WRITTEN FOR ME ( thomas shelby )

019 ━ The Headaches of Family ..

"It just bothers me, you know," Lester sighed himself deeper in his seat, leaning his head now back. "The British market is hardly the best to sell to, so one must obviously conclude Jackie brought us here solely for that man, Thomas Shelby. You are aware he is neck deep in illegal business, right?"

"You deafened me in only one ear, you know," Gene brought his left hand up and hit his left temple. "Of course. I've heard all about Shelby and his Peaky Blinders."

Lester remained ever the restless, adjusting his position and leaning forward next, "Then are you alright with our sister marrying that man? He's got blood on his hand-"

"We all do," Gene interrupted him, then sighed. "Look, I thought he's bad news too. I thought he was in just to trick her and steal from us. But that was two years ago. Only one type of man waits two years for a woman he sees and hears nothing of except in scarce letters. A man in love."

Lester stared ahead in blank disbelief for enough seconds that silence compelled Gene to return to his newspaper read. "By God," the eldest Alloways exclaimed then, standing up. "She's turned you into such a compliant fool..." As soon as he stood up, Lester made a beeline to his coat and hat.

"Where are you going?" Gene inquired upon hearing the shuffle of the coat.

"We have ten ballots of blades and guns on that transport, Gene," Lester called, dressing himself. "The longer it sits unsupervised, the higher becomes the risk of some copper coming across it and us winding up in jail again. It's carelessness like this that keeps us now from ever returning home."

"No," Gene puffed a chuckle, forcing his brother to stop and turn around. "That would be the Russians, silly," he tilted his head. "Your memory might be fuzzy, since it all happened on your watch," his smile drained with giving that reminder. "How much poison did you drain into you the night they attacked our docks, hmm? But no worries," Gene returned to a innocent shrug, "rest assured, Jackie forgave your carelessness. You know, being understanding of one another is part of our family duty too, not just being fragrantly honest all the time." After but a single glance on Lester's paled features, Gene returned his attention to the newspaper again, "Do not cross through London on the way south. Solomons is still alive and his goods burned on your watch."

It turned out, as pleasant as Jackie usually found it to spend money on clothing, getting the right dress for her own wedding was a dreadful business.

Maybe her own concerns and worries played a part — finding out Lester has left for Southampton to stay with their men was an undesirable thing to add to the list of this she must be careful about keeping in mind, right next to the constant dread of waiting for Tommy —, but only a fool wouldn't recognize also that the market available in Birmingham was not entirely what she expected it to be.

That particular day, the fifth since Tommy was away, Jackie found herself in the Chinese side of town. Amongst a hundred stands with fine materials either exported long distances or reproduced to mimic exoticism from around the world, she walked underneath corridors with ceiling of red rags. On such selling grounds, she stood out like the diamond did in rock to the eyes of a miner. It was almost unbelievable to most bystanders and merchants that she, looking so high class, was there, dirtying her Oxfords in their mud and over their carpets.

It was even more unlikely that she hadn't become aware of the attention she was bringing onto herself. One would have to be entirely deaf not to hear most of the merchants stop and whisper as she passed their stands. But then again, if Jackie was in any hurry whatsoever to do anything but kill her time with something else other than her worries for Tommy that either way kept her haunted at night, perhaps she would have cared to give more than a fugitive glance to any of these people giving her all sorts of looks. For any measure though, she knew she could trust the pistol in her coat, the pocket knife in her bag, and even just something as simple as her perception, which just then alerted her that a set of steps were approaching her from behind.