smoke storm. peaky blinders

𝗧𝘄𝗲𝗹𝘃𝗲

CHAPTER TWELVE

Harry found her on the way to the house. There was a cigarette leaning loosely from his lips, a cap balanced against dark hair. It seemed he'd grown up in their time in Birmingham. He didn't seem so young when she looked at him now. That was until he smiled when he saw her, rushing to hang an arm over her shoulder. He looked just like their sister when he smiled, so youthful and innocent, even though he was anything but.

"Adelaide," he exclaimed. "You've had my heart in my throat since the races."

"What do you mean?" She pushed him away playfully, watching as he tripped on his feet but remained steady. "You're the one never in the house."

He shrugged the comment off, not wanting to answer her silent question- where have you been? - and continued on the path toward the flat. "The boys are waiting, seeing you want to talk," he said as she wrapped an arm around his in the way she had once done with their father. "Don't suppose we've done enough talking? I know you've got your plan and it's just about getting it running, but we've been here long enough, Addy."

He stopped at the doorway, halting them from entering. Through the thin walls and open windows, she could hear the sound of laughing, or Robert's deep, prominent voice laced with a joke.

"I want to go home, Adelaide."

"I know. I know," she said, taking his hand so tightly in her own. Harry could only look down at their entwined fingers with a solemn look. She hoped the expression on her face was sympathetic, because Harry wished for something she no longer longed for. "Home will always be there waiting for us, with father, with El. But now, we'll never get a chance like this again. The knowledge of these guns fell into our laps, and so soon will their location. I know it."

Harry let out a sigh but nodded, squeezing their fingers together.

"Let me tell you, Harry. I will find these guns. I will complete our plan, alright. Then there'll be no one able to go against us. Then we'll be back in Newcastle, safer than ever," she said, not voicing what her heart whispered. More powerful than ever. "But let me tell you, brother. My plans won't stop there, they can't. And you can go home, take care of father and sister, or you can come with me, wherever is necessary."

"And where might that be?" Harry said with narrowed eyes. "What plans might take us further than we've already come?"

Adelaide did not miss the way he said us. She placed a hand on her brother's cheek. He looked so young, so like their sister, yet so... desperate, she realised. He wanted to know the plans she now dangled in front of him like bait on a hook, the very plans she had filed away in her own mind and never confirmed until now. Harry was with her.

"When we have those guns, no one will be able to argue against our influence, but that won't be enough to control the south as we do the north," Adelaide said, and he followed blankly, eyes searching her face for a clue. "I'm not too proud to realise we'll need help, at first."

Harry came to a conclusion before she could explain it all. "The Peaky Blinders. You'll hold a truce with them once we have the high ground?" He said, eyebrows furrowed and face cold beneath her touch.

Adelaide smiled, watching the expressions flicker on his face as she knew hers once did. A sense of pride flickered through her. She was teaching him well, it seemed. Harry didn't seem appalled by the suggestion, only thoughtful. Adelaide nodded.

"Let's go see what they have to say."

Arthur Shelby threw an arm over her shoulder, looking far too comfortable for the number of times they'd met. The boys were already deep in their drinks, sharing stories of the war. All the while, Tommy watched her. Adelaide could feel his eyes but dared not look. She prayed that look was not suspicion, and hoped it was something else.