"My name is Rose Green. Don't mock. It's not my real name. But... not much about me has ever been real."

Jul, 1882

Rose sat in the carriage, her blonde-turning-brown hair blowing about slightly, as she leaned out the window. She was heartbroken to be leaving her foster family, but even more so when she saw the dirty streets of London.

"We're here, Rosie, look," her borrowed brother, Jake, said, as he learned out the window with her. Jake was about nine, so four years older than Rose, and he had been Rose's best friend on the farm for the past few years of her life.

"I want to go home!" Rose said when she couldn't take it any longer. "Jake, please, we can run, take me home!"

As she sat back into the carriage, she saw her borrowed mother, Anne, and said. "Please, mother! Please, someone, just take me home!"

"Rosie!" Jake cried sadly.

"Rose, you're upsetting Ned," Anne said before Rose could shout again.

Ned was also a foundling, and he and Rose had been fostered together. He was definitely less outspoken than Rose, and less fiery, but he was very smart. He wore glasses, which he had done since he was little, and he was a few months younger than Rose, who loved him with all her heart.

"If you were my own flesh and blood, then of course you could stay," Anne leaned forward. "But Rosie, we're your borrowed family. It's time for you and Ned to go back."

Rose's eyes widened. That was the first moment she knew that things were changing, and that nothing was ever going to be the same.

"I love you," she mouthed to Ned, who smiled back at her.

As the carriage arrived at the foundling hospital, Rose had to steel herself to stop from crying.

Before her lay a huge pair of black, padlocked gates, with a long gravelled path beyond them, and then, after that, was a huge, grey brick building.

She hated the look of it.

"Your mothers left you here at the foundling hospital, and we brought you up," Anne explained.

"But you can still do that!" Rose shouted to her. "You can still-"

"I'm sorry, Rosie," Anne said softly. "But... we can't."

She knelt down in front of Rose and Ned, holding out two string necklaces with little penny shaped tokens on the end of them. Rose's said 25623.

"Your foundling numbers. So they'll know exactly who you are."

Once it was round her neck, Rose collapsed into Anne's arms. She didn't want to cry. She didn't want to give whoever was running this hospital the satisfaction.

"I love you both," Anne said comfortingly as she pulled away. "So much."

Jake also hugged her. "Remember," he told her. "When you grow up, I'll be waiting for you."

"You promise?" Rose checked.

"I promise, Rosie. I'll never forget you," smiled Jake. "You're my borrowed sister."

As he stood up, Rose turned to Ned.

"I'll look after you, Ned, I promise I will," she said firmly.

They held hands as the gatekeeper opened the gates.

Rose turned and waved to Anne and Jake as she and Ned slowly walked down the gravel path.

"Goodbye," was Anne's final word.

Jake didn't say anything.

And Rose, for once, didn't either.

This was it. Her new life.

When she and Ned reached the door, a woman with a smirk on her face and a black dress with a white apron and bonnet on came out the door.

"Well, my new foundlings. Delighted to meet you," she told the two children. She looked down at a piece of paper in her hands. "Ah, numbers 25623 and 24735?"

"Uh, my name's Rose Green and this is Ned Swann," Rose piped up.

The woman nodded. "Call me Matron. Matron Bottomly. Welcome to the foundling hospital, a place of charity, which from this day forth you will call home."

She led them inside.

"You were abandoned here as babies, by disgraced and sinful mothers," Matron announced as they walked through a corridor and up to a grand staircase which several girls in brown dresses with white caps and blue aprons were cleaning. "Then sent out to be nurtured by a kindly foster family. Now you are of an age to return, your training must begin."

As they walked up the staircase, Matron explained. "Foundling girls are prepared for a life of domestic service. Boys are drilled to be infantryman who serve Queen and Country. A far better life than the rigours of the workhouse. This is your future."

As they reached the top of the stairs they met another corridor, with a door at each end and a man coming out of one of them. He wore a suit and coat and had a posh voice as he spoke. "Matron."

"Ah, Mr Cranbourne, a boy," said Matron.

"Thank you, most kind," Mr Cranborne, as he was called, nodded. He took Ned by the arm and pulled him from Rose. "Come with me, boy."

"And you are coming with me," Matron said, siezing Rose's arm.

"Rosie!" Ned shouted, his first words since about last night.

"No! You can't!" Rose shouted, struggling to get away from Matron and back to Ned. "I said I'd look after him!"

"Rosie!"

"You can't take him away from me-"

"Boys and girls live quite separate lives here!" Matron shouted, her shrill voice cutting through Rose, trying to pull her into the girls wing. "You abide by the rules and do- do as we say!"

"No, please!" Rose yelled, as the stronger woman managed to pull her away.

"Rosie!"

That was the last word she heard her borrowed brother say before he was out of sight.

And, even though she tried to stop it, out of mind.

𑁍𑁍𑁍

It was terrible.

First, Matron dumped a cold bucket of water on Rose's hair, and scrubbed it and her face clean.

Then she chopped her hair off into a wonky, unneat bob. It would grow back, of course, but not any time soon.

Then she took the doll that had been in Rose's case, that her mother had made for her, and she said. "You won't be needing this anymore." Then she chucked it in the fire.

"No, you can't! That's my doll! You can't do that!" Rose yelled, running to try and save her things.

"Fiery little imp!" Matron cursed, pulling her away from the fire. "I'll teach you!"

"You can change the way I look but you'll never change the way I am!" Rose vowed, yelling. "My mother made me that!"

"I am the only mother you need," snarled Matron. "You'll soon forget."

"No I won't! I'll never forget! Never!"

"Surrender yourself to the rigours of the hospital and life will be easier," smirked Matron.

She expected her to give up, but this just made Rose more angry, standing up and yelling. "Never! Never! NEVER!"

It was then that Rose decided that she wasn't just going to be like anyone else at this hospital.

She was going to be brave.

She was going to stand up for herself.

She was going to fight.

She had to wear the same clothes as everyone, of course. The white bonnet and triangle and apron and the brown dress.

She had to eat the same gruel and clean the same floor as everyone else, as well, but that wouldn't stop her.

She made her first friend, Polly, soon after. And together, they met Harriet, Hetty and Mary. The five girls became inseparable. For the first time, Rose found herself with friends. Girl friends. The five of them stood up for each other. Hetty had a foster brother too, she knew what it was like. Harriet was smart and sensible and she listened and treated everyone fairly. Polly was kind, and she and Rose balanced each other equally. Mary was timid, but her friends would help her.

Rose was the bravest, though. When Polly got slapped with a ruler in class, she took it and chucked it across the room, causing Nurse Macclesfield to take her to Matron.

Matron had her own punishments. Locking children in rooms was one.

"No! Matron, please!" She shouted, as Matron locked the door and she slumped against it.

However, in these moments, Rose took a second to think about Ned, and her old life, and vow not to forget it.

Until she did.