Matilda glared at me as though she wasn't quite sure if she should speak to me or slap me and I wouldn't blame her if she did slap me, not that I would have taken it easily. Her parents and Robert and left the shop leaving her with me, though I didn't know why they would do such a thing seeing as Mrs Ealing still didn't like me and I knew Mr Ealing wouldn't have been able to convince her. I didn't even know why Matilda had decided to stay. She had barely even looked at me, and yet she wanted to talk.

James lingered awkwardly in the corner and I knew that if she so much as raised a hand to me he would have jumped in to do something about it. The dinner may have helped to ease the tension between all of us, but it hadn't been resolved in its entirety. We all knew there would always be underlying tension since the way I left the Ealing's service hadn't been in the best circumstances. Anything could tip the scale back into the place it had been before the dinner or the explosion. Matilda might be the thing to tip the scale.

"I can ask her to leave if you feel uncomfortable," James said as he brushed my past on a fake trip to the chest of drawers.

"No, we're fine."

"If you're sure. Feel free to use the office so you don't scare off the customers."

"You're the only scary thing around here."

He nudged me in the side and walked to the drawers, though I knew he was waiting for Matilda to do or say something that would cause him to step in. She just continued to look at me though, not saying a word. It didn't even look as though she was breathing but her eyes moved whenever I made the slightest movement. If I went to brush a strand of hair on my forehead, she immediately stared me down.

I wished she would say something, anything so I wouldn't feel quite as awkward or uncomfortable. That appeared to be her intention though. She wanted to stare me down so whatever conversation or disagreement she wanted to have fell more on her side. In truth, Matilda had never intimidated me as much as she thought she did. Even when she was determined to make my life a misery, she had never been as frightening as the foreman.

She looked at me, dropped her folded arms to her side and sighed loudly. James shifted from one foot to the other and Kitty had made a rather fast get-away to the side room to make tea. One thing I had noticed since leaving the factory was that people had a habit of making tea when a situation became awkward. I didn't quite understand it, but I didn't like tea.

"Are we just going to stand here, or can we go somewhere your brother won't overhear us? I want to discuss a private matter."

"We can use the office. If we close the door, they won't be able to hear us."

"Very well, lead the way."

I turned back to the room I had just come from and motioned her to follow, she did so and rather quickly. Whatever it may have been she wanted to talk about, she was in a hurry to do it. I don't think I have ever seen her move as quickly as she did to walk into the office. James looked as though he was about to say something as Matilda walked into the office after me and I started to close the door. He backed off after I glared at him.

Matilda watched me close the door before sinking into the chair that sat opposite the desk. I never asked why James needed two chairs in his office since it was just one person in the office at a time. Perhaps James liked to talk to his imaginary friend when he was alone in the office. Still, it helped in this instant and I walked around to the other side of the table and sat down.

"Are you sure no one will hear us?"

"Not when the door is closed."

"Good. I don't want us to be overheard." She shuffled slightly in her chair. "When you were first offered a permanent place with us, I made you promise something. Remember?"

I glanced at my hands.

"Let me refresh your memory." She leaned forward. "I made you promise that the one thing you wouldn't do would be hurt to Robert because he cared for you more than I have seen him care about anyone else. It was a simple enough request, one I'm sure even the twins would be able to keep. I didn't ask all that much of you and yet you still couldn't manage it.

"Did you even think of how you leaving so suddenly would affect people? The twins? Robert? You left him a note with two words on it and thought that would make up for it. He was devastated when you left because you didn't wait to say goodbye to him. My brother was heartbroken because of you and then we show up here and you're playing happy families. Did you think about anyone else but yourself?"

She looked at me and expected me to speak, to say something in response but I couldn't find the words. How could I explain my actions to Matilda if I could hardly explain them to myself? I left to do what felt right for me, but Matilda would never understand that the way that she expects to. She wants me to have another motive, a reason that she understands but what she wasn't doesn't, and will not, exist.

The situation would always be far more complicated then Matilda believed it to be and I didn't blame her, nor would I want to. I kept myself and the situation between myself and Mrs Ealing private from everyone the same way we had dealt with the foreman for all those years. If I had told anyone else at the time it would have only made the situation worse and I didn't want to get anybody else involved.

Matilda didn't understand that, not from the way I looked at it. At the factory, we did what we could to protect each other as much as ourselves. We dealt with things our way and without intervention from anyone else because there was no one else to turn to. We were on our own and we learnt to deal with things in that way. Just because I worked for the Ealing's, just because I had left the factory didn't mean I had moved on from what that life had taught me. I would never forget that part of my life.

"It wasn't as simple as that," I said, though it didn't offer much of an explanation.

"It never is. Nothing ever seems simple when it comes to you, it is always overly complicated and sometimes just ridiculous. You never have a decent answer for anything and frankly, I've had enough of it. You provided Father with an adequate explanation as to why you left and couldn't offer one to Robert, or to me now?"

"What could I possibly say that would make this easier for you? You heard James the other week at the restaurant and when we visited for dinner, there is nothing else for me to say that you haven't heard already."

"Perhaps I just want to hear you say it rather than hear it from someone else. I have heard your brother talk about it, Father has mentioned it on occasion, but you have remained silent about the entire thing and let others speak for you. How am I to believe what they say if I don't hear it from you?"

"What do you expect me to say, Matilda? Do you want me to say that I made the wrong decision? That everything I told James had been a lie even though you heard it from your own father just days ago? There is nothing I can say that hasn't been said already and I don't want to repeat myself time and time again if you're not going to believe me." I paused. "If that's the only reason you came here you may as well leave."

Matilda glared at me from across the desk and I watched her flex her hands against the table as though fighting the urge to smack me across the face. I don't know what she expected of me, she knew the reason why I had left, and I didn't have anything new to offer to the table then what she was already aware of. There was nothing more to say on the matter and she needed to accept that and move on.

Regardless of how she felt towards me, repeating my reasons for leaving wouldn't do anything and she would most likely still hate me. There would be nowhere around this situation or her feelings towards me even if spoke until I was blue in the face. She would never understand my reason and I didn't expect her to. Her ignorance or lack of understanding weren't going to get resolved that easily.

I watched as she pressed her hands against the wood of the desk and pushed herself into a standing position. She brushed her skirt off and pressed her hands in front of her as though trying to play the part of the nice, polite girl. Despite her attempts to seem polite and normal, she had fire in her eyes.

In my experience, fire came in many different forms. There was the fire that left a physical burn, such as the one on my arm, and there was the fire that could be created by anger. The rage inside a person could often be far more painful than the mark left by a physical manifestation of fire. Matilda had always been a walking embodiment of fire, the heat radiated off her the moment I met her, and it hadn't been extinguished. It only seemed to burn brighter.

"We're not going to reach an agreement on this, that much is clear. I made you promise not to hurt my brother and you did just that."

"I didn't mean to." I looked at her. "My intention hadn't been to hurt Robert or the twins or anyone and I'm sorry if it felt that way to you. I dealt with your mother for as long as I could bear and I'm sorry if it feels as though I left to deliberately hurt Robert, but I didn't."

"So you say."

"This is ridiculous. We're going around in a circle. If you don't want to believe me, fine, don't. I don't know why you even bothered to stay if you weren't going to listen to a single thing I say and instead continue with your own narrative. I have tried to explain myself, but you won't listen."

Matilda moved faster then I had ever seen her.

She darted around the desk and before I even had time to blink. I felt her hand on my shoulders as she shoved back into the shelf behind the desk. My head collided with the lower shelf and a wave of pain travelled through my head from the impact. Matilda released the collar of my dress and raised her right hand, slapping me across the face and once again forcing my head against the shelf. My ears were ringing, my head felt as though it had been pressed between two bricks and I had to blink several times to keep my eyes from watering.

The door behind us swung open and someone wrapped their hands around Matilda's arms and dragged her away from me, and she didn't put up much of a fuss. Kitty's face appeared in front of me as my vision swam a little before returning to normal. My head still ached, but at least I could see straight in front of me.

Kitty grabbed my arm and steered me out of the office and onto the main shop floor where James still gripped onto Matilda's arm to stop her moving. Christopher hovered in the corner; his face contorted with anger as Kitty forced me to take a seat on the couch in the middle of the room. My cheek stung from where Matilda had slapped me, and it felt as though someone had started banging pots and pans together inside my head.

"Can you go and find Doctor Ealing? They said they were going to the bakery, so should still be there. I want to have a word about how he has raised his daughter," James said. His voice echoed around my head as though he was standing at a distance, but he was just across the room.

"Uh-huh, it'll keep me from throwing myself at her anyway," Christopher said.

"Are you alright?" Kitty asked just as the bell above the door rang.

"I-I think so."

"What happened? It was really quiet in there until we heard the bang."

"We were just talking, the next thing I know she's pushing me into the shelf and slapping me."

"Here was me thinking the dinner the other night had worked," James said.

"Lighten your grip a little, James, you're hurting her."

"She'll deserve it."

Despite his comment, I watched James relax his grip on Matilda's arm, but he didn't let her go. The room still swam around me and I focused my attention on a spot on the wall in front of me to see if it would help ease the spinning. It didn't. I had told Kitty I felt fine because I didn't want to anger James anymore, he already looked tempted to tear Matilda's arm from her body. I hoped the dizziness and blurred vision would stop when my head stopped hurting.

Kitty handed me a glass of water which I took a sip from just as the front door swung open and the bell above chimed. Christopher stepped through the door followed by Doctor Ealing and other others with Doctor Ealing's eyes immediately going to me. Across the room, James released Matilda's arm and took a step back. His hands shook slightly, and I watched him glance to the wall beside him as though wanting to put his hand through it.

He had struggled to keep his anger under control when Mrs Ealing insulted me, Matilda had gone as far as to shove me against a shelf and slap me. I thought he would have punched something already, but he had managed to keep his anger in check. I didn't think that would last though. James had never been one to remain calm about anything for longer a couple of minutes.

"What on earth happened?" Doctor Ealing exclaimed.

"That's what I'd like to know. One minute the office is silent and the next thing we know there's a loud crash from the office and I have to drag your daughter off Rosie."

"I think you're being over-dramatic," Mrs Ealing said.

"Tell that to the obvious slap mark on Rosie's cheek and the lump on the back of her head she'll most likely have after being slammed against the shelf."

"Matilda, is this true?"

"She deserved it."

"I thought we taught you better than that."

"Is that all you have to say? She could have severely hurt her and all you're going to do is tell her that she was raised better? I don't believe this."

"Matilda will be punished soon enough." Doctor Ealing turned to me. "Are you alright?"

James replied before I could even open my mouth.

"That is none of your concern. I'll be having Doctor Lucas look her over tomorrow. For now, I want you to take your daughter and get her out of my shop. I will complete your order for the Christmas period, but after that, I do not want to see any of you near my shop or my sister again. This has gone on long enough and I should have put my foot down long ago."

Kitty looked at me and lightly placed her hand on my shoulder as Doctor Ealing grabbed Matilda and started to steer her from the room. The one thing James had been wanting to say since the Ealing's first arrived at the shop almost a week ago had finally happened. He had been trying to find a way to cut off all contact between me and the Ealing's, even after the dinner party had been a success on the outside. Matilda physically assaulting me crossed a line I didn't even think she was capable of.

I glanced up and watched the group of Ealing's moved across the office to the door but not before Matilda glanced back and smirked at me. Doctor Ealing gripped her tighter and forced her through the door. Out of all of them, Robert was the only one to linger in the doorway, he looked as though he wanted to say something but a hard stare from James quickly forced him back out into the street.

Beside me, Christopher materialised holding a cloth full of ice which he pressed against the side of my head. The ice helped with the pain created by the bruise that was no doubt starting to materialise, but it didn't do anything to stop the pounding in my head or the fact that I still struggled to see straight. It almost felt as though the influenza had returned but without the breathing difficulties.

All I wanted to do was go to bed and sleep.

"How's your head?" Christopher asked. He settled into the spot on the sofa beside me.

"It hurts."

"I'll close up early and we can go home," James said.

"Don't. You'll have a backlog as long as your arm if close up early. I'll take her home, you finish here," Christopher said.

James sighed but nodded in agreement. He had already started to fall behind on his Christmas work and taking the rest of the day off would only make things worse. I was more than sure the bang on the head would be nothing more than that. Head injuries were not all that uncommon in the factory, I had a scar on my forehead to prove it. I just wanted my head to stop throbbing.

"Come on you," Christopher said.

~~~

A/N - A little delay in getting this up today - my own fault, me and my mum have been watching True Blood and I got distracted. Anyway, we are here!

I'm still working on the chapter I started last week, it's been a bit slow writing-wise what with the Pandemic and my Dissertation due next week (!!) but we're getting there!

Anyway! Did you expect the outcome of today's chapter?

Comment below!

Dedication - This chapter is dedicated to FateFury for summing up Mrs Ealing rather well in a comment on last week's chapter!

First Published - April 14th, 2020