IN BAD FAITH | peaky blinders | T.S

NINETEEN

CHAPTER NINETEEN

The air around Polly moved to suit her. Martha wondered if every Shelby carried themselves this way.

They walked side-by-side, the sun shining bleakly over the three of them as Finn skipped between their legs. Polly walked as though she knew everyone, barely glancing at the faces which stared at her. Martha, on the other hand, couldn't help but drink them all in, until it made her breath swell in her chest with panic.

"Word travels fast round here," Polly muttered, ushering them through the door of a narrow little bookshop and away from the swarm of people.

"They know about my sister?"

"They know that a girl was pulled from the water and that Tommy was there. And where there's Tommy, there's gossip."

Martha didn't say anything more, the thought of Tommy stirring her stomach that already felt too full from the breakfast Polly had forced her to eat. She wondered where he was, what he was doing, why he had left so abruptly without saying goodbye.

And yet what made her think she had a right to one? Martha shut her eyes, hating herself for assuming that Tommy felt anything for her at all. She wasn't even thinking about it in a romantic sense, but in the time spent stood side-by-side at the canal, or in his arms as she cried, or lying in the crook of his elbow, he must have cared for her in some form, because she felt something for him, too, though she couldn't figure out what.

She didn't want to address the flutter in her stomach or the knocking in her lungs every time he said her name, could not admit that she wanted to be near him at all. He was a murderer and a criminal and she shouldn't have wanted him in any way, and god, she was only here because of her poor sister, but the soft pull of his fingers was enough to send her crazy. They promised her that everything would be okay, and the way he looked at her — those eyes, light and dark at the same time, heaven and hell, adamant in the assurance that she would survive.

Polly watched Martha as she stood in a trance, the cogs of her brain turning wildly. She could see it all over the girls face — confusion, as Tommy always brought people. He was deep and complex and far too complicated for anybody to truly understand, even the people closest to him; the people he allowed to see past his cold demeanour. A girl like Martha wouldn't stand a chance, Polly thought, sizing up her wide eyes and jittery hands, and yet, there was something more to the way Tommy spoke of her. In fact, he did not say much at all, which was the reason for Polly' suspicion, the reason why she had told Tommy that this girl was not just something to be conquered. Polly wanted to warn the girl that her nephew was an unsolvable puzzle, an unbeatable race, but in Martha's current state of grief, she didn't quite know how. Tommy had told her to take Martha out — distract her for a while — which meant that he planned on keeping her around. Polly just couldn't understand why.

"I have to admit, Martha, I don't particularly know my way around a bookstore." Polly spoke, startling her. "Where is the best place for our Finn to start?"

Finn stood beside his aunt, eyes wide as they both stared at Martha expectantly. She was lovely and warm and really very pretty, he thought to himself, but looked a little sad, just like everyone else in this city. Still, she was not as hard as the women on the street, and he felt like reaching out and grabbing her hand.

"We'll start with something easy, like The Magic World," Martha spoke, smiling slightly. "It's lots of little stories put together, stories about little boys just like you, Finn. Now we just have to find it."

Polly strayed from bookshelf to bookshelf at the front of the store, more interested by the shopkeeper who moved from behind the desk to join her in conversation. As they spoke, Martha walked further and further toward the back of the store with Finn by her side, running his finger along the spines of the books until dust danced in the air behind them.