Tommy's Rose

Chapter 20: Burning Rage

Tommy and I were sat at the table eating breakfast together. I was reading the front of the paper as Tommy was reading the inside, children were still going missing across Birmingham, another three children had gone missing, their pictures were displayed all over the city as missing people posters. My class at school grew smaller and smaller as the weeks went by, it worried me, every week another child from school would be taken... It was very scary.

"I'm going to drive you to school today," Tommy spoke up. "I need to see Polly about a man with a horse."

I looked at Tommy. "Are you buying another race horse?" I asked curiously.

Tommy peered at me over the Newspaper. "I might," He mumbled.

I hummed. "Are you going to race white rum?" I asked.

White rum was a younger horse that Tommy had been slowly breaking in to be a show jumping horse. I had been riding White rum to get him used to doing small jumps over objects with someone on his back. I had taken a liking to the horse, as he was a loving gentle horse, who always came over to the gate to greet you and enjoyed having his mane brushed, even his tail.

"If he carries on working hard I can stick him in shows or sell him to the army so he can be a working horse," Tommy explained. "I haven't decided yet."

I nodded as I sipped my tea. I then looked at the clock and my eyes went wide. "I'm late!" I stated as I shot out of my chair.

Tommy looked startled as I ran out the room. "Only by five minutes!" I heard Tommy state.

I ran up to my room and grabbed my school bag, I placed my school books inside my bag, I picked up my pocket knife and slipped it in my boot; Since finding that note in Tommy’s study I carried the knife around whenever I left the house just to be safe. I tightened the ribbons in my hair and straightened out my clothes, I placed my bag on my shoulder then I headed down stairs.

Tommy was now stood by the door wrapping his scarf around his neck then he placed his hat on top of his head. "Are you ready?" He asked.

I nodded as I slipped my coat on. "I'm ready," I told him. "I just hope no one else has gone missing."

Tommy sighed. "It's just one more week then you don't have to go to school until the New Year," He told me. "And if children are still going missing then I will take you out of school and hire a Governess to teach you."

When I first came to Birmingham I hated school, I didn't want to go but that was until I made friends, yes I was friends with many boys but they treated my right, they always enjoyed spending time with me, they didn't care if I was a Shelby we just played for hours and hours whenever I went to Polly's after school or they would walk with me and Finn to Tommy's office.

Together Tommy and I headed out the house and we climbed into the car. I wrapped the blanket in the front of the car around me to keep myself warm as we drove. As we drove through the fields I couldn't help but fall in love with how the world looked, the snow was like a perfect white blanket on the ground, the sun made the sky pink as it began to rise up into the sky and all the trees were perfectly covered in snow. As we drove into the city heading towards the school I laughed at all the children having snowball fights and building small snowmen on the paths.

Slowly Tommy pulled up outside the school gates. "Right, don't worry about what's in the paper," Tommy told me. "Just one more week of school then Christmas!"

I smiled. "I'm really excited," I told him. "Can I drop off Daniels present this weekend please, he's going away with his Grandma."

"Of course," He told me.