midwife » michael gray. [completed]

CHAPTER ELEVEN.

→ CHAPTER ELEVEN; THE MIDWIFE AND THE GANGSTER.

Two completely different people with conflicting upbringings, joining together as one. A midwife and a gangster. It was hard to believe; even Hannah was having a hard time getting her head around it as she thought of what was ahead and how the night with Michael could go. They had just about spoken about it, just a swift exchange of address and a time and the conversation was heard by the whole of the Shelby family as they all looked at the new addition to the, already energetic, household.

Edward, the baby that Esme had given birth to, was a delight - a young baby full of life in the immoral world. However, in the days leading up to the date with Michael, when Hannah would go and visit Esme to do repetitive checks that every single midwife had to do, Esme could not concentrate in the slightest bit. Her attention span had become categorically diabolical and Esme continued to blame it on 'baby-brain'. Dinner with Michael got brought up at every opportunity and a wide grin would work its way onto Esme's face when she had succeeded in making Hannah blush like a young school girl who had just managed to secure herself a date with the boy that she had liked for many months. It was close to the way that Hannah was feeling; except, they weren't children. The two of them were grown adults and Hannah wanted the 'relationship' to be like adults, not full of playing hard to get like Hannah had previously done or ridiculousness that teenagers had. Michael was a valued man in his own way, just like Hannah was a respected woman to the mothers of Small Heath. The two of them had statuses to keep and acting like silly young lovers was not a good way to keep it intact.

The two of them would never admit it but their occupations were the love of their lives deep down. Hannah idolised the work that she did, and it was why she willing to not chase her feelings with Michael - of course, with his natural charisma, he dragged her in and Hannah fell straight into the cycle of not being able to forget about the young man. Michael was focused on becoming one of the best workers at Shelby Company Limited, much to his mother's disappointment. In the pecking order, Michael was moderately close to the bottom. He hadn't been working there that long and his mother kept him away from as much of the treacherous mess as she could, intimidating Tommy in the process. Michael was not willing to lose it all for a girl, no matter how fantastic she was. Money and power was what thrived Michael, but little did he know, that one day it would be Hannah that got him through the day, not the thoughts of accomplishment.

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A red dress, a cerulean dress, a white dress. Laid out on Hannah's bed was numerous dresses, all of them diverse styles, materials and colours. Hannah was stood in front of her bed, the top of her fingernail in her mouth as she apprehensively looked over the different evening dresses that she had fortunately brought over from London. They weren't the finest of dresses, or the most luxurious, but she wasn't expecting to go out on dates in Small Heath when she had first arrived in the area. Alexandra would have been the girl that Hannah went to when she needed style guidance, that being because Alexandra was unquestionably one of the most stylish girls in Birmingham. Asking Alexandra for advice on dresses would only lead to interrogations, which would then mean that the truth would be uncovered, and Hannah would once again be on the receiving end of an outburst that wasn't looked-for.

The old-fashioned clock on the wall displayed that it was looming seven at night, meaning that Michael would soon be over with plans to whisk Hannah away for the night. It was an eventful day in Small Heath, thankfully, and all the midwives - bar Alexandra (who was the most problematic to lie too) - were out with mothers-to-be or down at the hospital which was still in desperate need of staff.

Sister Maria and Sister Margaret were out meeting with different priests that worked in and around the Small Heath area. The religious foundation that everyone lived in was in desperate need of cash and fundraising was the top choice. All of this meant that Hannah was alone in the nunnery, making it enormously easy for her to sneak out without being caught and quizzed, and fortunately, Alexandra was off out doing something not particularly useful but enjoyable for herself – at least that's what Hannah thought.