The Poisoned Rose

Chapter Ten

Tommy, Arthur, John, Michael, Rose and Lizzie all sat around a table in their apartment discussing ways of which they could destroy the Crawford's. Rose sat back as they tried to figure out how to get them out in the open and then kill them.

"What is their biggest weakness?" Rose asked them.

"That they are very powerful?" 

She glared at them all, "That they think they are invincible, no one has ever gone against them, they have never been challenged."

"So what?" 

"Challenge them." Rose said as she walked round the room. 

"Carry on with your plan to kill the Balton's, gain my father's trust and then invite him to Birmingham to celebrate." Rose stared at them, "Then you'll have the advantage, they won't know their surroundings. But you will."

"How will we even get them there?" 

"Say you want to have a proper celebration, a good send off for me. Give them a taste of Birmingham and then ask them to have a look around some of the businesses. Make it seem really serious."

"So then you'll father will come too." Tommy said while nodding his head.

"And then we'll poison his henchmen and then he'll be alone, with no one to protect him. And there you'll kill him." Rose smiled. "Or I will."

"He's your father."

"Yet I want him to be dead." She walked over to the window, "It'll be satisfying seeing him dead."

Lizzie stared at her, "He must have been a truly terrible father."

"When I was a child, he would come in with a gun and point it at us so we would learn not to feel distressed and always look calm." Rose glanced back at them, "I learnt almost immediately not to react to him, Charlotte she always did. She would always scream or cry."

"But you did not? Maybe you were born to be in the business!" Arthur joked.

"There was a time that I was not even thought to ever be in the business." Rose smiled. "I was once good and innocent."

They all stared at her, "Then what happened?" John asked her.

"The Great War happened. I think you can understand that."

"Was your husband a good man?" Lizzie asked her.

Rose stared distantly into the distance, "Yes, he was very good. It was a marriage of love. He was nothing to do with my father and the business. He was mine."

"What happened to him?"

"I need a drink." Rose said as she walked over to the drink table. "What happened to your wife?" She asked John.

"She got a disease and died almost immediately."

"What about your hus-" Lizzie went to ask again.

"I need to go and pack." Rose left the room and sighed heavily as she reached her room, she wasn't ready for them to look at her in pity, especially John.

As soon as she entered her room, she flung herself onto her bed, and stared up at the ceiling. She knew that with the way she acted, the questions would be asked more frequently, they would want to know more about her, want to know why she was so secretive. 

No one knew anything about her in London, only who she was and the reputation she upheld - that was the way she liked it - they soon all learned not to ask any questions or their family would be preparing their funeral. Yet, with the Peaky Blinders, they wanted to know more, they  wanted to know if they could trust the woman or whether she truly was there spying on them. 

It scared her how persistent they were, and that she could do nothing to stop it. If she was to kill one of them then they would not hesitate in killing her - for even with all the power she had, in truth, she would not be able to fight the Blinders, not all of them. It didn't matter how she was clever, or knew more about them, if she was to have a fight with one of them, they would win easily. Especially, if it was one of the elder brothers, their mind plagued with memories of the War and what they had witnessed. 

Instead, she was going to have to hope that their deal was soon to be over, the Baltons' and the Crawfords' all dead, and then she would be able to disappear from the lives. Leave them to their own business and travel the land searching for the happiness she so desired.