enchanted
chapter 29, charity dinner.

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One of Rory's punishments for being late home and stealing the alcohol from her dad and the Garrison was attending the charity dinner. Plus Tommy insisted the girl attended and she didn't want to annoy Tommy. The blonde found herself standing with Freya and Polly while Lottie and Eve were with Finn, Arthur and John.

"How much convincing did it take for you to wear the dress?" Freya smirked at her niece while looking at the black dress was wearing, subtly letting her have a sip of Arthur's drink that she stole.

"I'm grounded so I didn't have a bloody choice," she grumbled while passing the drink back. "It was either wear the dress or don't wear the dress and get another day added to my grounding."

"Will you stop giving her alcohol?" Polly hissed, looking around to see John already making a beeline for the two.

"Shit," Freya mumbled when she looked up to see her brother standing in front of her.

"What?" Rory asked looking around to see her dad. "Shit."

"You, go find Lottie and stop giving her alcohol. She's already grounded because she's started drinking," he pointed to Freya and then to Rory. "And you stay where I can see you."

The girl made a move to go find Eve since Freya and Lottie had disappeared but she was pulled aside by Grace. "I know you don't like me," Grace began.

"No kidding," the girl muttered, looking to see where Eve was.

"But I love Tommy and I love Charles."

"I would be a bit concerned if you didn't. Tommy's your husband and Charles is your son," she retorted, remembering her cousin who was also called Charlie depending on who was speaking about him. The same cousin she had only seen twice, once when he was born and the other time at Tommy and Grace's wedding and that was only because he was crying and Rory was woken up by his cries so she went in to soothe him back to sleep.

"Are you done with the sarcastic remarks?" Grace sighed.

"Probably not but carry on with your speech," Rory gave her a nod, finally looking at the woman in front of her. "Ooo that necklace is nice," she complimented. "Did Tom get you it?" she asked while looking at it properly, she had seen it before but she didn't know where.

"Thank you. Can I carry on?"

"If you must," the girl nodded.

"I'm sorry for what I put your family through. I'm sorry I'm part of the reason you lost your uncle Danny, Tommy told me how much he meant to you."

Rory let out a sigh, "I am willing to forgive you, for Tommy's sake. You're right I might have lost an uncle but I got my uncle Tom back and that's because of you. You make him happy and I don't think he's ever been this happy before. But if you ever put my family in that position again I will kill you myself. Is that understood?" She might have been willing to forgive her but she could never forget what happened.

Before Grace could reply, a Duchess made her way over to the duo to speak to Grace. Rory looked at the Duchess with confusion as to why she would want to speak to Grace. Tommy had walked over to his wife, niece and the Duchess and Rory noticed the tension shift between Tommy and the Duchess.

"Come on, Tommy aren't you impressed to meet a real duchess? I know Rory is," Grace asked.

"Well, I understand they charge a fee," Tommy replied looking towards the Duchess.

The woman scoffed, "Mr Shelby, you are very direct."

"Direct, blunt same thing" Rory muttered, looking the blonde woman beside her.

Grace muttered looked at her husband while muttering, "Too direct."

Tatiana then chucked, "But it's true. I attend these things for the champagne... and for the chance to be treated like a duchess again. You should have kissed my hand, Mr Shelby."

"I attend these things because I'm forced to, can I go back to my dad now?" she asked Grace who could see how bored Rory was so took pity on the girl and let her get back to her dad but Ada dragged her in the opposite direction after telling Grace something making the blonde woman follow them.

After a few minutes of talking Tommy came over to speak to Grace who was still with Rory while a man spoke a toast which everyone echoed and said dinner was served.

"It's just a necklace I don't get why you're making her take it off, it looks nice," Rory spoke to Tommy after hearing them talk about the necklace

Tommy glared her which earned him a slap from Grace, "Don't take it out on her because you think my necklace would look better on Tatiana."

"I need you to be alright. I need you Grace, I need you," Tommy told her trying to convince her to take the necklace off.

Grace kissed Tommy, "Damn you, Tommy Shelby."

"Shall we go inside?" Grace asked the two.

"Yeah, Rory let's go find your dad," Tommy replied while Grace grabbed her arm linking them together.

Rory watched a man shove past Pol shouting, "For Angel!"

Before Rory could react Tommy had pushed her away from Grace and placed his hand over her attempting to shield her as Arthur pushed the man over making his finger push the trigger and a gunshot was fired into Grace's chest. Rory jumped up from the ground rushing over to Grace, who was dying in Tommy's arms.

"Get me a fucking ambulance now!" Tommy shouted.

Ada had rushed over to Rory who shrugged her off, "Go get Grace an ambulance, I'm fine."

Rory watched as Grace gripped onto Tommy's arms and was pulled away from the two by Polly, "Come on, are you hurt?"

"No, I'm fine. Is Grace going to be okay?" Rory asked brushing the dust from her dress.

Pol didn't respond and Rory took that as she was already dead as the woman ran off leaving Rory to look at Tommy who was crying and for the second time in her life she stood frozen not knowing what to do, watching her dad, Arthur and Finn beat the man who shot Grace while Freya, Eve and Lottie stood a distance away from the scene all frozen in shock.

Tommy looked up at her and Rory ran back over to him and let him cry into her shoulder and she looked at Grace with tears in her eyes, knowing after all the pain she had caused her family she didn't deserve to die over something her dad said and did.

"Are you okay? I didn't mean to push you over," he croaked.

"I'm fine, you didn't hurt me," she reassured him wrapping her arm around his head as he nodded.

•❃°•°❀°•°❃•

A few days had passed and after Grace's funeral, Tommy had kept a watchful eye on Rory from Warwickshire. She had more blinders following her and he noticed more bruises appearing, scattered all over ranging from her arms to her legs but she would never go into detail about where she got them from except saying she was just clumsy or she got them from school by walking into tables, doors you name it she "walked" into it.

John had noticed the bruises too and asked her about them but he got the same answers as Tommy. Esme had noticed that Rory was spending more time with Robert rather than Eve or Freya or even Isaiah which worried her but she didn't know how to bring it up to John or Rory.

She had sat by the fire with John beside her, watching the flames eating at the wood. Arthur joined them while they waited for Polly and Michael. When they appeared, Arthur rose to his feet, "Right, let's go."

"Uh, we've already seen him," Polly informed them.

At the looks she received from John and Arthur, Polly turned to Ada, who sighed, "He wanted to see people in a particular order."

"I can normally read him, but he's difficult to read, so be careful," Polly warned them.

"I thought it was a fucking family meeting?" John asked. "All of us together, I thought."

"John, he's grieving," Polly said. "To see all of us together would be too much."

"Well you thought wrong didn't you?" Rory spoke up, her chin resting on her knees while she watched the fire, not looking up when Lottie sat beside her.

John shoved off Polly's comforting hand as Arthur let out a breath, "Yeah, well, come on, John."

"Arthur, we need him back. Sabini and Solomons have already sent condolences and flowers so it won't be long before they come trotting up the A1 like wolves," Polly told them, her eyes on her great-nieces instead of her nephew's.

"Go on, there's a timetable," Ada told them.

"Only good news!" Polly called after the boys.

"There is only good news, Polly," Arthur replied.

Rory had started walking down to the kitchen and Ada called after her, "Where are you going?"

"To find Michael," she replied only to walk into him.

"You alright?" Michael asked as he fell into step with her back to the kitchen.

"Yeah, just hungry," she told him, giving him a small smile.

"What happened at the charity dinner was traumatic, Roro. You watched her die, you don't have to lie to me about," he stopped her from walking any further.

The girl hadn't realised her was even crying until Michael passed her his handkerchief.

"I'm fine."

Michael stood in front of her once again when she tried to walk away once again, "Stop lying to me."

"I'm not now just leave me alone!" she snapped and barged past him.

"Leave her," Freya placed her hand on her cousin's shoulder. "She'll figure it out herself, she always does."

"She's drinking. That's not figuring it out herself that's-"

"I know and I also know that the more you coddle her and the more attention you bring to her not being okay the more she's going to keep it bottled up," Freya told him. "I know that girl like the back of my hand and I know that she'll be okay. Just trust me."

Michael hesitantly agreed and followed his cousin to the kitchen. He knew she could protect herself, he'd seen it happen time after time but he still felt the need to protect her, no matter what.