𝐏𝐋𝐄𝐀𝐒𝐄 𝐃𝐎𝐍𝐓 𝐆𝐎
- chapter 2 -

"Aunt Pol," Ada began as the woman entered the betting den. "That boy that works here, Harvey, how old is he?" She asked innocently. Polly poured a cup of tea and thought for a moment. "Twenty four, I believe. He turns twenty five in a few weeks."

John, who had listened to the conversation, chimed in. "Why, Ada? Do you want to kiss him?" He teased, leaning against the doorframe with a devilish grin on his lips.

Ada scoffed and shook her head. "Fuck off, John." She hissed. "I just think he's a nice boy."

"John, leave your sister alone." Polly warned him. Ada scowled at John and he just grinned, a toothpick balanced between his teeth.

"He ain't interested in girls like you." John told her. "Or any girls for that matter.." John said quiet enough for none of them to hear. Polly glared at the boy "John." She warned again. Except this time in a harsher voice. John snapped his gaze toward his Aunt. "I'm just telling her the truth. Wouldn't want her to get her hopes up."

"I don't fancy Harvey!" Ada snapped angrily.

John raised his eyebrows at her reaction, looking at the way her cheeks were burning red and she had her hands balled into fists.

"Alright, Ada." He said, not believing her.

—

Harvey shot up in a slight sweat. He looked around and sighed in relief when realising he was at home. He had to remind himself that the war was over. They were safe now.

Ever since returning home from France, Harvey would have nightmares of what he experienced. And all the deaths he had watched.

The war had traumatised basically every man who came out alive. Harvey being one of them.

There was a bang on the front door and Harvey jumped up, pulling on his suit pants that he had laid out the night before, and ran down the stairs. As he pulled it open, he was met with John's face.

John stared at the shirtless, out of breath boy that stood before him. "Do you have a girl round?" John peered through the gap in the door.

Harvey shook his head quickly. "No, i've only just woke up." He told the Shelby.

John hummed and leaned against the wall with his arms crossed. "You're comin to the fair with us today." John told him. Harvey's eyes widened. "Arthur's orders. Now come on. We haven't got all day." John said to his friend.

Harvey tried to get words out but couldn't so instead he pointed at John as a way to get him to stay put as he went upstairs to finish getting ready.

There were heavy footsteps just as the boy got to the top to go back down after changing as Leyland came from his own bedroom. John shifted his weight from one foot to another when the older man gripped Harvey by his collar.

John stepped into the house and cleared his throat. "Is there a problem, Mr Ellis?" He called up.

Leyland turned his head to the side to see the Shelby boy and he fumed.

"Cause if there's a problem, i'm sure my brothers wouldn't have an issue coming to talk to you." John said seriously, the blade in his cap shining under the light.

"No. No problem." Leyland said in defeat, shoving Harvey toward the stairs and disappearing again.

Harvey grabbed onto the wall to prevent a fall down the stairs and swallowed hard. "Sorry about that." Harvey apologised to his friend, swiping his own cap from the hook beside the door and following him outside.

"Don't worry about it," John threw his arm around Harvey's shoulders. "But if he does anything to you," He pointed at him, "you come and tell me, yeah? We will sort it out for you."

—

"I thought you said we were going to the fair." Arthur grumbled as they stopped at some field. Tommy was the first to get out of the car. "We have business first. Come on. Bring your wits."

"What business?"

John nudged Harvey. "That's the Lee family." He said. The pair got out and stared over to where the small camp sat.

"Tommy!" A man exclaimed with open arms as they walked up the hill toward the camp. "Johnny Doggs." Tommy greeted cheerily. "Tommy, how the hell are you?" The man asked.

"All the better for getting the city smoke out of me lungs."

"I thought you became a bit too grand for us." Johnny joked as the others trailed behind them. Harvey kept his head down to shield his eyes from the blaring sun. "I've been busy." Tommy replied.

"I'm riding with the Lee family now."

"I heard." Tommy nodded simply. "Myself, i'd rather live among pigs." Tommy said slyly which got a grin out of Harvey and John. "Come on, Tommy, no disputing." Johnny warned. "So your first fair since France?" He moved on.

Tommy watched the white horse that passed them. "What do you know about France? You war-shy, gypsy bastard." Tommy insulted jokingly.

John offered Harvey a cigarette and he took it, waiting for him to light it.

"So this is the horse." Tommy stepped forward. Johnny looked behind him. "And that's the car." He said. Harvey glanced over his shoulder at the car they had arrived in and frowned as Johnny approached it.

"What's he doing?" Harvey whispered to the two brothers.

"Hold on a minute. You aren't swapping the family car for a bloody horse." Arthur told Tommy who was inspecting the horse. "Of course we're not swapping it!" Johnny snapped, "that'd be mad."

Tommy pulled out two coins. "We're gonna play two-up." He said.

The other three watched cautiously as Tommy and Johnny flipped coins up and they landed in the grass. "Fuckin' idiot." John whispered as they leaned down to look at the coins.

"Here are." Tommy handed him the keys.

"I knew it. See, I knew it. Tommy you bloody idiot!"

"Shut up, Arthur. I won. I promised Johnny i'd let him have a spin of the car if he lost." Tommy nodded.

The three Lee brothers laughed loudly which caught all of their attention.

"Are you Lee boys laughing at my brother?" Tommy walked forward. "Are ya? Eh?" He shouted. Johnny ran to him in panic. "I asked you a question." He said to them.

"Come on, it's just a crack." Johnny hissed. "Get your family out of here and go enjoy yourselves at the fair before they start a war." He turned to speak to the Lee's in Romani.

Harvey and John were the first to get closer to Tommy, sensing something was going to happen. Arthur soon followed.

"Yeah but his mum was a diddicoy whore—" One spat.

And within seconds, Tommy had ripped his cap from his head and threw it forward, slicing into the Lee man's face. Then John followed as well as Arthur. Harvey grabbed one, spinning him around and punching him in the jaw.

John shoved that same man to the floor and stuck his blade into his mouth, cutting up his tongue.

Harvey stepped away and soon enough they were forced back to the car.

—

"What're you thinking about?" Polly examined her niece's lack of focus as she stared out the window. Ada looked up and tried to think of an answer. "Is it about that boy?" Polly asked, being able to see right through the girl.

"What, no!?"

"Don't lie to me, Ada. I've known you all your life." Polly said seriously. Ada bowed her head in shame. "He's a lovely boy, Ada. There's no harm in asking him to go out with you."

"What if he says no?"

"Then you deal with it and move on. You'll never get anywhere in life if you don't take any risks." Polly said truthfully. Ada hummed and thought for a moment. "He's a nice lad. Just like his mother."

"You knew his mum?" Ada was now paying full attention.

Polly nodded. "She was only young when she had him. Died from illness. She was honest and kind. I still don't understand how she ended up with a man like Leyland Ellis." She said bitterly.

"Is that Harvey's dad?"

"Yes and he's a bastard if I do say so myself." Polly shook her head. "But Harvey is far from it. He's been friends with our John since school. Truly an angel, he is. Looks like one too."

"Aunt Pol!" Ada laughed at her Aunt's comment.

"I'm only telling the truth, Ada. And you know i'm right." Polly smirked.

"I couldn't ever ask him out anyway. Tommy would have his eyes." Ada said with disappointment. Polly's smirk grew wider. "I won't tell if you don't." She offered.

Ada's eyes lit up. "Really?" She asked.

Polly nodded. "Really."

—

When Harvey got into the house, not a single light was turned on. Before he could go to turn one on, his father came from nowhere and pushed him up against the wall, a hand around his neck.

Harvey gasped and tried to pull his hand off.

"You made me look like a fuckin' fool in front of that Shelby boy!" Leyland roared. "Your friend stood on my doorstep and threatened me! At my own bloody house!"

"Dad—" Harvey wheezed, struggling to breathe.

It only made Leyland tighten his grip. "Fucking bastards, the lot of them." He hissed. "You think you're one of them, do you?" He asked, his breath hot against Harvey's skin. Harvey shook his head out of fear, his face going red.

Leyland let go of him and just as Harvey took a deep breath, Leyland's fist collided with his face, sending him stumbling backward.

Harvey held a hand over his cheek and looked up at his dad with fear.

"You'll never be one of them." Leyland inched closer to him. "Not when you're weak—" he punched him again, this time in the mouth. Harvey now had a metallic taste inside his mouth and his heart was beating rapidly.

"Stop—" Harvey mumbled.

Leyland grabbed him by the collar and punched him two more times, making his skin burn. "You're a coward! That's what you are. A coward just like your mother."

"Stop!" Harvey shouted, pushing him away and punching him at the cruel mention of his mother.

There was a moment of silence when Leyland realised what Harvey had done. It didn't last long, though. Moments later, Leyland dragged him forward and shoved him to the floor, grabbing a kitchen chair and lifting it.

Harvey scurried backward and reached for his cap that sat on the floor beside him. He managed to stumble to his feet and he lunged forward, barely cutting into Leyland's face.

Leyland dropped the chair and held his face, feeling a small amount of blood transfer onto it.

Harvey ran to the door and pulled it open, slamming it behind him and going to the once place he knew he could get help. The Shelby's.

As he banged on the door, he heard incoherent shouts from the other side. Polly was the one to open the door and when she saw the state of the boy that stood in front of her, she gasped. "Oh dear god." She said. "What the bloody hell happened to you?" She pulled him inside.

"I'm sorry, Polly— I didn't know where to go."

"Nonsense." Polly led him into the kitchen and pulled him a chair to sit on. Ada, who had been sat beside the fireplace and seen the boy through the open doors that separated the two rooms, jumped up.

"Ada, get a cloth to clean his cuts. I'll call John from the Garrison."

Ada rushed around to get a cloth and water and kneeled in front of Harvey. "What happened?" She asked with worry as she moved his hair from his forehead to examine his face.

Harvey bit down on his tongue and said nothing. Ada sighed and pressed the wet cloth to his cut lip. He hissed in pain and grabbed her wrist gently.

"Sorry—" she said wide eyed. "I didn't mean to—"

Harvey shook his head. "No, it's fine. Go on." He let go of her and she gently wiped away the blood. Harvey watched the concentration on her face.

Ada tilted his chin up and stood to her feet to get a better look. She squinted slightly and tutted at the way his skin was already starting to bruise.

"Harvey, what happened?"

"It's nothing, Ada." Harvey tried to assure her. Ada didn't push any further. Clearly he didn't want to talk about it. Ada walked to the cupboard and got out a bottle of alcohol and soaked the cloth in it.

She pressed it to Harvey's cuts again and he winced, pulling her wrist away.

"You need to let me clean it or it'll get infected." Ada scolded. Harvey just looked at her for a moment and didn't say anything. She took her other hand to lower his own that held her wrist and continued to clean the cuts, not letting go of his hand.

He squeezed it and closed his eyes.

"John is on his way down." Polly walked back in. "I'll have one of the boys go down to the chemist in the morning to get some cream for the cuts to stop them going bad." Polly told him.

Harvey just grunted and slowly opened his eyes when Ada seemed to stop. She had turned away to put the cloth in the sink and Harvey looked down at his reddened knuckles.

"Come here," Ada nodded toward the sink and Harvey stood, walking to her and standing beside her. He towered over her slightly and she took his hand, releasing it from the fist he had it in and placing it under the cold, running water from the tap.

Harvey let his eyes linger over her as she gently wiped the blood from his knuckles.

The door slammed and John came in with Tommy behind him. "Harvey?" He asked as he walked in. Harvey looked over his shoulders and pursed his lips into a smile.

Ada turned off the tap and quickly dried his hand with another cloth before walking back to the table.

"What the fuck has happened?" John asked with his voice full of concern. Tommy examined the boy from a far and noticed his cap on the table. He picked it up and saw the slight red tinge on the blade.

"Who've you been fighting with, eh?" Tommy asked.

Harvey looked at him. "No one, Mr Shelby. I'm fine, I swear."

"You don't bloody look fine." John told him. Tommy dropped his cigarette into the ashtray. "Dont stand here in our house and lie to me." He said. "I like you Harvey. Tell me the truth."

Harvey took a shaky breath and looked at his feet.

"Was it your father?"

He nodded slowly. "He kicked off again. Came from nowhere." Harvey admitted. Polly's face fell and she shook her head. "That man—" she hissed angrily.

Tommy thought for a few seconds. "Do you want something done about this, Harvey? Because if you do, just say the words."

It was like Harvey had frozen. He didn't know how to answer. He hated his father more than anything but he was afraid that it would only make it worse if they intervened.

"No, it's okay. Thank you, Mr Shelby." He said anxiously.

Ada looked at him sadly.

"Harvey, he can't keep doing this to you." John whispered to him as he stood close to him, their faces inches apart. "This has happened before?" Ada asked. Polly just looked at her to tell her to be quiet. "Harvey, come on." John pleaded, a hand on his arm.

"It's fine, John." He muttered. "Nothing I'm not used to. I can handle him."

"Clearly." John scoffed.

"He will stay here tonight. If that's okay with you Pol." Tommy ordered. The woman was quick to nod. "And the next time you have trouble with your father, i'll go down and have a word. How does that sound?" He offered.

Harvey forced himself to nod, avoiding everybody's eyes.

John looked at his friend with slight defeat and just sighed. "You'll be alright, mate." He patted Harvey's cheek lightly.

chapter 2
[ gracessecretshelby ]