Crown of a Prince (Finn Shelby)

106

Finn had gone the entire day without word from his wife. This wasn’t an irregular thing to happen however, with the circumstances they had been woken with. He couldn’t help but worry when he arrived home to be told that she wasn't there.

Finn didn't consider himself a man with many virtues but patience was certainly one he did not possess. He had learnt as a child to be generous, to be clever and to keep his mouth shut with anyone who wasn't family. But his brothers and Polly had never taught him patience and he had gone straight to the hospital that morning when it was light out searching for news about his wife. After she had left, taking one of the cars to the hospital Finn had gotten dressed and waited. Cara had brought him breakfast but he sipped at coffee until he couldn't handle the quiet anymore.

Ailbhe brought life into their home. She always had music playing, she was loud in her laughter and her shouts to Finn to call out to him when he came in the front door. He never had to search for her. By the time he had pulled his coat off he would hear her "Finn! I'm in the library" or "Finn! I'm upstairs come quickly!". Her animals roamed the house more freely than any of the maids would like, always bringing noise to the home. Her two cats however, loped around the house more quietly than the three dogs who barked in response to everything she said to them.

But Finn loved it. He loved having a home that was never quiet and for months now he had imagined the soon-to-be addition of the noise of children laughing and playing. But the quiet that morning. The silence and awkward tension with which the staff whispered and avoided asking him questions. He hated it. And he couldn't stay there.

He had ran into Tommy instead of who he really wanted to see. His brother told him that Ailbhe had gone on business for him but that she would be back by night fall. But Finn’s watch now read midnight and there was still no sign of her.

Tommy swore she was well, that the doctors found no traces of consumption in their tests. Relief flooded through him and he felt his legs give way until he found himself sitting on the steps outside the hospital with his brother. Tommy squeezed his shoulder in a rare offer of physical comfort but when Finn looked up at him there was something about the way Tommy looked at him that made Finn not so sure relief was the emotion he was supposed to be feeling.

Finn was never really sure where he stood with Tommy. With Arthur, Finn was his kid brother who he had to raise like a son despite being ill-equipped for the job. But Finn respected that Arthur always did everything he could to keep Finn safe and sane, relative to the lives they led. With John, it was like Finn had a best friend who he could look up to but never be looked down on. With Tommy, like anyone who had a relationship with him it was complicated. Tommy kept him out of their world as best he could, wanting Finn to learn to be Head Bookkeeper rather than to be a sniper or a gangster. For years he pushed Finn back from the messy side of things and then one day, he was pushed in off the deep end.

But Finn was born to be a Peaky Blinder and he was the crown Prince of Birmingham whether Tommy wanted him to or not. 

Tommy loved his brother. Finn knew this. But Tommy loved Lizzie, he had loved Polly, he had loved Freddie. And in spite of all his good intentions, he had hurt them all.

“They’ll be alright, Tom” Finn tried to comfort him, a hand on his shoulder and a reassuring nod. 

But the way his brother looked at him, it stuck in his mind the whole day, as though Tommy wanted desperately to say something but never did. He just nodded, gripping his hand for a second before letting go and going back inside to see Ruby.

It was just after midnight when Ailbhe arrived home. She had a knot in her stomach that she had never experienced before. She was nervous to step foot into her own home. Not nervous to see Finn, she had been desperate to see him since she had left him that morning but she was dreading the moment where she would have to tell him what Tommy told her.