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

Fourteen.

Chapter fourteen: Deadbeat

"Open up, love. We've brought more things for you and the baby."

Caroline glanced down to the other basket of food they brought yesterday. The produce was rotting away and gave off a rancid smell that she turned her nose up at. Ada hadn't touched it nor would she touch this one, and it irritated her slightly to know that this baby was being used as a weapon during her hunger strike.

She took a turn to knock on the door. "We've got some fresh eggs and bread. We'll leave it here."

"Ada, think of the little one." Polly frowned as the baby's hungry wails could be heard beyond the room. "Babies don't have principles."

Caroline's faint hand touched Polly's forearm and she flashed her a sympathetic smile before bending over to collect the other basket and throw it away into the nearest bin as soon as possible. In the blistering cold, they strode down the dull lane, wearing only the finest of clothing to make them stand out amongst the crowd of workers in monotonous clothing and with two black umbrellas, they found their way back to the headquarters.

She felt sorry for Ada. She had to witness her partner being brutally stripped from his own home, just seconds after meeting his son but when she and Polly came to her aid, she refused their helping hands, to which she reminded herself that maybe, some people couldn't be helped unless they wanted it.

When they came through the door, Caroline collapsed her umbrella and shook the droplets of rain water out of its material, and when her eyes scanned up, she found Tommy. He stood, watching her with equal amount of intent but he quickly averted his glance to Polly who'd set the rotting basket before him on the table and angrily brushed past him.

"Did you speak to her?"

Polly stormed up and down. "She didn't speak back."

"Well, did you tell her?"

Polly replied with her back to her nephew. "I'll only tell her what I know to be true."

Tommy looked greatly annoyed. "It's the last time I'm going to say this. It wasn't me who shopped Freddie Thorne."

"Tommy." Polly stopped moving and stood firm in front of him. "I'd ask you to swear on the bible, but you can't swear on that, can you? Nothing you hold sacred."

Momentarily, Thomas was left speechless and this caused Polly to scoff, knowing his silence was the answer she needed. Polly then took herself off elsewhere in the house, presumably into the betting den to keep tabs on the working men, leaving Caroline and Thomas alone in an undeniably tenacious atmosphere that nearly crippled the pair in their standoffish glances.

Caroline was the first to break the ice. "I know you're not lying about Freddie." Tommy's face seemed to brighten, until her sentence was followed up by one that secretly wounded both their hearts. "But you are not lying about your feelings for Grace."

"Are you trying to make me confess?" Tommy found no trace of pain on her face, so he wondered why it would matter. "Grace and I-we're only strict business partners."

As she leaned in, her eyes were ablaze with anger and the unsettling bubbling in her stomach of a brewing storm. "From one business partner to another, you both suit each other very well, for you are both liars and deserve to suffer the consequences of a fatal incompatibility."

She tried to exit but he couldn't watch her walk away, so once more, his strong hand reached out and grasped a hold of hers, to which she froze and looked to his limb with hesitation and hostility, but she couldn't bear to rip apart from him-not quite yet and she wanted to understand why.