Bête noire → Peaky Blinders [Tommy Shelby] [ BOOK 1 ]

Eight.

Chapter eight: Mixed prescriptions

"So, you're telling me that your family kicked you out, you're officially broke, living in Watery Lane, right in front of the Peaky Blinders' headquarters, and you slept with one of them? Do stop me if I'm behind."

"I am not telling you anything, Gloria."

"Apart from the fact that now, you have jumped ship and joined another armada."

"English, please."

"Okay, let me enlighten you in a language you'll understand." Gloria hissed through clenched teeth. "You're one of them now! You're a bloody Blinder!"

Caroline continued scrubbing the grime from the table. "Everything's for a price, darling."

"And your admission fee was Brummie cock!" Gloria tugged the wet rag out of Caroline's hand. "I mean, seriously? John Shelby? That bastard is a womanising thug. Are your standards really that low? Come on, Care. You can do better than this."

She smirked to her friend with a devilish shimmer of amusement in her eyes. "I know. I can do him and do whoever I want, but I must admit, it was fun while he lasted."

"I'm not amused by your antics, Caroline Kimber." Gloria growled, her voice low to emphasise that if ears fell upon their conversation, news would quickly spread all over the town about a women in a man's business. "They're rippers, much like your father whom you needed to get away from. They're going to kill you!"

Caroline's lips were pulled into a thin line. "I know what they're like, believe me. I've gathered every facet of the truth; the crimes they've done and the people they've killed, yet, not one of them have tried to lay a finger on me, though their mother came close to it."

"Their mother is dead and their father is a deadbeat from what I've heard." Gloria's face contorted into confusion, and with the realisation, dread flooded her thoughts. "Oh my God, you did not pick a fight with Polly Gray!"

Caroline rolled her eyes and picked up the cloth, continuing to work to meet her next pay. "No. I simply kicked the dog that bit me."

"She's ruthless! She's more dangerous than the lot of them combined!"

"And yet, here I stand."

Gloria's voice boomed across the Garrison in a worried manner. "Yes! In their fucking pub!"

Caroline dropped the wet rag from her hand and the impact the cloth made against the floor echoed loudly in the sparse room. As there were only tables, chairs and alcohol in the area, the particles drafted through Gloria's brain with ease, and with the sudden rage that arose on Caroline's features, she knew that she stepped a line which hadn't needed to be crossed. She'd angered her best friend and the job of calming her down wasn't so easy.

"A cash prize is at stake here, and if you think for one second that I won't jump at the chance to support myself and my brother, you are wrong."

Gloria gulped as she embraced for a sudden impact on her cheek from Caroline which hadn't came yet. "I know, but sleeping your way through their family is not going to get you anywhere other than trouble."

"I am trouble!" Caroline exclaimed with wide arms that emphasised her point. "They have no idea who I am and neither do you, so if you ever insinuate that I'm a prostitute to try and get to the top of the pyramid of corruption, you'll be sorry."

***

Smoke particles danced in on the inbound breeze, layering the tongue with a woody fragrance, reminding Caroline of preserving salmon in fall. It wasn't yet thick enough to see or cast the sky in a duller hue of blue, but nonetheless it was there.