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*/ Chapter Nine - My love has teeth
The Shelby house was always quiet at night, the silence only interrupted by the occasional creaks on the hardwood floors. The boys had returned from their — quite extravagant — bonfire just after ten o'clock, as Evelyn was settling into bed. After doors had been shut and candles had been blown out, the only sounds that accompanied the crickets out in the fields was the nightlife that was constantly busy in Small Heath.
She could hear it sometimes; the doors banging, men shouting in the distance. Sometimes, even, she'd hear screams from women — she could only assume that what happened was less than tasteful, but the only way that she could push it out of her mind was to completely ignore it, as guilty as she felt.
An itch in her throat had caused her to go against Polly's wishes of not putting pressure on her ankle. She found herself pushing herself into a standing position from the bed, discomfort from the sore twinge running up her leg. Making her way towards the door, she winced as it creaked open — the hinges needed to be oiled desperately, but it seemed that since this room was usually unoccupied, none of the family members had bothered.
With great difficulty, Evelyn navigated herself down the stairs with every intention of going to the kitchen in silence. However, she couldn't help the quiet whimper that left her lips as her bare feet flattened over the wooden floors, her ankle protesting. It seemed that it would only get worse before it got better, and the constant pressure from the bandages was doing nothing for the pain.
"Arthur?" to her surprise, it was Tommy's voice that called up from the living room — it seemed that she wasn't the only one awake in the dead of night. Though, it shouldn't have come as such a surprise from her; Tommy had trouble sleeping, she knew this. She just didn't expect him to be outside his room.
"It's just me," Evelyn responded. A silence followed. She took another step down the stairs, and her throat cleared uncomfortably as another shot of pain ran up her leg.
She overheard shuffling coming from downstairs, and a few moments later, Tommy appeared at the end of the stairs. He was dressed in his undershirt and his trousers from earlier, and Evelyn was suddenly all too aware of how she was dressed as well. Upon going through Evelyn's belongings, the first gift that Sutton had procured for her was a silk nightgown, claiming that the tatters Evelyn slept in was not appropriate for a woman that would be working under her. It was, coincidentally, the nightgown that she was wearing — not that she had planned to run into anyone, much less Tommy, in the dead of night.
