"Close the window, Rosie. It's freezing in here," James said, poking his head around the door.

I pushed myself off the bed and crossed to the other side of the room, grabbing onto the small hook on the window frame to pull it shut. The sun shone down on the street below, but it provided no warmth. A cold, bitter chill filled the air and every time I exhaled, a small cloud would form from my breath. On the street below, London had only just started to wake up with carriages and horses moving along the street and women out for a morning stroll arm in arm with their husband or a friend. Even in the early morning, as the birds in the trees had started to chirp, London was a busy place to be living.

When I had first moved in with James, I hated living back in London and being so close to the factory. I could see the top of the tower from my bedroom window and it felt as though it were mocking me every time I glanced out of it. It would always be there no matter where I looked or tried to draw my attention to. Once again, I couldn't escape the place that had caused so much pain for me and my friends. The thing that had caused so much difficulty in my life stood still and proud despite the secrets it still held. I had hoped, after the factory, that it would have been demolished, removed from sight so we could all move on. Yet it stood on and prouder still than ever before.

The streets below my window had a continuous flow of people from dawn until dusk with horses and carriages driving along the roads and conversations carrying through my open window. After spending six months in the country, living with the noise and chaos that came with the city remained something to be desired. Although we could hear the busy streets when we were in the factory, it had never been all that loud. This time it took place right under my window and not even closing it could block out the noise. I missed the quiet of the country, but I had finally returned to my family and that mattered more.

"Do you think it's going to snow?" I asked as I pulled the window shut and turned the key.

"It might, though I cannot say for certain." He paused. "Are you ready to go?"

"Yes. I've been ready for ages, I've been waiting for you."

"We can't all be earlier risers like you, sometimes I wonder if you actually go back to bed or if you just sit there, fully dressed and wait." He chuckled to himself. "Come on, the shop won't open itself."

"If it did, you'd never go to work."

"Oi!"

James flicked the end of my plait towards my face as I walked past him, grinning slightly as I stepped out into the hallway and down the stairs. I grabbed my jacket off the hook as I passed by it and met Kitty in the hallway who glanced at the large clock and raised an eyebrow to James. The two do them appeared to have a conversation without speaking to one another, something I had grown used to over the past month. Kitty shook her head slightly but said nothing as we left the house and stepped out into the busy London street.

A bitter wind darted past us and I drew my jacket closer around my body to fight it off. Winter had been in full force for several weeks but there had been a lack of snow for the duration of that time, and it had been the one thing I had been missing. Instead, the sky remained bright with only a few clouds dotted here and there with no sign of snow, despite the cold. It would be the first year in a long time I could enjoy the snow when it eventually fell. I could build a snowman, have a snowball fight or make a snow angel. I could do all the things I had done years before and no one could stop me. I could be a child again.

The walk to James' shop took us past Jack's bakery and within the vicinity of Doctor Ealing's office, though I had never seen him or Robert. In the month since I had left service and the Ealing household, I hadn't seen any of the family on my wandering's through London. Tommy saw them more than I did when he delivered the meat, but he never said more than a few words about them. All I knew was that within two days of Samuel driving me to London, Mrs Ealing had hired Sarah and it had become as though I had never been there. I expected nothing less.

I tried not to think about the Ealing's or my life in service since leaving the household just a month prior. James had taken me to a different Doctor when my knee played up and none of us even discussed the past six months. It had been easier to pretend none of it had happened then to face up to what I refused to admit to myself.

We reached the shop with a few minutes to spare before usual opening times so whilst James pottered around the small back room making tea to warm us up, I took a seat on the sofa and went through the paperwork that had been left out the night before. My time working with Doctor Ealing and at his office had taught me enough about paperwork and how to keep track of it. When James had finally agreed to allow me to re-organise his shop, I had been able to put that skill to good use. A month later and the shop had almost been finished, though James still protested as he had never been partial to a clean workspace. It caused him more difficulty then a messy one ever did.

"Anything important in that pile or is it just scribbles?" James asked, placing the tray of tea onto the coffee table.

"Mostly scribbles and an order form for some buttons that I need you to sign," I said.

"Remind me later and I'll sign it. What with Christmas around the corner, I doubt we'll get far without buttons. All of the dinner jackets that will need mending or made for the celebrations, we'll need a bucket load."

"We'll be better off with a carriage-full," Kitty added as she took her cup from the tray.

"I doubt I'll go that far, but I'll get enough in to see us through to the New Year and then we can bulk order whatever we need when the festive period is over."

"What would I ever do without you?" He asked. He reached down and grabbed one of the cups on the table, blowing on it slightly to try and cool it down before he drank it.

"Nothing, probably."

James glared at me, but I could see the trace of a smile on his lips as I reached down and grabbed my own cup from the tray and taking a sip. I cringed slightly at the state, still not a big fan of the liquid within. James made tea for us when we arrived on the colder mornings, but no amount of drinking it would help it to taste any better. The only thing I had found myself partial to since leaving the factory was drinking chocolate. At the Ealing's, it had been a luxury we were not often allowed to partake in and although I had been allowed it more frequently since moving in with James, he would never allow me to drink it at the shop as it often put me to sleep.

Still, I took small sips from the tea as James flicked through the pile of scribbling to see if he could find something salvageable. He hated anyone throwing anything away since he had a belief that everything would have a purpose in the end, even faint lines drawn across a sheet of paper. Although some of it looked as though he had simply closed his eyes and dragged the pencil over the paper, he had still managed to create dress designs of dinner jacket sketches from them. Often, they were left in a pile on the sofa that just made the entire shop look untidy. It took me a week to convince him to put them elsewhere and we ended up having to compromise. He could keep his office however he pleased if I had full reign over the rest of the shop.

Whilst I drained my cup, James had already finished his and had set about opening the shop for the working day. He pulled open the curtains and exposed the sunlight which streamed through the window and lit up the entire shop. He then twisted the sign on the door to tell the whole of London that we were open and ready for business. Kitty had also finished her tea and had grabbed a dusting cloth from a side table to begin dusting off the shelves and making the shop floor look cleaner. She had been on board with my ideas to reorganise the shop since I had first proposed them, and I doubted it would have happened at all had she not managed to convince James that it needed doing.

"What's your plan for today?" James asked as he moved one of his mannequins to the centre of the room to dress.

"Put the last of the fabric away and see if we need anything else before Christmas. It feels odd to send away for an order with nothing but buttons on it and I'm sure there is something else we need," I said. I placed my now empty cup on the tray beside the other two.

"I'm sure you'll find something to add, though you keep on top of our orders most of the time so if you missed anything last time, I'd eat my hat." He laughed at his own joke, something he did quite often. "One day this week, I'll be leaving you in charge. Kitty and I want to have a look at some of the stalls to see if we can pick up a bargain on some more fabric. The green fabric I'm using for your dress came from a stall and I want to find something similar."

"If you trust me enough to look after your shop that is."

"Of course, I do. I'll make sure it's a day I have nothing booked in, so you'll be handling normal transactions for ribbons and the such, it'll be fine. Besides, you're one of the most responsible fourteen, almost fifteen, year-olds I know."

He didn't say it, but we both knew what had been hidden in his words. The factory had forced me to grow up faster than most children. My childhood had been snatched away from me and I had to be the adult even though I was just seven. James didn't like to discuss the factory, it had been one of the rules made when I moved in and it had been the only one we stuck to. He didn't want to know all the sordid details about the life I had lived for seven years and knew about as much as he wanted to. The factory coupled with the work I had done for the Ealing's meant most of my childhood had been dedicated to working and that had forced me to grow up.

James wanted to forget that I had ever been in the factory and that the past seven years hadn't happened. It had been easier for him to push those thoughts from my mind, but it had never been that simple for me. The factory had been a part of me for half of my life and it would not be something I would forget in a hurry, even if I wanted to. Even if James refused to acknowledge it, it would always be a part of me and be something he had to get used to.

The bell above the door rang and James scurried away from the mannequin to find out what they had come in for. I pushed myself up off the chai and seized the tea tray and took into the backroom to wash up. James' voice carried from the shop into the small room as I soaked all three of the teacups and saucers in a bowl of water and wiped them out with a cloth before leaving them on a draining board to dry. I dried my hands on a cloth and returned to the shop floor to resume the clean-up and hopefully finish it before the new year.

I seized a massive bolt of light blue cloth from the far wall and hauled it over my shoulder to carry it to its place on the shelf. When I had first started re-organising the shop, I had been amazed at just how many different types of fabrics in different colours really existed. I had worn nothing but plain dresses for years and had only been exposed to different fabrics when going through Matilda's wardrobe. Since moving in with James, he had made me several dresses to wear since he longer thought it suitable for me to be wearing a servant's dress if I were no longer in service.

With the bolt of cloth in hand, I crossed to the other side of the room and lifted it up, standing on my tip-toes to try and force it into its place on the shelf.

"Need a 'and?" I turned and saw Mathias standing at the other end of the bolt with a grin on his face as he showed me his metal hand.

"If you're offering one," I said.

"I would give you this one, but I need it." I glared at him. "Alright, 'ang on."

Mathias stepped forward and took the end of the bolt, lifting it higher into the air and allowing me to slide it into its position on the shelf. Once it had been pushed in, I took a step back to make sure it looked like it should before turning back to Mathias. He still had a large grin on his face and his eyes seemed to have a mischievous glint to them. Over time, Mathias had really adapted to life outside of the factory, even with one arm. He had taken to living with Miss Lewis and enjoyed working to deliver the Sunday newspaper whilst working on developing his own metal arm. He still struggled, just as we all did, but he had been improving.

"Thank you," I doubt I would have gotten that in without you," I said.

"You're welcome, I'm sure it would have been a lot easier if you were taller or used a ladder."

"We did have a ladder, but James broke it."

"Do I want to know 'ow?"

"I don't even think I know how. Matthew said he would make as a new one, though. It will make putting these back a little easier."

"Do you need 'elp with the rest?"

"That would be amazing."

I smiled at Mathias and led him over to the other bolts of cloth that needed to be put away. James watched us from the till as we grabbed a pale-yellow bolt and took it to the shelf before sliding it into position. Since helping James at the shop, I had seen Mathias a lot more and had even been given more opportunities to see Suzanna, Lucy and Tommy whenever James didn't need me at the shop. Mathias had always been willing to help with the re-organisation and the others visited when they could. Lucy and Suzanna both earned a wage as nursey-maids in the area and they had bed and board with it. All of us had settled into new aspects of our lives within the passing months.

They had all been surprised when they found out I had left the Ealing's, but none had been surprised when I told them all that had happened. Tommy had even suggested tampering with their meat delivery to get them back for what they had done. I thought he may have been joking, but Tommy would never joke about doing something that put his apprenticeship on the line. He had even told me he no longer felt sweet towards Matilda, but I knew otherwise. He had been smitten with her the moment he saw her, and nothing would change it. The others had been less dramatic about it and all understood my reasoning. Suzanna said she could have done the same thing were it her.

Not once did they think I had been over-dramatic about what had happened with Mrs Ealing, they all agreed that it had been too similar of a situation to the factory. A month later and everything had started to settle a little more, but I still felt guilty for leaving. I had left all of them in the lurch without so much as a word except for the three notes. If I ever saw them again, I would be surprised if they said more than two words to me.

"Is that all of 'em?" Mathias asked as we tucked the last bolt into the shelf.

"Yes, that's all of them until James buys more."

"Doesn't he have enough?"

"You can never have too much fabric, Mathias, never," James said.

"I'll have to take your word for it." He paused. "I should go, Mrs Ainsworth sent me out to pick up some flour and I've been gone for ages, she'll be wonderin' where I am."

"Alright, thank you again, I wouldn't have been able to put them back if it weren't for you."

"I'll be back soon, I want to know 'ow James broke the ladder."

He chuckled to himself before waving goodbye to James and Kitty and leaving the shop, the bell above the door dinging as he opened it and slipped through. Kitty and James stood beside each other next to one of the mannequins and I watched as James pinned a piece of sapphire blue Muslin cloth to the body with one of the many pins he held between his teeth. I stood watching him pin pieces of cloth together in awe, watching as the shape of a dress slowly appeared on the mannequin that had been devoid of any clothing just minutes before.

I always enjoyed watching James create dresses on the mannequins, or just sitting down with some paper and a pencil and sketching out a dress from a vague idea given to him by a client. Although he had created some somewhat questionable designs in the past, including some that resembled puddings more than clothing, he had a knack for creating something out of nothing. When he would concentrate, he would get a small crinkle between his eyes and chew on the inside of his cheek. James had never been one to focus on anything, but he took his tailor work very seriously.

James continued to construct the dress whilst I slipped into his office and pulled out a large, leather-bound book full of blank pages. We used the book to keep track of what we had in stock and what we didn't, that way I always knew what to put on the order form when it came to sending one away. I took the book back into the main shop and turned my attention to a wooden unit Matthew had built were kept the small details that would go on the clothing. There were draws for buttons, beads, ribbons and different types of thread that matched each colour of the fabric. I marked how many of each we had in the book and moved from drawer to drawer, eventually creating a list of what we had or didn't have in the shop.

I heard the bell on the door ding as I worked, listened as James didn't speak for a few seconds, something rare for him before he eventually welcomed them to the shop.

"How may I help you this morning?" He said. His voice sounded strange to me, nervous even, but I kept my attention on the drawers.

"We are looking to have some new frocks and dinner jackets made for the festive season, may you oblige?" I almost dropped the pencil I had been holding.

Whatever James may have said to them fell on deaf ears as I tried to comprehend the voice I had just heard, a voice I hadn't heard for a month and hoped I would never hear again. I took a breath and tapped the end of the pencil to the book before I turned around to confirm my suspicions. In the doorway, standing as bold as brass, was the entire Ealing family. 

~~~

A/N - Here we are! TAG is officially underweigh and I have nine chapters ready and waiting to go live for you all in the near future. I can't wait for this and what is to come!

From the first chapter, I want to know your predictions for the future of TAG! What do you think is going to happen later on the novel? 

Also, thoughts on this chapter? What do you think of Rosie and James' relationship as siblings? What about the ending? 

Comment below!

Dedication - This chapter is dedicated to mikmabel for their lovely comment on the final chapter of TSG!

First Published - January 21st, 2020