Snippet #2821626

Rosie struggled to keep her expression neutral at Neden’s revelations about Travis and his family. A gasp of shock and of sympathy rippled through those gathered; but Rosie could see her fair share of unmoved faces, among the crowd and the jury, and she wasn’t sure that it had been enough. She caught Evelyn’s eye, and Evelyn shook her head ever so slightly. Whatever she’d been planning had fallen through. Rosie just nodded.

“We will now take some time for the jury to deliberate. Thank you all.”

The crowd immediately burst into animated conversation, but Rosie didn’t remain at the stage for fear she’d overhear it. She stepped offstage and into one of the back rooms, to allow her some time to think.

This was out of her hands now. This had never been her decision to make in the first place; that much she knew, although she was almost regretting that now. She exhaled, running a hand down her face. No, she told herself. She was too emotionally involved in all of this; she wouldn’t have been able to make a fair decision. The people wouldn’t have trusted her, and she would have questioned her own decision far too much anyway. This was the right way of doing things. After a while- minutes or hours, it was impossible to tell- There was a knock on the door. “Miss Thompson, a decision has been made.”

She took a deep breath, composed herself, and went to the door. The head of the jury stood on the other side, and she nodded at him. His expression was deliberately unreadable, and Rosie almost appreciated that. They walked out to the stage together, Rosie standing a few steps behind him as he took the podium.

“Thank you all for your patience. After significant deliberation, the jury has come to a conclusion. We have considered all of the evidence given to us. We cannot forgive Mr. Graveson’s participation and contribution to the heinous crimes against this town, and we do not believe that he can be considered innocent.” The crowd burst into chatter at this point, some angry, some clearly delighted at that. The foreman silenced them with a single word. “However. We do acknowledge the tragic circumstances around Mr. Graveson’s involvement and that he was manipulated into becoming one of them. We also acknowledge that Mr. Graveson has changed his ways and has become one of us in many ways. It is for this reason that the jury does not suggest putting him to death, and instead recommends banishment, on pain of death if he ever returns to this place.” The foreman stepped away from the podium, the room bursting into noise, with some angry yelling directed their way. Rosie still hadn’t processed what she’d just heard. But she knew she needed to deal with the crowd immediately, before things got out of hand.

“QUIET!” She bellowed, many of those who had been her former students sinking back into their seats on reflex at that command. Everyone else at least had the respect to obey. She recovered her composure, and took a moment to put the words together in her head.

“I thank the jury for your services, and thank you for that decision. I accept your recommendation. Travis Graveson, you are to be banished from Greythorne forever.” She said, looking at him. As she said so, Evelyn got up from her seat and sprinted over to him, grabbing him and saying something to him. And then she kissed him, in front of the whole town and in front of Rosie herself. There was a burst of excited whispers, with more than a few looks towards her. Rosie had to swallow hard, her composure cracking by the second. Not now. This was not the time to respond or react to that. She had to keep it together.

“Miss Fox. If you don’t mind,” she said, her tone flat and harsh, but provoked a few snickers throughout the audience. Evelyn sat down beside Travis, deliberately not looking at Rosie. “Mr. Graveson, if you are found within town limits at any point, you will be executed. You have one hour to gather your things before this exile comes into effect. Thank you, everyone,” she said. Somehow, she kept it together as she walked off stage. She managed to get off stage, away from everyone else, before she began to shake with emotion. She got to one of the private rooms before she had to pull off her jacket and scream into it, the fabric muffling the sound. Travis and Evelyn. Evelyn and Travis. That hadn’t been her shooting her shot either; Travis had been kissing her back, neither of them apparently giving a shit about the fact that Rosie had been standing there, declaring Travis’ fate. They hadn’t cared that the whole town had seen it either. Rosie had already decided against getting involved with Travis again, deciding that his past sins were too large for her to ignore; but it was the fact that they had acted so thoughtlessly, two people who had claimed to care about her.

Rosie texted Neden. She’d considered texting Zada; then she’d realised if she told Zada what had happened, Zada would probably rip his heart out. She’d still briefly considered it, even after that realisation, deeming it a fitting revenge, before eventually deciding that she didn’t want Zada getting into any trouble as a result. So instead, she’d texted Neden, asking them to fend off anyone asking where Rosie was, and come get her after everyone had left.

They’d done that, both heading straight back to Neden’s, where Rosie had proceeded to single-handedly drink a bottle of wine (or two), bitch, cry, bitch some more, hatch a plan for revenge, cry some more, and eventually pass out on their couch. After the first bottle of wine, things got a little blurry, but she knew that she’d cried about more than just Trav and Evelyn. She was pretty sure she’d gotten incoherent for a finish. But she would have been lying if she said that she hadn’t desperately needed it.

She would have liked that to be the end of it, that she could have moved on from there. But the whispers and the glances when people thought she wasn’t looking lingered. They were sympathetic, at least. But it also made it so much harder to put the whole thing behind her when people were still gossiping about it. One of her students had even come up to her and declared that she could do much, much better than “that piece of shit” anyway. There had been multiple offers to track Travis and Evelyn down and give them a taste of their own medicine from her friends, but Rosie had refused them all.

It took a couple of weeks for it to die down, and for Rosie to begin to move on from the whole debacle. A welcome distraction came in the form of the Summer Ball. They hadn’t had one for a few years; but it was agreed that after the number of attacks and the events the town had endured over the past year, they needed something fun. Rosie, of course, was roped into it, but she didn’t mind so much. She needed the distraction, and besides, it was nice to be organising something that didn’t directly relate to the protection of the town.

The event was traditionally a masquerade, and they agreed to keep that theme; however, they also agreed that masks would not be mandatory, given that the first and the worst of the attacks had been at Halloween. One of the Council members generously offered them use of his house as he was away for a few days. It was a large, old mansion, with plenty of space, so they eagerly accepted his offer.

The night came, and it felt like the first time Rosie had been properly excited about something for a while. Finding an outfit had taken a little bit of time, nothing seeming to match the vague idea she had in her head. She found the dress by complete chance, and everything else had fallen into place after that. She’d had to get heels that were higher than she usually would have worn in order to compensate for the length of the dress, and she had dwelled on whether or not the mask was a little over the top, before eventually deciding that the scenario required being a little over the top. Her hair was pinned into a simple bun at the nape of her neck, her makeup inspired by the greens of her dress.

She was among the first to arrive at the mansion in order to make sure that things were set up and that there hadn’t been any last minute disasters requiring her attention. Thankfully, everything was ready to go, and so she simply found herself exploring the halls with a glass of champagne in her hand.