Love lust // Thomas Shelby

7~~Planning takes time

Warwickshire ~ September 1925

The cold, skin splitting air whipped around the figure, her hands brought her fur lined coat impossibly closer together over her chest, such a time as this meant she had zero preparation in getting dressed, she had decided to stay retire to bed early that day, well that was the plan until she got a frantic phone call from one of her nephews.

Mrs Elizabeth "polly" Gray (née Shelby) was a force to be reckoned with, not only did she carry the infamous Shelby name, but she also carried the ruthlessness, just because she was a woman didn't mean she was squeamish.
During the war while the men were fighting for whatever load of propaganda the king fed them, she and a lot of other women kept the world turning on it's axis the peaky blinders were under her management, well her and Emlyns...

Emlyn was but a wee lass when polly found her walking around the streets, wearing a tattered dress, no shoes, polly noticed the girl looked like she was five minutes from dying of starvation. The decision to take home the little gem, as polly would call her on account of her jade green eyes, was not entirely thought through. The girl was beautiful but covered with dirt and grime so when polly asked the young girl to come and take a bath, she was all too eager.
Once clean and in a fresh dress (curtesy of pollys daughter Anna) the girl shone like the stars did on a clear night sky.
She was unusually polite for a street kid, she could read ahead of her years and write in beautiful cursive, the Shelby matriarch often thought that queen Victoria would have written in a similar style, not to mention her posh Birmingham accent, proved she wasn't just any old street kid, and that she wasn't from small heath, that begged the question of where exactly the little gem came from.
Polly would try for years to find out a little bit about emlyn and her origins. What her last name was, where she lived, who her parents were. Aside from a surname which polly was almost certain emlyn made up, she told polly the same thing everytime "it's in the past pol" without a single emotion flashing on the girls face.

Of course being as gorgeous and intelligent as she was she caught the eyes of many boys, yet emlyn cared not to entertain anyone, she kept to herself and that wasn't at all for the fact she was shy, but instead it was as if she was meticulously planning each and every move, like a sordid game of chess, that of which only she could win. Over the years she became more relaxed around polly, when the boys came along though, that was a different story indeed.
Emlyn caught the eyes and hearts of all three Shelby boys.
Arthur, the joker, always make her laugh in a way no one else could the kind of laugh that once you start you can't stop, the two would always play rough which usually ended in her being thrown over Arthur's shoulder as he spun her around and her to fall into fits of laughter, such a sound was similar to that of hummingbirds on a spring morning.
John, the charmer, never failed to make her giddy, she would be like a schoolgirl when john was around, he often made innuendos and would always tell her how much he loved her, yet much to her rather silent disappointment, while she was away in Scotland attending a nursing course John fell in love and married his Martha, sure she was pretty, shy and innocent but she wasn't emlyn and John knew that. He while married and in love never seemed to be able enough to push emlyn to the back of his mind.
Once she returned, she treated John the same as she did when she left, he couldn't understand her civilness towards him, the fact that he married another woman after their history seemed not to bother her all too much. When Martha become pregnant John assumed emlyn would be angry with him, sure him being married didn't bother her but a baby? Surley that would piss her off... yet again though she surprised him, he received nothing but congratulations and words of encouragement from emlyn however once his child was born, she became slightly distant, not so much towards John but towards his child and Martha. while pregnant emlyn would care to Martha's every need, she would take Johns pregnant wife out for lunch, baby shopping, or even just a walk.
But in the end the baby changed things, emlyn would visit Martha less, she refused to hold the child claiming she was too nervous but John had an inkling it had nothing to do with nerves not to mention she spent almost all her spare time with Tommy....