Loving Gwen Baker (Thomas Shelby/Peaky Blinders)

Chapter Four

Saturday.

Grace Burgess.

That was the name of the beautiful blonde who Harry had hired on Friday. In Gwen's opinion, the Irish woman was lovely. The two women got along well together, the only thing that bothered Gwen about her, was the fact that she was talkative.

Gwen had nothing against that, but it was the way that Grace spoke. Almost as though she were fishing for information. The conversations always led towards the Peaky Blinders.

However, Gwen knew that the woman had only been in Small Heath for a couple of days - anyone new here would be curious about the dangerous gang.

In any case, after Grace had wrongly assumed that St Andrews was the church and not the football grounds, Gwen had taken a liking to the seemingly innocent woman.

There was something endearing about the blonde, and Gwen found herself opening up to the thought of having a friendship with her Saturday co-worker.

"Have you lived here for long?"

"All my life." Gwen replied with a small smile, "I was the bakers daughter."

"Was?" Grace asked.

"My father died in France at the start of the war." She explained, "My mother... she's gone too."

"I'm sorry to hear that." Grace replied, "That must be very difficult."

The strawberry blonde nodded, "It was. Honestly, I've only just started to get back on my feet. I had to close the bakery, and sell my house; I just couldn't afford to live." Why was it so easy to open up to the stranger? The want of her friendship, most likely. "Anyway, Polly helped out a lot." She said, "I wouldn't accept it at first, but now I've come to realise that I need help."

"Polly?"

"Polly Grey." Gwen said.

"Is she a relative?"

Gwen shook her head, "No, she's part of the Shelby family. Their aunt."

"The Shelby's...they're the leaders of the Peaky Blinders, right?"

"Yeah."

"Do you know them well?"

"I grew up with them." She explained, "Tommy mostly. We were in the same class at school and our mums were friends."

"Are you still close?"

"I wouldn't say we were that close to start with. We were more than acquaintances, but not quite friends." She explained, "Now, Tommy is my landlord. And I work for him on Fridays."

"Oh? I didn't know you were a Blinder."

"I'm not." Gwen replied, quickly. "I don't do anything like that, I mean, I don't even work in their offices."

Grace frowned, "What do you mean?"

"I-" She was interrupted by the sound of the hatch flying open behind her. Grace stalked forwards, and Gwen turned to see Tommy eyeing the new blonde up and down.

"Bottle of rum." He grunted.

"Dark or white?" Grace asked.

"Don't care." He sighed.

Gwen knew exactly what Tommy liked to drink, so she reached over to select the bottle before bringing it over to the hatch.

"Are you a whore?" Tommy asked, his eyes on Grace.

"Tommy!" Gwen exclaimed in shock, but she was ignored.

"No, I'm not."

"Then you're in the wrong place." He picked up the bottle, before closing the hatch behind him.