NEW CHAPTERS COMING SOON.
Small Heath, Birmingham, was an unsafe place to be. Men stumbling drunk out of pubs, whores there waiting for them on the side of the street, with gang fights happening around the corner. Unsafe for young girls... but not i...
QUICK NOTE - There is a discipline method in this chapter, which is, by today's standards, child abuse, but remember this is set in the 1920s, and the method was prevalent up until the 70s. Read at your discretion, as the content may be triggering. It also mentions sexual assault.
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• • •
"That violent disclosure turns my insides,
Stops me when I try to stand."
• • •
Harry knocked lightly on the family home's door after Charlie had sent her home from the yard for the night.
The door swung open as Thomas stepped out into the street, lighting up a cigarette and causing the glow of the match to illuminate his sharp features.
"I've given you time to think. Are you going to tell me the real reason you're acting like this? Eh?" He questioned as he blew a smoke cloud into the already dark sky.
Harry adjusted her stance, staring down at her muddy boots as her mouth remained closed.
"No?" He asked in disbelief at the girl's stubbornness—definitely the Shelby blood in her.
"Right, I'll just continue until you will." Thomas sighed in irritation.
'What?' Harry's face asked as her eyes instantly shot up to look at her brother.
"Stay out here. You stink of horse shit." Thomas fumed as he turned, slamming the front door and leaving Harry in the street. After a few minutes, he returned, dropping logs, used for the fire, at her feet.
"Pick them up." He ordered as Harry cocked his eyebrow in confusion as she continued to stare at her brother.
"I said. Pick. Them. Up." Anger dripped from his tone. Harry obeyed, bending down quickly to pick up the wooden logs.
"Hold your arms out wide." As Harry raised her arms slightly, Thomas stepped forward, losing his patience as he pulled the girl's arms out to precisely ninety degrees.
"I'm going to finish my supper, and by the time I'm back, you better not have moved an inch, or we'll start this all over again," Thomas stated, reprimanding the girl. He swiftly moved back inside, slamming the door again; without glancing back, as he returned to his meal at the table.
"Tom, I think you're being a little harsh," Polly commented to her nephew as she watched the girl from the window.
"You're the one who told me to discipline the girl, so that's what I'm doing, Pol." He responded as he slammed his cutlery down on the table.
"She has been lying, stealing and fighting with her own family. I've tried asking for her reason, but it just makes her worse. What am I meant to do with her."
Polly sighed as she looked back out the window at the shivering girl. She would give it to him; there wasn't much they could do but punish her behaviour. And Thomas was right; it would be some time before she could forgive the girl for 'attacking' her son.
"For Christ's sake, Thomas, she'll catch a cold."
"Good", he replied, between eating his supper as Polly went to make a bath for Harry.
Once Thomas had finished eating, he opened the front door to see Harry physically shaking from the cold night wind.
"Alright, times up. Get inside. Pols made you a bath. We'll continue our conversation tomorrow." Thomas declared, ignoring how her arms had dropped a few inches. Harry trudged inside, straight past her brother, shivering as she walked.
• • •
Harry reported first thing to Thomas' office as requested, sporting a light red nose from the evening prior. She was exhausted. Exhausted from all the questions about her behaviour, she didn't know the answer to. Deep down, though, she had a good guess what the change in her was.
"I've given you enough time, so out with it." Thomas' face displayed his weariness from his slouched position perched against the front of his desk in front of the young girl.
"Harry," he warned when the girl made no attempts to speak as her eyes darted around the room, almost as if she was looking for a way to escape.
"You chose him over me," she finally muttered.
"What?" Thomas questioned, not fully comprehending Harry's train of thought.
"Michael, you took him to the auction and left me behind." She explained, her voice barely above a whisper.
"Finn and Isiah also didn't go..." Thomas began, believing that Harry was mad with him just about her not being allowed to the horse auction a few days prior.
"You're worried he's going to replace you?" he queered as his mind slowly solved the mystery of Harry's behaviour.
"That's not just it, though, is it?" Tommy pondered as he read his sister's features; she looked like she could shatter into a million pieces at any point.
"What the fucks going on, Harry?" Thomas sighed, almost losing his patience; why couldn't she just tell him??
"One minute, you're fine getting on well with work, and then..." He paused as his mind slowly started to put the pieces together.
"What happened that night?"
"What night?"
"You know what night, Harry!" Thomas shot back, anger evident in his tone. Not for Harry but for where his mind had gone.
"I don't know what you mean, Tom," Harry tried, her voice trembling slightly as if she was trying to convince herself she didn't remember.
"What happened with Sabani's men?"
"Nothing." She swiftly replied, with tears filling her eyes.
"Don't bullshit me. What happened that night when Sabini's men attacked you?" Tommy retorted as he stepped closer towards the young girl. Tears started streaming down her face as she moved to leave the office, but Thomas darted quickly in between her and the door. He was blocking her exit.
"What did they do?" He asks again in a much softer tone, just above a whisper.
"I- I couldn't get them off me." She finally sobbed out. Everything she had held in, buried deep, came spilling out.
"Harry..."
"I tried..." Harry cried out as she crumpled to the floor, head in her hands with her back against the filing cabinet.
"I'll fucking kill them all." He shouted, anger racing in his blood as he slammed his hands down onto his desk. The loud noise made Harry whimper. Noticing the small girl's cry at once, Thomas took in a shaky breath smoothing down his hair as he calmed himself down.
"Harry, darling...?" He whispered, crouching down beside her.
Harry whimpered, letting out a sob. She had never looked so vulnerable, and she hated it. Thomas sensed this and wrapped his arms around his little sister, pulling her to rest her head against his chest.
"Please don't leave." She pleaded.
Tommy let out a sigh as he pulled her in tighter to his chest, as his right hand began playing with her short curls in an attempt to calm Harry down.
I physically cried writing this chapter while listening to the song linked above...
