A Stolen Smile - Peaky Blinders

John's Funeral

Florence had just arrived at John's house with Michael trying to convince her older brother to come back and talk with the rest of the family. It was in only a blink of an eye that she was being tugged to the ground and watching her brother be killed in cold blood.

The guttural wail that escaped her mouth was horrifying, as she collapsed down beside her brother praying that he wasn't going to die. Praying to any God to help out her brother and take her instead. Crawling on her knees over to Michael as she put pressure on the bullet wounds. Hearing Esme's cries as she wept over her husband's body meant that the tears she was trying to stop from flowing kept coming and coming. By the time the ambulance arrived, she could barely see the tears clouding her vision too much. They let her in the ambulance with Michael as they sped to the hospital.

The rest of her family found her collapsed hugging a crying Emse as they waited to hear any news.

Hearing that John was dead destroyed Florence and before she knew it the entire world went black. Florence hoped that this meant that she would be joining her brother, probably in hell knowing what John got up to. But as she regained her vision she saw daylight and familiar faces, just not John's. This only made her cry harder.

As John's funeral came around she realised that she would never get to see him smile again or laugh or even cry. She would never see him again, ever. John was dead and only as she watched his body go up in flames did she realise that. It was at this moment that she wished it was raining just so she could hold his hand one more time, as was tradition since she was little.

Florence was too overwhelmed to do anything though all she could do was stare, stare at her brother as he moved on to the next life.

Not even the sound of gunshots brought her out of the trance she was in, unaware that the gunshots were real and not a hallucination of her reliving John's death over and over again.

It wasn't until Tommy spoke again that they were on their side that she realised it was real. All she did in retaliation was walk up to him and slap him, the sound ringing slightly in her mind. Florence walked off after that, ignoring the sounds of people calling her name.

Florence didn't notice the watchful eyes of the Gold family on her, nor how they seemed slightly impressed at her actions towards Tommy.

Florence did meet these people again though. Well, walking towards Charlie's yard a shotgun and a rifle slung over her shoulder from target practice in the fields. Florence use to practice with John but now that she couldn't she didn't have the heart to do it with someone else. So she went out and practised by herself, successfully hitting all the targets she had set up. Her dress which had previously been clean was now covered in mud and grass stains from the fields.

Florence must have been a shock to even Tommy who was talking with a few men in the yard. They all seemed to look at her as she came to a stop next to Tommy.

"Hello." Was all Florence said as she took in the people around her.

One of the men introduced himself as Aberama Gold and then introduced his son Bonnie Gold. Tommy had hired them to help with the Italians. It was quite obvious that Florence wasn't interested in what they were saying and she soon walked off when the conversation started back up.

Florence could feel eyes on her as she walked away and as she turned to look back Bonnie Gold was looking straight at her. If you were going just by the emotions on his face you would think he saw an angel or a goddess, the way his eyes shined or how his face looked in a state of awe. Bonnie Gold a boy she had just officially met looked at her as if he had just discovered he'd found gold or won the lottery. Bonnie Gold looked at Florence Shelby as if she was the most beautiful thing to ever exist.

It was unusual for Florence to have boys fawn over her, not with her family or how she grew up. She was too much of a tomboy to gain much attention - this she was kind of glad for though as she saw how some boys looked at girls, like a piece of meat, Florence didn't want to be looked at like that. But the way Bonnie looked at her reminded her of how Freddie had looked at Ada - as if she was his world and his mere existence was nothing compared to her.

When he was caught staring though he just looked away quickly cheeks flushing a light pink, he looked down at the ground and just as he heard her start to move again he shyly looked up to see her stroking a horse head lightly before wondering off somewhere his eyes could no longer see. Bonnie was embarrassed to have been caught staring but wasn't too ashamed as he didn't think he had seen something so ethereal in his life. It was as if he had been graced by God to even be in her presence.

It wasn't until his dad knocked him on the shoulder and told them they were going that he realised he had been too entranced by her beauty to notice he hadn't listened to a single thing.

Tommy also happened to notice this as well and for once thought some good might come out of this situation that benefitted his sister and didn't just make her more depleted.

This is what led to him taking Polly's advice for once and making a further agreement with the Golds. A boxing career for Bonnie and a husband for Florence - both ensuring the protection of his family.