Hidden Away

The bells of St. Mary's had barely faded from Grace Shelby's ears when she learned how to lie again.

Arrow House was all white walls and careful silence, filled with the kind of peace Grace had once believed she wanted. She wore her new life easily - the devoted wife, serene at Tommy Shelby's side - but London never loosened its grip on her thoughts. In a narrow terraced house tucked behind a dressmaker's shop in Bloomsbury, eight-year-old Beatrice Burgess lived a life built on secrets. Beatrice had Grace's eyes and her quiet intensity, with a surname chosen for safety rather than truth - a name that could disappear if it ever needed to.

Tommy didn't know. He couldn't.
Not with enemies circling, not with the weight of his power growing heavier by the day.

Grace paid a woman to watch over Beatrice - Mrs. Calder, a sharp-eyed widow who asked no questions and accepted her money in cash. To the neighbours, Beatrice was a polite, reserved child with ink-stained fingers and a fondness for pigeons on the square. To Grace, she was everything - the only part of her life untouched by betrayal, bullets, or the Shelby name.

Each night Grace kissed Tommy goodnight beneath the high ceilings of Arrow House, her heart remained in London. Every letter she burned after reading, every train whistle she pretended not to hear, was another promise to herself: just a little longer.
Because if Tommy Shelby ever discovered the truth - the child hidden away, the life Grace had carefully buried - there would be no telling whether his love would be enough to save them... or if it would put Beatrice directly in the line of fire.