The Poisoned Rose

Chapter Sixteen

"Pour me another drink, would you please?" Rose asked Michael politely. "Thank you."

Michael smiled at her before sitting down beside her, "You must be used to this! Being looked after all the time."

"Obviously, we do have a million different servants in the house, they wait on me all the time, oh I do miss it." Rose replied sarcastically. "I would be content living by myself."

"Would you really? Can you cook and clean?"

"Of course I can." Rose pretended to glare at him, "How dare you think that I can not!"

Polly ran in, "The Baltons are here! They're already walking out." Rose stood up and was about to walk out of the room, "There's no time! Rose hide somewhere." She hid behind the large heavy curtain and breathed in so they would not be able to hear her breathing.

"Well, this is a surprise." Tommy said as he stood up to greet the men, "What are you here for?"

"It is about the Crawfords." The father said, "I fear we are all in great danger."

Tommy chuckled, "And why is that?"

"We were already in trouble with them and now they will come at us in all force! They will not stop until we are dead. We killed the eldest brother!"

"So? I thought you wanted to kill them?" Tommy drank his drink, "What does it matter if they want to kill you?"

"The Crawfords will personally attack us now."

"And why is that? How would they know it was you that killed him? Can you not deny it."

The eldest brother went pale, "They know we did it, one of them must have been there."

"And what makes you say that?" Tommy asked him, his curiosity began to rise.

"He took a pill that killed him, a pill. So that we could not even have the pleasure in killing him." A scoff left his lips, "We were planning on torturing him, we were going to try and get information out of him. He would not have given any away but at least we would have gotten the satisfaction that we had killed a Crawford. It would have been good, being able to say that we did it."

"What kind of pill was it?" Tommy asked them.

"It was a pill full of poison, which means the Poisoned Rose made them all one before she left so that no one would have the pleasure in killing one of them. You see they'd rather kill themselves than someone else. It's quite funny, is it not."

"What did that letter say?" John moved over to the window so he was next to Rose.

Tommy stared as the three men looked at each other, all becoming pale and a layer of sweat above their lips, the eldest brother swallowed hard as he looked at them "It was more of a note, really, well it... it said that the Crawfords will get their revenge. They will be coming for us now, they will try to kill us now."

"They hate us." The youngest told them. "They all deserve to die."

Rose stared forward at John, pain in her eyes as she watched as he looked out at their grounds. In response to that he slid his hand alongside the window sill until it rested over her hand and that it was still out of the Balton's view.

"What are you going to do now?"

"We will have to eliminate the entire family before they kill us."

Tommy smiled, "How so?"

"It is about time we return to London." The father said, "Now we will leave you in peace."

Rose waited as they got into their cars and disappeared down the road, before she got out from behind the curtain and stared at the Blinders. "That would have been me, the note. Now they will be haste and make several mistake and then we will step in and kill them."

"Good." Tommy said as he sat back down, "I look forward to when they finally are dead."

"That shall be very soon." Rose stared at them, "It will be a victorious day for you all."

"And not you?" Michael asked her, "You have helped us greatly."

"Killing the Baltons will be your triumph and then mine shall be the Crawfords." Rose smiled at him softly. "It is you that will kill the Baltons', it was you that was given the job."

"Will you have no part in it?"

Rose chuckled, "Yes, but I will not be involved in it as much as you will be. Now excuse me as I retire to my room, I'm awfully tired."

"That tablet!" Tommy shouted, "The pill they mentioned, was it you?"

"I made every member of the Crawford family a pill, so that they if necessary, they would kill themselves before anyone else could get their hands on them." Rose told them, "Why?"

Tommy stared at her, "Are they always on them?"

"Not always." Rose replied, "Depends on the occasion and who is attending."

"Will they have them when we invite them to Birmingham?"

"Unknown territory with a lot of unknown people, of course." She glanced around the room, "I shall leave you all to it. Goodnight."