Cannonball

Chapter One: Not a Gentleman

"You have a gentleman caller," Mary Green teased walking past her friend as she finished hemming the dress that she was working on; it needed to be done by the end of the day since Mrs Smith would be collecting it early tomorrow morning. 

The day was coming to an end and the girls that worked in the store were finishing the last of the orders that would be collected in the morning.

The small shop had been started by Mary's mother and had passed to her when she had died, there was enough work from the local area that meant that Mary had been able to offer out jobs to those she trusted. 

Rosemary Parker could not contain her smile at the news, she had not been expecting him to call on her while she was at work; it had been a few days since she had last seen him.

"I wouldn't call him a gentleman," Lily Anderson scoffed shaking her head, she had no idea what Rosemary was thinking with courting a man like that especially behind her parents back, it was only going to end in tears for her friend. 

The last thing that Lily wanted to see was her friend get hurt, Rosemary was sweet and she deserved better than a man like Thomas Shelby who was only going to ruin her reputation.

Rosemary held back a roll of her eyes as she tried to finish off her work, she was almost done and she didn't need to listen to another lecture from Lily to know what her friend thought of her decisions. 

It was none of Lily's business who Rosemary spent her time with, nor how she choose to spend her time; she just wished that her friend could be more supportive of her than constantly trying to reprimand her.

"Neither would I," Katherine Phillips teased with a wink to Rosemary, she found it sweet that they had been together so long, and it truly was not fair to judge someone just on rumours. 

If they were to believe every rumour that they heard, then no one would talk to each other; the world would be a sad and lonely place to live and no one would have any friends at all.

Lily huffed before turning on her heel and walking away to finish off the dress that she was working on; she had expressed her concern before now and no one listened to her. 

Thomas Shelby was nothing but trouble in her opinion, all of the Shelbys were and anyone involved with them were only going to find themselves in serious trouble. 

"Go. I can finish this off for you... have fun with Mr. Shelby," Katherine insisted moving to take Rosemary's position, she didn't have anything better to do and she would happily finish off the dress for her friend. 

If she had a man like that waiting for her then she would not want to be waiting around to go and see him; Katherine had ditched out enough in the past and someone else was always covering for her now it was her turn to return the favour. 

Rosemary opened her mouth to protest before Katherine gave her a little push, she was nearly done and there was not much that needed doing to the dress; it was not like she had not covered for Katherine in the past. 

Removing her apron, Rosemary made her way to the small room where they housed their things during work; she had a small hanger with her name on that held her coat during work hours. 

Taking down her coat, Rosemary hung up her apron before thinking about how glad she was that she had a bit more freedom now that she had this job and an excuse to be away from her mother's ever watching eye. 

Rosemary had originally taken the job when she was sixteen, a way of helping to provide for her family especially with three younger sisters to watch after and her parents didn't have well-paying jobs.