Blair felt like all the air had been snatched from her lungs before she had a chance to take a breath. The room felt cold all of a sudden and at that moment, the bright sun that was casting broken shadows through the glass disappeared behind a grey cloud, plummeting the house into heavy afternoon darkness.

"Frances," Thomas swallowed, "Could you give myself and Mrs Kennedy a moment, please."

"Of course, Sir."

Frances nodded eagerly and scurried out of the room, brushing past Tommy who stepped aside to let her out, closing the door behind her.

Blair was still frozen to the spot, the entire length of a drawing room between herself and Thomas who also seemed unable to put one foot in front of the other, or perhaps he didn't want to.

The last time Blair Kennedy had set eyes on Thomas Shelby, he had reached inside her chest with fingers like knives and pulled out her heart, tossing it to the side without even a glint of remorse in his eyes.

He'd left her sat at the table, a lump in her throat and a scattering of notes on a silver tray, enough to cover the bill without a tip for the waiter. Her eyes were drowning in tears but somehow, only a single one managed to roll down her cheek as she sat and stared at the candle on the table, watching the flame dance alone.

The way Blair felt like her world had stopped spinning when Thomas told her that he was done with their relationship because he'd found someone else was, up until she learned of her late husbands passing, the single worst pain she felt she could ever imagine.

It was as if everybody else in the restaurant vanished and she found herself alone in an empty room, the world passing her by without anyone noticing that she was still breathing, quietly existing in her own trapped version of a world that nobody else knew was just a pane of glass away from their own.

Her life had fallen away from her in one cruel, swift moment, at the hands of Thomas Shelby, who now stood in the same room as her for the first time since that day.

Blair never thought she'd ever see him again, and she didn't want to, either. She'd often thought about him, wondering what he was doing while she finally managed to build a life of her own without him. She thought about him when her husband left for France, wondering if he'd ever made it back home.

Though she never thought she'd get an answer.

"Frances said you're the best person we've interviewed."

Blair nodded, hearing her heart beating in her ears as each step he took towards her echoed against the high ceilings and canvassed walls.

"He's four, Charles. You'll need to teach him to read and write, all of that."

Swallowing, Blair looked up at Tommy when he eventually stopped walking, pausing six feet away from her with his hands in his pockets.

"Yes," Blair replied, "I taught in a primary school for a handful of years."

Tommy looked her up and down, not believing his eyes at first sight that Blair O'Hara, evidently married to a Kennedy now, was stood in his home. He was convinced he'd never see or hear from her again, and he had been right up until that moment.

"Your husband working around here?" He said, glancing down at the ring on her finger.

Blair instantly grabbed her hand, covering her fingers with her palm.

"No," she shook her head, "I'm widowed."

Thomas kissed his teeth, nodding slowly with raised eyebrows, "That makes two of us."

Tommy had done a lot of awful things in his life, and he held the way he'd treated Blair fairly high up on the list.

He had cared deeply for her, the word love was tempting to use but at the time, Tommy hadn't known the difference between that and lust. He'd met Grace in The Garrison, her pale skin and bright eyes reminding him of Blair, but with a deeper, darker hue that told him there was more to the Irish barmaid than she'd let on.

It had been easy for him to kiss her, to sleep with her without any guilt crossing his mind for even a second, but coming clean had been the single worst thing Tommy had ever felt. He watched as Blair's smile faded slowly, her hands falling gently onto the table and her eyes softening in the worst way, glossy with tears.

He couldn't stand to watch her cry, and so in a twisted, selfish turn of fate, he threw the money down for the meal and fled the restaurant, never looking back.

Thomas had married Grace after convincing himself he had fallen in love with her. And part of him had, but it was only then that he realised that the whole of him had loved the whole of Blair, however it was too late.

He had made his bed, and he had no choice but to lie in it, sliding the ring onto the finger of a woman that he knew would never be the one he had, not even close, yet close enough for him to be content up until her death.

"Your hair is longer now," Tommy said, breaking a lingering silence as both of them began to wonder what the other's deceased spouse was like, "It suits you."

Blair forced a smile despite feeling like she was going to throw up, "Thank you."

Feeling insensitively awkward, Tommy reached into his blazer pocket and pulled out a tin of cigarettes, holding it out to Blair.

"No thank you, I don't smoke."

"Good," he said, a cigarette between his gritted teeth as he lit a match, "Charlie breathes enough of it in from me. You have children?"

A flash of pain cut through Blair's chest when he posed the question. It resurfaced horrendous memories that Blair, alone, had taken so long to try and suppress in the darkest corners of her mind, not to ever be touched.

"No."

Was all she said, though part of her felt like she had been a mother, at least for a while. She'd lost her child shortly after her husband left for France, and going through grief with no support had been the most torturous of processes.

Blair had always been a soft, kind woman who was known for having a gentle soul, extending her arms out to anyone who needed her. It was the loss of her child and husband that had changed her, striking a match in her mind and burning out all the hope and goodness she filtered through her eyes when she looked out at the world.

"When can you start?"

"Whenever you need me to."

Tommy drew in a breath, scratching the side of his neck as he looked at Blair before him. She looked the same, but intensely different at the same time. She had the same blonde hair and fair skin with freckles dusted across her face and chest, though her golden aura wasn't as bright in that moment. He wasn't sure whether it was just a coincidence, or if her glow had been dimmed ever since he walked out of her life.

"I hope our past doesn't affect your employment, Mrs Kennedy. I trust you'll be strictly professional?"

Blair was almost shocked at the way he spoke to her, but then she realised that there was perhaps nothing Tommy could ever do that would shock her, not anymore.

He hadn't always held himself on a pedestal, but Blair had brought herself to the conclusion that having the choice of two women who worshipped the ground he walked on had given him the step up towards God that he never should've had.

"Of course, why would it?"

"Just checking," Tommy shrugged slightly, narrowing his eyes, "I'll be around tomorrow afternoon if you want to come back then and meet Charles, see if he takes a liking to you."

Blair picked up her bag from the floor, clutching the handle with both hands before following Tommy out into the hallway.

He opened one of the two large wooden doors that arched at a point, holding it with one arm for her to pass through. It was then that he looked at her from behind, his mind easily recalling memories of her body that he hadn't visited in a long time, the way the silk slip dress hung from her slim shoulders and cinched ever so slightly at her petite waist made Thomas scold himself for being able to remember the things he did so vividly.

"Mrs Kennedy!"

Tommy found himself calling out impulsively as she walked towards her car. She turned to look over her shoulder, her long blonde hair flowing behind her in the swift motion, her bright blue eyes piercing in the dull, grey mist.

"It's good to see you." He said, his face expressionless but his heart the opposite.

Blair didn't respond to his call. She simply got in her car and drove away, not believing that it was at all good for either of them to have set eyes on the other ever again.