Come on Alfie, you can do this. You've stared death in the face before. What's one more hour with tea and crumpets?

Alfie surveyed the house. He wasn't an architect, but he could tell that it cost money what with the pillars and the… trim or whatnot. Again, not his area of expertise.

"Nice place. Said it was your aunt's now?" he asked, giving Ada a sideways glance as she squeezed his left hand in a comforting gesture. Moral support and all that. Little did she know his unease didn't stem from the fact that he was meeting people important to her, but from the knowledge that he was walking into the wide open jaws of the Shelby clan.

One of them at least. The mysterious Aunt.

He held his cane with his right hand, rolling the tip around in his fingers as he resisted the urge to chew the inside of his cheek raw. Should've stuffed his mouth with chewing tobacco and made a show of spitting it at the side of the house.

Nah. He wasn't a heathen and he did care for Ada. He wanted to be respectable and he was going to be bloody respectful to his girl's family.

"My Aunt Polly. She's been dying to meet you since the wedding. I told her all about you while I was there."

"Hmmm."

That had been a nice day in the hospital, stewing over the knowledge that Ada was a Shelby off to attend Thomas Shelby's grand wedding. Surprisingly, he had adjusted rather quickly to the information, adapted. The revelation hadn't changed his feelings for Ada in the slightest, which had also developed since his release from that hell-hole of a prison. She'd come back from the wedding and gotten him discharged. She drove him back to her place and he had learned she was one hell of a driver, an absolute speed-demon. On numerous occasions she had to slow down significantly so she didn't jostle him and have to send him back to that hospital for restitching. Heavens above, did she drive like that with the little fellow on board?

She could have dropped him off at a street corner and he would have shuffled back to his shop without complaint, but she wouldn't hear of it. Shelby stubbornness and all. He had found himself on a makeshift bed in a cramped apartment, telling the little lad some story off the top of his head before he scampered off to bed, kissing Ada goodnight, and sleeping like a log, even without the morphine. The next morning, Ada had made him breakfast. She was one hell of a cook. One hell of a woman. Now he was being introduced into one hell of a family.

"Look at you!" Ada exclaimed. "You're nervous."

That wouldn't even begin to describe it. Not at all. After divining that Ada Thorne was actually Ada Shelby, Thomas Shelby's sister, Alfie wasn't quite sure how to handle himself in the situation.

Suppose I'll make it up as I go along.

"I'm a bit jittery," he said lightly, craning his neck from side to side, as if he were stretching his neck before entering a boxing ring. He hoped it passed for fidgeting and not a fighting stance.

Aunt Polly. Alright what venomous female snake am I going to have to wrangle with today? He hoped to all that was holy that the woman didn't have Shelby's dead eyes. The door opened.

"We're here!" Ada cried, hugging her aunt. Alfie came face to face with that woman who had been going on about burning buildings and armageddon the night he was attacked. Dressed in black, with a red lace rose in the center, she resembled a spider: A black widow.

That's it. Christ, Mary, Joseph, and the sweet Lord himself are having one giant laugh at my expense.

Time for me to play along.

"Polly, what a pleasure." He extended his left hand and shook it in a vice like grip, plastering a grin all over his face. She plastered just as phony an expression, but Alfie could see the venom in her coal black eyes.

"Mr. Solomons."

"Call me Alfie."

"I wasn't expecting you two so soon. Are you are feeling alright Mr. Solomons?" Her eyes traveled to the cane in his hand that he was using top prop himself up and back to his face. If this had been a business meeting and she were a competitor and a man, he might have been able to get away with whacking it in her face, but circumstances were quite different.

Viperous woman.

"Well, come on in, but wipe your boots first," she said and Alfie saw the contempt.

Oh this woman knows who I am.

Without breaking eye contact, Alfie obliged, scraping his boots against the door-step before crossing the threshold. He took stock of his surroundings. There were pictures of Ada and Karl when he was a lot smaller on walls in the hall. Tasteful and expensive. The room Polly referred to as the parlor wasn't too shabby:decent furniture, decent decorations, decent amount of bootlegged liquor he suspected was locked in some of those mahogany cabinets. Ada pulled at his coat and guided him over to a group of chairs around a small table.

Here we go.

He braced himself for the onslaught of small-talk as he took a seat. Aunt Shelby took a seat, prim and proper and regal while shooting him venomous looks and offering them all….

Tea and crumpets it is. Alfie resisted the urge to laugh, but he did smile as he laced his fingers together and made himself comfortable on the cushions. Well, as comfortable as he could be. He was still sore as hell.

The doorbell rang.

"Expecting someone?" he asked, staring Polly down.

"Oh, it's just my nephew, Tommy, dropping off some paperwork," the woman said lightly.

"Isn't he on his honeymoon?" Ada asked, sounding irritated.

"Business is business and needs to be done, isn't that right Mr. Solomons?"

"Alfie," Alfie said, eyeing her. He didn't like the way the woman said his last name, the S sounding like a simpering slithering noise slipping past a forked tongue. Not that the woman's teeth were bad, no. She was a surprisingly good looking woman for her age. She'd looked good in that shop, she looked good now, but she wasn't half as pretty as his girl sitting by his side.

My girl.

The two words popped into his brain and he felt completely comfortable with them. He glanced at Ada who met his eyes and he smiled at her, knowing it was driving the aunt into a frenzy as she gave him more dagger eyes. He heard the sound of the door opening followed by a, "Mrs. Shelby's in the parlor, Mr. Shelby." He heard the boots thudding down the hallway before the parlor door opened and Shelby appeared. Immediately, Aunt Polly was simpering over him, rising from her chair, and making a grand fuss about the devil's intrusion.

Strategically planned intrusion.

Ada looked less than thrilled at the unexpected arrival of her brother.

"Tommy, you're just in time for brunch," Polly was saying after offering him a drink and ordering a maid to take his coat as if he were the goddamn king of England.

"Morning Pol, Ada." Alfie met Shelby's eyes and saw a flicker of irritation, just a flicker before it was replaced with his characteristic dead eyed look.

"Who's this?"

That nearly made Alfie burst out laughing, but that wouldn't have been good, due to the stitches and the bandages that he didn't want to rip open.

"Tommy, this is Ada's friend, Alfie Solomons," Polly explained.

"Ah," was all Shelby said, before walking over and extending his hand. "You're a friend of Ada's, Mr. Solomons?"

Alfie didn't like it, this minimizing of his relationship with Ada, but he wasn't one to quibble over words, especially Shelby's words.

"Very good friend," he said, rising to his feet stiffly, and extending his hand. It gave him some satisfaction to stand a few inches taller than Shelby who didn't have any of his men around to make examples out of. There was some anger lurking in the depths of those dead eyes at the thought of him being on very friendly terms with his sister.

"I heard about your attack," Shelby said. "I heard Ada helped you through it."

"That's right," Ada said, almost challengingly, her eyes narrowed on her brother and that just added a whole new level of tension in this already tense room.

Polly cleared her throat. "Everyone, shall we proceed to the dining room?" She didn't even ask Shelby if he could stay, just assumed he was joining in.

Or knows it.

They filed out of the room and headed back down the hall to the dining room. Ada and Polly walked into the room first, it was only respectful to let the ladies pass after all. Alfie, due to the narrow doorway, found himself brushing elbows with Tommy as they tried to simultaneously cross into the room, each not trusting exposing his back to the other.

"After you Mr. Solomons," Tommy said.

"No, after you," Alfie said, extending his hand in a wide motion. Tommy's lips curled, exposing a little of that contempt before he passed into the dining room, which had a nice mahogany table and chairs and look at that, a chandelier right overhead.

Polly and Shelby took their seats at the table. Tommy at the head so Alfie had the luxury of looking directly into the devil's face, and Polly at an angle, sitting to Tommy's right. Alfie strode over to the chair next to Polly and pulled it out for Ada, aware of the four pairs of Shelby eyes on him as he took his own seat, closest to the door and furthest from those two serpents. Enemies or not, he knew how to be chivalrous and it won him an enchanting smile from his girl. As soon as they were seated, servants came out bearing trays of…..

"Do you eat meat?"

A questioning look crossed Ada's face at her aunt's bizarre question.

"Well, Solomons… I thought you were of the Jewish faith. I'm sorry if the assumption was offensive…." Her voice trailed off as the servants set the tray of pork shank smack in the center of the table, followed by bowls of bread, cheese, and the salad and vegetables.

Alfie was dangerously close to ripping his stitches as laughter rose inside him.

That right there is bloody comedic gold.

"My father was.. Of the faith…" he said, making a pretense of coughing and covering his mouth with his fist as he held back a laugh. "Mother wasn't, so technically, between you and me, I'm flexible and partial to a good piece of meat."

To prove his point, he reached over to the tray, cut the pork off the shank, and inserted it into his mouth. Honestly he didn't care for meat, but when in Rome, do as the Roman's do or something along those lines. And those lines about lineage, not entirely honest, but Ada clearly didn't care.

Who has pork for brunch?

The woman was clearly trying to stick it to him.

He saw a look of relief cross Ada's face. Alfie had seen the shrine and the crucifixes on his way in and apparently, Ada was worried about conflicts of faith.

Bloody Catholic gypsy hypocrite.

Did her family know of her little rendezvous with the fraudulent fortune teller?

"Do you have family in the area?" Polly asked as he piled more food onto his own plate and they all proceeded to dig into the food.

"Not in the area, no. We spread out." He made a gesture with both his hands spreading them far apart from each other.

"Spread out?" Polly asked, trying to force him into elaborating.

"Moved away after the parents passed. God bless em all."

"You run a bakery?" Shelby asked, switching gears. He hadn't touched any of the meat and was picking at a salad unenthusiastically. No one had served drinks other than iced-tea and water. Someone didn't want to share their liquor with a rival.

Alfie carved more of the meat off and put it in his mouth. He chewed for a moment, eyeing Tommy intently, swallowed, brought the provided napkin to his lips, set it down, and then answered the question.

"That's right."

"I assume you primarily sell bread."

"White bread. Brown bread. All sorts of bread," Alfie said, never breaking eye contact with Shelby who honestly didn't look like married life was treating him too well.

"Riveting," was Tommy's response. Alfie saw Ada shoot her brother a glare.

"Alfie's doing quite well for himself, Tommy, making an honest living," she piped up. Alfie heard the slight emphasis on the word honest and smiled to himself.

There was a pause.

"So, what do you do for a living mate?" Alfie asked him.

"I'm a businessman."

"You and I, we're in the same boat mate. Baker, business man. It's all business."

"A different kind."

"Right, a different kind." Alfie wiped his mouth with the napkin. "Well, I appreciate the brunch. You have excellent cooks."

Polly gave him a thin smile and nothing flickered across Tommy's face this time. Truth be told, the chap seemed a bit blue, a little grey in the face.

Ada pushed her chair back, practically shoving the plate away from her in disgust and Alfie knew immediately she was not pleased.

"Alfie, why don't you wait by the door? There's something I need to discuss with Polly."

Alfie nodded, seeing the glint in Ada's eyes, that same glint he'd seen when she said she hoped Kincaid would be killed. He also noticed the omission of the word aunt. He rose to his feet and grabbed his cane, nodding at Polly and Tommy.

Well sweetheart I'll leave you to it.

She'd be able to deal with her family far better than he could in this situation and truth be told, he wanted to get out of this den before someone opened the can of worms about his true occupation in front of Ada.