alfie solomons loved ailsa shelby like a rotten dog. like his canines were falling out of his gums. like a monster. like a beast. like something not worth loving back.
peaky blinders / alfie solomons
season three ― season five
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CHAPTER TWO: ALL THINGS END
■ ■ ■ ■ ■
1921
IT WAS LATE ON a Sunday night and the sky was open to the Heavens outside. Wind howled and shook the window panes of the shop. Rain battered against the roof like gunshots. Ailsa stood behind the counter, writing down numbers in a well-used notebook. She was tired. Her eyes were heavy with a longing for sleep. She had discarded the ribbon that usually tied her hair back about an hour ago. The red silk pooled like a drop of blood beside her candle, allowing her dark curls to hang loose around her face.
Finishing up with her figures, she let out a relieved sigh. Finally, she thought to herself as she reached for the leather satchel holding her earnings for the day. She could be done for the night. Ailsa always hated when the numbers didn't add up. She was good with her Mathematics, far better than John, but she was no genius. It hurt her brain to think so much, so late, when a glass of gin and a good book were calling her name before bed.
Above her, the roof creaked under the obvious weight of footsteps. The London apartment she shared with Faith was situated above Faith's Flower Emporium, the florist she had opened when she first moved to London when Faith was eight. Now, four years later, the shop was thriving -- for a florist run by a woman, that is. Ailsa made enough to keep her head above water and to keep Tommy out of her business. She wasn't oblivious enough to miss the money he sent to her each month, but Ailsa was fortunate enough to never need to touch it. One day, when Faith was older, she'd pass it on to her. It was her daughter's name on the door -- suggested by Tommy for obvious reasons -- and, if Ailsa was being truthful, Faith was the reason she got up each day. She owed everything to her.
That certainly didn't mean she could get away with whatever she liked. Being awake at midnight was testing a mother's patience even for Ailsa. "That girl," she grumbled to herself as she locked her money pouch in the safe (again, as suggested by Tommy.) Then, when she heard the footsteps once more, this time heading for the stairs that lead down from the apartment to the back room, she exclaimed, "Faith, you better have a bloody good reason for being out of bed!"
"Ma, there's a man outside!"
Ailsa's blood ran cold. She didn't think as she reached for her gun. Just in case, she kept the pistol with the safety on in the bottom drawer behind the counter. A woman had every right to protect herself in a man's world, whether the men liked it or not. She hoped she'd never have to use it, until now.
"Faith, I mean it," Ailsa snapped, ushering Faith back to the stairs when she caught the flash of her daughter's red hair peeking around the corner. "Go to bed."
