CHAPTER THIRTEEN.

               THOMAS SHELBY FOUND HIMSELF to be walking down Garrison Lane with a cigarette clenched between his lips and the arrogance present in his step as it could often be found. He nodded gruff greetings to the workers that passed him with bowed heads and mumbled replies. The odd delivery van passed him and traffic thrived among the low murmur of half-hearted conversations. 

He found himself stepping through the frosted glass doors to the Garrison pub in no time at all and his eyes caught sight of the girl behind the bar rapidly, to which he was forced to cough back the smile readying itself on his lips at the sight of the seemingly-happy blonde.

"Afternoon!" The girl's voice perked up from behind the bar, and as she glanced up from her quiet conversation with her friend, her hazel irises met his with a smile.

Tommy returned the greeting as he pulled the cap from atop his head and shrugged his arms out from the sleeves of his dark overcoat. Draping the heavy material over one arm, he turned to properly face the girl.

"Can you bring beer next door in twenty minutes?"

Felicity confirmed this as she tried not to let her heart drop at the sound of his sullen, emotionless words. . . or at the very least, tried not to let it be obvious that they had such an effect on her. "'Course."

He smiled shortly with thanks and crossed back through the sparsely crowded room, disappearing once more and leaving the girl to nothing but her thoughts and the tedious tasks behind the bar. She attempted to force her brain to rest and so picked up a worn cloth and shoved it through the ribbon of her apron. Picked up glasses, pushed chairs roughly underneath tables and cleaned up the chaos that had been left from the night before. Harry Fenton was not in yet, as per usual, and Grace had told her the day before that she would have to take today off in order to see to a relative that was in town. Once again, Felicity found herself with her thoughts. . . and the man in the next room who was despairingly hard to read.

It was not long before Tommy's two brothers walked through the frosted glass doors with laughter burbling from their lips. A thick cigarette jutted from the older one's mouth whilst a toothpick could be found clenched in between the younger's teeth, which was no surprise to the blonde, who swiftly greeted Arthur and John in the same tone as she had to their brother. She was quick to plaster a smile on her face the very same moment that they had stepped an inch over their threshold.

"Hiya, Ti," the youngest of them returned with a lazy beam upon his features.

"How's Esme?" The girl returned instead.

In the weeks that had followed John and Esme's wedding, Felicity had hardly had time to get to know the young woman. What with her spending the majority of her time either alongside Ada or in the parlour of the Shelby's residence, the girl had not seen much of John's new bride. 

"Great!" John returned with eagerness. "She's great, really. . . the kids adore her, thank God, 'specially Katie."

Felicity smiled tightly as she sensed how really, the man was thanking Tommy rather than the Lord above. . . not that there appeared to be much difference, from the way that he got up each morning with no intention other than to play such God and rule the streets of which he walked each day and each night.

"I'm sure they do," she responded, trying to match his enthusiasm.

John replied with a grin lining his lips. "She's expecting, y'know," he exclaimed proudly, his baby blue eyes shining with happiness.

The girl gasped and her heart beamed at the sight of his delight, with all of her forced . "I'm so happy for you. . . for the both of you."

"Yeah. . ." he rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. "She's over the moon, as am I. Not that we need another one running around our feet, though."

"You'll be alright." Felicity brushed away his awkward concerns with a reassuring smile before pushing him and his brother in the direction of the snug. The tips of her fingers bounced from their overcoats and she nodded to the door.

"Go," she ordered them pointedly. "Tommy's in there and I don't have time for idle conversation."

John pulled his lips into a mocking pout at her words. "Aw, come on, Felicity, don't be so uptight," he teased. "You have enough time to talk with us, surely?"

She shook her head firmly. "With Grace gone home, I have barely an hour of peace and quiet until war will no doubt rage in here again. Go."

Arthur's low, short laugh erupted from his lips as he dragged his brother through the door to the private booth, muttering something about business before the words fell silent on his tongue at what Felicity assumed to be the presence of Tommy.

She sighed, turned around and flicked her eyes towards the small clock behind the bar. She had ten minutes. Ten minutes of silence before she had to push open the door and interrupt the words of Thomas Shelby. Ten minutes of trying - and failing - to not think of said man.

The minutes ticked by and before she knew it, Felicity found herself nudging the door to the snug open with the toe of her shoe. Thus she entered, dropping the bucket of beer upon the table along with three glasses that she clutched precariously between her fingers.

No sooner had she turned back to exit the room did she hear his voice calling out, coaxing her back inside. "Stay," Tommy required, not offering any further explanation to this sudden request.

The girl paused before making her mind up to not cause any trouble than was not necessary. She retraced her steps and took up a seat opposite the man at the table, meeting his gaze and almost smiling as he did too.

Felicity was no closer to finding out what on earth Tommy planned to do in regards to her father and their foolish pretence and in all fairness, she did not want to spend any more of her time wondering about the subject. As smoke curled upwards from Tommy's cigarette, laughter spewed from John's lips and Arthur bantered with his brothers, she could not help but take in the more relaxed composition of the raven-haired man who, every so often, would flick his gaze to meet hers.

"So," Arthur began, humour already lacing his words as he glanced between his younger brother and the blonde girl.

"So," she repeated in teasing mockery, to which Arthur met with a grin.

"How's the engagement going?" He continued, causing her to inwardly groan and for Tommy to do the same.

At this, Felicity rolled her eyes playfully. "As good as can be expected when you're set to be married to a business proposal," she responded, meeting said fiancé's gaze once more and raising her eyebrows.

She hardly meant her words: after all, the pair had come to the agreement that any deal that John Woods could and would hardly be trustworthy, so Tommy had assured her time and time again that he would take care of anything that did not appear to be going along with any fair plan. 

Low laughter left his lips at this. "Considering the events of last week, it is a wonder how you're still hung up on that particular fact."

"It is anything but a wonder, believe me."

⎯

             No more than a day or two later did Felicity find herself on the arm on the bookmaker with nothing but a sweet smile upon her face and a grim one upon his. They dodged potholes and puddles of dirtied water, battered away clouds of soot and avoided the low burble of conversation that passed them along with the weary, worn factory workers.

"Care to remind me why I'm coming along?" Felicity murmured, glancing up at him.

Tommy pursed his lips together as they rounded the corner and fell into a measured step once again on Watery Lane. "Because today isn't intended to be a meeting that goes on for far longer than it should," he disclosed with a sigh. "And considering you're to be married to a 'business proposal', you should probably be in attendance."

He quoted her earlier words with bemusement before helping her into the car that stood opposite the Shelby's home. Tommy then climbed into the driver's seat and started the motor. They weaselled through the dusty streets of Small Heath and soon enough, they had escaped from the heart of the city and were making their way to the outskirts.

"What in hell are we doing at a place like this?" Felicity hissed as she took in the building that loomed before them. Far grander than any place she had been before and starkly different to any sort of building in Small Heath, she hadn't the slightest idea as to why Tommy had pulled the car up in front of it in order to get through whatever meeting he was about to partake in. 

"Business," was all he replied, pushing the door open and climbing out. She would have followed had he not reached her door before she could, and held it open for her so to allow the girl to step out into the cold glimpse of winter sunlight. 

"Lead the way then, Mr Shelby," Felicity simply said with a smile present in the warmth of her hazel irises. 

And so he did.

Disdain filled the air among the people that breezed past Tommy and Felicity as they entered the large tea rooms; the walls baby pink and glaring with overly fancy portraits and paintings. The blonde had a sickening feeling in her heart that they should not be there, that they belonged anywhere other than there, yet the man did not appear to share such a thought. Instead, he kept his arm curled around her waist and a polite smile upon his face as he weaved around tables and led the girl on his arm towards on in the very corner, where two men already sat. 

"Good afternoon, Mr Shelby," the man besides Felicity's father greeted him emotionlessly, yet rose from the table to do so. John Woods did the same but with a longer delay, welcoming the pair grimly. 

Felicity took in the sight of the man she had seen every day until three years ago, and it took everything in her to repress the miniscule shudder that threatened to appear at the thought of those memories. 

"Do you want tea?" The first man asked, filling in the silence whilst no one else attempted to do such a thing.

Tommy's face remained expressionless as he glanced at the girl beside him, took in her features before looking back at the man and nodding. "Please."

The afternoon went quicker than Felicity had expected it to, but not quite quick enough for her liking as she could not wait to escape from the rose room and get as far away from the Woods patriarch as she possibly could. She saw the irony of it all, considering how she was very much aware how close her house was in proximity to the Woods residence, yet so long as she did not lay eyes or be forced into conversation with any of her family, she thought that she might as well get on in life as though they were not here. 

"So, we're at an agreement?" Tommy eventually concluded, flicking his eyes between John Woods and the other. 

The silent nod confirmed this and so Tommy rose from his seat, thanked the two for their time and motioned for the girl to follow him. She did not bother to utter a word to the others, instead taking her place beside the man and exiting the room with not a syllable leaving her lips. They left the building with awkward chatter burbling from their mouths as the two attempted to direct the conversation onto anything other than the afternoon that was only just concluding.

"So," Tommy uttered, keeping his eyes fixated on the road ahead.

Felicity echoed this word with as much peppiness as she could muster. . . which she would have to admit was not a lot. 

"Two months isn't the longest time, Tom," she sighed after a moment, turning to him with a weak, humourless smile.

He didn't answer and instead drove on in silence through the winding roads. Felicity found him pulling into a lay-by, with the low murmur of the engine still resonating through the cold winter air.  Felicity glanced at him, confusion surging through her veins. 

"Lis, let me promise you one thing."

Felicity's heart dropped but she hummed, intrigued. "What?" She returned, hushed voice escaping her lips. 

"It's all going to go to plan," he reassured her, turning in the seat to face the girl who's blonde curls fell in deep waves and framed her golden, shining features. "To our plan, that is. He won't hurt you, Lis. He won't ever have the chance to hurt you."

"Tommy. . ." Felicity trailed off, unsure or unable to answer to the soft tone that hardly ever left his lips.

"Don't," he warned. "Don't speak, please."

So she didn't.

Nor did he. 

They sat in the heat of their gazes for a moment and she did not dare to go against his words and speak for fear of ruining such a thing, although really there should have been no such worry. For Thomas Shelby, although a proud, intelligent and annoyingly arrogant man, found the words of which he wished to utter were lost on his tongue. 

Because to him, Felicity Woods was an angel. . . one that he did not wish to ruin.

So he kept quiet, sucked in his breath and readjusted his hands on the hard wheel in front of him, and thus the car pulled back into the road. 

And the only thing Felicity could do was sigh.

AUTHOR'S NOTE
i can't explain how happy i am to
finish this chapter because it took
SO LONG TO WRITE and made me 
so angry lmao </3 n e way the next
chapter should be better. . .? i'll try
and get loads of updates out before
irl  school   starts   again, i  promise. 
love love love you all very much

WAIT i'm writing this and i'm now 
convinced that whenever i'm writing
i  just  stick  in  random  words   and 
don't even bother to check if they
make sense