Life Begins Again

Untitled Part 6

Hal had been asleep when Tommy knocked on the door. In an instant his gun had been out, his head clear and his attention on the door of Cecily's room. Initially, he hadn't known who it was. All his senses had been on high alert and he'd told Cece, despite her whispered protests, to stay behind the door. He'd edged closer, gun still raised, and asked who it was.

Apparently, he'd been the only one that hadn't made it stupidly easy to get hold of him, a fact that he was still smirking at John about. His friend had nudged him in the ribs a couple of times for the whole thing, but now they were finally in the Chinese quarter, the reality of the task at hand settled over them. Neither of them were laughing any more. It was business now.

Hal's attention skimmed the stalls, on the lookout for anything amiss while the others followed Tommy. As they dispersed, making their way through other stalls, hidden until they were needed, Hal waited by the edge of Zhang's place. He held some of the material in one hand, but his attention never remained still for more than a couple of seconds. Constantly watchful.

'For the suits,' Hal heard Tommy saying.

'You want to hear something funny?' asked Zhang, and despite straining his ears, Hal got no wind of what they were talking about.

After a moment, however, Tommy called his name. 'Wait here. I'm going out back.'

Hal raised an eyebrow at him, but Tommy shot him a derisive look before slipping through the shop. Hal didn't bother asking, he merely looked towards Zhang for a moment before resuming his post, knowing that if it was important enough, he'd eventually learn a bit more about the whole thing. And if it wasn't, well then, it didn't really matter enough to care about.

***

'Oh, little one,' cooed Polly, picking the crying baby up from the cot.

Luce still wasn't entirely sure why she was there, wasn't sure why Polly had wanted to check how her scarred hands were doing, but she wasn't about to start complaining. There was something almost comforting about having the two women with her, something that she'd missed after all her time in the yard. In fact, she was beginning to regret not asking Stanley more about his sister. After that first meeting Luce had never really found the time to get to know the woman who was watching her aunt fondly. It was a shame, but a mistake Lucinda was hopeful she could rectify slightly now.

'You're much better with him than I am,' said Ada from the doorway; she was leaning against the frame, arms folded gently across herself.

'He settles quicker with me cos he can't smell the milk,' said Polly pragmatically as Luce shifted to pour out some tea. 'You're tired. Let's put him down.' Polly carefully put the baby in the cot, and Ada moved to join her.

Luce hovered for only a moment before moving over to them. They'd not told her to leave yet, it would be rude not to follow through with the things that they were doing. And yet still she felt as though she were interrupting. Whatever comfort she found in their presence, she thought it would be ripped away from her at any moment.

'Mine were terrors for the tit,' Polly said softly. The comment gave Luce pause; despite how she obviously looked after the rest of the Shelby family, Luce had never thought of Polly as a mother herself. 'Both of them.' There was a moment's pause before she looked up at Ada. 'Well, you never knew my children, did you?'

Again, Luce felt as though she were intruding. And yet, she found that she couldn't walk away. Couldn't untangle herself from it all. The city seemed to have a way of hooking her and reeling her back in again. Or perhaps that was simply just the Shelby family.

Also, it would've been rude to simply leave partway through Polly's story.

'No, I was a child myself then,' said Ada. 'You never talk about them.'