far from home. peaky blinders

𝑇𝐻𝐼𝑅𝑇𝑌 𝐹𝑂𝑈𝑅

𝑇𝐻𝐼𝑅𝑇𝑌 𝐹𝑂𝑈𝑅
☾

"What are you doing here?"

Anna followed her mother into the betting den, her hands twisted around the straps of a handbag. The lights were already off, the cold room lit by the early-morning sun, with jagged pools of gold slipping through the dusty windows. Anna shivered, hurrying her steps to keep up with Polly as she made her way into the office.

Lizzy already sat at the desk, the safe open across the room, papers scattered across the wooden surface. Cigarette smoke clouded around her face as she raised an eyebrow.

"On Mondays, I do the inventory. Make sure nobody's dipping their hand," she said dismissively.

Polly scoffed, leaning forward to pluck the cigarette from between her fingers. "Well, it's my job now. I'm back. And there's gonna be nobody dipping their hands with me here, not unless they want it cut off."

Anna attempted to lighten the scene up with a chuckle. "Oh, Mum, always with the dramatics."

Polly smirked. She removed her jacket throwing it to the corner chair. From across the betting shop, the doors swung open. The sound of high heels clipping against the stone floor filled the quiet rooms. Lizzy and Polly shared a glance.

"I said to Arthur while I'm in this fucking place I want something to keep my mind busy," Linda said as she stormed into the room, draping her coat against the back of a desk chair.

"What? You're going to take bets?"

"I've always been able to do addition and subtraction without pen and paper," she said with a shrug and a smug glance. "But I'll need a telephone. Apparently, we have special clients who take bets by telephone."

"Linda?" Polly began, a bewildered look holding her face. "This is a betting shop."

"Look. Arthur said yes. Tommy said yes."

"But did God say yes?" Polly said hysterically. "Gambling is a sin, Linda."

Linda shrugged again, placing herself down by the books. "It's not me that's doing the gambling. I'm just taking the bets."

Anna sighed, watching as her mother shook her head and slunk back to sit by Lizzy and the piles of paper, choosing to ignore the woman. Linda put her head down straight away, flicking through the books in some attempt to understand what she even had to do. Anna sat down beside her after pulling up a chair.

"Looks like it's both our first day," she said with a kind smile. Linda didn't answer, nor did she raise her head. "How is Arthur?"

"As good as he can be," Linda hummed.

The door swung open again, and seconds later, Finn was storming through the room, a newspaper swinging under his arm. He looked oddly like Tommy.

"The rule is that door should always remain locked until nine a.m," Finn said as he strode past the four women.

"Right. Boy. Boy, where are you going?" Polly shouted.

Finn stopped, face flushing as he turned to look at his Aunt. "Well, Arthur's not coming in today. He's taking the day off. So..."

"So what?"

Finn paused for a moment, before he puffed his chest up, raising his nose.

"So Tommy says I'm in charge."

"You're in charge?" Polly scoffed.

"Yeah, that's what he said."

"Alright sweetheart," Polly said, turning on her heels to grin over to Anna and Lizzy. "Ladies. Let's give our boss a first day that he'll never forget."

"That's you told."

Finn scowled as he heard his cousin's gentle laugh carry through the room. Anna hopped onto the desk, shuffling the papers over so she could sit in front of him, leaving her mother to pull orders in the other room. Linda had said nothing else and was unlikely to.

"What're you doing here?"

She shrugged. "Mum has me helping out."

"You met Bonnie yet?"

Anna's face involuntarily flushed as she thought of both conversations. She could say she liked bonnie, she decided, though she would never tell her mother that. Not when she's seen the hate-filled look she'd given Aberama. But Bonnie was much like his father, in that he shrugged it off with an arrogant smirk, not caring particularly much about what people thought.

She nodded. "Yeah. Twice."

Finn noticed her face, watching as she turned her head- she was trying to hide something, he noticed. A barking laugh left his lips, only making her blush deeper.

"What?" she whined, almost pushing him from the desk as she nudged him with an elbow.

His laughing only just died down. "Nothing."

Polly's shout echoed in from the other room. Anna sighed as she pushed herself from the table, nudging her head to the door.

"Come on," she said.

Anna led Finn back toward her mother. He began to fidget through some papers, the back of his neck heating up as he felt his Aunt's eyes on him. Polly walked over, stubbing out her cigarette, and took the papers.

"What're you doing?"

"Work?" he said, eyeing her suspiciously.

"Stop trying to be a man," Polly said with a laugh. "I bet you've never even been with a woman."

"Mum!" Anna shouted, mortified.

Polly shrugged. "What?"

"Right, I'm leaving."

There was only one way this conversation was going. As soon as Lizzy and her mum were finished with ripping Finn to shreds, the topic would soon move to her. And Anna was so not ready for that. With a skip to her step, Anna hurried from the room and made out to find a way to get to Michael.

☾