Heart of Gold | B. Gold ✓

10 | Small Hell

"Are you sure, fifty pounds?" Fawnie was surprised when she heard about the sizable bet, "Oh, no I'm not assuming anything! I'm just surprised is all, you never place such large bets," She moved her mouth away from the receiver, "Aunt Pol," Fawnie whisper/yelled as her aunt passed John's office. 

Polly raised her eyebrows, "What's wrong?" 

Fawnie pointed at a rather large book on the shelf of old betting books, "Can you hand me the red book? Hi, yes, I'm still here. Just having a few telephone difficulties," Polly struggled to figure out what Fawnie was pointing at, "could you wait one second?" When the man on the other line agreed with a gruff 'yes', Fawn shot out of the seat and walked over to the shelf.

"What's that book for?" Polly asked once more as Fawn pulled it from the shelf.

The young Shelby turned to her aunt, "When I used to follow him about, he always warned me about people suddenly placing large bets. He said it was code for something and told me to 'Look in the red book, it's got all you'll ever need,'. He never explained what was in the red book but I think it'll tell me why the fuck someone who's never placed a bet above ten pound is suddenly placing a fifty-pound bet." 

She flicked through the pages and scanned it as fast as she could, she mumbled 'fifty pound' under her breath as she did so, trying to figure out what was happening. "There," Polly aimed at the page with a stamp on it. "If they place a bet five times or more larger than their usual, they've gone broke." Polly read aloud as they met each other's wide eyes. 

"I knew it was strange," Fawnie mused... "What should I do? I can't take the bet if I don't think they can pay up?"

"If they don't pay up they'll face the wraith of the boys, that's their territory, darling." Polly pat Fawnie's cheek before rubbing her thumb on the apple of it, "Good job on noticing that, John would be proud." The bittersweetness of the statement made Fawnie smile sadly. "You best get back to that call, men are very impatient."

"As if I don't know that!"

━━━━

The infamous Shelby twins followed behind their eldest brother apprehensively, sometimes catching each other's gaze for moral support. When Arthur told them to pack up their shit– that they were getting a flat –Fawnie laughed in his face.

"Oh, Thomas is so tired of us that he got us a flat? Would you look at that Finn, he cares!"

When Arthur admitted that they didn't buy the flat, the pair didn't want anything to do with it. The younger one spoke for herself and Finn, knowing that her brother wouldn't listen to Finn. 

"Of course you stole it, we wouldn't want people to think we're decent now would we?"

Her older brother blushed brightly when she called the entire family out. Now that she and Finn made it to the home, Fawnie could tell what Arthur meant when he said they didn't buy it. The place looked ravaged through and broken glass covered the kitchen floor. "There we go, kiddos." Arthur said with a smile while dropping the suitcase in his hand onto the floor, "Home sweet home," 

Fawnie scoffed loudly and brushed past the boys to scout the area, "A place for you to bring women back," A sound of protest from Fawn made Finn's ears turn red and Arthur chuckled loudly, "Maybe not women, but your mates for sure... play some games, gamble, cards, and you two keep an eye on our backyard." 

The small flat luckily had two bedrooms and Fawnie immediately claimed the one with a bigger space. She sat her luggage down and walked back into the kitchen slowly, making sure to avoid the glass shards that littered the floor, "Fawnie, you keep an eye on this fuck here, yea?" She nodded slowly with as much of a smile that she could muster, "And Finn, no matter what, she's your first priority. After your little stunt, it took a bit of convincing to let her come here." 

"Thomas didn't just decide to send me away? It was you?" Fawnie didn't know what to think, she assumed that Tommy wanted nothing to do with her, but never in a million years would she have thought Arthur wanted to rid himself of his little sister. 

Arthur shook his head violently, "Oh no, that came out wrong, little deer." 

"I can't believe the lot of you anymore, I ought to fuckin' leave Small Hell!" She spun on her heel quickly, ignoring Arthur's sounds of protests as she strode back into the room. Fawnie sat on the corner of the bed with her arms crossed and tried to hold back the tears. Knowing her own family didn't even want her hurt like hell.

Hurt far worse than the time she sprained her ankle after Finn pushed her down the stairs and worse than when her mother dropped her off at 6 Watery Lane in 1911. Her lips pursed as she attempted to push the coming tears down, her cheeks flushed red and when one escaped, Fawn was quick to wipe it away.

Knowing it wasn't Tom who wanted to send her away confused her beyond reason, he'd always been the one to question her if something went wrong... the one to give her a dirty look if she cursed... Thomas was never the one to argue for her safety, never the one to save her... it was always John. Fawnie couldn't piece it together, the prospect that Tom might actually love her.

The thought sounded ludicrous to Fawnie, Thomas feeling any other emotion that irritation toward Fawn wasn't possible. Was it? When the door was pushed open and Finn stepped into the room, Fawnie looked up at her lanky brother. "Arthur's gone," She acknowledged him with a nod and patted the spot beside her when Finn looked as though he wanted to sit down. "I'm sorry about what happened at the Garrison."

"It's fine," Fawnie mumbled but Finn shook his head no.

"It wasn't, it shouldn't have been that bloke to save you... that's my job and I failed at it. You're my little sister, I'm supposed to protect you."

Fawnie chuckled dryly, "I'm only two months younger you shite," She grabbed Finn's hand and met his eyes, "It's fine, really. That is hardly the worst of what's happened in the last six months. With everything that has happened, I think I've gone numb... plus I don't really remember what happened that night." 

"Bonnie Gold saved you," 

Her eyes widened, "Pol said 'Siah did," Why would Polly lie about that?

Finn shrugged and squeezed Fawnie's hand, "What's been up with you lately? You look... empty." He scratched the back of his neck with his free hand, "You look a lot like Tommy did... after Sylvia." 

The word hit Fawn like a perfectly executed blow to the gut. Fawnie prayed that Finn didn't see the fear in her eyes at the fact that Finn was spot on with his observations. She released his hand and stood up from the bed, refusing to meet his eyes. "Nothing, I'm good. Just, we need to clean this place up, yea?" The fake smile felt real enough to Fawnie, "I can do most of it, you just uh, sweep up the glass..." She writhed her hands together, "Yea, that works. Do that."