𝐁𝐋𝐎𝐎𝐃 𝐈𝐍 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐂𝐔𝐓 ° michael gray

CHAPTER FOUR.

CHAPTER FOUR:
SOUTH EXPANSIONS

Scarlett sat on the wooden chair in the main room of the house. Her legs crossed, and her fingers picking at each other out of boredom. Finn paced in silence. Arthur tried to loosen up his hands after the incident and Scarlett prayed that someone would say something. They didn't. Not for another five minutes, but when they did Scarlett let out a sigh.

"Sit down, Finn." Arthur ordered, watching the boy walk with confusion on his face. His family and Scarlett normally sat and acted the way they were when he was being shouted at. Finn looked around and sighed for a second before taking the seat next to Scarlett, who was glancing at Esme with confusing filling her eyes too. She then moved on to watch Polly and John who stood near the door, John was messing with his rings as usual and Polly's expression was unexplainable.

"Where the bloody hell is he-"

"He is on his way." Polly repeated for fifth time that hour. Scarlett's irritation grew, as did everybody else's. Arthur fussed with his hands a second longer before looking at Scarlett, who sighed again.

"Right then, while we're waiting patiently," He rose from his chair at the head of the table. Finn and Scarlett shared their third look that day and sighed when Arthur entered their eye lines with a crate. "... Whiskey." He grunted and placed it on the table. "Left over from the explosion." John began setting out the cups, missing Scarlett as the girl was never fond of the drink, or any alcohol for that matter. The state it put people in not only embarrassed them, but weakened them, and she didn't need that. "It's good stuff as well." Arthur poured everyone a drink.

"Right," John caught everybody's attention, everyone except Polly. "Before Tommy gets here, there's a few things we need to get straight between the rest of us." John's eyes met Scarlett's and the girl looked away, slight anger upon her face as Polly joined the conversation.

"You think?" Her eyebrows were slightly raised and Scarlett could practically feel an argument on the horizon.

"Yeah." John answered, slight sarcasm in his voice. Polly smirked slightly and looked away again. "Yeah, I do. I want to know.. when did we all vote take a vote on this expansion south?" He gestured to the people in front of him before making eye contact with Esme, who quickly looked away in fear of another argument. Polly, with crossed arms, walked towards the group.

"You have anything to say, you wait for Thomas." Polly's words were clearly an instruction, and Scarlett watched on in slight confusion and fear, it wasn't her place to interfere, it wasn't her family.

"Polly's fucking right." Arthur chimed in.

"I see all the books. All right, legal and off-track. Saw stuff you don't see. And in the past year, the Shelby Company Limited has been making 150 pounds... a day." Arthur and Scarlett looked to Polly. "Right? A fucking day!" John shouted, Scarlett cringed for him, it was never a good idea to shout at either Polly or Arthur. "Sometimes more. So, what I want to know," John began practically spelling it out as if the group were stupid. ".. is why are we changing things? Polly, look what's happened already. We haven't even set foot in London yet, they've already blown up our fucking pub."

"Who said anything about cockneys?"

"Who else?" Esme piped up. Again, Scarlett cringed.

"You know who did it, did you?" Polly asked, and Scarlett was silently praying that nobody snitched on her, they all knew Tommy told her everything, and they didn't always like that. John turned to Polly.