Sunday rolled around at its usual pace and James once again found me curled up in the fabric scraps in the art room. Although I had a room to myself with a real bed, I enjoyed sleeping on the floor a little too much. I suppose old habits die hard and despite having a mattress at the Ealing's, it certainly wasn't as comfortable as the bed I had James had. Maybe I'll get used to it, but until then, James would have to deal with finding me on the floor.

I stretched my arms behind me as James closed the door. My shoulders cracked slightly, and I flexed my neck to release the stiffness that had set in overnight. I pushed the pile of cloth off my body and stood up, my knee screaming at me as I stretched it out. My knee had been injured so many times that Doctor Lucas said it would never return to normal and no amount of rest would stop the pain from flaring up again. All I could do was work around it and deal with the pain when it happened. I had hoped it would get me out of attending church, but James would never allow it.

The low hum of conversation from the living room below filled the upstairs hallway as I walked from the art room to my bedroom. James had left the door partial ajar and had opened the window ever so slightly to let some air in. Still no snow. I crossed to the wardrobe on the other side of the room and grabbed my pale purple dress that James made specifically for church wear. The dress Matilda had allowed me to borrow lay folded on the floor of the wardrobe, along with my two old work dresses and the nightdress. I didn't know what to do with them seeing as they were no longer needed, James thought I should throw them away.

"Rosie, hurry up!" James called up the stairs.

"I'm coming!"

After putting the dress on, I quickly ran a brush through my hair and plaited it down my back before closing the window and limping down the hallway and the stairs. James and Kitty were standing at the bottom of the stairs when I made my way down, but Christopher was nowhere in sight. I pulled my coat off the stand just as Christopher came running down the hallway from the steps that led down to the kitchen and almost knocked us over as though we were skittles. He stopped short of James and grinned like a child who had been caught doing something they shouldn't.

"We can go, I've sorted it," Christopher said.

"Sorted what?" I asked.

"The handle for the water pump in the kitchen broke, so I've made a temporary fix until Matthew can repair it."

"You're both useless."

"Why should we learn how to fix something, if Matthew can do it for us?"

"Because you live here, not Matthew."

"Alright, let's not go through this again. Come on, let's go."

James gestured to the front door and Christopher offered one final grin as he passed me and shuffled through the door. I followed him through the door and out onto the bitter cold London streets so we could sit through a stupidly long church service. Upon noticing my limp, Christopher held out his arm and I graciously accepted it. Without his help, I probably wouldn't have made it to the end of the street let alone to the church. If Christopher hadn't wanted to be so chivalrous, I might have been allowed to stay home. No such luck.

We reached the church just minutes before the service was about to begin and took the only available seats right at the back. James, Kitty and Christopher attended a different church to Matthew as it was closer than the one they attended with the Ealing's. It had been because of their choice in church that I had managed to avoid seeing the Ealing's for so long. Matthew didn't have the same luck as us but tried his hardest to ignore them and refrain from making eye contact whenever possible. He had maintained polite conversation when necessary, but if he didn't have to speak to him, then he didn't.

The service, as every service I had been to since leaving the factory had done, dragged on for what felt like an age. It felt colder in the church then it had outside and the longer the priest talked, the more tired I became. The only thing that kept me going was the promise of our usual meal out with Matthew and Lily. With Sebastian to look after we didn't get to see them all that much and Sunday's had become our dedicated meeting point and time.

When the church service finished, Christopher once again grabbed my arm and helped me out of the pews and into the streets. He kept a tight grip on me as we walked through London and to the usual restaurant where we met Matthew and Kitty. James pushed the door open and allowed me and Christopher to walk through.

"We were starting to think you weren't coming," Matthew said. He stood up from the table and pulled a chair out. "Your knee playing up again?"

"Unfortunately," I said, sitting down.

"If you had slept in a bed like a normal person, it wouldn't be too bad. We've been over this," James added.

"Yes, I know. Sleep in a bed. I get the message, it's just too soft."

"That's the first time I've ever heard someone say a bed is too soft."

"I'll get some ice for your knee before it swells up to the size of a dinner plate. The last thing I need is you being unable to walk because of your own stupidity."

"Gee, thank you."

James raised an eyebrow to me, in an almost told-you-so sort of way before approaching one of the waitstaff to enquire about ice. I rested my leg on the floor and stretched my knee out under the table so I wouldn't trip anyone. Were I at home, I would have rested my leg on a chair or something, but James told me off if I so much as dared to put my leg up anywhere else. He never appeared that bothered about etiquette, but he did.

He returned several seconds later with a collection of ice wrapped up in a cloth which he handed to me before taking his seat beside Kitty. I pressed the ice against my knee and recoiled slightly from how cold it was, but the relief felt almost instantaneous. Matthew looked at me and shook his head, biting on his lip to keep from smiling. I nudged him with my elbow in response. From the other side of the table, I watched Sebastian crawl all over James, Christopher and Kitty as though it had been months since he last saw them. He paid me no attention.

Although I had been living with James for a month, Sebastian still didn't like the idea of having an Aunt. He had been keen on meeting Christopher for the first time since he hadn't seen him since he was a baby but couldn't be bothered with me. Matthew said he would come around in due course but that didn't look as though it would happen any time soon. Something about the burn on my arm unnerved him, not that I could him accountable for that seeing as he was just three. I had hoped the gloves would help him come to terms with it, but it didn't.

Instead, he would mutter a small hello and quickly start climbing all over everyone else for attention. Matthew would always put him in between him and Lily so he couldn't annoy anyone else but by the end of the afternoon, he would be sitting with someone else. There was no controlling him when he had a mission and that missions involved climbing on people and being as loud as he could.

"A little birdy told me that you-know-who made an appearance at the shop the other day," Matthew said as he took a sip from his glass of water.

"Hm, they're scheduled to come back tomorrow for a final design confirmation and a decision on the fabric. With any luck I won't have to see them until the fittings," James said.

"Why show up now? After a month?" Lily asked.

"I don't know, there were plenty of other tailors to choose from when theirs went on holiday and yet they chose me, most likely because they heard Rosie had been around."

"Honestly, I thought they would have taken a step back given how everything ended. Showing up unannounced in such a way definitely doesn't seem appropriate."

"Mrs Ealing certainly seemed to have an ulterior motive, especially when she announced that Robert was to start courting Maisie Blacklock."

"Can we not go through this again?" I said, removing the ice from my leg and placing it on the table.

"Alright, fine. From now on, we won't mention them in your presences, or complain about them."

"Or when I'm not there. Despite what they may or may not have done in the past. You all sound like you have nothing better to talk about and frankly, it's getting a little dull."

James, Christopher and Matthew all managed to exchange glances with only the slightest movement of their head. I had told them before that I hated them discussing the Ealing's whether I happened to be in their presence or not. All they did was vilify them and after everything they did for me, despite all the bad, they didn't deserve to be talked about that way. I understood why they would talk about the foreman in such a way after everything he did, but the Ealing's had tried to help me which was more than he did.

Even with the cane incident, even with everything Mrs Ealing had done in those few weeks before I left, they didn't deserve to be spoken about the way my brothers spoke of them. They knew the bad and only the bad. They weren't there when I had first been dismissed from the factory and Robert offered to pay for the treatment of my burn and minor head injury (though he never did, Doctor Ealing never took any money). They weren't there when they helped me deal with Isabel's death and the exposure that the factory fire led to. They knew what they wanted to know, nothing more.

To them, the idea of protecting the Ealing's made no sense as they had caused nothing but grief. If they cared enough to learn how they really helped me, they might have been a little more forgiving. Then again, my brother's had never been one's for forgiving behaviour and even I wouldn't be able to change their minds.

"You have got to be kidding me," James said.

I furrowed my eyebrows towards him, and he pointed to the door behind me. I turned in my seat and for a brief second had little to no idea what he happened to be referring to until the door opened and Mrs Ealing ushered the family into the restaurant. James must have seen them through the window before they walked in, but my eyesight had always been better for things close up then at a distance.

Once again, this couldn't have been a coincidence. They knew we ate at the restaurant after church and they had even joined us on one occasion. If showing up at the shop had been an accidental occurrence, this certainly wasn't.

"Don't do anything," I said, whipping my head back around to face James.

"How can I not do something? This has gone beyond a joke now, Rosie, can't you see that? Can't we do something about them following her?" James turned to Christopher.

"Unless you can prove its deliberate, no. Don't do anything that will land you in a jail cell because they are not worth that. Rosie's right. Just leave them be rather than create more grief for yourself. We're out here to have luncheon, are we not?"

"I suppose you're right, we are here to have a family luncheon and that is exactly what we're going to do."

James grabbed the attention of one of the waitstaff and turned his head and entire body away from the Ealing's and where they had chosen to sit, right next to us. He struck up a rather loud and somewhat obnoxious conversation with Matthew about how work was unfolding whilst Christopher gave me and look and gestured to the ice on the table which was slowly starting to melt and soak through the cloth.

I grabbed the cloth from the table and pressed it to my knee, ignoring the look I got from Doctor Ealing as I did so. The ice had cooled and no longer had the effect it did when I first put it on, but I felt awkward asking for it myself. Instead, I allowed the ice to melt until I was holding a damp cloth to my knee for no reason other than my embarrassment to ask for a replacement. Christopher, upon noticing the wet cloth, asked a passing waitstaff member to replace it.

The practice of ignoring the Ealing's worked well for James but he did have a tendency to speak rather loudly in a misguided attempt to drown them out. From an outsider perspective, it was really annoying but watching it on the inside, it was quite funny. No one in the Ealing family would do anything to embarrass Mrs Ealing in public and that included talking too loudly. I had to bite my lip to keep from laughing every time James raised his voice slightly.

When our luncheon finally arrived, Sebastian did what he did best and started to throw peas at anyone close enough. Unfortunately, that involved the Ealing's who were sat in his line of fire across the table. Charlotte, who was sat with her back to us, got most of the peas to the back and even though James continued to talk rather loudly, I could hear her complaining.

"Mother! He keeps flicking peas at me!" she whined, stamping her foot on the floor.

I heard a chair scrape back against the floor and Mrs Ealing approached the table and stood looming over Matthew. Even though she was supposed to be talking to him, her eyes lingered on me longer than it should have before she eventually spoke.

"Could you please tell your son to stop flicking peas at my daughter? It is disrupting our luncheon."

"Sebastian, please stop flicking peas at people, it's impolite," Matthew said with no feeling in his voice. Sebastian just grinned at him and kept flicking them.

"If you cannot control your son, he shouldn't be here! Restaurants are for refined people, people with etiquette and decorum and it is clear your son has none of that."

"You're one to talk," James muttered.

"Excuse me?"

"You, talking about etiquette and decorum should be part of a Punch and Judy pantomime. I doubt someone who will strike a fourteen-year-old on the back of the leg is someone to be lecturing others on the proper way to behave."

"I don't know what you are talking about."

"I think you go. You made the wrong decision turning up at my shop the other morning and you have made the same one by turning up here. I have been waiting a month to bring up your treatment of my sister and although she is most likely going to hate me for saying all of us, I think this is more important."

James' face grew progressively red as he spoke, launching into a tirade about all the things that had happened in the month prior to my decision to leave their service. He laid into her about everything and despite the crowd of people sitting down to enjoy their meal, he didn't stop. Mrs Ealing looked taken aback by everything and even Matthew and Christopher were surprised by the length James was going at. He had never been one for being direct or blunt, but if you crossed his family, he didn't hold back.

By the time he had finished, he was almost shaking from rage and the entire restaurant had fallen silent in awe over what had happened. No one quite knew how to react, and no one dared to breathe too loudly just in case they were dealt the same hand as Mrs Ealing. I was surprised when he eventually fell silent and just looked down at her. I thought he would have gone on long into the night, but he bought his own rant to a stop and just stared at her.

Behind me, I heard another chair move across the floor and slowly Doctor Ealing approached the two of them. He stood in front of James, though he had no need. Despite his rage, James would never strike anyone no matter what they had done and the damage they may have caused. He drew a line Mrs Ealing had crossed.

"I don't think this is the place to be having this discussion. Why don't we all return to our tables and get on with our meals in peace? We can have this discussion at a later date, but not now, not like this," he said.

"You're just going to let him talk to me like this?" Mrs Ealing asked.

"He's already finished talking and as of right now, this is not a discussion, argument or any other form of communication I want to get involved in. Seeing as we have to be at your shop tomorrow for further discussions on our orders, we'll continue this there."

"Very well," James said. His voice was low, almost scratchy after talking for such a long time without a break.

"Good. Now, why don't you go and sit-down, Elizabeth and eat your luncheon. This can be continued in private tomorrow."

Mr Ealing gestured to his table and although she seemed none too happy about the idea, Mrs Ealing returned to her seat and sat down. James slowly sunk into his own chair and allowed for Mr Ealing to walk away in silence. The silence that fell across the entire room didn't even break when everyone returned to their seats. It lingered in the air with no one really knowing how they wanted to react to the situation that had unfolded right in front of their eyes.

I removed the ice and placed it on the table, but my gaze never moved from James. After all the times I had warned him about confronting them, all the times I had told him to just drop it, he goes and humiliates all of us in a very public setting.

Mrs Ealing may have done some bad things to me, but she had done it public. James had just aired out all of our grievances, all of my personal problems in public and he didn't seem to care.

~~~

A/N - And we are back! Uni is a tad intense at the moment, especially the sudden realisation that my Assignments are closer then I thought, but I'm getting there. It's just taking a while. Updates will continue for the time being, but they might fall slightly.

Anyway, James has aired all the Ealing's issues in public... Do you think he was right to do so? Should Mrs Ealing have backed off? 

Comment below!

Dedication - This chapter is dedicated to _writingstars who I saw lurking around my notifications recently and seemed ready for the ride that is the Rosie Grey series!

First Published - February 25th, 2020