Marguerite - A Thomas Shelby story

Chapter 6

 Marguerite and Aunt Emmeline clambered into the carriage, and took a seat as it jolted forwards. Every thud of the horse's hooves made the young woman's heart sink more and more. The question was: Why was she so sad about Ms Graham's death? Surely, a mother to her daughter, or a Father to his son in Death could cause such emotional damage, but not a mentor to her student. That was because Ms Graham was no tutor to Marguerite. Such a thing couldn't be further from the truth, for she was her Mother. This secret, Aunt Emmeline could not contain any longer and had felt obliged to share with her niece as a moral duty. As she made her way to the funeral, the mysteries Aunt Emmeline revealed to her a month ago of her Mother's identity and past resurfaced in her mind:

Her surname before having met Marguerite's father was Jones. Galiya Jones. From day one she had been thrown into a life of crime and corruption. Her Father, Zachary Jones, was a well respected member of the Peaky Blinders, and therefore, being next of kin, she was too. Morning to evening, she would observe the grim and barbarian life of the crooked kingdom that the Peaky Blinders governed with a bloody iron fist. The city was their breeding ground, it was their territory. They fed off disorder and chaos to build their fearless empire through robbery, bloodshed and fraud.

However, this life would not endure for her or for her family.

Galiya was sitting quietly in the kitchen one night, staring at the wooden oak bannisters on the ceiling and listening to her mother chopping the vegetables for dinner as the grandfather clock chimed. It was getting late, but it was normal for her Father to be out late. He'd come and go as he pleased.

It was 9 o'clock when there was a sudden knock on the door, like a pounding sound. The urgency of the noise woke Galiya with a fright and she rushed down the stairs. When she got there, she saw her Mother rushing to the door, and ran to cling to her gown as the door was opened. A man in a flat cap and black coat similar to her Father's one stood in the doorway, dripping head to toe from the heavy rain.

"Please, come inside," exclaimed Galiya's mother.

"No, there's no time Ms Jones!" retorted the man, practically screaming.

Both of the girls looked down at his bloodied hands.

"What is it Harry?"

"Come with me Ms Jones, leave the child here"

Galiya glanced up at her mother, who in turn shook her head and grabbed the coats.

"If this has something to do with my husband..." she took a deep breath and shakily continued, "I want my daughter to be there."

"She's just a kid ma'am," growled Harry.

"She's his kid."

He sighed and led them to the Garrison pub. The pub was the area where the Peaky Blinders would go to drink and smoke in between themselves, men and women alike, but in this instance, it was the scene of a practically empty slaughterhouse aftermath. Galiya's father lay bloodied and gasping for air on a table at the far end of the pub. She felt her Mother's hand slip from hers and she was left standing alone, watching multiple women and men in flat caps desperately trying to save Mr Jones.

An hour had passed since the bloody scene at the pub, and Galiya was waiting patiently in the empty gambling back room of the pub, her thoughts wrapped in a whirlpool of worrying and dread, as well as anticipated acceptance that her father may not survive the bullet that had pierced through the flesh of his leg.

This theory was quickly confirmed when Harry, the scruffy scarred man that had alerted the family to the emergency, barged into the gambling room to announce the death of her Father.