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 SIX
Kizzie didn't fully understand the word "business".
She knew Tommy's business involved horses and money. It was conducted in the home at all hours of the day. So she did not understand when he told her he always had business outside the home.
"With other men who bet on horses," Aunt Polly explained, once they were back in Small Heath.
"Oh." She wanted to go to the fair with her brothers when she found out that's where they were. Jealousy raked her body knowing Finnie went and she couldn't.
"But it's for the best I came with you today to the bakery, Kizzie. Tommy would not have been kind. God watched over us today."
They dropped off the bread and were out the house again. To church. To "thank God for today".
Aunt Polly's church wasn't far from home. Kizzie noticed two others along the way, and she wondered why this one was the one she picked. Kizzie had only gone to church a handful of times. Father never took the family and Mother was not physically well enough to leave the house most days. When Mother died, Kizzie attended the funeral and church service. Most of the day was lost to her. But she remembered the washes of gold and browns. Candles and choir music. No one explained to her what it meant to be dead. Only that Mother would not be coming back home.
Kizzie sat with Aunt Polly in one of the pews. The seat was uncomfortable and barely fit her backside. Unsure of what to do, she fiddled with the ends of her skirt.
"Do you believe in God, Kizzie?"
Kizzie blinked away the incense and smoke from her eyes. "What about him are we supposed to be believing?"
Rarely was Polly lost for words. But Kizzie had now succeeded multiple times since arriving yesterday.
She stood. "Come. I will show you." They approached the candles against the gate separating the main altar. She began lighting the remaining candles. "Tommy lost his faith while in France. But there is always time to refind God. He forgives if you are willing to put in the work."
"What did I do wrong to God?"
The front door behind them opened. An older man in a black bowler hat and sandy wool coat made way towards them. In his mouth he smoked a pipe.
"Go sit, Kizzie." She did as Aunt Polly said without effort. "A gentleman would remove his hat. Put out his pipe." Her color changed the moment she spoke to the man. Harsh, cold. Green like giant pine trees in a barren winter.
He tapped his pipe against a pew. Something felt...off about him. She could not always see colors. But with him, shades of every kind encircled him. Chaotic—that was it. Kizzie sat back as he continued his approach.
Aunt Polly continued lighting candles. "I see you Specials only dare come here when the boys are away at the fair.
"You mean your nephews? With their guns and razors?" His accent was funny. Some people at the hospital sounded like him. Said they came from Ireland. An island like England but further away. "And this must be Miss Kezia Shelby. One of your nieces."
