In Small Heath | Peaky Blinders

six; live a lie

Theodora had quickly become aware of Bash's attraction to anyone (and anything, at this rate) but her, but she didn't care. She found the man rather repulsive and slobbish. Had she have known this before marrying, she wouldn't have turned up to the town, let alone the church!

Her first week in Small Heath had been hellish. Ada, the only girl of the Shelby bunch was — well, a little devil, always messing with Theodora's things, placing them in different rooms, making the poor new girl think she was losing her mind.

Martha, the one who married John (poor soul), well, she was palatable, for the most part.

Unlike Ada, she was softer spoken but still undereducated in comparison to the Longleys. Of course, Dora wouldn't have ever said that to their faces - that would've gone against everything she had ever learnt in eloquence lessons.

"Oh 'eds up, posh tots on her way." A voice, seemingly belonging to Arthur whispered - albeit loudly.

Dora's eyes looked for her husband to say something, but once again he was nowhere to be seen. She could've sworn he spent more time with the horses than he did in his own house. In his own bed, even.

"If my husband was here, he wouldn't stand for that-"

As if on cue, the door opened slightly revealing a very chilly bash who was trying his hardest to sneak back into the house unnoticed. His entrance would've been easier to conceal if he had decided to climb through the window instead.

"Mornin'." His gruff voice called out once he noticed his inability to hide into the shadows.

Theodora did have to admit, though painfully, that the man she had married had great manners and was quite the gentleman - even if a caveman.

It wouldn't have surprised her if he had been at one of the debutant balls she had gone to as a young teen.

A moment or two passed in silence before the door swung open, this time recoiling off of the wall it had hit behind it. Finn hadn't quite grasped how door handles worked to carefully open doors, so he resorted to using brute force, or as much brute force as an almost six year old could use.

"Shoes off at the door, Finn." Bash called out, grabbing the child by the scruff of the coat neck, pulling him (gently) back to where Bash could help him take the shoes off.

He would've been a perfect father, Theodora thought silently, watching as the elder brother doted on the younger.

Bash's eyes glanced up towards his wife's face before falling back down to the ground, he still felt awkward around her and barely knew her. She made no effort to connect with him, and he tried - he did, but his efforts always fell on deaf ears.

Almost a month of trying and he gained nothing from it, bar a tired mouth from the one sided conversation.

"How's the horse?" Dora asked, causing Bash to almost flinch in surprise.

That had been the first time she had asked him a question about anything, it was more so surprising that she had done it with a room full of witnesses.

"Ole Faithful is old, but she's a Shelby's horse." He responded politely, his back now having turned so she faced it whilst he hung up coats and hid away the muddied shoes. 

If anything was to happen to that horse, a whole family would be devastated, losing her would destroy Finns morale and crush Bash's spirit. He had done so much for that horse in all of her lifetime, from training her to jump higher and higher to helping her deliver her offspring... even if helping did include just holding the bucket of his own vomit.