, her plan wouldn't have had a hope in hell of even getting underway, nevermind succeeding - cause he wouldn't have taken his eye off her for a second until he had literally handed her over to Frances.
She knew she was very loved of course - she was always being told how loved she was, to the point she was a little inclined to roll her eyes at the way her parents seemed to think it important that they told her so every day - and although they had Frances and Mary and Clara and Maisy in the house with them, and James and Robert who did the horses and Eddie the driver, Nancy knew her mum and dad spent far more time with them, and were far more involved in their lives than the parents that a lot of the girls she went to school with were with theirs. (Sometimes in fact she really wouldn't have minded if they had wanted to be a bit less involved and give her more space!)
But despite how much her father might love all of them, it didn't mean he wasn't ridiculously strict. Getting away with things with her parents was much harder than other girls seemed to find getting away with things with their own parents in Nancy's experience, which was why it was so imperative she planned things well - and why she had to make sure she was seen around the place late enough not to rouse any suspicion.
She had a horrible feeling she had already somehow raised her father's suspicion though.
She was hanging about on the stairs, making one of the dolls she'd inherited from Ruby abseil off the top to rescue the one at the bottom that she had chucked over to create a dramatic fall off the side of Mount Shelby - the biggest and tallest and most fearsome mountain any explorer could want to try and climb in the whole of Birmingham - as her father said goodbye to her mother.
They had their arms wrapped around one another, her father murmuring things in her mother's ear, and her mother nuzzling her face into his chest as he did so before Mr Shelby took her face in his hands and kissed her forehead, then her nose and then her mouth before murmuring something else and turning her around, giving her a couple of little pats on her bottom that made Nancy feel like she shouldn't really be looking. Her mother smiled over her shoulder at him, but walked off in the direction of her study without saying anything else.
He watched her go, with that look on his face that he only had when he looked at her, his eyes staying on her retreating figure as it went off down the hall until Nancy heard a door close. Then his gaze travelled smoothly over to meet hers from where she was peering down at him from the top of her mountain.
He raised an eyebrow, came to stand at the bottom of the stairs and motioned her down with the crook of a finger, standing with his hands on his hips, his jacket pushed behind his fists as he waited for her.
She let the abseiling rope - her string - go and winced as the doll fell with a crash to land on the floor beside the other one. With her father's eyes on her and no one but the two of them in the big hallway, the noise suddenly seemed deafening. She tiptoed down to where he waited as slowly and silently as possible, as if to try and balance the noise.
"Sit down," he told her when she reached the third stair from the bottom, motioning her down with his eyes.
She sat, feeling glum. Usually if they were pulled before their father for some discrepancy or another and he made them sit, it was so he could tower over them and upbraid them at length. He rarely shouted, but his cold tones didn't need volume to make them terrifying. Nancy's problem, being the youngest, was that she often was on her own when getting scolded and had no one to take her parents' attention off of her for a second. And here she was again, his eyes boring holes into her and nothing to do but squirm under it, no one else there to offer her a moment of respite.
"Right, my little spitfire," her dad said, cocking her head at her, "Let's you and me get something very straight here - tonight is important to your mother, you hear me?"
She nodded.
"So none of your nonsense - you're being excused from the main dinner thanks to your antics of the last time - and though I realise you might see that as a reward, I can assure you it's not."
He gave her a very stern look then, which killed stone dead the instinct she'd had to giggle at the memory of Ruby screeching as the soup went down her dress. It had been funny, even Charlie had admitted so afterwards - though he'd said if she ever told anyone he'd said so he'd skin her alive. But the look her father was giving her wasn't one anything funny could exist under.
"You're going to behave yourself today - give your mother and Lily peace while they do their last prep for their proposals tonight - and you're going to be back here at four o'clock on the dot so you can be gotten ready. We clear?"
Nancy swallowed and ducked her eyes as she nodded. There was a horrible feeling gathering in the pit of her stomach, like she'd swallowed a frog and it was leaping about in there.
He leant forward, took her chin in his hand and forced it up, "Look at me. Are we clear?"
"Yes Daddy," Nancy whispered, feeling her eyes water under his stormy gaze and the frog do an extra high leap, with a somersault for good measure as she spoke.
She didn't usually call him Daddy - she preferred Dad, like Charlie called him. Daddy felt like it was for soft, pretty girls like Lily and Ruby. But sometimes when he used that voice with her she reverted right back to the name she'd called him as a baby, as if she wasn't a very worldly woman who was only four and a bit months away from being seven!
"Good," her dad gave a single nod, his eyes travelling across her face before he dropped her chin, straightened up and said, "Because if anything doesn't go as smoothly as it should tonight and it's anything to do with you my little spitfire, you won't be sitting as comfortably as you currently are, so you bear that in mind."
She squirmed, not convinced sitting with him looking at her like he was counted as comfortable.
"Alright," he said after a couple of moments silence, nodding and ruffling her hair, "I'm off, you mind yourself - and put those dolls back in your room when you're done playing, don't just wander off to the next thing and leave them."
Nancy didn't know why they had Frances and Mary and Clara and Maisy if they weren't there to tidy up!
She glowered, but her father had already turned from her and was shouting for Charlie, telling him they needed to get going so they wouldn't be late, so he didn't notice her face to tell her off for it.
She watched him head off and waited til Charlie had loped by her - adding his own ruffle of her hair on the way by - and the sounds of car rolling down the drive had reached her ears before she stood up and headed to wander out the door after them. Frances intercepted her path and forced her into a duffle coat and boots before allowing her to get back on her way and in spite of what her father had said Nancy took great pleasure in deciding, as she jumped down the steps outside, that she'd leave those dolls exactly where they were - her way of getting even with Frances for winning the battle of the coat!
Thank you for reading along!
