𝐋𝐚𝐮𝐠𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐈𝐧 𝐚 𝐃𝐞𝐚𝐝 𝐋𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐮𝐚𝐠𝐞 🍞PEAKY BLINDERS 🥖

Chapter Forty-Three

Thank you all for the patience! This season is really important for Kizzie so I'm taking my time in getting everything right.

CHAPTER FORTY-THREE

He was stressed. Kizzie always knew because his skin would change. Patches red with hazy white appeared on his face; along his hairline and neck.

But Alfie also blamed his age. He told Kizzie that the older you get, the less your body wants to keep you alive.

The rashes that formed in his beard enhanced the scar he had there. Got it from a street fight as a kid. Kizzie noticed it one day in the distillery. He had leaned over to get more paper from the drawer. Light hit just right and she saw the unmistakable scar tissue. Apparently it looked worse without the beard, but the hair often aggravated his skin when the rashes formed. Kizzie already decided she'd try and convince him to seek treatment for it.

She rehearsed her words for many days now. Prepared every scenario. She would make him understand the importance of his health. No matter what, he would always be the most handsome man she ever met, so this was not about looks. He deserved to be free from pain if it could be helped.

Washes of deep red enveloped around her form as she stood in the backyard, heels lifted off the ground from rocking.

"Kizzie girl!"

"Hello."

Her lower back cracked in Arthur's hold. She reached his chest now. But with her hair, she was as tall as his shoulders.

Arthur spun them around once before gently placing her onto the floor. "Happy birthday!"

"My birthday was yesterday."

"Aye! But today is your party. Warrants another 'happy birthday'."

"Okay."

"Happy day-after-your-birthday, Kezia." Linda slinked forward from behind Arthur's tall form. Her smile was as pure as her relationship to God. Kizzie thought no one could love God more than her aunt Polly, but then she met Linda.

"Thank you."

The woman was Kizzie's sister-in-law. What that really meant, Kizzie still wasn't so sure. Linda married Arthur last spring. It was a crisp morning and smelled like sugar and new grass. God blessed their union. Kizzie didn't ask how fresh grass and a spring morning meant God's approval. Linda's answer would have only confused her more.

"You look beautiful," Linda said. "Did you pick out that dress yourself?"

"It's blue," Kizzie said with a nod.

"Like Thomas."

Kizzie's tongue tied around her teeth. Acknowledging Linda meant revealing her stupid, unconscious need to still be clung to Tommy. A need, she came to understand once the baby was born, was childish and stupid and annoying. Only babies throw fits when separated from their parents. From their fathers. Tommy was not her father and Charles was an ever omnipresent reminder.

Intensity dusted up sometimes when Arthur visited his brother and sister. He did not need to be smart to see Kizze's feelings for Tommy change--warp into a hollowed out casing, like shell shocked soldiers just home from war. He should have spoken up when Tommy announced the pregnancy. Remind him of the destruction he was doing to Kizzie by not properly handling the situation. He was free to start a family, but he should have...should have been less selfish about it. He entangled Kizzie to himself for eighteen years, then cut the cord to send her flying out the window.

What a fucking mess.

The banging of a cane and gruff, muffled mumbling erupted from behind them, at the patio exit. Oscar closed the gap between Arthur and the family. Before the day was out, tension would combust Arrow House and send it straight to fucking hell.

"Kezia," Linda said, "could you show Arthur and I the chapel? I heard it's beautiful."

Arthur did not wait for an answer. His arms snuck around the two women and led them far away in the direction of the chapel. Ozzy remained a shadow behind them.

☻

The wedding was in April. Five months away, according to Arthur.

Kizzie passed by the chapel whenever she took Dangerous out for a walk. Sometimes she'd see Grace and the baby walking its grounds.

"How you getting on, Kizzie?" Arthur asked. Linda had gone ahead to sit. The smell of incense tickled Kizzie's nose. She didn't want to smell like God on her birthday.

"Fine."

"Listen, uhm," Her brother's strong face twitched. "I know you're out here, away from the city. But if you ever need to take a break, you never have to call us. We'd be more than happy to always have ya."

"Okay."

"Linda likes you a lot. But I told her to not bring up God too much around you."

It seemed easy to find God. Arthur didn't ever go to church. Then the next day, after meeting Linda, he wore a cross and went to service every Sunday.

"I found God, Kizzie," he had told her one dinner. There was a calmness to his colors.

Kizzie tilted her head. "Really? Where?"

Arthur tapped his chest, just over his heart. "In 'ere, apparently."

"God must be very small to fit in there."

"Aye, but always there."

You've been out with the horses," he suddenly told her.

Kizzie blinked away her thoughts of God. "It's quiet there. I get to see Dangerous."

"Right. That damn horse. Good name for that beast."

He wasn't dangerous. Not really. The horse had a temper. He only liked Dorothy, Tommy, and Kizzie. And not always in that order.

Technically he was Charles' horse and named after one of the baby's mumbling spouts. He said something that sounded a lot like 'dangerous' in Shelta. It inspired Tommy to name the horse Dangerous... It just so happened that the horse grew up to be a jerk.

"I thought you weren't allowed to curse anymore, Arthur."

Her brother frowned. "I'm doin' my best."

"Okay."

"Let's head back. Church smell still gives me a headache."