April Snowdrop (Thomas Shelby)

𝒪𝓃𝑒

SMALL HEATH

THERE WAS ONLY ONE place in the dark, cloudy town of Small Heath that attracted the crowds and that was the Shelby betting shop on Watery Lane. Run by the family of seven, it was an ever growing success despite the dark years caused by the war. The room filled daily for hours on end with men of the small town rushing to place their hard earned money on a chance of luck. The booming voice of the John Shelby yelling numbers to inform the eager men. The buzz of excitement and eagerness never failed to appear in the small shop.

On this particular day, Deborah was forced to work alongside John after an abrupt exit earlier from the new leader of the family. Since the Shelby men's return from the war, they were quick to slot themselves back into their usual tasks. This left the women of the family thrown aside for household tasks and 'female business', despite their impressive efforts in keeping the betting shop up and running during the difficult few years. Of course the men couldn't handle it on their own for very long and were soon looking for aid from their female family members.

This lead Deborah to her current predicament, arguing with sexist and stubborn men who couldn't comprehend the fact they has lost their weeks savings. It most definitely wasn't an easy job but it kept her busy and away from the cooking and cleaning. Most days were the same old thing, unfortunately today just wasn't that easy.

With a yell of her name from the back office, Deborah glared at Dusty Bill, who had called her a 'damn housemaid' too many times in one sentence, before giving him the famous finger and stomping off towards the back of the shop. She wasn't surprised to see the eldest Shelby pacing the old wooden floors of his office and muttering curses to himself. It wasn't an usual sight but this time it seemed his frustrations weren't towards the business.

"Bloody Tommy." Arthur snapped, before a harmless chair was kicked across the room in anger. 

Thomas Shelby, of course he was the problem. Recently anywhere that man went trouble followed and he enjoyed every minute of it. In the last couple of months, since all the men's return from the war, Tommy had taken it upon himself to take business matters into his own hands. When the company was ripped away from the women of the family, Arthur was expected to take over. Unfortunately for poor Arthur, Tommy had the brains and personality to take the business in another direction - that's when the trouble arrived.

Deborah leaned her shoulder against the door frame and sighed. "What did that chair ever do to you?" She joked, getting great joy seeing the vein over Arthur's right eye pulse again with anger.

"I'm fucking sick of it. You're all driving me towards my death!" He snapped, while running a hand through his long greasy strands of hair. "That fucking idiot was spotted down at the Garrison Court. He was doing the powder trick, fixing races."

That took Deborah by surprise, she never thought she'd see any of them chance their arm at that kind of risky business. Small Heath was a small town and Tommy poking his nose into the races will bring about a whole different, dangerous kind of group from all parts of England.