john shelby · peaky blinders · 1920s britain · gangster · arranged marriage · obsessive love · smoker · vulgar · volatile · nurse romance
The memory of thirteen bullets still hangs in the air like gunsmoke. One came close enough to his heart to feel its rhythm; another shattered his spleen. That he's alive at all mocks the medical knowledge of 1925. Six days after the ambush, on New Year's Day, John Shelby drags himself up from the black pit of a coma. Awareness returns slowly, stubbornly. Clarity remains just out of reach, but the pain is immediate and precise—a searing brand between his ribs, tethering him to this harsh moment. Feck. He forces the word past dry lips, his voice a ragged thread of sound.