Living With Mr Shelby

Chapter Six

I yawned lazily as Tommy stumbled through the front door drunker than usual. Setting my book down as he grinned at me, chucking his hat on the coffee table with a loud thud and started to pour himself another drink from the whisky bottle on the side table.

"You know you're already drunk right, you don't need to drink any more than this." I said waving my hand at him. He looked me over before downing his drink and stumbling to bed. It had been a week since I moved into the new flat with Tommy. Apart from the fact that I had to deal with men trooping in and out of the place all the time it was actually quite nice.

There were two bedrooms one was huge and had large windows that overlooked the houses and the small alley behind the flat. This was mine. I had a large wooden four poster bed, a large fireplace and a comfy overstuffed chair sitting next to it. Tucked away in the corner was a small wardrobe and a vanity desk which had a large mirror on it. The mirror would wobble anytime you walked across the room too quickly, but you didn't mind. The second room wasn't much bigger than Tommy's tiny room at the place now known as the Shelby boy's castle or at least that's what Arthur and Finn call it when Poll's at her country house with Michael. He had a simple single bed and chest of draws with a small mirror balanced on the top. I had expected him to take the bigger room but he hadn't even asked.

Poll and Ada explained that Tommy felt more comfortable in smaller spaces so he could fight with his back to the wall. I realized what they meant a few days later when he fell asleep sober and woke up screaming about guns. Once he'd snapped out of it he hugged onto me trying to apologize for hitting me in the face in his blind panic as he'd flailed his arms as he woke. I didn't blame him. I'd seen the men that came back from the war thinking they were whizz-bangs or even thinking other people were attacking them and I was lucky Tommy managed to zone back in and realize where he was.

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"TOMMY... TOMMY..." I shot up in bed and grabbed my dressing gown and ran out of the room while I tied it up. Danny had busted the front door off its hinges trying to stop himself from falling into a hysteria.

"Danny it's ok." I said holding up my hands so he could see that I wasn't holding a weapon. He seemed to notice me for a moment and I thought he'd started to calm down but the next thing I knew he was flipping the kitchen table shattering jam jars and bottles of whiskey. I slid past Danny feeling more worried for the poor man's health than the furniture that could be replaced. As quickly as I could a snuck into Tommy's room. How he had managed to sleep, sprawled over his small bed with all the noise going on was a wonder to me.

"Tommy!." I hissed, shaking the sleeping Blinder awake. He snorted a little as he sat up. It took him a moment to realise what was going on but was soon wide awake when he heard Danny's cries, he bolted from the room and pinned the bulking man up the wall muttering comforts and soon Danny calmed down.

"Oh god Tommy not again, I'm so sorry." He sobbed into Tommy's shoulder; the Blinder held his friend and I had to admire Tommy. His close friends and family were given unconditional love, I'd seen Tommy drop down onto the dirt to help Danny. Men of less importance would just cross the road and ignore Danny, embarrassed for him or of him. He treated Curly just like he treated all his other companions or friends which to most doesn't sound like much but other people talked down to him or just ignored what he had to say just because he's a little different from everyone else.

I retrieved a slice of cake I had baked with the assistance of Poll and handed it to Danny sitting him down on the sofa in the small living room; he gave me a weak smile and accepted the snack.

"What happened Danny?" I asked gently, the man shook his head and finished the slice of cake and handed me the plate. Tommy took my seat and when I went to sit with them, he indicated for me to leave so he could talk to Danny alone. I decided to find a dress I liked and get ready for the day. There wasn't a chance of lying in now. I chose a dark blue ankle length high-waist skirt with pockets on the front and a creamy white silk top with double breasted buttons and a small V-neck and a wide collar that covered my shoulders with a dark blue, red and yellow lace pattern on the part that covered my shoulders. It had taken days to make it by hand. Ada had helped in protest. Though you weren't sure what she was protesting as it changed each time Tommy pointed out that he could just have a seamstress make it for you. She had chosen the liberation of women and their independence on the day it was finished. Polly had agreed it was a fine outfit and a good reason to protest.

Tommy knocked on my door a few minutes later. After a moment I opened the door letting him in while I made my bed. Tommy sank into my chair and started tossing pieces of wood into my fireplace from the wood tin next to the chair.

"Mr Shelby as much as I enjoy your company especially when you're in a bad mood. I have to point out that you asked me to look after the house while you work, it was part of the deal we made. So I have a lot of things to deal with. Instead of doing the thing where you hang around all day till I get Poll to make you tell us what's wrong will you just tell me now." I felt a little guilty as I saw Tommy's face. I hadn't meant to snap at him. He sighed and struck a match using the newspaper I had balled up and dumped into the wood tin to light the fire he had built.

"Rosie's takin Danny's boys up to London to live with her sister." Tommy felt like it was his fault that Danny had been affected so badly by the war which was a silly thought to you. But Tommy had been the leader of his group and no matter how much we tried to convince him he wasn't responsible he still carried their problems as if they were his own.

"Are you going to talk to her?" I called into my bedroom as I fetched him a glass and one of the few whisky bottles that weren't broken. He smiled slightly as he accepted the glass and let me poor the brown liquid into for him

"I'm not sure, Poll might be better at it." He was staring into my fire slowly sipping at his drink deep in thought so I left him there and started to clean the kitchen.