Bête noire → Peaky Blinders [Tommy Shelby] [ BOOK 1 ]

Three.

Chapter three: Wicked witch

"And where the fuck were you all alone? You didn't even have the bloody sense to tell anyone where you were heading!"

Caroline brushed past Billy with an exasperated sigh, only to be pulled back by her wrist, his hold intense and it caused a painful sensation to shoot up her arm. She ripped her limb away from him, rubbing the sore spot and with a glare, she eyed him up and down, both equally as angry as each other. It was a tense sight to be seen.

"I am not a child. You cannot make me stay in this house for the rest of my life." She spat. "I am not my mother. I am not a little puppet you can control."

With the urge to slap brain cells into his daughters head, Billy, to the nearest table, swiped the contents off the counter and let them shatter as they hit the floor. His men didn't seem taken aback by his angry outburst and neither did Caroline. In fact, she was rather amused by how well he retrained himself. Possibly, he knew how strong she was and if he dared to raise his hand to her, he'd die within seconds, for she had her own brewing army amongst his. She was untouchable and invincible. 

"You daft bitch! I aught to knock some fucking sense into you!"

"But you're not going to, sure you're not?" Caroline simply snarled at Billy who returned the favour. She moved closer to the stairway, the point of her heel on the first step. "Now, if you'll excuse me. I have better things to waste my time on."

The minute she entered her room, she saw the back of a young boy's head, suited and booted in a shirt, jumper, black shorts, knee length socks and clean, brown brogues. Rolling her eyes, she removed her jacket and threw it onto the bed, startling Oscar who'd been peering through a small box which had been hidden under her the frame.

"What are you doing in here without my permission?"

Oscar smiled with ease in an attempt to cool himself from the hot water he'd been landed in. "I know you have a diary in here from the war and a few photographs and I wanted to see them. I am sorry for being so nosy."

"The next time you come in here, snooping around my personal business I'll kill you. Do you understand?"

Nodding, Oscar looked the slightest bit scared even though it was a meaningless threat.

"You can take it for the time being but return it before dinner."

"Thank you, sissy."

Oscar quickly embraced Caroline before he began to waddle out of the room in his ill fitting shoes that tapped across the floorboard, until his body collided with another, that of a much larger, sturdy male. With his hands quickly grasping for the trinket before it hit the ground and smashed, Oscar then let his eyes trail from the man's shoes, up his dress trousers and when he saw his face, he stared at him prudently. 

"You must have bladder and memory problems." Oscar said spitefully. "You come in here almost every day and pretend to be going to the bathroom."

Collin swallowed, darting his vision to Caroline who remained silent, her eyes twinkling in humour, wondering what her companion had to say in response to the twelve year old genius who cracked the code in seconds.

"I-um-"

"-I don't really care what you do, so long as you don't hurt my sister."

"So you aren't going to tell your father?"

"Not unless you give me a reason to."

"Thank you, little man."

"Don't call me that."