VULNERABLE | thomas shelby

✞ E L E V E N ✞

CHAPTER ELEVEN; EXPLOSIVE

WHEN TOMMY HAD reached his car, he was surprised to see Grace in front seat and Beth sat in the back. Beth had her eyes closed and Tommy had only presumed she had fallen asleep after a long day but Beth couldn't fall asleep if she tried. Her skin felt dirty and she was sure her makeup had been smudged along with her new hair that now felt messy after she had left her hat in Arthurs car. She kept her eyes closed in hopes they wouldn't talk to her, she couldn't think of anything worse than trying to utter a conversation.

Tommy drove in silence for the first part of the journey his eyes leaving the road to look back on Beth every few minutes."Start of the day I was Lady Sarah of Conemara. By the end, i was a whore with the clap." Grace murmured afraid she would wake the girl behind her. "You're a fucking bastered, offering me like that." She spat, shaking her head in disgust. Tommy sat in silence glancing back at Beth for what felt like the hundred time, before glancing at the road. "But then you changed your mind. Why did you change your mind Thomas?"

Tommy began to shrug off his jacket and turned quickly to place it over Beth as a makeshift blanket. He left a hand on hers while he watched the road steering the car with his free hand. "Don't get too high in your thoughts Grace. I wouldn't if it hadn't been for knowing Kimber was in there touching my Beth." Beth's hand moved in Tommy's and squeezed it slightly and he could't help but let out a breath of air he hasn't realised he was holding.

"She saved me, you know?" Grace hummed. Tommy shook his head as a small chuckle fell from his lips. "Mr. Kimber was shouting at me to pick up a glass and before he could run for me she called him a pig, and i really do believe she knew what she was doing." Grace was right. As much as Beth didn't like her, she was an innocent bystander being dragged into their world of crime. Beth had spent her whole life with the blinder boys, she was known for being one but Grace wasn't. In Beth's eyes, Grace didn't deserve it. 

"She's going to hate me." Tommy grumbled, glancing back at Beth for the hundredth time. Grace let out a small scoff shaking her head. "She has a fucking right to! Just give her some time Tommy. She'll come around but she has the full on right to be angry." In those couple of words that had slipped from Grace's mouth, Beth realised that she could learn to like her, an upcoming silent respect.

•

At Watery Lane, Tommy parked his car outside Polly's house. He turned to Grace giving her a stern look. "Stay here. I'll only be a moment." Grace nodded her head and peered back at Beth who's skin had turned porcelain white like a doll. Tommy stepped out of the car and opened the back seat, worry filling his body at how Beth would react. If it was anything to the sickly image she'd been portraying on the outside, he would be scared.

"Beth? We're home love." Tommy murmured, his eyebrows furrowing at her fair skin. Beth opened her eyes slowly and pushed Tommy's hand off of her body. "Get out of my way Thomas." Tommy nodded stepping back away as she climbed out of the car. Her went to say something but Beth held a hand hand up feeling the wave of nausea echo through her body. Her hair was messy and the curls had fallen out leaving it in waves, her face looked worn down with long mascara stains, watery swollen eyes and plump lips. Her dress was covered by Tommy's jacket that he had wrapped around her shoulders before he shook her, covering her slightly torn dress.

Beth stumbled toward one of the walls outside Polly's home, holding her hand up against it to steady herself before she began to vomit, the champagne of the evening not sitting well in her stomach that had began to prepare itself for much worse in the aid of Mr. Kimber. Tommy rushed towards her side shouting for Polly as he held Beth's hair back out of her face. Beth let out a shattered sob as she wiped her mouth with her arm, the other shoving Tommy away with the last bit of strength in her body.