𝓡𝓔𝓥𝓔𝓡𝓘𝓔 - 𝓟𝓔𝓐𝓚𝓨 𝓑𝓛𝓘𝓝𝓓𝓔𝓡𝓢

3

August 1914-

The now fourteen year old, Maura Shelby had grown to be as beautiful as her mother had been. Perhaps even more so although the girl would never accept it. In her eyes, her mother was the epitome of beauty but many deemed her as being even more beautiful than Cara Shelby.

Her brown hair was woven with strands of gold and auburn lights which gave her a year-round autumnal beauty that was only enhanced with passing years. She was slight in her build and short in stature but she had been gifted with larger breasts than most girls and curved hips which also had her older sister writhing in jealousy.

The only thing that never changed during the passing years were her eyes. They were still the same hue of brown that they had been the day she was born, still the soft honey brown that had peered up at Tommy as he held her to his chest. Only now they were framed by dark, long eyelashes and sat above deep pink plumped lips. Her eyes spoke of a beautiful soul and her movements told of a need for nurture.

Maura was staring at her brothers and the Thorne boys with no emotion on her face as they stand in front of her in their army uniforms.

"Aren't you going to say something?" John asks his youngest sister who raises an eyebrow at her brother.

"What would you like me to say?" Maura asks, her tone was flat.

Maura's face was stone cold, unlike Polly and Ada who had wept upon the news that the boys were leaving for war. Maura knew she had to remain the backbone of the family so she didn't let the news touch her heart which she had encased in stone.

"Anything!"

"Let me see," Maura says. "You've signed up to a suicide mission, you're leaving your family to run the entire business and you're leaving us all alone. Is that what you wanted me to hear or do I need to go further back than the past three days?"

"Maura-" Edward begins and she shakes her head.

"No, if you want to go and get your brains and guts blown across a field and become another tally on a death chart, that's up to you," Maura says. "But don't ask me to wish you luck for a position you put yourself in"

The next day, the Shelby brothers headed to the train station to leave for training and Maura refused to see them off. She had no interest in watching her brothers, Freddie Thorne and the boy she had begun to harbour a crush for, walk onto a train they may never return from again.

The next four years were hell for every woman in the country, every loud knock on the door was feared to be the devastating news that their loved one had died in service of one of the only men who hadn't stepped onto the battlefield.

Polly attended the church every day without failure but Maura refused to step foot into the place. She had lost her faith long ago, the very same day she had found her mother floating face down in the Cut.

Over the four years, Maura had grown up quickly as all daughters had to once the boys went away. But Maura had a lot more growing up to do, men who weren't able to fight in the war would test the Shelby women. Trying to degrade them whilst the boys were away. But Maura never had it. She would fight, cut and kill any man that crossed the line against her family.

Polly would pray for Maura as well as her nephews whilst she was at church, praying for the return of the girl that had disappeared all those years ago.

Maura never replied to her brothers' letters, only writing once to inform John of his wife Martha's passing after a particularly hard labour not long after the men had left to fight in the war.

Maura had spent every day expecting to have an official knock on her door with a death certificate for one of her brothers and when the news is broken that they were to return, she did not react. Polly and Ada had cheered and cried but Maura had sat in silence, watching from the living room window as women sang and celebrated in the street but she still felt nothing.