Forbidden Alliances // Alfie Solomons Peaky Blinders

(141) Disobedience

*edited  04/15/23*

It's laughable at this point. I'm so tired of editing these chapters just for my progress not to be saved. So, AGAIN, despite my frustration, I hope you enjoy YET ANOTHER watered-down version of an update. I love y'all!

-V

Freya and Alfie reached a compromise where Alfie would attend the grand opening of the Grace Shelby Institute after the ceremony. He would mingle and be there for Freya as moral support whilst also giving Tommy the good publicity he wanted.

When she arrived, all her brothers were wearing odd caps that were obviously worn against their will. It was a front. They looked rich but not overly so. It was a smart tactic on Tommy's side, no doubt.

She knew what kind of opinion they drew in with their name and the change in heart needed a good front if people were to look at them differently. Wearing nice clothes and straying away from the razor-embedded flat caps was essential, but Freya couldn't help herself from laughing.

"By the angels!" she laughed, bending backward slightly as she approached Arthur and John who looked far too uncomfortable and formal in their attire.

"Oh, fuck off." Arthur waved her away, moving from John, Esme, Linda, and Tommy who had already gathered before the public opening. Linda went after Arthur who left to escape Freya's mockery; however, the woman seemed to have taken them too literally and raced after her husband as if to calm him down before he did something violent.

All his siblings knew the man well enough to know he was just taking the piss, but Linda didn't seem to understand that.

"You look like Mum dressed you this morning!" Freya teased, provoking John before Esme patted his chest and kept him from brawling with her before the ceremony.

Again, it was nothing serious, just a joke and a few shoves between them, but Esme worked hard over the iron and didn't want John's clothes to get muddy or wrinkled over a few mocking words.

"Yeah, well," John replied, sniffling and adverting his eyes. "Where's your better half, then? He's much nicer than you, you prick."

"Your boyfriend? He's coming after the ceremony," Freya informed him cheekily, watching how the disappointment flooded his eyes.

John was looking toward her like he was about to make a sly remark, but before he could, his eyes landed on something behind his sister. A smile suddenly spread across his lips and Freya furrowed her brows in question.

"You sure about that?" John asked rhetorically, causing Freya to turn and face the man approaching them.

Freya's skin went placid and her eyes turned to half-lids.

Alfie gleefully extended his arms as he approached the four of them, seeming to ignore the fact Freya was there at all.

"John-Boy!" he exclaimed, ignoring Freya's contemptuous stare and casually patting the man on the back as they met each other with an embrace.

Freya leered, disgusted with his display of emotion toward her younger brother amid his disobedience.

"Hello, Alfie," John chuckled, holding the shorter man by his arms and shaking him slightly out of excitement.

Freya grimaced, only partly meaning the expression, and glanced toward the crowd approaching them from the backside of the building.

Polly, Michael, Lizzie, Finn, Ada, and all of her nieces and nephews were making their way forward.

"'ello, Alfie," Tommy drew out darkly, not liking the new addition to the family but stifling it for the sake of Freya in the meantime.

"Tommy," Alfie said, tipping his hat and matching his disinterest equally as well. "Miss Esme." He smiled, taking her hand and kissing her knuckles like he did when he first met her.