My apologies for not updating sooner. I was a bit swamped at work. Please enjoy this next chapter which is shorter than usual - I didn't want to leave it another week before posting. As always, I value your reviews and comments so please let me know what you think. Wenlock x
Rose's excitement at Tommy's homecoming was dampened by the realisation that Tommy was far from better and had come home to recuperate. This recuperation seemed to consist of him spending a lot of time in bed or in an armchair under the influence of his pain medicine. Rose tried to engage with him and spend time with him but he was either spaced out on morphine or in pain. Neither state made for good company and Rose gave up trying after a while. Polly assured her that all he needed was time and that it would take a while for him to be back to normal. So, Rose gave him time and space and kept on eye on his progress which was slow but steady. He moved easier as the days went by and over time his pain lessened, though his need for morphine didn't. She didn't like that he took so much, but she didn't see how she could stop him. She hung onto Polly's assurance that he'd be back to normal eventually.
In the meantime, Rose began to spend more time with Arthur. She'd reluctantly accepted that he was moving away and wanted to make the most of the time he was still in Birmingham. She would spend time with him in the shop after school, or at his house. Sometimes she found him in the Garrison or the scrap yard. He got used to seeing her frequently and enjoyed being the favourite brother for once. Neither of them talked about his move to California but it hung between them, an unspoken sadness which they couldn't quite ignore. Linda wasn't happy with the amount of time Arthur spent with his sister. She knew that Rose was the one person who could change Arthur's mind and she worked tirelessly to remind him of his responsibilities to her and their unborn child. She also managed to curb the time he spent with Rose by inventing a number of reasons why he had to be with her instead. Nonetheless, Rose made the most of the time she was able to spend with Arthur and tried not to count the days until he had to leave.
"How's our Tom?"
They were sat in the kitchen of number six, smoking and drinking tea. It was a Saturday and Rose was there to work her usual shift. Arthur had popped in as he usually did to make sure things were running smoothly. Rose gave a little cough as she exhaled her cigarette smoke. Her chest felt tighter these days and she'd developed a cough which she was ignoring. Fortunately, no one else had noticed though she suspected Alice was concerned.
"He's getting better. He's walking really well now and doesn't seem to be as tired or in as much pain. It's hard to tell with all the morphine he's on though."
"Yeah, that stuff'll keep him away from it all. It's the best for pain."
"You've had it?"
"In the war, yeah."
"You were injured?"
"Everyone was injured."
She knew he wouldn't answer, but she asked anyway.
"How were you injured?"
Arthur stubbed his cigarette out.
"Time to get back to work, eh love? Those slips won't count themselves."
Rose nodded and stubbed out her own cigarette. Standing up, she looked over at him.
"Can I come over later?"
"Aw, sorry Rosie, Linda wants me take her to a meeting at the church. Something about praying for orphans in Africa."
"It's just that I haven't seen you much this week. There's always some meeting or shopping trip Linda needs you for."
"I know, Rosie girl, she's a busy woman."
"She's definitely getting busier lately and she's keeping you busy too."
Arthur knew what she was getting at but didn't bite. Rose sighed and returned to the shop. She didn't want to argue with Arthur or feel cross with him. She wanted her last weeks with him to be good memories. She did allow herself to feel cross with Linda though. What she was doing wasn't fair. She frowned as she went back to work. What was it with the Shelby men and the women they fell in love with? The only sister-in-law she got on with was Esme but even she was a loose cannon. She'd have John in a caravan travelling the country if she could. She just wished the family could stay together and not fragment like it seemed to be doing.
"What's wrong with your face? You look like you swallowed a bee."
She looked up to see John grinning at her, that stupid toothpick in his mouth.
"Shut up, John."
"Ooo, someone has the hump. Are you in Tommy's bad books again?"
"I could steal the silver and Tommy would be too high to notice at the moment."
"Why don't you try some of his medicine? It might cheer you up and wipe that sour look of your face."
"Leave me alone, John. Unlike you, I have work to do."
Laughing, John began to head towards to kitchen to speak to Arthur. Walking backwards, he called over to her.
"You'll be sorry when I'm dead and gone, Rose Shelby. You'll wish you'd spent more time with me."
"I doubt it, I'll just be glad for the peace and quiet!" she called back to him, but smiled despite herself. John was indomitably cheerful and swaggered his way through life with a grin. She was glad he wasn't going anywhere.
A few weeks later, about three months after Tommy had been attacked – he called it "his accident" – Rose was sat at the breakfast table with him. He didn't always appear for breakfast and when he did he was usually heavily under the influence of his morning dose of morphine and ate nothing whilst staring into the distance. Rose would try and make conversation but didn't get very far. Things were different this morning however. Tommy was sat at the table before Rose appeared and nodded at her as she sat down.
"Morning, Mouse."
Surprised, she smiled at him. "Morning, Tommy. How are you?"
"I'm grand, Rose."
He lit a cigarette and sat back in his chair. Rose watched him and allowed herself to hope that the moment had come when he was back to normal, like Polly had said he would be. Although Tommy didn't eat, Rose found she was quite hungry and tucked in to the scrambled egg and bacon which was her favourite breakfast.
As she did, Mary entered and walked down the long length of the room with Tommy's newspaper. Not for the first time, Rose thought about how ridiculous it was that the two of them always ate in the main dining room at its huge table. But Tommy enjoyed the status that came with sitting at the head of his long dining table under the portrait of himself and Grace's Secret and so they took their meals there and pretended it was a normal thing to do.
"He asked for me today, Mary. Not his mother. For the first time."
As Mary told Tommy that Charles had missed him, Rose knew how much it meant to Tommy for his son to ask for him and not Grace. Things were moving on. Mary told him that Charles was in the kitchen with the girls and Johnny and then asked him if he'd remembered his medicine. Tommy replied with a question that no one was expecting.
"Do you ever read the Bible, Mary?"
"Sometimes."
"Do you ever read it out loud whilst standing naked next to my bed?"
Rose almost choked on her eggs. She swallowed as best she could, coughed and looked at Tommy with wide eyes. She dared not look at Mary who, unsurprisingly, couldn't answer. Tommy continued.
"Cos when I take the morphine the doctor gave me, that's what you do. I'm wide awake but you are standing there naked, plain as day, reading from the book of Leviticus."
Rose looked back at her food, cringing inside.
"Do you want to know what happens next?"
Rose closed her eyes and sank lower in her seat. Mary must have shook her head, the only possible answer to Tommy's question and he agreed with her.
"No, neither do I."
That makes three of us, Rose thought, shooting a quick glance at poor Mary who looked like she was hoping the ground would open up and swallow her.
"That's why I poured the medicine away. Go and get Johnny, Mary."
As a dazed Mary left the room, Rose, relieved that whole conversation had ended, looked at Tommy. He looked back at her and saw the question in her eyes.
"I'm back, Mouse."
She didn't answer, merely watched him as he stood up to go and speak to Johnny Dogs. She hoped he was but had learnt to be careful about getting her hopes up. He knew what she was thinking and nodded once, acknowledging her difficulty.
"It won't be long before this business is all over. Just a few weeks now and then we can get back to normal, eh?"
Rose nodded though she didn't really know what "normal" was anymore. Like the rest of the family, she just wanted the Russian business to be done with. What happened after that would remain to be seen. He walked behind her and leant down to kiss the top of her head.
"Finish your breakfast before you go out riding."
"I will." Rose chose to not point out that Tommy hadn't even tried to eat anything himself.
"I'm having a visitor later, so make yourself scare, alright?"
"Who?"
But Tommy had already left the room, piquing Rose's interest at who Tommy's visitor was that he didn't want her to meet.
After breakfast, she went out on Nua, but didn't stray far. She kept an eye on the house and the road leading towards it. She absolutely wanted to know who Tommy's visitor would be. As she rode in the fields surrounding the land, she saw Tommy talking to Johnny outside, no doubt telling him what the next step of the plan was. He must be feeling better if he was busy plotting.
In the weeks that Tommy was convalescing at Arrow House, Rose discovered that Johnny Dogs' family were camped out in the valley on Tommy's land and she had taken to visiting them on her rides with Nua. They were always happy to include her and she enjoyed many a meal and cigarette with them sat by their fire. She could never quite work out how they were all related to Johnny but she never asked. Experience had taught her that if she asked that question, she'd be treated to many hours of family history. Johnny seemed to have a number of children and she found herself enjoying the company his son, Mal, who was fourteen. She missed her friends in Small Heath so Johnny's children were a welcome distraction from the world of adults in which she usually lived.
Mal was an intelligent, quick-witted boy with an easy smile like his father's and sparkling green eyes. He let Rose go with him when he went poaching. Technically, it wasn't poaching as they were on Tommy's land and he allowed the family to camp and hunt there, but Mal had learnt his craft from his dad and older brothers on land where they weren't as welcome, so it was in his nature to creep along the tree line and hide in bushes as he stalked his prey – usually rabbits and squirrels. He made Rose stay as quiet as he was and she was learning to be quite proficient in moving through the woodland furtively and silently.
Sometimes he would ride out with her and they explored the neighbouring villages. Folks looked at them suspiciously, they weren't keen on Gypsies. It made Rose angry to see how the villagers looked at them but Mal was used to it and shrugged it off. He said that he didn't care what anyone thought about him and Rose soon learnt that this was the truth. Mal lived his life for himself but without selfishness. He didn't think twice about helping his mother prepare the food, or spending an afternoon collecting firewood for the camp, or taking care of his younger brothers and sisters. Rose envied the freedom he enjoyed - he was pretty much allowed to come and go as he pleased - but wasn't oblivious to the responsibility he took on in return for this. His mother trusted him and the camp knew they could rely on him. His father was inordinately proud of him and Rose was touched by the way in which he spoke to and about him. She wondered if her family was proud of her, but was astute enough to realise that Mal had earned his reputation.
One evening, after a ride out together, Rose was sitting next to Mal, leaning against the trunk of an ancient oak tree on Tommy's land, enjoying a cigarette and lazily watching the sun go down as the horses grazed near them. The shadows were lengthening across the fields and the sky was slowly turning different shades of pink and orange, illuminating the clouds. She looked over at Mal who was whittling something with his knife from a piece of wood he'd taken from his pocket.
"What are you making?"
"Something."
"What kind of something?"
"A wooden something."
Rose rolled her eyes and pulled on her cigarette.
"Have you ever shot a gun, Mal?"
He shrugged. "Yeah, loads of times."
"Will you show me how to use one?"
Mal threw her a quick look. "Have you never shot a gun?"
"No, my family won't let me."
"Why not? I thought everyone in the Shelby family had shot at least five people each."
Kicking him with a swipe of her boot, Rose smirked. "Nah, we're too important to pull the trigger ourselves. We have men who do it for us."
"That's not what I've heard." Mal muttered under his breath.
"What?"
"Why do you want to know how to shoot a gun then? If you have men to do it for you."
"Cos I want to. You never know when you'll need it."
Mal carried on whittling as he thought about it. Eventually, he made a decision and looked back at Rose.
"Ok, I'll teach you, but you can't tell Tommy. He'll kill me if he finds out. That's if my Da don't get to me first."
"If he finds out, Tommy will kill me before he kills you, so don't worry, I won't say anything."
He nodded. "I'll get hold of a gun and we'll go to that field behind the north woods. No one will hear us there."
"A pistol, mind, not a shot gun."
"How about both?"
Rose grinned. Knowing how to shoot a gun would go a long way to helping her feel safe in the increasingly volatile situations her family always seemed to find itself in.
There would be no visiting Mal today, though. She stayed in sight of the house, waiting for the mystery visitor to arrive. Sure enough, eventually, she heard before she saw a car approach the house and she cantered Nua towards the road. When she saw the car, she recognised it as John's and noticed Arthur and Michael were with him. She realised that the visitor wasn't just coming to see Tommy – it was for a meeting with all three brothers and their cousin. Arthur spotted her and stuck his hand out of the window to wave at her. She waved back but refrained from going to meet them at the house. She didn't want Tommy to catch sight of her and send her away before she knew who they were meeting with. So she nudged Nua on and decided to circle round the house once more. Tommy was still with Johnny at the back of the house and Rose took care to stay out of sight, riding just behind the tree line. Consequently, her circuit took a little longer than she anticipated and by the time she was back at the front of the house, a car was already heading though the gates and pulling round to stop in front of the main entrance. Rose moved Nua slowly towards the house. There were some of Tommy's acquaintances that she didn't want to ever see again and she was wary about who would step out of the car.
She slowed to a halt just under a tree by the gate and watched as the back door of the car opened. A man slowly extricated himself from the vehicle and stood with his back to the house, looking directly at her. He locked eyes with her and grinned. Rose looked back at him, her face expressionless but her insides churning. She had recognised him as soon as he'd begun to emerge from the car. She pulled Nua round and walked her slowly through the gates and up the path towards the house. This was someone she had unfinished business with.