Kings ||Peaky Blinders||

13| The Visitors

She sunk into the already cooling bath, the luke warm water rising up over her. She slid forward, completely submerging herself into the peaceful quietness of the water and closed her eyes. She felt her hair float around her and focused on her breathing. Her heart beating steadily. She opened her eyes and watched the small bubbles make their way to the surface before her breath ran out and she sat up.

Air flooded back into her lungs. Mollie May snatched for the scrubbing brush and scrubbed at the specks of blood on her face until her face was as red as the blood on it.

When she could take the cold and scrubbing no longer, she climbed out, wrapping a robe around her and headed downstairs to light the fire to warm up. She sat watching the fire for ages, her heel tapping the floor quickly.

The back door burst open, causing Mollie May to jump up. Arthur walked in yelling, "There she is! Where'd you go?" He looked at her with a funny face. "What are you wearing?" "A bathrobe. What does it look like I'm wearing?"

"It looks like you're wearing a bathrobe. Why are you wearing a bathrobe" She scratched her head, "Because I'm just out of the bath." Now it was his turn to sigh. "Well obviously, but aren't you coming tonight?" "Where?" "To the party thing. At the gambling den. Everyone's going to be there."

"And I will not be." She said in a sing song tone as she walked next door into the living room. "Aw come on. It'll be fun." He followed her in.

"No." "Yes." "I'm not going Arthur, don't be a prick, I'm not saying it again." He held his hands up in mock surrender. "Alright."

He sat down opposite her and watched her as she pulled a comb through her wet hair. "What's that on your face, Mollie?" He reached over and rubbed his thumb over the faded red left on her cheek.

Mollie May looked at him with sad eyes but didn't speak. Arthur hummed under his breath and sat back into the armchair, his eyes still on Mollie May who watched him hesitantly. "It was self-defense, alright." She shrugged but was unable to keep the tremor from her voice and the tears that threatened to fall.

She dropped her gaze to the comb in her hands, exhaling a breath. "I, uh. They're dead now." Arthur studied her with concern and when she got up to walk out, he stood in front of her.

He stood in front of her for a while, not quite sure of what to do. Without thinking, Mollie May pulled him into a hug. Arthur stumbled in surprise and then wrapped his arms around her slowly, unsure of what to do. "I'm sorry. I didn't know what else to do. I panicked and now I'm panicking. I'm so sorry. I've just made everything so much worse. The Italians are going to want revenge and -"

Arthur squeezed her tightly and hushed her, "You're safe now, okay. Tommy will protect you, alright, we'll all protect you. Nobody's going to come for you." He started to ramble. He had never been the person that people turned to for advice or to talk to and he supposed now he glad. He didn't know what to say to make it better, or to reassure her.

He held her back to look at her again, his eyes scanning over the blood left on her face and her bloodshot, teary eyes. "You're okay." She nodded and half smiled.

They embraced each other again for a couple of minutes before Mollie May went to make tea for Arthur and her. Arthur watched as the time got closer to the party but then looked over to Mollie May who sat opposite in front of the fire. She was still fighting to comb her hair and he smirked at her failing efforts.

Perhaps the party wasn't as important as this.