The Spoils of War (COMPLETED)

The Insidious Plan

After all the preparations had been made Alaric strode towards the location that Mrs. Montague had been held in. He told himself that the plan would work and that the Montagues would get theirs.

Walking in he wasn't even surprised to see the woman in question trying to break through the window. She knew she was guilty. "Mrs. Montague, your husband has told us what you have done. You are vile, and once we return to the capital you will get your full trial." Alaric wasn't sure if it was his words or Jasmine's presence that threw the woman off, but she started pacing the floor a frilly while she pierced Jasmine with her dull eyes.

"It is all your fault. Back when our precious boy died that was your fault too but we never got any reprieve. You lived right next door so we had to see your face every single day!" Spittle flew from her mouth as she flexed her hands and glared at Jasmine.

"I never did anything to him, how is it my fault?" Jasmine was so shocked by her words that she couldn't help but ask.

Whether Mrs. Montague did not notice the question or simply ignored her nobody knew as the woman once again went off on a tirade. "He loved you so much but you never gave him the time of day.  He was a good boy, and would have been a good husband." Tears were streaming down her face but as her eyes once again looked upon Jasmine they filled with hate. "He died lonely and broken because he felt you would never love him. So when the war ended and you were here alone with nobody to protect you we decided we too wanted you to die broken and lonely. Maybe then in the afterlife, you could be reunited with our boy. We sent you into the arms of the beast but you managed to crawl back unscathed."

Jasmine felt like she would pass out from the news. She had no idea their son had even liked her, he never said anything. "You wanted me to die just because I didn't know that your son liked me? You wanted me to hurt and then die..." Her voice cracked at the end but she refused to cry. Raising her head proudly she looked Mrs. Montague in the eyes. "You wanted me broken, but though I may bend that will never happen. You wanted me to die, and while nobody escapes death in the end I will not fall to someone like you."

Mrs. Montague sneered, her tears had dried up. "We owed them money and you escaped. Even if you did nothing to us today the Wrights wouldn't let us go." She started to cackle and pull at her hair. "You should have just died! Then when we die we could look William in the face and tell him we got you, our dear sweet boy." She started to sway and fell to the floor with a loud thump. Nobody even moved to catch her, letting her body crumple in on itself was the least of their worries.

Jasmine couldn't pull her eyes away from the woman whom she had grown up knowing. When William had passed the Montagues had always said he was sick, a sickness of the heart, but she never knew he had liked her. A warm hand on her arm brought her out of her thoughts as she turned her clear blue eyes on Alaric. He was looking at her with concern but she did not want him to misunderstand. "I didn't even know he liked me, we lived next door almost our entire lives and we spoke less than ten times. He was friendly...but I did not know him. I know more about you than I ever did about him, yet they wanted me to die and I would have never even known the reason why."

Alaric wanted to pull her into his arms and shield her from these facts: the people she trusted had betrayed her and they had done it for reasons that were out of her control.

He decided that for now, the information they had gathered from Mrs. Montague would be all they would get until Mr. Montague sobered up. When he did, Alaric promised to not stop until he found out the connection between them and the Wrights so he could get rid of two snakes at the same time.