Heavy is the Head ||A Peaky Blinder Fanfic||

13| Losing a Friend

The evening after her lunch with the Kings, Mollie May stood in her tiny room, two outfits laid out on her bed. One was a silk burgundy dress with long sleeves, decorated with subtle burgundy embroidery. The other was her night dress and robe.

Grace had called around last week to personally invite Mollie May to the Shelby Charity Foundation Dinner. She had quickly fixed her a brew and Mollie May told her that she would definitely be there.

But now, Mollie May wasn't sure if she should go. She was still comfortably full after lunch at the Kings and didn't fancy another massive dinner, not that she was sure she would manage at least two courses as long as one was desert. She also didn't fancy meeting Tommy after the way things ended at the family meeting. She was pretty sure he didn't want to see her either.

Not to mention there would be a massive crowd. Grace had mentioned she had already received over a hundred letters or phone calls of people accepting her invitation. She had said she'd invited friends, family and powerful authority figures to attend.

Mollie's fingers hovered over her night gown. How lovely would it be to get into her pajamas, get a nice cup of hot tea and head to bed early with a good book. It was a very tempting offer, not to mention she would have the night to herself because everyone else would be at the dinner.

She pulled on her pajamas and headed down the creaking stairs to make a teapot of tea. She stood at the stove while the teapot spat and bubbled as it started to boil. Maybe she should phone to tell Grace she wasn't coming. Her fingers laced through her necklace and pulled it up to brush her lips. Maybe she should go to the dinner. At least that way she could talk to Tommy before things got any worse between them.

The teapot began to whistle lowly. No, she'd stay at home and have tea. She went to pull out a teabag to dump in her cup. Her fingers fumbled around the empty jar searching for a teabag. They found none.

That was it, she was going to the dinner.

Hundreds of people had gathered at the hotel when Mollie May got there. The conversations were deafening and merged and twisted to one another. People were laughing and shouting. A band was playing in the corner.

She skirted around the edges of the room, looking to find anyone she knew. When her eyes landed on John, Arthur and Finn at the side of the room, she quickly picked up her pace and headed over to them.

"Mollie May," Arthur greeted her, "how nice for you to grace us with your presence." "We didn't think you were coming for a while." John crowed, handing her a glass of whiskey. "I didn't think I was coming for a while either." Finn sent her a quiet smile from behind John.

"So, are we like, good?" John asked her bluntly, gesturing between him and her. She half smirked and rolled her eyes, "Yeah, I guess we're good."

"Told you she'd forgive me." John beamed slyly at Arthur who frowned, "You did, John Boy. You did."

"Have any of you been speaking to Tommy?" "Nah, he's too busy for us tonight. He's got proper posh toffs to entertain." John laughed, slinging his arm around Finn's shoulders and pulling him into the little circle they had made.

"I was talking to him earlier. He's a bit stressed, you might wanna leave him until tomorrow." Arthur told her, understanding she wanted to talk to him. She nodded with a small smile of thanks.

Polly glided past them in a gorgeous dusty pink dress, a confident smile on her face. The boys exchanged glances as they took in Polly's dress, a low whistle erupted from John. Mollie May was certain her mouth dropped open as Pol gave them a sideways smirk.