Another Paradise | T Shelby

FIVE - BEDTIME STORIES

"Mrs Kennedy, thank goodness you're back!"

Blair pulled down her umbrella as she walked through the front door of the Shelby manor. Sunday was her day off and although it had been raining heavily since the early hours of the morning, she had still used her free time to drive down to Coventry for the day.

She had been down to gather a few more of her belongings from her old home. Blair's sister was managing the selling process for her while she worked up in Birmingham, but Blair still liked to make a visit whenever was possible.

Despite the weather, she bought a fresh bunch of flowers before visiting the cemetery on her way back up north, spending a while talking to her husband beneath the shelter of an umbrella, though she would've happily stood there soaking wet anyway.

"What's wrong?" Blair asked, hanging up her raincoat in the cloakroom and switching her outdoor shoes for a pair of flat pumps.

"It's Charlie," Frances said, an embarrassed smile on her lips, "He won't settle, says he wants you to read him his bedtime story."

"Is Mr Shelby not around?" Blair asked, furrowing her brows as she headed up the stairs behind Frances.

"That's just it," Frances continued, "He is, but Charlie says he wants you. I'm sorry to do this to you, I know Sunday's are your day off."

"Oh don't worry," Blair smiled, heading down the corridor towards Charlie's bedroom, "It's not a problem."

Frances thanked her, apologising again before leaving her outside the door, disappearing back downstairs. Blair paused, listening to the low sound of Tommy's voice talking to his son.

She knocked lightly before pushing open the door, stepping inside quietly. Charles was tucked up in bed with his blanket underneath his chin, only he jumped from the covers within seconds of seeing Blair's face emerge in his room.

"Blair!"

The boy ran across his bedroom and threw himself around Blair's waist, hugging her tightly. She just laughed, hugging him back with a delighted smile, feeling a warmth in her heart at the child's excitement to seeing her.

"I think it's your bedtime, don't you? Would you like a story?"

Charlie wandered over to his bookcase and began scanning the spines while Blair walked over to Tommy, nodding as she approached him.

"Good evening, Thomas."

He rose to his feet from being crouched on the floor beside his son's small bed, sighing loudly as he did so.

"Seems I'm not needed here anymore. Goodnight, Charlie."

Tommy kissed his son's head before walking out of the room, closing the door shut with a muffled slam, leaving Blair in a stunned silence.

Unable to spare too much time thinking about Tommy's sudden attitude, she perched on the side of Charlie's bed with a smile as he handed her the book he'd chosen.

She was exhausted, as she was every day, but she had grown to love Charlie and was happy that he seemed to adore her just as much, making using up her last bursts of energy on him seem less like a job than it actually was.

It didn't take long for the boy to fall asleep, Blair slowly creeping out of his bedroom, flicking the light off before closing the door gently, knowing by now which floorboards to avoid as she walked across the room.

She headed down the hallway towards her bedroom, being startled by seeing Thomas stood by the window, a framed photograph in his hands as she walked inside.

"What are you doing in here?" She asked, immediately realising that her tone might've come off a little blunter than expected, though her surprise was warranted.

Tommy coughed, placing down the photograph on the chest of drawers.

"Jamie Kennedy."

Blair's lips parted when Tommy said her husband's name, her mind not being fast enough to express any words.

"Sat next to him on one of the boats over to France. He was nice, told me he kept a letter from you inside his shirt pocket. Though I didn't know the Blair he was talking about was you, of course."

Blair felt her heart swell in her chest, the same burst of hot, undying love pulsating through her veins at the mention of her husband was a familiar feeling, but still burned as harsh as it always did.

"You spoke to him?"

"Only once," Tommy said, looking up at Blair for the first time that day, "But I don't tend to forget people easily."

Blair instantly had to bite her tongue to stop herself from saying something she'd regret. Over the years, she began to resent Tommy Shelby less and less for the way he'd shattered her world and her heart, the way Jamie had re-built everything being the only thing she needed afterwards. Though now, after seeing his face for the first time since he walked out on her, Blair had discovered an old flame in her chest, though one that burned as a hatred some days, rather than anything else.

"How did he die?"

Blair's chest tightened at the question, the awful vision she'd worked incessantly hard at blocking out of her mind suddenly being pulled to the front.

"Bullet wound." Was all she managed to say, not trusting her voice to be able to carry any more detail than two words.

Tommy nodded, drawing in a breath through gritted teeth, "What a coincidence."

Blair said nothing. She had felt an uneasy, heavy tension between herself and Thomas over the past week and she had, so far, been unable to work out why. He had been at home less than usual and Charlie had slowly started to become more dependant on her, but Blair was simply doing her job, the job that Thomas had asked her to do. If his son had bonded with her in a stronger way than the two of them had, she could not be blamed, though somehow, she felt guilty.

"Charlie asked for you before I turned out his light," Blair lied, though the way Tommy's eyes widened in a new hope made her feel less bad about it, "He might be asleep by now, but I think he'd like another kiss goodnight."

He smiled softly. It was barely a smile, but for Tommy, it could've been a grin. His cheeks turned a rosy red and his eyes gleamed, though they were looking up at the ceiling, not at Blair.

"His mother used to kiss him goodnight when he slept. I think he always felt it, though."

Blair swallowed, standing awkwardly by her bed as Tommy got lost in his thoughts for a few moments, though she didn't dare interrupt him. He looked peaceful as he stood there, Blair noticing how his stature softened ever so slightly, knowing that even if just for a moment, his guard was down.

"Do you know what he said to me, what Charlie said that first time you two met? When he whispered in my ear?"

Blair shook her head, feeling her heart thumping in her chest as Tommy looked at her in the darkness, the hue of the moon through the window and hallway chandelier's glow creeping round the bend of the door being the only thing providing any light.

At the time, Blair had wondered what the little boy had whispered to his father that day, though the moment had slipped her mind over the weeks that had passed, eventually disappearing altogether.

"No," Blair said quietly, feeling more than a little unnerved at the fact Thomas was looking at her for the longest amount of time he had done since she'd stepped foot in the manor for the first time, "I don't know."

His arms were resting on the windowsill behind him and he tilted his head slightly, his eyes narrowing as he looked at her, but his smile growing that little bit more as he did so.

"He said you remind him of his mother."