Heart of Gold | B. Gold ✓

11 | Didn't Mention

Fawnie glanced around the small kitchen with a proud smile, after nearly five hours of cleaning, she finally finished up. Of course, Finn helped a little bit. After he swept up the glass, he told Fawn that he was going out with Isiah and Bonnie. Something about a 'Peaky Initiation'. 

The youngest Shelby knew better than that, she knew exactly what Finn meant when he said the word 'initiation.'

"You mean you clowns are going to haze Bonnie?"

From the way Finn's cheeks flushed bright red, Fawnie knew her prediction was spot on. She wiped her forehead and set the broom in the corner, beside the counter. For a gal who's never been forced to work very much in her life, Fawnie sure knows how to clean. Polly gray didn't relent when Fawn was young.

She taught the youngest Shelby sister how to clean efficiently and correctly. The Shelby family knew of Fawnie's terrible organization skills and how often she would lose focus during cleaning, so Tom made it fun for her. He too, used to struggle with paying attention in school and to the task on hand so he knew how Fawnie felt.

And despite their differences, Thomas Shelby taught Fawnie how to clean in a way that she understood. The two of them often hated how similar they truly were, but everyone around them found it to be entertaining. Particularly John... her heart tightened at the many memories of John pocking fun at Fawnie.

"Would ya look at that, it's our very own miniature Thomas Shelby eh?" 

Fawnie wore pants for the first time and her hair was cropped short because Finn put taffy on her pillow as a prank... he got his arse beaten raw off by Polly for that one... Fawn really did look like Tommy, only her cheeks were full and her hair was light brown from the sun, but her eyes? They were the same cornflower blue of Thomas'.

So pretty and bright with mischief and curiosity. Sometimes John would be the one to help Fawnie clean her room quicker so she could go out and play, but he made her swear to never tell. Then one day Tom walked in on the pair shoving her old papers under the bed and Fawn expected him to rat her out. That was the first time Tommy surprised Fawn, he hadn't told Polly and her arse was safe...

The old days were much easier, there wasn't much money to go around so there wasn't much of a choice... even though Fawnie finds it annoying that having more options pisses her off (because she knows she should be grateful), it was easier to have one option. To just choose it and run with it. These days trying to figure out what to wear is a bloody chore for the youngest Shelby woman. Everything has a painful memory attached to it.

Nothing that Fawn owns comes without punishment.

━━━━

Being back in the betting shop slightly annoyed Fawnie, but she fought hard for her position and refused to let the likes of stuck-up, godly Linda take it from beneath her feet. Nobody was around and Fawn liked it that way, alone... not only to think about what's happened since that bleak Christmas morning, but to reconsider things.

To wonder what if? It is a horrible habit that Fawn has had since she could remember. Most like due to her abandonment by her mother, then not having a proper father figure just made Fawnie Shelby a force to be reckoned with.

The early hour meant most on Watery Lane still slept in their beds, Fawnie found sleep a luxury she couldn't afford anymore. This is rather ironic considering the Shelby family has more money than all of Birmingham. Fawnie set the pen down and sighed, John's office is just as he left it and Fawn refuses to move a thing.

A loud horn blared through the air and Fawn nearly fell out of the chair due to it, "What the fuck!?" She exclaimed and rushed toward the front door of the den. When she finally stepped outside the sight of Alfred fucking Solomons made a smile break out on poor Fawnie's face. "Alfie!?"

Upon hearing Fawn's voice the man turned toward her and his eyes twinkled, "Ello Fawnie, how are ya doin'?"

"What're you doing here? Thomas didn't mention your visit?"

Alfie's eyebrows cast downward, "Thomas now is it? Told me something about that, see that fucker?" He pointed at a large man who appeared to be taking a piss, "That's why I'm here. Apparently, Tommy has got a boxer." The sight of a man who's at least two meters tall makes the young woman's eyes widen. Fawnie's never seen a man so bloody tall in her entire life.

Realization dawned on Fawnie's face and Bonnie appeared in her head, "Oh, Bonnie, yea... I dunno... he's rather small compared to your man..." Her nose crinkles at the thought of Bonnie going up against... whoever that was.

━━━━

"Oh, right, the problem, right, between rum and gin is that gin, right, it leads to the melancholy, whereas rum incites violence. You know, it also allows you to be liberated from your self-doubt." As usual, Alfie was going on a mindless tangent as Thomas led Fawnie and Alfie to Tom's gin distillery. 

Fawn's not surprised that Tom brought her along, Alfie has always liked her and Fawnie finds Alfie to be quite a good distraction. The first time she and Solomons met was in 1922, at age fourteen, Fawnie Shelby was still as sharp as a whip. She was visiting Tom in the hospital and helped him escape despite being strictly told to make him stay...

And for some reason, Thomas thought it was a good idea to bring his little sister to a rum distillery... 

Alfie shook his head, "I hear you're probably more in need of the old rum at the moment rather than gin, mate." He looked up at the pipework, and sighed, "Oh, dear. Tommy, you've got fucking starlings, mate. Oh, yeah. That shit will rot your pipework." Fawnie took a step back when he pulled out a pistol and Tom surprisingly stuck an arm in front of her, Alfie paid them no mind, "Those bastards only understand one language."

AUTHOR'S NOTE;

So sorry for the wait, I've been struggling to write this story recently so I didn't want to update and then take forever again... I hope you like this chapter