Only Time Will Tell - A Peaky Blinders Story

Chapter 2 - Expansion plans

"Where is he?" John asks Cass after storming up to her desk. "The black Lion." Cass replies bluntly, not bothering to look up at her clearly aggravated brother. "Should I go there?" John then asks. "Why would you need to go there?" Cass asks in reply, looking up at her younger brother as if he's stupid. "Well, you know, he might need protection." John replies, making his sister instantly laugh dryly. "Tommy can look after himself, alright?" Cass says, waving her hand as if to dismiss him. She watches him walk away in her peripheral vision, making his way over to their aunt. Cass can't help but sigh tiredly at the thought of him interrogating Polly. That's definitely something he shouldn't do.

Cass has too much to deal with to care about John's sudden need to be more involved with everything. She has to sort all of the papers for the upcoming expansion, deal with the Garrison, make sure Arthur is staying on the straight and narrow, work out what the Irish want with Tommy, and still search for Alfred in secret. It's bad enough she's still having nightmares from the war. She wishes every day to be more like Tommy, but it's not in her nature. The gypsy part of her refuses for it to be so.

~

"What did Moss have to say?" Cass asks Tommy as he enters their home. He's been gone for most of the day, but she managed to catch him in the street on the way to his meeting. "Campbell's coming back into town." Tommy replies with a tired sigh. "Wonderful." Cass grunts sarcastically. "Everything will be alright, Cass." Tommy tries to reassure, not knowing what his sister is thinking. "I know." She replies with a small smile.

The pair are then left in a small silence, neither of them wanting to bring up the matter at hand. Cass rakes her eyes over her brother, worried for his safety. "You don't need to worry about the Irish. I'm dealing with it myself." Tommy says abruptly. "As long as you're safe, I don't care." Cass replies. "I always am." Her brother retorts, smiling when she does.

~

"Finn, sit down." Cass orders her youngest brother sternly, his pacing having annoyed her to the bone. He quickly walks around the table and sits opposite her, avoiding her glare. "Where the bloody hell is Tommy?" John asks. "He's on his way." Polly replies plainly, never taking her eyes off the view out of the window.

"Right, well since we're waiting patiently, why don't we have a drink?" Arthur says, standing from the table and grunting as he lifts a crate of whiskey from the floor. "This was left over from the explosion." He then explains, pouring the brown liquid into a glass for each of them, except Finn and Esme. Cass willingly accepts the glass and downs it in one, sighing at the familiar taste which seems to calm her.

Cass narrows her eyes towards John as she notices him share a look with his wife. She knows Esme doesn't like any of this, but she married into the family, so she has to deal with it. It's the way the Shelbys do things. That's that.

John clears his throat before placing his now empty glass on the table with slight force. He places his hands behind him, making Cass scoff silently at his attempt to seem powerful. "Right..." John starts, gaining everyone's attention, "Before Tommy gets here, I think we need to have a discussion." He then says. "You think?" Cass and Polly ask at the same time, matching each other's expressions of humour mixed with shock.

"Yeah. Yeah I do. I want to know when we all voted for this expansion south?" John says, waving his finger around the room. This prompts Polly to slowly walk further into the room, crossing her arms over her chest. "If you have anything to say, you wait for Thomas." She says sternly. "She's right." Arthur chimes in lowly. "Well, I see all the books. Legal and off track. All of the stuff you lot don't see." John argues, making his oldest sister scoff. "I see them too, John boy. What's your point?" Cass says with an expectant look.

"My point is, that in the past year we've been making £150 a day. Right? Every fucking day. Sometimes more. So I want to know why we're changing things. Everything's fine the way it is. Why does Tommy feel the need to expand? I mean, the cockneys have already blown up our fucking pub." John says, his tone getting more and more annoyed. "Who says it was the cockneys?" Arthur asks darkly, never taking his eyes off his brother. "Who else?" Esme says from the corner of the room, her face showing instant regret. "You know who did it do you? Please, enlighten us." Polly says, matching John's annoyed tone.

"Who else would it have been?" Esme argues, making Cass roll her eyes. She has no idea how the people in this room have been so short sighted over the last few months. To her, it was obvious. Clearly it wasn't for the rest of them. "Who was it then?" Cass retorts, making Arthur smirk. "She doesn't know who did it. None of us do." John interrupts. "Speak for yourself." Cass mumbles under her breath, thankful that no one heard her.

Just then, Tommy walks into the room. Cass notices the slight annoyance in his eyes. He's clearly heard most of that conversation. "I'm told only family can speak." Esme says, clearly making a bigger deal out of this that there needs to be. "Everyone can speak. We're a modern enterprise that respects equal right for women." Tommy says. "Yeah, cause Cass would have our balls if it wasn't." Arthur jokes, laughing when his sister does. "I speak for our household." John says, almost as if he's reminding his wife of her supposed place. "John, let her speak. Esme, go ahead." Tommy says, prompting Esme to stand with a slightly grateful look on her face.

"I'm not a blood member of this family, but maybe that mean I can see things more clearly." Esme starts, making Polly and Cass roll their eyes in unison. "I'll get to my point." Esme then says, noticing the two women's reactions. "As my husband said, this company is very successful. But London is nothing but smoke and trouble. I have kin in Shepard's Bush and Portobello who say that it's more like wars between armies down there. Even the bloody coppers are fighting alongside them. There are foreigners of every description, and the use of bombs is the least of it." She continues bluntly, leaving her words hanging in the air for a moment.

"I have a child which has been blessed with the Shelby family good looks. I want John to watch him grow up. We could get a house in the countryside and keep animals, chickens maybe. But going to London will cause nothing but trouble, Thomas." She adds, finishing as strongly as she can. "Thomas?" Polly asks in shock, sharing a quick glance with Cass. "That's all I have to say." Esme then says before sitting back down. Cass doesn't know whether to laugh or roll her eyes.

"That was a lot of words. Why don't you have a nice drink to wash them down with, ey?" Arthur says, glaring at Esme as he passes a glass of whiskey back towards Tommy. "Thank you for your input, Esme." Tommy says plainly, downing his drinks soon after. Cass watches as he carefully places his empty glass on the table and returns to his usual posture, squinting her eyes slightly as they make eye contact.

"Firstly, the bang in the pub had nothing to do with London. It's something I'm dealing with myself and if you haven't figured it out yet, you don't need to know. Secondly, we've nothing to fear from the proposed business expansion as long as we stick together. After all, it's what we do best." Tommy says, addressing the room. "Going over my projections, after a few weeks, 9 tenths of what we do in London will be legal." Cass interjects, waving her paperwork in the air to make a point. "That's right, and the other tenth is in good hands. Isn't that right, Arthur?" Tommy adds, patting his older brother on the shoulder. "Yeah, that's right." Arthur replies with a small smirk.

"Now, I know some of you in this room have expressed some reservations, so if you don't want to follow through with the expansion plan, you know where the door is." Tommy then says, pointing towards the doors of the betting shop. "You can go and raise your chickens." Cass remarks in an overly nice tone, smiling at her sister-in-law. There is a moment of silence as John and Esme think it over. "For those of you with ambition, the expansion process starts tomorrow." Tommy then says, finalising the conversation and meeting all in one.

Arthur and Cass wait for Tommy to leave the room before smirking at each other. They raise their glasses, which are now full again, before taking a sip and chuckling to each other. "Would you pair grow up?" John says, reminding them of when they used to pick on him as kids which only made them laugh even more. They both watch with humoured eyes as their brother drags his wife out of the room. They can't help but laugh even more.