Talk to me - Tommy Shelby x reader

Chapter 1

You were exactly 3 steps behind Mrs. Adelia Langston at all times. As you followed her down the streets of London City with your head down, she barked out demands from her personal servant that tried to follow along with every demand and try to move around all the passerbyers on the sidewalk.

"Call home and tell miss Olivia that we will be late for tea this afternoon. I predict that Mr. Langston will be hard to drag out of his office i the middle of this... inconvenient inflation!" She howled up and one little look up and you saw how the people around you looked at the crazily right old hag that marched in front of you. The 3 steps were not her rule, but your own.

You had lived with Mr. and Mrs. Langston since your father died. More or less. If you didn't count the months in hospital and afterward mental asylum in. You didn't have any known family so you inherited all of your father's fortune. That made many of your fathers acquaintances curious to take you in, after the mental asylum made you legally incompetent like a child and you had to have someone there to take care of you. At least you could choose yourself and the lucky winner of dealing with you was Mr. and Mrs. Langston - your old neighbors at the summerhouse in England you went to almost every summer with your father. They were... okay. Very posh and you could feel their age. Mrs. Langston still wore a corsage even though it wasn't fashionable to do so anymore. She said that if she ever took it off, her body would collapse. You didn't doubt her. Her grey hair was always up and her dress the proper length... If you go back to 1890s. She didn't approve of your hair hanging loose, so to satisfy her, you always wore your hair in a long braid down your back. You didn't much care about the clothing she bought for you - with your money - because the last thing you wanted was male attention on you. So you went along with the long dresses and skirts she got you.

What you hadn't thought about was the fact that making them your legal guardians, you handed over your money to almost complete strangers, that - apparently - were in economic crisis during the war. It fit perfectly for them and all it took was for them to make sure you were dressed, fed and slept in one of the spare rooms. They never really talk much to you. You were just a broken girl. Everyone in the high society in your own country knew what happened to you and there wasn't a man that wanted to even touch the damaged goods. The Langstons kept you a secret for a long time and never brought you anywhere. They hoped that people would forget about you and your situation before they let you out in the society again and at the moment when you stepped into the parliament building to meet with Mr. Langston, you knew that you might be kicked out soon. Not so much because you were ready, but because your father's money would slip up soon and there wasn't any reason for them to keep you.

"Darling!" Mrs. Langston twittered out in the big hall. Many of the politicians and diplomats looked your way and as you did every other place, you ducked your head and walked after whatver direction Mrs. Langstons feet went. You could hear a heavy sigh from Mr. Langston when you entered his office. A very typical male office with dark walls and even darker furniture. Even though England was just at war, they all looked shiny new. There is always money for pretty things for the politicians, even in the middle of economic crisis. Very typical, you thought.

"Adelia, you are too early." Mr. Langston said but stood up to kiss his wife on the cheek. That was one thing you liked about them. They did not always agree about everything, but they did really love each other.

"Or maybe you just don't remember what time we agreed to. Now! I brought y/n as you said." She waved you forward and Mr. Langston made a gestured for you to sit down in front of his desk. You could feel that it wasn't going to be good, but you did as he said and sat down in the needly cushioned leather chair.

"Y/n. You have lived with us for... quite some time now. And.. it's not that we don't like having you around, but you are way past your twenties and it will soon be too late for you to... settle down. We know it has been a difficult time for you after your fathers death, but you can't keep hiding away from the rest of the world. You have to get out there!" Mr. Langston said with such a enthusiasm in his voice, that you almost felt like it was true. he was good at faking, so it almost sounded like he cared. But the thing is, you didn't hide yourself away. They did it and you just went along with it, because you couldn't imagine what the world could use you for. You were broken. You couldn't really do anything? Not anything useful at least. What you could do, was keep yourself alive.