Red On Her Hands | Tommy Shelby

Chapter Eleven

Arthur, who had sat quietly at the table during this time, spoke up as he tried to defuse the situation. Lynette was surprised that Arthur was standing up for his father, while she could tell everyone else in the room - except little Finn - had a lot of negative feelings towards the man.

"Tommy, he's different -"

"You shut up," Tommy snapped, interrupting him.

"It's all right, son. Arthur Shelby never stays where he is not welcome," the man assured as he stood, gathering his hat and coat. Lynette could now put a name to the father, he would be Arthur Senior.

He turned to look at Tommy once more, a smile on his face as he took in the image of his son.

"Quite something you've become," he spoke with some admiration before heading for the entrance at the rear of the house that would take him onto the alleyway.

Lynette wanted to smack the man as he ruffled Finn's hair on the way, the younger boy clearly not understanding the situation as well as the adults in the room. She was thankful to see John pull the smaller boy back from watching their father leave. The group remained in silence until the sound of the door closing echoed in the house.

"He's our dad," Arthur argued.

Tommy scoffed in disbelief at Lynnette's side, her sympathy for him growing as she knew that he already felt shit enough with the unexpected arrival of a man who walked out on them.

"He's a selfish bastard," he corrected.

"You calling someone a selfish bastard? That's a bit rich, Tommy. I mean, thanks to you we're already down a bloody sister."

Lynette kept quiet as she knew this was none of her business, she was not family. She considered walking out but knew that she would only get chewed for it later by several of the people in the room for being ridiculous. And besides that, she wanted to speak to Polly, to try and fix things in this family that she had grown closer to in her period in Birmingham.

"If you want to see him, Arthur. You want to see him? You can go with him."

Arthur appeared to debate the idea for a moment, then stood abruptly from the table to march from the room in the same direction that Arthur Sr had taken. The thundering footsteps were soon followed by the slamming of the back door, signifying that another member of the Shelby family had broken off from the rest.

"Polly," Lynette began. "Are you free to chat for a bit?"

"Of course, love." Polly responded, she seemed to be grateful for the distraction as she grabbed her coat. "I'd prefer if we went to yours if you don't mind."

"Sure," she nodded. She gave Tommy's arm a small squeeze to show that she supported his decision before she and Polly left out of the house.

They walked wordlessly to the other end of the street where her house was situated. Lynette fetched them both drinks and offered Polly a cigarette as they made themselves comfortable in the living area.

Both women sat on the small couch facing each other. Despite the seriousness of the conversation they were still able to smile and complain about men and their ways as they talked about how to fix the current family drama. Lynette was finally able to convince Polly that Tommy was not responsible for Freddie's arrest, and that he cared too much about Ada and her baby to do such a thing.