Francesca stood her ground, and even drew herself up to her full height when the woman pointed the wand at her. She was not afraid of being threatened — though perhaps she should have been, given that she was standing in a Knockturn Alley shop surrounded by cursed objects, being threatened at wandpoint. But Kitty Fogg had not impressed her as the sort of woman who could do real damage — except what damage she did after getting her claws in Francesca's husband. She was a manipulator, to be sure, but she had no one here to do her dirty work.

"Just what are you planning to do with that?" Francesca asked imperiously.

---

  

---

"My Finlay told me how evil you are!" Kitty said with a shaky voice. By this point she was panic crying and her wand was shaking in her hand. She had to stand her ground, show that this woman didn't scare her... but she did. From all the things Finlay had described about his wife, Kitty wouldn't rule out her casting an Unforgivable Curse on her.

---

  

---

“The other woman will always cry herself to sleep
The other woman will never have his love to keep”

- ※ -

"He isn't yours," Francesca thundered, with more vehemence than she would have expected from herself. It was surprising because she wasn't even jealous of this woman, she didn't think. She didn't want Finlay to have written her love letters or have interrupted her day begging for more sex. She certainly didn't want Finlay alive again, if this was how he had been carrying on behind her back — if he had respected her so little and betrayed her so completely. No, her reaction wasn't about Finlay; it was about the sheer audacity of Miss Fogg to call him my Finlay to her, knowing who she was.

---

  

---

"He loved me!" Kitty shouted back. "He loved me and I loved him, unlike you - you are a vile woman, he told me all about what a cruel and terrible person you are, how you neglected him, how you tried to kill-" he'd told her the name of the child, "he told me all of that, so he was mine! And I wouldn't be surprised if you killed him, but I can be dangerous too, don't make me do something you will regret!" With that, she hurled some object towards the direction of Mrs. McKinnon. If she was going to die that day, she'd die fighting!

---

  

---

“The other woman will always cry herself to sleep
The other woman will never have his love to keep”

- ※ -

Francesca was stopped in her tracks by the accusation that she had tried to kill her child. He said what? she would have said, except that she hadn't regained her composure even enough to close her mouth before the woman threw a necklace at her. Francesca tried to get out of the way, but it glanced off her shoulder and clattered to the floor. The assault with the jewelry sparked the anger in her again and she glared at the other woman. She drew back to put some more space between them and moved her own hand to her and pocket, though she didn't draw it.

"You idiot," she said, voice dripping with disdain. "Would you believe anything someone told you, or do they have to bed you first?"

---

  

---

"That is exactly what a vile person like you would say!" Kitty sobbed out. Why would Finlay lie to her about this? Sure, he hadn't told her that he was married at first and he had disappointed her many times, but at the end of the day, he'd loved her and he always found a way to explain things. As for his wife, she was just as terrible as he had described her.

---

  

---

“The other woman will always cry herself to sleep
The other woman will never have his love to keep”

- ※ -

Kitty Fogg was absolutely pathetic, Francesca determined. Practically sobbing as she spoke, clutching a wand but not using it, scrambling for ways to defend herself when she was the adulterer between the two of them. What had Finlay ever seen in her?

"I don't care what someone like you thinks of me," she spat. "I care about getting back what's mine."

---

  

---

“Well he’s dead now! You should have cared more about him while he was still alive so he wouldn’t have strayed in the first place!” Kitty shouted at the woman.

  

Francesca narrowed her eyes. "I'll get that money, whether he's dead or not. It was never his to give," she said. Legally her husband may have been cleared to do whatever he pleased with their shared finances, but Francesca had worked over a decade for her own wage, and she wasn't about to part with it without a fight. Certainly not so someone like dear Kitty could benefit from it instead.

---

  

---

“What money?” Kitty then asked, her eyebrows knitted in confusion. She had thought this was all about her having “stolen” Finlay from her.

  

---

“The other woman will always cry herself to sleep
The other woman will never have his love to keep”

- ※ -

Francesca bristled. "My money. The money you pair of trollops stole to run away." Playing dumb wouldn't save her; Francesca had read all the letters. She had seen Fogg wax poetic about their upcoming escape to America. She supposed the timing of Finlay's death was actually fortuitous; it would have been more difficult to get the funds back if he'd absconded to America first.

---

  

---

Kitty might have wronged Mrs McKinnon in many ways, but stealing her money wasn’t one of them.

“Wha- I never stole any of your money!” she replied. “I never had any need of it, thank you very much!”

If anything, she has been funding the trip as well.

  

---

“The other woman will always cry herself to sleep
The other woman will never have his love to keep”

- ※ -

Francesca entirely misinterpreted the intonation of the your and presumed Fogg was implying Francesca hadn't had any rights to the money that had been drained from her joint bank account with her husband, which infuriated her.

"Listen," she hissed. "I have a career and I had it before I married him. It's my money — or at least some of it is. And you have some nerve trying to take the high ground here, Miss no need of it, when your grand scheme was to leave a woman with three children penniless. Whatever sob story he told you about me, it takes a — a cold-hearted bitch to leave three children without the means to put clothes on their backs," she seethed. She realized she was letting emotion get the better of her, and took a deliberate pause to try and regain her composure.

---

  

---

"What are you talking about?" Kitty asked incredulously. Mrs. McKinnon seemed to think that Kitty had some nefarious plot about her. Was Finlay's plan to leave Mrs. McKinnon penniless? Surely he wouldn't leave the children with her. Not after all the things he'd told her, about what a cruel and negligent mother she was. "You are a liar, Finaly told me everything about you. He told me that you don't care about the children! He told me that you tried to kill your son! Finlay was trying to get away from you, evil woman and I helped him, we were going to run away to America and be a f-family!"

---

  

---

“The other woman will always cry herself to sleep
The other woman will never have his love to keep”

- ※ -

The same allegation as before, or at least a strikingly similar one. Francesca hadn't known how to respond the first time because it had seemed so outlandish she had wondered if Fogg was being hyperbolic or even just making it up, but hearing it twice made it seem as though it was something Finlay had actually said. What a pathetically small man. She would say she was embarrassed to have married him, except she hadn't had any choice in the matter. Fogg didn't have that excuse.

"Well, if there's one thing you can certainly trust it's the word of an adulterer," she said, and although she did not add it in words her tone certainly suggested what she was thinking: you blithering idiot, you naive fool, how could you have believed such an outrageous story? And a convenient one, too — she wondered what else Finlay had told Fogg to make himself look the victim in this scenario.

---

  

Mrs. McKinnon had a point and Kitty found herself at loss of what to say. "You're spoiling his memory," Kitty finally said, feeling small. "All he wanted was a wife who would love him and who wouldn't neglect him."

---

  

---

“The other woman will always cry herself to sleep
The other woman will never have his love to keep”

- ※ -