"We couldn't have one fucking night" Niall groaned, carrying Linda between himself and Arthur. Linda was by no means heavy but her struggles and kicking, even in her more unconscious state was enough to make the task practically impossible.
"Clear that shit. Clear it!" Arthur ordered, nodding towards the table that had been so beautifully laid out for them.
But they didn't have time for that now. Linda was losing blood and they had to stop it fast. Finn swept his arms over the table, knocking everything to the ground as Ailbhe shoved anything left off the table.
Finn and her had been watching, ready to intervene, ready to save Arthur when the gunshot rang out. Ailbhe and Finn had no idea they weren't the only ones who had snuck out of the ballet. Aberama Gold and Polly had heard the noise and thankfully, Polly had her gun with her. She shot Linda before it was too late.
The shattering glass and noise was hopefully overshadowed by the applause from the crowd and mingling that had started after the ballet. But Linda woke up and her shouts and groans of protest started to get louder and louder.
Lizzie and Ailbhe tried to hold her down, grabbing her by the legs and hips, trying to pin her down but she was almost getting the better of them.
Arthur was a mess, sobbing and grabbing onto the writhing body of his wife.
"I would've taken your bullet Linda, I would have" He yelled, his emotions getting the better of him.
But Linda wasn't having any of it, screaming back at him about revenge and justice for the man Arthur had blinded because he was getting close to Linda.
"Linda stop moving, you'll make it worse!" Ailbhe groaned, trying to hold her down by her other arm but she wouldn't listen.
"Linda! Look at me" Tommy barked, grabbing her head and making her look at him "You've got a kid. If you die, he'll come to us to raise"
That threat enough seemed to quieten her a little. Linda would rather stay with Arthur forever than to see Billy be brought up with the Peaky Blinders.
"What gun did you use Pol?" Ailbhe asked, loosening her grip as Linda struggled less.
"Derringer" Polly replied, knife in hand as she passed it to Tommy.
They had to cut the bullet out, it was the only way they'd be able to stop the bleeding and sew it up. It was none of their first times removing a bullet but it was Linda's first. It didn't seem like an occasion to remember though, not like Finn was proud to remember his first bullet. Not when it was Aunt Polly who had shot her.
"It's still in there Tom, you've got to get it out" Ailbhe urged him, spilling some alcohol over the knife in his hand in hopes it would sterilise it.
But they had almost forgotten about the party outside the door. Mr Mosley was going to graciously remind them however.
"Mr Shelby, your guests..." He found himself quite lost for words.
He knew the Shelby Kennedy family were a rough bunch. That they were gangsters, established upon an old razor gang from the rough part of Birmingham. But he had hoped they had evolved beyond that. But with both men and women from both families around the table, pinning down Arthur Shelby's wife who writhed and shouted in pain due to the bullet in her arm, it didn't look like they had evolved that much.
"Get him out. Finn, get him out" Tommy ordered, pointing towards Mosley who stood just inside the doorway, in shock at what he had seen.
"Get the fuck out, family only" Finn snapped, losing his patience with Mosley once and for all.
Mosley found himself face to face with Finn Shelby, not the calm and steady man who had been at the party earlier with Ailbhe Kennedy by his side but the real Finn Shelby. All wide eyes and flared nostrils, pointing a gun straight at Mosley's head.
It was certainly enough to get Mosley out of the room.
"Lizzie go to the kitchen to get some iodine" Tommy asked of her. She didn't delay, rushing down the servant's stairs.
She mightn't like Linda but she certainly didn't want her dying, especially not on her dining room table at her birthday party.
"Tom, the other guests" Finn warned him.
If people hadn't started to wonder what the noise was about, they would soon realise that none of th Shelby Kennedy family were left at the party and suspicions would be aroused. They couldn't let news of this get out.
Finn was right. Tommy nodded, his mind working overtime, trying to figure out how to keep it under wraps.
Ailbhe turned to her brothers.
"Liam get the orchestra to start playing again, make it loud. Niall don't let anyone past the double doors" Ailbhe told them, knowing they wouldn't object. Ailbhe was good under pressure and she thought fast.
With that taken care of, Tommy focused on Linda. He rolled up a napkin, putting it between her teeth and getting her to bite on it. The last thing she needed was her screaming even louder.
Ailbhe held her still with Polly, making sure she stayed as still as possible even when the bullet was out and Tommy poured alcohol over the wound to stop infection.
Arthur was still a mess, weeping and mumbling.
"Arthur, calm down. We'll get her some opium, for the pain. She'll be alright" Finn promised him, grabbing his arm and getting him back onto his feet.
They disappeared, knowing there was some stashed in the library and thankfully getting out of the way for a few minutes.
Polly pulled a small bottle from her coat pocket, passing it to Tommy to both Ailbhe and Tommy's surprise. Polly had been so against the opium deal and there she was with a bottle for personal use.
"Use some of mine" She told them, avoiding their eyes but not looking bothered.
Tommy uncorked it with his teeth, pouring it into the glass of whiskey left on the table.
Polly felt Ailbhe's eyes on her, knowing she wanted an explanation.
"I brought some to celebrate the wedding proposal" She explained, looking back at Ailbhe who's eyes widened.
"He proposed?" Ailbhe gasped, sure that Tommy already knew. He always knew.
"Congratulations Pol" Ailbhe smiled, leaning across the table and hugging Polly around the shoulders. She seemed so genuinely happy it was nice to see.
Tommy made sure Linda drank enough to stop the pain and knock her out for a few hours. She needed to sleep, to stay out cold and rest.
Finally, Linda went limp on the table and her head fell back onto the pillow Ailbhe shoved under her head.
Finn and Arthur came back, having found opium but thankfully, Linda was already out cold. Arthur sank back down to his knees at her head, hanging onto her like a life raft and sobbing against her. It was heart breaking to see him so broken. He hadn't been like that in a long time and Ailbhe had hoped that Arthur was over that part of his life, that he was out of the woods. But there didn't seem to be an end for Arthur's woods.
"You should have let her do it, Pol. You should have let her do it" He sobbed against his wife's unconscious body.
Arthur would have taken the bullet, Ailbhe knew that. Arthur danced a very fine line and some days he crossed it, some days he didn't. But you couldn't predict them.
Tommy yanked him off his feet, grabbing him by the head and forcing him to look at him.
"Look at me. Look at me brother" He shouted, making sure Arthur listened to him "You got things to do. You've got a kid. We need you, alright?"
"Come on, Arthur. Niall wouldn't last two days without you" Ailbhe joked, trying to stop Arthur from sobbing so loudly.
Arthur sank into Tommy's chest, crying and sobbing into his younger brother's chest while the women just watched on, not really sure what they were witnessing.
"I save his life and he hugs him" Polly snapped sarcastically, shaking her head at Ailbhe.
Lizzie returned with the iodine, passing it into Ailbhe's open palm. She had grown up with three brothers and more than neglectful parents therefore, she had learnt how to clean up scrapes and scratches. As she got older, she had learnt how to cut out bullets and sew up knife wounds. It was a skill she had built on over the years thankfully.
"I'll do it" Arthur told her, trying to take the gauze and iodine from her hands. He seemed to have settled slightly, but only slightly and Ailbhe wasn't sure she should let him.
"Let him be, he'll do it" Finn nodded towards her, putting out his hand and pulling her back up to her feet, not letting go of her hand even when she was steady.
"Jesus Christ" Ailbhe sighed in a whisper, only Finn could hear her.
His hand instinctively ran up her back and comfortingly gripped the back of her neck.
"Promise never to shoot me?" he asked her quietly, knowing he'd be able to make her laugh and maybe ease the tension. He had leaned in, his breath hitting her ear and tickling the sensitive skin of her neck that she reminded herself to check if he had left any marks on. Finn was a biter, always had been.
"No" She replied, the quirk of a smile on her painted lips and a raised eyebrow.
Despite having spent most of the evening wrapped around her, Finn felt a tug of desire in his groin. He couldn't get enough of her and for some reason, the thought of her standing over him with all the power lit another fantasy in his mind's eye.
"Come on, leave him be" Tommy told them, gathering them together and back towards the party.
Lizzie held out Tommy's jacket, making sure he put it on to hide the drops of blood that stained the sleeve of his shirt. Finn closed the curtains and was sure to lock the door behind them. They would have to go back to the party as if nothing happened. As if Linda had not just tried to kill her husband and Polly had not almost just killed Linda.
*
"What the fuck are you doing dealing with a man like that Tommy?"
Lizzie's question was a good one. It was on all their minds as they stood outside the dancer's tent and heard Mosley's speech. It had made the hairs on the back of Ailbhe's neck stand up and not in a good way. She felt cold and like they had just witnessed something they would look back on and realise it was a turning point in all their lives, a turning point in history itself.
Sir Oswald Mosley was an evil man and he was going to destroy their lives along with the lives of millions others if he got the chance. But that was their plan, that Mosley would not get that chance and that they would stop him.
"You're going to have to trust me," Tommy told them quietly, turning and pulling out a cigarette.
Ailbhe saw the slight shake of his fingers as he turned away from them to light his cigarette. Lizzie reached out, steadying his hand and lighting it for him, catching his eyes for a brief second that made Ailbhe feel as though she was interrupting something innately intimate just by watching.
"Again" Polly remarked, finding themselves in yet another situation where they just had to have blind faith in Tommy.
Mosley approached them, seeing how they gathered outside as though they were outsiders at their own party. In the old days, Ada would surely have preached about socialism and class ideals that pushed them out of even their own home to somewhere they felt more comfortable.
Thomas, Finn, Niall and Liam seemed relatively uninterested, lighting a cigarette and looking back at the guests. The women however didn't take their eyes off him for a second. He was the kind of man that women knew not to take their eyes off.
"I'm going to fuck the swan," He told them, so decisively Ailbhe had pity for the swan. She seemed to have no choice in the matter.
It was the one thing Polly had told him was off-limits. But that was the type of man Mosley was. For the men who make the rules, there are no rules. That was what Tommy had told them.
"Somebody, go and tell her to come to my room. The Queen Ann bedroom, yes?" He checked, turning his head towards the young woman who had been trying to avoid interaction with him all night, the woman to who Finn Shelby's hand seemed glued.
Ailbhe's eyes darted to Lizzie and she could feel Finn tense beside her, going to step forward with his fists clenched but Liam grabbed him from behind, subtly and held him still.
The Queen Ann bedroom was Ailbhe's room, it always was hers when she stayed over. Mosley was trying to taunt them, trying to goad Finn into doing something stupid. He wanted to let them know he had more information than any of them thought.
"You're staying in the Princess Amelia, Mr Mosley" Tommy reminded him, knowing exactly what Mosley was trying to do.
From Niall and Liam Kennedy's clenched jaws and Finn Shelby's flared nostrils, it was clearly working. Tommy hid it well. But the idea of Mosley touching his sister made him feel the rage he had been burying inside him come so close to the surface he wanted to cut away piece after piece of Mosley until even his own mother wouldn't recognise him.
"How do you know she'll come?"
Polly intervened. She had seen the men's quick reactions and knew it was best avoided.
"Because they always do" He replied, tearing his eyes finally off Ailbhe and making her quietly sigh in relief as he turned his steely gaze to Polly.
Polly barely entertained it, turning and leaving the conversation swiftly. Mosley seemed to be enjoying testing every boundary set before him as he stepped forward and took Lizzie's hand in his, lifting it to his mouth and pressing a kiss to the back of her hand. She didn't even look at him, feeling how Tommy was doing everything in his power not to put a bullet in Mosley's head at that very moment.
"Now, forgive me. I'm going to borrow your husband for a little while" He told them, gesturing towards Tommy who directed him away from them thankfully before he could even try and kiss Ailbhe's hand. Ailbhe wasn't sure whose patience would run out first and whose tempers would be lost but it was an even toss-up between Finn, Liam and Ailbhe at that rate.
Once they had been led away Lizzie swore louder than she meant to, almost loud enough for those still in the tent to hear.
"Bastard, son of a bitch" She spat, her fists clenched down by her sides.
"Easy there, boss" Niall nodded towards her, holding out his hip flask. He thought she needed it more than him. He was right, watching her snatch it and take a sip but not looking any calmer for it.
Finn stayed quiet but Ailbhe knew that in a way, that was worse than him shouting and roaring. He was thinking, thinking so hard it looked like he was going to blow a fuse or get a nosebleed. She wrapped her hand around his arm, holding onto him and hoping she could reel him back in and stop the mind racing. She needed him back, needed him with her tonight.
"He'll get what's coming to him" Liam promised them, wanting to put a bullet in Mosley's head just as much as the rest of them but they had to wait. Tommy's orders.
Liam, Niall and Lizzie headed back inside, towards the guests and left Ailbhe still outside with Finn. She sighed, leaning in and resting her forehead against his upper arm since that was as high as she could reach.
"There's no way you're staying in your room tonight Alv, you're staying with me," He told her, feeling her small hand undo the tightly clenched fist at the end of his arm and lace her fingers through his until he relaxed around her.
"Thank you" She sighed, not wanting to be anywhere that Mosley knew. She had considered getting their driver to bring her home, but Finn's bedroom was a better idea.
"We're bad people Alv, I know that but he's just... he's fucking..." He said, trailing off and not knowing what to say.
Finn tried to find the words but couldn't. He didn't know how to even begin describing the level of fucked up inside Oswald Mosley's head.
"He'll die soon Finn... and we'll live" She whispered, squeezing his hand in hers and hoping that if there was a God out there, that he heard her prayers that they would survive this, that no more Shelby's or Kennedys would be taken from them.
"Come on" he sighed, keeping her hand in his as he pulled it together and remembered it was meant to be a party, tugging her along with him back towards the crowd.
"But if one more man even spends too long looking at you, I'm taking you upstairs"
He warned her, his face still serious yet Ailbhe knew his tone was light-hearted. Although, she definitely wouldn't object to being thrown over his shoulder and taken upstairs to be reminded who her heart belonged to. In fact, now she kind of hoped for it.