The French in Birmingham 💌

Part Five 💌

                                       1920

It had been a year since Charlotte Blanchet had met the Shelby's and what a year it had been.
                 Because of Charlottes new involvement with the family, everyone in Small Heath respected the pretty French girl moving out of her way in the streets and always making sure to greet her kindly whenever she passed.

Ada and Charlotte had grown extremely close, remarkably quick and spent practically every day together. Charlotte had grown a lot of love and respect towards Polly Gray. Charlotte saw her mother in Polly - kind, loving, generous and most definitely hard working. Polly took to Charlotte like her own and cared deeply for the girl always making sure she was well and making sure there was a Blinder with her everywhere she went for protection.

The youngest Finn adored seeing the French girl often. Charlotte would take Finn out on fun day trips to Charlie's yard or to go play in the street just to take him away from the business. One thing Finn enjoyed most was when Charlotte would teach Finn some French in the meadows every here and there.

Not long after Charlotte moved to Small Heath she quickly ended her job as a nurse and joined the family business. Of course she kept on selling her fruits and vegetables on the Sunday and of course was still friends with Marilyn just she didn't see the blondie as often.

That leaves the three other Shelby's. They were like best friends to Charlotte, extremely overprotective but Charlotte always new she had them wrapped around her finger. The boys and Ada were the reason Charlotte was in the business, because she was so close she practically knew everything anyway so a family vote went on and Charlotte was officially a member.
                     To celebrate, everyone gathered at the Garrison for drinks and then partied all night long.

                                      ♡︎♡︎♡︎

Sitting in the snug was Tommy, Arthur, John and Charlotte playing a game of cards. Charlotte forgot her packed of cigarettes and the boys were stupidly trying to antagonise her so they wouldn't give her a smoke. Reaching over Charlotte grasped the cigarette that was hanging out of Thomas's lips and took a puff herself, smirking mischievously.

Making sure to hide his cards away from the prying eyes of Charlotte, John began to place down his cards anticipating to win.

Instantaneously two or three expensive cars pulled up outside of the Garrison. The heads of all four Blinders shot up immediately.

"Coppers?" John spat out. Tommy just shook his head.

A deafening gunshot echoed the pub. There was no more singing or laughter to be heated only a few screams were shared.

"I said, is there any man here named Shelby." Declared a voice.

Thomas shared a look with Charlotte, a look of worry and confuse was written all of his face but quickly stiffened up and replaced with a straight blood curdling stare.

The doors of the snug burst open revealing the Blinders. Thomas then Charlotte, John and Arthur trailed out in a straight file.

Straight away they knew who the man was. It was Billy Kimber. Charlotte knew that Tommy fixed one of the races without Kimber's permission and was awaiting a visit from the man.

"Harry get these men a drink. Everyone else go home!" Ordered Thomas. As if by magic everyone dispersed out of the pub. Charlottes thoughts were invaded and she giggled inside knowing that this event would be the talk of the day.

"I never approved of women in pubs, but when they look like that..." Grinned Mr Kimber while checking Charlotte out. Charlotte just grinned back trying to please Kimber in a way that would just insure everyone would go home alive.

"You said you wanted men called Shelby. You've got three of them and our lovely Miss Blanchet." Replied Tommy nodding towards Charlotte, unimpressed by Kimbers words only seconds ago.

"I'd never heard of you. Then i did hear of you. Some little Diddicoy razor gang. I thought to myself, 'So, what?' But then you fucked me over. So now you have my undivided attention. By the way, which one am i talking to? Who's the boss?" Reported Kimber.

Charlotte scoffed under her breath urning a deep stare from Kimber.

"Well i'm the oldest." Explained Arthur

"Hah clearly." Chuckled Kimber.

"Are you laughing at my brother." Retorted John.

This seemed to aggravate Kimber. Charlotte gave a quick smirk while smoking Thomas's cigarette she snatched out of his mouth minutes before.

"Right, he's the oldest, your the thickest and your the pretty girl. I'm told the boss is called Tommy and i'm guessing that's you cause your looking me up and down like i'm a fucking tart." Fumed Kimber.

"We want to know what you want." Replied Charlotte.

"There were suspicious betting patterns at Kempten Park, a horse called Monaghan Boy. He won by a length twice and then finished last, with 3,000 pounds bet on him." Addressed Mr Kimber's advisor.

"Which one am i talking to? Which one of you is the boss?" Aggravated Tommy.

The meeting bored Charlotte. She could tell that all Kimber wanted was money and pleasure, he was a dirty man.
A few minutes had passed. Tommy trying to forge a deal with Kimber. Which he seemed to accept. Billy threw a shilling on the wood floor expecting Charlotte to pick it up.

"Pick it up, blondie." Wanted Kimber.

Charlotte just stared through Kimber for a few seconds, feeling disgusted by the way he treated a woman. Didn't his mother bring him up correctly? From the corner of Charlottes eyes she could see Thomas's jaw clench shut.

Charlotte finally bent down to grab the shilling but before she could even do that John sat up straight away.

"Sit, sit down." Reassured Charlotte.

Grabbing the shilling Kimber soon interrupted her.

"For the ceiling." Informed Kimber.

"Thankyou, Mr. Kimber." Shouted Charlotte after him.

"We will be at Cheltenham." Advised Kimbers Advisor.
"As will we."

Soon enough all the men were gone and it was back to being the four of them.

"So you picked a fight with the Lees on purpose. Tommy we can't mess with Billy Fucking Kimber." Remarked Arthur.

A few days ago Charlotte was informed that the boys had gone over the Lees in hopes to get a beautiful white horse wich he did in fact get. The Lees disrespected the Shelby's family terribly so in Peaky style they earned a cutting and a blinding wich was always fun. Thomas knew that the Lees were stealing money from Kimber and that was exactly Thomas's way of insuring he would agree with todays business deal.

"Get yourself a decent haircut, man, and Charlotte a lovely dress. We're going to the races." Cheered Thomas while shoting a glass of whiskey.