Animal Instinct | Peaky Blinders [Thomas Shelby]

14 - Superstitious

Rosaline looks like a ghost, floating on air. She blends in with the stirring sky behind her and the only thing that sets her apart from the flat landscape is the cloud of mud that follows her like lightning. It takes her a while to find her natural gait, Vivian noted, but when she does, she looks like she's flying.

Rosaline was enjoying every bit of this. Her large, black eyes were glittering with something Vivian knew was akin to joy, and ever after she did two laps around the track and the jockey started to ease up, she bucked her head and scratched at the mud, begging to keep going. But the mud was dangerous to run on, especially after Rosaline had gained so much speed. Vivian started to worry that the mud might slip right out from under her, not to mention that the sky looked like it was going to open up at any moment. So after two laps, she gave the jockey the signal to stop.

At her signal, Thomas pressed down on the button of his stop watch and the ticking came to a stop. When he didn't announce it right away, Vivian glanced at him. His blinder cap made his eyes appear darker and grayer, like Dear Rosaline's coat and like the sky that was brewing above them.

"Time?"

"1 and 39," he said.

"That's good time," she said. It was better than she thought after the slow start, but Thomas looked completely unimpressed. Or, perhaps, that was just his natural expression. Vivian could never tell.

"The winner last year ran less than 1 and 15," he said. So, unimpressed it was.

Vivian remembered listening to last year's race over the radio. Her and Leo had both rooted for a white filly, Riverboat, to win. However, right before the races, the horse got a tumor on her spine that seemed to grow overnight. The winner ended up being a dapple red stallion named Sergeant, who had the reputation of being completely untamable. He would bite and injure other horses in the gate, and he broke the backs of three jockeys in one racing season. Because of his feral tendencies, everyone expected him to set incredible records. He won by a hair, and his time wasn't record breaking.

"In the first seven furlongs. After that, he ran one and 38 and a half," Vivian said. "In fact, I'm certain he would've lost to Riverboat had she not been out on an injury." She paused briefly, and she could feel Thomas looking at her. Although he gave away no emotion, Vivian could sense some kind of anxiousness radiating from him. He was nervous for the races. She was too, of course, but she tried not to show it. "It takes Rosaline a while to find her stride. We'll work on her confidence. But The Derby is over 12 furlongs long. There's plenty of time for her to get to her natural gait. She might've ran 1 and 11 had we given her another lap."

Thomas went silent, stuffing the stopwatch in his pocket, but the gold chain still dangled from his pocket. It must've been solid gold. She wondered how easy it would be to swipe it from his pocket when his back was turned. Not that she'd ever dare to steal from Thomas. She hasn't pick pocketed since she took the training job, and honestly, she didn't miss it.