No escape from the past (book 1)

Chapter fifteen

'What the hell was that?' I ask while we drive away from the Lee family. 'I thought we were already at war with Billy Kimber, why the bloody hell would we look for war with the Lee Family as well?'

'It's all part of a plan, Mila,' Thomas reassures, but I'm not buying it. 'They disrespected our mother, so they get what they deserve.'

'By taking their eyes out?' I ask unimpressed. 'You sure know how to make things interesting around here.'

It stays silent, John and Arthur stay quiet, while we are hovering over a road, back to Birmingham. I shake my head and we continue the journey in silence.

We drive for an hour and slowly come closer to the city where we are going for the conference. Thomas stops by a big building and I can smell the scent of horses. It smells just like home.

We get out and Thomas looks at me and he points to his face. I look at him confused and Arthur leans towards me and whispers: 'You still got some blood on ur face.'

Thomas throws me one of his handkerchiefs and I quickly clean my face. I look towards Thomas and he gives me an approving look. I smile and we quickly go inside.

The building is nothing like I had in mind. The ceiling is high and filled with paintings of old Roman mythological creatures and Gods. Funny how the Romans and the Greeks worshiped the same Gods, just under a different name and different time. I see Poseidon, more Neptun in this time of period and smile.

I tap Arthur who's walking next to me and point to the ceiling. He sees me smiling and they stop walking. I just keep looking at the ceiling and admire the paintings on the wall.

'What you are seeing, eh?' Arthur asks and I point to the ceiling. 'It's a ceiling. I think you've seen multiple of those in your life.'

'Not what I meant, Arthur,' I respond, while shaking my head. 'Those paintings, in France, you can see them in almost every castle there is. Only there it's called Roman mythology and here, it's called Greek mythology, because England got early on influenced by the Greeks and not the Romans.'

'Which bloody book did you swallow?' John asks and I shake my head. 'You know a lot of this stuff. Smart girl you picked, eh, Tommy.'

'My father used to tell me a lot of stories about the Greeks and Romans, la connaissance de l'ancien, vous permet de savoir comment les gens sont maintenant. He used to say,' I say and the men look at me like I spoke some weird language. 'It means: knowledge of the old, let you get to know how people are now.'

'Smart old man, you had,' John says and slaps me on the back. 'Now, there are a lot of horses waiting to be bought, so let's see what we can get our hands on, eh.'

Thomas says nothing and stays quiet the whole time. I have learned that he is a quiet man, but something in that head of him is going to get him killed at some point.

We start to go further and I stop looking at the ceiling. I start to drown in my memories back in France. Back when everything was still okay, my mom and dad were happy together. Before the war, before everything started.

'You okay, Mila?' Thomas asks and I get out of my daydreaming. I nod and don't say anything. 'Come on, I think you'll love this.'

I simply nod and walk in a quick pace behind them. While my mind is back in France, listening to the voice of my dad in the big field we had around our house.

~1911~

'S'il te plaît, papa, dis-en plus, s'il te plaît, (Please, dad, tell more, please),' I beg my dad. We are sitting in the back field a few meters from our house. One of the horses that are outside, walks around here.