𝐍𝐄𝐋𝐋𝐈𝐄 𝐂𝐎𝐔𝐋𝐃 𝐇𝐄𝐀𝐑 𝐓𝐇𝐎𝐌𝐀𝐒 𝐅𝐎𝐋𝐋𝐎𝐖𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐀𝐅𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐇𝐄𝐑 𝐀𝐒 𝐒𝐇𝐄 𝐒𝐋𝐎𝐖𝐋𝐘 𝐌𝐀𝐃𝐄 𝐇𝐄𝐑 𝐖𝐀𝐘 𝐓𝐇𝐑𝐎𝐔𝐆𝐇 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐑𝐑𝐄𝐃 𝐑𝐄𝐌𝐀𝐈𝐍𝐒 𝐎𝐅 𝐇𝐄𝐑 𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐁𝐋𝐄 𝐇𝐎𝐔𝐒𝐄. Her boots crunched on the cinders beneath her feet as she gently waved her hand before her face to dispel floating ash and cobwebs.
Thomas didn't try to stop Nellie as she pushed open a half burnt door, her hand coming back black from the soot. She came to a stop in the doorway, her hands falling to her sides as she looked into what should have been the office.
But all that that was left was just a few walls. "This is where it started, isn't it?" she asked softly, feeling Thomas's presence behind her.
He sighed. "Nell," he began.
"Don't." She cut him off quickly, raising her hand to stop him from speaking. She felt his chest rise and fall as she pressed the back of her hand against it. "I need this, Tommy." She finally looked at him as she cleared her throat. "Is this where it started?"
He stared at her in silence for a moment, his brilliant blue eyes holding the answers to all of Nellie's questions. If only I could read him, she thought to herself.
He finally answered her question with a curt nod. "Yes. The coppers said the fire originated here."
Nellie looked away and exhaled sharply, feeling as if something sharp had been driven into her gut. She slowly stepped inside, stepping into a ray of sunshine that pooled through a gaping hole in the ceiling.
She looked around, feeling weak in her knees as she looked at the wreckage. She swallowed thickly. Thomas was directly behind her and Nellie felt comforted by his presence. She turned and walked past him, stepping out of the wreckage and into the center of the property.
That was where the main pasture was. The once gorgeous field was boxed in by the stables that branched off the main building. She stared at the overgrown grass in dismay. Her mother would have a fit if she could see the state of the property.
The pastures were completely wild now, small saplings and various bushes overtaking the area. Thomas stepped up next to Nellie, his arm brushing against hers. "The horses, how many perished?"
Thomas lifted his chin. "None." Nellie snapped her head over at him, her brows coming together in abject confusion. He looked down at her, his jaw grinding. "They stole 'em all before the fire started."
Nellie's jaw fell open as she turned out to face the pasture once again. "My horses are alive..." Her eyes narrowed as she curled her hands into fists. That means that attack was staged. It wasn't as spontaneous as she was previously led to believe. "Mother said it was random...that a lot of businesses were targeted whilst the men were away at war."
Nellie angled her head to take a look at Thomas's face as she spoke to him. Hopefully he'd reveal more through his expressions than he had been recently. "She said it was only a terrible coincidence that Eloise and Billy were caught in the fire. That it was all a terrible mistake."
Thomas looked away from her, his jaw grinding as if he was chewing on something. Nellie prepared herself for the lie that was about to come from his lips. "Your mother didn't know any better," he said softly. "She was beside herself with grief."
Nellie scoffed as she looked away. "How would you know?" she grumbled. "You weren't even in Birmingham when it happened."
She saw Thomas look at her out of the corners of her eyes and chose to ignore him. He couldn't even be honest with her, which was probably the worst of it all. He can be mad at her all he wants, but his lying was the one thing that Nellie knew she wouldn't be able to take much of.
She turned and brushed past him as she walked through the charred building. She took careful notice of the seemingly random holes that dotted the floors. A lump formed in her throat at the thought of what the attackers were looking for.
She returned to the charred office, keeping her suspicions to herself, Thomas following her closely. "You can go," she said when she heard Thomas step into the room behind her. She turned around and stared at him as she began to tie her hair back with the ribbon she pulled from her pocket. "I will be ready by noon."
His head titled slightly. "Ready for what?"
She dropped her hands to her side once she got her hair pinned back. She forced a smile to her face. "For you to come get me," she said as she worked on rolling her sleeves past her elbows. "Go, Thomas. There are things I need to take care of here."
Thomas stared at her and she stared back, not budging. He was clearly unsure of what to do: leave Nellie in the remains of the very thing that drove her out of Birmingham (in his mind), or try to get her to leave.
Either way, Nellie didn't care what he did. She wouldn't be intimidated by him. She knew too much about him to believe that he would ever be capable of hurting her. And try as he might, he wouldn't be able to control her.
She would, however, cooperate. If he'd stop with the lying, she noted.
"Goodbye, Tommy." Her words were firm, the gentle command obvious to Thomas. It was obvious that he didn't like being told what to do by anyone.
Nellie turned away from him and immediately got to work sifting through the damage. She continued working, even though Thomas stayed in the room for a few more moments. She only hesitated once she heard the crunching of his feet signal his departure.
She stopped and turned towards the door. Thomas was gone and so was Nellie's façade. She remained crouched where she was, but the mask she had put on slowly began to melt away. She let out a gasp as her chin began to tremble, her eyes burning with tears.
She tried so hard to hide her horror from Thomas but now that he was gone, she allowed the feeling to wash over her. She let out a strangled sob as she covered her face with her hands, unable to look at the damage any longer.
The business her father spent his life building was gone in an instant, the bodies of his youngest children trapped inside. Billy and Eloise were only 16 when they died... They weren't even supposed to be at the stables, and Nellie can only guess that they came to spend time with the horses.
They loved the horses more than anyone else in their family.
They were twins, so they went everywhere together. It was rare to find one without the other, so Nellie finds it almost poetic that they died together. She couldn't imagine what would have happened to them if one had died and the other didn't.
They were soulmates, that much was clear. They were literally part of each other from birth and Nellie fully believed that their souls were entwined because of it. They were meant to be, but their lives weren't meant to end.
Nellie peeked out from behind her fingers as warm tears slid down her cheeks. She lowered her hands slowly, her fingers trembling as she fought her emotions. She didn't want to have a full-scale breakdown, not there at least.
She could do it in the privacy of her home. She didn't want to face questions or pity (if he could even feel pity) from Tommy when he returned.
So she dashed her tears away gently, making sure not to ruin her makeup too much. She stepped forward and smoothed her hands down her skirts. Looking around, there wasn't much for her to do. She intended to search through the wreckage to try and find something, anything that might be salvageable.
Files, records, pictures, anything.
But looking at it now, Nellie saw that that task simply wasn't worth the effort. The damage was far more severe than she had been led to believe and now she understands why Thomas didn't want to bring her here in the first place.
She inhaled deeply, closing her eyes as she calmed herself down with slow, steady breaths. She flexed her hands multiple times as she tucked her hair behind her ears and muttered words of encouragement to herself.
She slowly began to sort through the rubble, taking care not to disturb any pieces of charred wood that may be acting as supports for the unstable building. As she worked, she thought back to what life was like five years ago.
Such a short amount of time, yet such a monumental amount of change.
The Allyns had been as famous as the Shelbys. The two families rose in prominence side by side. The Allyn Stables had been around since her grandfather was a young man, but their criminal activity didn't begin until the Peaky Blinders were brought about.
Her father, Alfie Allyn, grew up alongside Arthur Shelby. By the time the two men began their families, they had begun what was now one of England's most notorious gangs: the Peaky Blinders.
Her father, Charles, and Edgar were proud members of the Peaky Blinders. As sons of the founders, the Shelby boys and Allyn boys got along well. Martha and Gretchyn did their best to raise their children, but it was hard to raise children when your husbands are gangsters.
It wasn't long before Martha died and Arthur abandoned his children. Alfie, however, vowed to never abandon his children. He helped Polly raise the Shelby boys until most of them were of age. At that point, the war had begun and they were all conscripted.
Edgar and Charles were best buds with Tommy and his brothers. They were closer to Arthur's age, but the bunch of rowdy boys were thick as thieves. As the only girl in the family for about seven years, Nellie grew up as a princess.
No one dared lay a finger on the Allyn girl. She had not only one family of gangsters to protect her, but two. And though many of the boys initially underestimated her, she quickly showed them her worth.
Born only a few hours after Thomas Shelby, the two got along like they were twins themselves. He was the only boy to not treat her like a delicate piece of china. He roughhoused with Nellie and was always eager to include her in the mischief he and the boys got themselves into.
Nellie loved the attention she got growing up. She loved being untouchable. It made her feel powerful, like a queen. She used her status as the only girl to get what she wanted whenever she wanted it.
Most of the boys wrote her off as a brat, but they didn't try to exclude her from their shenanigans.
Things changed as they grew older. Nellie's older brothers began to get involved in the Peaky Blinder business, as did Arthur and Thomas. The boys became more secretive around her, as no girl was allowed to be involved directly with the actions of the Peaky Blinders.
It infuriated Nellie. She started to become irrelevant to her best friends, so she did whatever she could to stay relevant. She begged and pleaded for her father to allow her to attend meetings and to see what the world of the Peaky Blinders was like.
Despite her mother's wishes, Nellie's father took pride in the fact that his daughter wanted to be a part of the family business. However, men like Arthur Shelby, the Shelby boys' father, and Nellie's own brothers didn't see it fit to have a girl involved.
Alfie didn't let them stop him, though, and Nellie got what she wanted. By the time she was a teenager, she got what she wanted. Nellie was reared to be the figurehead of the legitimate side of the family Stables. But to be in charge of the legitimate business, Nellie needed to be well versed in the illegitimate side.
That was when things between her and the boys began to change. They grew up, giving Nellie the respect she deserved as both a woman and a member of their family. Some of the boys began to see her differently as well. She started maturing. Her body grew curvy and her presence became intoxicating for boys.
Despite her lovely appearance, Nellie was not a lovely girl. She could be perfectly pleasant when she wanted to be, but she had a fierce temper and a nasty mouth. She was kind, but she wasn't soft. She was prone to explosions of anger thanks to her notoriously short temper and wasn't afraid to knock some teeth in to make a point.
The boys would never admit it, but she was fiercer than them all. She was more likely to get in fights than any of the Peaky Blinders.
That was one of the reasons Thomas took a liking to the pretty yet explosive Allyn girl.
They were only children when the two were first drawn to each other in a way neither of them understood. It had been a sunny day and all the children on the lane were playing in the streets. Nellie got mad because a boy pushed her into the gravel, causing her to scrape her knee, and promptly punched him in the face. He liked her spirit.
Nellie loved Thomas, but when she was little, boys were icky. She felt the same way about Thomas, but that certainly changed. It only took a few years for Nellie to start blushing when Thomas entered the room, for her heart rate to spike and her nerves to get all jittery.
He was a charming boy. He loved to do silly impressions and make crude jokes. He was carefree and lighthearted, but that didn't undermine his intimidating nature. He could silence a room with one look and God did that drive Nellie insane.
She realized how attracted she was to the Shelby boy but it was damn near impossible to hide it purely because of the stark change in behavior. She was tough, not shy. Her brothers quickly realized why their little sister was suddenly acting so differently and made a humiliatingly big deal out of it.
Little did she know, Thomas felt the same way. So when they were thirteen, they stole their first kiss and when they were sixteen, they spent their first night of love-making together. Nellie had never loved a boy the way she loved Thomas. Something about their bond was so raw and so deep that they didn't even have to say 'I love you' for either one of them to know how the other felt.
They hardly ever needed words. They were connected on a deeper level and something about their bond made it so easy to understand the other without having to speak.
He was gentle and sweet, his heart devoted to Nellie and only Nellie. Their worlds revolved around each other and it shattered Nellie when she found out that Thomas had been drafted. He tried to hide it from her, but she found out eventually.
She always found out the things he tried to hide from her. She was naturally curious and intuitive, so it didn't take much digging to find out why her boyfriend was suddenly acting so different.
They were twenty-four when Thomas got drafted. They had been together for almost twelve years at that time. They endured many fights and a few short-lived breakups, but they had always found their way back to each other.
It was the night that Nellie found out that Thomas promised her a wedding when he returned. It didn't take much convincing for Nellie to agree: if she had the option right now, she would marry Thomas without hesitation.
She loved him more than anything in the world and it hurt more than anything to know that he didn't love her the same anymore. She blinked back a sudden onset of tears as she thought about it.
She straightened, a small ache in her back as she did so. She didn't realize it, but hours had ticked by. Her hands were blackened by the soot and her dress was positively ruined. She frowned as she looked around, realizing she got a lot more work done than she thought.
She had found a partially intact filing cabinet beneath a pile of rubble, a few half-stacks of somewhat salvageable files still inside. Nellie intended to sort through them and see if there was anything she could use when she planned to kickstart the business again.
Most of the pieces of destroyed furniture and structural components of the building had been pushed into one corner near a wall that looked as if it would fall over with the smallest of pushes. She wanted to tear everything down and rebuild. If she could afford it.
Nellie was growing frustrated. She knew what she was there for, but had made virtually no progress in finding it. She ran a hand through her hair, a huge black streak staining her honey-brown hair. She took a step forward with a sigh when her attention was dragged away by a hollow creaking beneath her foot.
She froze, her skin feeling icy cold as she looked down at the wood beneath her foot. It was a spot she had just cleared after sliding the remains of her father's huge desk to the side. She swept her foot across the ground to dispel the ash and dirt that covered the wood floors.
Tapping her toe against the wood, Nellie noted the hollow sound as she tapped her foot in a circle around that area. It was hollow for at least half a meter all the way around before the ground became solid again.
With a deep breath, she stepped with both feet into the center of the area. She felt the ground depress beneath her weight and immediately dropped to her knees. She frantically wiped the ash away, revealing charred floorboards.
She clawed at the wood, wincing and cursing as splinters dug into her skin and beneath her nails. She didn't stop, though, because if what she thought was beneath these boards was really there, she just became the luckiest woman in all of Birmingham.
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