Arabella || Peaky Blinders [Michael Gray]

twenty five

Chapter Twenty Five
"Even when my head was in that noose, all I could think about was you."

Arabella had decided to go with Ada to visit Polly. She'd seen the woman the other week when she was doing her own rounds of dropping Christmas presents off, but Arabella was constantly worrying about how she was doing, knowing that Polly took the prison time so much harder than everybody else.

However, after a quick visit to Arthur's, enduring the wonderful pleasantries of Linda, which then lead to them finding out about the Black Hand the Shelby's were all receiving, and then being tricked into going to Tommy Shelby's house, Arabella rather wished she hadn't come along.

"No," Arabella stated firmly, crossing her arms over her chest. "Absolutely not."

"Arabella," Ada sighed, knowing full well she'd tricked Arabella into coming by not mentioning the stop off at Tommy's house, but she just wanted the two to reconcile. "Please, he'll want to see you."

"Tell him I'll see him in hell."

Ada eventually gave in to Arabella's stubbornness. "Fine. I won't be long."

Ada was in fact lying about that, since she did take a long time, and Arabella was bored out of her mind – but then again, it was better than having to see Tommy fucking Shelby. When Ada did finally return, she informed Arabella of everything her and Tommy had discussed, which, to Arabella's distaste, meant finding out that they all had to go back to Watery Lane, even Arabella, to keep everybody safe. Ada tried to reinforce the narrative of Tommy still protecting her, but Arabella was having none of it. Apparently the "tell him I'll see him in hell" line went down quite well though.

"Okay." Ada turned to face Arabella as the car slowed to a stop outside Polly's house. "How much do I need to prepare myself?"

"A lot," she told her. "A hell of a fucking lot."

The two of them stepped out of the car with bags in each hand, carefully making their way towards the house. Ada stopped a few steps ahead, causing Arabella to almost crash into her. The two women exchanged uncertain looks, finding that the front door had been left wide open. They shared another wary glance before stepping inside, being met with loud shouts from within the house.

"Hello, Polly. Hello, Michael," Ada called out as they shuffled through the doorway. "Merry Christmas. The door was wide open."

Michael turned around, running a hand through his hair in exasperation, his eyes automatically locking with Arabella's.

"Fuck," Polly muttered, seeming to snap out of the daze she had been in. "I spent the whole day tidying up. I wanted it to be nice. I wanted it to look nice!"

"Why, Pol?" Ada asked gently, slowly approaching her. "It's only me and Arabella. It's okay, it's okay," she spoke softly, trying to soothe Polly's hysterics. "We can sit, sit and talk and put things back together. It's okay."

"I'll leave you two to it," Michael said, attempting to move past them, but Ada held her hand up.

"No, you stay," she instructed, and he stopped, gaze shifting to Arabella for answers, but she gave nothing away. "Now, listen, something's happened." Ada glanced between them both to address them. "Things have changed. Today everyone in the family received one of these." She picked up one of the many envelopes from the pile on Polly's table, holding it out towards her Aunt.

"What does it mean?"

"Tommy's called a family meeting," Ada said. "He wants you both to come."