Chapter 62

Polly rapped at the door the next morning before church and the four residents of number six dutifully trooped out, Lily in a highly excited state, eager to show Pol the yellow dress he'd bought her in Harrods that Rosie had permitted her to wear for the day.

"Give us a twirl then," Pol said, taking Lily's hand and holding it high so she could turn under, before proclaiming her, "Beautiful. That Finn'll need to up his game to make sure he still looks smart sitting next to you – won't you Finn?"

Finn shrugged and stuck his hands in his pockets, nonplussed at the concept of what he would look like by her – though he had told her the dress was very pretty when she had appeared in the kitchen that morning and told him it was her new London dress, demanding to know if he liked it.

"Or the church could sort its priorities to care less about appearances," Rosie muttered darkly.

He smirked at her as they walked behind the other three, his hands in his own pockets, just like Finn's, "Aren't you bringing the things Lily got to donate to the parish?"

She shook her head, "No, I'm going to take her over to the reform on Thursday after I finish my exam, I'll go get her from school and we'll walk over. Want to make sure it goes to the actual kids and not get slipped into the bag of some volunteer church cleaner to give to her spoilt little grandchild who doesn't need it."

"I'll come with you."

"You don't have to."

"Nevertheless, I will," he told her, his tone brooking no argument, "Fact, I'll get Finn to have a clear out - god knows he's been storing everything under the sun in his wardrobe for the past ten years. See if John's kids want any of what he doesn't need anymore, and then take the rest with us to the reform. Bring Finn too, threaten to dump him there if he doesn't tell me what that map they're drawing is."

"Don't you be threatening him with any such thing Thomas Shelby," she chided him.

He exhaled amusedly through his nose, "Get off your high horse, was just a joke. I don't threaten any of them with being sent away - but threatening him with a good hiding doesn't seem to be cutting this one."

"How d'you mean?"

"When I was taking Lily swimming yesterday," he told her, "We stopped and asked Finn if he wanted to come, he'd said he'd come when I took her – but he said no he was in the middle of his game with Isaiah and the other lads."

"So?"

"So Polly reckons there's summat going on between our lot and the Irish kids and I don't bloody well like it."

"Was there ever anything going on between our lot and the Irish kids when you were Finn's age?"

"Yup."

"Well you can't be too hard on them then can you? If you and John were off doing whatever him and George are now."

"It's called do as I say, not as I did."

She snorted at that and shook her head.

Of course, when he'd been fighting the paddys or the Italians or whoever, none of the adults around him were trying to catch the attention of the IRA with the possibility that they had a shit tonne of stolen weapons in their possession, and that was the fucking difference.

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

He chain-smoked as Rosie cut the sandwiches and arranged them on plates on the table, along with sausage rolls and biscuits and chopped up fruit – the cake safely in his office, ready for candles when the time came. This would be the first big family get together since – well, since Christmas. He knew Rosie had meant well by it, and in the light of yesterday he was glad they were giving Katie's birthday the attention - but he was nervous. Ada would be absent, things might get mentioned – he had no idea what state Arthur would be in, he hadn't seen his brother since he'd left the shop with Lily the day before.

"Is there film left over in the camera from London?" Rosie asked him, pulling him out of his head – out of imagining all the ways a seven-year-old's birthday tea was going to disrupt the empire he was building.

He nodded, "I think so."

"Go get it, eh? Let's finish it off with birthday photos of Katie and them, give them some photos in frames for John to put up in the house."

"Alright," he said – and turned to go fetch the camera from his bedroom, where he was keeping it safe out of reach of Finn or Lily taking it to show the other kids and undoubtedly breaking the damn thing.

It was a good idea, taking more up to date photos of John's brood – they hadn't had any since before Martha died.

"Lily," he heard Rosie calling through to the front room, where Lily was colouring, "Put those things away, eh? And go get all the presents from our room so we're ready when everyone arrives – they're coming for two o'clock."

When the camera and all the presents were down, he went to the front door and stuck his head out, looking for Finn – finding him with Isaiah and George and a few other boys, riding the bike up and down the lane. Perfectly. With no one falling.

He strode across and clapped his hand down on his brother's shoulder from behind – frightening the wits out of him as far as he could tell and giving the bike the only wobble it had seen.

"Looks like you've improved drastically since Friday," he quipped, his cigarette waggling as he spoke through it, letting it hang from his mouth.

Finn looked at the ground and swallowed.

"Let's get this straight – today is Katie's birthday tea and you two," he turned his eye on George, "Will make sure today is about her and not about your fucking antics, alright?"

George muttered his agreement and the majority of the boys had dispersed within a few words of Tommy's arrival, but he eyed Isaiah, who was still there, and exhaled a thick plume of smoke into the air before he asked, "You coming for this tea?"

"If I'm allowed Mr Shelby."

"Where's your dad?"

"Preachin'."

"Go find him, tell him it's our John's Katie's birthday tea – if he wants to come along he's welcome. If he's busy, you're welcome without him."

"Thanks Mr Shelby," the Jesus boy said and took off at speed.

"You," he told Finn, pointing at him with his cigarette, "Go get your Uncle Charlie and Curly. And you," he turned the cigarette to his nephew, "Get home and have a bloody wash – show your sister's birthday some respect."

"It's not even her actual birthday," George grumbled.

Tommy put the cigarette back in his mouth to free up his hand and clipped his nephew round the ear, "Oi – don't backtalk me. Get out the back and wash up – and make sure the twins aren't covered in muck either. Rosie's taking pictures of you all and I want you looking presentable if you're going on my desk."

"I don't want to be in a picture!" the emphatic protest came, "I never asked to be in a picture Uncle Tommy!"

"Nevertheless, George," he snapped, clipping him around the other ear, "You'll be in one and you'll look presentable. It's non-negotiable – if you want a hiding first, I'll give you one, but one way or the other you'll wash up and be in this photograph."

"Alright Uncle Tommy," his nephew gave in, ungraciously, massaging both sides of his head and glaring, "I'll wash up."

"And straighten your face," Tommy told him – which the boy didn't quite manage to do before he had turned away from him to go do as he was bid, probably resentfully.

Tommy stood, taking his time finishing the remnants of his cigarette and wondering if George thought he wasn't liked, but he didn't reckon so. Boys weren't as sensitive to life like that. And he supposed, as well, that George was generally getting told off alongside Finn – whereas Katie was usually misbehaving on her own, so maybe she felt it more. Still, he'd make a point later of getting all the kids into a group photo and telling them they were all in it because they were all equally important to the family. That ought to help.

Whether it was going to help the Arthur and Ada situations was highly debatable.

He must have done something right at some point in his life though, or a past one because at that moment Polly was leaving Arthur's house and, upon catching sight of him stood in the lane, made her way up to him.

"Arthur's in a bad way," she told him once she was close to him, peering around before she spoke, keeping her voice low.

He raised an eyebrow, inviting her to go on.

"He's in no fit state to be around the kids – around anyone really. I'll stay with him."

He nodded, exchanging a look with her. She'd stay with Arthur, keep him calm as best she could. He'd tell everyone Arthur and Ada were sick and Pol was looking after them. It would almost have been working too bloody well if it weren't for what Rosie had told him the night before. He'd still need to get John on his own and fill his brother in. And try and make sure his brother didn't just get drunk and spill everything to Arthur anyway when he was in his delicate state.

"Thanks Pol."

She snorted, "Thanks indeed. That girl's rubbed off on you."

"I can go back to not saying thanks."

"Didn't say it were a bad thing Thomas."

He chucked the cigarette butt onto the street and headed back to the house, murmuring in Rosie's ear about the development with Arthur so that Lily didn't overhear the truth of it. She nodded and squeezed his hand, kissing him lightly just as the door swung open and Lily went running through into the front room greeting Uncle Charlie.

"Hello my little chicken," he heard his Uncle say and he exchanged a smile with Rosie before kissing her forehead and going to stand in the doorway, taking in the sight of his uncle with Lily in his arms, Curly stood behind them and smiling down at her in his usual childish delight.

He supposed perhaps part of the issue with Katie, as well as being usually told off in an isolated way, was that Lily was quite content to stay balanced on the hip or sat in lap of any of the adults for any length of time. Katie didn't often get the same attention, purely because whenever she did, she'd stay until she caught sight of Finn and George and, more often than not, Isaiah, and wriggle out of the hold she was in so she could run off after them and try to make them let her join in. They'd maybe all got to a point where they'd stopped trying to hold her in the first place.

"When are you coming back to my yard, eh? We miss you, don't we Curly?" Charlie was saying.

"Tommy needs to get me a new horse," Lily shrugged.

"Lily!" Rosie snapped, immediately riled and coming to the kitchen door to give her a stern look, "Do you remember what we talked about at the zoo?"

Charlie raised an eyebrow at the child who sighed and said, "I've not to talk about what I want because I got so many things in London."

She squirmed around to look at Rosie before reasoning, "But Rosie that was in London! We're back now!"

"We got back on Friday – you've still just got a pile of new things, what did I say about you not being an entitled little brat?"

"But I can't go to the yard without a horse!" Lily replied, her face scrunching up, "And Uncle Charlie wants to know when I'm going back."

"Tell you what," Tommy said, trying to smooth the situation over, "You can go to the yard without a horse, there's all the boats to play with so I'll take you and Katie down there for a day of that, eh?"

She nodded then looked to Charlie, "Tommy'll bring me and Katie one day to play on the boats."

Charlie grinned at the child, "I'll look forward to it Miss Shelby, eh?"

"I'm not a Shelby."

"Oh, aye, eh…" Charlie replied, immediately looking awkward.

"She's a Jackson by name – Shelby by nature," Tommy filled in, smirking at Lily who had that little sad look in her eyes.

"Ah it's the nature that's important, eh?" Charlie said, "Like yer Aunt Pol, she's a Gray, not a Shelby, by name. But she's a Shelby at heart, eh?"

"Aunt Polly's not a Shelby?" Lily asked, seeming both confused and cheered at the prospect of not being the only one who wasn't a Shelby by name. He supposed they'd never pointed it out to her before, only told her Polly was Aunt Polly and never mentioned a surname.

"Nope, she's Polly Gray," Tommy told her, "Still one of the most formidable in the clan though, eh?"

"You can say that again," Charlie nodded as Curly laughed.

"Wha's formi- formi – what's that mean?"

"Scary."

She frowned, "I don't think any of you are scary."

"That's because you've never found yourself in very deep trouble with any of us," he told her with a smile.

The door flew open, smacking in to Curly who was still stuck behind Charlie and in its path.

"Sorry Curly," Finn said, sliding round the door and coming into the room.

"Finn – Aunt Polly," Tommy grinned at him, "What's your verdict – scary or not?"

Finn looked between him, Rosie, their Uncle Charlie and Lily, all of whom were looking at him for an answer.

"Right scary when she's mad," he offered, "But nice when she's not."

Lily shook her head, still sticking by her own belief, "She's like you Tommy, she's strict but she's not scary."

Finn snorted and said, "Talk to me after she's chased you around the kitchen with a wooden spoon in her hand Lily."

"That's the least of wha' Polly Gray does to make you scared of her," Charlie grinned, then asked, "Where is Madam Gray anyway?"

"Arthur and Ada are sick, she's taking care of them," Rosie told his uncle without skipping a beat.

"Arthur's sick?" Lily asked, frowning at her sister.

"Bad stomach but don't you worry, Lily, he'll be right as rain soon," Tommy told her, "And we're not going to spoil Katie's day worrying about Arthur, are we? Eh?"

She shook her head, believing him that it was nothing to be worried about – same as she believed her sister that there was nothing to be worried about, that there was nothing to be scared of in the family.

"Alright then, let's get into the kitchen before that mob of John's come along, eh?"

The mob of John's did arrive – along with their father - Katie bounding in at top speed and the three boys shuffling behind her.

"I washed up," George told him, coming over and turning around - yanking his collar down to show Tommy the back of his neck, "See."

"You'll do," Tommy nodded with a smirk.

"Not that he cleans himself when I tell him," John said, watching the interaction and rolling his eyes, "but does it when Uncle Tommy wants him washed."

"That's cause Uncle Tommy won't think twice about giving him a kick in the arse if he doesn't do what Uncle Tommy says," Tommy replied, "Isn't that right?"

"I get kicked in the arse all the time," George replied grumpily – his voice holding the strength of conviction to show he believed it to be true, even though Tommy knew fine well that it wasn't - swivelling his eyes to land on Rosie, "But you promised us London presents and then Uncle Tommy said you wanted to take pictures and I thought I might not get my present if I wasn't clean enough for the picture."

Rosie contained her laugh to a smirk and a raised eyebrow his way, but Charlie and John - and even Curly - laughed heartily until John eventually crowed, "There you go – wasn't Uncle Tommy and his arse kicking at all, it was Aunt Rosie and her presents that got him to wash himself!"

"She's not my Aunt," George frowned, "But she brought us presents."

"Lily picked them," Rosie said, her face flaming and looking at the child - not looking at any of the adults, looking up only to lock eyes with her sister who was still in Charlie's arms to begin suggesting, "Lily why don't you start giving out-"

"No!" Katie snapped across her, stamping her foot and coming to stand in the middle of the room with her hands on her hips.

"No what? Rosie asked, taken aback at the display.

"No presents for anyone else – it's my birthday tea!"

Tommy glared at her - but stopped himself from grabbing her and swatting her like his instinct was to do.

"Don't be a cow Katie," George told her in place of his own rebuke.

"It's my birthday tea! No one else has to share their birthday tea so I'm not sharing mine!" Katie shouted at him angrily, her hands balling into fists.

Jack pointed out that he shared his birthday with Alfie quickly enough, and his niece reddened in the face then argued, "That's not the same though – that's not sharing it with everyone!"

"Katie, Katie, listen to me," Rosie said in a soothing voice, kneeling down to address Katie at eye level, beckoning the girl over to her, "Listen – we'll do the London presents first, eh? But it's not your birthday tea yet – it's London present time and then we'll start your birthday tea after, eh? How's that? That way you're not sharing your birthday tea, eh?"

Katie turned it over in her head then said, "Can't we have a London tea next week?"

"Ah now, that wouldn't be fair, would it Katie love?" Uncle Charlie chimed in, winking at Rosie, "Your brothers have waited for these London presents, it'd be cruel to make them wait another week."

"I had to wait all year for my birthday," Katie countered, not quite willing to give up.

"Stop being a cow Katie," George told her, coming across to yank her hair.

"You're an arsehole," she told him, turning from Rosie to shove him hard – evidently annoyed when he only stumbled back and didn't have the decency to fall.

Tommy waded in just as George looked about to strike back and grabbed an ear apiece, pulling hard on his nephew's and saying, "I see you pulling hair again I'll pull you over my knee – and stop calling your sister a cow," before tossing him back towards John, then shaking Katie by hers and saying, "And you'll be getting your mouth washed out with soap – where did you hear that anyway?"

"Daddy says it," Katie replied, glowering up at him.

"Well don't you be repeating it – I don't want to hear it coming out of your mouth again, you understand? And I had a word with you yesterday about your cheek – and that face you're pulling is riddled with cheek, so get it straightened out."

She pulled herself free and turned back to Rosie, her arms crossed.

"Well if no one gets their London presents today it means you don't get your London presents today either," Rosie pointed out civily to her, getting the conversation back on track.

Tommy pulled out a cigarette and shoved it in his mouth before he said anything else, retreating to stand back against the shop doors.

That evidently hadn't occurred to his niece, who huffed and had a think, the eyes of the room on her.

"She got shoes yesterday from London!" George hissed at John.

John looked at Katie's feet, probably not realising the shoes on them were any different to any other shoes. Katie glared at her brother.

"They were needed," Tommy told George, "Same as you get shoes when they're needed. This is presents – fun things."

"I want a day that's just mine – I share everything and Lily doesn't have to share anything," Katie muttered to Rosie.

"What does Lily have that she doesn't share with you? It's always her pram you're taking out to play with," Tommy pointed out, irritation coming into his voice, "Because you don't take care of your things and you lose them – and it's her doll's house you come over to play with and her books you read and-"

"Right Tommy," Rosie said evenly, pulling his gaze to her and giving him a look that told him to shut up, "It's not stuff like that, is it Katie?" His niece shook her head and Rosie put her arms on her waist, pulling the child closer to her, "I understand Katie love, but you know why I understand?"

Katie shook her head.

"Cause I never had anything that was mine either – but in a different way - and all Lily had was me, eh? Just the two of us and before I had her I was all on my own. I know it's hard when you already had to share your family with all your brothers and then we arrived, but if you weren't sharing with her, Lily wouldn't have any uncles or brothers or fathers in her life at all. I really appreciate you sharing with her Katie – cause I grew up with no brothers and no Daddy and no uncles looking out for me and I know how rubbish that is. And I promise you she'd share with you if she had anyone to share."

Katie's eyes were dark as she processed this, then she demanded, "Can I share you?"

"Of course," Rosie nodded, squeezing Katie a little.

"Daddy!" Katie called over her shoulder.

"What?"

"Do I still need a mother if I can share Rosie?"

"What?" John asked again, wrinkling his nose.

Katie rolled her eyes and turned away from Rosie to address John as if he were an idiot, "You said after the climbing that I needed a mother. She says I can share her with Lily. And I have Aunt Polly. Is that enough?"

"Who's she the cat's mother?" Charlie muttered, shaking his head.

"Oh you still need a mother," Tommy told her, dragging her eyes over to him, "Someone needs to follow you around all day with a wooden spoon in hand to sort out the tones of voice you use. But Rosie'll do you the way I do you for now."

"Rosie isn't as moany as you."

"I think you'll find Rosie's as moany as me about a whole different set of things," he told her, mimicking Rosie's tactic of crouching so he could address her at eye level, "You try coming to her if you've gone and got your clothes filthy or you try leaving your mess behind you and not tidying up after yourself – she's right moany then."

"Are you?"

Rosie nodded in a faux glumness, "'Fraid so – ask Lily, she'll tell you."

Katie wrinkled her nose as if she was considering asking to un-share Rosie.

"And you know I'm right moany," Rosie said, her voice taking a louder and harder turn, "If I catch people drawing on walls so I have to clean them or paint them."

Tommy looked to where she was directing her voice and noticed Alfie looking back at her, biting his lip.

"Fucks sake," John muttered, pulling Jack away from the wall to reveal a game of noughts and crosses that had evidently started between the twins whilst everyone else was concentrating on Katie.

"There'll be no cake for them now," Lily said sadly to Uncle Charlie.

"Well we're all bored!" George pointed out, kicking the ground, "And we want our presents and she's being a -" he broke off, glancing at Tommy and searching for a word that wasn't cow before settling on, "Being a pain."

"Give me that!" John snarled, snatching a stick of chalk out of Jack's hand and sticking it in his jacket pocket, looking apologetically at Rosie.

"No cake?" Jack repeated Lily's words, his tone shocked.

"Take your pick – you can go with no cake or you can get smacked backsides," Tommy told the twins, raising an eyebrow, "And you'll be cleaning the wall either way."

Jack huffed and Alfie chewed harder on his lip.

"Go through to the front room," Tommy told them, "Think it over and come back in when you've made your minds up."

"It's only chalk," Katie muttered.

"Your choice right now is whether or not you're going to let people have their London presents without any more nonsense," he told her calmly, "It's taking you long enough to make that one so let's not be adding another choice to your day or we'll all be here this time next week having never bloody moved."

"That would make your birthday tea another whole week away," Rosie pointed out.

"Alright," Katie grudgingly conceded, "We'll have London presents."

"Very kind of you your majesty," Charlie replied with an amused eye roll.

Katie stuck her tongue out at him, earning an 'Oi!" and a warning look from Tommy (and no comment from her father, he noted.)

"Can we get our presents?" Jack shouted through.

"I told you when you could come back through here," Tommy shouted back.

"Oh, just whack us Uncle Tommy, we want cake!" Jack said, appearing in the doorway.

Tommy shook his head at the casualness with which the boy referred to getting whacked and obliged both him and his twin – though Alfie at least had the courtesy to look concerned as he shuffled forward for his turn.

"The whole bloody lot of you get off too easy," he told them as Lily started to check bags and give them to people.

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

The afternoon went well overall, Isaiah appeared – Jeremiah didn't – and Katie was pleased as punch with her cake and her present, though she threw the doll aside in favour of giving the elephant the moses basket to sleep in, which perturbed Lily who picked it up and kissed its head as if to kiss it better.

"Can we go ride the bike now?" Finn asked Tommy after they'd finished eating and the adults were sitting at the table whilst Alfie and Jack raced the car and the train that Lily had picked out for each of them up and down the shop and Katie and Lily were in the front room with the elephant and the bear and the doll doing god only knew what.

"Let's get these photos first," Tommy said, "Before George's wash gets rendered useless."

He got them all outside and started organising them – George next to Katie next to Lily next to Finn and the twins in front – pulling at their clothes and trying to flatten Finn's tuft of hair.

"You see why they picked him for Sergeant Major, eh?" John said to Rosie.

"Right," Tommy said, standing back to survey the group of them, "You're all going to be in this picture and you're all going to have to hold still until I take it five times – cause I'm getting one, John and Arthur are getting one each, Aunt Polly's getting one and your Uncle Charlie's getting one for the yard – so smile and count to 100 in your heads and don't bloody well move a muscle, alright?"

Lily smiled obediently whilst the rest pulled various faces in his direction until he had them all looking reasonably happy.

"Freeze!" he ordered them – taking the shot, holding the camera steady till it clicked and then winding it on for the next one.

He took the five, plus an extra few, hoping it would give them enough to work with before he dropped the camera.

Immediately George began to move.

"Did I say you could break rank?" he barked.

His nephew stopped moving, looking at him with confusion all over his face.

"While I have you all here," he told them, beginning to pace up and down and trying to figure out how to say what he had to say – leaning into his role of Sergeant Major to try and get himself through it, through doing what didn't come naturally to him, "You're all in that photo. Why? Because you're all the kids of the family – for now."

"What about Ada?" Finn piped up.

"Ada's not well," he replied, "And she's getting to be a young woman anyway – she's not a little one anymore."

Wasn't that the fucking truth. In a few years when he had all the kids of the family together, Ada's baby would be one of them. He cleared his throat. Best not to dwell on that now.

"Me and Finn are getting too big to be kids," George told him.

"That'll be the fucking day," he replied, rolling his eyes, and clasping his hands behind his back, continuing to parade up and down them, "Now, the fucking point is – you're all as important as each other, alright? Every single one of you. You're a bunch of tearaways and god knows you probably all need a good hiding, but you're all the same in this family. Every single one of you. You're all loved and you're all loved the same. Everyone in this family would walk through hell and back for any one of you, do you understand?"

They scrunched their noses up and exchanged looks with one another, clearly all under the impression he'd finally gone as mad as he reckoned they all thought he was anyway, other than Lily who just stared at him with rapt attention.

Rosie was leaning against the wall of the house with a soft smile as she watched him go at it – he didn't look at his Uncle or John or Isaiah.

"Look, you bunch of ungrateful toerags," he snapped, "Your Katie yesterday dropped it on me that she didn't think anyone liked her and it's not bloody well true. So if any of the rest of you have that in your heads – get it out of them. Yes, I moan at you – because if I didn't you'd all grow up wild, if you grew up at all and didn't kill yourselves falling off roofs and the bloody like. Alright? If I wasn't moaning at you it'd mean I didn't care – alright? Alright?"

"So this is your bloody fault Katie!" Jack hissed up at her.

"For god's sake. It's not hard – you're all liked, you're all loved, alright? By all of us. No matter what you bloody well do, no matter what your surname is, no matter how cheeky you are and no matter how many meals you eat standing up because you've earned a sore backside – you're all the Shelby kids, alright? You're all the same. Got it?"

There was some muttering before he stood back, cast his eyes over them and said, "Alright then – you're dismissed to go back to whatever trouble you were causing before the photo."

Katie charged forward, glaring at him, grabbed his hand and began to drag him into the house. He raised an eyebrow at Rosie as he allowed himself to be yanked past her and into the front room.

"Sit down!" Katie ordered him, pointing at the sofa and closing the door.

He sat where she pointed, tempted though he was to swat her and ask her who exactly she thought she was talking to.

"That wasn't fair," she accused him, coming to stand in front of him and putting her hands on her hips.

"What wasn't?"

"Telling them what I told you! I didn't even want to tell you! I said thank you for the shoes and goodbye and I left and you followed me when you weren't meant to and forced me to tell you and I didn't even mean to and I did and it's all your fault and now you've shown me up," she rushed out at him, the words tumbling into one another as she forced them out without stopping to draw breath.

He bit his cheeks to keep from laughing at what she obviously saw as a very serious problem.

"So you wanted to go on feeling like you did and not telling anyone and then I would go on not knowing and not be able to do anything to make you feel better. Was that your plan, eh?"

She nodded.

He appraised the figure in front of him, her blue eyes shining with anger and took his time lighting a cigarette and sitting back in the sofa before delivering his verdict, "Not the best plan I've heard, I'll be honest Katie – doesn't seem to achieve much."

"It was keeping me from being embarrassed in front of everyone. They're all going to think I'm soft now."

"C'mere," he said, holding out his hands to her.

She scowled and shook her head.

"You came for a hold yesterday, what's changed today?"

"Too angry with you."

"Too angry with me to come for a hold, eh?"

She nodded.

"Alright, well how about you come here so I can give you a good smack for your cheek instead?"

"Can I give you a smack for having a big mouth?" she snapped.

He reached forward and gripped her arm, tugging her around and swatting at her like he'd been tempted to do all afternoon.

"Don't be so bloody cheeky," he lectured her through his cigarette, smacking away, keeping his grip on her as she tried to escape him, "And I'll tell you another thing, if you're planning to share Rosie you'll be bloody respectful to her or you'll deal with me, alright?"

"Rosie didn't embarrass me in front of everyone," she told him once he'd let her go, retreating hastily out his reach and rubbing her backside with both hands.

"Well I'll make you a deal – you stop cheeking me and I'll not embarrass you, how's that?"

She considered it, then nodded.

He stood up, making his way towards the door before pausing to look back at her, "You coming through?"

She shook her head.

"What if I carry you through, eh? So you don't need to go alone?"

"I'm seven – I'm too big to be carried."

"Katie love, you're standing rubbing your smacked arse, you're far from a grown up yet."

"Yeah, well it hurts."

He took a step back towards her and held out his arms again, "You want a hold now?"

She looked at him like she thought it was a trick question then nodded in such a tiny way it could have easily been missed.

He went back towards her, picked her up and sat on the sofa, putting her on his lap and circling his arm around her waist. She was stiff at first, like she didn't quite know how to act, then she very gingerly put her head down on his chest.

"That's a girl," he murmured.

He let her relax against him for a minute or so then ventured, "So how come I couldn't get a hold before and now I can?"

"Thought I'd try it," she answered with a shrug, "Cause my Daddy doesn't hold me after, he just spanks me then goes away but when I came in for Lily after you spanked her she was sitting up on your lap."

He tightened his grip on her, "So what do you think then, having tried it?"

She shrugged, "It's alright."

He nodded, "Aye, it's alright."

They sat for a few moments in silence before she began her usual wriggle, telling him, "Well I think that's enough now," as she released herself from his grip.

"You think that's enough do you?" he grinned at her.

She nodded and headed back into the kitchen – shouting a second later at Alfie to "Get away from my moses basket, it's not your present!"

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

"Alright Lily, time for bed," Rosie said to the child later as the three of them sat on the sofa later – Lily dozing off on his lap in her nightdress.

She shifted around, looked at up him and then stood up on the cushions to whisper something in her sister's ear.

"Alright – we'll do that and then bed straight after," Rosie nodded.

Lily ran off and returned with a bag, which she dumped on his lap, then climbed back up on him, nearly kicking the bag off the sofa as she did so.

"What's this my little love?" he asked, catching the tumbling shopping bag.

"For you – to say thank you for London," she told him, "We were going to give you it when we gave everyone else theirs, but now that Arthur isn't well I told Rosie I didn't want to wait anymore."

He kissed her eager little face and hugged her tight – glad that there was one of them he didn't have to beg to be allowed to hold.

Inside the bag there was a photograph frame, "So you could put a picture from London in it when we get the last ones back," a set of gold cufflinks, "To match your watch," and an apple, "Rosie said to remind you homegrown fruit is alright fruit too."

He swallowed while he collected himself then repeated, keeping his tone light, "Alright fruit eh?"

"Better an apple a day than a coconut once in a blue moon," Rosie said, smirking.

He bit into the apple, chewed and nodded, "Aye, suppose red, shiny and fairly sweet is an alright combination."

"It'll just have to be," she told him with a raised eyebrow.

"The thing about apples Lily – they can be quite sour if you get them at the wrong moment," he grinned, taking a knife out of his sock and cutting her a piece, cutting another piece to offer to Finn, who was lying on the carpet attempting his jigsaw.

"And full of worms sometimes, too," Rosie added, "But I'd rather have something I can count on to grow in my garden than something that will only come to life in far away foreign lands."

"You reckon so?"

"Yeah, I reckon so."

As always thank you for your comments and messages, they do keep me going and I figured since this chapter was done early we'd just have a bonus update this week to help us all through lockdown 2.0. Hope you're all keeping well and safe in these strange times!