Disclaimer: I do not own anything Peaky Blinder related, that belongs to the series creator Steven Knight.
Rosemary Shelby - Celina Sinden.
Chapter Thirty-One: Burning the King.
Soaking her twisted ankle in a bowl of hot water, Rosemary sat back in her chair taking in her home that only a few hours earlier had been turned upside down by Campbell and his men. Ada and Polly had helped put everything back to normal, ensuring that the overturned mess disappeared and left no sign of what had transpired that day.
Tommy had disappeared once Polly had brought Kathleen home, he said no word of what was going on in his mind but Rosemary knew her husband better than he knew himself sometimes. The look in his blue eyes was enough to tell her that Tommy would not be giving Campbell for what he had done this day, that his actions had overstepped a mark that Tommy could not forgive.
Rosemary prayed that Tommy wasn't about to do anything stupid, she adored him but she feared the path that Tommy was walking to improve their lives. The front door to the house opened and Rosemary sat up a little at the sight of Finn, her brow furrowed watching her young brother-in-law as he walked into the sitting room and moved to set a stool before the picture of King George V that attached to the far wall beside the bookcase.
"Finn? What's going on?" Rosemary asked lifting her feet from the bowl, she sat forward making an awkward move to stand on her sore leg but holding onto the chair so that she didn't fall from putting weight on it. Standing upon the stool, Finn removed the picture of the King from the wall just as he had been instructed to do so; he had been several places already to do the exact same thing.
"Tommy said to get the picture," Finn said innocently, he was only doing as his big brother had told him and he knew that Tommy had to have his reasons; the look on Tommy's face when he told Finn what to do had left no room for questions.
"What for?" Rosemary asked finding her balance, she took a small tender step forward as Finn climbed down from the stool with the picture tucked under his arm. He put the stool back where it was meant to go before fully turning to look at Rosemary, already dressed for bed since Kathleen was spending the night at Polly's to give her time to gather her bearings.
"We're having a fire," Finn said making sure that he had everything before he started towards the door, he didn't want to let Tommy down and he didn't want to miss all the fun that was happening. Rosemary stared at him in horror, her stomach twisting at the idea of what Tommy could want with the picture of the King; surely he wouldn't do something that could make them further targets of Campbell.
"What?" Rosemary gasped, surging forward to grab her coat from by the door as Finn made his way outside into the cold night air; the moon the only source of light illuminating the garden as he went. Throwing on her coat, Rosemary slipped on some shoes and followed her brother-in-law out of the house making sure to pull the front door closed behind her as she stepped out into the night.
"Finn? Where are you going?" Rosemary called after him, she hurried down the garden path as fast as her twisted ankle would allow her; she followed closely behind the boy who carried the picture of the king with him.
"Bringing it to Watery Lane," Finn called back without turning around, he had to stop by the Garrison as well on his way to pick up their picture; he didn't want to miss out on all the fun that the others seemed to be having when he had left. Rosemary took a deep breath, pausing for a moment as she looked at the back of Finn before she moved to follow after him, no doubt she would find her husband at Watery Lane and find out just what he was doing.
Wrapping her coat tightly around herself, the closer that Rosemary got to Watery Lane the more she could hear as she made her way down; she ignored the twitching curtains as she passed. Rounding the final corner, Rosemary came to a complete stop as she stared at the large bonfire in the middle of the road; she felt a growing horror inside of her as she watched men chuck pictures of the king onto the bonfire.
Letting out an exasperated sigh, Rosemary made her way forwards her eyes searching the crowd before she landed on the familiar figure of her husband. He was stood a little awhile from the bonfire, watching the flames grow with each passing minute as more was added to the fire.
"Have you lost your mind," Rosemary hissed approaching her husband, surely his plan to deal with Campbell didn't also include him being arrested for treason and executed for it. The last thing that they needed right now was to add further flames to the fire as it was, Campbell already had his eyes set upon them and now Tommy was doing this.
"Rose," Tommy greeted drawing his wife close, his eyes barely glancing at her as he continued to watch as they threw more onto the bonfire and it continued to grow. He tucked Rosemary into his side as he watched over the scene that was playing out before them, he would not say anything yet but he knew that tonight was not something that would be forgotten easily.
"I hope to God you know what you're doing," Rosemary whispered knowing that if this backfired then she was the one with the most to lose right now, it would be her that suffered if he messed this up. In the distance she saw a man climb out of his car, he spoke to one of the Peaky Blinders that she didn't recognise before he was lead through the crowds towards where she and Tommy were standing.
"Move aside. Give us a bit of room. Tommy," the Peaky Blinder said nodding his head to the boss as he lead the timid looking man over to him, the crowd were rowdy around them as they walked through. The man looked around nervously as he stepped towards Tommy, his eyes casting towards Rosemary for a moment before refocusing on Tommy.
"You're Mr Shelby?" the man asked shifting anxiously, his eyes darting towards the fire as pictures of the king continued to be thrown on; he clutched at his notebook as if fearing it would be taken from him. Tommy confirmed that he was the man that the reporter was looking for, he didn't take his eyes off the dancing flames and watching the men around him act the fool.
"You said I would be protected," the reporter murmured as if fearing that the wrong word would see him launched onto the bonfire along with pictures of the king. He kept glancing around nervously before peering at the rather calm looking woman that was stood beside Thomas Shelby, a man whose reputation proceeded him these days.
"You're protected," Tommy confirmed with a nod of his head, he clicked his tongue as he finally turned his attention to the confused reporter that was by his side. There was no way that word of what was happening would reach Buckingham Palace, they would hear how pictures of the king were being burnt because of what Campbell had done.
"There are some things I want you to write down. Now, first of all. It's not the people around here that are disloyal to the King. It's the opposite. You see, we don't want our beloved king looking down and seeing the things that have been done to us. So we are taking down his pictures," Tommy explained exhaling, his face revealing nothing as he spoke. Rosemary quiet at his side, her eyes watching the burning taking place and a lump formed in her throat wondering how what had happened to her had resulted in this.
"We went through hell for our king. Walked through the flames of war. Write all this down! And now we're being attacked in our own homes. These new coppers over from Belfast, breaking into our homes and interfering with our women," Tommy stated squeezing Rosemary close to him. An action that wasn't missed by the reporter who frowned, his eyes casting down as he wrote down what Tommy was telling him. Tommy's thumb brushed against Rosemary's arm in a soothing pattern, he would not allow what had happened to her to be repeated.
"We don't think our king would want to see that happening. So we are lighting fires to raise the alarm," Tommy concluded, he knew very well that the reporter would have to phone this in and that Campbell's lack of action would be noted. The man was making a mess of things here in Birmingham and it called for the intervention of people higher up the chain of command.
"May I ask you, in what capacity do you speak?" the reporter asked looking up from his notes, he peeked at Rosemary who averted her gaze at his question and seemed to occupy herself with messing with her wedding band.
"No capacity. I'm an ordinary man. An ordinary husband and father. I won gallantry medals at the Somme. I want you to write in your paper what's going on here," Tommy commanded finally looking to the reporter, he wanted no doubts about who was behind this and why he had done it. If Campbell thought that he could threaten his family then he was making a great mistake indeed.
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