Arthur pov
Me and Mason had shot 2 men whilst Linda and Lydia were safe upstairs. But my stomach still felt uneasy knowing they weren't with me. But it was safer if they were far away from it all. Mason was behind me like I ordered as we walked through the house
"Honey" I turned around to see Linda running towards me in tears. She fell into my arms and sobbed as I held her
"Shhh it's alright darling. You're safe" i said into her hair
"Where's lyd?" Mason asked
"She's upstairs....safe" she said although she sounded unsure
"Why didn't you stay up there?" I asked cupping her cheeks
"I was scared" she whispered. I kissed her forehead and then turned my attention back to the house
"Leave. Go find the nearest phone and call Tommy" I ordered. We were right next to the door so it was now free for her to leave. She kissed me one last time and then ran out of the house
"I don't trust her dad" Mason said through gritted teeth as we continued to raise our guns and check the house
"Ye well she's my fucking fiance so you're gonna have to learn" i replied. We had checked the entire bottom floor when we heard the doors open
"Arthur" I heard John yell. We ran to the peaky blinders and they sighed in relief to see us alive
"What the fucks going on?" Tommy asked
"Dunno. We heard gun shots. We checked the bottom floor and found 2 men who we killed. Still havnt checked the other 2 floors" Mason answered
"Well they clearly didn't send many men whoever it was" curly said looking around. A few men stayed and double checked the bottom floor incase we missed anything whilst mist of us went to the middle floor. Just as we reached the top of the stairs, a man came walking towards us with his head down chuckling. He looked up and saw us. His face dropped and he froze in place
Me John and finn ran over. They held him in place whilst I punched him
"What the fuck do you want?" I asked through gritted teeth
"I....I'm s....sorry" he sobbed
"Why are you fucking here?" I asked
"N...n...no r...reason" he stumbled
"Don't give me that crap" John said kicking him
"W....we were s...s...supposed t....to s...s...steal some g...g..guns" he said crying
"How many of you are there?" I asked
"T...t...three I...inside b....b...but t...two outside" he muttered. None of us had found the ones outside. We hadn't even looked. But atleast we had all the ones in the house. I took out my gun and shot him in the head. We went and found the others to tell them we had found them all except those outside. Men were now searching outside
"I'm gonna go check on lyd" I said
"I'll come with you" Mason said
"No. No stay here. He might have been lying and just in case, I want you to stay here where there are more men for protection" I said
"But-"
"Not buts. I'll be back soon" I said hugging him and ruffling his hair. Tommy came upstairs with me. We went to the servants rooms
"It's safe now" Tommy yelled to the servants who had locked themselves on their rooms. We walked along the corridor and turned the corner but froze. Lydia was sat in the dark corner, her knees to her chest and her hands covering her face. She was visibly shaking
"Lyd baby" I said walking closer to her. She flinched away when Tommy touched her arm but then looked up and realised it was us. Her face had tears covering her cheeks and her eyes were red. She had a bruise forming on her cheek and a chapped lip. Her lip trembled as me and Tommy helped her stand up but she immediately collapsed into my arms. I noticed blood on her dress so I lifted her up and started carrying her
"Arthur" Tommy said. I looked to him. He moved Lydia's hair slightly to reveal a hickey on her neck
"Fuck" i muttered. I held my daughter close as we ran down the stairs. Once we reached the bottom, Tommy ordered someone to call polly
"What happened?" Mason asked as I sat on the sofa with Lydia on my knee. She buried her head in my chest and refused to look at anyone. Tommy clapped Mason round the back and pulled him away to talk to him. We waited I'm silence for 15 minutes before both polly and ada turned up
"Fucking hell" polly muttered as she ran to Lydia. Ada followed
"Arthur bring her upstairs for me" ada said. I lifted her up and the girls followed. Once Lydia was lay on her bed, they quickly pushed me out of the room and locked the door in my face
Polly pov
Ada ran a bath whilst i sat with Lydia
"Lyd, can you tell me what happened?" I asked her quietly. She looked up at me with her big beautiful eyes which were now filled with pain
"He kissed Linda. But she didn't like it. So I pushed him off her and then he kissed me. I thought she would help me but she just ran" she sobbed. I put my arms around her ad she cried into my chest
"I know luv. I know" I said kissing her head
"He...he put his hands up my dress. And he started touching me" at this point ada was stood leaning against the door frame with tears in her eyes
"And then he pulled his trousers down and.....and I thought he would stop. B...but he didn't" she cried into my arms
"Listen luv, I know this is uncomfortable for you, but I need to check you. Do you understand?" I asked. She nodded her head weakly. I just needed to check her body. Her dress was covered in blood so he clearly wasn't gentle
Ada pov
I went back to running the bath whilst polly checked Lydia. I couldn't help but cry as the water ran. She was so young. And on her birthday of all days. I wiped my tears when polly helped a hobling lyd to the bathroom. I helped her take her dress of and then she got in the bath
We helped her wash since she was in too much pain to do so herself. I sat and watched aunt pol rinse the soap from Lydia's hair and many thoughts popped into my head. One which terrified me
"Sweetheart, did he finish inside you?" She went quiet and looked down at her hands
"I know its not a nice conversation to have. But we need to know honey" I said holding her hand
"I don't think so" she mumbled crying
"Are you positive?" Ada asked
"No...yes....I don't know" she said. I rubbed her back
"It's alright luv. We can sort that out later. Right now let's just get you cleaned up" it was lunch time when she was clean and dressed again. But she didn't want to eat anything. Instead she just lay down in her bed and went straight to sleep. I left the house with ada and the minute she got in the car, she broke down in tears
"Shhh. Come on now. She'll be alright" I said
"Oh pol. It's awful. She so young and already she's been through so much. Do you remember when we first met her. She spoke like everything she saw was amazing and she always saw the good in every situation. But now....now its not like that. She's scared. And so am i" ada said wiping her tears. I started the car and drove ada back to mine so we could have a cup of tea. That poor girl. God help her
YOU ARE READING
The Gift- Complete
FanfictionArthur Shelby has 0 to very little experience with children. Sure he entertains his nieces and nephews but it's not quite the same as being a father. He doesn't need to take responsibility for them and he can give them as much alcohol as he pleases ...
