InsaneJournal

Characters: Marietta Edgecombe & Zacharias Smith
Setting: Marietta's flat, 6 November 2003, 8:23am
Rating: General Public
Summary: Marietta's plan goes awry but she still finds a way to rattle Zacharias' chains in the end.

It had been quite a while since Marietta had schemed in such a manner and to be honest, she was rather enjoying the rush of adrenaline she was gaining from it.  After all the nightmares, she had been left feeling rather drained and this high of exhilaration was something she had needed.  She had to admit she was getting a bit antsy at this point though.  Zacharias had gone the entire night without responding and she had, at the very least, expected him to storm her flat, if not write her an owl saying that he thought she was bluffing.   She had already made certain that Adelle was returned to Peebles in the state from which she had left it, loathe as Marietta was to do so.  Alright, she had never had any intention of actually hurting the young woman, but she had wanted to detain her return in the case that Zacharias went there first to check if she was not safe.  But her plan hinged on him actually going in the middle of the night while Adelle was not home, which apparently he had not done at all, for whatever reason that was.  Why in Merlin's name had he not done so?  Did he truly not care for the girl as much as he seemed to?  No, Marietta was quite certain of this fact, so something else was detaining him, but what?  The owl would have found him, of this she was certain, or it would have returned to her with her letter as non-deliverable.  So he either did not read the letter or he did not believe her.  Would he really take the chance, with all that had been happening recently?  He knew Marietta fairly well and she thought she'd made it very clear that she was not mucking about, but maybe she had not been as convincing as she thought.  If her words had not persuaded him she thought the material from his sister's jumper would be enough to push him over the edge, a nice touch if she did say so herself.  Adelle had caught her jumper on a sales rack and torn it during their trip that day and it was far too convenient of an opportunity to pass up. And yet here she was with nothing to show for all her planning and effort.  Maybe Zacharias truly was more cunning than she.  She knew he was not a fool—she wouldn't spend the time she did with him if that were true—but she was banking on his current instability being her ticket to winning this game so maybe he was holding more cards up his sleeve than she previously thought.  She couldn't help pacing back and forth in her flat, wondering if she should take more action or just wait and give him a bit more time to respond.  It was agonizing to think that she might lose—owing Zacharias any sort of favour of his choosing was not something she would ever consider agreeing to—but if this did not work, she was basically out of options.  There was nothing else that would mean enough to him that she could think of that might work.  The last time Marietta had lost at something was when she'd had "SNEAK" plastered across her face and even then she hadn't technically lost at all; it was really just a setback for her, so this situation was definitely not ideal.