Tommy's Rose

Chapter 21: What the?

My body ached, my head pounded and I was hot, very hot and I couldn't help but shift around uncomfortably then slowly my eyes opened and the events at the school came rushing back to me. I wasn't at home, I wasn't in my bedroom and I really wasn't in Birmingham anymore, I was lying on the carpet in a wooden cabin, the fire was lit just a few meters away from me and I had a thick blanket on top of my body, I pulled the blanket off and I stood up then realised I was now wearing over sized boys trousers and not my skirt, a think belt was wrapped around my waist keeping the trousers up, I still had my dirty shirt and waist coat on, my clothes were a messy.

I began to walk around the cabin and found a mirror. I now only had one pigtail in as I had lost the ribbon that was in the other side of my hair so I quickly used the ribbon I had left to tie my hair into a ponytail. My face was dirty due to the explosion and fire at the school and I teared up, does Tommy know what happened, is he looking for me, is my family looking for me?

*BANG*

The cabin door slammed open to reveal a man.

I jumped in freight and I began to walk backward until my back hit the wall, the man slowly walked towards me, his face held a blank expression, he wore a grey suit.

"Please don't hurt me!" I begged like a small child. "PLEASE!"

The man just smiled at me then grabbed the scruff of my shirt then dragged me kicking, screaming and fighting. I did what I could to try and make the man let me go, I clawed away at his hand but this man didn't care, he took the pain and laughed like it was nothing. The man dragged me outside to the freezing cold, I looked around at the horse carts that were full of crates, men were loading the carts and they just stared at me like this was normal, they were truly not bothered about what they saw.

"LET ME GO!" I screamed. "HELP ME PLEASE. SOMEONE HELP!"

The man continued to drag me through the snow, my body was now freezing, my feet were cold from the snow and my throat burned from screaming. The man dragged me into a lit cave where tracks were laid on the ground going into the cave, along the wall were lanterns but what caught my attention were children, dozens of children were chained at the ankles loading gold, guns and explosives into the crates that were attached to the tracks.

"Primrose?" A boy said.

I looked at the boy who was covered in dirt and dust. "HENRY!" I shouted it was my friend from school, the policeman's son who went missing.

As I was dragged further down the tracks I recognised all the children, well I had seen them before, they were the missing children from Birmingham but why are they here doing all this?

The man dragged me down the tracks and pushed me into a gap between two boys and one boy was someone I was so very happy to see.

"Daniel!" I whispered with pure happiness as the man chained me to the others.

Daniel smiled. "I thought something had happened to you!" He admitted as he hugged me.

"OI!" The man shouted. "Show her what to do and get back to work!"

I watched the man stomp back up the tracks and out the top of the cave. I looked around the cave, small fires in metal barrels were lit to keep everyone warm, armed men seemed to patrol the tracks making sure all the children carried on working, some children were digging further down the tracks, some were washing gold bars and stacking them in the carts, other children we sorting out gun parts and putting them into piles and as for the group of children I was with, we were putting the guns together then stacking them in a cart.

I looked at the other boy next to me. "How long have you been here?" I asked him.

The boy shrugged. "I dunno, three weeks maybe," He told me quietly. "I'm Luke."

I smiled. "I'm Primrose," I told him then I looked around. "How many children are here?"

A girl further down the line looked at me. "Thirty- two altogether," She told me. "That includes you two, our new arrivals. Oh I'm Millie by the way short for Matilda."

This girl was also dressed like a boy, she wors a scruffy shirt tucked into a pair of large trousers that were held up by a belt. Through the dust and the mud I could see the girl had blonde hair, she was fairly tanned and she had brown eyes.

"Pleasure to meet you," I told her. "Who was here first?"

Millie pointed to the top of the tracks to an older boy who covered head to toe in thick dirt. "That's Archie he's the eldest, he and his younger brother Keith were brought here first then the next day more children were brought here," Millie explained. "He used to dig the tunnel then he was moved up to the top of the tracks to pass on messages to the guards about the work."

"And everyone is from Birmingham?" Daniel asked.

Millie nodded. "Every single one of us. Everyone here have different families, some were bakers, some were police, some were postmen and others wored for the newspapers." She told him. "The man who's in charge is from Birmingham too."

I frowned. "Who is he?" I asked.

"His name is Joseph," Luke told me. "He doesn't come down here much, he's usually in the wooden cabin outside to check on the work."

I looked at the chains around my feet... Joseph Jameson was a talented black smith who made chains since he was a boy, he has been after me for the last couple of weeks so this cannot be a coincidence the world isn't that strange!

"Daniel-" I began but he cut me off.

"Don't say it," Daniel snapped. "It's not him, it can't be!"

"Someone has been trying to take me for weeks," I told him. "Our Father's do not see eye to eye. You live with your Grandmother for some reason, your Father is doing this!"

In anger Daniel slammed his hands on the wooden table making the pieces of gun jump. "He isn't my Father!" He growled.

I looked at him. "What?" I asked in confusion. "But he referred to you as his son."

"I'm not his son!" He told me. "When my Mother was engaged to Joseph she slept with another man then she fell pregnant with me and as you can guess, Joseph went crazy but my Mother swore I was his. They both married but Joseph wouldn't let her take his last name so she kept her name as James then when I was born Joseph wouldn't let me take his name because he didn't believe I was his, so that's why my last name is James."

My heart broke into a million pieces. Daniel always spoke about his Father, I can imagine Daniel just wanted to feel accepted by him but it never happened, he must have been sent to his Grandmothers by his Mother Annabelle to keep him away from Joseph.

I hugged Daniel tightly. "We're going to get out of here," I told him.

"How can you be so sure?" Daniel asked.

I smiled. "I'm a peaky fucking blinder!" I told him.

Suddenly all the children's heads spun round and they began to ask if it was true, if I was a blinder and I couldn't help but smile proudly.

"I'm the daughter of Tommy Shelby," I told them. "And I promise we will get out of here!"

I was determined to get everyone out of here as soon as I could, how and when were different questions but my determination grew the longer I stayed here and maybe just maybe my name and Daniels name would give us an advantage?

That night I created a plan, a plan that could go one way or the other...