Crown of a Prince (Finn Shelby)

101

Welcome back! :) We're picking up right where we left off. Enjoy and let me know your thoughts! The updates might be irregular and vary but I promise I'm working on it - I'm in my final year atm and it's absolutely hectic. xx

Ailbhe Kennedy had been called many things.

Peaky Blinder's whore. Fenian scum. Gypsy witch.

But those were people who didn't matter.

To those who mattered, she was more.

Sweetheart to Polly.

Alv to her brothers.

Everything to Finn.

But the day the Peaky Blinders lost to the man they feared Tommy couldn't defeat, Ailbhe was named something new.

A crutch.

The men who crossed the Irish Sea with orders to thwart Thomas Shelby's assassination plan of Oswald Mosley were told to remove every obstacle. Including the youngest Kennedy sibling who served on the Shelby Kennedy Company Ltd board and was involved with Finn Shelby. This was reason enough for a bullet to be lodged in her head but coupled with the supposed betrayal of Maggie Brennan to the police, she was marked for death. Again. And escaped. Again.

The two men sent to kill her never reported back to their superiors like those who had killed Barney Thomason and Aberama Gold. They had made a mistake that many men before them had made. They had underestimated Ailbhe Kennedy. She hadn't asked what became of their bodies, but she assumed they were dumped in the cut or somewhere outside a pub as though they were on the losing side of a bar brawl.

But her triumph over death was not hers at all. Only for her brothers and Finn, she wouldn't be there to stand outside Tommy's house and torture herself for not realising sooner.

"Lizzie, please! You have to listen to me!"

Ailbhe knew she sounded madder than her mother had ever been. But she didn't care. They had to listen to her.

"Alv, calm down – it's alright" Lizzie grabbed at her, clutching her face and trying to get her to look at her.

But her eyes were frantic, even more so than her limbs that tried to get out of Finn's grasp. But he had her held tightly, an arm like a vice around her middle to keep her from escaping him, the other trying to stop her hands from pushing out of his grasp. He had almost lost her once that night and he wasn't sure he could ever let her out of his sight again.

She struggled against him, her hands fighting to be released from his grip so much so, she would curse herself later for leaving scratches on his hands. But in that moment she didn't know nor care. She knew nothing but the need to get to Tommy and tell him who had killed their people, to stop Tommy from doing something they would all regret, even if he would not.

Lizzie had never seen her like this. Her eyes were wild, more so than her spirit had ever been and she spoke so quickly neither Finn nor Lizzie could make out exactly what she said. She swapped frantically from English to Irish, Finn even being sure he could hear some Shelta thrown in amongst it. It reminded him of his mother, when Uncle Charlie used to lose his temper with her and grab her head in his hands, chastising her for scaring Finn who was barely the height of the table.

"Finn, do something – please!" Lizzie pleaded. She had seen Tommy's face when he stepped out of the car.

Lizzie didn't know what would become of them if they lost both Tommy and Ailbhe to the voices and whispers that plagued them. Lizzie loved her husband but she was quite certain that if they lost Ailbhe, they would lose Tommy soon after and vice versa.