Tommy's Rose

Chapter 22: The Study

Two days had passed by since Daniel and I were brought to this place. I still had my knife in my boot and every night when the guards passed where we slepts on the ground I would stick the knife in the key hole trying to pick the lock but I wasn't having much luck but it didn't stop me from trying.

"That is a terrible plan!" Daniel told me. "We're going to die!"

I huffed. "Come on it's perfect!" I told him. "It can't go wrong."

Well yes it could go wrong but I had planned it out perfectly so hopefully there was only a small chance it could go wrong but if it did it would be me who was going to take the fall and not Daniel, I had more confidence to say something back to the guards and not get hurt too bad; In the last two days Daniel and I realised that if you didn't fall in line then you were punished by being hit with a belt, a hand or a fist, the guards were tough on the boys because they were supposed to lead by example. Yesterday we witnessed a boy around thirteen was beaten with a belt for putting a gun in the gold cart, the poor boy screamed and screamed until the guard finally stopped, then walked away, he cried silently as he continued to sort the carts...

"Just let me hit you!" I told Daniel. "I promise it won't be hard."

Daniel pulled a face. "We had a play fight before and you fight dirty!" He told me. "You always hit hard!"

I huffed then I just went for it. I hit Daniel round the back off the head, not hard enough to do any damage but hard enough so it hurt a little. Daniel looked at me then pushed me so I tumbled backwards and the chains would trip me up, Daniel and I rolled around on the floor as best we could since we chained up.

I pulled Daniel's hair and he pulled mine, he then lightly scratched my face and I hit him in the stomach. "Now!" I told the other children.

"FIGHT!"

"FIGHT!"

"FIGHT!"

"FIGHT!"

All the children chanted loudly making the guards run towards us. "OI THAT'S ENOUGH!" A man ordered as he and some other men tried to pull us apart.

"She's a Shelby," Daniel told them. "She said her Dad's Tommy Shelby and he's going to come and kill my Dad Joseph Jameson!"

"You'll see what us Shelby's can do!" I said loudly. "The Peaky Blinders will come for you, all of you!"

A guard held me by my shoulders and looked me in the eyes. "What's your name, girly?" He asked in a rough voice.

"Primrose Shelby," I told him with confidence. "The eldest child to the leader of the peaky blinders, Thomas Shelby!"

The guard looked at Daniel. "Name boy?" He asked.

"Daniel James, son of Joseph Jameson and Annabelle James!" Daniel said with confidence.

The guard looked at the other men. "Fuck!" He yelled. "We got a Shelby and the boss's kid?"

I smiled at Daniel; Our Fathers had built names for themselves, many people feared them and that has worked to our advantage. I just prayed the next step of my plan would work out and nothing bad would happen to us in return, hopefully the angels were on my side.

"Do they know?" Another guard asked. "Does the boss or Peaky blinders know they are here?"

"I fucking hope not!" The guard who had hold of me growled. "Get them in the cabin!"

The guards undid our chains then pulled our hands behind our backs and placed handcuffs on our wrist; I was guessing many children had tried to escape so they had to get creative?