Devoted (John Shelby)

Part 13

"Why did we have to bring the kids to the wedding?" John asked, holding their new baby girl, Lillian, in his arms.

"Because your brother wanted them here, plus, Charlie needed other kids to be around" Cynthia said, holding Benny in her arms, the other kids spread around them.

They then spotted Jeremiah walk in and several moments later they heard the wedding trumpets playing. "Here come the fucking cavalry. Late as usual" John muttered, Cynthia gave him a look, as did other people on Grace's side of the aisle. John gave them a forced smile. Grace and her uncle walked in, her uncle not looking too happy.

Jeremiah then started the beautiful ceremony, it went mostly smoothly apart from Lillian crying and Helen needing to use the restroom.

After the wedding they were invited to go to Thomas' house to have a sit down dinner with Grace's family but first have a small party.

Cynthia left Benny and Lillian in the care of Charlie's nanny who Thomas told to look after them. Cynthia went to the party and was dancing with John before he excused hisself so he could smoke, he stood leaning against the wall, watching her dance with one of her cousins when Arthur made John go with him somewhere.

Cynthia excused herself as well and went to find the bride to offer her congratulations, she found her surrounded by her family, Cynthia went to turn back to the party but Grace called her name, Cynthia walked over with a smile on her face, "hi, Grace, I'm so happy for you and Thomas" she said, kissing her cheeks.

"Thank you" she smiled, "where's John?" She questioned.

"Arthur took him away saying that Tommy needed to talk to them" she said quietly so her family couldn't hear her.

"Oh, well. Could I introduce you to my uncle?"

~:~:~:~:~:~:~

"I'm so glad you came back when you did, don't get me wrong, I love Grace but her family, not so much. Their conversations were so boring" Cynthia told John quietly once they were sat down at the long dining table.

"I wouldn't wish for you to be stuck talking to those lot." John told his wife, kissing her lips shortly.

"Thanks, that means a lot" she giggled.

As they waited with their starters and their drinks, John started telling jokes, "hey, Vincent, Vincent, Vincent!" He said, talking across the table, "what do you call an animal with a prick halfway up it's back?" He paused for a moment, "a cavalry horse" he laughed. Cynthia shot him a dirty look, hoping he'd shut up so he doesn't cause any trouble. "He got... He gets it"

"John, love. Stop with the jokes" she whispered in his ear.

"You think they're funny, don't you?" He asked back.

"Very funny, but stop, please" she lied about the first half, she didn't have a grudge against them and she didn't like the idea of making fun of people, especially if they're family, blood related or not.

Thankfully, minutes after Arthur went to find the bride and groom, they appeared alongside everyone else who had left the table previously. Tommy and Grace apologised and Tommy made a toast "To the bride" he said when everyone was standing up.

"To the bride" everyone chanted back, taking a swig of their drinks and then sitting back down.

Tommy invited Arthur to do his speech which John was excited to hear since he cheered him on and banged on the table, earning disgusted looks from everyone on Grace's side of the table.

"I'm not one for speeches" Arthur began.

"Sing then!" John shouted, Cynthia gently whacked John's arm to shut up but she did have an amused smile on her face. 

"I will later, John" Arthur said with a smile, "but, uh, I do, uh... I do have some words written down here on this piece of paper. This doesn't include everything that I want to say."

Arthur started rambling and Tommy, since it was starting to get awkward, raised another toast "to love, to peace and to marriage" he
said, cutting Arthur off.

"Well done, Arthur. Beautiful speech. Really nice" John laughed.

"Stop being so rude" Cynthia told him, "he was trying his best"

Both Arthur and Linda got up and left, "where the fuck is he going?" John asked and then saw Tommy get up too.

Dinner was soon over and once again Arthur whisked away John, John apologised but Cynthia brushed it off, saying that she had to put the children to bed since they were staying the night. She spent her time trying to find the four eldest children who seemed like they were playing hide 'n seek, but she eventually found them all and put them all to bed.

John found his wife with his children, telling them a bedtime story. He sat next to her on Helen's bed, looking towards his children who were listening intently to the story, Benny and Lillian, however, were already asleep since the nanny had put them to bed earlier.

John added bits to the story to make it longer since the kids would not fall asleep. Eventually they did and then Cynthia and John went back to the dance floor, they danced for a while before Cynthia said she was feeling tired and kissed John.

"I'm heading off to bed, love you" she said, kissing him again.

"Love you, too" he said against her lips.

Eventually they parted and Cynthia went to the room opposite to her children's room where her and John were meant to be staying. She changed into her nightclothes and went to bed. She remembered waking up in the early hours of the morning when John went to bed but fell asleep quite quickly afterwards.

The next morning, John got someone to drive Cynthia and the children back to their house since their vehicle wouldn't have enough to room to fit everyone inside, so John went back on his own, partially because he had to get back to their gambling den with Tommy, Polly and Arthur.

A/N I might start adding questions to the end of the chapters since I love talking to you all 💕

Who is your favourite character in this book? (Could be a character I created or someone actually in Peaky Blinders)