ᴺᴼᵂ ᴾᴸᴬᵞᴵᴺᴳ : bend - volumes
⇄ ◃◃ ⅠⅠ ▹▹ ↻
v. twenty-six: ❝hypocrisy❞
✵✵✵
Small heath, Birmingham
Days have passed for Mar and Tommy, who have never spoken to each other since the night of Ada's parturition. They just seemed to be too fed up with their very own struggles to communicate directly.
The James woman has been cursed by night terrors of her preceding repentance, which even the voices in her head did nothing to help her with as they howled at her that what she'd done was a matter of faith; that such a man deserved to be punished for hurting her.
All the same, she is sceptical of their claims. With the shame and fear within her consuming her alive, all of their words are meaningless. Marianna felt just as if she was now rotting in hell, despite the cold bit of wind in England and the actual fact that she was still on earth among the living.
It was 9 a.m. and she was at the summit of the hill at which she liked to draw, and the country's humid crispness had somehow poured in due to the drizzle previously that dawn had melted away to the forest floor, much like the restful sleep Mar had desired for months at least. She lay on the green ground, her eyes shut, absorbed in thought, fostering the delicate scowl of the sun that sneaked behind the haze of Britain's horizon.
It wasn't until the sky darkened that she opened her eyes and encountered the man she hadn't seen for days, obstructing the beam of sunlight from her pale brown skin. Mar didn't make efforts to greet him courteously as he disrupted her peace and comfort and he only gazed at her when she lounged herself up.
"Why aren't you at work?" his brusque voice demanded, and the lady rolled her pupils and grunted internally. Thinking to herself; Why can't this man just inform her he had to ask her something rather than commence with just some superfluous chatter?
Mar, fed up with the utterly pointless queries, chose to go right to the point and start wondering, "What is it, Thomas?"
"Tommy." he quickly corrected her, not liking the sound of the name from her lips.
In chagrin, the gypsy whittled her sight at him, a profound glunch starting to form in her heart-shaped mouth. "I'll call you any way I want. It might be a bastard or a bugger. What do you want with me this time?"
He paused for a brief moment, his polished black boots scrubbing the green fields beneath him as he looked down at them. "It's not me. I may well not swear on the bible, but I'm trying to tell you the truth. I didn't finked Freddie Thorne."
Her heart was clogged with pain and despair as a byproduct of his utterances. It was accurately how he felt, enraged and fearful because no one was believing his words.
Marianna stared at him, trying to think of her forthcoming phrases, before whispering, "I believe you."
His face gave up in great relief and remission prior to actually reverting to normal as he asked, "You do?"
"I'm a full-blooded gypsy soothsayer, Thomas. My mother could see the hue of thoughts and feelings in the earth's atmosphere, and I could listen to and perceive the enlightenment. Sometimes not, but almost all of the time, I do. And I saw that you're being forthright." She replied in one inhalation, trying to walk next to him.
They stood shoulder to shoulder, their fingers almost tickling as they gazed down the slope. Thomas' fingertips drew to hers like a magnet, a secluded touch far beyond the cool and collected bit of wind. He slid his into hers as if they had formed specifically for one another.
Finally, he found himself fondling his source of burning, as though Marianna had been the gasoline to Thomas' flaming soul.
The man opted to speak in the throes of solitude, swallowing the dirty guilt in him. His palm squeezed hers, and she smiled. "Black Star Day. December 3rd."
"And what's that?" she asked, a slight smile on her bottom lip.
"The very day we took out Billy Kimber as well as his men." Thomas stated, and she could see the tenacity in his iridescent blue orbs when he turned his attention to her, and once again, she notice guilt swirling in them.
A sign that it truly is what it is - A bloodbath. Perhaps he's guilty of the war he's bringing.
She exhaled a gulp of air and gave a nod in memorandum of understanding, "The first fucking climb to the top of the world, yeah?"
"The very first of the few," he remarked before shifting his eyes away from her and toward the foreboding horizon. "Only you and Grace are aware of this."
"You shouldn't trust her quite as much, Thomas." Mar noted, her smile slipping away with the reference of the Irishwoman's name.
Mar really liked Grace and sought to confide in her the way Thomas did, but yet she couldn't get past the murmurs. There's simply something improper with her that she can't place her finger on.
Is it jealousy? could be. Thomas wouldn't have her, right? No, he won't.
Oh how wrong is she about that.
"She's our secretary. She should know." Thomas spoke as the woman beside him shifted her attitude.
"Yeah, of course, and indeed the spirits told me that you have not yet informed your family." She breathed out in irritation. "You notified a subordinate and a soothsayer but not your kin?" Mar scoffed as she finished, squeezing her hand away from his clutches.
"All of them hate me, Mar, and you're not just a soothsayer." Thomas tilted his head indignantly as he turned to confront her exasperation.
In such a patronising tone, Mar questioned, "Grace doesn't hate you, eh?"
Thomas completely disregarded her quandary as he descended into her vindictiveness. "You don't hate me, Marianna, do you?" He decided to ask, all smug smile on his top lip wiped out. Thomas need an assurance, though it's selfish of him to ask her when she didn't know what he did.
She raised one eyebrow and shook her head, perplexed.
Mar knew Thomas had come to her for consolation, and she opted to offer it, as she responded with a slight hearty laugh. "You have too much folly in you, Tommy, and if I hate you with an equal amount of foolishness, I'll be tormenting myself."
✵
Marianna and Thomas had a pleasant laugh strolling through the murky sidewalks of Small Heath, and since she wanted to see Polly and Finn, they both chose to walk towards the Shelby residence next to each other.
As they confronted the front door, Thomas managed to open it for Marianna; she smiled as she entered the residence and decided to wait until he could lead her through the kitchen, where she could hear people talking.
Thomas gave her an impressive peek as he decided to step ahead of her and led the way. And yet, before she was able to join the kitchen, she came to a halt next to Thomas, adjacent to the warm room's opening.
"Aye well, speak of the devil," She was able to hear from within, and her pupils constricted when she saw Arthur Shelby Sr. The old man's gaze shifted to the woman standing next to his son, and he added, "And his mistress."
As she remained alongside Thomas, the James woman felt her own hatred emit from within, and she could only gulp in misery.
The father of the boys smiled at her, which she scowled at before shifting his gaze to the man beside her.
"How are you, son?" he inquired of Thomas, who simply stared at him.
Marianna sensed Thomas's resentment soaring, and when she returned her gaze to the family, Arthur Shelby Sr. mockingly affirmed her. "And you, little Marianna, aren't you? The daughter of Pyramus James and Margaret Doe? How are you?"
The gypsy lady felt her emotions ascend yet again when she heard her parents' full names. She backed away, her stare deviating from the elderly man and toward Arth's distraught eyes.
When all of a sudden Thomas's hand caught her wrist and stopped her from retreating. She looked up at him, whilst Thomas didn't take his gaze away from his father and said quietly, "Get out."
"Come on, son. I'm a changed man." the elder man quipped, bearing out his arm, ostensibly flabbergasted by his second child's order.
"You walked out on us ten years ago," Thomas responded, his staggeringly stoic visceral inflection filling everybody in nervousness. "Not now. Get out of this house."
"Tommy, he's different." The eldest Shelby brother spoke out in the midst of the suspense in the house, though he did not lift his eyes to peer at his brother.
"Shut up." said the aforementioned brother as rapidly as he possibly could, his fury frothing discreetly through his nose.
Their father's sight diverted from Thomas to Arthur, gradually making a nod in the memorandum of understanding. "It's alright, son." Arthur Shelby Sr. gathered his belongings and, in a condescending tone, said, "Arthur Shelby never stays where he is not welcome."
The two women in the room had been looking directly at him like hawks, their golden eyes puncturing through his suit attire and compelling him to shift to face them. And yet these fiery women didn't avert their gaze; instead, they gazed at him with even greater severity, causing him to slide his eyes to the head of his family, the very same person who had hailed his obligation as the family's father at such an early age.
"Quite something you've become." With a harsh exhale, Arthur Shelby Senior said to Thomas. With no more than a response, the man exited the room through the other door, where John and Finn had been standing.
Leaving out Arthur and Finn, everyone in the room was brimming with fury while the man wandered out, as he passed by young Finn, he wrinkled his tresses and said goodbye – leaving the kid perplexed, not having a clue just what the fuss was all about or who the man seemed to be.
Mar discovered herself staring at the little Shelby, she could perceive his interest and enthusiasm to follow the man and find something he'd never felt before. Only when John drew his focus back to the room did he bow his head in despair as his stare tumbled on the young gypsy lady beside Thomas.
For someone who claims she is no family and ought not to be intervening in Shelby's family disputes. Marianna James appeared to be constantly shunted into their business, so she made the decision to excuse herself to prevent unnecessary hypocrisy.
She felt compelled to leave the residence, and she intended to drag the youngest child with her. Based on what she's seen, he's had more than enough and ought to be out there playing with his mates. She drifted away from Tommy and spoke as she traversed the route from behind Arthur's seat to the boy. "Let's go play at my house, Finn-"
"Nah Mar," Arthur said sharply before shifting his gazes to his youngest brother. "He's our dad."
Because Arthur Jr. yearns for the fondness of his parental figures, particularly his father, who abandoned them a decade ago, she could tell by the tonality of the oldest Shelby's pronouncement that this wasn't going to turn out well.
Mar could only close her eyes in mental agony as she heard Thomas let out a wistful sigh, his next words being: "He's a selfish bastard."
The young gypsy glanced at Polly, who was simply watching his nephews; Pol knew it was their business since they were all fully grown adults and her words weren't needed at all. Marianna drew Finn with her when she stayed by the corner, Finn within her grasp. She heard Arthur snigger.
"You calling someone a selfish bastard? It's a bit rich, Tommy." Arthur stated, not taking into account everybody's eyes on him as he proceeded, "I mean, thanks to you, we're already down a bloody sister."
Mar hadn't ever felt the need to defend Tommy as strongly as she did in those moments, and yet she couldn't bring herself to speak. She wanted to explain to them that she honestly believed Thomas was stating the truth, but who would believe her if they had already set on trusting what they did think was accurate?
And before she had said any of it, Thomas had already done so. As his stare and body approached his brother's sitting position, he said discreetly pointing to the direction where the old man had taken off, "You want to see him, Arthur? You want to see him? You go with him?"
Arthur shifted his eyes for a moment from where he was staring before to the door behind Mar and Finn. The eldest stood up immediately in response to Thomas' scowl and intense glare. Arthur's stance indicated that he wanted to say more to his brother and fight him. But he did nothing of the sort. Rather than then, like his dad, he stormed out of the room, banging the door behind him.
This left John, Polly, Tommy, Finn, and Mar in stunned silence within the kitchen until the James woman patted young Finn's arm and smiled. "Do you want us to play cards in the sitting room?"
✵
It had only taken about an hour to go as the two had been playing with Mar, who'd been purposefully losing to the younger child. She was pleased to see his dopey grin when he chortled at her pathetic bid to win, which instantly reminded her of John and Thomas'.
"Mar, you're no good at this!" A tray of biscuits was placed in front of her as they sat on the settee inside the family room, and Finn exclaimed in front of her.
"That isn't fair, you're excessively good at this!" she said with a sulk on her mouth, however a laugh abided.
"Am I quite like Thomas?" his tiny voice wondered aloud.
Mar's lips pursed in confusion, not understanding the child's question. "Thomas isn't very good at something like this; have you ever seen him play poker?"
Her remark elicited a pleased chuckle from the child, who did ask, "Then, I am better than Thomas?"
"Far better," Mar said unequivocally, adding, "John, Arthur, and Diego have had nothing over you when it comes to these cards."
The both of them burst out laughing as they proceeded to vilify the men whilst still playing the game together. Unbeknownst to them, a man was standing by the kitchen doorway, having to listen to their discussion, a glimmer of a grin forming on his tough, resolute face.
He entered the room as quietly as he possibly could, as though he were back on the frontlines and one loud move would risk his life. Tommy has taken a look back enough to see their marvellous, cheerful images. His youngest brother's scrumptious snicker wiped away all his distress, whereas Mar persisted in wrangling a card from the kid's grasp.
Not having a clue how to partake in their amusement without spoiling it, he stood there motionless. The situation sort of reminds him of the good old days, when he'd remain by the side and observe the little James girl laugh with Ada and John in the exact same living room every time she came over. Isn't it funny how, even though they are no longer children, he remains absolutely terrified of trying to reach over the girl to join her in her guffaws?
On the cusp of his meanderings, the two individuals on the settee glanced up and saw him standing there looking at them. Finn Shelby dove down from his perch and directed him into Marianna's immediate vicinity.
"Let's play, Tommy!" exclaimed the child.
Mar remarked, her nose scrunched. "I told you he's not any decent at something like this; he'll just get upset."
Finn laughed and turned to look at his brother, who'd been observing the woman take the cards from the table. "Why are you mad at Dad?" the child inquired.
His question ended up causing both the man and the woman to freeze. Such innocuous queries may cause their hearts and minds to race. She managed to give Thomas a peek and nodded, indicating that he needed to respond and that she would help him with it.
"I'm mad at a bunch of people, Finn." Thomas made a point of saying, triggering Mar to step on his foot in revulsion.
She ended up giving him an icy stare as she whispered under her breath, "What a fucking idiot."
"But he's our family, and, as Arthur mentioned, he's our dad; shouldn't we welcome him here?"
"Not every member of the family must be invited inside your home, Finn." Mar attempted to reason with the kid this time.
The child only glanced at her, puzzled, not fully understanding the words she was saying, "Why is that?"
"Well," she stalled as she toyed with her fingers, her eyes falling on Thomas' beautiful eyes, "let's put it this way, shall we? I said I cleaned the house just now, and all of the family understands that the home is tidy and not to be dirty once more, yet there was a knock on the front door. Once I went to open it, it had been the member of the family who had defiled the house first with his still dirty shoes that he would not remove. Should I let him in or send him away because he'll only tarnish the house I've worked so to maintain tidy after what he has done?"
Her dilemma caused the child to pause, and, as they sat waiting for the child's reaction, she found Thomas' palm just underneath her own as she positioned it to her side. Their gazes met briefly.
She was able to see his respect and appreciation. She was poised to wink at him when Finn yelled. "No! He should be reprimanded, just like Aunt Pol did with me!"
"Yes, Finn," Mar said with a light snicker. "They need to have a good spanking to take lessons, don't you think? "
Thomas' younger brother eagerly nodded in rebuttal, grabbing the card from Mar's lap and organising it right in front of the three of them.
She then felt a pull from her arm, Marianna returned her gaze to Thomas, smiling and snickering, "You owe me for this, Mr. Shelby."
✵✵✵
He paused for a brief moment, his polished black boots scrubbing the green fields beneath him as he looked down at them.
"It's not me. I may well not swear on the bible, but I'm trying to tell you the truth. I didn't finked Freddie Thorne."
3113 words.
EDITED.
kindly vote and comment! :>
author's note: how is it? I feel like Mar is about to get crazier after the next update