The wedding was kept small, not wanting to draw too much attention especially since despite Ailbhe's clever tailoring it wasn't completely hiding her bump no matter what she did. The reception had been back to Tommy's house that was now Lizzie's house too.
Tommy's house had been a special place for Ailbhe, where Finn and Ailbhe had had their first kiss. It was hours after the dinner reception and Tommy and Lizzie's guests had made their speeches and well wishes. Most people were drunk on the expensive champagne and dancing to the expensive band but Finn had grabbed Ailbhe's hand. He pulled her away from her conversation with Ada and put his fingers to his lips, shushing her and stopping her from asking too many questions.
"It's a surprise" he had told her over his shoulder, pulling her along behind him away from the crowd and getting her to leave the entertaining room.
"Finn you know I hate surprises" She sighed, struggling to keep up with him in her high heels and feeling the giddy effects of the champagne. Ada had been topping up her glass every time it looked half empty and she seemed determined for Ailbhe to be drunk before the night was over.
In the hallway, he skidded to a halt almost making her bump into him. Before she could ask him another question, she was picked up and thrown over his shoulder.
"Finn!" She exclaimed, seeing only the floor and grabbing onto him to try and steady herself.
But he was too busy laughing, holding her by the legs and she felt his hand slap down playfully on her behind. Ailbhe couldn't see much but she could turn her head and see two of Tommy's maids looking at them bizarrely, giggling at the couple.
"Sorry Gwen, Hannah" Finn nodded at the maids, speaking over their laughs and knowing Ailbhe must have been embarrassed but he was just enjoying having her so close.
She had been so busy for the wedding day, helping Lizzie with her dress and spending time with Karl and Charlie. Isiah and Bonnie had been preoccupying Finn for hours and he had found himself missing her. It didn't help that she looked especially attractive with her dark curls tumbling down her back, dark eyes and perfectly painted lips. Her dress was a deep red colour and the way it had delicate straps that crisscrossed over the smooth skin of her back made his hands itch to touch her and his mind run riot on what it would feel like to push the silk off her body.
Ailbhe felt Finn turn and heard him shut a door between them and the noise. She was placed back on her feet, grabbing onto him to steady herself for a moment while she looked around and realised where they were.
"Oh Finn" She sighed, realising he had brought them to the quiet and alone of the library, where they had had their first kiss nearly three years previous.
"Remember?" He asked her, taking a pull from his cigarette and nodding towards the bookcase Ailbhe had been pressed against while kissing him.
She remembered it so well it was like she could see it happening in front of her. She had never been kissed like that before, never known what it was meant to feel like when you wanted someone so badly and felt like you needed their touch like it was air, never known what it meant to feel like you were made for someone.
"Of course, I do" She laughed, keeping her hand laced in his as she turned and looked out the windows at the gardens.
He pulled her back, in against his chest and wrapped his arms around her middle. He leaned down, despite her heels she was still much smaller than him and rested his chin on her shoulder. She sighed contentedly.
"Remember how John almost caught us?" She reminded him, running her fingers over his forearm around her middle. The lightest of touches from her was enough to make his desire flicker, make his stomach flip.
He smiled at the memory, how terrified they had been they would get caught and how Ailbhe had dove behind the sofa to hide. He remembered how proud John had been of him, how good it felt to be John's partner in crime and how happy John had been.
"I miss him" Finn admitted, his voice quiet.
"Me too" Ailbhe replied, sinking further into Finn's arms, feeling them tighten around her.
Ailbhe couldn't see his face but she felt his emotions, his grief and loss that sat in the air for a moment. And then he let it pass, just like Ailbhe did for Séan.
"I missed you today too" He nudged her, turning her around to face him.
She smiled, sliding her hands up around his neck and wrapping her arms around his shoulders as she leaned up on her toes.
"Did you?" She asked rhetorically, already knowing he was telling the truth. Finn didn't lie to her, nor did she ever lie to him.
"What about us?" He asked her, raising an eyebrow at her as she tried not to completely melt under his hands that held her against him.
"What about us?" She asked, confused and trying not to get lost in his eyes.
He was getting more and more handsome to her every day to the point it was starting to irritate her. She barely felt able to look away from him now, felt herself constantly drawn to him and always crave his touch.
"What will our wedding be like?" He asked her, as if it was the obvious thing in the world.
He noticed her eyes widen slightly and how her mouth fell open a little.
"What the fuck Finn?" she whispered, the laugh on her lips spilling out and making Finn start grinning like an idiot too.
"Is that a proposal?" She joked, leaning in and pressing a kiss to his lips for just a second.
He was drunk and she was well on her way to being drunk too but she loved him more for it. In all honesty, she hadn't thought of their wedding at all. She had always imagined their future, their life together but she hadn't thought of the specifics of the wedding. A wedding seemed almost something too plain and ordinary for the extraordinary lives of the Shelby Kennedy family. But it was a normal thing for people to do when people were in love.
"No" He replied pushing her back gently in the direction of the book case until her back was against it and Finn stood in front of her, his hands on her hips.
"You'll know when I'm proposing don't you worry" He promised her, his face still smiling and happy but his tone more serious.
He looked at her, hoping he hadn't shocked her or frightened her off but she was still there. She stood there, still smiling at him and looking at him like she always did, like a girl who loved him.
"One day" He promised her, knowing that Ailbhe wasn't even thinking about marriage yet. In truth, neither was he but it was in his mind as a certainty that one day he would marry her and she would be his wife. It had never really appealed to him, the whole pomp and ceremony but the aftermath did. The idea that Ailbhe and he were bound together, committed to no one but each other.
The alternative seemed quite unbearable. To think of being married to another woman or to think of Ailbhe with another man's hands on her, another man in her bed or kissing her was enough to make his grip on her waist tighten.
"One day" she whispered back, her forehead against his. Knowing that one day he would be her husband was a little frightening and yet comforting to have such a certainty.
Nobody could tell the future, not even Polly with all the tea leaves in the world. But Ailbhe knew that she couldn't be with anyone else. While Finn walked the Earth, she would never be happy with anyone else. The mere idea of being with another man or another woman with Finn made her so jealous she wanted to put a ring on his finger right then and there. But she trusted Finn.
Weddings and rings, vows and ceremonies had never been something Ailbhe dreamed about. It seemed an old-fashioned ceremony. To promise to obey your husband was not something Ailbhe ever had dreamed about and she wasn't sure wearing white was particularly apt since she had spent more nights in Finn's bed in recent weeks than in her own.
"Alv" He whispered, his hands gripping her waist and pushing forward so there was no space between them, her arms tightened to pull him closer too.
He joined their lips, finally relaxing when he got what he needed so badly, her. His hands gripped her waist, sliding up her body and finding her neck. She almost moaned out when she felt his long slender fingers and the way he held her neck and tilted it to kiss him. Her hands slipped down, resting on his chest and gripping the lapels of his jacket and pulling him into her chest.
"You're mine" he murmured against her lips.
Finn Shelby didn't need a piece of paper to tell him Ailbhe Kennedy was his person. He had known that for as long as he had known her.
She felt herself get more and more turned on, knowing the little moan that escaped her lips was everything to do with Finn's words. They just had an effect on her, how he could look at her and touch her and then open his mouth and tell her she was his, tell her she was what he needed more than anything.
It made her try to push her legs together, knowing the familiar want in her lower stomach for him. But he knew what he was doing to her, pushing his thigh between her legs and lifting it up until she felt it make contact. The little moan she let slip out and how she pushed down against his leg was perhaps the most sensual thing Finn had ever witnessed as she closed her eyes and let her head fall back against the book case. This left her neck exposed and of course, Finn leaned in kissing and sucking the delicate skin that smelt of her perfume.
Her hands slipped down, fumbling with his belt and just wanting him so badly she willed her hands to hurry up. She could feel the hardening length through his trousers and wanted Finn inside her, to make her feel like it was only them again.
He pulled back from kissing her neck, wrapping his arms around her waist and pulling her dress up past her hips. She felt his hands on her bare skin and sighed in relief. He quickly pulled down the satin shorts of her underwear and picked her up as if she weighed nothing at all, pushing her back up against the bookcase and letting her legs wrap around him.
"Guess I'm not wearing white to our make-believe wedding" She whispered, making them both laugh as he re-joined their lips.
Her laugh was cut short, turning into a moan as she felt Finn thrust into her in one go. Their moans and pants mingled and hushed as they tried to remember their whole families were a few hundred yards away. She felt entirely undone by him, like he could make her come apart in his hands and put her back together again, make her feel like he was there for her and her alone.
Once they had recovered and came back to solid ground, Ailbhe was a little shaky on her feet as Finn put her down.
"You're mine too you know?" she whispered, still a little shaky on her legs as she pressed another kiss to his lips.
She felt him smile against her kiss, not ever getting bored of hearing it. He sat back, leaning against an end table and lighting a cigarette as Ailbhe tried to make it look as though the last half an hour had not just happened.
"Oh yeah?" He asked, raising an eyebrow.
She smiled, nodding back at him.
"Yeah and if any girl has a problem with that, I'll cut them a smile each" She added, making Finn laugh.
He watched her carefully, admiringly as she clipped her stockings back into place, smoothed her hair down and checked her lipstick in the mirror. She came to stand beside him, taking a pull from his cigarette and letting his hand find hers and lace their fingers together.
"I love you" he told her, tilting his head to look at her. She was stretching up, resting her chin on his shoulder and looking at him so contentedly, he never wanted her to stop.
"I know" she replied, a cheeky smile on her lips as she leaned up and pressed her lips to his for a moment.
She knew he loved her, just as he knew she loved him. There was a certainty between them, one that a piece of paper like a marriage certificate could never prove. After a life of unanswered questions, of being left behind and pushed aside Finn had someone who was there for him unconditionally, who was his and who loved him.
*
T
here was dead silence around the Shelby's old kitchen in the family home on Watery Lane as Tommy's words were processed.
"You're fucking what?" Niall asked, his hand frozen halfway between to his lips to take a pull from his cigarette.
They were all in shock, not sure they had heard him right.
"I'm going to run for election to be the MP for the labour party" He repeated himself, as if this was just another piece of news for the family meeting.
Ailbhe's jaw had dropped and her brothers and the Shelby boys looked around at each other waiting for Tom to say he was only joking.
"What the fuck are you talking about Tommy?" Arthur snapped, his face nervously holding back a laugh and hoping it was all a joke.
"I made it part of the deal" Tommy responded, joining his hands in front of him and leaning against the dresser behind him.
The family meeting had been called by Tommy that morning. They had tried to tell Tommy that he was meant to be on his honeymoon but he had insisted.
Ailbhe had loved seeing Lizzie so happy, she couldn't stop smiling all day and the way she looked at Tommy was enough for Ailbhe to stop worrying about Tommy. He wasn't known for being overly effusive and while the baby certainly pushed him to make his decision to marry her, Tommy couldn't pretend he didn't have strong feelings for Lizzie whatever they might be.
Even the way he stood behind her, knowing she would always be there for him was a certainty in his life he needed.
"Tom, we've gone legitimate for a lot of the business but there's still a huge sector that is completely off the books."
Liam snapped, running his hand through his hair nervously. Since Alfie Solomons had been killed by Tommy, the Peaky Blinders basically ran Camden Town now too and Liam had most of London under his thumb for the Peaky Blinders. While the horses, the factories and distilleries, the pubs and the clubs they ran were all legitimate. The export of liquor to America where prohibition was still in place meant business was booming. The latest set of reports had shown them that they were making more money than they had dreamed of. But it was illegal.
"We'll be locked up, we'll fucking hang Tommy" Finn exclaimed, running his hand through the curls on top of his head and leaning forward to rest his elbows on his knees. He was sitting beside Ailbhe at the table, across from where Tommy and Aunt Pol stood.
"You won't hang, it's a position of power and influence which will allow me to continue my work for the Crown" Tommy explained, trying to reassure his family but they looked sceptical.
But Ailbhe could see the panic and anxiety on her brother's faces, on Arthur and Finn's. Finn could practically feel the bite of the rope around his neck, just as it had once sat and been ready to pull his life away from him. She slipped her hand into his, under the table and felt his warm hand lace his fingers through hers.
"I'm going to continue my role in Shelby Company Ltd in a non-official capacity, Arthur will replace me officially" Tommy explained, while Polly stood beside him having already heard this plan of course.
"The rest of you will continue in your roles, the only change is that Lizzie is now a voting member of the board" He added, nodding towards Lizzie who had a little smile on her face.
Ailbhe winked at her subtly. As Tommy's wife, Lizzie was now on the board just like the others. It now had almost as many women as men. Since Ailbhe's eighteenth birthday she had joined the board, as did Finn on his birthday the week previous to Ailbhe. With Linda, Ailbhe, Ada, Polly and now Lizzie they were an even match for Finn, Tommy, Arthur, Niall and Finn. A real modern company.
"Nothing will change" He told them, making a promise.
He looked around, seeing how apprehensive and unsure they were. Niall and Arthur were exceptionally dubious looking, they hated change of any sort. Liam hated the idea of involving the law, the government any more in their business since their business was not completely above board and on the books. Ailbhe, Michael and Polly did well to hide the illegal stuff, to list them as other things and expenses in the official books but there was only so much that they could do. It could come to the point where they would be held responsible and they had worked so hard to get to the day where they wouldn't fear for it to be around the corner.
Uncle Charlie was against most changes, including anything to do with the law therefore he was on the same page as Liam. Finn and Ailbhe looked nervous, not wanting more shifts beneath the ground they stood on. Tommy had noticed how they acted around each other, how they loved each other and were practically magnets to each other, how she had reached out and held his hand under the table and how Finn had instantly been calmed.
But it was only words and Tommy had no idea that in two years' time, his promise would be almost laughable. 1929 was coming down the tracks and everything would be different.