Crown of a Prince (Finn Shelby)

119

Excited about this one! Should be only about 5 chapters left and then that's all I have of Finn and Ailbhe! <3 It's been a very long journey!  Feels like forever ago Ailbhe and Finn were sneaking around behind the family's backs or smooching at John's wedding! Any comments / thoughts are appreciated so much! M xx

The Garrison filled quickly of both his brothers and his allies. But Tommy sat alone, wanting no one to speak until he spoke to them. His head pounded and the dramatics of his conversation wtih Ailbhe had left him drained and feeling less interested in business than he had ever been.

The men had all taken their seats and started. But Tommy waited.

She might hate him, she might have said goodbye and intended to never speak of Tommy's impending doom again but she wouldn't miss a family meeting. Not one of such high importance.

She was late. In part because her meeting with the convent's orphanage board ran over time as they argued that the children were better left in their care and not moved into the foundation's institutes but mostly because she had sat in the car outside the Garrison for five minutes considering whether or not to even attend.

She was exhausted. Her meeting with Tommy had stolen every shred of emotion and energy she had but there was business, and she wouldn't let anyone use her absence to undermine her or push her out.

"I'll wait for you behind the Garrison, Ma'am"

Andrew, her driver promised her. He could sense her hesitation and he had sat, looking at his hands for five minutes now.

He watched her chew on the inside of her cheek for a moment, her head falling into her hands.

She looked so young sometimes it didn't make sense to him that she was a woman so plagued by responsibility and power. Three steady breaths later, she lifted her head and seemed like a different woman.

She reapplied her lipstick and pinched at her cheeks until they had more colour in them. And she even nodded with a smile that he knew better than to believe was real but was utterly convincing.

"Thank you, Andrew. I shouldn't be long."

She hoped she was right. Her cover and mask were getting harder to hold onto and Ailbhe was beginning to worry about which parts were real and which were fake.

Her meeting with Tommy, her letter from the doctors, the strange feeling of something unspoken between her and Finn, to say nothing of the chaos of this war her family were in. Ailbhe was struggling to keep every plate spinning and she wondered which would be the first to fall.

It felt that they were all living on this timer, waiting for the clock to run out and lay waste to them and their plans. Time had never been their ally but now it seemed to be Ailbhe's enemy.

Everybody was already there, except for Duke and Charlie from what she could tell as soon as she pushed open the doors. Her husband sat with Tommy and Billy, all of them turning to look at her when she entered. She tried not to react to any of them, although each of the men brought equally strong and conflicting feelings to her chest.

Hate and contempt for Billy.

Anger and pain for Tommy.

Anger and hate and contempt and love and pain and a yearning that she had never felt before for her husband who she missed. Because the version of him who he pretended to be, who sat there seemed nothing like the man she missed. 

It's the game. It's a cover. It's a mask. He loves you, as much as he always has.

This was what she told herself as she locked eyes with him, knowing that neither of them could afford to give anything away. He couldn't afford to offer her a seat, kiss her cheek or wink at her like all the times he had before.