THE WILDEST OF THEM ALL - a Peaky Blinders fanfiction
IN WHICH all sorts of things happen, at home and outside, every day, but Darcy doesn't recall having ever thought that in the life she had there was particularly bad. Life was like that, that's a...
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"Do you like it?"
Winnie snapped her head back at her best friend, Darcy, who was smiling, but at the same her eyes looked painfully empty.
"It's beautiful." She said as she ran her fingers along a burgundy velvet, very detailed curtain. The house really was beautiful. The wedding presents were still piled up near the door, the rooms had a smell of plaster and fresh paint mixed with the vaguely alcoholic scent that emanated from the new furniture in the dining room, the table, the sideboard with a mirror framed by dark-wood foliage, the silver chest full of silver, the plates, glasses, and bottles of colored liquors.
"I did it by myself. I picked everything out besides the wedding presents." Darcy said proudly in a childlike voice and hurried over to the telephone. "Look, a telephone! My own. So we can talk even when we're not together."
They hadn't seen each other since the wedding. The last memory Winnie had of Darcy was her, standing in the middle of the Garrison amidst drunken friends, relatives, Italians, clutching her fists, tears streaming down her angry face. Then put in a car and driven off without saying goodbye. Winnie went home with a heavy heart that night. Everyone who noticed the betrayal, did.
And now she was standing before that same Darcy, who was in an elegant dress, nice shoes, tidy hair, not one bit of the old Darcy everyone knew. She went from a girl to a woman. With her own house she was so proud of showing.
"We don't have a telephone. Mum said it's the devil's work, and besides, we don't have the money."
"I'll buy you one. And not from my brothers' money, but mine."
Winnie knew Darcy didn't have her own money; it was her husband's. But she didn't say anything; she didn't want to wash that faint smile she had on so rarely.
"You can come and study here," Darcy said, with wide eyes, and Winnie felt that she didn't just think of this now.
"Wouldn't I be bothering you? Richard?"
"Of course not. You could get your own room, if you like." And she grabbed Winnie, to show her, "We have a lot of extra rooms, this is a big house."
Winnie smiled, softly, but didn't say yes. She had the feeling that Darcy was desperate. She wanted to feel her presence, but Winnie felt a strange discomfort in this new house, in this new Darcy.
"How's marriage, then?" Winnie asked, after they sat down at the table, in front of each other.
The smile disappeared from Darcy's face, if there was even one in the first place. She shrugged.
"Nothing worth mentioning."
Before Winnie could ask more questions, Darcy changed the subject.
"I saw Billy and Laurie the other day. We went to get beer."
