1921
"Happy birthday love" my aunt Polly says kissing my cheek as I walk into the betting shop
"Thank you Poll"
"Your getting old now" John laughs
"Shut up" I roll my eyes at my younger brother
"Oi Finn get in here" Finn walks into John office "take the odds" John hands the phone over to Finn who takes his place
"Yeah sure"
"Wheres Tommy?"
"Gone to the Black Lion" I tell my brother
"On his own?"
"You know our brother just as well and I do. He does everything on his own until he needs one of us"
"Should I go the the Black Lion?"
"No John"
"What about Arthur? where the fuck is Arthur?"
"Where do you think? at the Garrison drinking"
"Fuck sake" John sighs "it feels like things are getting a bit out of hand" I stop walking halfway in the shop
"Look. I deal with the shop, not Peaky business. You seem like the only one with a sensible head right now. So get things in hand" I walk away from John.
Later on a family meeting is called
"Where the bloody hell is Tommy?"
"He's on his way" aunt Polly says not looking at John
"Alright then, while we're waiting patiently... whisky, left over from the explosion. Good stuff as well" Arthur begins handing glasses out "good stuff as well" he hands me a glass then pours some whiskey in
"Right. Before Tommy gets here, there's a few things we need to get straight between the rest of us"
"You think?" Poll questions John who's stood at the head of the table with his hands behind his back
"Here we go" i mutter downing my drink then pouring more in the glass
"Yeah I do. I want to know, when did we all take a vote on this expansion south?" Polly moves forward with arms crossed
"If you have anything to say, you wait for Thomas"
"Polly's fucking right John" Arthur now chimes in
"Yeah will I see all of the books"
"Yeah so do I John" I roll my eyes
"But I see legal and off track. Sort of stuff you don't see. And in the past year the Shelby Company Limited has been making £150 a day. Right? a fucking day. Sometimes more. So what I want to know is why are we changing thing? we haven't even stepped a foot in London yet and they have already blown up our fucking pub"
"Who said anything about cockneys?"
"Who else?" Esme now pipes up. Tom finally arrives, Esme speaks her mind about not expanding to London, but of course Tommy doesn't listen.
The following week Tommy asks me to accompany him in London
"And no..."
"I know Tom. No back chatting, keep smiling and bat my eyelashes" I wave my brother off as we walk into a bakery
"Who are you?" a young man asks
"We're here to see Mr Solomons" I smile
"I'm sorry he's not available today, you'll have to..."
"Woah Ollie mate let them in" a rough voice says. I look up and see a man walking towards us. My smile grows wider instantly feeling attracted to the older man
"Mr and Mrs Shelby is it just the two of ya?"
"Miss Shelby. I'm his sister" I correct the man
"My apologies. You wanna take a look at my bakery?" the man begins walking, a nod from Tommy tells me to follow "we bake all sorts here. Did you know we bake over 10,000 loaves a week? We bake the white bread, we bake the brown bread all sorts. Would you like to try some" he leads us to what looks now like a brewery "bread? yeah"
"Alright" tommy actually smiles a little
"What would you like, brown or white?"
"Try the brown"
"Brown right and for you Miss?"
"I'll have whatever is the strongest" I smile at the man
"You sure, love? woman don't handle their drink well, right, and I don't want you going home on the piss"
"I think I'll be alright" I take a bottle from Ollie and pour myself a drink, downing in one
"No bad" Tommy says taking his drink
"Not bad? that's stuffs fucking awful"
"I have to agree. That has got to be the worst thing I've ever drank... sorry"
"Na the brown stuffs for the workers. The white stuffs for the boss come look" the man, I now presume is Mr Solomons leads us to an office. Tommy and I sit down in front of him
The meeting in the end works out well other than Mr Solomons pulling a gun out and placing in Tommys face and we are now business partners and it's up to me to go to the meetings with Mr Solomons.
Here's part 1! Will be getting part 2 out later in the week