CHAPTER 2
BREAKFAST AT SALVAGE'S
❝ Home's where you go when you run out of homes. ❞
There was only one type of person Rose Salvage could not understand, and that was morning people. As a night owl who often pulled an all-nighter, she was offended by them and often found herself wanting to punch their morning faces. Mornings forced her to confront her conscience and the things she had done hours before, and if there was one place Rose always tried not to be in, it was her conscience.
Because while other people used the night to have dreams, Rose used the night to scheme nightmares. That's what she had been doing the past weeks, scheming and carrying out her latest nightmare, and has always, it had ended with blood on her hands. Rose did not enjoy killing; but she enjoyed dying even less. And in her nightmares, she was constantly doing both. That was the thing about Rose's nightmares, though – she only had them while awake.
Sadly, and since not even she was able to commit the perfect murder, Rose had to dispose of her purse in order to get rid of any traces and had now no way of entering the Salvage's house except by breaking a window and invading her own home.
The Salvage's property was a maison de maître located in the outskirts of London and surrounded by luxuriant gardens and imposing trees. The mansion had three floors and more rooms and windows than Rose had the patience to count. Its architecture and ambience immersed the place in a fairytale silence that contrasted with the noise and frenzy of London, but Rose's favorite spot wasn't the quiet stone benches, not even the stables; it was the fountain on the front garden with a statue of the Thinker, made by Auguste Rodin himself as a gift to the family.
That morning, however, Rose passed by it without a second glance and walked straight to the front door. She looked around for a rock until she realized it was Saturday, which meant her sisters would be home. Rose cursed under her breath; she had thought she might have time to come up with a lie, or at least get some sleep before facing her family.
Sighing heavily, she moved her hand to the doorbell before she remembered why she had such a hard time figuring out morning people.
Her older sister was one of them.
"Renée," Rose called, "I know you're probably on the other side of this fucking door, so would you fucking mind opening it?"
"Oui!" her sister shouted from inside, her familiar voice tugging at Rose's strings, "it's definitely her! If anything, the cursing gives it away!"
Not a second after, the door had opened swiftly and Rose was greeted by the lovely, morning smile of the oldest Salvage sister.
"Ah, soeurette, how I've missed your cursing!" She exclaimed, before pulling Rose into a tight hug that felt more like a lecture than a tender gesture. "May I know where you've been? It's been three weeks since we've last heard from you! Three weeks!"
"Well, I'm sure these weeks were the most peaceful you've ever had," Rose cracked a smile, deep down thankful to have such a warm embrace to return to.
"Rose, don't joke with that! We were worried sick. What happened?" Renée asked, her cerulean eyes serious and concerned.
"Renée," Rose asked calmly, "do you consider me a dangerous person?"
Her sister stared at her, trying to make sense of her. Good luck with that.
"Rose, are you drunk? You're the most dangerous person I know."
"Yes, and that's when I'm not either tired or hungry. And guess what, right now I am both, so if you would be so kind as to get the fuck out of my way so I could get some sleep after the three biggest fucking weeks of my life, I would be forever thankful," Rose smiled at her, though all she wanted was to lay in bed and fall asleep. It had been three weeks since she had left for the mission at the Ritz, and she had been staying in different places ever since to outwit the Germans until she could finally carry out her mission.
Two more holes in the cemetery, less two in her heart.
"Ah non, Rose, you're dangerous, but I'm an older sister and older sisters are immune to threats. What happened?"
Rose rolled her eyes. Renée, despite her annoying morning energy, was the person Rose was closest to in the world, but in times like this she felt like they were light years away. Renée didn't understand why Rose had to be like that. And Rose didn't understand why she had to be any other way.
"I had business to take care of. Where are the others?"
"In the dining room. And business? What kind of business prevents you from speaking to your family for three whole weeks?"
"The kind you do not want on your conscience," Rose said simply and Renée pressed her lips, her features softening. It was always like this, with her. Renée had more compassion in her than most people had of life. And Rose hated it. Because it made it even harder to be a bad person when you were surrounded by good people.
"So it will stay on yours? Where it will tear you apart?"
"As long as it's only me," Rose sighed and reached for her sister's arm. She knew the others hadn't appeared yet because Renée had surely asked them to talk to her alone. "Renée, I'm sorry I went missing, and I'll tell you why later. But right now I'm exhausted, and I'm starving, and I'm going to eat."
"Well, you're lucky if they haven't eaten the entire pantry yet," the older sister chuckled as they made their way to the dining room. "But Rose, whatever you had to do, you can tell me. Your conscience is my conscience. They need each other."
Rose nodded at her before stopping by the dining room's door, an involuntary smile forming on her face as she saw her two other sisters bickering with each other while three men leaned over the table planning and discussing, their eyes stuck on contracts and deals.
Rose knew no other home. Hers had always been people, not houses. This was her family, and she would die for each and everyone one of them. In a way, she already had. She would never stop dirtying her hands if it meant keeping theirs clean.
"Look who decided to show up!" Angeline Salvage exclaimed, her face much less worried than Renée's as she threw a strawberry full of chantilly into her mouth. Rose tried not to take it personally while her stomach grumbled and focused on everyone's eyes being stuck on her instead.
"Rose!" Audrey, the youngest sister, jumped out of the chair and ran to her. "I was starting to think you were dead, or worse, that you had met a British man and eloped with him."
Rose felt a thud in her chest as his haunting eyes came to her mind. She had seen him once. And yet in her head, she always was.
"I'd never choose a man, British or not, over my sisters," Rose assured her, tucking a curl of Audrey's hair behind her ear. "And why would you think I was dead? It's not the first time I disappear."
"I don't know. But don't ever let me think that again."
Fortunately for Rose, Audrey spared her from making promises she couldn't keep by pulling her into another tight hug, and Rose's eyes darted to Angeline, who hadn't moved from her place and was now blissfully spreading whipped cream on her pancakes. At that moment Rose didn't know what she wanted to do first, if to eat the pancakes, if to murder her sister.
"Oh, don't worry," Angeline rolled her eyes, "I'll leave a little for you."
"Your kindness never ceases to amaze me," Rose joked and Angeline's lips twisted up ever so slightly. It was the most Rose was going to get out of her. Angeline always expressed her love in small, often ambiguous gestures. If people didn't know her enough, they could mistake it for hatred.
"Neither do your schemes. Who was the victim this time?" Angeline replied, a smirk adorning her angelical features. It was the only angelic thing about her, though. Everything else belonged to the devil. "Winston Churchill?"
"Well, I do hope not, given the fact that he's one of our most trustworthy allies in this country," Rose's eyes moved to the brown-haired man who had spoken. Nicolas Bardin was the owner of the darkest eyes she'd ever seen and of the sharpest mind she had ever had the pleasure to work with. Rose walked over to him, placed a hand on his shoulder and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek.
"Good to see the business was in good hands," she said. Nicolas was her right hand and the person she always left in charge whenever she was absent; the war had brought them together, and peace hadn't been able to break that.
"Next time, a little heads up that you're going to be gone would be much appreciated," he retorted, holding her in his arms to check for injuries. "You seem fine."
"I am fine," she assured him, and he took his fingers to her forehead, touching it softly.
"In here too?"
"Honestly, all of you worry too fucking much. I'm sorry I disappeared without saying anything, but there was something I needed to take care of. Thank you all for keeping the business running while I was away."
"But now you're in charge again, right?" Angeline asked bitterly. "And all of us return to being your tin soldiers. Fucking do this, fucking do that..."
"You're not my soldiers," Rose interrupted. "You're your own people with choices to make. Every time I ask something of you, you have a choice to say no."
"And yet we always say yes," Angeline retorted. "Ironic, isn't it?"
"Are you going to tell us what you've been doing? If there's anyone we need to deal with?" Nicola's younger brother, Jules, quickly intervened before the conversation went sour. Jules didn't belong there, in the crime world. He should have been an artist in Paris, but the war said otherwise. The war changed everything. These were men that had come with Rose from France, soldiers returned from the battlefield and to whom she had offered a second life. They would be just another forgotten part of the Lost Generation if it wasn't for her, but Rose herself would have been lost without them. She hoped they knew. How she fixed herself by fixing them.
"No, everything's dealt with," Rose let herself fall on one of the chairs and finally reached for a plate. "Now, please, let me eat."
***
"You did WHAT?" Nicolas thundered after Rose gave them a very short version of the events of the past weeks.
"I don't know which one is more unbelievable, that you tried to murder two German spies or that Thomas Shelby was there to save you when you failed," Angeline chipped in with her classic words of motivation.
"What were you thinking, Rose? This could have endangered our whole operation here in England," Nicolas backed up, arms crossed over his chest.
"I did what needed to be done. Those men were far from innocent, and they needed to go."
"And of course, you decided to take matters into your own hands without even thinking of consulting us," Nicolas shook his head, and Rose stood up from her seat and planted her hands on the table. Sometimes she hated being the leader. Because the gang's success was everyone's, but failure was hers alone.
"You would have tried to stop me, and it wouldn't have worked. It would've just made me lose time. I knew what I was doing, and I knew the risks. I've dealt with the spies."
"You mean you killed them," the dirty-blond, curly-haired man next to Renée stated, unable to hide the slight tone of accusation in his voice. Christopher Chester was a British man born in France who had been a conscientious objector during the war. Rose loved him for it, but it wasn't easy when his conscience objected to hers, something that was more and more frequent as her plans became more and more ambitious.
"I mean I did what I had to. Those men were enemies of our country."
"Rose..." Renée sighed, the empathy in her eyes making it impossible for Rose to look at her. "You can't be looking for our father's and our brothers' murderers in every man you meet, in every soldier that has fought in France. It was war who killed them. You can't fight against war. And you certainly can't kill it."
If I don't, it kills me, Rose thought.
"This is not about what they did there, in the war, it's about what they were doing now. German spies passing information about Britain to Germany, one of Britain's - and France's - greatest enemies. Both countries will be looking into this, and yet none of them will do it out in the open. Germany will not want to raise suspicions of their activity in England, and England, well, it will not want to admit they had spies on their soil in the first place."
"Your point being?" Angeline asked, one eyebrow raised.
"Both countries will be desperate for information on the other part, and the only one who has that is us. So we will do what we always do. Work behind the scenes, pulling the right strings. The spies were in possession of valuable information we can use. Plans about all kinds of business deals and weaponry transactions. I plan on using that information to negotiate with both countries. So my point is this; it's the perfect opportunity to strike deals with both Britain and Germany."
"Pour l'amour de Dieu, Rose, you never stop thinking about business, do you?" Renée pinched her nose, her concern for Rose evident. She was the only one who had seen Rose's birth, who had held her in her arms, so she was the only one who still thought of her that way. A fragile person who needed to be protected. But she should know. Rose didn't. In turn, she protected them. "Everything that you do is about what you can gain from it."
"What's with the tone of surprise, Renée, we already knew that," Angeline intervened, her tone sardonic. "But what about the part that you want to strike a deal with fucking Germany? Didn't you just say they were France's enemy?"
"Well, from my experience, it's better to make deals with enemies than with friends. Both end up betraying us, the thing is, with enemies we can predict when. You know what they say, keep your friends close and your enemies closer. It's only a matter of knowing exactly what to tell, and to whom."
"You're walking into dangerous territory, Rose," Nicolas warned. Rose felt disappointed; she thought he would support her in this. Nicolas often stood by Rose's side when it came to making bold moves, unless he thought the danger wasn't worth risking their safety. He would always put their protection first, their profit second.
"No person has ever made history in safe waters."
"And you think England and Germany won't suspect it was us who murdered the Germans when we try to make deals with them with the information only the spies had?" Nicolas insisted. Rose liked having him by her side because of this; he questioned her plans and picked up every little flaw in them until they could come up with an infallible one.
"No, because leaks happen. And among all our aliases and companies they won't even know who they're making business with and will be unable to track anything down back to us."
Angeline clicked her tongue, shaking her head. "You're playing with fire, and we're all going to get burnt for it."
"In Rose's defense, you've said the same thing a hundred times before and it has always worked out," Audrey stated, and Rose gave her a nod of appreciation in return. "Have a little more faith in her. We are where we are because of her."
"I understand your concerns. I know you think I don't listen to you, but I do," Rose said. She couldn't see leadership any other way; she couldn't command on fear, only on respect. That bought her the kind of loyalty no bribes could reverse. "But you don't need to worry. I arranged everything to make it look like an accident. No one will ever suspect I had a part in this."
"Not even Thomas Shelby?" Renée inquired, one eyebrow arched perfectly. "You always told us to stay away from the Peaky Blinders, especially their leader. Surely he'll be intrigued by you. He'll connect the dots."
"Maybe. But Thomas Shelby isn't a threat. He has as much interest on those spies being gone as we do."
"What if he decides to investigate you, though? Find out who you are?"
"Then that's out of my control. If Thomas Shelby wants to find something, he will. I'd be a fool to think I could stop him. The best I can do is counterattack. He might find dirt on me, but I have just as much on him."
"You're underestimating him," Nicolas countered. "He's a very clever man."
"And I'm a very clever woman," Rose said, offering him that heart-stopping smile of hers. "Therefore, I'm in advantage."
"Rose, this is serious," Renée retorted. "When we arrived in England and Angeline and Audrey first heard of those boys from Birmingham, you forbad them from approaching them. And now you've run straight into one, the worst of them, and you're not concerned?"
"No, I'm not, because—"
"Is he as charming as they say he is?" Audrey interrupted, her tone dreamier than Rose would have liked.
"Did you sleep with him?" Nicolas asked at the same time.
"Yes—"
"What?" They all boomed in unison, incredulous eyes and mouths open wide.
"Will you fucking let me speak?" Rose asked in exasperation. "Yes, he is charming, and no, I didn't sleep with him, and I never will."
"Was he part of your plan too?" Jules questioned. He was the observant one. The one who found things where others didn't bother looking. "Thomas?"
They all stared at her waiting for an answer, as if she would give them one.
"What's important now is that we lay low and give no one any reasons to suspect us. I want you to be extra careful in everything you do. Besides, someone in my contacts betrayed me, and I would very much like to know who."
"Surely you're not suggesting it was one of us," Angeline quirked a brow.
"If I thought it was one of you, I wouldn't be telling you this. I'll be talking around, and I want you to do the same. Find out who from our telephonists, business partners, factory workers and so on could have possibly heard of this and be bribed into betraying us. But if you do find them, send them to me."
"It's not always your hands that have to be bloodied, Rose," Nicolas declared.
"It is, because I'm the one who's less bothered by it."
Renée and Nicolas both opened their mouths to protest, but before any of them could, Kaya Yende barged into the room, followed by an apologetic housekeeper who surely hadn't dared going against the pure ball of energy and rage Kaya was and had let her in.
"It's alright, Lucille, you can go," Rose told the housekeeper with a smile before Kaya walked over to them and gave Rose a quick hug.
"It's nice to see I won't have to use that black dress I bought some days ago. Now, you will never believe who was arrested!" Kaya exclaimed, throwing a newspaper to the table in a dramatic gesture. "Apparently, it happened three weeks ago, but the press only found out about it now. I bet that uppity Brummie had something to do with it and pulled some strings to delay the news," she turned to Rose, whose eyes hadn't moved from the title on the front page. "Had you heard of this?"
"No, I hadn't."
"Rose, if Thomas Shelby could hide this from the public, if he could hide this from you, what guarantees do you have you'll be able to hide your real identity from him?" Someone asked.
Rose didn't answer. On the paper's page it could be read:
SHELBY FAMILY ARRESTED IN MAJOR OPERATION. Among those detained at the Arrow House in Warwickshire are John and Arthur Shelby and Elizabeth and Michael Gray. Crimes charged include the murder of Major Chester Campbell, extortion, illegal bookmaking and the explosion of a train occurring last month. The four members of the Shelby family are to undergo trial shortly. If proven guilty, expected sentence is death by hanging.
"Well, if anything, he will be more worried about his family's fate than two insignificant German spies."
"Rose..." Renée's eyes widened. "Tell me you didn't have anything to do with this. That you did not cause his family's arrest so the murder of the spies could pass unnoticed. That you did not arrange all of this so Thomas would focus his attention on something else other than you. That this wasn't a plan to weaken his empire so yours could get stronger."
Once again, Rose Salvage didn't answer.
author's note.
So, what do you guys think? Did Rose have any part in the Shelby's arrest? We'll find out soon ;)
For now, thank you so much to everyone who's been reading, voting and commenting on this story! Your support means a lot and it helps me keep motivated, so always feel free to leave your feedback!
Lastly, please stay safe in these difficult times. If anyone needs or wants to talk, my PMs are always open :) production on season 6 of Peaky Blinders was delayed so we can cry over that too :'(