Both Matthew and Tommy had suggested that I leave the Ealing's and return to my family, yet I didn't think it would be as simple as that. I couldn't hand in my notice because I felt as though I would betray those who looked out for me when no one else would. The one thing I didn't want to do was to hurt them and leaving would do just that. I had made a promise to Matilda after Isabel died that I wouldn't hurt Robert and if I were to leave I would do just that. They had given me so much, helped me through grief when I didn't know how to handle it and gave me a purpose when I didn't think I had one. Leaving would hurt everyone I cared about.

Yet I knew that leaving would make me free of Mrs Ealing and her watchful stare, free of her constant desire to find any way to give me an infraction or to punish me for something I didn't even do. It would mean I left her house on my own terms, for my own reasons and not because she had forced me out. I could go back to living with my family and, if it were possible, find a way to be part of it again. For seven years I had been Rosie Grey whilst Rosalie Greyson felt like a different person, someone who had been lost all those years ago. Maybe, just maybe, she could be rebuilt from who I had become. I had my own family at the factory and here my old family was, waiting for me to return to them and didn't seem like that bad of an idea.

"What is that on your apron, Rosie? It looks like strawberry juice," Miss Jenkins asked as I slid into the kitchen that evening. The blood had left a light pink stain on my apron that showed no sign of being removed. Miss Jenkins was right, it did look like strawberry juice.

"It's blood, I had to help out this morning," I replied.

"Give it here, I might be able to get the last of it off." I handed my apron over her. "I thought your job there was to help with organisation and cleaning not helping with the patients themselves."

"There was a situation involving a saw, Doctor Ealing needed an extra pair of hands."

"Well, you better hope it comes off because you're not getting another one purely because Doctor Ealing needed another pair of hands."

"I'm sure it won't happen again, just a one-off incident."

"I hope so."

Miss Jenkins filled the sink with water and sprinkled in some powder, she then added my apron and left it there, crossing to the other side of the room and taking a pan of soup off the stove. She dished the soup into three separate bowls and pushed one towards me just as Esther appeared in the doorway and took her seat at the table. She accepted one of the other bowls whilst Miss Jenkins sat herself down and stuck into her own bowl. As we ate, the fire from the brazier cracked behind us, as did the fire in the fireplace which added a little bit more heat to the cold room in which we ate. The fire in the room Esther and I shared had been lit earlier that day and I looked forward to the warmth went I went to bed that evening.

Whilst everyone ate, I pulled Christopher's letter from my pocket and ran my finger under the seal at the back. The envelope sprung open and I pulled the letter out from inside it, my hands shaking slightly as I started to unfold it. No one knew what he had written in that letter and I certainly didn't know what to expect from him after so many years. James and Matthew had tried to act as though the Factory years never happened. They never asked questions about what it had been like, only about my friends and the people I had spoken of. I couldn't say the same thing about Christopher, being subtle had never been his strong point and I didn't think he would have changed that much in seven years.

"What's that?" Esther asked, tearing off some bread and dunking it into her soup.

"A letter. Matthew gave it to me, it's from Christopher."

"Did you ever open that letter from the other week? The one I found on the table?" Miss Jenkins asked.

"Not yet, I keep forgetting about it."

"You better open it soon, it might be important."

"I will."

I don't know why I hadn't opened the letter, I didn't even know why I kept it in my pocket. There had been something odd about it the moment Miss Jenkins had handed it to me, and I didn't want to find out just what was. Whoever had left it had to have been someone in the house if it had been on the table and I had my sneaking suspicion that it might have been left by Mrs Ealing. I had never seen her handwriting so I had nothing to compare it to, but I had my doubts anyone else would have left me a letter. They would have just spoken to me.

I pushed the second letter out of my mind and continued to unfold Christopher's. I could feel Miss Jenkins and Esther's eyes on me, and I knew I should have saved the letter until bed, but it was too late. Unfolding the letter, Christopher's untidy scrawl stared back at me and I knew I would have a hard time unravelling it. Reading was a struggle at the best of times, Christopher's handwriting looked as though he had been sneezing the entire time he'd been writing. Lines crossed over one another and the letters looped and swirled together to make each letter almost indistinguishable from another. I always thought Doctor Ealing had bad handwriting, but Christopher may have just surpassed him.

Being unable to understand the words on the page, I folded the letter back up and shoved it into my pocket. My stomach grumbled as I realised I had spent far too long on the letter and not enough time eating. The soup had stayed warm as I tucked into it, using the bread to sop up the soup before drinking the rest of it straight from the bowl before it got too cold. Mother always told me off when I drunk something directly from the bowl, soup, melted ice-cream, anything liquid I would usually end up drinking. I could clean the bowl that way. Miss Jenkins gave me a pointed look but said nothing. Esther grinned and pointed to her lip, her usual signal that I had something on my mouth.

"You read that quickly," Miss Jenkins said as I wiped my mouth with the back of my hand.

"I couldn't read it, it looks as though he wrote it in a dark room or something. His handwriting is as bad as Doctor Ealing's," I said. I finished up the last of my bread and pushed the bowl and small plate away from me.

"You can figure out what it says later. For now, you can wash the dishes and Esther can go and clean the table upstairs. I'll run your apron through the mangle and with any luck the stain should have come out."

"Yes, Miss Jenkins," Esther and I chorused.

The sound of chairs scraping against the stone floor filled the kitchen as the three of us prepared for our evening chores. Miss Jenkins removed my apron from the sink and drained the water before leaving the kitchen and disappearing into the side room where we kept the mangle. Esther collected the plates and bowls from the table and dropped them onto the counter beside the sink before she too left the kitchen. I filled the sink with warm water and dropped the cutlery into the water as the water rose and when it was full, I turned the tap off and set to scrubbing the bowls and plates with nothing but my thoughts to keep me occupied.

Although I had set my mind on staying, I still couldn't shake the feeling that leaving would have been the best thing for me. I had spent seven years under the thumb of the foreman and had lived all of that time in fear of him and what he might have done to me. I knew Mrs Ealing paled in comparison, but the fear felt as though it had started to bubble away inside my stomach. Every time I saw her my hands would start to shake, my palms would sweat, and my heart would hammer away inside of my chest. Just seeing her would be enough to put me on edge and I hated living my life in constant fear. For two weeks of my life, I had been free of that fear and yet it had all been dug back up again for six months.

If moving in with my brothers could defeat that fear once for all, then it was an option that needed to be considered. If I made that decision, I needed to find a way to tell the Ealing's, to hand in my resignation without hurting anyone or doing any damage to those I did care about. Sitting down with them made sense, perhaps slipping it into conversation with Robert or Matilda would be enough. I knew that it didn't matter what I said or what I did, someone would be hurt my decision. My brothers would be hurt if I chose the Ealing's over them and Robert would be hurt if I left the house without a reason why. Even if I left, I didn't want to tell him the truth.

"Is Miss Jenkins around?" Samuel asked, poking his head around the door of the kitchen.

"She's in the other room," I replied, placing a plate onto the drying wrack.

"You looked deep in thought. Anything you want to share?"

"Oh, no, it's nothing." I paused. "My brother asked if I wanted to move back with them and I don't know what to do."

"You have to choose between going back to your family or staying here?"

"Hm. Either way, I'm going to hurt someone, and I don't want to do that. I don't want to be the one to break someone's heart because of the ultimatum. It feels like I'm stuck in an ongoing loop that I can't break."

"You do whatever makes you happy. Don't be thinking about anyone else and just do what you feel you have to do."

"If only it were that easy," I muttered.

"You will figure it out, give yourself time."

Samuel gave my arm a reassuring squeeze before disappearing out of the kitchen and into the side room. I could hear the low rumble of conversations from the other room as I finished up the last of the dishes for downstairs. Dropping the cloth into the water, I grabbed a towel and started to dry the dishes and returning them to their cupboards and drawers. As I dried everything, Esther emerged from downstairs with the teacups and plates that the family would have after dinner. I thought the custom of retreating to another room for tea or coffee immediately after eating to be a little odd, but it sounded better than doing dishes.

Whilst Esther washed the teacups and saucers, Samuel's words swirled around my head as I tried to make sense of it all. I knew he was right, he usually was. I wouldn't be able to please everyone with my decision, that would be impossible, I just had to please myself. Despite that, I still couldn't figure out just what I had to do. I liked the idea of moving back in with my family, but I didn't like the idea of leaving Robert, Esther and the twins behind. I knew deciding what to do would never be an easy choice, but I had to make it and no could help me with it.

As I finished the drying, I couldn't help but think back to the day of the first infraction. When I had left the room, walked out the front door and stood staring up the gravel path and wondering what life would have been like if I just walked away from it all. Back then, moving in with my brothers didn't seem possible, I had just met them, and I didn't even know if they wanted to rekindle the sibling relationship we once had. Now they had been the one to suggest it and I was the one hesitating. Leaving seemed like such an easy solution to my problems just a short time ago, yet now it made me feel weak. I had never run away from the foreman and I didn't intend on running away from Mrs Ealing. I just had to find a way to deal with her.

"Right, the stain has come out so I'll leave this to dry in front of the brazier and it should be good as new tomorrow. You're just lucky you didn't get blood on your dress, if that had stained you would only have one," Miss Jenkins said, entering the room and shaking out my apron.

"You can thank Robert for that one, he untied the apron, so I didn't get blood on it," I said.

"He'll never let me forget that in a hurry."

"Probably not."

"It's an early night for the family tonight so you can go and extinguish the candles upstairs and then get to bed yourselves."

"Why is it an early night?" I asked, furrowing my eyebrows. The only early night the family had had since I started working for them happened for Matilda's birthday. Since then, it had never been consistent.

"Mrs Ealing received a letter this afternoon, her sister is coming to visit so it'll be all hands on deck for luncheon tomorrow."

"I don't understand."

"She married a Lord. Mrs Ealing's sister is Lady Sybil Thatcher, Mrs Ealing will want everything to be perfect."

"Why didn't you tell me earlier?"

"I didn't get the chance. Go on, go tend to the candles and then straight to bed!"

Miss Jenkins shooed Esther and me from the room and together we climbed the stairs to the main house. Using small, metal cups on the end of long sticks Esther and I took a floor each and extinguished all the candles from around the house. Usually, the task would be Esther's and hers alone whilst I washed the dishes downstairs and helped to clean up. I had never put the candles out as it had been decided I was far too short to put out the ones that were perched on the walls in the living room, dining room and hallway. That theory turned out to be correct. Even with the object, putting the candles out was a remarkable difficult task and Esther finished upstairs before I had even started on the candles in the hallway.

Most of the chores Miss Jenkins would give me were things I could do that were in my reach and wouldn't involve me climbing over or on anything to complete the task. Doctor Ealing had said that the lack of sunlight I had been exposed to during my time at the factory meant that I didn't grow as much as I should have and that I would most likely remain the same height. Although it may not have seemed all that bad, people still treated me as though I were ten-years-old because of my height and I had a hard time seeing in crowds or reaching things that had been put on the highest shelf. Robert thought it would be funny to purchase a small step so I could reach things. The step had remained unused.

With Esther's help, we put the rest of the candles up before returning to the kitchen. Miss Jenkins stood in front of the table, wiping it down with a cloth whilst Esther and I placed the metal poles onto their hooks and bid her goodnight. Together we climbed the stairs and I pulled the two letters and the list out of my pocket and placed them on top of the drawers as I changed out of my work dress and into my nightdress. Once changed, I took Christopher's letter from the chest of drawers and crossed to the chair that had been left in the room after my bout of Influenza.

The fire roared on the other side of the room as I brought a small candle and set it on the table Esther often used to write letters to her friends from the Foundling hospital. As Esther knelt beside the bed to say her prayers, I unfolded the letters and made another attempt to decode Christopher's handwriting. The flickering light from the candle made it harder to read and I had to squint against the darkness to even make out his dark scrawl on the page.

"You're going to have a harder time reading that by candlelight then you did in the kitchen," Esther said as she pushed herself up.

"I'm starting to realise that. Why do people feel the need to write everything down? Surely, he could have waited and simply told me," I replied, a little aggravated that my reading lessons with Robert had been rather unsuccessful.

"Let me have a look, we might be able to riddle this one out together." Esther crossed the room and stood behind me, peering over my shoulder at the unfolded letter. "You weren't joking, it looks as though he wrote this in the dark."

"I told you."

"No matter, we can muddle this out."

Esther grabbed a piece of paper, a pen and a pot of ink before placing them on the table. I handed her the letter and watched as she squinted down at the paper and started to copy it out onto the sheet. I watched as she slowly started to fill the paper with a copy of Christopher's note, pausing every now and then to go over a line several times to try and descramble it. I didn't know how much time had passed before she finally put the pen down and scanned her eyes over the words on the page. She pushed the paper towards me whilst replacing the lid on her inkpot.

"There you go."

"Thank you."

"You're welcome. Don't stay up too late, we'll have to be up earlier.

"I won't."

As Esther returned to the bed and buried herself within the blankets, I leant forward towards the candlelight and started to read the letter. It was short, to the point, but that had always been Christopher's style.

Rosie-Posie,

I wanted to write this letter whilst we were in Port so it will get to you by the time we set sail for England. I don't know how much James and Matthew have told you already, seeing as they didn't mention that in their letter to me. All they did was tell me you had been found and where you had been for so long.

They told me all they dared but left the bulk of the story to you if you ever want to share it as I won't force you to. I want you to know that none of us ever stopped looking for you. Whilst I worked in London, I tried to use my pull as a lawyer to try and track you down and I have kept up my correspondence with a Private Investigator during my time in America.

I'll tell you everything fully on my return, but you are welcome to ask the other's questions, though I don't know if they can answer them.

See you soon, Rosie-Posie.

Your brother,

Christopher.

He had signed it in the corner with a small squiggle. I read the words on the page several times over before finally folding it up and placing it back in the envelope and adding it to the pile with the other letter and the list. As I crawled into bed, I couldn't help but smile at the idea of Christopher hiring someone to try and find me, not realising I wasn't as far away as he may have thought. Not only that but in the letter, he had called me Rosie-Posie.

He had never called me that before.

~~~

A/N - And we are back! I almost forgot to update tonight, I was getting ready for bed and everything when I remembered xD A little heads up, Chapter Thirty is an emotional one! Be ready guys, you have five weeks to prepare xD

Anyway, we have finally heard from the elusive Christopher and Samuel has had his say in what Rosie should do! Do you thin Rosie will listen to Samuel? Will she choose family over the Ealings?

Comment below!

Dedication - This chapter is dedicated to aleenade3 who I made cry in class with that moment in TFG. I'm not sorry

First Published - November 5th, 2019