Bella smoothed out her new work dress as she made her way through the city.
She's an early riser as it is, so waking up in time to make it by 8 o'clock like Tommy requested was no problem.
It was around 7:45am as she turned onto Watery Lane. Bella smiled to herself, perfect timing.
Once she reached the betting den, she gently opened the door. It was much quieter than yesterday, but it was still early.
Walking through the building, she went down the hall towards Tommy's office, hoping to find out where she would be working.
"Oh! You must be Bella, I was expecting you!"
Bella turned to her right and saw a tall, slim woman sitting behind a desk, smiling at her.
"Yes, that's me. I'm suppose to be starting as Mr. Shelby's secretary. Do you work here as well?" She asked the woman
"I do. Thomas informed me of your arrival today, me names Lizzie. I'm his other secretary in the office....In fact, he asked me to show you around until he gets in this morning."
Bella smiled nodding at Lizzie. She likes this woman already.
Lizzie stood up and used her hand to direct Bell in the right direction. "This way, I'll show you your desk."
Bella felt her nerves starting to get to her. So she stayed quiet and nodded her head.
Lizzie looked down at the girl, she was shy but knew she was going to be good company around here.
Stopping at the desk right in front of Tommy's office.
"This is yours, you can place you belongings here. And this is where you'll be seated everyday" Lizzie told the shorter girl
"Brilliant, it's lovely"
*****
After showing Bella her desk, Lizzie took the time to show her around the rest of the place. From where the betting happened, to the door that leads to the families old residence and everything in between.
It wasn't too large so Bella wasn't worried about getting anything mixed up.
Currently, the two women were standing between their desks, at the filing cabinet against the wall. Lizzie was showing her how they organize certain files.
Lizzie watched the girl for a moment, watching as she concentrated on the papers inside, really trying to grasp what she was learning.
She observed her physical features. She noticed how Bella wore her hair a lot longer than most these days. But she liked it, she had very dark, wavy hair that fell naturally down to about her mid back. She also noticed how her hair made her eyes stick out, her light gray eyes stood out against the darkness of her hair. Matching nicely with her pale skin. This woman was younger than Lizzie and a lot shorter. But even she had to admit this woman was very pretty to look at.
She wondered where Thomas found a girl like her to work for a man like him.
As she was thinking about all this, the door to the offices opened, revealing the man himself.
Tommy made eye contact with Lizzie first, acknowledging her presence.
He was still a little careful around Lizzie since Epsom. Lizzie has shown signs of forgiveness over the course of the year, but Tommy still thought that he didn't deserve it yet.
At this point Bella noticed his presence, turning to face him, she softly spoke,
"Good morning, Mr. Shelby"
Tommy then turned to her, he took notice of her attire change. She looked professional in her new brown dress. He was glad his money went to good use.
He nodded at her, "Good morning, Ms. Ray. Come with me to my office, I have some papers for you to sign." He said before continuing on his way to his door.
Before following Bella turned to Lizzie smiling at her.
"Thank you so much for showing me the roots, I'm sure i'll see you again soon"
It was now Lizzie's turn to smile at the girl. "Of course darling, it was my pleasure. Now hurry up before he gets grumpy!"
Bella laughed as she made her was into the office.
Tommy's head snapped up at the sound. It was the first time he heard her actually laugh and show a full, genuine smile.
He liked it. And he hoped to see more of it. So smirked with her.
"Care to share what's so funny Ms. Ray?" He asked.
She stepped forwards with her arms behind her back,
"nope" she said while popping the P
Tommy raised his eyebrows at her, keeping the smirk on his face. "Well then have a seat, peach, we have lots of signatures of employment to get through."
And she did exactly that. Listening to every word Tommy had to to say about the company and where she had to sign. The whole process took about an hour. But she didn't mind, she was just happy to finally be making some progress in her life.
She found out he disrupted alcohol and ran the races. How Cute.
Tommy took back the last signed document as she handed it over. After doing so he leaned forward on the desk.
"Now listen Ms. Ray ." He said making sure he still had her full attention
She looked into his eyes, ready to hear every word, while she leaned a little closer to the desk as well.
"Since you'll be working here, there is something I need to tell you about the company. And after this I will need you to sign this confidentiality contract, legally binding you to not share what you learn from this conversation." He told her
She understood, can't be sharing secrets with the competition. She nodded
He looked at her for another second, just to make sure he could trust her.
"At this company, not all of the races are true and fair. Our job is pick the best horse to win or lose, make that happen and then get men to bet on the horse we please." He explained
Oh. Now this makes sense to her.
Still looking at him, she smirk wagging her fingers towards him, "you Mr. Shelby are a very sneaky buggar. I like it. It's good business."
Her respond actually surprised Tommy. He was nervous how she would react to finding out he ran illegal races.
Handing over the contract, she signed it and handed it back. Looking up at him with curiosity in her eyes,
"So how do you do it?"
Tommy looked back up from the papers, "do what, peach?"
"The races. How do you fix the races?"
Another smirk made its way onto his face. Using his hand he waved her over, while grabbing a paper from his desk. He thought it was best to lay it out for her.
She came around and leaned over his shoulder to see what he was doing.
*****
Tommy spent sometime giving Bella the ins and outs of fixing races. He drew it out for her, gave her pointers of things to look out for, anything she could possibly need to know about it.
He even gave her some more insight about the alcohol side of the business.
Currently Tommy was still sitting at his desk, while Bella was sitting on the arm of his office chair.
"And then as I'm sure you've seen the shipments come in and out of Charlie's yard" Tommy told her
"Oh my goodness, I've always wondered what was on those boats!" Bella said shocked, she finally found out what was happening at the yard she was sleeping at.
"I'm still surprised Charlie hasn't seen me there yet, from what Curly tells me he's always very grumpy!" She continued to giggle about the older man she'd sneak around
Tommy hummed and looked up at the girl. When he did so he didn't expect her to be so close. She was already looking down at him with small smile on her face. She had a really nice smile.
Continuing to look at him with that smile, she softly shook her head, "you're also always very grumpy" she told Tommy
At this Tommy pretended to look a little offended and furrowed his eyebrows, "I'm not grumpy right now!"
Bella giggled again. Reaching out to poke her finger between his brows, "whatever you say grumpy"
He gently grabbed her wrist, pulling it away from his face.
He wanted to say something snarky back, but then he caught her eye. The bright grey of them held him there. He felt like he could look at them for hours.
Then he saw Grace's eyes. He forgot about her for a while there.
Clearing his throat, he backed up. "That's all I have for you today Ms. Ray. You may take the rest of it off and I'll see you in the morning."
Bella was still for a second, she didn't realize how close and intimate their position was until he broke it. Looking down she got up from the chairs arm.
"Okay, thank you Mr. Shelby. I'll see you in the morning"
"Call me Tommy, we'll be around each other a lot. No need for formalities."
Looking back over at him she nodded, "okay Tommy and then please call me Bella"
"Have a good rest of the day Bella"
Giving him one last smile, she left the room.
When out of the room, she went back over to her new desk. Sitting down at it in order to collect herself and organize it a bit before she left for the day.
She couldn't help but think about how she liked the way he said her name. She also couldn't help but think about the meeting they just had.
She was in there talking to him for hours, but it really didn't feel that long. She enjoyed his company. But she also had to remember that he was still her employer and was best to try and keep it as professional as possible. She hoped they could move past this.
Taking one last quick look through the window going into his office, she saw him mentally spacing out the way she just was.
Taking a couple deep breaths, she grabbed her bag and went to make her exit.
Saying a quick goodbye to Lizzie, promising to see her in the morning.
And with that she left, a certain Shelby on her mind for the rest of the day.
And she couldn't help but feel guilty about it.
*****
It was now Friday morning. And Bella was rushing down Watery Lane to make sure she got to the office on time.
It was her fourth day at the office. The Last two days didn't consist of much. It was mostly just spending time with Lizzie and doing whatever work she was allowed to.
Tommy was there but wasn't very present. She thinks it has something to do with her. He just stayed in his office and when he needed something done he'd come out and talk to Lizzie. Who then asked Bella to help with it.
She hoped if she did do something he considered unprofessional, he would be able to look past it. She felt bad about it. But her new nickname for him turned out to still be true, he was very grumpy.
Rushing through the doors, she was out of breath.
This caused Lizzie to look up from her desk. Once she saw Bella she smirked,
"You just barely made it" seeing that it was exactly 8am
Letting out an exaggerated sigh, Bella nodded her head in agreement
"And not a minute late!" She proudly exclaimed
"You silly girl...Tommy said he left some papers on your desk for you to sign and go through. If you need any help please let me know doll." She told her
In return Bella smiled, "you truly are a blessing Lizzie"
"I know" she shrugged
When Bella made it over to her desk. She saw the stack of papers, but that wasn't what made her frown.
What made her frown was the fact that there was a peach sitting on top of them.
Picking it up, she looked over at Tommy's office. She knew it was him that left it for her.
Looking back down at the peach she smiled. She knew he liked to tease her and call her peach because of the all of the peach pits left around the stable.
She took this as a good sign. They must be okay now. And just like that she felt a lot of her anxiety go away.
Now with a clear conscience, she got to work on the stack.
A few hours later, she finish the stack and helped Lizzie with some other work around the office.
Realizing she hasn't seen or heard from Tommy all day, she figured it was a good time to thank him and bring him the papers for him to sign.
Going back over to her desk, grabbing the small stack of documents and went to knock on his door.
After a moment she heard him lowly telling her to enter.
He looked up at her when she entered the room and then looked right back down at his papers.
"Well good afternoon to you too, grumpy" Bella said using her nickname from the other day.
She saw him shake his head at her "good to see ya too peach"
She shyly stepped further into the room, "speaking of peaches...I wanted to thank you for the one you left on me desk this mornin', it meant a lot more than you probably think"
He looked at her face then, "you're welcome Bella"
She walked even further into his office, slowly going over to the windows and pulling back the shades.
"Oi what are you doing?!" Tommy said to her
She turned back to look at him with a stubborn look.
"You need some more natural light in here. I really like your office Tommy, But it'll do you some good to get some sun light in here."
"It was fine the way it was"
"Whatever you say grumpy" she giggled
Rolling his eyes at her "did you just come in here to disrupt me or do you need something?"
Walking over to the front of his desk, she put the documents down, she took a deep breath. "I actually do, You need to review and sign these documents. The rest of them are all set and put away. These are the last of 'em" she told him while pointing to the part of the papers needing signatures.
Tommy studied them and nodded his head, "alright I'll look through them and leave them on your desk before I leave."
She smiled and started making her way out of the office, "thank you again Mr. Sh-Tommy"
He shook his head as she left the room. Suddenly he was in a better mood then He had been in days.
*****
About an hour passed and Bella found herself looking window. It was starting to rain.
It's been a while since it rained. So it'll make for an interesting night in the yard.
Sighing, she turned her head when she heard the door open and in walked Arthur.
She instantly perked up at him
"Ello love, heard that you joined the business, good to see ya again!" He expressed while walking over to her.
She giggled looking up at the man "it's good to see you too Arthur"
"Ahh I see you're starting to come outta your shell there girl, love to see it. Soon you'll be acting like a true Peaky blinder! Tommy in the office?"
Bella frowned at this, "yes he's in there" she quietly said.
He patted her on the shoulder and made his way through the door.
Sitting back down in her seat, confused. what did he mean by Peaky blinder? Was it another part of the business? She'll have to ask Tommy about that soon.
A few minutes past before Arthur came back out.
He walked back over to Bella's desk.
"Tommy told me that he's going to be staying a little late tonight. Asked if I could bring you to the Garrison for drinks."
Looking up at him surprised, she completely forgot that they invited her to Arthur's 'party' tonight.
She became really nervous. She was okay at the office, it was professional, no pressure came along with it. But seeing the whole family and outside of the work setting, now that made her nervous.
Realizing Arthur was waiting for her answer, she took a couple deep breath and looked down at her outfit. She was wearing a flowy green dress, it was a little tight on the chest but loosen around the waist, it would work for the pub. Then looked outside. It was pouring now, if she went to the Garrison it would save her some time out of the rain....
"Sure I'll be there"
Arthur smiled "there ya go love, I'll come pick ya up here after work hours"
Rubbing her hands together, she nodded "thank you Arthur, see ya then"
And with that he left the building.
Looks like she'll be spending the evening with the Shelby's.