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" A New Piece on the Board "

          KNOW YOUR ENEMY. It's the real first detrimental factor which dictates the result of a war and if anyone were to ask Jacqueline Alloways whether or not business could really be comparable to the great battles of mankind, she would in a heartbeat confirm that with such violence at play, her land of work stands to be described either as a warzone or a zoo, with no merciful in-between.

"First impressions?" Gene dropped his inquiry right in her ear, so that the loud music and the chatter did not stand too much of a chance to silence his voice to his sister's sensitive hearing. They danced lightly near the center of the room, a single strand of their early childhood bringing to the surface an instinctual adherence to the rhythm, though their attention was far from the race party they were attending.

"He's a dull man," Jacqueline sighed, recalling the happenings of that day spent in the company of the so called King around these parts. "His power is superficial and relies heavily on his wealth, to which he clings like a drowning man to a boat when it comes to anything other than personal pleasure. I reckon he'll do business with our clients given we persuade him to think going through with this investment will impress us — and by us, I mean me — in the long term." Letting herself be guided by her brother, she was forced to give him a pointed look once another fellow pair of dancers brushed her shoulder as they moved through. Of the culprits of the interruption, she only caught glimpse of a red dress, before they lost her interest entirely and she returned her focus on more significant matters, spoken with a smile, as if they were talking the latest harmless neighborhood gossips, not precursors of war.

"I had a talk with one of Kimber's men this morning though," she confessed, pausing for a danced turn, "while we were on the tracks. There's tensions concerning Mr. Kimber with a Lee Clan in the area. Can you confirm?"

"Robert said sum about it," Gene nodded. "This man lacks the security, the loyalty too, Jackie, but he ain't lacking the funds. Seen the registers. He may not be the most pleasant man, but you can't deny he'd be easy money. Our interest is huge for this deal. And I know what you're thinking..."

"If I had a penny for each time a man said that."

"I am yer brother before I am a man," Gene was immediate to retort her interruption. "You're thinking 'bout your worst case scenarios, but this guy ain't that smart to pull a trick on us, Jackie. He's even got the hots for you. We take his money, with interest, give him the goods and move on."

After resting his case, he gave in to a sigh. Changing Jackie's mind once she had set herself on an idea had a snowball's chance in Hell to actually happen, and when those thoughts of hers circled around possible danger to their business, the odds were plummeted to non-existence beyond the operation grounds of miracles.

Staring blankly ahead was a side effect of thinking too deeply — the angles were tormenting her. On the one hand, the cards had been dealt well to suck a Birmingham boy dry of his savings on a deal cheaper for them to transport to England then most of their shipments. Their client was selling at a considerably lower price than they were, so given her brother was able to confirm Kimber's wealth and she too lavished in it since morning, worries should have skipped her mind. However, he was indeed not the brightest, nor even the most likable man to be around and that, unfortunately proved to have rendered him rather vulnerable to thefts. Should their horses be compromised because of Kimber's lack of security, Jackie took into consideration only too seriously that he was stupid enough to demand his money back or add them to a neverending list of enemies.

"Our business is a one night stand with the buyers, Gene," Jackie reminded him before blinking herself out of her mind in time to steal a glimpse back towards Kimber's table. She fell still once she noticed a man seated in Gene's chair.

Know your enemy. Well, the easiest way to understand this cornerstone is through the allegory with mathematics, but Jackie preferred a whole different outlook. In her mind, her dealings happened on a chessboard. But this chess game they were engaging in had something a real and legal game would not: the ability to conceal pieces. You cannot defend yourself from a move you cannot see coming, thus knowing your enemy becomes curcial in maintaining a course for success; a pseudo-legality.

Mr. Kimber was discussing with a piece Jackie did not uncover yet.

She swept her brother's arm underneath her own grip and dragged him along with a calculated haste back to the table. There was time for her to suck in a breath and raise her chin, prepare that stellar smile that gave the Alloways the "friends" they now had.

"Mr. Kimber," Jacqueline called the second the man raised from his seat, a sour paleness elongating his features. At the sound of her voice, some sly brightness returned to him. "Well, aren't you going to introduce us to your new friend?" She slowed her and her brother's pace to a stop behind the new guest seated at the table.

"He's of no interest to you, darling, believe m-"

Movement creaked the chair in front of them and the man seated there turned around, and then, after a look carrying over a clear assessment, stood up. "Thomas Shelby."

"Gene Alloways," he shook the man's hand. "And this is my sister, Jackie-"

"Did you serve in the war?" Jackie interrupted, her tone dropping from the pitched and bubbly attitude she adopted around Billy Kimber, back into the serious depth she held around people like her brothers, around which she had no masked roles to play. Her tonality stiffened Gene besides her and though the signal was clear, Jacqueline refused to take back her question. While the nature of Mr. Shelby's gaze was no real puzzle for her to solve, it was its familiarity that allowed her the dangerous gamble of ignoring his competitor status for the moment. Unfortunately, she never forgot a single soldier that passed through her care during the war and him... his eyes... His name may have told her nothing, but his eyes told her of the handful of tunnellers she nursed back in France.

Her questioned seemed to have puzzled him in return twice as much as his nature should have had her. Only the evocation of the Great War was not entirely to blame for his the hesitation time laying silence between her inquiry and Tommy's answer. What startled him to a pause of thought was just how familiar this woman looked, despite being certain this was the first time he's heard her name or met her eyes.

"I have."

"Somme?" Gene inquired, receiving a prompt nod, however not also the grace of being preferred for a glance over the sight which seemed to be his sister to these English men.

"Tunneller..." The lack of a question in her intonation raised on the flinch of her smile, but dawned on Tommy's features as a troubling dilemma, something very disturbing to see on the face of a stranger.

"Excuse my sister," Gene tossed a blanket over the fire Jackie was poking. "She was a nurse on a frontline hospital. Seen enough faces that she thinks she knows everyone these days."

"I don't forget a face," Jackie's comment was but a mumble on the premise of which she could draw her attention away from Mr. Shelby, despite his own gaze lingering in search for anything that may rekindle the flame to a memory. Truth be told, while nightmares have been merciless with him regarding the tunnels, he had little recalling of time spent in a French hospital bed before being sent back home. Facts told him that he'd been there, but nothing past that brief and insensitive truth returned to him, no matter how uncannily familiar the face he was staring at was remaining. "But I did bandage a lot of tunnellers-"

"Right on that," Billy Kimber interrupted, puffing his chest and nodding towards Thomas. "A face as common as his, you probably met a thousand alike during the war. Torture your eyes no longer with his tiresome aspect, my lady..."

Gene pushed down on the wrist of Mr. Kimber's extending arm — a childish attempt to cover up a clear jealousy with a powerplay centered around Jackie's afferent inability to refuse him should he ask for a dance. "Had we danced any longer and I would have had to carry my sister back to this table. How about we let her rest up for tonight's dinner and take a walk instead to discuss our proceedings?"

"Sir-!" Robert redirected his attention up from the table, only to be met with Mr. Kimber's silencing finger pointed at him.

"Deal with Mr. Shelby," he ordered his accountant with haste, too desperate to show his power to miss on the opportunity to ridicule the importance of the Peaky Blinders to him as a whole. "Mr. Alloways," he nodded towards Gene, "follow me outside." With a pat on Gene's back, Billy Kimber was convinced his act has been not only veritable but downright embrassing to Shelby's image in Miss Alloways' eyes.

Jackie had very interest in what games proud men were trying to invent; while Kimber had his moment of glory, she assessed the state of the table and took note of the bags of cash dropped in the middle of it. Though compelled by what this could mean in terms of pieces on the board, Jackie did not miss a single beat in playing the role she was given by her brother and seeking to take Mr. Kimber's vacant seat at the table.

"Though your company is delightful, Lady Alloways," Robert looked up at her with a stiff smile attempting to be apologetic that he stopped her from sitting down. "I must ask that you allow Mr. Shelby and I to discuss business alone. Should you seek to replenish your strength, anything at the bar is on the house for you."

"How generous," Jackie returned the courtesy of a stiff smile. "Well, I wouldn't want to disturb your hiring process," she gleefully brushed over an aspect of importance, toying with cluelessness as her cover, "given my brother's client does seem in need of whatever Mr. Shelby has to offer." Promptly, Jackie offered her hand to the bored and ignored wife Billy had forsaken to smoke away her hours at that table. "Mrs. Kimber, how would you like a taste of how we drink our luxuries in America?"

Having already returned to his seat, Thomas Shelby could do no more but nod back to Jackie's leave from their vicinity, perhaps a pleasantry that he could only be excused to follow with a prolonged look over his shoulder.

"Americans," Robert cursed under his breath.

"Since when does Mr. Kimber deal with Americans?" The natural question followed.

"Pitching investments with a woman like Lady Alloways besides him must be profitable for a leech like Mr. Alloways," Robert explained, sporting a hint of disdain. "However, they are only passing through to sell horses."

"Horses?" Tommy inquired bewildered. "American breed?"

"Purebred really," he puffed. "Or so they have advertised their goods. Now, onto our matters, Mr. Shelby. How many men can you put in the field at one time?"

Though his response was as calmly collected as expected of a gentleman of his status doing business with an accountant like Robert, Tommy's mind was fogging with the lingering aftermath of that unexplainable familiarity that had startled the wits out of him upon meeting Jackie Alloways. He had focused on the wrong aspect of their meeting, because above all else, it mattered that American merchants came with exporting deals to someone like Kimber and until then, he hadn't a clue they were even in town. A piece on his board had been revealed too and how little he knew about its set of moves disturbed him now, as he stood on course with a glory plan worked for in sweat and blood.

Given Mr. Alloways had Kimber preoccupied for far longer than it took Mr. Shelby to strike a satisfying deal with Robert, the latter left the picture to look for his employer hastily, allowing Thomas to lavish in a success by tackling his dilemma, currently laughing at the bar besides a woman so grim he had thought Kimber managed to ruin the life of completely, or at least sufficiently for her smiles no longer to be possible.

"Miss Alloways," Thomas Shelby announced himself, before extending his hand to Jackie in particular. "Would you do me the honor of having this dance?" No further explanation was needed, so he explained his choice of seeking her dance no further. Something told him, long before she took his hand, she has been wanting to ask him more than those targeted questions and should he be allowed to interrogate her clearly masked eyes for their true glimmer, he'd leave the races more knowledgeable than he came.

"Already energised, I take?" Mrs. Kimber teased, as soon as Jackie took Thomas' offer, but the target of the poke reacted in no way whatsoever. There was no better canvas but that of a dance to paint the details of an assessment race they were both running against the other.