The Sweetest of Hearts.1| T.S

•Good Friday.

XLII. Good Friday.

⚠️Very slight smuttish scene.⚠️

It was nearly a month after her stitches had been taken out before Tommy allowed Maude to return to work again. He has slowly learned to let his wife do her own things again, stopping himself from constantly having a watchful eye on her. While Maude loved her husband's protective and caring nature around her, she was thankful to be left alone again.

On Good Friday all the men had left for a hunting trip, where Tommy would also inform his brothers that their father had passed away, although it didn't seem like he was broken and Maude didn't think his brothers would be either. She was aware of the childhood they had with their father, and how absent he was. Neither she nor Charlie had ever even met the man.

Tommy had asked her to go to the betting shop to keep an eye on everyone, as no men would be there and he only trusted his wife to keep everything in order while he wasn't there. And everyone knew better than to mess with the wife of Thomas Shelby.

The minute Maude stepped into the shop, three pairs of eyes turned towards her, eyebrows furrowed in confusion. Anna was stood behind Lizzie, peering over Lizzie's shoulder as the two worked to make sense of what the men had written in one of the books. "Why are you here?" Anna asked as she raised her eyebrows.

Maude walked towards one of the tables, laying her purse down before pulling off her gloves. "With all the men gone, Tommy asked I help out today." She explained, sighing deeply as she sat down by the same table Lizzie and Anna occupied.

"It's not fair." Esme huffed as she also approached the table, tossing her purse and brown leather gloves down. "They're off drinking and shooting rifles as we sit here." She rambled as Polly entered the shop, pair of dark shades covering her eyes. With another huff, Esme sat down. "Listen to the mugs swearing, spitting on the bloody floor for us to fucking wipe up!" She continued on, her voice raising with anger.

Anna hummed in agreement as she also sat down, scribbling a few things down in one of the books. "Without men here, they'd be like dogs pissing up the wall." She muttered as she sighed softly.

When Esme heard Polly behind her, she glanced back as she pulled a veil of snow from her purse. "I was just saying it's not fair." She muttered as she carefully poured the powder on a small spoon. "The men are down there like lords."

Polly stepped out of the cage, blowing her nose into a handkerchief. "Esme, just...Get on with it." She insisted, her words slurred enough to alert everyone in the room that Polly was drunk.

Esme huffed at Polly's words. "I'm bloody five months gone." She snapped as she signaled towards her baby bump before snorting up the white powder while Lizzie, Anna, and Maude watched her with blank looks on their faces.

Polly made her way to the back of the shop where the safe stood. She was silent for a second before resting her forehead against the heavy metal door and sighing. "I forgot the combination." She called out to them.

"24-8-22," Lizzie replied as she flipped through the pages of a black leather-bound book.

Maude's eyebrows furrowed as she turned to Lizzie. "How do you know the paper cash combination?" She questioned as her arms crossed over her chest and her eyebrows rose.

Esme snorted as she looked over at Lizzie with a small smile. "Henry talks in his sleep." She muttered. Very recently, Esme was unfortunate enough to walk in on the supposedly split-up couple.

Maude's eyes flicked between Esme and Lizzie before settling on Lizzie, confused and curious about what was going on between the two, because as far as she knew they were broken up, and when Lizzie started seeing Angle, she and Henry stopped sleeping together.