Crown of a Prince (Finn Shelby)

120

Heyyyyy. Look at me actually posting on a Sunday and being regular! I finally learnt how to actually do this on a bit of a schedule (120 chapters later!). Getting super close to the end, I don't think there's more than four chapters left in this story. This was tough to write, especially after the shock in the last chapter. But basically everything has been leading up to the next chapter since I first watched season 6 and imagined how Ailbhe would fit into it. I watched a Tiktok edit months ago and it completely changed the game for me with Ailbhe and Finn and if I had any inkling how to make Tiktok edits I would absolutely do it for this story because I feel like it would work so well! But anyway, enjoy. Love reading your comments they literally make my day xx M

Ailbhe Shelby was a fantastic liar. Niall had never doubted her when she told him she had slept in her own bed and not spent the night with Finn. Her mother had never suspected a lie when she told her that school was going fine and that nobody picked on her for her clothes or her accent. And Tommy had never suspected anything amiss when Ailbhe had promised she and Jade had just gone to the pictures in Haymills, not been to an illegal gambling den with Finn and Isaiah.

So when she got home and Leo, the footman asked was she feeling alright she lied and smiled. When Cara took her hat and gloves, promising to fetch her some tea and asked her was she sure that nothing was wrong. She lied and smiled. 

But lying to Ada had always been a mammoth task for her. Something that weighed on her mind and set her on edge. There was something so utterly 'Aunt Pol' about the gaze she would fix you with, a cigarette in one hand and an arch of her eyebrow would have anyone in the country spilling their secrets.

When one of the footmen interrupted Ailbhe's busy schedule of pacing in her office until she could wrap her head around her current situation, Ailbhe had been hoping it might be her husband.

If it was Finn, surely they could drop this act of being unhappy and forget about the outside world for a moment. Surely he could help her, put it all to one side and remember who was important. And she could tell him. She could show him the letter or put his hand on her stomach and tell him that they were going to have what they had always dreamed about. And he could dry her tears and soothe her fears and anxiety as he always did.

But Ada's perfume and the click of her heels reached Ailbhe's nose and ears before she stepped around the door and clicked it shut.

"Not the Shelby you were hoping for?"

Ada asked knowingly, slipping off her gloves and placing her handbag on the low table by the fireplace.

"You're a Kennedy now." Ailbhe filled the silence redundantly. The first red flag Ada noticed.

The clever comment didn't match her dulcet tone and her eyes were busy and preoccupied. She looked restless and although her eyes seemed full of life, the pink of her cheeks was artificial and her hands trembled.

"Yes, well don't hold it against me!" Ada quipped, raising her eyebrows and looking around the room for a telltale sign of Ailbhe's restlessness.

She seemed tense and there was a frantic energy radiating from her.

Her hair had been pulled at and Ailbhe's bottom lip was red as though she had been tugging at it as she always did in a nervous habit. She wrapped her arms around herself as if to hug some warmth into her body but she stopped herself, settling for clasping her hands together instead.

If Ada didn't know any better she would assume that Finn was the cause of Ailbhe's flustered state and swollen lip.

But Ada's husband told of Finn's sullen and quiet attitude in recent days and the lack of ring Ailbhe wore on her finger was sign enough. Ada didn't care for the business with Duke. She didn't want any part of it but she had seen how Duke watched Ailbhe and how Finn watched Duke watch Ailbhe.