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ACT ONE — CHAPTER THREE

While standing beside Tommy at the fire, a man had come to talk to him and Florence had wandered off, she saw William and the two hung out again at the fire, drinking laughing, even dancing around and falling over, some people had given them looks as if the two were crazy, none of which Tommy had seen.

So now Florence was sat with a headache and a hurting knee from one of their fall downs.

"Good of you to join us." Polly spoke as Ada walked in, Florence was sitting beside Polly who was reading the news paper, Florence was eating a piece of toast. "Where have you been all day?"

"In bed." Ada said as she was making herself some food. "couldn't sleep. Then I couldn't wake up. Then I was cold and then I had to go for a wee. Then I was with this bear on a boat, but that was just a dream. Then I was hungry." Ada spoke and then sat down, Florence just stared at her still trying to find out what she said, Ada was talking way too fast than what Florence could handle at the moment. "Why are you reading the paper?"

"Why wouldn't I be?" Polly asked returning to her paper.

"I've never seen you read the paper. I've only ever seen you light fires with them." Ada spoke as she put a weirdly big amount of jam on her bread, Florence tilted her head as she looked at the woman and narrowed her eyes.

"BSA are on a strike. The miners are on strike. IRA are killing our boys, ten a day." Polly spoke and putting down the papers and looking up when Florence nudged her. Ada looked at the two who were staring at her, completely silent. "What?"

"Stand up." Polly spoke then. Florence looked at Polly confused but the look on her face said everything Florence needed to know. "Why?" Ada asked confused. "Just stand up." Polly instructed and she did.

"Side on." Florence watched as Polly got up. Polly then grabbed one of Ada's breasts and Florence silently snickered, she knew what was going on by now, she remembered how one of her mothers best friends had done the same thing once, but the baby didn't make it.

It was some kind of genetic thing, almost every woman on her mother's side was unable to have children, Ruby's mother did, but had a miracle baby, Ruby didn't have it as it skips a generation, however that left Florence, the unlucky one, she'd always dreamed of having kids of her own, but she stopped thinking about it when she was told she couldn't. Now it did skip Ruby but everyone just assumed that it somehow was the reason and she had been lucky to at least have one.

"Polly, what are you doing?" Ada asked stepping away from Polly. "Ada, how late are you?" Polly asked her, Ada sighed and looked away for a moment before looking back at Polly.

"One week." Ada said and looked at Polly then Florence, she looked back at Polly and sighed again. "Five weeks. Seven if you count weekends. I think it's a lack of iron. I got some tablets."

"But they didn't work." Polly said as she sat down, Ada sat down too and shook her head. "No."

Ada had invited Florence to go to the movies, Florence knew deep down that one of the reasons were that Ada hoped that with Florence with her if Thomas showed up he'd be just a little less angry, take it a little easier, but Florence didn't mind she really didn't have anything better to do.

Suddenly she heard the doors open, Florence and Ada looked back and saw Thomas walking in. Ada sighed and looked back at the movie knowing what was coming.

Thomas sat down beside Florence so she was now trapped in between the two, she wanted nothing more than to just vanish into thin air.

"Tell me the man's name, Ada." Thomas spoke, Florence slightly sunk down in her seat.

"Rudolf Valentino." Ada said, a smile made its way onto Florence's face knowing Thomas wouldn't believe that and let out a small chuckle but stopped when Thomas looked at her, which only made her sink further into her seat, praying that the seat would swallow her.

Thomas got up and walked away, Florence straightened up confused as her eyes followed Thomas, she didn't think he would give up that easily. Then a second later the movie was turned off, both Ada and Florence sighed, Florence now understood that he in fact had not given up.

"Get out!" Thomas spoke as he walked back in after the lights had been turned on. "All of you! Go on! Now!"

"I said, tell me his fucking name." Thomas said as everyone had walked out, Florence wasn't sure if she should stay or go, but as she moved slightly to walk away Ada grabbed her hand and Florence stayed seated.

"Freddie fucking Thorne!" Ada said as she looked over at her brother. "Yeah. Your best mate since school. The man who saved your life in France! So go on. Go on, cut him! Cut him up and chuck him in the Cut!" Ada yelled, Thomas looked at Florence when she felt eyes on her she slowly looked over at Thomas.

"come on. let's go." He spoke, Florence said nothing and got up, Thomas started walking out, Florence almost having to run after his fast pace.

"Hey you." Someone spoke from behind Florence who was just walking around, she furrowed her brows and came face to face with Reggie.

"Oh hey!" She spoke a smile forming on her face.

"Hey, you want to come hang out with me, William and some others or are you busy?" Reggie asked a sweet smile on his face.

"uh yeah sure, I haven't been told of any plans today so I'm free, well all day." Florence spoke, Reggie then nodded and started walking, Florence followed him and they walked to a place, trees everywhere, but there was a little opening, Florence saw William, three other boys and one girl, one of the boys and the girl were sitting close his arm over her.

"Hey." Reggie spoke as the two walked into the opening, the five who were sitting on the ground looked up, William smiled brightly as he saw Florence.

"Hey!" The girl quickly said as she noticed Florence. "Finally someone brought another girl!" She spoke as she jumped to her feet and shook Florence hand excitedly, Florence just laughed at the girl.

"Hello. I'm Charlotte Farrington, but you can just call me Lottie." The girl spoke she then turned towards the other and pointed to the boy she was sitting with.

"That's my boyfriend, his name is Christopher Bradbury, but we all call him Chris." She spoke, Christopher gave her an almost offended look. "Oh stop it, Chris, she's our friend now, she can call you that." She said and shrugged it off and moved on to the next boy.

"That's Harrison, my brother. He doesn't like the his name, I don't really know why, I think it's nice anyways, he would prefer if you called him Harry instead." Charlotte spoke, Harry smiled at Florence, she nodded acknowledging the fact that he preferred Harry.

"Then we've got George Abbot." Charlotte spoke pointing to the last boy. George winked at Florence with a smile, Charlotte leaned in to whisper to Florence. "He's a bit of a fucker as I like to call it." Charlotte spoke, George who obviously heard her looked at her. "Excuse you?" He spoke as he looked at her.

"Sorry, anyways a fucker in my head is basically someone who fucks around a lot, so the wink he just gave you, he gives to a lot of girls, you know girls he wants to shag." Charlotte explained, Florence looked at Charlotte with wide eyes.

"So obviously you know Reggie, that boy there is-"

"William." Florence finished, Charlotte looked at her confused until she realized.

"oooh is she the girl you were talking about?" Charlotte asked looking at William.

"You were talking about me?" Florence asked and she looked at William who looked at the ground.

"How old are you guys?" Florence asked. "Not in a mean way I just know Reggie is a bit older than William so I was just wondering if you guys are older too or?"

"I'm nineteen." Charlotte started. "Chris is also nineteen, Harry is seventeen and George is fifteen." Charlotte then looked at Florence again who was nodding. "you?"

"fourteen, i'm fifteen in not too long." Florence nodded as she spoke.

"Alright yeah, then congratulations William, you are no longer the youngest in the group." Charlotte, the two girls sat down, Charlotte sat down beside Chris and Florence sat down in-between William and George, the group soon began talking, getting to know Florence and the other way around.

"Oh shit, it's so dark I didn't even notice, I have to go, I'm sorry." Florence said as she quickly got up.

"Oh shit yeah you're right, my mother is gonna kill me." George spoke as he too jumped up, Charlotte laughed at him.

"Florence me and Chris can walk you home, I don't want you walking these streets alone at this time, there are a lot of bad people in this fucking town." Charlotte said as got up.

"So you don't care about me then?" George asked as he raised a brow at the girl.

"Of course I do, but she's a girl remember? Things are different, not that I'm saying it's not dangerous for you, but you get what I mean." Charlotte spoke suddenly becoming very serious.

"I know, Lottie, I was only kidding." George laughed.

"Hey, me, Reggie and William can walk you home, your house is on the way anyway, that way no one walks alone." Harry said, everybody agreed and everyone said their goodbyes and walked their way.

"So William says you're new to town." Charlotte said as the three were walking down the street.

"Yeah I am, has he really been talking about me?" Florence asked the two, Florence was currently walking in between the two on Charlotte's orders.

"Yeah. Nothing bad though, he pretty much just talked about how nice you were and he'd love to get to know you better, the poor guy doesn't have that many friends, he has his brother, George who's his age, and then my brother, then me and Chris, he doesn't have any other friends." Charlotte explained, she had a sad look on her face.

"He doesn't really talk to people." Chris then said and Florence looked at him. "He talked about when you met, when you walked into each others, he is the kind of person who if you hadn't walked into each other he would have only looked at you, he would never have even tried talking to you."

"So please, if you want to be his friend, be kind." Charlotte said, she must care a lot about the guy.

"Of course." Florence smiled, they then reached the front door of the Shelby home.

"You live here? Don't the Shelby's live here?" Chris asked with wide eyes.

"Uh yeah, I'm a Shelby so.." Florence said, she looked down ashamed thinking that they didn't like her anymore for some reason.

"Oh I didn't know that, I thought I'd seen all the Shelby's." Charlotte said she walked forward and tucked a strand of hair behind Florence's ear. "Sweetheart. Noting to be ashamed off. Just didn't know there was another Shelby, that's all. So you a Shelby sister or a Shelby daughter?" Charlotte asked curiously.

"Daughter. Thomas Shelby." Florence said, Charlotte nodded and smiled at the girl.

"Alright. Goodnight, Flora. Can I call you that?" Charlotte asked, Florence nodded with a smile.

She then said goodnight and walked into the house, she slowly walked in trying to be as quiet as possible.

"Where have you been?" Florence turned to her left and saw Polly sitting on a chair looking at her.

"I have met some new people, friends I guess, I was hanging out with them earlier and lost track of time. I'm so sorry Polly." Florence said, Polly nodded and smiled at the girl.

"As long as you're okay, go to bed." Polly said, Florence smiled and walked to the couch, Polly walked to her own room and Florence laid down and closed her eyes.

Charles isn't here. You can let go Florence. You're safe.

Polly was talking to Ada as Polly, Ada and Florence were walking at the train station, just as they rounded a corner, a man stood there, by the looks on Ada and Polly's faces that must be Freddie, Ada's boyfriend and the father of her baby.

"You came back?" Ada asked as she slowly walked toward him.

"I got a tip-off." Freddie said after he looked at Ada's stomach.

"Freddie, Tommy will kill you." Polly warned to man who's attention went to her.

"It was Tommy who tipped me off. Maybe he's got half a heart after all. Tommy got a message to me. It said, 'get out of town, take her with you.'" Freddie spoke, Florence looked at Ada who smiled. "So..." He paused and smiled at her. "Ada Shelby..." He started as he sunk to the ground on one knee, Florence gasped beside Polly and smiled, she slightly jumped up and down in excitement. "Will you marry me?"

"Yes!" Ada spoke excitedly as she nodded her head repeatedly. She said yes over and over again as he slid the ring onto her finger.

After the two kissed Florence couldn't hold her excitement in anymore as she jumped up and down clapping her hands, she laughed as she spun around, the other three laughed at the girl, Ada may have been the one who was proposed to but Florence certainly had the reaction for her, Ada soon joined the girl with the excitement along with Polly as they all hugged.

"Right, get on that bloody train and get out of here." Polly said as she took Ada's arm and walked toward the train, Florence stood still but so did Freddie. "Come on, both of you." Polly spoke directed at Freddie.

"Freddie, come on. Freddie, Cardiff's okay. Anywhere but here's okay." Ada spoke as she looked back at him.

"We're not going anywhere, Ada." Freddie said, then he walked toward her. "We are going to stay here, we are going to marry here." Freddie then looked at Polly. "I'm not afraid of Tommy Shelby." He then took Ada's hand and they walked off.

Florence had walked off to the Garrison and was sat talking with her family as they played games when lights came from outside.

"Coppers." John spoke up, Florence looked at Tommy.

"No." Tommy spoke as he shook his head. Florence stayed quiet listening, she was good at that, listening for trouble, she was so used to the different way's Charles walked that she could almost tell how her night was gonna go just by the way his footsteps sounded against the floor as he walked up the stairs.

The singing that had been going on before suddenly stopped and all Florence could feel was trouble, this wasn't just some friendly faces who showed up to the pub for a couple of drinks, no this wasn't good.

"Is there any man here named Shelby?" Someone asked, after a couple of seconds of silence a guns hot was heard, Florence flinched with a gasp. what the fuck was going on?

"I said, is there any man here named Shelby?" The guy asked again, Tommy and the others got up and walked to the door, Tommy had instructed for Florence to stay in there hidden and she did.

"Harry, get these men a drink. Everyone else, go home!" Tommy said and a second later everybody got up and Florence could hear a bunch of people leaving the pub, the door hadn't been closed all the way, now you would think someone like Florence had learned not to sneak around and do dumb things, but she walked toward the slightly open door and looked trough it listening in on what was happening.

"You go home." Tommy said as he pointed at Grace. "But Mr. Fenton said--" Grace spoke but was interrupted by Tommy speaking again. "I said, go home." Grace dropped it and walked off.

"I've never approved of women in pubs, but when they look like that..." Billy Kimber trailed off, Tommy was about to speak when a thud came from where Florence was.

"Shit." Florence muttered under her breath, she had tried to walked forward a little bit when she stepped on the dress she was wearing and fell to the floor.

Florence heard a couple of footsteps approach and then the door opened, a man stood there looking down at her, she looked over to the table in the middle of the room and saw Tommy, Arthur and John looking at her. sorry she mouthed to them.

"Hello there. I'm Billy Kimber. Now get up and introduce yourself." Billy Kimber spoke as he looked down at her not even smiling a little. Florence gulped then she quickly scrambled to get on her feet, Florence being Florence of course stepped on her dress again, she fell forward and fell into Billy Kimber who stumbled slightly but then pushed her away from him.

"Sorry. Sorry. I didn't mean to do that. I slipped on my dress and--"

"If your dress is that big of a problem take it off." Billy Kimber spoke with a smirk, Florence's eyes widened as she looked at him. "What?" She asked. "You heard me, take it off."

"No." She spoke as she adjusted her dress and crossed her arms. "Also I'm fourteen, creep." She spoke confidently put that quickly vanished when she saw his annoyed face, she then remembered what happened the last time she talked back to someone and quickly backed down and apologized.

"Who are you?" Billy Kimber asked her, her gave her a once over then looked over to the three Shelby's.

"Florence Shelby." She quickly answered, he turned to her with a raised brow then nodded. "Go sit down, Florence." She didn't like the way her name sounded coming out of his mouth but she didn't say anything else and walked over to take a chair, on her way she felt somebody's hand on her butt, she looked back and saw Billy Kimber looking at the other Shelby's but she knew it was him by the look on his face, she shook her head and sat down beside Tommy.

"You said you wanted men called Shelby. You've got three of them. But she." Tommy spoke pointing to Florence. "She's not a Shelby man, so you do not speak anymore to her, keep her out of it, ignore her." Tommy spoke, Billy Kimber said nothing about that.

"I'd never heard of you. Then I did hear of you. Some little Diddicoy razor gang. I thought to myself, 'So, what?' But then you fuck me over. So now you have my undivided attention." Billy Kimber spoke. Florence pulled a confused face. Razor gang? "By the way, which one am I talking to? Who's the boss?" Kimber asked as he looked at all three of them.

"Well, I'm the oldest." Arthur spoke. Kimber let out some sort of a laugh.

"Clearly." He spoke as he then chuckle once more.

"Are you laughing at my brother?" John asked. Not again was all Florence could think about she sunk down in her seat slightly, Tommy took notice of that as he looked at her for a second before returning his gaze back to the others.

"Right, he's the oldest, you're the thickest. You're well not a man." He spoke pointing to Arthur, John and then Florence who just sunk down further in her seat as he looked at her. "I'm told the boss is called Tommy and I'm guessing that's you, 'cause you're looking me up and down like I'm a fucking tart."

"Well first off, you did tell my fourteen year old daughter to take of her dress." Tommy said as he glared daggers into the man, if eyes could kill... "And I want to know what you want."

"There were suspicious betting patterns at Kempton Park. A horse called Monaghan Boy. He won by a length twice and then finished last, with 3,000 pounds bet on him." The guy beside Kimber spoke.

"Which one am I talking to?" Tommy asked mocking Kimber. "Which one of you is the boss?"

"I am Mr. Kimber's adviser and accountant." The guy spoke up before Kimber got up clearly angry. "And I'm the fucking boss. Okay, right, end of parley. You fixed a race without my permission. You fucking Gypsy scum. What, live off the war pensions of these poor Garrison Lane widows! That's your level! I am Billy Kimber, I run the races! And you fixed one of them so I'm going to have you shot against a post." Kimber asked as he started waking away, Tommy got up and guns were pointed at him.

"Who pissed in his breakfast?" Florence asked quietly, Arthur chuckled at the girl but quickly covered it up so she wouldn't get in trouble.

"Look at it." Tommy said as he had tossed something at Kimber. "That is my name on it. It's from the Lee family. You are also at war with the Lees, Mr. Kimber, am I right?" Kimber took a couple of steps toward him. "The Lees are attacking your bookies and taking your money. Your men can't control them. You need help."

"Perhaps we should listen to what Mr. Shelby has to say. Before we make our decisions." The guy with the glasses spoke up.

"Right. The Lees are doing a lot of talking at the fairs. They have a lot of kin. They're saying the race tracks are easy meat, because the police are busy with strikes. Now, we have connections. We know how they operate. You have muscle. Together, we can beat them. Divided, maybe not." Thomas explained, Florence was listening closely not that she felt like she needed to hear any of it but still she listened closely.

"Mr. Kimber, perhaps we should take some time for reflection, possibly make arrangements for a second meeting." The guy with the glasses spoke up again, Florence had already forgotten who he was, not that she cared anyway.

"I admire you, Mr. Kimber. You started with nothing, and built a legitimate business. It would be an honor to work with you, Mr. Kimber." Thomas said, for a second Kimber looked at the others then back Thomas with a slight shake of his head.

"Nobody work with me. People work for me." Kimber stated, Florence couldn't help but roll her eyes slightly, Kimber took something out of his pocket and threw it on the floor Florence couldn't see what it was from where she was sat, behind Thomas. "Pick it up, pikey." After Kimber said that there was and uncomfortable silence.

When Thomas went to pick it up John quickly got up from his seat. "Sit, sit down." Thomas quickly said, Thomas then continued to bend down and pick it up.

"It's for your ceiling." Kimber said as he turned around toward the doors.

"Thank you, Mr. Kimber." Thomas spoke as Kimber made his way out of the door, the guy with the glasses got up.

"We will be at Cheltenham." The guy said as he stood in front of Thomas.

"As will I." Thomas stated, the guy put on his hat and he too walked out the door followed by the others.

Thomas locked the doors after they left and walked over to the others, Arthur had just drank the rest of the liquor in his glass.

"So you picked a fight with the Lees on purpose. Tommy, we can't mess with Billy fucking Kimber." Arthur spoke, Florence looked at the ground just happy the man was gone, she felt less uncomfortable now, but his words were still there echoing in the back of her mind, and it was as if she could still feel his touch.

Take it off.

"Get yourself a decent haircut, man. We're going to the races." Thomas spoke as he down the rest of the liquor in his glass, he put down his glass then walked toward Florence who was still starring at the floor, now that Kimber had gone away, tears were threatening to escape, she felt so uncomfortable I mean a grown man had told a fourteen year old to take of her dress, even if he hadn't said it like that. She could tell what his intention were.

Thomas crouched down in front of Florence.

"Hey.." He spoke, she looked up and Thomas could see the way her eyes were glossed over. "Are you okay?" He asked her and Florence just shrugged her shoulder, Thomas nodded and stood up again, John leaned over the table to look at her and Florence turned her head to look at him.

"If that ever changes, you can tell me. Any time, any day." John said, Florence smiled at him which he returned.

AUTHOR'S NOTE!

Hey! Hello!

How was this chapter? Any opinions?

Also I know she did just go through all of that with Arthur and stuff BUT she will continue to go through some shit, it might seem like a lot and honestly it probably is, but it's important to the plot and stuff, the fact that she goes through these things while any of the Shelby's are with her are important because when they see certain reactions to certain things they are gonna start asking questions, so how was I gonna be able to bring up Charles if she just stays away from danger all the time and gives no reaction, because then there would be nothing to question.

What Billy Kimber did is also important for later chapters.

I hope that is understandable.