Nothing Will Change

Chapter 44

The office room in Ada's house was still being unpacked, but it still worked to bring clients over. Rose wasn't sure if she'd ever stop calling it Ada's house, because if anyone deserved to call it theirs it was her. A door stump was placed inside after Karl kept crawling in to say hello to Rose whilst she was working. As much as she loved the little boy's adamancy to watch her doing absolutely anything whilst his mother was at work, there were moments she needed quiet, like doing fittings with clients.

She had left him with James, another new roommate they had acquired. James was quiet and polite and reminded Rose of Luke in many ways. He wrote in journals he made by hand and had no care to walk around just in his pajamas, which wasn't really a problem as Rose and Ada did the same. When Rose would beg him to let her read his writings, he'd blush and only show certain pages, as most were reserved for men he found attractive. Slyly, Rose would pester him about it, because she still was a romantic after all, but he would shut the book and head the other direction if she even thought to speak about it above a whisper. She understood why.

He was great with kids, especially Karl, and Rose was never so pleased to see a young boy with so many impressive role models in his life, but she didn't want to be boastful. Secretly she did. She could hear their footsteps below as she pinned the dress on Mrs Henry for a better fitting, hiding a smile in a fight to stay professional. Mrs Henry insisted on the dress to be pink, which made it stand out in an awful way Rose had to pretend to endure for the sake she was being payed well for it. Up selling to those with money was easier than she was expecting, something she'd deny doing at all. But Mrs Henry wasn't spending her own money, it was her husband's, so suppose that made it fine to spend.

"You must make a catalogue," Mrs Henry waved her hands animatedly, "I've talked my head off to my friends and they all want to see your designs."

"That's very kind of you," Rose smiled, although she was the one who suggested that she spread the word about her work. Before she was very modest in Birmingham about her designs, mostly because she was not earning nearly enough money. But posh ladies preferred her touch as a fellow young woman, and so could be as loose lipped as Rose needed to spread the word of her designs.

Mrs Henry gazed at herself in the mirror, "oh don't be humble... Your name will on the tongues of every man and woman in London before you know it."

Because of her or a certain Blinder, as her name was branding both sides. Quickly she was being known to men for her association to Tommy Shelby and to women for her designs. Rose stood to the side when she was finished pinning the dress, mentally eyeing the areas she needed to fix so the dress was perfect. She wasn't sure if she wanted to be on everyone's tongues. So many eyes on her never felt well in Birmingham, so to have the entirety of London to know her was daunting. But, she'd remind herself that if she wanted to be successful that was something she would have to get used to, and just hope she could force her way to be remembered for her designs and not for association.

"What is he like?"

"What is who like?" Rose's eyes shot to her confused and Mrs Henry grinned devilishly.

"Thomas Shelby."

"Oh... Um-"

She did a little spin admiring the dress, "is it true he has eyes the colour of the sky that make you want to fly in 'em?"

There was a strange urge to laugh, as she was suddenly back in her room in Mr Brown's shop as an old lady discouraged her closeness to him. She'd blink as she set her pins down on her desk, looking out the window a moment to collect herself. The view of the buildings across the street was cut by a grey sky. Rose was so used to a grey sky, she could never associate it with Tommy eyes. They was more similar to her now to a beach somewhere warm, where the water is clear and the sand is thin. She'd swim in his eyes not fly in them, because if she flew is she not just a bird then? Being a bird would make her feel weak. If she was swimming then she'd still be herself, and still have control.