VICES AND VIRTUES | Thomas Shelby

EIGHTEEN

Florence hadn't even pondered making contact with Tommy since returning home after finding out what he did to Freddie. Tommy didn't dare to contact her either, he knew that he had hurt that girl once too many times to even contemplate asking for her forgiveness. The pair were distraught for their own reasons, Florence was heartbroken that Tommy could betray his own sister like that, and Tommy was devasted that Florence believed he would do that.

No one had seen Ada since that night, she shut herself away in the tiny basement flat with just her newborn son for company. Polly and Imelda had been taking baskets of food to the girl in the hope that she might at least have some sustenance, but in Ada's eyes her whole family had betrayed her.

Florence had been in regular contact with both her mother and Polly who would call on the Garrison's telephone to ask how Florence was coping, given that the baby could be arriving any day. John had agreed to be on standby when Florence's waters broke to drive both of the women to the house in Warwickshire.

"Mrs Harrington," One of the maid's voices startled Florence as she stood in the freshly decorated nursery, which felt far too big for a tiny baby, "Mr Harrington is downstairs in the drawing room."

"Elijah's back from work already?" Florence replied, surprised given that it had just reached midday.

"No ma'am, it's his brother," The maid explained nervously, "He's in a bad way."

"What do you mean he's in a bad way?" Florence asked as she walked out of the nursery, the maid following close behind.

"He looks hurt, ma'am," The maid replied as the women made their way downstairs, "He's bruised and bleeding, I wasn't sure about letting him into the house, you know what the older Mrs Harrington is like about mess and such."

"You did the right thing, Marie," Florence assured her, "And remember, I told you to just call me Florence."

"Alright," Marie smiled as they reached the bottom of the stairs. Despite having been married to Elijah for almost five months Florence was still struggling to feel comfortable being treated as an upper class lady. A few of the staff were people she went to school with, and some were people who grew up on the same street as her. It felt like such an unprogressive attitude to society and Florence did her best to keep things as relaxed as possible without disrupting the traditions that her mother in law cared about so deeply.

"Could you get me some cloth and a bowl of warm water please, Marie?" Florence asked, "And if we have any disinfectant bring that too."

"Right away," Marie nodded before rushing towards the staff quarters.

Florence headed towards the drawing room, resting her hand on her bump as she walked, slower than usual given that the baby was resting on her pelvis. As she entered the room she saw her best friend and brother in law on one of the sofas, a bottle of whiskey in his hand and cuts and bruises littering his face. They weren't as bad as Marie had described them to be, given that Florence had grown up around Peaky Blinders she'd seen all sorts of painful wounds, but nevertheless they still looked painful.

"George, what the hell happened?" Florence muttered as she approached him, sitting beside him on the sofa.

"I was on my way into the city when I got pulled over by a couple of coppers," George explained, swigging whiskey straight from the bottle, "But they weren't police officers, Flo, they were sent by Kimber."

"Kimber?" Florence whispered, her heart beginning to race, "Why would his men do this to you?"

"They said it was a warning." George replied.

"A warning?" Florence frowned, "What could they possibly need to warn you about?"

"Not me, Elijah," George answered and Florence was still none the wiser, "Kimber had word that Elijah wants to pull our business from his tracks, this is just a reminder of what he's capable of."