SLEEPY HALLOW, Thomas Shelby

xiv. Black tart heart

FOURTEEN,                    Black tart heart

ALICE LAYED DOWN ON THE BED AS SHE TWIRLED a strand of her white stark hair, " Tommy I want to go out for dinner. " Thomas kept quiet as his wife then rambled on where her cousin, Minnie. Suggested they should visit in London.

" haven't you been to London before? " asked Thomas as he turned to look at his wife who glanced at him before going to focusing back on her hair " a few times but I only was there to meet a few suitors. " she replied.

Thomas rolled his eyes as Alice only giggled softly " what?
Jealous? " she asked with a smile gracing her small porcelain face. " why would I be jealous when I have you laying naked on my bed. " he stated as he stared at his wife who only widened her eyes with a blush tinting her cheeks.

Ever since Alice was now heavily pregnant she began showing real raw emotions and was actually eating instead of starving herself, well that's what Tommy noticed when he would see his wife.

Sometimes she would be crying or would be eating anything from scratch. It made him laugh but he would be silenced by one of her glares. " good one, but no I honestly haven't stayed in London for a long time. " she snorted as she then went and reached over to the bedside table which had a large silver plate of cold chocolate cake.

" and my parents didn't let me out much. " she added.
Thomas only could nod at her words, he knew it was bad enough bringing her to London while pregnant, but bringing her with him to take the Eden club, wasn't what he had in mind.

" Alice, it's just too dangerous. " is what he could only say, he was waiting for her to start crying or becoming very angry with him. She only stayed silent. Which confused the Shelby man who slowly turned around to see her staring at him with sad, lonely eyes.

Alice was never an emotional person, since the first time he'd met the beautiful women, she was cold and calculating. She never bothered to glance at him or give him the time of her day. She would ignore him if he was in a rough time or would simply mock and humiliate him if she ever seen him.

She would say cruel things to him, cursing him for marrying her. Alice  would always rant to him of how she was free and young but was now cooped up in a house with people who didn't even like her. Only little Finn Shelby, who seemed to adore her.

But now,   now Alice would kiss him and comfort him in all the ways he could ever imagine, she would be by his side helping him with everything he was going through. Alice would joke with him and make him crack a smile and let out soft chuckles that he would never let escape his cold body.

Thomas was happy,  everything  was perfect about his dear little wife, she would smile and not starve herself like her mother had wanted her to do. She would run around the small Shelby home with a smile gracing her pale beautiful face when she would see her husband staring at her with puppy love eyes.

Alice only nodded softly and looked down at her nails as she lifted herself up and headed to the bathroom, Thomas was now confused. He expected her to be yelling at him for not trusting her, or never letting her leave the house. He only sighed, he reached for his coat and left the hotel room and went over to his brothers room to call them over to get ready.

As Thomas left, Alice was staring at herself in the mirror with tears in her eyes, she whimpered as she slides down the door and sit on the cold bathroom tiles, she wrapped her arms around her stomach. All she could think was Thomas trying to to push her away, not wanting to be near her anymore, not wanting to see the acne that made it's way to her face or how she had gotten more bloated  or  how her stomach had become bigger each month.

She then cried, tears brimming her eyes. missing the feeling of her husbands arm around her waist, pulling her near him and whispering sweet nothing into her ear, telling her that he loved her with all his black tart heart. It would always make her smile at how Thomas would joke about him being unemotional. But he was a very sad yet humoring person in his wife's eyes.

Alice opened the water tap and began cleaning her face with the cold water, refreshing her puffed eyes and red face. She began rubbing her pregnant stomach gently with the cold water and left the bathroom.

As she left the bathroom she expected to see Tommy still reading his newspaper while drinking a glass of whisky, with a cigarette in his plump pink lips that she'd love to kiss.

But instead she was greeted with an empty room, she heard the sound of a car engine firing up. She turned around and headed to the window thinking it might have been Tommy leaving her all by herself, and she saw Thomas and his brothers laughing and leaving the hotel entrance, as a puff of smoke left the the back of the Alice only tried holding back tears.

She could only think of the worse when Tommy is with his brothers when they leave the house  laughing, his brothers would go to high price clubs, strip clubs. Rich men and women would raid the place with there money flying everywhere and there fancy dresses and watching shining I'm the high and bright chandeliers.

She was scared that Tommy would get too drunk and high, She was scared that his brothers influence would get to him, she was afraid they would tempt him with all the women that would dance with their tiny waist and their clear glowing faces and their charming words to lure Thomas.

Maybe she was overthinking this too much and all the pregnancy worry was getting to her, scared with this new business that her husband wouldn't have as much time for as he used to have. Maybe she was just to worried to realize that her Tommy would never do something as cruel a as that.

Maybe she just wanted Tommy back, or she was just to insecure. She didn't know anymore, but she didn't bother too as she found three bottles  of whisky in a bucket of ice that was beside there bed, she took the whole bottle and drank herself to an oblivion,
completely careless and forgetting she was pregnant.

CRUELFOOLS