Peaky Blinders. One shot and imagines

Painted lady - Part 6 - Alfie x Reader

"I didn't think that you'd come................." (Y/n) said, as gestured for Alfie to sit down. The painted lady going over to a small chest, opening it, and pulling out a bottle of scotch and two glasses.

"Would you have been disappointed if I hadn't........?" The Londoner enquired, as he gratefully took the tumbler that had been half filled with liquor.

"Well, I don't wish to boost that already inflated ego of yours, but.......yes, I would have been." (Y/n) replied, chinking her glass against Alfie's before pulling up another chair and sitting across from him. The air falling silent for a moment, as Alfie just looked at her.

"So..............what do you think of my little act? I presume you caught it. I'm afraid I can see very little of the audience with all the lights pointed at me. It's not much, I know. I don't have to do anything but stand there and look pretty; but it pays the bills and has given me a roof over my head and food in my belly for nearly twenty years. I suppose that you can now see why I fit in so well here. The Painted Lady..........Cassiopeia. Not exactly what I would have chosen for myself; but Sheamus..........well, he thought it was a good idea. That it sounded far more exotic than (Y/n). I can cope with the Painted Lady part, I think that it's rather fitting; but Cassiopeia...........I never really saw myself as vain..............." (Y/n) finally said, before she took a gulp of the honey brown liquor. A part of her having this awful feeling that the big handsome man had only come by, to tell her that he wasn't interested. That without all the clothes that she wore to cover her body, he didn't find her attractive. That he now saw her as the oddity that she was. That he saw her as others saw the people that she called her family...........as a freak. Not that he would be the first person to call her that. By now, she had pretty thick skin. She was used to the comments, the cutting remarks; she was used to defending those that she lived with, travelled with. But for whatever reason, the notion that this big Jewish gangster that she had only just met, might not like her, hurt...............

"Was all that stuff true.............?"

"What, true............?"

"What tha Irishman said about ya tattoos. That ya got them from tha Shaolin monks in their monastery at the foothills of the Himalayas. From tha ancient inscriptions of the mysterious gurus of India. That they are tha art of tha Siamese, tha peoples of tha Pacific Islands, and tha natives of tha Americas?" Alfie countered, as he finished his drink. Still unable to remove his eyes from the flesh that he could see appear from under the silken robe that she wore.

"Of course not. But, as with the name, its all about the show. You have to sell it, make the punters believe that you are something otherworldly; something that they will never see again in their lives. It helps you get bums in seats. The truth is far more boring, far more mundane; I got most of them from the men that would tattoo the sailors near the ports. Got others from the immigrants that came to London to escape whatever poverty, starvation, or persecution that they were facing in their own lands. I started young, got my first one from an old Chinese man that owned this little shop not far from the London docks. Sold all manner of strange things, to even stranger people. And after that, and once I met Sheamus, I got another, then another, and another, until the Painted Lady was born, and the only skin that wasn't touched, was my face, neck, the palms of my hands and the bottoms of my feet." (Y/n) explained, as she finished her own drink.

"And what about tha parts that we couldn't see............?" Alfie enquired, as he sat forward, and carefully took hold of the part of the dressing gown that covered her chest. The baker slowly moving it, so that he could view more of forbidden flesh beneath.

"As Sheamus said, they show the mysteries of the universe; mysteries that I keep hidden............"

"And what would I have ta do ta view these mysteries..........." The Londoner continued, his voice deeper, huskier than usual, as he leaned in a little closer.

"Dinner, drinks, a little dancing maybe. And after that, who knows...........so, you wouldn't mind being seen with me? Not embarrassed to be out with me now that you've seen what I am..............?"

"I've seen a lot of things in my life, good and bad; mostly bad............But I've never seen anythin as beautiful as you. And no man in his right mind would be embarrassed ta be seen out with ya." Alfie told her, as he got to his feet, pulling her up with him and into his arms.

"Now, as much as I would very much like ya ta continue wearin nothin but that nightgown; I want ya ta go and put somethin pretty on. I have just tha perfect place ta take ya." The big man continued, as he ran his rough finger over the soft skin of her cheek. A smile coming to his lips, as she quickly pulled herself away from his arms and disappeared into the back of the tent. Leaving Alfie to wonder just what other mysteries the ever more intriguing Painted Lady might have hidden.