This Dark Disposition

Chapter 22 - Worcester

Later That Day

Polly, Ada, and Danielle sat around the kitchen table. Danielle's usual calm and calculated demeanor was shaken by the fact that all of the Shelby men had left for the races two hours ago. No words were exchanged by the women. They sat in silence and waited.

This was the part that she hated. She hated it during the war, and she hated it now. Sitting, silently, waiting for soldiers to return with new injuries and traumas that were both physical and emotional. It wasn't the physical injuries that typically worried Danielle: blown off limb - she could handle that, bullet wounds - just another Tuesday, burns, bumps, and bruises - run of the mill. But the emotional ones, those were the ones that got Danielle. What made her feel stuck and ill equipped as both a nurse and a human being. It's a lot easier to stitch up a man from the outside in, than it is to stitch 'em up from the inside out.

"Fuck I can't do this. I feel like I'm waiting in the bloody trenches," Danielle stood from her chair pushing her chair back. Both hands went to her head, "This is how it is, isn't it?" Danielle wasn't sure if she was talking to herself or asking Polly.

"He knows what he's doing Danielle, he'll come back to you." Polly said, she pulled out a cigarette and lit it, "Here, take this, go for a walk outside, it will calm your nerves."

Danielle grabbed the cigarette, "Thank you, Pol" she turned to Ada, "I'm sorry I swore around your kid."

"It's alright Danielle, lord knows he'll hear worse, being around your Shelby's."

"You all are too kind to me, you know."

"Look around you Danielle, look at what you've done for us. You patched up Arthur when the inspector beat him, you helped Ada through her pregnancy and birth, you sniffed out that blonde snitch when it seemed Tommy wouldn't, and most of all," Polly crossed her legs under the table, "you gave Tommy refuge. Refuge from the storm in his mind."

"Did you think we'd end up here, Pol," Danielle asked, "that night I walked Arthur home."

"Instinct is a funny thing," Polly said as she got out a cigarette for herself, "I knew the boys would take a liking to you, but which one I wasn't sure."

Danielle didn't know what to say, so she just nodded at Polly and walked out the door onto the street. She stepped out into the cool fall air and took a drag from the smoke Polly had given her. She closed her eyes and took a step back until she felt her back hit the bricks of the house. A minute later she opened her eyes and exhaled the smoke from her lungs.

She turned to start walking down the street away from the Garrison and towards her flat when she heard a man say to her from the alleyway, "Something making you nervous, Miss Virtue." She'd recognise that Irish twang anywhere.

She stopped and looked up to the sky. The sun was setting now, the boys should be back soon, "Mr. Campbell, I imagine you'll be leaving town now that you got what you wanted."

"Ay, the operative I placed proved very useful."

She still did not turn to look at him, and instead remained looking at the end of the street. He remained in the alleyway and she on the sidewalk, "Useful enough to get your guns back, not so useful as to thwart Tommy's plan."

"She helped me achieve my objective and as such my time in this blasted, filthy city, has come to a close," the old man pulled out his pipe and lit it, "perhaps my next stop will be Manchester."

Now he had Danielle's attention, what the fuck would he want with Manchester. She put out her cigarette and threw it on the street, "You see Miss Virtue, when you came to Birmingham you and Tommy both made mistakes. Your mistake was getting involved with a man like Thomas Shelby, but, Tommy's mistake?"