FOR THE ONE WHO STAYED ─ A peaky blinders fanfiction
━ IN WHICH, Elizabeth Shelby has to come to terms with the fact that sharing a name does not necessarily mean family.
━ AND IN WHICH, a father and daughter must learn how to find each other again...
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Effy Shelby spent most of her days gazing out of her window, watching the leaves dance through the lane and fall into the cut painted in black. She watched as the men no longer worked without shirts, the children wore shoes for the first time in a while, and the fragrance of piss seemed to soften. And she watched kids her age dressed in uniform, making their way to school.
Autumn.
Effy had forgotten her voice, she realized. She didn't know if it even existed after not speaking for so long, aside from hums and tiny cracks coming out of her throat.
But sooner or later things would have to go back to the way they were, and just the thought made her nauseous.
Effy heard distant mumbling through the door, and as much as she tried to stay in her room, her curiosity was what had control. She slowly opened the door and stuck her nose out through the small opening.
"I can't do it, Polly, he's too stubborn," Effy heard the quiet hissing of a breathless woman. "All he sees is a glorious revolution, but he's givin' away our money to people like Stanley Chapman! What am I supposed to do with that?"
But that was not just some woman. It was Ada.
There was another voice, belonging to Polly, though she couldn't get out what she was saying. She never could. Every time Effy was eavesdropping on the other side of the door during family meetings, her great-aunt's words were always cloudy. Compared to Arthur's at least.
"I need your help, Pol. I really do, I'll give you the address and we'll finally go but I can't face him. Not yet."
Polly whispered again, but the words were inaudible.
"Now if you don't mind, I'd like to see my only niece, Pol, so let me bloody go!"
"Stop with the shouting!"
"You know the reason I came here, you have to let me see her."
"She's not gonna come out."
"She will for me, I know it, Aunt Pol!" There was despair in her voice, that broken tone she hadn't heard from Ada in a long time. "She hasn't even seen my bump.."
"Give her time, Ada." Stalking out of the safety of her room, she could hear her words now, clear as day.
"It's been two weeks!"
Polly stayed silent.
"She'll open it, I know she will!" Ada was even more frantic now, her voice breaking at the end of the sentence. "I need to see her."
"I'm telling you she hasn't come out of bed since-" Polly shut her mouth as soon as she set eyes on the slim figure with the porcelain skin standing at the bottom of the stairs.
