✓ | GOLDEN LIAR ↠ Thomas Shelby.

21.

CHAPTER TWENTY ONE.

               THE BABY BOUNCED IN Felicity's arms and laughter burbled up happily as the golden―haired girl held it with affection, sharing his giggles and beaming in return. Felicity had taken to spending most of her days ― whilst she was not working, that is ― alongside Ada and assisting the girl in looking after her new―born so that the young mother might get some rest. . . or at the very least, some time spent without a baby in her arms, clamouring for milk or attention.

"I can't believe how big he's getting," Felicity gushed, her mind briefly casting back to that fateful night and everything that had happened since then. "It seems like only yesterday. . ."

"I know," Ada smiled, cutting her off gently. "Every so often I have to pinch myself. . . just to remind myself that he's here, and that he's more than I could ever ask for."

The other girl nodded before turning her attention back to the giggling baby in her embrace. "You're just precious, aren't you?"

Ada sighed. "You're so much better with him than I ever am, Ti," she commented wistfully, bringing her thin cardigan further around her small frame and folding her arms across her chest, so that she could attempt to hug the warmth to herself.

Felicity smiled, but shook her head in disagreement. "You know that can't be true."

The brunette raised her eyebrows. "It is!" She protested weakly. "Whenever he's in my arms, he's screaming bloody murder and there ain't anything I can ever do to stop it."

"He'll settle quicker with me because he can't smell the milk."

Ada shrugged nonchalantly, probably too worn out to continue protesting against Felicity's words. "I suppose."

As the pair continued with idle small talk, the baby's laughter was soon heard to be fading into quiet sighs as he settled into Felicity's arms. "Let's put you down, eh?" She then whispered, crossing the room to the small cot and gently bouncing. His cries turned feeble and less plaintive and Felicity shook her head, hushing him gently until they too softened.

"There now," she cooed, rocking the frame and glancing up at Ada, who had taken to stand before the other side of the cot.

"D'you want tea?" The brunette asked after a moment, turning to the other with a tentative, awkward expression on her face as neither of them were quite sure what to do now, now that the infant was asleep and due to the fact that there was little they could do without awakening Karl, who was easily stirred from sleep.

Felicity nodded, but reached out to grab her friend's arm before she could go any further. "Let me," she said, figuring that it wouldn't hurt for her to allow Ada some more time off her feet and resting whilst her baby was doing the same.

Surprisingly, Ada didn't attempt to protest and so the blonde escaped the room to the small kitchen that adjoined it in order to gather whatever mugs she could find throughout the haphazard house. What with Karl taking up most of her time ― as well as having to deal with Freddie and his workplace riots ― Felicity presumed that the Shelby sister had hardly had any time to herself that she could use to make her house feel more as though it were a home. Whatever furniture there was had been scavenged by Polly throughout the first few weeks after the baby's birth, and then added to when the brunette had eventually decided to make up with Tommy and move out of the dingy apartment she had been forced to reside in.