Foundling day was by far one of the worst, but yet the best days at the hospital.

It was the day that poor mothers brought their babies to the hospital and stood before Matron, Colonel Brigwell and Lady Asquith, and they decided whether that baby would be accepted, which meant that it would go off to be fostered, or rejected, which would mean the mother and baby left the hospital immediately.

Senior boys had to show the mothers where to go, and a most of the girls took care of the accepted babies in the infirmary. But a few very select girls got to oversee the meetings with the mothers, Matron and the foundlings.

These select few, of course, had to be well behaved.

All Rose wanted was to be in that room, as perhaps she might find some clues about herself there, as well. Who her mother was, her real name, her parents' names, anything. She just wanted something.

However, that meant that she had to be good.

So, for the past few weeks, she had been being as helpful as possible. She had stopped fighting with Sheila, her enemy, she had stopped picking fights with everyone who annoyed her, and had knuckled down and become a lot more dull.

"I can't wait to go back to normal once this is over," she kept muttering.

But regardless, she was being good.

Which meant that she, along with Hetty, Harriet and Polly, were all chosen to oversee the meetings.

So that morning, as Matron rang her bell at her desk, sitting between Brigwell and Asquith, she was there.

"First candidate, please."

A woman that had a slightly dirty dress and a mane of curly black hair came forward.

"Name?" Matron demanded.

"Miss Agnes Didcott," said the woman. "And this is my baby. She's such a good girl."

"Why have you brought your child here today?" Colonel Brigwell asked the woman.

"We're on the streets, Sir," Agnes told him. "It's either here or the workhouse and I know which one I'd rather choose."

Rose shrugged. Valid reason.

"Miss Didcott, are you of good character, may I ask?" Lady Asquith spoke up.

"Upright and honest," said Agnes. "I had hoped to marry her father but he's a wheeler by trade. He rolled off to work one morning and he never come back."

There was a murmur from all the rich toff women that came to watch the admissions, sitting behind Agnes.

Rose rolled her eyes and hissed to her friends. "Call themselves ladies, they're nothing but gossips!"

"Green!" Macclesfield hissed to her. "These are paying guests!"

Rose sighed. Paying or not, they were being rude and intrusive, and they weren't going to be told to stop.

"And is the child in good health?" Matron asked as Rose tuned back into the conversation.

"Perfect," promised Agnes. "Strong lungs, rosy cheeks, give her a crust of stale bread to suck on and she'll be happy as a songbird."

"Lady Asquith?" Colonel Brigwell said.

"The child's future has to be here, Colonel," nodded Lady Asquith.

"Matron?"

"I must agree," the other woman nodded.

"Your baby is accepted as a foundling, Miss uh... Didcott," said Colonel Brigwell.

"Foundling 37951," said Matron, handing Agnes a token displaying the same number and sliding over a form to sign.

Agnes took the quill and drew a few hasty lines on the paper.

"She can't even write," Rose whispered.

As she got tagged and numbered, Matron told Agnes sternly. "Say goodbye to the child."

"Oh, not yet, I'm not ready," said Agnes. "You don't even know her name."

"We save personal details for the records," said Matron, as if that finalised the matter.

Macclesfield now had the baby, and was taking her off the woman.

But Agnes went on anyway. "Her name's Hazel, and you need to, erm- stroke her cheek and get her to sleep with a lullaby- oh, you don't even know her favourite one, Hazel!" She looked up, one of the nurses trying to restrain her as she fought to get to her child.

"This would have happened to all of us!" Rose was heartbroken, watching this scene. "Our mother's would have cried for us too."

And Agnes did cry, as she sang the lullaby, sobbing as she tried to get the words out. "Golden slumbers kiss your eyes, smiles awake you when you rise, sleep little baby, do not cry, and I will sing a lullaby- Hazel! Hazel! Hazel-!"

"NO!" Rose shouted angrily, stepping forward. "Let her say goodbye properly! She's her mother!"

"Calm down, Rose!" Polly came forward, pulling her backwards.

"25623..." Matron said in her threatening voice. "Quiet."

Rose looked around, muttering. "Sorry, Matron."

Truthfully, she didn't know why she had snapped. The mother and daughter's plight had just got to her in a way that nothing had for years. She didn't know what she had felt, but it had resulted in her stepping out and saying something.

"Straight to the nursery, now," Macclesfield hissed to her, handing her little Hazel Didcott.

Rose did, looking around at the mother as she did, and feeling her heart break.

She didn't know why but a few tears fell as she walked down the stairs to the nursery.

"Rose? What-? Rose... are you okay?"

Rose looked up to see Will, running down the stairs towards her.

Quickly wiping her tears away, Rose straightened up with the small baby and saying as evenly as she could. "Will."

He could not see she'd been crying.

Unfortunately for her, he already had. "Are you okay?" Will asked concernedly. "Why were you crying?"

"I wasn't crying," Rose lied.

Will looked at her. "You're a terrible liar, Rose."

Rose sighed, looking down and muttering. "I just had to watch this baby get ripped away from her mother."

Will took this in, saying sadly. "Rose..."

He took a step towards her, gently putting a finger under her chin and lifting it up so she was looking at him. He then put his hand gently on her cheek and used his thumb to wipe it, applying just enough pressure to wipe the tears but not enough to hurt or annoy her.

Rose tried to ignore the sensation in her stomach but couldn't.

She sighed. "I just... all our mothers would have cried in the same way, and... I just got so angry watching Matron just dismiss her, like she was just a number. Because that's all we are, isn't it? Just numbers."

Will sighed, chuckling slightly. "If there's one thing I know, it's this; you are not just a number, Rose Green."

Rose looked up at him. "Will, I-"

"Hazel!"

Both the boy and the girl jumped away from each other at that voice. It was only then that Rose realised how close they'd been standing.

She looked up, seeing Agnes Didcott at the top of the stairs.

"W-wait!" She shouted to Rose, running down the stairs. "Please wait!"

She reached Rose and Will in seconds, but had eyes for neither of them. Only for baby Hazel.

"Mama loves you, Hazel," she said softly. "And, when you look at this, you'll always think if me."

She took an acorn threaded with a red ribbon from her pocket, then looked to Rose. "You will make sure she keeps it?"

It was Will who spoke, however, saying reluctantly. "I need to take it. Cranbourne takes all tokens and he'll do his nut in if I don't."

Agnes ignored him, crying to Rose. "I will come back for her, I will, as soon as they let me, and I'm married, and I've got enough to support her."

Rose decided not to tell her that mothers coming back to collect their children was a very rare thing at the hospital.

"I don't want her to forget me, there must be something you can do," Agnes pulled her out of her daze.

"Me?" Rose asked, taken aback.

Agnes nodded, suddenly realising. "Her name! Don't let them change her name! Please, I've got no one else that can help! Please, promise."

Rose shook her head slowly, but found herself uttering the words. "I promise."

Agnes looked at her daughter with soft eyes. "Goodbye, Hazel," she kissed the baby's forehead and stroked her back.

"Rose," the girl looked up to see Will. "Do you want me to come with you, to the infirmary?"

Rose hadn't realised she was crying again. She wiped the tears hastily and looked the boy in the eye. "No, it's fine, but I should probably go."

Will gave her a comforting smile as she left, leading Agnes back up the stairs to Cranbourne.

Rose tried to remember the stomach sensation.

Because she was too heartbroken to feel it now.

𑁍𑁍𑁍

In the infirmary, the she-mob was huddled round Hazel, all muttering random things.

"She's quite pretty, I suppose."

"Maybe. If she had more hair."

"Who cares? I wish it would shut up crying."

At this point, Rose furiously intervened. "It?!"

She shoved past the girls, saying softly. "Her name's Hazel, and... she likes a lullaby to get her to sleep."

Sheila rolled her eyes. "We have to sing to then as well-?"

Rose ignored her, saying in a baby voice. "Hazel, it's alright."

As a result, Hazel started to calm down.

"Did the mother cry?" Elizabeth asked.

Rose chose not to answer that.

"Thank you, Rose," Rose turned to see Nurse Winterson. "Sheila, the baby needs washing and numbering, 37951..."

"Hazel Didcott. That's her name," Rose said firmly.

"You do realise, Rose, that from today she's going to be christened with a new name?" Winterson raised her eyebrows.

"She's one of us now," said Sheila, looking cruelly at Rose.

"But, Nurse, you don't understand!" Rose cried.

"Straight back to the governors' office, please, Rose," said Winterson. "You and Polly are serving cups of tea."

Rose sighed. "But-"

"No buts, Rose. Come on."

But, as Rose left, she said to herself. "Her name's Hazel. And I made a promise."

𑁍𑁍𑁍

"Polly! I need to go to the baptism!" Rose cried to the girl as soon as she met her in an empty corridor.

"You can't, Rose," said Polly hopelessly. "We can't get in any trouble today."

"Polly, I made a promise!" Rose shouted. "To her mother. Cover for me?"

Polly paused for a second and then sighed. "Alright. I'll tell Nurse Macclesfield a baby was sick over you and you've gone to get changed. But be quick."

Rose nodded at her and hurried off, sighing.

She just hoped she wasn't too late.

𑁍𑁍𑁍

"Baptismal name?" The baptist asked Nurse Winterson.

"Erm... how about Patience... Smallbone?"

"NO!"

Rose realised that barging into chapel whilst a baptism was happening wasn't the best way to go about things, but she had to find some way to stop it, and she had been short on time.

"You can't! That's not her name!" She continued, moving forward, down the aisle.

"Goodness me!" Winterson gasped.

"Her real name is Hazel Didcott!" Rose yelled.

"Which name is it to be?" The old baptist asked.

Winterson gave Rose a look, but the girl continued regardless. "She deserves to know who she is! Like we all do!"

"Stop this at once," snapped Winterson.

"It's what her mother wanted!" Rose was beside herself.

But so was Winterson. "She's Patience now."

"Well, my patience with you is wearing thin!" Rose shouted.

Winterson narrowed her eyes at the girl but, somehow, reigned her temper in, and turned to the baptist. "I'm sorry, Minister, let me deal with this."

She took Rose's arm and dragged her from the room. "Whatever is the matter with you? You know the rules!"

"Her name is Hazel, not Patience!" The girl yelled as soon as the door closed and they were in the corridor.

"Foundling names are changed to protect them!" Winterson hissed. "Patience is just the same."

"But, Nurse, please!" Rose implored. This was the only way she could keep her promise. And she did not want to break it.

"Otherwise anyone could show up here pretending to be her parent!" Winterson gave as good as she got, shouting back fiercely. "Then what would happen to her? She might never find her real mother."

"Yeah, because that's why we're here!" Rose shouted. "Let's face it, nothing about this was about trying to find who our mothers were!"

"That's enough, Rose!" Winterson called sharply. "Now don't ever, ever, let me see you behave like that again. If Matron was to hear about this-"

"Hear about what?"

Winterson was as surprised as Rose as the two of them turned round to see Matron, standing not two metres from them, eyebrows raised.

"Rose?" Winterson turned to Rose.

The look on her face said that Nurse Winterson didn't mind if she lied, but that meant Rose had to come up with a lie first.

"I, um..." she stumbled over her words. "I just wanted to see a baptism, Matron. The babies are so lucky, I just wanted to hear their new names. But I should never have left my duties. I'm sorry Nurse Winterson."

Before Winterson could respond, Matron questioned. "Is this true?"

She nodded. "Rose meant well, Matron, it's all been set straight now."

Matron narrowed her eyes and said to Rose. "Any other misdemeanours today, Green, will be dealt with firmly. If you want to see babies, set to work in the nursery."

"Yes, Matron," answered Rose hastily, before nodding a look she hoped said thank you so much, to Nurse Winterson, and being on her way.

She walked down the corridor, hating herself.

She hadn't been able to keep her promise.

𑁍𑁍𑁍

"They changed Hazel's name to Patience," Rose raged to Polly as the two girls stood in the nursery. They were supposed to be checking over the fostering schedule and rota, but they weren't. Rose was ranting. "And she's going to a borrowed family tomorrow. She won't come back for years. I promised I'd help her."

"And you tried," said Polly reasonably.

Rose sighed, turning back to the schedule below the two girls.

A name caught her eye.

"A. Branston," she read. "Bramble Cottage, it's Anne and Jake! My foster family!"

"Rose, what-" Polly started.

But Rose was already going further. "If I could get baby Hazel to go there... I could send a letter with her! And... Anne and Jake could tell her everything - who she is, her mother's name, her token, everything! And- then maybe they could find out about my mother too!"

"Finish up now, girls," Winterson said, making the two girls turn. "It's almost time for tea."

But Rose turned back to the schedule, a smirk on her face now.

She wasn't hopeless now.

She had a plan.

And she was going to execute it.

𑁍𑁍𑁍

That night, whilst the other girls went to sleep, Rose crept along the corridor towards the nursery, ink, quill and paper in hand, nightdress on and a candle lighting the way.

Eventually, she got there, and saw all the babies in their cribs, sleeping.

She knew that there was a chance Hazel was already going to Anne and Jake, but she probably wasn't, so Rose would have to switch the tags to make sure she was going there.

She crept along the babies, checking all their tags.

Then, finally, she found the one that said A. Branston, Bramble Cottage.

Slowly, she took that tag off the baby, and and found Hazel, where she took her tag off, and replaced it.

"Guess what?" She whispered, elated, to the little baby. "You're going to Anne and Jake's. They looked after me. And now they'll look after you."

She gently stroked the little girl's cheek and said softly. "I made a promise to your mother... and... now you can help me find my mother, too."

She worked quickly, replacing the other tag onto the baby that was supposed to go to Anne's.

Then she heard a door close.

Swifly, taking her writing stuff with her, she ran to a corner of the nursery, in between a cupboard and the wall.

There, she watched as one of the nurses swept around all the babies, checking they were asleep and happy.

Once the nurse had gone, Rose settled herself, and started to write.

Dear Jake,

This is baby Hazel Didcott. That's her real name. Her mother, Agnes, is pretty with dark hair. Tell Hazel she loves her, and that she will come back for her someday. She left an acron tied with a red ribbon. Please, Jake, do this for Hazel, and tell her about her mother as she grows up. I'll be long gone by the time she gets back here, but you can still help her, even if my aiding her ends here.

Also, I need you to do something for me, too. I need to find my mother. Please can you ask Anne if she knows anything, and just please try to find what you can, you're my only hope.

Ned sends his love, and so do I

Rose x

Quickly, Rose folded the letter up and made to leave her hidey hole to put it into Hazel's crib, but the nurse that was checking the babies had returned, and she couldn't get out.

And besides, she was rather comfortable...

𑁍𑁍𑁍

When the bell rang that morning, Rose awoke with a jolt, her first thought being how her back could be hurting so much, maybe she had been lying funny on the bed...

Then she realised she wasn't in a bed.

With a gasp, she properly opened her eyes and looked round, a wave of shock passing through her when she realised she was still in the nursery, and then one of relief when she saw that no one was there to see her.

So she got out from her hiding place, the letter, crumpled slightly, still in her hand.

"Rose! What are you doing?"

Rose jolted and hid the letter behind her back instinctively as Nurse Winterson came striding up to her.

Rose took a step forward. "I just wanted to see Patience one last time, Nurse."

"She's with the other babies, waiting to go to her borrowed family!" Winterson exclaimed. "And you need to go, Rose, dressed, before I inform Matron."

She strode away before Rose could say anymore.

𑁍𑁍𑁍

The babies would all be in their baskets in a hospital room, Rose knew, so that's where she was headed.

But not before she almost banged headlong into a woman with a teatray.

"Sorry!" She shouted as she jumped back from her.

"Oh, no need to be sorry, I'm new," said the woman, with a kind voice, and a smile. "Don't suppose you can take me to Matron's office, can you?"

Oh great, Rose thought inwardly. New kitchen maid.

"That way," she said.

"Foundling 37951 - desitantion; Mrs A Branston..."

A voice from the other room stopped her, and soon, Rose was running in the direction of it. She couldn't let Hazel get away, not after everything-

"Argh!"

"Green!"

"Sorry, Matron!" Rose said quickly, picking up the papers she had knocked from Matron's hands and handing them back to her hurriedly. "Don't want to be late for chores!"

She had a plan.

And it was going to happen.

𑁍𑁍𑁍

She ended up in the storeroom because that was the quickest way to get to her destination, but upon hearing voices, she had to duck into a large laundry basket and hide.

There, amongst stripped bedsheets (dirty or clean, she did not know) she listened.

"All this," that was Vince... "For a leather football. What'd you say?"

"There's four pence here," Judd, too, seemed to be in on this. "And this hair slide - genuine tortoise shell."

Slowly opening the lid of the basket, Rose was met with the reality of the scene.

Vince and Judd were standing, a pillowcase of things in front of them, opposite Stan, the dairy lad, who often came to the hospital, open for trades and bets.

Stan was friends with Rose, and often said hello to her when she was helping in the kitchen.

Vince and Judd, meanwhile, seemed to only care about what he could get them.

"This is all girls' stuff," Stan told the boys then. "You seriously want a football for this? D'you know what trading is?"

"No!" Rose shouted indignantly, finally realising what was going on. "That's all our stuff! You dirty, rotten thieves! You stole it, you should be ashamed-!"

"We didn't steal it!" Vince told her. "We found it!"

Rose bit back. "Yeah, well, I didn't know our stuff had acquired legs, but last time I checked, they didn't just get up and walk out the dorm-"

"We actually did find them-"

"That's right," came a voice, and suddenly, Will and Mathias were in the room. "You're always innocent."

Will came round the side of Vince, saying venemously. "So, if you found it, how about Rose takes it and returns it to its rightful owners?"

"Stanley!"

Matron's voice seemed to jerk everyone to action as, soon, Rose, Mathias and Will were all running up and out the store, back into the hospital corridors and where Hazel Didcott, hopefully, still was.

𑁍𑁍𑁍

"I need your help."

Looking round the corner at Hazel, who, thankfully, was still there, Rose then turned back to Mathias and Will, who were both looking at her incredulously.

"Rose, what-?"

"I made a promise," Rose said firmly. "And I'm not breaking it. You watch out, while I plant this letter."

"What letter?" Will frowned.

Rose held it up. "Baby Hazel Didcott... she's going to Anne's, where Ned and I grew up. And... she's taking a message for me."

She peeked back round the corner to where Nurse Macclesfield was now coming towards them. There was no one else in the room.

"Distract her!"

"How-?"

"Will, use your imagination!"

So, as Macclesfield came toward them, Rose went in. She briefly heard Mathias and Will talking to the nurse about the stuff in the pillowcase, and rolled her eyes. Of all the things they could've talked about...

Once she realised there was not really a way to tell the babies apart, she had to creep along them again, finally finding the one that bore her foster mother's name.

She gently nestled the letter underneath the blankets, so as not to give the game up to the nurse that was taking her to the family.

Once she was done, she placed a kiss to the baby's forehead.

"Goodbye, Hazel. And thank you."

Then, she cleared out, before the boys and their idiot distraction gave her up.

𑁍𑁍𑁍

"Rose!"

About five minutes later, Will came stampeding down the corridor.

"I did it," she smiled at him. "I actually did i-"

She didn't get any further, because the boy had scooped her up and was spinning her round, both of them laughing and smiling.

Neither noticed Matron, just down the corridor, watching them from afar.