ACT: TWO
CHAPTER xi: ' blondie's in love. '

"You keep staring at thon Shelby boy like that and everyone's gonna think ye'r in love with 'im or som'." Marie Montgomery's sharp voice was what snapped Eliza out of her thoughts.

The blonde blinked away the echoes of her daydream to look at her smirking mother and then at the blushing girl beside her. Unable to holdback a bark of laughter, Eli threw her head back and laughed at Mila's reddening cheeks. All the while Marie exchanged an amused look with her other daughter, Rosalie, who was giggling into her hand at her twin's embarrassment of getting caught staring.

They'd decided to pop out for some tea and cakes down at the local cafe — one that little Finn Shelby had coincidentally decided to visit at the exact same time as the Montgomery's.

Marie had used the excuse that she hadn't spent enough time with all three of her girls in a while, but Eli was old enough to know she only brought out that excuse when their father was having an IRA meeting in the house. Fortunately, the twins never suspected a thing. They were all too happy to stuff their faces with cake and any other pastries they could get their sticky little hands on.

But Mila's crush on Finn was something that was becoming more apparent by the day. Her bright blue eyes that mirrored her elder sister's had not left the boy since the moment he'd entered the small cafe with a brooding John Shelby in tow.

An act that had not went missed by eagle eyed Marie Montgomery.

"Mila's been crushing on Finn for years, ma." It had been Eli to respond first after recovering from her laughter.

Unsurprisingly, Eli's words did nothing to discourage the flaming redness from coating Mila's cheeks; but it certainly did earn her an annoyed growl.

The eldest of the three sisters simply grinned at Mila's attempt to scold her while their mother rolled her eyes and turned back to her newspaper on the table; a scoff leaving her lips as she did. "A Montgomery and a Shelby, who would have thought, eh?"

"I wish he brought Isaiah." Rose sighed wistfully as she turned back in her seat after looking over to see who Finn was with and brought her cupcake back to her lips.

Eli choked on her tea, bringing a hand to her lips while also trying to sit her cup down before she split more of it. Mila and Rose didn't seem to notice but their mother did, though she didn't react to it causing Eli to inwardly sigh in relief. However, her relief was short lived, the worry of how her mother was going to react to Rose's earlier statement outweighed all the other thoughts in her head.

"Jesus, Mary and Joseph, have all my children given their hearts away to Blinders?" Marie asked with an irritated look as she was forced to put her newspaper down again.

The other two girls seemed to look to the eldest of the three sisters for guidance on how to respond safely. Though, it seemed the twins forgot Eli didn't always like to play safe and elegantly to divert their mother's anger... she was also quite fond of fighting back with words as sharp as stone, willing to slice any who dared argue against her.

Which certainly came as quite a surprise to her mother who hadn't had Eli speak back to her in over half a year; the last time involved a fight in the kitchen with both her parents. It had been an easily remembered sight: Marie frothing at the mouth, Eamonn trying to remain impartial and Eli losing her temper. Typical Montgomery family dynamics.

"Isaiah's a lovely boy, mother. So is Finn. You should be happy one of your daughters is showing an interest in boys, a preacher's son no less, unlike your eldest who's 'wasting her youth with a silly dress shop' and getting involved with, what was it you said to da? Oh, aye, 'fookin' gypsy scum'."

Marie's eyes darkened and narrowed back at her daughter's flaming blue ones. "I thought I raised my girls better than to associate with gypsy scum, Eliza. You and the twins should know better."

"Ma' ever since we moved to Small Heath, you've been nothing short of a judgemental bitch. You hate the English, you hate the Crown, you hate the gypsies — Fuck, you even hate the IRA for being the reason we had to leave Ireland." Eli whisper yelled, knowing her words wouldn't be all too appreciated in the wrong ears. "Can't you see beyond a fuckin' label for once and not make a snide comment about people you know nothing about."

The twins seemed to shrink back in their seats, heads almost disappearing under the table with only two pairs of eyes watching on in anticipation for the chaos that would spill from their mother's lips.

But the fury on Marie Montgomery's face did not compare to the terrifyingly calm tone she spoke with, "I see beyond the labels, Eliza. And do you know what I see?"

Eli's lips were parted, a certain unhinged look lingered in her eyes as if she couldn't quite believe she had lost her patience with her mother after perfecting it to such sublimity. She had almost always been able to stick her mother's dull, jabbing comments, even when she felt her chest heaving in the frustration of not being able to say anything back.

Marie took her silence as a sign to continue. Her gaze locked on Finn at the counter bouncing up and down and pointing to the piece of cake he wanted John to buy him. "I see ye'r father. A young boy completely innocent and naive to the world he's growing up in. I see an eager to please boy who would do anythin' to prove his worth. Anythin' to prove he was strong and determined. I see an early grave, an entire street of coffins, and grieving wives and children dressed in black. I don't want my children to go through the same pain I do every time 'eir husband leaves the bloody house. A wife— a wife shouldn't have to fear for her husband will never come home to her 'cause he got shot in the street... I judge harshly because there will never be a man in Small Health good enough for my girls."

The eldest of the Montgomery girls found herself speechless. That was the most sincere thing she'd ever heard from her mother and she certainly didn't take a word of it lightly. She had not realised the severity of how much pain her mother went through with her father being involved with the Irish rebel force.

She'd not given it much thought before but now that she did, she found herself understanding why her mother was as cold as she was — better to build up walls of frost to protect her heart that weeped more tears than a dark cloud.

In that moment she found a new wave of respect for her mother for always putting on a brave face and not letting a single soul glimpse the image of a frightened, wailing wife behind it.

Just as she opened her mouth to reply, maybe even utter a half-hearted apology, a voice called her sister's name from across the shop as one of the boy's they'd spoke of caught sight of them. "Mila! Come on, I won a bet with John and now he has to buy me as many cakes as I like. You can help me pick!"

Eli barely managed to conceal her wince at Finn's bad timing, even despite the small smile ghosting across her lips at his childlike innocence. She couldn't help but to think her mother could be right... Finn was definitely too young to know for definite but he was certainly eager to please and live up to his brother's examples.

The whole of Small Heath knew when he was old enough, he'd carry a gun and a peaky hat just like the rest of the Shelby boys. His life was all but set in stone.

She pitied him after that realisation.

Rose was sulking at the fact she hadn't gotten an invite to join like her twin had while Mila flickered her wide eyes between her mother and Finn pleadingly.

Marie glanced towards the ceiling as if sharing a look with God Himself and blinked away what subtle tears had gathered behind them before she nodded and gave Mila the okay to leave. "Go on then. Make sure he walks you all the way home, ya' hear me?"

If Mila had nodded, it went unseen as she bounced out of her chair and followed Finn back to John standing at the counter. Eli and her mother watched her go and had the pleasure of witnessing the confused look on John's face as his eyes dropped down to the extra child at his side.

The words, Where the fuck did this one come from? echoed in John's head, gazing down at the familiar stranger. Suddenly, he remembered Tommy mentioning Eli had two little sister's the exact double of her. His eyes snapped up and quickly scanned the cafe before landing on the blonde with a lazy hand brought up in a half wave and a faint smirk on her painted lips.

A grin automatically made it's way on his face and it only widened when he spotted Marie Montgomery sitting across from her with a foul expression. He winked at the older woman for good measure, taking joy in the way her frown deepened sevenfold and turned his attention back to paying his debt to his little brother.

"Did you hear anything I just said to you?" Marie asked, taking another sip of her now cold tea, not that she minded all that much.

Eli's face dropped in seriousness, knowing what her mother was implementing. "I did. I can promise you I'm not into John Shelby, ma."

Marie quipped her brow inquisitively. "Or the other two?"

A moment of hesitation flashed across Eli's face in the form of Thomas Shelby's face smirking at her the last time she'd seen him before she shook her head and smiled almost convincingly. "Of course not."

Are you sure? Her own voice played in her head, hauntingly, tauntingly.

Perhaps, she wasn't. Her mother didn't look to be all that persuaded either but she stayed silent on the matter and Eli hoped that hesitation would not cost her the same price her mother paid by marrying her father...

The sad thing was, she already knew it would.

author's note.
alright, sorry for the long wait for this chapter, I had a lot of things going on irl that just seemed to drain me of all my writing inspiration but the first chapter of part two is finally here! I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I loved writing this one (despite how long it took me lol). There's a lot of parallels and foreshadowing going on but you'll find out more about that later on ;) be sure to let me know what you all think!