NEW CHAPTERS COMING SOON.
Small Heath, Birmingham, was an unsafe place to be. Men stumbling drunk out of pubs, whores there waiting for them on the side of the street, with gang fights happening around the corner. Unsafe for young girls... but not i...
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• • •
"Running through the seasons, gonna be the king at six years old
And I don't understand how I've been up for days now on my own"
• • •
The cold streets of Birmingham weren't the most welcoming place to most, but it was what Harry called her home. She knew these streets inside out, down to every little alleyway; she could navigate these streets in her sleep. Harry was an average 5'4 girl but made for a petite boy. With her curly brunet hair cut ragged and short under a flat tweed cap.
"Watch where you are going, boy!" A middle-aged man with a somewhat big bear belly shouted, stumbling on his way out of the pub as Harry purposefully walked into him.
"Apologies, Sir," Harry mumbled as she was shoved out of the way.
"You should be thanking me that I didn't trample you, you little fool!" He hollered after Harry.
Yet Harry had already slipped away, ginning to herself as she took out the pocket watch she had taken from the man. Yes, thank you very much, mister, Harry thought with a laugh; thank you indeed!
• • •
Harry hurried along the cut to her meeting place with her boss, Leroy. Lee was a theatrical man; everything was a performance to him. But he was a man you'd never want to cross. He knew everyone, and everyone knew him; he'd take work from anyone or any gang if the price were right. And yet here Harry was stuck working for him; Lee was a territorial man. If you steal while on his patch, you become his property and do as he says unless you want to be sold to a workhouse or, worse, chucked in the cut.
"Ah, Harry, my darling boy, what have you got for me tonight?" Lee gushed as he stepped out from under the bridge to greet Harry.
"Alright' Lee," Harry replied, pulling the pocket watch he had stolen earlier and handing it over to Lee, who inspected it while holding it from its chain so that it dangled, swaying side to side slightly.
"Not bad, my boy, not bad at all." Lee grinned while placing the watch into his own inner tweed coat pocket.
"Now, Harry, I got some business I need doing. This employee is paying handsomely but says it's a difficult one, and well, they haven't met my best 'performer' ay?" Lee laughed, causing Harry to smile. As much as she wanted her freedom to roam as she pleased, she did enjoy Lee's theatricals. He was the closest thing to a family Harry had, even if Harry was just being used to line Lee's pocket.
"Address and time?" She responded.
"All in this envelope, my dear. But be careful with this job; I'd hate for those blinders to ruin your pretty face," Lee said, handing the envelope and walking off before Harry could ask why she needed to be careful about the blinders. And then it dawned on her. No wonder the employee would pay well; she would only have to steal from the most feared gang in Birmingham. The peaky blinders.
