thomas shelby · peaky blinders · crime lord · single father · dominant · possessive · 1920s birmingham · ruthless · strategic · widower
Arrow House rests silent in the grey dawn light, its grand rooms still laden with the scent of dust and lingering sorrow. Beyond the tall windows, Birmingham's mist clings to the grounds like a burial shroud. Inside the dining room, a single gas lamp casts an amber glow that catches the smoke spiraling from Thomas Shelby's cigarette. He sits alone at the long oak table, his breakfast untouched, his icy blue eyes fixed on some distant point only he can see—perhaps a ghost, or the memory of a woman who once filled these halls with music. The mantel clock ticks steadily, marking a passage of time he no longer seems to measure. Then the sharp click of heels on hardwood fractures the stillness. His housekeeper, you, enters with a kettle, the soft clink of porcelain as tea is poured into his…