𝓡𝓔𝓥𝓔𝓡𝓘𝓔 - 𝓟𝓔𝓐𝓚𝓨 𝓑𝓛𝓘𝓝𝓓𝓔𝓡𝓢

17

Maura walks out of the door to greet Billy Kimber and his advisor. She placed a kind smile on her face that she had found easily entranced men, no matter their status.

"Mr Kimber, Mr Roberts, please come and have a look around," Maura says and Kimber gestures his arm towards the door.

"After you,"

Maura leads Kimber and Roberts into the betting den which was alive with the noise of the men shouting numbers to one another.

"Well, I thought the Lees turned you over?"

"Gossip is very ambiguous Mr Kimber," Maura says. "Changes from mouth to mouth. That's why you should never listen to it. Business is good so a lot of money is coming in"

"Especially since now you know which horse is going to win before you set the odds," Kimber says and Maura nods.

"Information is very much appreciated by Thomas," Maura says.

"All right, well, where is your brothers team? And your brother for that matter?" Kimber asks.

"John, Edward, Lovelock. Scudboat, in here. You too, Thomas, Mr Kimber is here" Maura calls. "This is my brother's team. They will take up their pitch at your convenience, Mr Kimber. John and Edward are the books, Scudboat is the bag man, and of course, we bring our own protection"

"Warwick, next Saturday, at least 50 yards from the beer tent," Kimber says.

"No problem Mr Kimber," Tommy says.

Maura excuses herself from the room, stopping when Kimber calls after her.

"I hope to see you again Miss Shelby,"

Maura forces a smile onto her face and tips her head subserviently, knowing Kimber was a man who liked his ego to be inflated, before walking away with a small shudder.

"Gentleman," Tommy calls before glancing to his aunt and sister who had identical raised eyebrows. "And ladies. I have in my hand a legal betting license, issued by the Board of Control. The Shelby family has its first, legal racetrack pitch"

Maura and Polly cheer and the younger woman wraps her arms around Tommy who was grinning widely. The grin was contagious because withing that smile everyone saw the Tommy that they had missed. The one who went to France and never came back. The one that was still lay in Flanders' Field along with all of the other men who went.

"Congratulations"

Maura walks into her apartment and hears loud bangs in her bedroom. She pulls her gun from her bag and turns the safety off before throwing the door open to see her brother rooting through her drawers.

"John, what the fuck are you doing?"

"I know you have opium and snow in here," John says. "I just needed some"

He sits on the edge of her bed and puts his head in his hands. Maura places her gun down and sits next to her older brother.

"I'm guessing it didn't go down so well with Lizzie, huh?" Maura asks.

"No," John says. "I thought I could forgive her but then I found out she was seeing some other customers. Regulars she called them. You must think I'm an idiot!"

"I thought that long before you proposed to Lizzie Stark," Maura says and John nudges her.

"You always called me out on any stupid thing I did as a kid," John says. "Even though you were fucking younger"

"We're not kids anymore Johnny," Maura says. "Only Finn, hell you've got your own fucking kids"

"But we still have to look out for each other, right?"

"Always," Maura says. "Come on, go home. Get some sleep. We've got a big day tomorrow.

"We have?"

"Tomorrow, we finish the war with the Lees for once and for all,"

"Since when? "

"Since Tommy," Maura says.

"Can you tell me a story first?" John says. "You were the creative one out of all of us"

There once was a girl who lived in the shadows. Hiding in plain sight. She enjoyed the comfort the shadows bought her, especially the night. Because the night bought her brothers to her, even when they were far away. She found that living in the shadows was dangerous and she learnt from those mistakes. She toughened up and became dangerous, she fought and killed because that was all she had ever known. But where people saw a dangerous woman who would kill them for looking at her the wrong way, very few saw the terrified young woman who was surviving the only way she knew how.

"Are you the girl in the story?"

"You're not as dumb as you look, John," Maura comments.

"You're scared?"

"Every fucking day," Maura whispers. "And I don't know how to get rid of that feeling"

"Maybe you're smart to have that feeling," John says. "What's it like?"

"It's like I'm living in a graveyard," Maura says. "Everywhere in Small Heath is like a graveyard and it's like death is following me"

"You were the most gypsy out of all of us," John says. "Even as a kid"

"Well Polly said you lot were so disappointing that I was granted all the gyspy voodoo," Maura says and John sticks his middle finger up at her.

"You are the worst,"

"Say the one who was looking for drugs in my underwear drawer,"

Maura opens the draw of the small chest of drawers next to her bed before unlocking a small hatch in the bottom, passing John a small blue vial.

"You tell no one," Maura says. "And you keep it far away from those kids of yours"

"You're the best,"

"That's what I thought you said before," Maura says.