In The Bleak Midwinter | T Shelby

TEN - A BROKEN STRING

A week had passed since Kaia lost her mother's pearl necklace, and there hadn't been a single guilt-free moment to grasp in the entire seven days.

Kaia was hurting. It wasn't just the fact that she'd lost something that belonged to her mother, it was the fact that her mother had left that necklace specifically for her. Her mother wanted her to have it, and she couldn't even keep it safe.

She hadn't told her father or Bonnie about losing the necklace for fear that they'd kill her. Bonnie never showed it, but he was an incredibly sentimental person, especially when it came to their mother's belongings. He kept a photograph of the two of them hung on the wall in his room and had the blanket she'd knitted for him as a baby at the end of his bed, sleeping with it at night whether it was thirty degrees or minus five.

As for her father, Kaia knew he would be absolutely devastated, not that he'd show that. She knew that he wouldn't want to make Kaia feel any worse than she already did, he'd probably end up quietly crying himself to sleep knowing that the pearls his wife wore religiously every single day since they'd met were gone. But no, he would never, ever make Kaia feel guilty.

Kaia turned up to work the following Monday feeling not even slightly better. She'd been consoled by Beth and Eliza, apologising to them for bailing on their evening out together, to which they told her not to worry. She hadn't seen Thomas since and she was glad, even though it was an accident, she still resented him for it.

Monday dragged. It seemed like the clock in the wall was going backwards instead of forwards, each minute feeling like an hour and every hour feeling like a day. Kaia's mind was pre-occupied, being able to think of nothing but her mother and desperately worrying about how to break the news to her father and Bonnie, or if she even should tell them at all.

She managed to get some work done, but Kaia found it difficult to focus on anything for longer than twenty minutes at a time. She ended up working through her lunch break to try and meet her deadlines by the end of the day.

It was a quarter to four in the afternoon when Lizzie barged into the office looking like she'd been crying. Her eyes were bloodshot and puffy and her cheeks were red, tear stains running down her face, breaking through her makeup.

"Kaia," she muttered, looking over at her as she sat down at her desk, "Thomas asked for you. He's upstairs, something about your brother."

Panic immediately set in. She had barely seen her brother over the past week, her father telling her that Bonnie and the other men had been away down south.

Kaia just nodded, immediately rising to her feet and heading out of the room, ignoring the stares from the other women and trying to not look at Lizzie too much, though she felt her steel gaze stabbing into her back as she closed the door behind her.

The door was open when she reached the third floor and Tommy was perched on the edge of his desk, his hands resting on the table behind him.

"Kaia, come in."

He smiled warmly at her, something she had never seen him do before. Perhaps he still felt guilty about the necklace, or he was trying not to worry her about whatever it was he needed to tell her about Bonnie.

"Where's Bonnie? Is he alright?"

Tommy just nodded, "Your brother is fine."

She looked at him confused, "But Lizzie said-"

"I know. I didn't think you'd come up here if you didn't need to."

Kaia let out a sigh of relief and looked up at the ceiling, closing her eyes for a moment as her heart rate returned to normal, safe in the knowledge that Bonnie was OK.

"I'm really busy, I need to get back to work, I don't have time for this."

Tommy nodded, drawing in a breath.

"Alright. Just take this."

He reached behind him and handed her a square black box. She looked at him before taking the box from him, pulling off the lid gently.

Inside, she saw a pearl necklace.

"I told you not to get me a new one I-"

"It's not new."

Kaia paused, looking down at the necklace and then back up at Tommy, her lips parted.

"What?"

"I cleared out the pub and went round picking them all up myself. The string was broken though, I couldn't fix it so I had to get a new one."

Kaia felt her bottom lip quiver as she listened to his words, running her fingers across the pearls she held in her hand. As she touched them, she felt as if she could feel her mother's presence around her. She could sense the warmth in the air and the feeling of being safe, comforted by the fact she knew her mother was still with her.

"I-I don't know what to say." She whispered, looking up at Thomas with a weak smile and teary eyes.

"You don't have to say anything," he said, "May I?"

Kaia nodded nervously as he stepped towards her. He took the pearls from the box and stood behind her. She pulled her hair into her hands and held it above her neck, feeling her skin shiver as his fingers touched her skin, clasping the string around her neck.

She felt frozen to the spot as Thomas lingered behind her. Kaia let her hair fall down, feeling him pull the loose strands back behind her shoulders before he walked round to face her, looking her in the eyes.

"Beautiful." He whispered, his eyes running up and down her body before he swallowed loudly, "The necklace. It's beautiful."

Kaia blushed and let out a small laugh, smiling at him in thanks and giving him a tiny nod.

She left his office without saying another word and heading back down to the floor below. She watched at Lizzie's face fell and her eyes narrowed when she saw the string of pearls around Kaia's neck, chewing on her lip as she took a seat back at her desk.

Beth waited for a few moments, letting everybody resume their conversations and carry on with their work before walking over to Kaia.

"Your necklace?" She said, smiling in shock.

Kaia tried to hold back her smile, though she wasn't successful. She nodded with a grin, placing her hand over the pearls again.

"He picked them up after the pub closed, he found every single one." Kaia said in a hushed tone, knowing that Lizzie would be desperately trying to listen.

"You're joking?" Beth said, her eyes widening.

Kaia shook her head, "Nope."

Beth flickered her gaze upwards, locking eyes with Lizzie who quickly looked away when she realised she'd been caught.

"Hey," she said, "I bet he would never have done that for her."

Kaia glanced over at Lizzie who was furiously writing something in a notebook, her jaw clenched and her eyes dark.

"Do you think she thought the necklace was for her? And that's why she was crying?" Kaia asked, a wave of realisation washing over her.

Beth pursed her lips before nodding.

"Definitely. Looks like Thomas Shelby has his eye on someone else, and she's certainly not happy about it."

That night, Kaia fell asleep thinking about the way she'd felt when Thomas had put the necklace on for her. She dreamt about the warmth of his fingertips and the way he gently pulled her hair around her shoulders, the way his eyes looked into hers as if they were seeing something deeper, something more than just a person. She dreamt of only him, but the things that clouded her mind that night ended up being a fantasy, one far different to how she ever thought she'd think about him.

It was the first night she had ever dreamt of Thomas Shelby, but it wouldn't be the last.