Doctor Ealing returned to his office not long after my outburst, he barely even registered it had happened as he gave instructions to Mrs Ealing and Robert about what they were to do so the twins didn't see what had happened. As they dealt with the twins, he turned to me and Matilda who were both still on the floor. Crossing the room, he grabbed one of the undestroyed glass jars containing a small amount of liquid and a cloth. He knelt down beside us and took my right hand, pouring the liquid onto the cloth, he dabbed it across the small cuts caused by the glass.

The stinging from the liquid didn't bother me. I was numb to everything that was going on. It felt as though I was watching it all from a distance, detached from reality and just going through the motions. Every conversation that happened around me happened in silence as a low buzzing sound filled my ears and blocked everything out. Physically, I was part of the room, part of what was going on around me. Mentally, I was somewhere else entirely, cut off from the voices and actions from others. I was going through the motions without really being there, without being part of it.

After dabbing the liquid onto the cuts on my hand and the crescent-shaped indents on my lower arm, Doctor Ealing look a fresh bandage and wrapped it around my hand and lower arm. As he wrapped the bandage, I noticed the dark brown under his nails. Isabel's blood. Try as he might to remove the dried blood from his hands, he had forgotten to scrub under his nails, the substance a reminder of what had happened. Looking away from his nails, I glanced down at my own dress, noticing the deep red, almost brown spots that covered the front of it. The blood had dried into the fabric of my dress, marking it permanently.

Just looking at the marks on my dress made me want to tear it off and throw it away, but I could barely lift my arm. As Doctor Ealing tucked the end of the bandage inside, he muttered something unintelligible to Matilda who nodded in response. Doctor Ealing pushed himself into a standing position and replaced the glass jar on the shelf, he pushed his sleeves up his arms and turned to the doorway.

"The twins, Mother and Esther have just left. Esther has been instructed to take the pair of them to their rooms," Robert said.

"Are they alright?" Doctor Ealing asked.

"They seem to be. They've been asking a lot of questions, but they know nothing of what has happened."

"Good. We'll have to tell them something, but it's best we get Rosie back to the house before we do anything else."

"What about the Constable?"

"He will come to the house tomorrow and talk to Rosie then. For the time being, he has to decide where the others will be staying. The only option appears to be the building in front of the factory, it's stable and was untouched by the fire. Apparently, the foreman would use it as a front, he set it out as though it was a boarding school."

"He really thought everything out."

"Hm, seems like it. For now, we head home. I'm going to make sure the carriage is out front, I'll meet you out there in a little while, understand?"

"Understood."

Doctor Ealing nodded slightly and walked away, I heard the sound of his hand slap Robert's shoulder as he passed him and the creek of a door hinge as he left. Neither Matilda nor Robert said anything, they didn't know what to say. Instead, Robert's footsteps crossed the room and stopped just in front of me. He paused and knelt down, placing a light hand on my shoulder, with his other hand he grabbed hold of my right arm and lightly pulled me to my feet, using his other arm to steady me as I stumbled slightly.

Beside me, I heard Matilda struggle to her feet and the sound of her hands as they ran over the fabric of her dress. Her hand skimmed the top of my arm as she walked past me, leaving the room and opening the front door. Robert, with one hand still on my arm and the other firmly on my right hand, led me out of the room and towards the door that Matilda had propped open. He helped me down the stairs and let go off me as he climbed up into the carriage, reaching out, he took my arm and helped me in. I felt like a child being taken too and from places, watched every second in case I decided to do something stupid.

I took my seat beside Robert as Matilda and Doctor Ealing made their way into the carriage. My left arm was stiff from the burn and the small cuts and marks on my other hand ached from beneath the bandages. As the carriage started to move along the cobblestones I started to stretch out the fingers on my left hand, moving them one by one to relieve the stiffness and the dull ache that had set in. Before, I had barely even thought out the small ache that had started to set in as the burn paste did what it was supposed to. To be honest, I had barely even thought about the burn before the fire, there were just too many things going on for it to be important.

Seeing those flames, feeling the heat as the fire climbed the walls and burst through gaps in the buildings and feeling the same choking sensation from the smoke brought it all back. Being that factory, being surrounded by the fire reminded me of what led me to my dismissal, the reason I was not there when Isabel needed me. If I had been, I could have done something. Put myself in her place so the foreman had no other choice but to choose me and not her. Fire had been the reason I wasn't there for her when she needed me, and fire was the reason I would never see her again. It felt like a cycle; everything coming back around to a single flame burning out of control.

Everything had started with a fire and it felt as though it was ending with one too.

Continuing to stretch out the fingers on my left hand, I knew Robert was watching me. I may not have been looking at him, I wasn't sure I wanted to, but I could feel his eyes watching my every move. I knew what he was thinking, probably more than he did. My actions back at Doctor Ealing's office had been an explosion of emotion that felt as though it had come out of nowhere. I had sliced up my hands by smashing the glass jars and thought nothing of it. There was no doubt that Robert was watching me to make sure I didn't do anything else as stupid or harmful. He had no reason to worry, I was too exhausted to even try.

"Is your hand alright?" Doctor Ealing asked, pressing his elbows on his knees and leaning forward.

"It's a little stiff," I said. My voice sounded strange, different, and it wasn't because of the smoke.

"Okay, for the time being just keep moving your fingers and I'll have a better look at it tomorrow. As long as it's not causing any huge issues, it can wait a few hours."

"Okay."

"I'll need to talk to Elizabeth when we get back so if you two wouldn't mind sorting Rosie out. She breathed in a fair amount of smoke back at the factory and I'll need you to check her over, Robert. Just in case."

"Of course, Father."

As the conversation came to a stop, my attention drifted from the stiffness in my fingers and towards the window where the world rolled by, oblivious to what had happened in London. Carriages trundled past our own, heading towards London and the chaos we had just left behind and the aftermath of the devastation that the foreman and Mr Thompson had caused. Countless people had now witnessed the reality of what was behind those gates, the reality of the thing they ignored as they went about their lives. It took a cataclysmic event for those who used to ignore us to notice.

If Mathias and I had told them, if we sat down with someone and told them what was going on beyond those gates, they never would have believed us. We would have been caused liars, scum, street children wanting to gain from another person's fall; they never would have taken us seriously. If we had known that that was how we got the attention of the people who didn't care, we would have planned something long before the fire. There were always discussions about how we could get out, how we could alert people to the reality of what was happening in those buildings and behind those gates. If it had been as simple as starting a fire, we would have done it already.

It seemed so simple.

Watching the world go by through the carriage window, it was strange to me just how much of my life had been dictated by an event that was out of my control or cataclysmic enough to dramatically alter everything I knew. It had been the death of my mother that led me to the factory, it had been the fire in the storeroom that had led me to the Ealing's, and a fire that had lost me my best friend. Three events, two fires and a singular moment that changed everything. If my mother hadn't have died, I never would have ended up with the foreman, I never would have gotten hurt and I never would have seen the things I've seen.

Yet, because my mother had died I had met Isabel, someone who would become my best friend, the person I loved and trusted more than anyone else. I had me the Ealing's because of her, a family who didn't care that I was hurt or that I was a servant, the treated me like a human being more than a worker. My mother's death had led to the events in my life, but there are pieces I wouldn't change for the world. In just seven years I had seen the good and the bad in everyone. I saw what power and money could do to a person, how childhood innocence wasn't always a bad thing and how, despite all the bad, there are people willing to care.

Although I wished I could have changed things, altered the outcome of events, those events had made me who I was. Why would I want that to change?

"Rosie? We're home." Robert's voice broke me from my thoughts. His hand was once again placed lightly on my shoulder and when I turned to look at him I could see the concern etched into his face.

"I was just thinking," I said, flexing my hands out.

"About what?"

"Everything. Not just today, everything that brought me to this point."

"Don't think on it too much, you might hurt yourself.

"Ha. You're hilarious."

"I thought so." He grinned. "Come on, Matilda will be on the warpath if we don't hurry up."

Removing his hand from my shoulder, Robert climbed out of the carriage and onto the gravel path. From there, he held his hand out to me and helped me out before releasing my hand quicker than he had taken it. Something told me he did that for his mother's sake, so she wouldn't see him getting too close to a servant. Still, Robert kept close by my side as we trailed up the steps towards the front of the house and walking through the door that had been left open.

Matilda, Doctor Ealing and Mrs Ealing were standing in the entrance way, an echo of what it had been like just a few hours before. It felt like an eternity since that morning, the anxiousness of Miss Jenkins and the uncomfortable air between me and Doctor Ealing but it had only been a few hours. So much changed in such a short period of time, and none of it could be changed or altered in any way, it just was. A few hours had changed my entire life forever.

"Robert, can you come with me for a little while and Matilda can you take Rosie upstairs? Esther has prepared a bath and for tonight only she'll be sleeping in one of the spare rooms," Doctor Ealing said. He glanced towards Mrs Ealing who looked less than impressed by his declaration that I wouldn't be spending the night in the room with Esther.

"Yes, Father," they chorused.

"Thank you. Robert, come." Dr Ealing turned and headed down the hallway towards the drawing room, Mrs Ealing and Robert followed leaving me and Matilda standing in the hallway. Matilda wasn't my favourite person at the best of times, but something told me that she wasn't going to her usual self.

"Come on or the bath will get cold," she said.

Placing my hand on the rail, I started up the stairs though I had little to no idea where I was going. Before my bath had taken place in the small room just off the side of the kitchen and I couldn't imagine taking one anywhere else. Still, I climbed the stairs without even asking where we were going, I just hoped Matilda would take over when we got to the landing. Reaching the top, I stood awkwardly on the carpet and watched as Matilda finished her assent and gestured to a small room, tucked away near Robert's. I had never seen the door before, it was as though it had materialised out of nowhere, but I knew that wasn't the case. I just hadn't been observant enough to notice.

"I'm going to check what room you're in, you'll be alright on your own, right?"

"Yes."

"Great."

Matilda watched as I entered the side room, the steam instantly trying to escape the door. Closing the door behind me, I noticed a large marble-like bathtub filled with hot water that created a cloud of steam that filled the entire room. On a metal rack was a white towel, it felt warm to the touch, as though it been held in front of the brazier downstairs for a prolonged period of time. Beside it lay my nightdress, the only piece of clothing I owned that didn't have any blood on it, mine or Isabel's.

Glancing down at the dress again, I looked once more at the small dark stairs that spotted the front of it. In the safety of the washroom, I battled against the buttons on the back of the dress, my hands shaking violently as I fumbled with the objects. After eventually undoing all of the buttons, I tore the dress over my head causing the pins to fly out of my hair and scatter across the floor. With the dress off, I threw it across the room and watched it hit the wall at the far side of the room and drop to the floor in a heap. My chest heaved as the panic started to fade, the heat from the steam enveloping me in a warm hug.

I sighed and approached the bath, slowly climbing into the tub and watching the water spill over the sides and onto the floor. Leaning back against the edge of the bath, I allowed the water to soak over my entire body. It felt as though the water was burning off the remnants of the day, removing the ash and small spots of blood that had settled on my skin. From the side of the bath, I grabbed a small bar of soap and a washcloth and set about scrubbing the cloth against my skin to remove the dirt. With a small amount of soap on the cloth, I attacked my skin, rubbing as hard as I could to eliminate any reminders of the day.

By the time I had finished my skin was tinged pink, having been rubbed raw from the washcloth and the soap. With my skin clean, I slid down the back of the tub and held my breath as the water slipped over my face and soaking my hair. I stayed under that water for as long as I could stand. Deep down, I wanted the water to consume me, to take me away from what had happened and go somewhere else, somewhere I wouldn't have to think about the factory or my father or Isabel. I just didn't want to think about it all, I didn't want to remember it. Allowing myself to lay in the water for longer than I should have plagued my mind, but after a few minutes, I pushed myself up and ran my hands over my face to clear my hair.

Isabel never would have forgiven me if I had stayed under that water. I had a chance to expose the truth about Mr Thompson and the factory, if I did something to stop that from occurring, she would have been disappointed. I had already gotten her killed, I didn't want to disappoint her too.

Using the edge of the tub, I pushed myself out of the water and stood up. The water trickled down my body and into the tub as I took a step out and grabbed the towel from the metal rack. It felt warm as I wrapped it around my body, feeling the soft material against my red-raw skin. I pulled the towel tightly around me and stood in the washroom with the towel for what felt like an eternity. My eyes were fixated on a singular spot on the wall.

"Rosie? Are you finished?" Matilda's voice snapped me out of my trance, pulling me back into the reality I so desperately wanted to escape.

"Almost," I replied, my voice shaking.

"Okay, I'll be waiting out here."

"Okay."

I glanced around the room and grabbed the nightdress, quickly pulling it over my head so Matilda wouldn't ask too many questions about what I was doing. With the nightdress on, I quickly wiped the towel over my hair, squeezing out as much of the water as possible. I left the towel on the rack it had been on when I walked in and ignored the collection of hairpins that had scattered across the floor when I had removed my dress. Although I was going to need them at some point, the idea of stopping and picking them up didn't cross my mind. Instead, I ran my fingers through my knotted hair and pulled open the door where Matilda was waiting, her back pressed against the wall opposite.

"Esther has put you in the room opposite mine, it's all ready for you."

"Thank you."

"Come on, Robert wants to give you a check to make sure the smoke hasn't done too much damage."

Nodding, I followed Matilda down the hall and towards the large window that looked out onto the grounds. The sun pierced through the scattered clouds in the sky and shone through the window, just as it had when I first had to serve Matilda just a week or so ago. It was still bright, with the sun slowly moving across the sky to its setting point. Matilda paused outside a door to the right of the window, a door I had never noticed before as I had no reason to even think about it. She swung the door open and gestured me inside, Robert sat on a chair in the corner of the room drumming his fingers on his knees.

"Ah, there you are," he said, jumping to his feet. "Take a seat, Father wants me to make sure the smoke hasn't damaged your breathing too much. You don't seem to be having too many issues, so you should be alright."

"Shouldn't Father be doing this? He is trained after all," Matilda said.

"He's still talking to Mother. He has to fill her in on everything as well as what happens next. It won't take too long and it's not as though we have any other options."

"Very well."

Matilda stood in the doorway as I approached Robert, taking a seat on the chair he had just left. With a stethoscope in hand, he asked me to lean forward and placed the cold end against my back. Asking me to breathe deeply, he pressed his ear against the stethoscope and listened, saying nothing as he asked me to repeat the actions several times. After listening to the back of my lungs, he asked me to lean forward and did the same thing on my chest, not speaking as he listened to my breathing. Eventually, he removed the stethoscope and took a step backwards.

"Well, there doesn't appear to be anything wrong, no crackling or breathing difficulties that I can hear. If you do find yourself struggling, let myself or Father know. Sometimes there can be a delayed reaction for smoke inhalation."

"Thank you." I paused. "I'm sorry for what I said early, back at the office."

"You don't have to apologise for that, Rosie. You were upset, grieving for Isabel and you had every right to lash out. I would have been surprised if you didn't."

"Still, I crossed a line."

"Mother sure thinks so, but it was expected. You have no reason to apologise for what you said, I didn't take anything to heart."

"He never does," Matilda muttered.

"I shall leave you two to it, I told Father I wouldn't be done too long. Something tells me he's going to need help explaining all of this to Mother." With that, he turned and left Matilda and me alone.

"Your mother isn't going to like me after today," I said, standing up from the chair.

"Hm, she'll come around. You did nothing wrong today, well, other than destroying Father's office."

"It's not just that, I lied to you."

"For what I'm sure was a good reason. You can discuss them with them tomorrow, for now, you need to get some sleep. It's been a hectic day and you'll think clearer in the morning."

"Alright."

Knowing Matilda was right, I crossed the room and climbed between the sheets, wrapping them around me. I wasn't entirely sure if I was going to sleep that afternoon, I had too many thoughts, too many things circling through my brain. There was no way for me to shut it off. I closed my eyes and listened to Matilda as she crossed to the window and pulled the curtains across, sending the room into a semi-dark state. I listened as her footsteps recede and the door shut as she left the room.

I was left alone with my thoughts. 

~~~

A/N - I hope you've all forgiven me for the last chapter and for making you all cry xD The last chapter got so many comments in such a short period of time I was amazed. Anyway, we are so frickin' close to the end it's actually scary! I'll be giving you guys the rundown of what will happen when we finish his book.

Anyway, what did you guys think of the chapter? Matilda's being NICE?! What about the moment with Rosie in the bath, what do you guys think she was thinking about? I also want to know your thoughts on how Mrs Ealing will react to what happened! There is also a fair amount of Robsie... I REGRET NOTHING!

Comment below!

Dedication - This chapter is dedicated to Yoena321 who I made cry on the bus xD I'm sorry (not xD)

First Published - April 23rd, 2019