As the youngest Shelby child and twin to Finn Shelby, Kezia has spent the last 4 of her 10 years locked away for her mental defectiveness.
She returns to Small Heath under the legal guardianship of her brother, Thomas Shelby. Despite knowing she's s...
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CHAPTER THREE
South Heath was gray like the hospital.
The only difference was the air. In South Heath, Kezia couldn't walk without inhaling factory and tobacco smoke. Admittedly, she did not miss this. But being outside was far better than being stuck in a stagnant building for six years.
The Shelby home sat on Watery Lane; a two-story terrace building with a horseshoe nailed to the front door for luck. The ornament provided an excellent means for Kezia to find her home when outside.
Frozen in time. Not a single thing about the street or the house changed. Kezia did not understand why that bothered her. Selfishly, maybe, she wished her absence affected the world more than it seemingly had.
For the first year, Kezia's clothes smelled like home: cinnamon and incense. Then, after the nurses finally found the dirty socks she kept tucked in a mattress hole, home was no more.
As Tommy hung up his coat and cap, she wondered if he too liked how home smelled once he came back from war.
"Ready?" he asked, taking her hand.
Absolutely not.
Kezia despised being at the center of a room. Especially with her family.
Tommy guided her past the parlor and into the dining area.
The Shelbys were proud Gypsies and Irish Travelers. Kezia and her siblings shared both blood, split down the middle. Ever restless and ever desiring of a place to call home. Perhaps that's why Tommy and her brothers did what they did; the family had gotten too comfortable with modern living, but their ancestry demanded a wanderer's life. Kezia would be miserable out in the wild with nothing but a wagon to her name. There would be no bread.
Two women awaited her and Tommy in the dining area. One older, with pulled back brown hair. And one younger, hair the same color but cropped to her chin.
She spoke first, with tears in her eyes. "Oh, Kizzie! You're so big now!"
Ada, Kezia remembered. Her only other sister. How old would she be now? The maturity in her eyes also held a spark of recklessness. All around her, she glowed a baby pink.
"Hello," Kezia finally said to the floor.
The other woman eyed Tommy, who stood behind his youngest sibling like a shadow. He observed her every move, waiting to swoop in if needed. "Love. I am your Aunt Polly. We never had the chance to meet."
"Hello."
"Kizzie!"
A small boy with cropped blonde hair raced from the top of the stairs, skipping every other in his excitement.
"Finnie?"
Kezia didn't know who hugged who first, but she found herself on the floor with her twin. Older by three minutes, Finn was her fraternal twin. The only similarity between them was their hair. Before she was sent away, it shined a golden blonde the same way his did. But, without sunlight, her hair remained a dark blonde all year-round.
