Redfork Menace

Hidden depths

{If you're thinking wow there's no plot. Thats because I'm great at delaying. But if you're thinking girl get a grip, there is a reckoning coming for Benji. He's just playing 4d chess rn. I was listening to this song while writing this, if you want the vibes. It is a cliffhanger bc I have work agony. }

Shanda was pacing in front of her window. All she ever did was pace these days. Back and forth like a caged animal. She wondered when she would rub a hole through the stone. She'd overheard something she wasn't supposed to.

"...burned through the night. Amos sent a letter blaming us of course."

"Do we know who cou...."

The guard who had definitely not been where he should've had wandered back and intercepted her. He hadn't even asked how she had gotten out of her room. Blackwood guards truly were incompetent. She doubted he'd even mention she had been out. The snippet was enough to snap her back to reality. Something had happened back home and her father was accusing the Blackwoods. Nothing new there but it was the implication that struck her. Had her father written to lay blame on them? Why hadn't any of them tried to contact her?
If she didn't get out of this castle soon she was going to start climbing the walls. She had never had this much free time to sit and think. She was stewing in her own thoughts. So she paced to give herself something to do physically while her mind turned in pointless circles. The first point being she hated Benjicot Blackwood. Hated him with a deep and ugly passion that burned dark and slow inside of her. She wanted to end him and ruin that horrible triumphant expression he always wore. The second point was that she was a filthy hypocrite who couldn't hold onto any brainpower when he invaded her space. Underneath that burning hatred was a simmering flame of desire that spiral out of control in his presence. So she went round and round in a cycle of anger and shame.
Then she would wait for him to show up and start the cycle all over again. She'd immediately blocked his words from her mind. She couldn't bear to think about it. He'd struck her low by bringing her mother up and she wished she could talk to her mother. But on second thought maybe not. Her mother would've seen through her in an instant and would not allow her to lie to herself. Okay, then what should I do? She asked herself, pausing in her hurried pacing to stare outside.It was almost sunny, the overcast clouds covered the sky but they were thin allowing light to shine through. He'd exposed her weaknesses and was playing her way too easily. She needed to find something to use to her advantage, maybe she could find a way to sway him into giving her what she wanted most.
Information was the most valuable currency and she was so in the dark she might as well be beneath the ground. She knew whatever he did tell her would be slanted of course but that didn't mean it wasn't worth hearing. She would just have to buck up, she couldn't stand around blushing forever.
                                                      ***
"She just stands around blushing. It's quite cute I must admit." Ben said to his aunt, staring dreamily off into space.

"You know there's more to marriage than staring at each other right?"

He shot her a questioning look. Surely she didn't mean?...Alysanne snapped her fingers at him.

"Think with your brain, Benjicot! Your wife will help you run this place, have you tried to get her interested in the house duties?"

He frowned. How was he supposed to do that when the girl couldn't look him in the eyes?

"She's timid." He said defensively.

"You're a pig. Give her space to breathe, you'll find most people think better that way."

"Mm. I don't think we want her thinking that clearly. She might remember we're 'mortal enemies'." He smirked thinking of her trying to convince herself of that fact by reminding him of the feud he was still actively fighting. When he wasn't with her he was bloodying Brackens across the borderlands with impunity. It was almost the perfect life and it would be perfect when she was his wife. A scheme Alysanne was reluctantly a part of mostly because she couldn't think of a good way to stop him. He'd set too much of it in motion without her knowledge. Alysanne wasn't involved with borderland guard rounds.