The Poisoned Rose

Chapter Twenty

John walked quietly over to where she was sat, he didn't want to disrupt her but he had to talk to her. He had to tell her that he was sorry, that he knew why she did it. 

Rose knew it was him when she felt the eyes of someone pierce through the back of her head, she knew why he wanted to talk to her and that he understand everything.

It was strange, for years she had put up a front, she had hid who she truly was and then within months of living with the Peaky Blinders and most importantly the Shelby brothers, she had opened up. They knew what turned her into a monster, her weakness. That was more than any of her acquaintances knew back in London and they had known her for nearly a decade. 

Taking a deep breath, John perched on the bench beside her. He waited, for a sign, for any emotion to cross her face - but nothing happened and nothing changed. Instead, Rose continued to stare forward as if he was not there at all.

"I - I..." He couldn't find the words to say, "I'm sorry." The words floated around them in the air, John gulped nervously as the silence continued, "L-look Rose, I just want to apologise. We were all wrong. I was wrong." 

It was then that Rose slowly turned her head to face him, an unknown emotion dancing across her face, "You were wrong?" it was as though she was teasing him.

"Yes, I thought you betrayed us, that you were nothing but a liar." John admitted to her, "But now I've realised that you have only ever told us the truth, that you have been helping us all this time -"

Rose interrupted him, "After Polly told you everything."

He stared at her out of surprise, "How did you know?"

"I overheard her tell you." Rose told him, "So now you know."

John watched her carefully, "It must have been a hard time for you."

A sarcastic laugh slipped out of her red lips, "Please, don't even try and talk to me about that. The past is the past, you know and I know, what else is there to say about the matter?"

"I want to get to know you Rose, and to truly understand you I need to know who you are!"

Rose's face changed completely, instead of a small smile there was a serious expression replacing it, "What to do you want to know?"

"How many people know it all, everything? And not what you told Polly."

"I've never spoken to anyone about it." Rose said, "There was no one I trusted enough. And anyway I've never seen the point in talking about it."

"What was your mother like?" John asked her suddenly.

Rose stared at him, as though she was unsure about how to reply to his question, "She was the kindest person I have ever known." Rose blinked back the tears that were threatening to fall. "She always liked to be in her garden, she had so many flowers, it was always the brightest place of our house. After her death, my father refused to even step in the garden and it's since become so dull and lifeless." John looked at her as though he wanted to know more, "She was my favourite family member, my earliest memory of her was watching as she brushed her hair, the sun shone on her and to me she was an angel. An angel in the hell of our world. 

"You see, when she met my father she didn't know what he was involved in, they fell in love, and that was when he admitted to her that he wasn't the good guy. She never said she could change him, never wanted to change him. She loved him for who he was, for the man he was to her. 

"Growing up, it was clear the tensions that were growing between them, she hated the business and she feared her children would be brought into the wars among the gangs while my father never wanted to give up his business, it's his entire life.

"Even though she never got involved in the business she still had everything to do with it. She was the one thing my father actually loved. And that was his weakness, that was what they could use against him. They did," Rose told him, "I remember the panic that arose when he found out that he was missing and then when the letter was posted. I was not supposed to be there, I was meant to be asleep, but I crept down into the passageway and I heard everything, I heard as he told his men that he would never give up the business and that my mother was lost to them.

"They found her dead body weeks after, she had been tortured and the beauty she once had was ripped from her, it was ruined by some hooligans." Anger was evident in her tone, "And from that day on wards, I vowed to get revenge."

John cleared his throat, "And your husband?"

"There really isn't a lot to say about him," Rose replied, "He was innocent, nothing to do with the business. I fell in love with him and we married in 1914 and then he was killed in the Battle of the Somme."

"And you lost your child." John added.

"And I lost my child." She then continued, "Which was probably a good thing, children, they don't deserve to be brought into the Crawford Family. I wouldn't wish for my children to be put in that much danger."

Tommy slammed his empty glass onto the desk in front of him, "It's time we do something."

Rose sauntered into the room, "Then you do something."

"Like what?" Tommy asked her.

"Fancy killing some Baltons'?" Rose asked them as she looked around the room at all the Blinders, "I think it's time you complete your task."

"To London we go then." Tommy replied, "Any advice?"

"Who are those men just after the forest?"

Everyone in the room went silent, "Men? What men?"

"I stumbled across some men working just after the forest." She paused for a moment, "I think your first step is to see who they are."

"And then we go to London," Arthur said, "And kill them."