Beautiful War {Peaky Blinders}

18.

She looked up at James and raised her hand bringing it up to contact with his cheek. The sound of the slap echoing through the room.

The whole pub was silent as they watched what was about to unfold.

"How dare you come back here after what you did!" Victoria yelled.

James smirked as he watched her, "I just came to see if you wanted a round two."

"What and risk getting pregnant by you again? You've got to be having a laugh." She mumbled shaking her head.

"Our baby?" He spoke softly glancing down at her stomach.

"I got rid of it." She nodded, her eyes remaining on him.

He stepped forward but was instantly pushed back to the door by one of the men.

"You killed our baby?" James yelled, his anger starting to boil up.

"You killed my innocence. Your baby was killed because of you. I couldn't bear to carry the baby of such a monster!" She yelled with tears threatening to spill.

The whole pub remained silence and she let out a soft sob, "I did it knowing fine fucking well that I may not be able to have children in the future. I did it knowing I could have died during the process."

Her eyes slowly met with his as shook her head again, "I did it so that I didn't have to hate the child every single day of their life because of what their father did to me."

"YOU STUPID BITCH!" James yelled raising his arm up.

Before his hand could be given the chance to touch her, a gunshot fired through the air.

His body dropped to the floor.

Victoria turned to look at where the bullet came from and smiled as she spotted Tommy slipping his gun back into his pocket.

"I couldn't let him hurt my wife any longer." Tommy nodded as he pulled her into a protective embrace.

A few moments passed before they pulled themselves apart.

He cleared his throat and nodded before walking over to his body.

"I'll help Tommy." A man offered as he stepped closer to the body also.

Tommy, Michael and the other man picked up the lifeless body and carried him out.

Victoria slowly walked back to behind the bar and let out a soft sigh as she wiped her eyes.

"It's been a long day. Everyone finish up your drinks and get yourselves back to your wives!" Someone yelled.

When she looked to where the voice came from she smiled slightly. It was the man who kept James apart from her.

She made a mental note of who he was so she could thank him for his help.

Gradually all of the men walked out after putting their empty glasses down. But one of them stayed behind.

It was the man that helped her.

"Thank you for keeping him back from me." Victoria called out as she picked up her coat.

"It's nothing. I was good friends with your brother so it's only fair that I protect his little sister the best that I can." He nodded, "I'm Freddie. Freddie Thorne."

"I'll be sure to remember you Mr Thorne." She smiled as she walked to the door.

"Let me walk you home." He said as he followed her out of the door.

Victoria locked the pub up and nodded as she slowly began walking. "Thank you, it can be tremendously scary walking alone in the dark."

"It's my pleasure. How is Ada? Haven't seen her around much.." Freddie asked slipping his hands into his pockets.

She glanced up at him and smiled. "Well she's not doing too great. But she'll be fine in no time."

Truth be told, Ada wasn't okay. Her partner had left her for another woman and she hadn't left the house since. Victoria had helped her as much as she could.

"Well send her my love. A girl as beautiful as that deserves to live everyday with her beautiful smile." He nodded looking down slightly.

She looked up at him and smiled, "I'll be sure to tell her all you have done for me. Put in a good word for you."

After that the silence between them both remained, it wasn't an awkward silence, just content.

Before long they had both arrived outside of the Shelby home.

Victoria smiled walking to the door, "Thank you Mr Thorne."

"Please, call me Freddie." He chuckled before turning away to walk back.

She closed the door behind herself and hummed quietly to herself.

"Victoria? Is that you?" A voice called out.

"The one and only" She called out before walking into their office where the rest of the family sat. Much to her surprise Tommy was already home.

"Now that he's out of the way, how about we start planning our wedding? At least then we would have something to look forward to." Tommy asked with a smile looking up at her.

Victoria smiled as she looked around to the rest of the family, "of course. If you ladies aren't doing anything tomorrow how about we go try and find some dresses?"

Ada and Polly both smiled as they listened, "we would love to."

Victoria nodded and let out a content sigh, "I'm going to go up to bed to have an early night. I'll see you up there Tommy."

"I'll be up there in just a second." Tommy called out as she closed the door behind herself.

She walked up the stairs and hummed softly as she entered the bedroom slowly stripping off her dress.

"I know you would have been proud of me Danny, standing up to the devil like that." Victoria whispered to herself as she pulled on her night dress before climbing into bed.

Just as she was about to get comfy the door opened and Tommy walked in.

"Tommy. It may be too soon but after the wedding I think we should try for a baby."

As the words left her mouth a smile appeared slowly onto his face.

He walked over to the bed and nodded, "if it's what you want then that's fine by me."

Victoria leaned up and pressed her lips to his cheek softly, "busy day tomorrow. I better get some sleep." She whispered pulling herself away from him.

"It'll be perfect, Darling." Tommy nodded before turning to get himself ready.

It wouldn't be as perfect as he promises if she knew what he had done.