THEO SMILED as he watched his sister fumble with her coat, glancing up at him every few seconds.
"Lils, stop looking at me like I might just disappear," He laughed.
Lillian rolled her eyes before she sat in the armchair, Theo opposite her.
"You've aged," She told him, a coy smile on his lips.
"War does that to you, working on a farm hiding from the Germans does the same." He replied.
Lillian wanted to know what happened, she so badly did but instead she skirted around the topic and asked for a few details.
"So, you escaped while you were under attack?" Lillian asked quietly.
Theo winced, his shaggy dark hair covering his eyes as he looked down, "it wasn't my finest moment, leaving my men behind to die or become prisoners of war.."
Lillian shook her head, "don't think of it that way, Theo, you were playing a game of survival in those trenches. You were all just doing what you had to do to survive, and you did,"
A small, unhumourous laugh escaped his lips, "it didn't feel like I survived.. for a while,"
He took a deep breath, "I ran through that forest, for many miles, I ran until my legs gave out on me and I could no longer stand. I'd shed a majority of my uniform, it was freezing cold. It was a dog that found me, followed by a woman who all but dragged me through her own fields. She took me into her home, her family. She nursed me back to health despite knowing barely any english. I'd been hit in the arm, I didn't know because of the adrenaline at the time. It was infected and I barely escaped with my life,"
Lillian could see the pain in his eyes as he discussed France, she was going to tell him to stop, but he continued.
"For the first few years, father sheltered us, he kept us behind lines unless it was completely necessary. Father was so high up, in every aspect of the word, that nobody questioned what he said. Eddie, of course, listened to father, but I was sick of seeing men dying, friends dying. So when some of our troops were being transported to the front line, I went with them. I was gone before father could even say no. Yes, father went to war, and so did Eddie, but he didn't see what most of the other men saw, he didn't watch men die, and in a few weeks I experienced more war than he had in years."
Just talking about it, Theo shook. He hadn't spoken about it at all, to anybody. It felt as if he was reliving the moments once again. Only Lillian's comforting hand on his own as she knelt before him, brought him back.
"You aren't in France anymore, you're safe with me, Theo. You know that. The men that you'll meet here, they know exactly how you feel, it may terrify you to hear their screams at night. You all feel the same pain. You're all bound by the promises you made, the years you shared."
Theodore held onto his sisters hand tightly to which Lillian reciprocated.
"Ever since those men showed up at the door, told us that you were presumed dead... all I've thought about is the last time we talked and I just felt guilty." Lillian glanced down at their hands, before she shuffled onto the floor beside the arm chair, Theo sitting beside her.
Theodore looked at her questionable, "why guilt?".
A small sigh escaped her lips as she played with her hands, "I felt guilty that I'd left, that I'd shouted at you. I hadn't hugged you goodbye or even written a letter"
A huff escaped Theo's lips as he pulled his sister into his side, wrapping his arms around her as they used to do when they were little and their father were angry with them.
"I shouldn't have said what I did, I don't blame you for reacting the way you did. I'd never blame you, for anything, Lilli." Lillian smiled at him before she pulled away, standing up and dusting herself off.
"Come on, mother would be disgusted if she saw you now, you need a bath. Mother brought some of your clothes down," She told him.
"Mothers here?" His eyes widened.
"Not here, she's at the Warwickshire estate, you can be the one to phone her later. She'll be hysterical, I tell you. Our mothers going soft," She chuckled.
Theo laughed, before he ascended the stairs to bathe.
Lillian shook her head with a smile, her brother was home, Theodore May was just as alive as he was the day he left London.
Lillians smile broke when Arthur came stumbling through the door with a grin on his face, she raised a brow with her arms crossed.
"Come on, tell me why you've got the biggest grin you've had since we were married,"
"I've got a pub!" Arthur exclaimed.
"Who in their right mind would sell Atthur Shelby a pub? Arthur you spend at least 330 days a year drinking," Lillian whined toward the end, imagining Arthur sitting behind a bar, drunk.
"Have a little faith in me, love, this is my dream," He laughed, wrapping his arms around her waist as she giggled.
"You once told me I was your dream, now you're going to replace me with a pub," She teased him.
Lillian rubbed his cheek with a smile, Arthur could never miss how lovingly she had always looked up to him, "so long as it makes you happy,"
Theo could hear every word they exchanged to eachother, he could hear the love in his sisters voice as she spoke to her husband.
Theo couldn't help but laugh as he heard Arthur shout, no doubt he'd already had a drink or two, "Theodore Fuckin' May!"
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authors note; I'm so happy Theo is finally in! He and Lillian have a different kind of sibling bond to that of Lillian and Edward, Theo and Lil have always shared the pleasure of "disappointing" or shocking their parents, when they were young they pleased them but they enjoyed causing trouble. Theo was the golden boy before the war however the war helped changed him and certainly showed him a new side to his father. I think Theo resents his father in a way, and has also grown to resent his previous way of living.