𝐖𝐎𝐌𝐀𝐍 𝐎𝐅 𝐖𝐇𝐈𝐓𝐄 𝗉𝖾𝖺𝗄𝗒 𝖻𝗅𝗂𝗇𝖽𝖾𝗋𝗌

v. w e a r e n ' t s c a r e d

t h e   w o m e n   o f   w h i t e
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act one — five
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1919

the day had dragged

just like the sandbags down by the cut. the brunette hated having the late shift as it meant a boring day of nothing and then a night filled with rowdy men. either way, she managed to occupy herself with cleaning the shelby house before arthur's family meeting.

edith found herself pottering around the shop just as the shelby's trailed in for the meeting. the brunette herself thought she'd done quite the job tidying the betting shop. she assumed now john could at least find the decent pieces of chalk. tommy was the last the enter as he shut the doubled green doors behind him. he sauntered towards the back of the room, closest to edith. nodding his head curtly towards the seat between ada and john, the brown eyed girl chose not to question it and quickly took her seat. "what the bloody hell is she doing here?" polly asked the stern undertone of her voice enough to catch the nerves of the shelby clan.

all apart from tommy. he stood idly by with a blank expression. "she's family pol, it's time she started to know of our trade." thomas stated simply with a shrug of his shoulders. polly's dark eyes were harsh as she glared towards her nephew.

the elder women would call it a cold day in hell before she started taking orders from her nephew. "i decide when it's time, thomas." she snapped before flicking her eyes towards her god-daughter. "we agreed, no business." polly scolded, what seemed to be her best hobby.

edith rolled her black-eyes at the mother-like women. the action drew a small snort from John which only gained him a icy glare from polly. "polly, please. being here is just formality, we all know john spills his guts after a double of dark." the younger women beseeched pleadingly. her large eyes seemed to glisten in the low light, arthur cursing at the puppy-eyed look. nobody could resist her and she damned well knew it.

polly sighed reluctantly nodding whilst keeping her daggers spinning at john. he shuffled uncomfortably at the exposure before nudging edith in the arm with narrowed eyes. "right. i've called this family meeting because i've got some very important news." arthur announced as his lanky figure towered over the table. "scud boat and love lock got back from belfast last night. they were buying a stallion to cover their mares. they were in a pub on shank hill road yesterday and in that pub there was a copper. handing out these." the brief was long-winded and if it wasn't for edith's exceptionally large mind she would have been lost.

the paper got handed around giving the girl enough time to read with a frown before handing it to john. he took it with a scoff as his eyes scanned over the information. "if you're over five feet and can fight come to birmingham." he recited as if we hadn't just read it ourselves.

as everyone's head turned back to arthur for further explanation. "they're recruiting protestant irishmen to come here as specials." edith couldn't help but flick her dark orbs to tommy. he'd been very quiet as the family chatted and the young women knew that he had more to tell. it was unspoken within the shelby family but everyone knew that thomas was wiggling his way up to the head of the house.

"to do what?" ada questioned.

it was then that tommy decided to speak up. he straightened his posture with a tried sigh. "to clean up the city, ada." the blue eyed man cleared up. "he's the chief inspector. the last four years he's been clearing the ira out of belfast." his realise of information caused a slight smirk to pull on edith's plumped lips.