✓ | GOLDEN LIAR ↠ Thomas Shelby.

19.

CHAPTER NINETEEN.

               "LET'S GO OUT FOR the day, Lis," Tommy declared one day, turning to the girl with a strange expression upon his face. . . one of joy, of hope, one that she had begun to see more and more often since that night in the Garrison. The frequent sight of this almost―smile made her heart warm each time it appeared and so, on the days when it seemed as though it would never come, she reminded herself of the times that it did. The times that she saw Thomas Shelby for the man he so rarely showed the world he was.

Because to Felicity Woods, it was almost as though he kept that side, just for her.

"Escape somewhere. Just us. So that we can get away from here for even a day." He continued as took her hand with the smallest hint of a smile .

Unbeknown to her, it was one of apology. One that was laced with regret, with anguish, and one that held the hope that she would ― one day ― know for certain that he never had any intention of hurting her. For to hurt an angel. . . there must be a rule against that somewhere, mustn't there? He didn't know, but he certainly hoped so ― and although Thomas Shelby had not returned home from the war a particularly religious man, he had sworn to God that anyone who was to even attempt such a thing, he would make sure they would never see the light of day again, because he knew Felicity Woods did not deserve a single ounce of the hurt that was in this world.

Felicity ― as clueless as she so often was ― was sold on the idea the very moment the words 'just us' had left his lips, with the thought of her and Tommy spending the day alone without the worries and concerns of the future troubling them like they so often did.

So she agreed instantaneously, pestered him on just where they were going and only agreed to stop when he sealed her mouth closed with a brief kiss, before he exited the room to gather up coats and attempt to find an old blanket from underneath the stairs.

It was all she could do to not sigh contentedly before she too followed, her heart happy and full.

And another thing that was unknown to her. . . so was his.

⎯

                Tommy pulled the car up in a field and he wasted no time in pushing open the door and climbing out. He reached her side before she could even attempt to open the door for herself, and with an overexaggerated flourish and the trace of a smile growing even more, he helped her out of the car and into the biting wind that met them.

"If I could control the weather, I would," he said with a disappointed sigh, scowling at the trees that stood as a fence around the fields as their branches shook in the wind.

The blonde laughed as her curls whipped about her. "It's fine, Tommy," she reassured, trying in vain to press down her the flyaway hairs before giving in with a huff and resorting to trying to bundle it into bun at the nape of her neck. . . yet another failed attempt, but an attempt nonetheless, and one that made the man before her cough back his amusement.

He pursed his lips together, not believing her. "Come on," Tommy responded instead, reaching into the car once more and scooping up a basket that she had blindly not realised to be there.

It wasn't long before their hands instinctively reached for one another and they fell into harmonised steps beside each other. He led her through a gate and the field before it was empty of everything, much to her elation. Peace. The roar of the city was below them and although the drive away from the streets of Small Heath had lasted barely half an hour, it was as though the smoke and dust that consumed each alleyway was far behind them, miles away from the field of which they now resided in once Tommy had awkwardly tried to spread the blanket upon the grass.