A dying mans last wish was what found Genevieve Lock caught up with the Peaky Blinders but the love of a Shelby man was what made her stay. In a world of Birmingham gangsters, blood, drugs and alcohol Gennie soon discovers that these violent delights, have violent ends.
baby I'm thinking it over, what if the way we started made it something cursed from the start? what if it only get's colder? would you still wrap me up and tell me that you think this was smart? cause lately I've been scared of even thinking about where we are
Polly Gray took a large gulp of whiskey, watching her nephew carefully over the rim of the glass as she drank. Tommy had come to her for advice, although he’d done it too fucking late as was usual for Thomas Shelby when he had one of his more brilliant ideas. Opposite her, Thomas watched his aunt with a sort of nervous anticipation, she wasn’t happy with what he’d told her, he could tell that much from the coldness in her eyes as they watched him over her glass, unblinking. But despite Polly’s clear disdain for the idea, she hadn’t yet thrown the glass directly at him and that told Thomas that although she didn’t want to, she agreed with him.
“Have you told him?” She questioned after a long moments silence.
“No, and I’m not going to…not until he’s there.” Polly nodded slowly, agreeing with Tommy. Both she and him knew that if John were told, there wasn’t a chance in hell he’d turn up tomorrow morning at ten.
“…and have you told her?”
“Who?” Tommy asked, breaking Polly’s gaze for the first time – guiltily.
“You know fucking who. Have you?”
“I’m going to tell Genevieve tonight.” Thomas admitted, sighing as he spoke and removing a cigarette from the packet in his breast pocket. He lit it up and took a long drag, watching Polly again carefully, gauging her reaction as best he could. “She’ll understand.”
“She’ll understand alright.” Polly agreed, taking another sip. “But she wont like it, not one bit. She loves him you know…really loves him, and he loves her.”
“I know.” Thomas admitted.
“…and he promised her cousin, well…” Polly gestured with her hand. “You were there, you know what he promised.”
“John promised Archie that he would protect her, that he’d always make sure that she was safe. He never promised to marry her.” Even as he said the words Tommy felt a wave of guilt wash over him as the memory of Archie Lock, dying on that field in France became front and centre in his mind. He could remember it clear as day, could still feel the rain on his skin, smell the smoke from seemingly endless gunfire, and he could still see Archibald Lock. He would never forget watching Archie die, and he would never forget the Lock lad’s dying words, and how he made, not only John but Thomas and Arthur as well, promise to care for his cousin back home.
“Oh well in that case.” Polly snapped, lighting a cigarette of her own and taking a long drag. “You’ll break her fucking heart you know that don’t you Thomas.”
“Aye, I know Pol…” he leant back on his chair as he spoke, glancing out the window of his office into the bookkeepers where Gennie Lock sat at her desk, working diligently and late as she almost always did. “I know.” He repeated, taking another drag before gesturing for Polly to stand. “Send her in.”
Polly shook her head as she stood, and gave Thomas a look that only she could get away with giving him before she pulled the door open and called Genevieve Lock in, advising Thomas wanted to speak to her. Polly waited by the door as Gennie stood and fixed her golden hair before making her way across the room with a smile and an aura of such blinding positivity that it made Polly feel rotten to simply look at her. The women greeted one another with a soft kiss on the cheek and Polly excused herself from the room, but not before shooting Tom one last scathing look.
Once they were alone, Genevieve stood awkwardly, picking at a loose thread on the dress her mother had spent hours making and never once catching Thomas’ eye. They’d spent more time alone together since the war had ended than they ever had before the war. Back then she’d spent all of her time with Archie and John, and Thomas had been too preoccupied with Greta Jurossi to notice little Gennie Lock from down the lane. After a long pause, and a deafening silence, Gen cleared her throat and finally met Thomas’ waiting crystal blue gaze. “You wanted to see me?”
Thomas took another drag on his cigarette, rolling it between his thin lips before removing it and tapping the ash into a tray on his desk. He gestured for her to take a seat opposite him which Gennie did without question. He watched as she fidgeted uncomfortably, and frowned at the fact that her clear unease at being in a room alone with him bothered him, why did it bother him? Pushing the thoughts to one side Tommy leaned back in his chair once more. “Little Gennie Lock…” He spoke her name delicately, as though he were talking about something sacred, which in a sense he was – Genevieve Lock had truly become a sacred thing to all of the Shelby family in the time since the war had ended.
“If this is about the numbers last week Thomas…” Gennie spoke quickly, calling him by his full name as she almost always did, having too much respect – and just a hint of fear – for him to call him by anything but. “…if it is then I spoke to Polly, and to Arthur actually, and I explained and Arthur said I didn’t need to pay it out of my wages but well,” she produced a handful of coins from the pocket her mother Elsie had concealed within the fabric of her dress. “Well that just didn’t feel right so.” She placed the coins down on the table without another word.
Tommy watched as the coins clattered against the hard wood of his desk and laughed softly. He leant forwards and pushed the coins back towards the blonde girl sat opposite him. “Keep your money Gennie, this isn’t about the numbers.”
“Then what is it about?” Gennie asked, puzzled.
“It’s about John.” Tommy explained, finishing his cigarette and stubbing out the end in the ash filled tray on the table.
“Oh,” at the mere name of Thomas’ brother, Gennie’s entire demeanour changed. It was as though a physical weight was lifted, she sat up straighter, and smiled an impossibly bright smile at her employer who watched her through careful eyes on the opposite side of the table. “What about John?” Even the way she said John’s name sounded like a song.
“John is getting married.”
“I beg your pardon?” Gennie spluttered, dark eyes wide and questioning. “I…err…I’m sorry Tom but I don’t really understand.”
“Tomorrow morning, at ten o’clock, John will be married.” The confusion that was etched all over Genevieve Lock’s pretty face caused a sick feeling to erupt in the pit of Tommy’s stomach and he lit another cigarette, hoping the tobacco would settle it. He offered the packet to Gennie and she shakily took one, placing it between her lips and leaning forwards across the desk for Tommy to light it before leaning back on her chair once more and taking a drag.
“…may I ask to whom?”
“You may.” Thomas nodded. “He’ll be married to Esme Lee.”
“Lee?!” Gennie coughed on the smoke she had just inhaled. “He’s…John’s sweet on a Lee girl?”
Thomas shook his head, no. “You and I both know that there is only one girl John boy is sweet on Genevieve.”
Gennie knew who Tom was talking about, he was talking about her, and it was for that exact reason that she looked at him now with eyes that were both confused and accusing. “Why are you telling me this?”
“I’m telling you Gennie,” Tommy took another drag, “because he will want you there tomorrow, we all will, you’re a part of this family.”
“Is that so?” Gen stood, stubbing out the cigarette in her hand despite having only just lit. Thomas watched as the orange light at the end of the cigarette burned out, and then dragged his gaze back to Genevieve who was stood now, staring down at him. “I’ll be leaving now.” She announced, more forcefully than Thomas had ever heard her speak. Her hand was already on the handle of the office door, pulling it open, by the time Tommy was able to respond.
“Ten o’clock tomorrow morning.”
***********************************
It was just before ten o’clock when Thomas rounded the corner and made his way towards the car where John and Arthur were waiting with a small group of Peaky lads. Every one of them had a weapon in their hands, every one of them that is besides Thomas, and John noticed it the moment he spotted his brother. John rolled the toothpick between his lips with his tongue and raised a brow at his older brother.
“John,” Thomas greeted. “You ready?”
“Yeah, yeah I’m fine.” John nodded, brandishing the weapon in his hand towards his brother who nodded.
Behind Thomas, Arthur reached forward, passing John a small flask. “Have a drink.” He suggested. John took the flask and took a swig, nodding a thanks to his brother as he passed it back.
Arthur flashed John a sympathetic look, and John frowned, glancing from his eldest brother to the face of each man that surrounded him, all of whom were watching him closely. “What, what you all staring at me for? What?”
“Good” Thomas clapped John on the back. “Let’s go.” They set off after Thomas, and John continued to look at each of the faces that surrounded him suspiciously.
The Peaky Blinders rounded the corner into the church yard as a group and John caught sight of the Lee clan almost immediately. There was a number of them, dotted around in various areas of the churchyard, some of them armed, some of them decidedly unarmed which John found to be quite unusual. “Tommy,” John leaned forwards, speaking in Thomas’ ear, “what are you playing at we’re in shotgun range?”
Thomas came to an abrupt halt, turning to face his brother with a sly smile. “John, before you go into battle there’s something you’re gonna need.” He pinned a small white flower to John’s lapel. John glanced down at it before speaking.
“What you bloody doing Tommy?”
Thomas took his younger brothers face in both hands, pulling him close so that their foreheads were almost touching. “Smile John, it’s a wedding.”
“Whose bloody wedding?” John asked, moving the toothpick between his lips around anxiously as he spoke, realisation at what was going on slowly setting in.
“Now if we told you, you wouldn’t a’ come.” Tommy explained, his accent thick. “There’s a girl in the Lee family who’s gone a bit wild and she needs marrying off.” John shoved Thomas away, pushing his older brother hard before he had a chance to say anything else.
Around them the Peaky Blinders surged forwards, taking hold of John who fought back against them. “John boy!” Arthur warned.
“John!” Thomas bellowed, causing his brother to stop fighting almost instantly. “Listen to me, a girl who needs a husband…a man who needs a wife.”
“Tom I’m not marrying some fucking mushroom picker.” John spat.
“John boy come on” Arthur warned again, hoping that his position as eldest brother would hold some weight for once.
“Listen,” Thomas spoke again. “I’ve already betrothed you so if you back out now there’s gonna be one mighty war breaking out here that’s gonna make the Somme look like a fucking tea party.” He brought John’s face close to his once again. “But if you marry her, our family and the Lee family will be united forever and this war will be over. Now it’s up to you John, war or peace?”
“Let go of me!” John shrugged off the hands of the Peaky Blinders that surrounded him. Once they were satisfied that he wasn’t going to make a run for it they let him go, all of them backing away by a pace or two, making sure they were close enough to grab him again should the need arise. “What about Gennie eh?” John asked, directing his question to Thomas specifically. “What about my girl? What do I fuckin tell her eh Tom?”
“Gennie already knows.” Thomas spoke quietly, guilt evident on his expression.
“You fucking told her?”
“She had a right to know…”
“I fuckin’ love her Tom, I’ve always fucking loved her.” John was furious and it showed in the way he spat his words at his older brother. “I was going to marry her, we were going to be happy, we were going to have a family…” He was ranting now, reeling off the various life events that he and Genevieve had spoken about in their private moments together, events that it now looked like would never take place.
“You can still have her.” Thomas suggested. If he had been anyone else Thomas might not have been quick enough to dodge the punch that his younger brother swung at him.
“Don’t you fucking dare,” John warned, “suggest that Gennie is some whore, some other girl that I can take when I’m bored of my gypsy fucking wife!”
Thomas held his hands up as a sign of an apology. “I didn’t mean…you know I would never.”
“Fuck you Tommy.” John spat.
There was a long pause, and for a while the two brothers simply stared at one another before Thomas finally stepped to one side. “Well…”
John pushed past him, shoving Thomas hard with his shoulder as he did so. He walked a little way ahead of the group who followed diligently behind him as John walked further into the church yard and towards the makeshift altar where he was to be wed to the Lee girl. In the distance he could see a small crowd, gathered for the nuptials. He could make out the figures of both Polly and Ada but they weren’t who John was looking at, instead his gaze was set firmly on the girl stood furthest from the altar, whose golden hair was illuminated in the sunlight that broke through the grey clouds. Gennie Lock stood beside John’s sister, her eyes cast downwards towards the ground, refusing to look up for fear of bursting into tears if she did.
