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It was dark outside and the pub was packed with drunk and happy men. Grace was standing on a make-shift stage near to the pub piano and was singing 'The Boy I Love'. She had told me that it was a sweet romantic ballad with a lilting rhythm. The men in the pub were singing along or swapping raucous laughter with the handful of young prostitutes who hung out in pairs among the men.
And what was I doing?
I was standing near the small window and criticizing them. Grace for her singing and the men for... their singing too. It sounded horrible and I just couldn't wait to hurry back home.
Home.
Where was my home?
Did I even have a home now?
My dad had died when I was about fifteen because of his heart condition. It was sudden but I knew that it had something to do with my mum because, well, she was a whore. Going around, sleeping for money even though dad had a stable job and income. Dad knew about that, of course, and they used to have many arguments about the matter too, which included mainly them shouting at each other and my mum slapping dad.
Which then ended with dad getting drunk and mum going for another late night out. Disgusting. But dad was nice, too nice and fragile. He loved mum with all his heart even after her disgusting acts. He did think about divorcing her though but he backed out every time because he thought that'd make my life more harder than it already was and maybe deep down he was hoping that mum would change.
Of course, she never did and dad ended up dying. Since I was their only child and a minor, mum did take care of me, that was, until I was eighteen and then she practically threw me out of the house, saying that I was old enough to live on my own. Bullshit.
Luckily, my grandfather — my dad's dad — took me in because apparently he had always wanted to take care of his grandchildren. And I stayed with him until he died too. I was around twenty-three when that had happened, doing a nursing course.
Later I got to know the real reason why my mum had kicked me out. It was because she had found the "love of her life" with whom she had a child with. She wanted to move in with them and she knew there was no chance of that unless I was out of the house.
My mum was a bitch.
Then she got tricked. The man she was supposedly in "love" with cheated on her with some other whore and they got divorced, the custody of the child going to the father because well, the child didn't want to live with a whore mother.
That was what the child's father made him say lol.
What goes around comes around, I guess. After that, mum tried so hard to reconcile with me but I just ignored her every pathetic little attempts... until one day, I suddenly vanished and appeared in an unfamiliar room with a cute cat and a sweet roommate.
I didn't know what had happened in the current Winona's past but that was what happened in the 21st century's Winona's past.
I snapped out of my sad memories when the pub door slammed open with a loud bang. First, John entered and then Thomas followed behind. All heads turned away. All the men stopped singing and peered into their beer. It was dead silence as if the men were afraid to let out even a squeak.
My eyes travelled from all the silenced men toward Thomas, then from him to John, and I admired their appearance, physique, and presence. I was fangirling so hard, internally, of course. There were just the two of them, no sign of the oldest brother, Arthur. Thomas, as usual, was giving everyone a disappointed look and John was standing beside him with a smirk, looking all smug.
John weirdly looked like young Aaron Taylor-Johnson. When I had first watched the edits, I was so confused, like, Aaron? In Peaky Blinders? Then slowly I started noticing their differences. And I searched them up and realized that both were different personalities.
But anyway, even in the silence, defying the spark of reputation and the dangerous aura of the Shelby brothers, Grace continued to sing. Smart little shit she was. Trying to gain Thomas's attention with her awful singing.
Thomas stood near to the door, peering up at Grace. The pianist, too, had stopped playing. Even then Grace didn't stop. There was silence apart from the song and Grace's voice faltered only a little. She was nervous but somehow her momentum kept her going.
I sighed and cleaned up the perfectly clean window because I wasn't about to let myself get suffocated with the dead silence which was such a lie because I was already suffocating and sweating after the lavish entry of the Shelby brothers and not to mention Grace's awful singing was making me nauseas. I was probably being dramatic but I was feeling a little sick because of the sudden change in the pub.
John waited for Thomas to decide his reaction and after a moment, he snorted softly and made his way toward me. Thomas's eyes were glued on Grace. I was worried about their interaction after what had happened between me and him but now looking at them, I guess I had nothing to worry about after all. He kept staring at Grace without any expression while John walked up to me with a smirk playing on his lips.
"'ello love, I see you're new here?" He sat down and peered up at me.
So, this was what Džanum was talking about? Me meeting another Shelby? Oh god, why was I getting more and more involved with the Shelby brothers? Probably because I was working in the Garrison? Fuck, I'm so stupid.
"Yes, hello. What can I get for you, sir?" I mustered up a smile and asked him as politely as I could.
"Get me a bottle of whiskey and two glasses, will ya?" I nodded and turned to the spirit cupboard, searching for a bottle of whiskey. After finding it, I put the bottle and two glasses in front of him and he nodded, looking up at me.
"So, where are you from?" He asked as he took a glance at Thomas.
"Camden, London, sir." I said and he snapped his head toward me.
"London, eh? Nice city. Name's John. And don't call me sir unless you are under me, love." He said with an acknowledging nod as he poured the whiskey into his glass and I frowned in confusion. What did he mean by that? Under him? Like working under him? Why would I be under him?
He stared at me expectantly as I tried to decipher the meaning behind his words and as soon as I did, my whole face turned red. Satisfied with my reaction, he let out an amused chuckle before he sipped his drink.
"That's not — I, I don't — I'm not... !" I blushed furiously and struggled to form a sentence. I had never been flirted this openly so you couldn't blame me for doing that. John let out a deep roar of laughter and the people nearby turned to look at us.
"Relax, love. I was just joking. Or was I?" John smirked and wiggled his eyebrows at me.
Cheeky little bastard.
I just glared at him and he raised his hands in mock surrender, whistling amusingly. "What's your name?"
"There's no need for you to know that. I'm not telling you." I huffed and kept my glare fixed at him, his flirtatious comments long forgotten.
"Whatever you are comfortable with, love." He smirked and whispered the next part, "The girl on the stage, she's awful at this, eh?"
I glanced at Grace who was still staring at the entrance and I followed her gaze to see Thomas staring right back at her, with his disappointed meme face. As if feeling my stare, his gaze travelled toward me and he held my stare, his bright blue eyes somehow sparkling under the pub's lighting. My heart skipped a beat and I frowned, quickly turning my head to stare at John. John raised one of this eyebrows, urging me to answer him.
He looked so young and cute compared to his brother.
"I'm glad someone finally thinks so. Otherwise, literally everyone in this bloody pub is enchanted by her and her awful singing. I don't know why." I chuckled and he, again, raised his eyebrows.
"That's because she's on the fucking stage, love. I'm sure if you were there, you'd be in their attention radar too. And not everyone in this fucking pub is enchanted by her singing as you say." He cocked his head sideways before gulping down his entire drink and pouring another one.
"What do you mean? Look around you, everyone is. Well everyone was, until you lot came in. Even your br— that, uh, that guy at the entrance is." I told him reluctantly. I couldn't just say 'your brother' right now, it would be suspicious if I said anything about them being brothers when he hadn't even told me his last name, right? Or was I overthinking? Maybe I was since everyone knew them and their notorious identity.
Ugh, whatever.
"Not me. I was enchanted by you and your pretty brown eyes. And your beautiful blushing face." He smirked when I blushed again.
"Are you flirting with me, sir?" I emphasized on 'sir' despite knowing what he had told me about being called that.
"I'm not flirting. I'm just being extra friendly to someone who is extra attractive." He said, staring intently at me.
"We don't know each other." I mumbled quietly and moved to the side, leaning on the window.
"Every relationship starts off like that. As strangers." He shot back as he too, leaned back on his seat.
"But then somewhere along the way, it ends as being strangers again. Back to square one. So, what's the point?" I smirked at him and he looked surprised for a moment before he shrugged.
"We just have to make it to the end then?" He replied smugly and I rolled my eyes. "So, can I buy you a drink, love?" He asked after a short silence and I smirked, denying him.
"No."
"Why?" He frowned at me.
"I'm working. And I don't drink when I'm working." I said. I really didn't want to do anything with any of the Shelby brothers even if I wanted nothing more than to have a safe relationship with them, or maybe more (lemme be fucking delulu, okay?). Primarily, it was because I was scared to fuck up the plot. And I was scared that I'd get killed. It sounds pretty reasonable right?
"I could wait for you until you're finished here?" John said and leaned toward me.
"Hm. You might want to slow down there, sir. You seem a bit desperate." I chuckled and put my palm on his chest, pushing him back softly. He blinked and looked down at his chest.
"And you, sir, are not my type anyway." I gave him an amused grin when he huffed and looked up, glaring at me.
"Hell I am everybody's fucking type!"
I opened my mouth to counter his statement but stopped when I saw Thomas making his way toward us. His stare was burning holes into my forehead. As romantic as it sounded, having someone staring at you, no, it was uncomfortable and creepy so I quickly ran to the back of the bar saying, "Well, it has been lovely meeting you, John. I'll leave you to it. Enjoy the evening."
I didn't dare turning back.
John Shelby was thrilled. It wasn't everyday that he got to interact with people like this. Much less with a lady so beautiful. Almost everyone trembled at the sight of him and his brothers. It had started to become a huge pain. But after talking to the new barmaid, he was feeling content. He hoped to see her again as he thought she was interesting.
Well either she didn't know about them being Peaky Blinders or she knew but was stupid enough to not care.
Either way, it felt good to be acknowledged as a person for once rather than a gangster.
"Who's she?"
John turned swiftly to face his brother and mumbled with a broad smile, "British. Didn't tell me her name."
"Are you interested in her?" Thomas asked again, his gaze now penetrating Grace's as she stood at the stage awkwardly.
"She is interesting." John muttered a reply as he sipped his drink. "Are you?"
"Am I what?" Thomas frowned at his brother, his mind flashing back to the day he had this conversation with the new barmaid. That hadn't ended so well. Needless to say, he was pretty amused by it. And by her. She had spirit. Fighting back like that. She had ignited a spark of interest within him which made him confused. And he was never confused.
Thomas wanted to know who she was and why she wasn't afraid of him. Did she not know who he was? Was she stupid? No one had talked to him like that, ever. He had never seen her prior to this. Was she not from here? Of course not, John said she was British. What was she doing here then, in this small town?
Bells of suspicion rang in his mind. He had to find out about her and this other one, she was quite annoying too. He thought as he stared at Grace.
But that moment was interrupted when Harry whispered to the brothers, "We haven't had singing in here since the war."
Thomas immediately glared at Harry and after a moment of silence, he spoke up, "Why do you think that is?"
Harry didn't say anything as Thomas and John made their way to their own private snug bar and slammed the door behind them.