The influenza lasted three days. Three days of sitting in bed eating nothing but porridge and having to deal with cold water running down my face and neck, soaking through my nightdress and onto my skin.

After three days, my fever finally broke and the room no longer moved and swirled every time I sat up or made a sudden movement. My breathing still sounded a little loud, but the crackling in my chest had stopped and it no longer hurt to breath the same way as it had before. Doctor Ealing, surprised that it had cleared up as fast as it had, made me stay in bed for one more day until he was satisfied that the infection had completely passed. He didn't want me to pass it on to anyone else.

I sat on the bed, my fingers in my lap as I picked at my nailbed and waited for Doctor Ealing to say something. He had taken a seat on the chair Robert normally sat in, stethoscope in hand, having just listened to my chest to try and spot anything that might be wrong. He tucked the stethoscope into his bag and leant forward on the chair, pressing his elbows onto his knees and clutching his hands together in front of him. As he sat there staring, I bit on the corner of my thumb and chewed off a small piece of skin. It hurt slightly but I ignored it, all I wanted was for Doctor Ealing to speak, but he still sat there staring at me as though I had to be the first to say something. After a few minutes more, he sighed before finally speaking.

"There is still a slight wheeze in your chest but nothing to suggest the infection is lingering. I expect the wheeze is more to do with the added strain on your lungs than anything else, especially given the trauma you've already received," he said.

"Can I go back to work?"

"You may, but light duties only until that wheeze goes away. No dusting as well, it'll only make things worse."

"That won't leave too many options."

"We'll find something. Whilst I have you here, may I take a look at your shoulder? It's been long enough so hopefully the bruising has gone down."

"Of course."

I shifted my position slightly and turned my right shoulder towards Doctor Ealing, crossing my legs together in front of me. The sling had fallen off several days previously and I had failed to put it back on purely because I didn't want to sit up and grab it off the floor. Doctor Ealing undid the back of my nightdress and pushed the sleeve off my shoulder whilst I continued to pick at my nailbed. He poked and prodded the area surrounding my shoulder and along my collarbone, his other hand rested on my back as he pressed against it. I hardly even noticed he was doing it until I felt the pressure against my skin. It no longer hurt the way it had just a week previously.

"Well, the bruising has gone down and that is certainly a good sign. You don't appear to be in any pain when I touch it or even move it, so it doesn't look as though your previous injuries have made an appearance. The bruising and swelling must have come directly from your dislocated shoulder and there are no secondary injuries."

"I don't have to wear the sling anymore?"

"No, you can have full use of your right arm. Again, light duties only for the next few days."

"I'm already on light duties."

"Then that's been solved then, hasn't it?"

"I suppose it has." I smiled slightly.

"I'll leave you to get dressed, someone needs to inform Miss Jenkins that you can return to work."

Doctor Ealing smiled and grabbed the handle of his medical bag before leaving the room and the chair behind. I made a mental reminder to tell Miss Jenkins about it, I was certain that lifting the chair down the stairs didn't count as a light duty. Climbing off the bed, I rearranged the pillows and the blanket on the bed before crossing the room and pulling my work dress on. I folded up my nightdress and tucked it back into the drawers before twisting my hair up into a knot and pinning it at the base of my neck. I glanced in the mirror briefly before leaving the room and taking the stairs two at a time until I reached the hallway.

For the first time in a long time, I felt excited to return to work, even with Mrs Ealing watching my every step I was glad to have something to do. I enjoyed getting back into my drawing, spending the three days with a pencil and a piece of paper. It almost felt as though I was back in the bush at the back of our garden, drawing away until someone would find me and drag me away. Despite that, I liked being at work and I liked having something to do that didn't involve sitting down and staring at the same four walls. I could go back to venturing throughout the house and into the gardens, as well as eating anything other than porridge.

"Ah, the wanderer returns!" Miss Jenkins exclaimed, noticing me in the doorway.

"Indeed, she does, and ready to get back into it."

"Good. Given the instruction of light duties, there is little you can do, but I'm sure we can find you something to do. Breakfast?"

"As long as it's not porridge, I would eat a book given the opportunity."

"How do egg and toast sound?"

"Perfect."

Miss Jenkins gestured to one of the chairs with a cloth and I took a seat, tapping my fingers nervously on the table. My stomach groaned as Miss Jenkins dropped a slice of bread onto a warm pan to crisp up and she dropped an egg into the boiling water already on the stove. After three days of nothing but porridge, I looked forward to something that didn't resemble some sort of mush. I wasn't how I had been able to eat nothing but porridge and watered soup for seven years. Then again, if you have nothing else to eat even wood seems like a good choice. I had gotten so used to Miss Jenkins cooking that anything less just didn't suit.

I watched as Miss Jenkins crossed the room and grabbed a plate and egg-cup from the cupboard and placed them down in front of me. She returned to the stove and snatched the toast out of the pan and dropping it onto the plate before slathering it in butter and slicing it into strips. My mouth watered at the sight. After pushing the plate towards me, she grabbed a large spoon and fished the egg out of the boiling water and placing it into the egg cup whilst handing me my own smaller spoon to eat it with.

As Miss Jenkins returned to her work, I knocked the spoon against the top of the egg and broke the shell, placing the spoon and the top of the egg onto the plate with the toast. I tucked into the egg and toast almost immediately, dipping the toast into the egg and eating it in almost one bite. I continued to repeat the action until I had eaten all of the toast and resorted to scraping the remainder of the egg out of the shell with the spoon. Egg and toast may have been simple, but it was largely better than a bowl of porridge even if that bowl came with sugar and honey.

"I don't think I've ever seen anyone eat that fast, well, except perhaps Master Robert who has a tendency to eat things whole," Miss Jenkins said, chuckling to herself slightly.

"Everyone has a limit on how much porridge they can eat and I hit that threshold a long time ago," I replied.

"Well, if you're done, we can set about trying to find you some chores. Doctor Ealing said you were to do no dusting on account of your chest, but he said nothing about making beds and general house organisation. Having only Esther at my disposal means I had to prioritise tasks and Miss Charlotte's room has become an awful state. I just need you to sort it out for me."

"Yes, Miss Jenkins."

"You can check Master Zachariah's when you're finished, I'm not sure what state his room is but it is usually worse than Miss Charlotte's."

I nodded towards Miss Jenkins and pushed the plate and egg cup across the table towards before pushing my chair back along the stone flooring and leaving the room. Taking to the stairs two at a time, I spilled out onto the hallway and carried on up the next set of stairs without bumping into anyway. By the time I reached the top of the stairs and started down the hallway, my chest felt tight and my wheeze had gotten louder. I pressed my hand against the wall and fought to steady my breathing before continuing the walk down the hallway and stopping just outside Charlotte's bedroom door.

Listening outside the door for a second, I pushed it open and stepped inside. My jaw almost hit the floor at the state of Charlotte's room. The cushions from her bed had been thrown across the floor along with an assortment of her soft toys, only a small rabbit remained on the bed. Books, wooden blocks and dolls scattered the floor and lay on top of various cabinets or her chest of drawers. Even the wardrobe stood wide open with dresses dumped in a large pile on the floor beneath it. Either Charlotte had left her window open and there had been a large gust of wind, or she had been feeling in a particularly destructive mood.

I crossed the room to the bed and grabbed the rabbit, sitting it on the bedside table before pulling the assortment of blankets and lining them up with the pillow. Once the blankets were straightened, I tucked them underneath the mattress, just as Esther had shown me. She said it made the rooms look neater than just having the edge of the blanket hanging off the mattress and dragging along the floor. I just thought it made getting into bed that much harder. Nonetheless, I hid the edge of the blanket from view and moved onto the cushions and toys that covered the floor.

Charlotte had always been rather particular about how her cushions and toys were put on her bed. When I had done it wrong, she spent two hours showing me the correct way and making sure I understood it completely. Since then, I always spent the longest amount of time rearranging her bed so that it matched to her specifications. I had never known a five-year-old to be so specific. Once her bed had been made and the cushions and toys spread about it the way she liked, I started to clean up the mess on the floor. As I reached down to grab a block, I felt something barrel into me.

"You're back!" Charlotte's voice was muffled by my dress as her arms wrapped around my legs. I grabbed onto the cabinet to keep myself steady.

"I didn't go anywhere, I was just under the weather," I said.

"I know, but now you're working!"

"Hm, or I was until you turned up. Can I have my legs back?" I glanced down at her.

"Sorry," she mumbled, stepping back and releasing my legs.

"So, missy, what have you been up to? Your room is a mess."

"I was looking for something."

"I'm surprised you can find anything with your room like this."

"The mess was made as I was looking, silly!"

"Ah, of course. Silly me."

I slapped the palm of my head against my forehead and Charlotte giggled, throwing herself on to the bed but making sure she didn't destroy the newly organised cushions. She swung her legs backwards and forwards over the edge of the bed as I returned to my task and started to line her dolls up on her chest of drawers. I never realised how much Charlotte had until it became my job to make sure it all went back where it needed to be. Everything seemed much easier to handle when it was in its right place if it wasn't then it was pure chaos.

As Charlotte continued to swing her legs and watch me from her bed, I placed all of the blocks into a wooden chest and walked to the wardrobe. All of her clothes were now on the floor in piles and the wardrobe was bare except for a lone shoe that had lost its pair. Sighing to myself, I slipped the dresses onto hangers and placed them in the wardrobe, pairing up the shoes and placing them at the bottom as I went. Charlotte hummed to herself as I worked, clearly caught up in her own little world to want to offer to help. Then again, the only time either of the twins had helped me had been when I bribed them with toffee or a strawberry tart.

"Right, that's your room clean. Now, to see the state of your brothers," I said, dusting my hands off on my apron.

"It's going to be worse than mine!" Charlotte exclaimed, jumping off the bed.

"Really? How could you possibly know that?"

"Because he's a boy and boy's rooms are always messy."

"I'll be the judge of the that."

Charlotte frowned at me as I crossed the room and walked through the door, closing it partially behind me before walking the short distance down the hallway to Zachariah's room. The door had left wide open, so I stood in the doorway and surveyed the level of damage, pleased to see that there wasn't that much. Apart from an unmade bed, blocks covering the carpet and his bedclothes crumpled into a ball in the centre of the room, it looked a whole lot better than Charlotte's.

Once again, I started with the bed. I tucked the blankets under the mattress the say way I had done in Charlotte's room and stuffed Zachariah's bedclothes under the pillow so he could find them in the evening. I then placed the wooden blocks back into their box, kneeling down as I scraped under the bed to get a small one that had been kicked underneath. Lying on my stomach, I groped around under the bed to reach the block, but it had been kicked slightly out of my own reach. I sighed and pushed myself up, sitting on my heels and glancing around the room.

At the side of the room, leaning against the wall was a large stick. It looked almost like a branch, but it seemed long enough to reach under the bed and knock the block towards me. I grabbed the stick and leant down on my stomach again, sliding it under the bed and watching as it caught onto the block and dragged it back out. The block went spinning across the room, knocking into the chest of drawers as I sat up and returned the stick its rightful place.

"Gotcha," I muttered to myself as I grabbed the block and dropped it into the box with the others, securing the latch on the lid to keep it shut.

"That was quite possibly the strangest thing I think I have ever seen," Robert said from the doorway, an eyebrow raised, and his arms folded over his chest.

"It's not my fault my arms are short."

"You're just short in general."

"And you're just annoying."

"I would say that it's nice to have you back at work, but I would be lying."

"Do you want anything in particular?"

"I came to see how your day was getting on, seeing as you're on light duties and those never seem all that fun. Washing windows, now that's fun." Robert grinned at me, no doubt remembering the time he tried to help me wash the outside windows but instead ended up getting into trouble with his father.

"Hm, well I've almost been knocked over by Charlotte and just spent several minutes lying face down on the carpet so I would say it's going swimmingly. I mean, I have full use of both of my arms so that is a definite plus."

"I can see that, though I don't think I've ever seen someone so excited to get back work."

"You would be excited too if you had nothing to do for three days."

"Was my company not enough?"

"No."

That was a straight-up lie. If I had spent the three days on my own with nothing but the occasional visit from Miss Jenkins and Doctor Ealing, then I would have lost my mind. Having Robert for company made the three days bearable because I had someone to talk to or at least the sound of someone else so I wasn't stuck with the sound of my own breathing. As much of a pain as he was, sometimes I didn't mind Robert's company. Especially if he could act as a distraction to everything that was going on. From the Influenza to the list, to Mrs Ealing, he had been a distraction to all of that and all of the chaos that went through my head because of it.

Robert said nothing else as I did some last-minute touch-ups to Zachariah's room, straightening his pillows, picking up discarded pieces of paper from the floor and placing some of his chalk into its pot. I tried to block Robert out as he stood in the doorway twiddling his thumbs. I may have appreciated the company when there was no one else to talk to, but now he had become an annoyance. I didn't like being watched when I worked, it reminded me all too much of the foreman and the way his eyes would follow me around the factory. Mrs Ealing already felt like another foreman, I didn't want Robert to become that as well.

"Don't you have something you could be doing?" I asked, passing him in the doorway as I left Zachariah's now clean room.

"Not really. I slept in and missed Father, so he's gone to the office without me and I'm left with nothing to do." He fell into step next to me as I started down the hallway.

"Can't you find something to do?"

"I am doing something. I'm annoying you."

"Besides that."

"Hm, no."

I shook my head at Robert and headed down the stairs, hoping he would head to the drawing-room or something to play the piano rather than follow me around searching for something else to do. When we reached the bottom of the stairs I paused briefly to see if Robert would head somewhere else, but he never got the chance.

"Shouldn't you be working?" Mrs Ealing asked, standing in the drawing-room doorway.

~~~

A/N - We are back! I'm working my way through Chapter Twenty-Eight so I'm about seven away from the end which is terrifying, to be honest xD There is still an awful lot of drama to come and I cannot wait for it! Ugh, I'm excited to see what you think!

Anyways, Rosie is back at work! Isn't Charlotte just adorable? And what about those moments between Robert and Rosie? How are you liking all of the Robsie content coming your way? And the ending. Is Rosie in trouble?

Comment below!

Dedication - This chapter is dedicated to my fellow mod (and kinder) buddy Azanthiel! She is awesome and you should all go and check out her profile!

First Published - October 1st, 2019