ACT: TWO
CHAPTER xv: ' burn the king! '

           Rose and Eli were sitting in the kitchen kneading bread when the door went. The two sisters stilled immediately, meeting each other's eyes from either side of the table with unsaid trepidation. Eli felt her heart leap to her throat and she swallowed hard to rid herself of the uncomfortable feeling. Her hand reached for dish towel to wipe the four from her palms as she rose from her chair, her actions slow and deliberate as to avoid making too much sound. The pain that echoed through her bruised and battered body from the amount of effort and stress it took to do so had her biting down harshly on her lip, rough enough to draw blood. She was supposed to be recovering after all.

With the threat of Campbell and his men, Marie Montgomery had went over to one of the men's houses to inform them of the events that had occurred in Eli's shop. Mainly, she went over to scream at them for failing at protecting her eldest daughter in Eamonn's absence.

She'd left her three children under house arrest and told them she wouldn't be too long, and in the meantime, not to answer the door to anyone. To pass the time Eli had suggested they make bread but Mila had quickly retreated to bed as soon as their mother went out the door, refusing to partake after calling baking boring and leaving her sisters alone in the kitchen.

In the deafening silence, broken by the second round of knocking, Rose looked to her older sister for guidance, wide blue eyes full of fear and growing tears. Whereas Eli silently cursed, praying that Mila was sound asleep and wouldn't make any noise as she reached for the revolver tapped under the table. It was her father's "safety gun" (—which her mother has surprisingly agreed to without much of a protest), only to be used in dire situations.

Eli thought it was safe to assume now was a good time to use it.

Moving towards the door, she ignored the frantic shaking of Rose's head as she pleaded with the hanging cross of Jesus over the sink for Rose to stay in the kitchen with her. Her slippers never made a sound as she inched towards the front door, gun slowly raising from her side the closer she got to it. Who would be on the other side of it? Inspector Campbell? A protestant Special from Ireland with a personal vendetta against her family? Only God knew at that point...

One thing Eli hadn't anticipated was Mila's springing figure bouncing towards the door and twisting it open quicker than Eli could even react. "Mila!" Her yell of protest was futile — the door was already unlocked and Eli had no other choice but to hold her breath in horror as it swung back to reveal their late night visitor.

But the pain in her chest was quickly replaced with a fairly dramatic sigh of relief at the sight of Finn Shelby standing on their doormat. However, the sense of ease was short lived as she quickly stormed forward and yanked Finn inside, slamming the door shut again with the brute of her entire body weight. "Finn, what the fuck are you doing here?!"

Finn didn't seem to understand her well-placed concern on the details of his arrival. He was still in that "rules are made to be broken" phase when Polly, Tom and the rest of the Shelby clan told him Shelby's can't step foot in Green Lanes without protection. They weren't well liked along the IRA men who lived there and they sure as hell wouldn't blink twice before using an unsuspecting kid as leverage against the Peaky Blinkers if they could get their hands on him.

Rose slowly emerged from behind the kitchen door, overhearing Finn's name and the absence of a gunshot, leaving her to the conclusion that their lives weren't in danger. She snuck up behind them to see what was happening, flour cascading from her fingertips as she moved.

"I came to get Mila." Finn said simply before turning his head to the smallest blonde and a large smile spread from ear to ear as he explained, "We're having a bonfire!"

While Eli's face scrunched in confusion at the odd revelation, Mila's lifted in joy. "Yes! I love bonfires!"

If she wasn't currently preoccupied with the absurdity of Finn's abrupt arrival and announcement that he travelled all the way to Green Lanes just to ask her sister out on (what sounded very much like) a chavvy date, Eli would have joked: Typical Irish blood. But she was preoccupied with such and she was not in the joking mood when Finn and Mila both tried to curve round her to leave.

Instead of a quick exit like they had expected, the pair were stopped by Eli's hand slapping on the door, gun in hand and blocking their escape with an unimpressed look. "Ah, hold on. Neither of you are going fucking anywhere. It's not safe."

"Please, Eli? You and Rose can come too! Tommy's organised it and John was the one to tell me to collect as many King's pictures as I could to put in the fire." Finn pouted, pulling the puppy face he knew worked on her every single time she'd minded him for Pol, and watched as the blonde's stern expression wavered until finally it broke. Every single fucking time.

An annoyed huff left Eli's lips while her curiosity grew about why the Blinders would even want to burn the King's picture and then she rolled her eyes at herself. "Fine, fine. But you two," she pointed at her sisters with narrowed eyes, "go get my fucking coat so I don't freeze half to death... get your own too while you're at it, alright?"

Finn imitated a victory gesture he'd seen John do with both hands in the air as the twins sprinted for the coat rack. Eli shook her head in amusement at him and flicked his cap before taking her coat off Rose when she returned to her side. She slipped her arms through the sleeves and stuffed the gun in the inside pocket. Just in case...

"Alright, m'on we go." She tore the door open and the odd group of four made their way towards Watery Lane. "The King's not gonna burn himself."

When they got there, the crowds were already growing behind the car barricade to section off the bottom half of the street where the bonfire was burning bright as the red hair-clip in Rose's hair. Scudboat grinned down at the peaky capped boy from where he stood at the bonnet of the car. "Alright, Finn lad?"

"Alright, Scud." Finn smiled up at him in greeting before a dark figure abruptly leaped towards them and a hand scoldingly capped the back of the young Shelby boy's head. "Ow!"

John Shelby glowered down at his little brother. "I told you to get the bloody King's picture from the Garrison. You were gone longer than a five fuckin' minute walk down the road. Where the fuck did ya go?"

"I had'a go get Mila, John!" Finn excused causing the man's eyes to look over his short frame to the three Montgomery girls behind him.

"You went to fookin' Green Lanes on your own?!" The protective brotherliness leaked into his tone and Eli smirked at the fact she wasn't the only one cursed with a wild card for a sibling. "Are you mad?! Wh—Finn, get back here, ya little twat!"

Finn apparently didn't want to listen to his brother's scoldings anymore because he wasted no time grabbing Mila's hand and sprinting away with her out of John's reach before John had even finished speaking.

The Shelby groaned frustratedly and swore under his breath, "He's fookin' dead."

"Well, he must have some luck from above if he managed to make it to our door before someone spotted him in a fuckin' peaky hat." Eli mused.

John shook his head to rid himself of the anger coursing through his veins and instead turned his attention to the stranger clinging to Eli's side. "And who's this little lady?"

Rosalie sneered up at him, quickly deciding she didn't like him after hearing him call Finn a little twat. "None of your business."

Eli simply arched her eyebrow and basked in amusement at the flat look John sent her when he looked away from the kid in annoyance. "Mini you?" He asked dully.

"Mini me." She confirmed proudly.

"Fookin' 'ell." Eli laughed at his reaction but quickly stopped herself when it put a strain on her recovering muscles and she felt the pain build behind her ribs. John eyed her attentively before bending down to Rose's height and nodding in the direction Finn and Mila had left in. "I heard that first year tart Edna is planning on flirting with Finn and Isiah by the fire tonight. I'd go rip her scalp out if I were you."

Rose suddenly snapped her head to the left and wordlessly marched away from the two in an effort to find her crush and the tart John spoke off. As soon as her little sister was five feet away, Eli let her guard down and hunched over slightly to cough at the pain nearing her heart. John rested his hand on her back, a little lower than Eli would have liked but she appreciated the gesture nonetheless.

"Pol and Tommy told us about that bloody copper getting to you," John said as she straightened up and he moved his arm around her shoulders as they started walking towards the fire again, "ain't you supposed to be on strict orders to rest?"

"Aye, I am." She nodded, spotting the twins with Finn and Isiah not to far from where Tommy and Arthur were standing. "But I couldn't exactly let Finn go off alone when he was already in the heart of IRA territory, now could I?"

John cocked his head in amusement at her words, his signature toothpick stuck between his lips. "He's got a thick head so he does. Takes him a while to get the words through his brain."

"Bit like someone else we know," she teased just before they joined his brothers.

"I hope to God you know what you're doing." Arthur directed to Tommy, staring into the flames of the fire before glancing at the side of Tommy's face as he puffed on his cigarette.

Thomas didn't bother to reply and he didn't have to as John and Eli soon accompanied them. Arthur smiled fondly where Tommy's face stayed blank, despite the surprise of seeing Eli out of her house after Polly and Marie had stuck her on house arrest. It was even more of a surprise to see her wrapped up in John's arms, both smirking at something they'd said walking over.

He nodded in greeting when her eyes met his only for their eye contact to be broken by Arthur's gruff voice and subsequently, he was forced to watch her gaze shift to his other brother. "Eli, good to see ya again. Don't worry, we'll get 'em back for what that bloody copper done to us, love. Tommy's got a plan."

Eli caught the slight doubtful look he shot his brother at the last part and she turned her attention back to Tommy for an elaboration. But it was Tommy Shelby, she knew very well she wouldn't be getting one any time soon. He never liked showing his cards until the very last second where he'd tricked everyone into thinking he's lost before he'd slyly revealed he had the best deck.

She watched his eyes stare back at her blankly, a hint of amusement in their icy fortress, and his lips turned up in a half-smirk, his cigarette sizzling as he sucked in another draw.

"Would you like to do the honours?" The brief silence between them was broken yet again by Arthur as the man sent Eli a devilish smirk, holding out a frame of the King for her to take.

The dark humour behind her eyes went overlooked by his brothers but Tommy couldn't help but to gawk in awe. In that moment, with the flames dancing wickedly on the side of her face, Eli was dauntingly beautiful, a rare sinful glint in her eyes and the death of innocence lingering on her smirk. Her face contorted in sordid delight and he thought the red cut on her lip looked more like a gory trophy than a reminder of defeat.

"Why, thank you Arthur," she stretched out a hand, eager to toss the thing in the fire, "I'd love to."

Tommy Shelby was certain of one thing in that time of quandary; Eli Montgomery wore power and viciousness in all her soft features and delicateness, like steel wrapped in silk, and it painted a hauntingly beautiful grandeur.

author's note.
reasons I don't pre-write a number of chapters and publish them one by one weekly? because I have no self control and publish them early ;)

me when people start asking why tommy and eli haven't gotten together yet:
"welcome to the hell i've created..."