"What possessed you to leave your work and climb up a tree knowing full well my son was on the ground below? Not only did you leave your position in favour if some childish past time, but you acted in an improper manner in front of the children! You may have been able to wiggle your way out of your previous infractions, but this was a direct breach of orders and everything we stand for in this household. This will be your first official infraction. Two more and you will be out of this house without a reference, do you understand?" Mrs Ealing said, her voice high pitched as she looked down her nose at me.

"Yes, Mrs Ealing," I muttered, keeping my heads clasped behind my back. They shook violently as I stood before her, nothing I did could quell the anxiety that was bubbling away inside of me. It was like being stood in front of the foreman with his steel-like eyes glaring down at me. I could never escape that glare, no matter how hard I tried.

"I beg your pardon?"

"Yes, Mrs Ealing," I said, clearing my voice.

"Mother, this is ridiculous! Rosie saved Zachariah's life, again. You cannot give her an infraction for simply noticing something no one else saw," Matilda said.

"It is not your place to tell me what I can and cannot do with my own staff, Matilda. I thought I taught you better than that."

"I apologise, Mother."

"Good." Mrs Ealing turned to look at me. "Get out of my sight."

With a flick of her wrist, the meeting was done. At first, nobody moved. It was as though the entire room was holding its breath for something else to happen, for the next disastrous step that was sure to come. Nothing happened. No one moved or even seemed as though they were breathing as Mrs Ealing crossed the room and stood looking out of one of the windows. I didn't look to see what everyone else was doing, I simply turned slowly on my heel and slinked out of the room. My hands were still shaking violently as I brushed them over my skirts and walked down the corridor and towards the front door.

I passed by the side door that led down to the kitchen and out of the front door, jogging down the steps and out onto the gravel path. The wind was cold against my cheeks and hands as I stood on the path and looked out at the trees and the gravel path that twisted and turned away from the house. As I looked down the end of that path I realised just how easy it would have been for me to walk down that path and never look back. It all seemed so simple, to just walk down the gravel and away from Mrs Ealing and the infractions. Yet as simple as it may have seemed, it was far more complicated than simply walking away.

I had money saved but it wasn't enough to live in London and without a reference, getting a new position would be next to impossible. I couldn't survive in London on my own and I certainly wasn't going to ask Matthew for any help. He had a family and I wasn't going to be the one to interrupt that. Walking down the path and away from the house sounded easier enough but everything else was too complicated to have to deal with. Getting away from Mrs Ealing seemed easier enough, but it was never going to be as easy as I hoped it would.

"You really shouldn't be out here, if those clouds bust you're going to be soaked," Matilda said, jogging down the steps to join me on the gravel path. Her head was tilted up towards the sky as the dark clouds moved across, clouds that weren't there when I had been outside earlier.

"I'll take the risk. What's a little water compared to strike one of three?" I muttered.

"Mother was out of line back there. Nothing you did today was improper, and she shouldn't have said such a thing. You saved Zachariah's life for the second time and if you hadn't had been there he could have been seriously injured, or worse."

"I was an idiot. I should have just told Robert that the branch would break and let him climb the tree if I had then none of this would have happened."

"Robert couldn't have climbed that tree if there were strawberry tarts at the top of it. You reached Zachariah moments before that branch broke, Robert wouldn't have been able to do that. Once Mother realises you were the only one who could do anything she'll revoke the infraction."

"I doubt that very much. I've put my foot in it this time."

"Father will talk to her and everything will calm down. Trust me."

"People keep telling me to trust them, but that feels as though it is getting harder and harder to do."

"Alright, you don't have to trust me seeing as I haven't been the most trustworthy person in the world. Father will talk to Mother about the incident today and the infraction will disappear as though it had never existed. You cannot be punished for saving a life. If that were true, Father would have been punished countless times already."

"I suppose so," I said, "I should get back to the kitchen. I've already missed enough chores for one day."

"If you're sure. I'll see you late." She turned to head back into the house before pausing and turning back to face me. "Don't let this get to you, Rosie, it'll only make it harder to do the work you've been asked to complete."

With that, Matilda turned and ran up the stairs to the house before disappearing through the front door. I stayed on the path, my head turned back towards the end of the path and the option that was laid out before me. Despite knowing that walking away was my best option for escaping Mrs Ealing's continuous gaze, walking away felt too easy. I couldn't walk away from the foreman when I wanted to, but I don't want to walk from Robert or anyone else. It was my choice to prove a point to Mrs Ealing and I couldn't do that if I simply walked away from it all.

I sighed to myself as I directed my attention away from the gravel path and started across the grass towards the kitchen. When Mrs Ealing was handing out the infraction, I did everything I possibly could to not make eye contact with her. At times, I found myself watching Miss Jenkins, watching her face and her reaction to what was going on. The worst part about the infraction wasn't being screamed at or being warned, it was seeing Miss Jenkins disappointment when I had tried so hard to impress her.

Facing her over what had happened in that room was terrifying, but I was going to have to do it sooner rather than later.

Expelling a breath of air, I took across the grass at a jog and passed by the washing the washbasin I had abandoned when Robert summoned me. The back door was open slightly with a small brick wedged between it and the doorframe. Sounds of pots and general movement slipped through the small crack. Shaking the nervousness out of my hands, I pushed open the door and listened to the squeaking of the hinges as the movements in the room fell silent.

Miss Jenkins stood beside the brazier with a block of wood in her hand as she fed it into the embers inside. She didn't say anything as I leant the door back against the brick and stood awkwardly at the far end of the room with my stomach groaning angrily. As I stood near the door, Miss Jenkins pushed a plate of sandwiches across the table but still didn't say anything. The look on her face said more than her words ever could. She refused to look me in eye and kept her distance from me no matter where she went in the kitchen. She had warned me about getting into trouble with Mrs Ealing, and I didn't listen.

I grabbed one of the sandwiches off the plate and tore a piece off before placing it into my mouth. Despite my stomach growling from not having eaten since early that morning, I didn't feel I could eat at all. Instead, I didn't chew or bite on the sandwich, I just let it sit in my mouth until I could escape to the outside of the house to hang the washing up. That didn't take long.

I couldn't take the awkwardness in the room, the feeling of disappointment that was welling up inside me like an uncontrollable wave. I pushed the plate back across the table and left through the door, listening to the sound of the hinges as they cut through the silence. Once outside, I spat the sandwich into the bushes next to the house. I also through the remainder of the sandwich into the bush to hide it from Miss Jenkins. Brushing my hands over my skirts, I tapped the basket of washing with my foot and moved it over to the line before grabbing the tub of pegs.

Whilst the wind whipped around and threatened to pull the bedclothes out of my hands I started to peg them to the line, ignoring the growling that was coming from my stomach. The thought of eating just made my stomach churn. I had to do whatever it took to get back on Mrs Ealing's good side, or at least stop disappointing Miss Jenkins. It felt like all I was good at was letting people down.

"You were the quite the hero this morning," Samuel said, standing in my peripheral vision.

"I expect you're the only one who saw it that way," I replied. I ran my hands over the bed sheet I had hung up to smooth it out.

"You did the right thing, Mrs Ealing will understand that over time."

"I doubt that very much. Mrs Ealing just gave me my first infraction because I acted in an improper in front of her children."

"You saved Zachariah's life, that seems more like setting a good example rather than a bad one."

"Hm, she didn't see it that way. Not even Matilda could make her change her mind. The infraction will stand no matter what we do."

"It's only one infraction, Rosie. I have one myself for a mistake I made when I first arrived. That was several years ago, and I have yet to get another one, you'll be fine. One infraction means nothing as long as you're careful."

"Mrs Ealing has it out for me. I can be as careful as I want, and it won't make the slightest difference. I did nothing wrong today, but not even Miss Jenkins can look me in the eye, even she thinks I did something wrong."

"You didn't. As long as you know that, the infraction doesn't mean or prove anything. You have worked hard for the short time you've been here, even with the burn and with everything else. The infraction means nothing as long as you know in your heart that you did nothing wrong."

"I suppose. Things were so much easier before the fire," I muttered.

"Hm, you'll be fine. I should get back and tend to the garden, I expect you'll be needing another vegetable delivery to the kitchen. Remember, you'll be fine as long as you know what you did was the right thing."

Samuel placed his hand lightly on my shoulder before he headed back down the path towards the vegetable patch and leaving me alone to hang up the remainder of the laundry. As I placed one of the final bed sheets onto the line, I knew what Samuel said was true. My actions were not, and could never be thought of, as infraction worthy. The infraction would never mean anything unless I let it. It wasn't going to be the thing that determined my work value or be the thing that decided if I was good enough. Only my work could do that.

I knew that what I had done was the right thing. If there was something I had never called into question it was my judgement. Though I may have doubted on it, I always acted on it and I had yet to be wrong. The decision I made that day was the right one in the spur of the moment. Mrs Ealing wanted to punish me for lying to her for the two weeks I had had the trial. I understood why. I hated myself too. Neither the infraction nor the lie defined me and that was what I needed to prove to everyone, not just Mrs Ealing. She may have wanted me gone, but I didn't run from anything, no matter how much I wanted to.

For seven years I had put up with the ridicule and torture that came with working at the factory. The foreman had done everything in his power to break me and I never ran, I never gave up. Others may have hurt themselves to escape the torment, but I had Isabel to look after. I didn't run then, and I certainly wasn't going to run from Mrs Ealing, no matter what she decided to throw my way.

Hanging up the last of the bedclothes, I grabbed the edge of the basket with my left hand and used it to push open the door and slide back into the kitchen. Miss Jenkins refused to look up as I dropped the basket beside the back door ready for the next lot of laundry. She simply continued to potter around the kitchen washing various items or rolling out another piece of pastry on the country. The table in the middle was weighed down with so many pies I thought it was going to break. Mother used to the same thing; she baked when she was stressed.

"Esther is snowed under upstairs with the twins, one of the nursery maids failed to show up. It's why Zachariah crept past and ended up in that tree, no one was keeping an eye on him. I need you to scrub the floor upstairs. Grab one of the buckets from the other room and fill it up outside," Miss Jenkins said.

"Will Mrs Ealing be alright with that?"

"She'll have to be if she wants a clean floor. Both you and Esther need to share the chores upstairs and help out down here when possible. If she wants to confine one of you to the life of a scullery maid, we'll need another pair of hands."

"Very well."

"This was my idea so you're unlikely to get in trouble for it. Off you go."

Miss Jenkins waved her hand at me and turned her attention back to the pastry she was rolling, another pie to add to the mountain that was forming on the table. As much as I wanted to apologise to her for what had happened that morning, I didn't want to get into any more trouble by failing to complete the job that had been asked. Instead, I left the kitchen and grabbed one of the metal buckets from the side room before walking back out through the door and to the tap attached to the outside wall. Once it was full, I returned to the kitchen and headed up the stairs towards the hallway with a scrubbing brush in my right hand and the bucket in my left.

I placed the bucket on the ground and knelt down, dropping the brush into the water to get it wet before starting to scrub the floor. There was something almost nostalgic about working on my hands and knees again. Back at the factory, it was all I ever did, pick up the pieces of fluff and just crawl around trying to find it. I had one job to do and there was nothing more to it, it was repetitive but working as a servant wasn't. I may not have liked working under the foreman, but I liked having a routine to stick to. There was less chance of getting something wrong, with less routine, a lot went wrong.

"I thought you were confined to the kitchen for today?"

"Miss Jenkins said Esther needed a little bit of help," I said, turning to look at Robert as he stood before me.

"Ah, right. I wondered why there was so much noise coming from upstairs. I was trying to study."

"You? Study? Really?"

"Alright, you got me. I was trying to see how many grapes I could throw into my mouth. Don't tell Father that bit. I told him I was going to spend the day studying."

"Your secret is safe with me, though I should probably get back to scrubbing floors."

"You'd rather scrub floors then talk to me, your favourite person in the world? Rosie, you wound me."

"I'd rather get the floor scrubbed then end up with another infraction, which I'll probably get for either not doing my chores or distracting you."

"You need to relax."

"If one more person says that to me, I will not be responsible for my actions," I said, holding up the wet brush and accidentally spraying Robert's trousers with water.

"Lower the brush," he said, smiling slightly. "It's true, though. The more stressed you are, the more mistakes you'll make along the way. Just relax, take a breather and try again. Either that or break something."

"Break something?"

"Yes. We have some old clay pots in the shed that are perfect for smashing. I've taken a sledgehammer to a few myself. Father likes to try his hand at pottery every once in a while, and he said we can smash them to our heart's content."

"Sounds fun."

"Oh, it is. We should try it tomorrow, you have the afternoon off if I recall. It'll be a good way to end the week."

"Alright, sounds like fun."

"Good. I'll mention it to Father. For now, I'll leave you to your scrubbing."

Robert grinned and threw himself up the stairs and back towards his room whilst I started to scrub the floor with the brush. The idea of breaking something to let my frustration out sounded like a perfectly plausible idea. Normally, I would wrap something around my arm and pull it until I could no longer feel my fingers. That was the only way any of us could deal with the anger and frustration of being in the factory, to injure ourselves even more. Breaking things seemed like a much more logical, far better solution to self-injury.

Sighing, I continued on with my chore and scrubbed right the way up the hallway until I reached the living room door. When I finished scrubbing the hallway, I pushed myself up into a standing position and stretched my legs and arms out. My knees groaned alongside my stomach as I stood up. Oddly enough, although I didn't eat anything for lunch I still didn't feel particularly hungry despite the complaints my stomach was making. If Mrs Ealing wanted me to work harder, then skipping lunch would allow me to do just that.

I pushed the thought from my head and focused on returning to the kitchen and completing the other chores that I needed to do before bed. With my legs still protesting at standing up, I reached down and grabbed the bucket of water, pulling it off the ground just slightly before a bolt of pain ran down my right arm and hand. I yelled slightly and released the bucket, sending a torrent of water down the hallway and towards the front door.

~~~

A/N - Okay, I wasn't as prepared for this update as I should have been xD I've been the queen of procrastination recently. However, it is still Tuesday and we still have an update so there's that xD

Anyway! A lot happened in this chapter and I want your verdicts! Rosie has her first infraction, was it right? What about Rosie wanting to run away? Do you think she'll do it? Opinions on Miss Jenkins and her behaviour? There is also Rosie's decision to not eat that needs mentioning. Oh, and the ending!

Comment your thoughts below!

Dedication - This chapter is dedicated to TartigradesOfCourse who voted on every single chapter of The Factory Girl! I appreciate the love :)

First Published - July 9th, 2019