Crown of a Prince (Finn Shelby)

68.

It was a Sunday therefore the office was empty and silent. Ailbhe let herself in, boiling some water over the fire to make coffee. She kept finding herself yawning. A good night’s rest was harder and harder to find these days for her no matter if Finn was beside her or not. She stepped into her office area where Jade’s desk, Lizzie’s old space was directly opposite. She threw her handbag down on it but kept her coat on, the office was freezing, and she had yet to warm up. She was humming to herself, a song that Liam had been humming earlier and it was stuck in her head. But when she stepped into Tommy’s office, she felt it, the atmosphere of tension and apprehension in the air.
 
Something or someone was waiting for her. She was sure of it.
 
She didn’t move a muscle, holding perfectly still as she looked around. She was alone but someone had been there before her. There was something on Tommy’s desk, something that had clearly been left for her. On further inspection she recognised it. It was a pair of wire cutters and a note. Written in thick black marker was the message
 
“Look on and reap the rewards of the seeds Thomas Shelby has sown for you all”
 
Ailbhe looked down, not noticing anything on the floor nor anything out of place except the note and the wire cutters. She could feel the blood pumping in her ears and she felt quite numb. And then she realised what was happening.
 
As a child Ailbhe and her brothers had been told dozens of stories about Ireland and her long and tireless fight for independence. They were told about all of the rebellions, the risings and revolutions, all of which never succeeded. But the real atrocities started when the Great War ended. When England had all their soldiers back and Ireland pushed for freedom, Crown forces were sent to Ireland in scraps of uniforms from wherever they could lay their hands on.
 
Men, hardened from battle and some as mad as hell from years in France landed in Ireland and became the Black and Tans. They were officially on business to keep the peace and maintain order. But peace on their terms wasn’t what Ireland wanted, it wasn’t what her sons and daughters wanted so they fought back.
 
The Black and Tans used tactics from France as well as more creative tactics such as burning down and bombing the most essential buildings in small villages and towns. They wanted to break Ireland’s spirit and put her back in her place. One of the games they played was one that Tommy had told her about, one that Erasmus Lee had played on them back when Ailbhe was just a kid playing outside with Finn and the Lees weren’t kin.
 
There was a hand grenade somewhere in the office, attached to a wire that could be tripped at any second. If Ailbhe opened a door, moved a chair or bumped against a cupboard, the whole place could blow with her inside. It was a joke among British soldiers, a real game to play with the Germans, with the Irish, with anyone against them.
 
“Fuck” Ailbhe sighed, her voice being so quiet it was almost a squeak, as if her voice could trigger it.
 
The door that she had just came in banged open. Niall and Finn burst in, careful to touch anything and now to move a muscle unnecessarily.
 
“Ailbhe!” Finn was calling her name, shouting for her but he couldn’t come any closer. He didn’t want to trigger anything.
 
“Ailbhe! Where are you?” Niall shouted, needing to know where she was and what she had moved since she came in. If they could narrow it down, they could find the grenade before it got triggered and blew them all sky high.
 
There had been a similar note in the betting shop, letting them know what Ailbhe had walked into and what could happen to her.
 
Ailbhe tried to get a breath, tried to get her voice to work. She kept her back to them, feeling their presence behind her.
 
“I’m in here” She finally voiced, barely recognising it when it came out.
 
“Ailbhe. Don’t move!” Niall tried to lower his voice, tried not to shout and scare her but she had to stay still. One wrong move could kill her, could kill them all.
 
“What the fuck is going on, Niall?” She snapped, through gritted teeth and with the wire cutters gripped in her hand.
 
“Someone is playing a sick fucking joke on us...” Niall growled, not sure who was after them now but they’d die without their eyes for this threat. Much like what Tommy had received, land mines and a scarecrow dressed up as him, it was a threat. A warning that people were coming for them.
 
“Ailbhe you need to turn around and slowly come back to us. Don’t touch anything, don’t move anything” Finn told her, trying not to sound as panicked as he felt, trying not to put too much pressure on her.
 
“Finn...” She cried out, feeling every muscle in her body tensing and knowing that death could be one wrong move away.
 
“Ailbhe it’s okay, you’re gonna be fine just come back towards us” Finn tried to promise, tried to make it sound like he wasn’t about to lose everything if she tripped that wire.
 
As Ailbhe took a deep breath and turned on her heel, turned to face them and to start going back towards the door and towards safety, the telephone on Tommy’s desk rang out. The shrill noise made Ailbhe almost jump in fright, almost drop the wire cutters out of her hands.
 
“Leave it Alv, don’t answer it” Finn snapped, not caring who it was. He didn’t want her to touch it. If the wire was connected to the telephone, it would blow Ailbhe’s arm clean off her body.
 
But Ailbhe had to answer it. Her gut was telling her to pick up the phone. So, despite Finn’s objections, she reached out and couldn’t see any wires, she couldn’t see anything that would cause the grenade to blow thankfully so she took a deep breath and lifted it to her ear.
 
“Ailbhe!” The voice gasped. It was Tommy.
 
“Tommy” She replied, relief seeping into her tone and yet she would need more than just her name from him to calm her down now. She prayed Tommy had a plan, had an answer, had anything.
 
“It’s not real, there’s no grenade. It’s not in the office it’s a fucking game to them”
 
 He promised her, having been the real receiver of the trap. Whoever was playing this trick on them wasn’t trying to kill Ailbhe nor anyone else. They were only sending Tommy a message, that they were coming for him and that if he didn’t give in, his family would pay.
 
She sighed in relief, feeling her knees almost give up. There was no grenade, no trap. It was a game to them.
 
“It’s not fucking real” Niall realised, feeling relief flood his body as Ailbhe dropped to the floor, wire cutters slamming to the ground.
 
That was another booby trap. Make them think that the area was booby trapped, that any second now they could trip a wire or trigger something.
 
Finn felt the weight on his chest lift. It wasn’t real.
 
“Oh, thank fuck” He sighed, closing the distance between him and Ailbhe straight away and squatting down to her level.
 
She had her head down in her hands and was covering her face with her hands but he knew she wasn’t crying. She breathed low and shallow, realising that death hadn’t been coming for her at all.
 
“Alv, you’re alright. It’s not real” He reminded her, leaning in and grabbing her hands in his. He tugged her up to her feet, pulling her in and wrapping his arms around her shoulders.
 
But she didn’t say anything, trying to get a breath into her lungs took every bit of concentration she had. Like getting an electric shock, everything felt brighter and more real around her suddenly.
 
“What the fuck was that about Niall?” She asked, finally finding her voice and glad it wasn’t shaking anymore. Now she knew she wasn’t going to be blown into a million pieces, she was fuming.
 
Yet again, his sister was almost killed for the life they lived but yet again she had escaped. Niall felt so relieved he thought he might fall down onto the wooden flooring. If anything happened to her, he’d never forgive himself.
 
He looked back at them, Ailbhe standing on her own two feet now, the wire cutters thrown down to the ground. Colour was coming back into her cheeks and she was breathing properly now.
 
He approached his sister quickly, grabbing her head in his hands and checking to see she really was alright. She seemed fine, narrowly escaping again for what Niall felt was the hundredth time.
 
“I’m fine Niall... who set that trap?” She promised, demanding to know who had just tried to trick her into thinking she had dealt death in the stack of cards of life.
 
Niall needed a cigarette, badly. Pulling one out and shaking his head he groaned. He could feel it, just like last time you could practically smell it in the air. Another war.
 
“Someone’s coming for Tommy... and they want him to know it” He told them, shaking his head and slamming the door behind him.