𝓡𝓔𝓥𝓔𝓡𝓘𝓔 - 𝓟𝓔𝓐𝓚𝓨 𝓑𝓛𝓘𝓝𝓓𝓔𝓡𝓢

6

March 1919
Maura was walking through Small Heath when arms wrap around her. She turns her head to see police officers were the people that had grabbed her.

"Let me fucking go!" Maura shouts.

"Sorry Miss Shelby, no can do,"

A bag goes over Maura's head before a blow to the back of her head renders her unconscious.

Maura's eyes flutter open and she straightens her neck, which made her groan as she had clearly had her head leaning forward for some time. She notices that her left eye's vision was covered by a red film.

"Miss Maura Shelby,"

Maura looks up to see a man with white hair and a matching moustache.

"Who the fuck are you?" Maura asks.

"My name is Chief Inspector Campbell," He says. "And I am here for one thing, the truth. What do you know about the robbery?"

"What?"

"The robbery,"

"I don't know what the fuck you are talking about," Maura says and she shouts in pain when he strikes a blow to her face.

"After 35 years of dealing with animals like your family, I can tell just by sniffing the air whether or not you're lying,"

"Well you're doing a shit job," Maura spits some blood out of her mouth. "Because I have no fucking idea what you're talking about"

"I know," Campbell says. "I see nothing of interest behind the blood in your eyes. But I do see blood in your veins that carries plenty of cunning. Although this time, I believe you are as much in the dark about this as your brother Arthur is"

"You grabbed Arthur too?" Maura asks.

"He's in the next room,"

"You're lying,"

Campbell nods before walking out of the room and his voice is muffled.

"I have your beautiful young sister in the next room, and the red on my hand is her blood,"

"MAURA!"

Maura's eyes widen when she hears the shout of her oldest brother.

"ARTHUR!" Maura cries back.

"Now you know I'm not bluffing, Miss Shelby," Campbell says. "I want you to understand this. It is well within my power to have you and the rest of your scum family face down in the canal before the year is out. Maybe not you, it's be a waste. Such pretty features"

Maura flinches away as Campbell's fingers trace down her cheek.

"On the other hand we could help each other,"

"Burn in hell," Maura says.

The police toss Arthur and Maura out of the back of a police van. Arthur pushes the pain back as he helps his younger sister into the family household.

"What the fuck?!" John exclaims looking at his two siblings.

"Just sit me down," Maura groans and Edward rushes over, helping her sit down on a chair.

"John, wipe the blood out of his eye," Ada says. "Edward, you do the same for Maura"

"Since when did you give orders?" John asks.

"I'm a trained nurse,"

Maura and Arthur snort.

"Don't make me laugh," Arthur says. "It hurts me face"

"I bloody am,"

"You went to one first aid class in the church hall and got thrown out for giggling," John says.

"Not before I learned how to stop somebody from choking"

"I'm not fucking choking, am I?" Maura asks her older sister.

"You will be when I wrap this cloth round your neck,"

The front door swings open and Tommy strides in, a bottle of rum in his hand.

"Let me see them," Tommy says.

"Maura first," Arthur says and Tommy nods.

"All right, have this," Tommy says and Maura snatches the bottle.

Maura takes three large gulps from the bottle before Tommy pours some on a rag, pressing it to her forehead.

"FUCK!" Maura bangs her fist on the table harshly.

"You're all right," Tommy says softly, stroking strands of hair out of his sister's face.

"He said Mr Churchill sent him to Birmingham," Arthur says as Maura bangs a hand on the table again as Tommy begins wiping alcohol on her other wounds. "National interest, he said"

"Something about a robbery," Maura says. "He said he wants us to help him"

"We don't help coppers," John says.

"He knew all about our war records," Arthur says. "He said we're patriots. Like him. Wants us to be his eyes and ears. I said. I said we'd have a family meeting, take a vote"

"I told him to burn in hell," Maura says and a proud smile falls onto Tommy's lips.

"I taught you well," Tommy grins.

"Well, why not? Hmm?" Arthur asks. "We've no truck with Fenians or communists. What's wrong with you?"

Tommy presses a kiss to Maura's forehead, the side that wasn't wounded before leaving the house.

"What the fuck is wrong with him lately?"

"If I knew, I'd buy the cure from Compton's chemists," Polly sighs.

"They sell medicine not fucking miracles, Pol," Maura says.