Ailbhe found Lizzie checking on Ruby and Charles who were asleep in the nursery. She looked beautiful, her dress was exquisite and looked as expensive as the night would suggest. Lizzie had a type of classic beauty, high cheekbones and striking eyes while she was tall and slim. Ailbhe had always wished to grow up to look just like her but she had grown up to be like Lizzie in all the ways that mattered.
"Happy birthday Lizzie" Ailbhe whispered, careful to keep her voice down as Lizzie shut the door of the nursery, not wanting to disturb the children.
Lizzie turned to face her, smiling when she saw her. She didn't see enough of her anymore and she missed the talks and the fun they used to have in the office when they worked opposite each other for hours on end.
"Thank you" She replied, leaning in to accept the hug Ailbhe offered with outstretched arms.
"Polly sent me to fetch you, guests are almost all here and people are looking for you and Tommy" Ailbhe explained, linking her arm through Lizzie's and falling into step beside her, heading towards the stairs.
"Tommy went to speak to Mr Mosley..." Lizzie replied, her voice getting quieter and her brow furrowing when she thought about him.
Ailbhe paused, seeing the telltale signs that Lizzie had been taken aside by Tommy already this evening. Her dress was a little crooked and although she'd fixed her lipstick, Ailbhe could tell.
"Not before he spoke to you clearly" Ailbhe joked, raising an eyebrow at Lizzie.
Lizzie rolled her eyes. Of course, Ailbhe knew.
But Lizzie gave one look at Ailbhe and saw the flush in her cheeks, the sparkle in her eyes and knew two Shelby brothers had found a dark corner to drag their partners into.
"Has Finn ever heard of being subtle?" Lizzie teased, pushing aside the strap of Ailbhe's dress to reveal the trail of pink little marks he had left. But when Ailbhe straightened her dress, they were hidden thankfully.
"Jealousy is supposed to be a source of arguing for couples," Lizzie remarked, seeing the funny side to it as she usually did.
But she went quiet again.
Ailbhe knew about Mosley and his potential to already know Lizzie but she didn't like how much it bothered Lizzie. She seemed so upset, so ashamed and quiet but it was a long time ago and it was before Lizzie became the woman she was today.
"Tommy already told you of course" Lizzie muttered, knowing there wasn't much Ailbhe didn't know and if people didn't tell her things she almost always guessed them.
"Lizzie... none of that matters anymore. It was a lifetime ago" Ailbhe reassured her, knowing that it played on Lizzie's mind and probably on Tommy's too.
Lizzie looked back at Ailbhe, a grateful smile on her face even if it was forced.
"How's Jade?" Lizzie asked, finding it hard to forget the look of the girl who she had comforted on the front steps of their house as she sobbed uncontrollably and wanted to rip Johnny Dogs limb from limb when she thought he had been the traitor.
Ailbhe went quiet at the mention of her best friend. She had gone to see her in Finn's old flat in Artillery Square dozens of times, but she never opened the door. Ailbhe would bring food and drink, she would sit outside the door and talk through it. She knew Jade was in there, that she was okay since she paid the woman who lived next door to keep an eye on her when she would come out to get some air. But she never spoke back, never opened the door but collected the things Ailbhe brought and left the empty basket outside the door the next day.
"She's... I don't know Lizzie. She's lost but she has a baby to think about now." Ailbhe shrugged, keeping her voice low since they were starting to join the crowd.
"Kids change everything" Lizzie replied with a shrug. They did. They had changed everything for her and Tommy too.
"This is your night Lizzie, look at who you are now" Ailbhe reminded her in hushed tones as they approached the fireplace where Polly stood. She seemed relieved to have finally located both Ailbhe and Lizzie.
"You alright, sweetheart?" Polly checked, nodding at Ailbhe.
She had seen how Mosley had focused in on her, looking as though all he wanted was to devour her or make Finn so jealous he would lose his temper. Thankfully, neither had happened nor would they be allowed to happen.
"I'm fine... where's Finn?" She nodded back, looking around and missing out on the hushed whispers between Polly and Lizzie as she looked for Finn but she didn't see him.
She snapped back to what was going on as Lizzie cursed under her breath when she saw Tommy and Mosley approaching.
"Fuck" She whispered, recognising him immediately.
Polly turned her back to the men, leaning into Lizzie and asking
"Yes or no?"
Lizzie looked down into her glass, wishing to be anywhere else. But just Lizzie's reaction was enough to know that Sir Oswald had met Lizzie before, back when she wasn't Elizabeth Shelby.
"Fucking yes. Shit" She cursed, taking a sip just as Tommy and Mosley broke into their little circle.
Ailbhe tried not to look unhappy to see them even though she'd rather have an audience with a room full of tigers than Oswald Mosley right now.
"Sir Oswald, this is my wife, Elizabeth" Tommy introduced him, knowing just from the stern and cold look on Lizzie's face that she and Mosley had met before.
"Lizzie, Sir Oswald Mosley" He gestured back, trying not to over think it and trying not to remember that Mosley had put a hand on his wife. Tommy was a jealous man, like all men and the idea of anyone, especially an enemy having laid a hand on his wife was enough to make Tommy want to take his eyes. But this time had to be different, he had to be smarter.
"My my! Your family does include a number of ladies who are each more striking than the last" He commented, looking between Ailbhe, Polly and Lizzie who looked back at him with an almost identical look of coolness.
Mosley looked between them, that blank and yet cold stare on his face.
"Since we all appear to know, and since knowledge is permission, I'm sure Mr Shelby in the spirit of our honest relationship, you won't mind me saying it was a bottle of champagne and an evening well spent."
He stated, lifting his glass and nodding towards Lizzie, remembering her face well.
Ailbhe looked at Tommy, knowing that there wasn't a jealous bone in his body but that every bone in his body was a jealous one. He was like his brother that way. Ailbhe worried what he would say, what could be his response that wouldn't break any of the rules he had given to them.
But it was Lizzie who spoke up, rifling through her purse and pulling out a coin.
"Actually, it was an evening wasted" Lizzie snapped, holding up the coin "For the champagne and brandy you bought me. As I recall it was the booze that put you to sleep a little prematurely"
She dropped the coin into Mosley's glass with a satisfying plop and Ailbhe might have been the only one to see Tommy almost smirk. Polly looked at Lizzie like a proud mother and Ailbhe fought the urge to smile.
"Perhaps a champagne and a brandy can get me that far tonight again" He retorted, a sickening smile on his lips as he lifted the glass as if he was toasting it and looked Ailbhe in the eyes.
She wanted to tip her whiskey over his head and shove him into the fireplace, watch his head become a mess of flames and smoke but she resisted. Tommy's orders.
Thankfully, they were interrupted by the announcement of the dance about to begin. Mosley turned, as if to abandon the conversation but Tommy called him back.
"Mr Mosley!" He lifted his glass in his direction "A toast, if I may. To the end of our deal and the beginning of something more"
He turned back towards the women, lifting his glass towards Lizzie and winking at her.
"Happy birthday Lizzie" he told her, the wink meaning more than anything as he looked at Ailbhe and Polly too, nodding subtly. It was his way of saying none of what Mosley did or said would go unpunished, that his time would come.
*
Ailbhe was following Lizzie and Polly into the dance where the crowd was moving towards. She looked between the heads to try and see Finn, but she couldn't find him. She should have known he'd find her first, hands enclosing around her waist and pulling her back away from the crowds. Nobody saw her disappear, nor noticed that she seemed to vanish into the shadows. During the dance Tommy and Liam noticed Ailbhe was missing but when they realised Finn was too and they knew she was alright, wherever she was.
She knew his cologne and the feel of his hand around her neck, feeling herself being pulled against him until her back was pressed against his front and she could feel his body heat on her.
"Fuck the ballet" was all he whispered into her ear, wrapping his arms around her and finding her neck with his lips.
It wasn't an offer she could refuse, sinking into his arms and letting his hands find hers, pulling her along behind him to around the corner of the house where lights were low and there was no one but themselves finally. The night was clear and crisp but it wasn't too cold, not with Finn up close to her.
"Where were we earlier?" He asked, a glint in his eye as he stepped closer to her. Ailbhe backed up away from him teasingly, but her back hit the wall of the stables and gave her nowhere to go. It was a good thing she didn't want to be anywhere else in the world.
"I think we were going to cut off Mosley's hands and sink him to the bottom of the cut, Finn" She joked, stretching up on her toes wanting to get closer to him as he stood in front of her, mere inches between them.
"Don't tempt me" He almost growled, his hands finding hers and lacing their fingers together.
"Or what?" She asked him, her eyes having an almost glow about them as she looked up at him almost innocently but she knew exactly what she was doing to him.
Her hands were linked with his in between them but he pulled them up above her head, taking her small wrists in one hand and pinning them above her head.
"Or we'll both spend the night telling Tommy why Mosley's dead and we have no alibi" he warned her, but the tug of a smile on his lips and the way he looked at her, she knew he couldn't resist her. He never could.
She stretched up on her toes, pushing her chest against his and bringing her face closer to his. He could smell whiskey and smoke, perfume and her. Like she was hooking something up to his veins, tapping into his adrenaline and making him feel more alive than always she did something to him. Something all the snow and whiskey in the world wouldn't do.
He couldn't pretend not to want it anymore, joining their lips and keeping her hands pinned above her head while his other wrapped around her waist and pulled her up off her feet.
She gasped when she felt him lift her off her feet, the quiet laugh she left out even more intoxicating than all the booze in The Garrison. It gave him the chance to deepen the kiss, his tongue against hers. He planted her back on her feet, wanting to put his hands to better use.
The way she gripped his shoulders and pulled him in closer by his braces, ran her fingers along the waistline of his trousers and pulled his hips in to clash with hers by tugging on his belt loops. It didn't matter what she did but she just made him realise every time they were intimate that there was no such thing as having enough of her or growing tired of her. He didn't think it was possible.
There was no one around, they were almost covered by the darkness of the night and shade of the trees but there was enough light from the moon and the light of the house to make out their faces and bodies. He wanted to be able to make out her perfect face and every expression she made when he hooked her leg around his hip and slid his hand up the smooth skin of her leg under her dress. She wanted to see how he threw his head back when she kissed down his neck and unbuttoned his shirt for more access. He wanted to see how she bit her lip to stop herself moaning his name but it always slipped out like a breathy gasp. She wanted to see how his whole body seemed to relax when he slid into her, when he was as close to her as possible and knew that there wasn't a feeling on Earth that could be better.
Ailbhe didn't care in the slightest to have missed the ballet, not when that was the alternative. She felt calm and content, utterly at ease as she leaned against the wall beside him after coming back down to Earth and being placed back on her feet. He lit a cigarette, passing it to her which she took but having her just beside him didn't seem to satisfy him. He looked across at her, how she seemed so much more content and at ease now. He had done that to her, he could do that for her.
"What?" She asked, her hand freezing mid-air with the cigarette still in hand.
He didn't say anything, not sure there were words to say. He just tugged her closer, until she was standing between his legs and wrapping her arms around his shoulders while his tightened around her waist. He had sat his jacket across her shoulders when he noticed the goosebumps on her arms but she had told him the goosebumps weren't from the cold but from the way Finn could make her body react. The smug smirk on his lips made Ailbhe roll her eyes and want to either kiss or slap it off.
The words seemed to be out of Finn's mouth before he knew it. Maybe it was the booze or the snow, or just the way she looked at him but he couldn't stop it.
"I don't think I could do any of this without you..."
The way her eyes widened he knew she hadn't been expecting him to say anything that he hadn't said before. A smile tugged at her lips and she sighed happily when she ran her thumb across his cheek.
"Then it's a good thing you'll never have to" She replied, knowing that she wouldn't have made it this far without him.
She wouldn't have made it through the war years without him, nor the years of bullying in school for being the poor girl who couldn't speak proper English and never had shoes. She wouldn't have gotten a job and an education, wouldn't have been able to grow up to become a woman of the working world who had her own freedom and her own money. She wouldn't have been able to find someone and fall in love with someone who respected that in her and loved her all the more for it but she had and he was everything.
"Always, right?" He asked her, pressing a kiss to her lips for a second.
"Always what?" She asked, her eyebrows furrowing in that face she made when she was confused that made him feel his heart pound in his chest.
"You're mine, always," He said it with a hint of nerve in his voice like there was still a tiny part of him that was convinced she would be taken from him or that she would leave, whether by her own choice or someone else's.
She didn't know how long it would take for Finn to understand that nothing could stop her from being with him anymore, that there was nothing in the world that could make her leave him again. But she would be consistent, would promise to him and wouldn't lie to him ever again and it might help him. Whatever it took.
Holding his face in her hands, making sure he was looking her in the eyes she nodded.
"I'm yours, always. And you're mine, always" She replied, pressing a kiss to his lips and knowing that he would believe her. She didn't lie to him, not ever.
"I love you" She promised him, kissing his lips, then his cheek.
"Oh yeah? How much?" He asked her playfully, pulling her against him and that smirk on his face, eyes practically glowing back at her.
"Enough to risk our brother's finding out we ditched the ballet" She replied in a whisper, her face so close to hers he just had to nudge forward to have her lips back on his.
But he didn't. He got distracted by the shining headlights of an approaching car and the crunching of gravel under the wheels.
"Finn, who's that?" Ailbhe asked, knowing that no guests were missing off the list and she didn't recognise the car.
Finn stood up straight, keeping a hold of her hand as he narrowed his eyes, trying to see better but he couldn't recognise the car no matter how hard he tried.
"Whoever it is, they weren't invited," Finn told her, grabbing his gun from the harness around his shoulders and not letting her hand go.
Ailbhe had a bad feeling about the car, knowing everyone was still inside at the ballet it was just her and Finn out there to stop them. And they had one gun between them. But any betting man would fancy their odds. After all, they were Finn and Ailbhe.