The sound of the bucket hitting the floor echoed off the walls and filled the hallway as it rolled along the ground and came to a stop against the walls. Water flowed down both sides of the hallway, spreading across the space and ebbing its way closer to the front door and towards the layer of carpet that covered the drawing-room floor. Silence fell along the hallway as the bucket lay still against the wall. There was no movement from upstairs, no creaking floorboards above or throughout the house.

It was as though the house was holding its breath, waiting for what was going to come next when someone found me standing the hallway with an overturned bucket and a waterfall edging its way throughout the house.

Waves of pain ran up and down my arm, nestling in my fingers over and over again as I stood staring at the mess I had created with nothing more than a bucket of water. If Mrs Ealing came down those stairs and saw me, the infraction system would be thrown out of the window and I would be out of that door without a second thought. If anyone found me, I was done for. Yet, I didn't do anything about the mess that filled the hallway. I just stood there, watching it all unfold without moving. Whatever happened was going to happen, whether I tried to fix it or not.

Footsteps travelled down the stairs as I waited for the inevitable. Oddly enough, I wasn't scared about a second infraction, I wasn't even scared of being thrown out of the house without a reference. I couldn't defend myself from it and I was ready to face whatever Mrs Ealing or anyone was going to throw at me. The footsteps moved down the stairs at a fast pace as I stood staring at the water, I didn't look up as the got closer and I certainly didn't look as they eventually fell silent, once again blanketing the area in silence.

"Rosie! What on earth happened?" Esther's voice broke through the silence as she continued down the few steps and nudged me on the back, snapping me out of my thoughts and back into the situation I found myself in.

"The, erm, b-bucket slipped," I stuttered. I wasn't going to tell her the truth, no matter how much it may have helped. It was bad enough that I had dropped a bucket of water all over the floor, the reason why would only make things worse.

"Right, we need to clean this up before Mrs Ealing sees it."

"Is that even possible? She seems to have eyes everywhere, I'm surprised she didn't hear the bucket when it hit the floor. Or me for that matter."

"Luckily for you, Samuel said there was a problem with one of the horses, so she's out at the stables for now. I'm not too sure about Master Robert and Miss Matilda, if I heard it I'm sure they did too." She paused. "Why did you shriek, anyway? I thought you had fallen over or something."

"I was just startled by the bucket falling, that's all."

"Alright. Wait here, I'll be back in a second.

Esther took her hand off my back and placed a stack of laundry onto one of the tables before disappearing down the stairs towards the kitchen. The house once again fell silent as I waited for her to return, my heart rate caught in my throat and my ribs feeling as though they were constricting my lungs so I couldn't breathe. I just stood there, waiting for Esther to return and not even minding if Mrs Ealing came down the stairs and saw me standing there. When Esther returned, she held two mops in each hand, forcing one into my own hand before she set about straightening up the mess I had caused.

I watched as she turned the bucket upright and went down to the far end of the hallway before wiping the mop across the ground to soak up as much water as possible before it was squeezed into the bucket. Sighing to myself, I ventured over to the other side of the hallway and started to swipe the mop along the floor to clean up the water that covered the floor. It looked as though it had rained inside.

Together, Esther and I mopped up the water and re-filled the bucket before anyone else emerged from their rooms and saw the mess that was the downstairs hallway. I knew she was only trying to help, but part of me wished Esther hadn't gotten herself involved in my mess. It was one thing to have been around when I climbed the tree and doing nothing to stop it, it was another to help me cover my tracks and hide the fact that I had possibly ruined the flooring. I didn't want her getting in trouble because of something I had done, because I had once again managed to mess up.

"That should do it," Esther said as she squeezed the last of the water into the bucket.

"Thank you for helping me, I wouldn't have been able to clean it all up on my own."

"You're welcome. We should get rid of this before Mrs Ealing makes an appearance and tries to get you in trouble for holding a mop."

"I never thought you'd be the rebellious type," I said, smiling slightly as I grabbed the brush off the floor.

"I spent most of my life in the Foundling hospital, you learn a thing or two."

"Father would have left me at the hospital if I wasn't too old."

"Imagine, we might have known each other as children, and you wouldn't have ended up at the factory."

"Only I never would have met Isabel if I hadn't had been there."

"Hm. Well, we should get going. Miss Jenkins saw me carrying the mops and I think she might be wanting some answers right about now."

"I don't know who's harder to deal with, Mrs Ealing or Miss Jenkins," I muttered.

"Miss Jenkins won't see this is as your fault, she can't."

"I thought the same thing earlier."

Esther said nothing, instead, she nudged my arm slightly and grabbed the bucket of water by the handle. With both the mop and bucket in hand, she started down the stairs towards the kitchen whilst I hovered in the hallway for a few minutes more. I knew I was walking into another argument and another disagreement with someone I wanted to impress, to prove a point to. Whether it had been my fault or not, spilling the bucket of water was something that could have cost me my job and that was the only way Miss Jenkins was going to see it.

I was supposed to be keeping my head down, avoiding any sort of trouble so I didn't end up with another infraction. She had trusted me to scrub the floor, despite being confined to the kitchen, and I had almost ended up in trouble again. There was no way she was going to take it as lightly as she had with Zachariah and first infraction. I was going to be in more trouble than ever before, all because of a shoulder injury that shouldn't have happened. All of this started with Zachariah climbing that tree, but I wouldn't have done it any differently.

Swallowing my own spit, I followed Esther down the stairs as slowly as I dared, moving as little as possible which was only prolonging the inevitable. My heart still hammered away inside my chest whilst my ribcage felt as though it was getting smaller, constricting my lungs more and more until it felt almost impossible to breathe. I wanted to turn around and run in the opposite direction, to leave through those doors and never look back. Only I couldn't. I had to face it, I had to face the disappointed look and the shame that I brought with me wherever I went.

The foreman was right about me. I was a disappointment and a waste of space.

I followed Esther down the stairs and into the hallway, the sound of pans knocking together filled the hallway. Esther entered the kitchen first, placing the bucket of water on the table and leaning her mop against it so she didn't have to hold it. Shuffling in after her, I didn't have to look up from the ground to know Miss Jenkins was watching me. I could feel her eyes follow me as I placed the mop next to Esther's but clung tightly to the scrubbing brush, the bristles digging into the palm of my hand.

"What on earth were the mops for? And don't say it had something to do with the twins, we all know that Charlotte would have soaked herself with the bucket and you wouldn't need mops for that," Miss Jenkins said.

"There was a little bit of an accident upstairs, just the water bucket, but we cleaned it up," Esther said.

"What sort of accident?"

"I dropped the water bucket," I mumbled, the brush still clenched tightly in my hand. I didn't mind having the bristles dig into my hand, it was a reminder that everything that was going on was real and not just a dream.

"How on earth did you manage to drop a water bucket?"

"It slipped, that's all."

"Slipped? Rosie, I trusted you! Mrs Ealing gave me strict instructions to keep you down here for the entire day, but I thought you could handle scrubbing the hallway without getting yourself into trouble. If Mrs Ealing had found you, it wouldn't have been just your head on the chopping block, it would have been mine as well for trusting you with such a menial task. This could have been your second infraction, you're lucky one of the horses is unwell.

"You have got to start being more careful, Rosie and stop getting yourself into stupid situations that could cost you your job. I know I'm being harsh, but I don't want to see you thrown out onto the streets without a reference because of a silly mistake. The infraction this morning may not have been warranted, but it still stands against you and any mistake you make will count as another. You only need two more before you are thrown out and left to wander the streets of London on your own, once you leave here, I can't help you.

"If I have to keep giving you the easier tasks, keeping you out of sight from the rest of the family, then I will but there are only so many jobs you can do. You have to start helping yourself, Rosie, there is only so much I can do."

"Yes, Miss Jenkins."

"For now, you can go and get the laundry off the line and then go to your room. I know you have tomorrow afternoon off, but I think it will be better if you stay out of harm's way, at least until you can return to normal chores on Monday. It won't do well for you to get a second infraction so close to the first, not by a long shot."

"Yes, Miss Jenkins."

"Be quick about it, the weather looks as though it may have turned."

I placed the brush onto the table next to the bucket before shuffling past Esther and pushing the door open just wide enough to slip through the gap. Closing the door behind me, I stepped off the side and pressed my back against the wall. I took a deep breath, my lungs feeling as though they were being twisted a million different ways every single time I took a breath. It felt as though I was suffocating, every single breath getting harder and harder and harder to breathe. My heart rate felt as though it was getting faster, impossible to slow down no matter how hard I tried.

Flexing my fingers, I placed the palm of my hand against my chest and felt my heart hammering away at my ribcage. My back was pressed against the side of the house as I fought to calm my breathing and my heart rate, but nothing worked. The longer it went on, the longer my breathing felt heavy and uncontrollable. My mind spun, dark spots clouding the vision out the corner of my eye the longer I fought for every breath I was taking.

As I pressed my back deeper against the wall, I took a short, steady breath. My lungs felt as though they were starting to untwist themselves as I took one short, slow breath after another until my heartbeat slowed down and my breathing returned to a steady pace. After a little while, I took my hand off my chest and pushed myself away from the wall, turning around to face the laundry on the line as a gust of wind blew past and almost knocked my bonnet clear off my head.

Deciding not to get myself into any more trouble, I crossed the grass and approached the line, pulling all of the bedclothes off and placing them into the basket. I moved as slow as possible to prolong having to spend my evening locked away in my room, unable to do anything other than stare at the same four walls and think about how badly my life had gone over the past few years. Being on my own gave me too much time to be caught in what was going through my head and after the day's event, the idea of being on my own in a quiet room was almost too much to deal with.

I pulled the last of the laundry off the line and dropped the bedclothes into the sheet, lightly massaging my shoulder as a wave of pain travelled down my arm and through my fingers.

"If I see you massage your shoulder one more time I am telling Father and he will look at it, no arguments," Robert said. Behind him, the kitchen door slammed against the brick as I stood staring at me.

"There is nothing wrong with my shoulder. As I said, I knocked it earlier and it's probably just the fallout from that," I said, shrugging my shoulder and ignoring the pain.

"Hm, the threat still stands. Are you alright? You were a little off earlier and now you're as white as that sheet, what's going on?"

"Apart from the obvious?" I raised an eyebrow. "Miss Jenkins is going to confine me to my room for the rest of the evening after I dropped a bucket of water in the hall. She thinks it will be better if I stay out of the way for a while, just until things calm down. In other words, she doesn't trust me not to make another mistake on top of the others I made today."

"I doubt she meant it like that. Mother is on the warpath, but she'll calm down soon enough. Just give her time to calm down and she'll soon see that she made a mistake with the infraction and take it back. As for Miss Jenkins, she's doing what she thinks is best for you, that's all. All of this will calm down in a few days, you just have to give it time."

"And what if it doesn't? What if this goes on and on until I'm scared to even leave my room in case something bad happens? I went through that for seven years of my life, I don't want to go back to that."

"You won't." Robert took a step forward and took my hands in his, rubbing his thumb over my knuckle. He wasn't the least bit fussed about the burn scars on my hand. "I'll speak to Father and see if there is anything to be done. If it comes down to it, you'll just end up spending all your time at the office so you're away from Mother whenever possible. We'll come up with something, don't worry."

"I hope so, I hate feeling as though I'm being watched with every little thing I do."

"We'll sort it. Father should be back from work now, so I'll go and find him and see if there is anything either of us can do. I'll come and see you in the morning to let you know what he's going to do. For now, listen to Miss Jenkins and keep your head down. It won't be for long."

"I hope you're right."

"I always am."

Robert winked at me before releasing my hands and slipping back through the kitchen door and living me alone in the garden with the basket of laundry. There was something about the way Robert spoke, about how he always tried to find a solution to everything rather than ignoring it, that made me feel calmer. As though the last half an hour or so hadn't actually happened. He was always so calm and controlled about every little thing that it was always reassuring. When it came to everyone else, I knew I was going to get in trouble, but it was never like that with Robert.

Dark clouds moved across the sky as I grabbed the edge of the basket and lifted it up, ignoring the pain in my shoulder. With the rest of the day off and with my Sunday afternoon off to look forward to, I had hoped my shoulder would recover and for whatever damage to hopefully heal. Lifting heavy baskets and working certainly wasn't going to help it so the time off would hopefully do it some good.

With the basket in hand, I struggled my way down the path and through the kitchen door, using the basket to push it open. I dropped the basket onto the table and shuffled past Esther without saying a word, neither her nor Miss Jenkins looked at me as I passed through the kitchen and out the door. Knowing I was confined to my room with nowhere else to go, I headed down the darkened corridor and up the stairs.

Reaching the room, I collapsed back against the bed and pressed my hands against my face, rubbing my eyes with my fist as they adjusted to the darkness. It was too early to go to bed, but I had nothing else to do but stare up at the ceiling and focus on the marks in the wood or the sunlight as it progressed across the room. Sighing, I rolled onto my side. The sound of the paper crinkling in my pocket filled the empty silence of the room and I pushed myself into a sitting position and pulled the sheet of paper out of my pocket.

I scanned my eyes across Matilda's writing, reading all of the things that I planned to do that Isabel couldn't. It was then that I knew the cost of what had happened. If I didn't complete the list, I would have failed Isabel for a second time, and I wasn't prepared to do that. Mrs Ealing may not have wanted me around, but I needed the job and the help to complete the list and do something right for once.

This list was important, and I didn't want to let Isabel down again.

~~~

A/N - First off, I want to apologise for this awful chapter, really I am. I only just finished this chapter and I wrote it in two days because I was so focused on my Watty entry. This is honestly awful, and I'm so sorry about that.

Anyways! Esther, playing the hero as per usual! What about Miss Jenkins, was she right to warn Rosie? Also, that moment outside, what was that about? And, of course, Robert, being his usual, dorky self! I love him. 

Comment your thoughts! (Please, I miss your comments!)

Dedication - This chapter is dedicated to LailaLiliana who is a fabulous person and deserves all the love in the world!

First Published - July 16th, 2019