Crown of a Prince (Finn Shelby)

49.

Business was booming. Without Lizzie and Tommy, Shelby Company Ltd was hard to manage but between them all they did. With Michael's contracts from New York signed and the deals starting, they were turning over more money than they knew what to do with and Ailbhe was extremely busy. The racing season would be starting soon and Ailbhe needed to make sure everyone was ready. Johnny Dogs had made sure her horse was returned to the stable without raising so much as an eyebrow from the stable hands and Ailbhe had no idea how they had snuck him out and stolen him, not to mind how they had snuck him back in.
 
"Ask no questions I'll tell you no lies" he had told her and she had adopted this policy for most things to do with Johnny Dogs and the Lee boys.
 
But Tommy was coming back, his holiday had been long enough. Ailbhe was in his office putting together his schedule and leaving a stack of contracts for him to sign when he arrived, slamming the door behind him. He looked like himself, a little pale but he was back to dressing and acting like Tommy. He just hoped he'd feel like Tommy again soon.
 
"What are you doing?" He asked, realising Ailbhe was behind his desk. His raspy tone was almost accusotary, on guard and defensive even though there was no need. Anyone with eyes and a brain knew Ailbhe Kennedy was the closest thing Thomas Shelby had to a guardian angel whether they would ever admit it or not.
 
She put down the stack of papers, moving a pen to beside them and coming from behind his desk.
 
"Making your life easier Tom" She replied, raising a dark eyebrow at him as she folded her arms across his chest.
 
He stared at her blankly with those big blue eyes she knew were what drew Lizzie in every time. He nodded slowly, taking a puff from his cigarette and running his free hand over the papers on the desk. He fanned them out, scanning the titles.
 
"What's all this?" he asked, being a little behind due to his forced vacation time.
 
Ailbhe pulled open the blinds on the windows, letting in the light as she answered him.
 
"You have the next thirty minutes to read through those and sign them. You have a telephone call with Michael at half past nine and then two meetings before lunch that are in your book"
 
She told him, his schedule rattled off and she turned back to face him, folding her arms across his chest. He had taken the seat behind his desk, starting to skim through the contracts.
 
"Lizzie still hasn't found a replacement for her and she'd kill me if she knew I was saying it but you should really go see her Tom"
 
Ailbhe couldn't help it, the words were past her lips before she could stop it. Tommy needed to hear it though.
 
Tommy didn't seem to take any notice though. Smoke curled around him from the cigarette between his fingers and his head was down but she knew he was listening.
 
"I've found a replacement" He told her, casting his eyes up and nodding at her.
 
Ailbhe knew what he was insinuating but she didn't care, she wasn't changing jobs.
 
"Not happening Tom" Ailbhe shook her head incredulously and resisted straight off the bat.
 
He looked at her with those big eyes but she didn't care. His pretty face might have worked on Lizzie but Ailbhe didn't care.
 
"I already have a job in this company" She protested, digging her heels in. She wasn't moving. She loved her job as it was and she didn't have the patience to be running after Tommy trying to organise his life.
 
"I'll give you more money" He bargained, hoping it would sway her but he should have known Ailbhe wouldn't budge. She was even more stubborn than he was.
 
"I did this as a favour to Lizzie until she finds a replacement" She explained, standing her ground.
 
Tommy nodded; he knew it was a long shot. Ailbhe preferred working with the horses and the stable owners. She was better with people anyway she could read them like a book and wrap them around her finger, she always could. She would be wasted organising Tommy's diary but he needed someone he could trust.
 
"You're right" he admitted, rubbing his hand over his eyes and trying to ignore the pain in his head since he had stopped the extra medication.
 
"You'd be wasted on the books" He sighed, rubbing his eyes until he saw stars.
 
Ailbhe felt concern curl around her for him. Everyone had told her what he had been like on his break from work. He was a man unable to rest, to slow down.
 
"Too smart for our own good, eh?" Ailbhe replied, her voice light hearted and nostalgic at the memory of what Polly used to say to her when she was little.
 
Polly used to shake her head, hands on her hips and scold Tommy and Ailbhe regularly. She used to wag a finger at them and tell them they were too smart for their own good. But it also meant they were never cut out for a meaningless existence; they were born to be smarter and better than most.
 
His voice cut through the pregnant silence, hoarse and quiet but Ailbhe heard it.
 
"Sometimes I wish I wasn't"
 
It was true. Some days, Tommy wished he could have never started all of this empire. Before France he had wanted to work with horses, to have a normal wife and kids and take up residence on one of the many houses on Watery Lane that had ceilings that leaked and draughts that snuck through the walls. But France changed everything.
 
"Tom you were meant for more than what you started off with" Ailbhe whispered, stepping closer but the desk still stood between them.
 
He didn't look up, his hand covering his eyes. He hadn't said this before, not to anyone but he knew Ailbhe was a vault. She knew better than anyone how to keep a secret.
 
"Your mind Tom it's..." she trailed off; it was indescribable.
 
Tommy was burdened with an intellect that was far beyond anyone else in Small Heath. He thought faster, deeper and more intensely than anyone and therefore he could always be five steps ahead. As well as this intellect, he had this ruthless ambition that had become all he thought about where he wouldn't rest until his family were untouchable, until there was no one to stop them.
 
"It's your cross to bear" She found the words somewhere.
 
Tommy shoulders almost shook slightly as he looked up. Ailbhe realised he was almost smiling, the trace of amusement on his face was as happy as Tommy ever got.
 
"Don't go all religious on me now" He sighed, offering her a cigarette but she refused as he lit another one.
 
She rolled her eyes. Ailbhe had been raised Catholic with her family but she only ever went to the church for peace and quiet. She believed in God, in there being a life after death but she wasn't any kind of sure what it was like or where it was. She just believed in a force bigger than them.
 
"You're really telling me you don't think there's another side Tom? When we see it every day and we hear them reaching out?" She asked incredulously.
 
 Tommy had always said religion was a foolish answer to a foolish question and while a part of Ailbhe agreed, there was the other part of her that understood everything more because of her gift. She didn't necessarily tie it to a certain religion but she knew there was another side, whether there was a God or not.
 
He looked up at her, the cigarette in his hand being ignored as he looked thoughtful. Grace's spirit followed him everywhere recently, demanding his attention and pulling Tommy to the other side when he didn't want it.
 
"Do you still see Séan, Ailbhe?" He asked, his eyes boring into hers.
 
She shook her head slowly, looking away from his intense stare.
 
 
"Not anymore" She replied, feeling sad for a moment. She had stopped feeling Séan's presence a long time ago.
 
When she was in prison, starving and alone she heard his voice but she knew it wasn't real, none of it was. But there was a time it had been real.
 
"I used to dream about him" She explained, looking out the window and not wanting to look Tommy in the eye when she told this particular story.
 
Tommy just watched her, noticing how her whole tone and body language changed when she talked about her brother.
 
 "Every night for months while you boys were in France, when we didn't know Séan was dead. Every night he was in my dreams crying, telling me it was so cold and dark where he was and he just wanted to come home. He used to say he was all alone, that he missed me and he wished we'd never left Ireland"
 
She explained, feeling her voice cracking. She had never told anyone this, not even Finn. She feared Finn would think she was crazy and that she was going to end up just like her mother. She was just a kid and she was frightened what people would say so she kept it to herself.
 
"And one day the dreams just stopped." She told him, bringing her eyes back to meet his. He watched her carefully, listening but never reacting "That was when they found him"
 
They were watery now but even when a tear did fall, she simply swept it away as if it had been nothing but a drop of rain on her cheek.
 
"We got the news more than a month after the dreams started. They couldn't identify him from his face, it was too badly wounded. But he had a letter with him, a letter from me that they traced back to us. I had learnt how to write in English and I wanted to show off to my big brother you see? Niall wrote to us and told us that he had been buried already... in a mass grave"
 
She told him. Tommy knew this part. He remembered it so vividly, how their superior had come and taken Liam and Niall aside, how he had told them they had finally located Séan's body since he had been missing for days. They were shown his body, how he was unrecognisable. His skin was charred and burnt, the smell of burnt flesh coming off his body. His auburn hair was caked in blood and mud, his uniform scorched and full of bullet holes just like he was. Tommy had watched as Liam took his belongings, grabbing the few things he had, including the letter Ailbhe had written to him that identified his body. They were back on the battlefield, Tommy and Liam back in the tunnels within half an hour or being told their brother was dead.
 
"And then I dreamt one night again" Her voice carried Tommy away from the mud and the smoke of France, back to his office in Small Heath "He told me he was leaving, that it wasn't cold anymore and he was going home"
 
She wiped away the tears that were trickling down her cheeks and stopped any more from falling. She wasn't sobbing or trembling, to anyone who looked in it seemed as though she was just talking.
 
"And I haven't dreamt of him since, he's just gone" She stated, shrugging her shoulders.
 
There were times she missed his voice and wished he would come back but he was gone now and she was glad he could rest. When she heard his voice in prison, she knew it wasn't real. Séan was gone, just like John was.
 
"I heard him when I was in prison... but it wasn't real Tom" She told him, catching his eye again "Sometimes it isn't real..."
 
He just nodded slowly, not breaking eye contact with her for a second. She was smarter than anyone gave her credit for. Tommy had been right to bring her into the company, she was one of their invaluable assets now.
 
She turned for the door, wiping her cheeks one last time and making sure it looked as though she had never shed a tear.
 
"What about Jade?" Ailbhe offered up, turning back to look at him and glad to change the conversation.
 
Isiah's sister was living in London but in her most recent letters to Ailbhe it was clear she was starting to miss Birmingham and her family. She wanted to move home, see more of her family especially since her aunt had become sick.
 
"Jade Jesus" Ailbhe clarified "She's family, she's smart and she knows what to overlook and when to keep her mouth shut."
 
Tommy nodded, knocking back some whiskey for the pain in his head and picking up a pen.
 
"Tell her to come see me" he called out as Ailbhe took her leave.
 
She looked back at him over her shoulder. He had a new plan, a new goal and Ailbhe wasn't sure what that would be. It seemed as though Tommy wouldn't be happy until he had the whole world at his feet and he would have to step over dozens of people to get there. She didn't think enough would ever be enough for him, but at what cost was he willing to go for this new target he had in mind.