Loving Gwen Baker (Thomas Shelby/Peaky Blinders)

Chapter Twelve

Gwen spent Sunday morning in the garden, finally. After years of staring out at the neglected piece of land that her father had once spent hours lovingly maintaining, the strawberry blonde finally donned a pair of gardening gloves and set to work at pulling the weeds in the boarders. She trimmed back the hedges and pruned the roses, and even forced herself to push the rolling mower over the growing grass.

She was exhausted and sweating afterwards, and although she had pushed herself too far which had caused her to physically vomit - she was proud of herself for giving the garden some much needed TLC.

Pol arrived with some groceries, around lunchtime and began to make them both a cheese sandwich - concerned over the pale, sweaty state of the young woman.

"My god, girl, are you ill?"

"No, I was gardening." Gwen replied, "I pushed myself too far, that's all."

Pol placed the sandwich in front of the strawberry blonde at the table, before sticking her hands on her hips, "I told you not to over exert yourself, Gwen. We want you keeping everything down, not bringing it back up."

Although the Shelby aunt scolded her for the rest of lunch, Gwen could tell that the older woman was proud of her.

"I'll have to help you pick out some plants." Pol said then, as Gwen cleared their plates and put the kettle on for some tea.

"Would you?" Gwen asked with a smile, "I'm not sure what to pick. Dad always liked marigolds, so I'll have to have some of those. But I'm not sure what else I'd like to get." She looked out of the window as she pondered.

"What about lilies? Your mother liked those."

"No." Gwen practically snapped. "The garden was dads domain."

"But surely, something to remember her by-"

"-If I wanted to remember her, I'd go and stand in their old bedroom." The glass she was washing up smashed in her hand, and Gwen squealed out in pain as a shard embedded itself in her left hand.

"Come and sit down." Polly encouraged her over to the table, "Leave that, now let me see."

The older women picked out a piece of glass, or two, before she cleaned and bandaged the slice across Gwen's palm. "You won't need stitches. I've seen my nephews with deeper wounds than that and they've not needed any."

Gwen nodded and wiped a couple of her tears away.

"Tell me about your mother." Pol began, gently.

"No." Gwen stood up, and returned to the sink, to finish washing up the dishes with one hand. "I'd rather not."

"You're angry with her, why?"

"I don't want to talk about her, Pol."

"Gwen, holding onto that anger isn't going to do you any good-"

"-I don't want to talk about her!" The strawberry blonde exclaimed, "Please, Pol, just drop it, okay?"

The older woman held her hands up, before lighting a cigarette and getting to her feet. "I best take my leave." Pol said, "I've got to go and see Ada."

"How is she?" Gwen asked.

"Pregnant." Pol replied, exhaling a cloud of cigarette smoke. "Luckily the father came back. They got married a couple of days ago."

Gwen was shocked at the news, "Oh wow...would you pass on my congratulations?"

"You'll be the first one to say that." Pol replied, grabbing her basket and heading towards the door, "Her brothers aren't so happy about it."