Crown of a Prince (Finn Shelby)

20.

"You wanted to see me?" Ailbhe asked, stepping in around the door. She was sure there had been a mistake. Why would Michael have asked for her?

"Yes, come in" he nodded, sitting up in his bed slightly but he winced in pain at the sudden movement.

He looked well considering he had been shot, nearly died and gone through a long surgery. He was pale, and had bandages covering most of his chest and abdomen as he sat up.

Ailbhe and Polly had come to see him, Polly telling Ailbhe that she was asked for by Michael. She was sure it had been a mistake or that he was high on pain killers but no, he looked serious.

"I need to talk to you...about mum" He spoke quietly. Polly had excused herself to go speak to the men posted at Michael's door. They had fallen asleep on guard duty and Ailbhe was sure that Polly was giving them a vigorous telling off that included threats about bodily harm.

Ailbhe's eyes flitted to the door but Polly wasn't in ear shot.

She took the seat beside Michael's bed and pulled a cigarette from her purse. She carried a box around, not that she smoked regularly but she never knew when she might need one.

"Here" she whispered, lighting the cigarette in her lips and passing it to him before hissing "Don't tell anyone I gave you that"

A sigh of relief slipped out Michael's lips as he inhaled the smoke, closing his eyes and letting the calm wash over him. The nurses and his mother had told him no smoking and he was running out of patience.

Ailbhe rested her elbows on her knees, her chin propped up on her elbows and whispered

"She's not herself Michael, she's drinking a lot and she still sees ghosts everywhere she goes. Tommy says it's all real but my mother..."

Ailbhe stopped. She felt a chill come over her as she mentioned her mother. She didn't talk about her much but Michael knew what she was like. In the two years that had passed Michael now understood Ailbhe's life much more.

"We won't let things get that bad Ailbhe, we can't" Michael promised her, taking another pull from the cigarette.

Only Michael and Polly knew the truth about Ailbhe's mother. Of course, Niall and Liam knew too, they had been the ones who found her. They don't know what happened, perhaps the time her children had spent locked up was too much for her but she started drinking heavily again. She took opium that she got from Chinatown and she started talking about the noose that had hung around her children's necks, how it would have lifted them up to heaven. That it would save them, bring them to new life and reunite them with their brother and father, her son and husband.

Liam found her. She had made a noose from her bedsheets and he found her in Niall's bedroom where there were rafters. But he was too late. He cut her down, tried to revive her, screamed for help but it was no use.

They didn't want anyone to know. They told people it was pestilence, that it got into her system and she died from it. Just like Freddie, just like hundreds of others that Winter. Everyone believed them, they saw it as a tragedy but they didn't know the real truth. Michael and Polly had been with Ailbhe when she found out, he was in the office with her when Liam burst through the doors. That is why they knew and they promised to keep her secret.

"Ailbhe" Michael called her back, offering her the cigarette which she gladly took.

He had noticed the grief and memories wash over her, as though she had suddenly got a chill. She had gone pale, underneath her make up and he could recognise her mood change now.

"You can help her" He told her, watching her carefully "It is real and Mum needs to make peace with that. If she can do that she can get back to work."