Thomas is haunted by guilt. Once a family man, he lost everything when his loved ones were imprisoned. Now, he drifts through life, burdened by failure, unable to change the past or grasp a future where he sets things right. The Midland Hotel offers brief escape, mechanical, meaningless encounters that dull his regret.
tags: nsfw, mature, dark!tommy, disturbing themes, abuse of authority, obsessive behavior, toxic relationships
Peace At Last - setting: Post season six 𐂃
╰┈➤ Complete 📓✧˖°. Words: 600k Chapters: 122/122
Older story ! Needs a light rework for earlier chapters 🤍
At Churchill’s urging, Thomas Shelby enters high society to become untouchable and perhaps, finally, find peace. Tasked with protecting him, Churchill pairs him with Margaret Hartley-Tree, a sharp English heiress. Tommy must also earn Margaret’s trust as he navigates the interwar political minefield. Could this new life offer the redemption he was denied?
tags: strangers to lovers, marriage of convenience, aristocracy, class differences, denial of feelings
Our Borrowed Peace - part two to Peace At Last ✉︎
╰┈➤ Ongoing ✎ᝰ Words: 100k+ Chapters: 13/?
In the second part of their story, Thomas and Margaret Shelby navigate the fragile calm of 1935. With the birth of their daughter, Celia, their world becomes quieter but no less complex. As Europe shifts uneasily and Parliament debates rearmament, Thomas is drawn deeper into political life, caught between the looming shadow of another war and his promises at home.
Dostoyevski diyor ki:
İstediğin kadar yalnız kal, güçlen; yalnızlığın dayanılmaz bir cehennem olduğunu görsen bile, insanların taktığı çok sayıda maskeden çok daha iyidir.
Daffodils is such a complicated, layered story with no clear cut villain or victim. We know Tommy’s story, his trauma and what motivates him. Loretta seems to be a victim of her own making. She just drifts along her life simply stumbling into opportunities and leaving people behind when needed. She was a madam that sold other women, got jealous and power hungry when Tommy was a client and severely overestimated herself and underestimated him when she made a deal. The fire though involving Tommy due to his involvement in the gang life he did not like the match himself and took care of both Loretta and all of her girls after and it did leave an impact on him as well. She then tried to sell a lawyer information about Tommy putting them both in a bad position, forcing Tommy to commit another murder on his soul while she took the money and ran off for America. She then met someone wealthy on the ship entered that woman’s life and when it became uncomfortable once again left. She then moved to the city and had an opportunity to actually live a life, but chose to say holed up in a small apartment doing floral arrangement just like she did in England. She became surface friendly with the neighbors who she also left behind when she went back to England.She then went back to England, knowing there was danger because she thought she could get her father’s forgiveness that I’m not convinced she deserved and wound up being duped and marrying Tommy to save them both from a murder that she put into action. Their marriage was never born of love and instead of trying all she keeps her walls up and doesn’t use the marriage to her advantage to help others or truly do anything with the opportunities that she has. I can’t actually imagine Loretta in a loving and caring relationship with anybody, she doesn’t stick around long enough and she’s not willing to give anything of herself. You have created a masterful story with characters that are not black-and-white and you force us to question our opinions of them with each new chapter and that is the genius of daffodils. You warned us from the beginning this was not going to go the way we wanted and was not a love story. I wouldn’t change a thing you’re doing, your time spent writing is a gift and reading it a privilege and we should not try and guide or influence your personal journey or creativity.
Thank you so much! I always say I do this for myself but secretly love the input I get, it shapes a lot of where i’m headed with Daffodils. I just love it when Loretta is dissected, because its a bit tough for me at times to define her myself, but i’ll try here because this has got me thinking deeply about her as a whole at 4:41am 😩
Loretta has always seemed to love roles more than relationships. In the beginning of the story with her working as a madam I really tried to get at the fact that she genuinely thought that the girls would all be worse off without her and that twisted belief allowed her to justify her craving for control and the dependency of others. It does come across as her caring for the girls at times but theres a subtly to it that Loretta is gaslighting herself the whole time, because if she stopped believing she was protecting them then she would have to admit to herself that she is just another person exploiting them.
As for why she always abandons people, the root of the issue is that she has a very weak sense of identity and she needs the comfort of a role to play to fall back on and define herself. Every important relationship Loretta has is unequal. But real relationships (both platonic and romantic) fall outside of that measure, because theres no role to play and you only need to be vulnerable with someone.
Tommy challenges Loretta in a few ways. One being that he expects things out of her that she can’t always anticipate, so her role is always shifting in his life. That dynamic is close enough to being exactly what she needs to satisfy her broken sense of self. Sometimes he needs her, sometimes he doesn’t. Everything with him fluctuates and they’ve both been addicted to that dynamic for a longgggg time.
One thing I want to say about Loretta is that this may read as narcissism because she appears self motivated but I really don’t think its close to that at all. A narcissistic person generally projects and inflated self image and Loretta doesn’t even have a solid self image to begin with. She cannot define herself without others and this comes up very frequently in the text if you look for it!!
Oh and her marriage with Tommy is a whole other can of worms. Thats the ultimate role shes secured right there and they’re still feeling it out and barely getting by a whole year in now. 🤣
Rant- theres an author in ao3 that keeps reuploading their old stories with ai covers and they are like11/12 or more of them uploaded at once in tommy Shelby/ original female charector category and I am finding it very annoying because it almost feels like spam and makes it harder to find the updates of stories I have been reading or following or searching for new ones among other things because they get burried in the dump it's been happening for a while now.😪
some random thoughts on daffodils:-
Btw didn't tommy kina cheat on Loretta I am still not over it I want her to find someone more emotionally healthy and there as well and lowkey cheat on tommy as well , or something like taste of his own medicine or something that makes him jealous that she can have a more genuine laught with someone else, like he always thinks he is the only option that she has and it irks me 🫠
Also maybe a little devious or pervy of me idk, I was wondering that scene where tommy has sex with lizzy before the moseley party my wife my house one, to stake a claim or whatever, I was wondering how something like that would play out between him and Loretta sorry guess I m just missing some hot stuff between them 😅
Hi! Thats interesting… i’d block them if it’s annoying to you!
As for the thoughts on Daffodils, I do know that its frustrating to an extent that Loretta is so isolated but theres not a whole lot I can explore with that because love triangles only work when theres love involved, and it’d have to be a bit more complex than just throwing a random rival for Tommy in mix.
Okay but taking this seriously, I mean I’m not sure how Loretta would be able to connect with someone emotionally healthy because she is so messed up herself. However there is some potential for jealousy that I can explore with Tommy in later updates as we move into season 5 and 6 (ahem.. Jack Nelson..)! But keep in mind that particular reaction stems from his possessiveness and sense of ownership over her rather than anything else.. sorry but this is my toxic story so I go all in! Its twisted. 😭
We shall have to wait and see what comes up!! Hot stuff is always on the table but I have to be careful with how I frame it because I really don’t want this whole story to be just reduced to that, though I do enjoy exploring their sexual dynamic because it reveals a lot about a person!
A nod to my earlier post regarding Feist and my top Gen X Canadian music picks. Cillian Murphy starred in a 15 minute short film called The Water with Leslie Feist.
theartofmadeline
pixelskylines
2087
