Zachariah's body yanked my arm down as he fell with the branch. I squeezed my fingers around his arm, my nails digging into the skin, so he wouldn't slip from my grasp. My arm felt as though it was being pulled from my shoulder as it took the weight of Zachariah's body. Biting my lip to keep from screaming, I readjusted my position on the branch to move a small piece of bark from my chest. I kept all of my weight on the branch whilst my shoulder took the full weight of Zachariah as he kicked and swung his legs as the hovered above the ground. My fingers slipped as he wriggled around, almost forcing himself out of my grip.

"Zachariah, I'm going to need you to keep still," I said through gritted teeth. My palm was sweating, and I was slipping along the branch as he moved. Any more movement and I was going to let him go or swing off the branch myself.

"Are you both alright?" Robert called, one foot resting on the base of the tree and the other looking as though he was about to start climbing.

"I'll feel a lot better when we get the ladder."

"Understood. Samuel can't be too far away."

"That's not very reassuring," I muttered.

Robert stood half on the tree and half off as I shifted myself forward slightly and took my other arm off the branch to take hold of Zachariah's arm and improve my grip. My body teetered over the edge of the branch as my own weight rested entirely on my stomach. Taking my other arm off the branch may have allowed for a better grip on Zachariah to stop him slipping, but it meant that my own situation was a little more precarious. Any wrong move and I could tilt either forwards or backwards and end up sending myself and Zachariah crashing to the ground.

Time felt as though it was passing at a snail's pace as we waited for Samuel to appear with the ladder. The bark from the tree branch cut through my dress and pressed into my skin as I fought to retain my balance. Zachariah seemed to grow heavier as time passed, his weight being enough to very slowly pull me down. Although the branch I was laying on was far stronger than the one he had been on originally, the fear that it would break gnawed away at the back of my mind the longer we waited. With Zachariah pulling me down, his weight along would have been enough to snap the branch, we were just lucky it hadn't broken yet.

Readjusting my grip on Zachariah's arm, I looked down at the ground below and watched as a dark shape emerged from the trees with something over their shoulder. I felt myself deflate slightly as Samuel appeared from amongst the trees and propped a ladder up against the trunk. He held the bottom of it whilst Robert scrambled up until he was at Zachariah's waist. I watched as Robert wrapped his arms around Zachariah's waist and then glance up to me.

"You can let him go now, I've got him," Robert said.

"Are you sure?"

"Positive."

Robert nodded at me slightly and readjusted one of his arms, so it was lying on top of the other. With his reassurance, I released my grip on Zachariah's arm and watched Robert take his weight and quickly pull him over to the ladder. My shoulder relaxed as the weight of Zachariah's body was removed, but it still felt as though it was burning.

"Grab the wooden beam, Zachariah, then you can climb down the ladder," he said.

From my spot in the tee, I watched as Zachariah grabbed onto the top rung of the ladder whilst Robert released his waist and stayed close behind him as he climbed down the ground. Whilst Zachariah was being extricated from the tree, I worked on figuring my own way out of the tree. Using my body weight, I swung myself around until I was laying completely along the branch and then pushed myself up to a sitting position. Grabbing onto the branch, I moved my right leg over the side and sat on the branch looking down on the site below as Zachariah and Robert climbed off the ladder and onto the ground.

As Robert and Matilda were distracted by Zachariah, I shuffled myself along the branch until the ladder was in reach. I grabbed onto the top rung of the ladder with my good shoulder and swung my body over to it, placing one foot onto the rungs. As I tried to use my right shoulder as little as possible, I made my way down the ladder and back onto the grass. Samuel placed his arm onto my left shoulder as I took the last few steps down. I exhaled a breath of air in relief of feeling my two feet back on the ground. Whilst Samuel took the ladder off the tree, I took the alone time to rotate my shoulder and try to loosen it up. Every spin of my arm caused a wave of pain to spread through my shoulder.

"What is it with you and getting yourself in dangerous situations?" Esther said, shuffling along the grass to stand beside me. I had forgotten she was even there.

"They just appear to be attracted me," I said smiling slightly.

"Hm, maybe we should keep you hidden somewhere."

"We tried that, I was supposed to spend the day in the kitchen, but here we are." I paused. "Why were you here?"

"I was cleaning Zachariah's room when I spotted him in the tree."

"Mrs Ealing is going to kill me when she finds out," I mumbled.

"You had nothing to do with it, you didn't put Zachariah in the tree."

Esther may have been right, but that didn't stop the butterflies from building in my stomach. I had been given strict instructions to remain in the kitchen for the day and complete Esther's usual chores rather than my own. Although Miss Jenkins may have agreed that I could leave, Mrs Ealing would still mark it as an infraction and there was no way I would be able to talk my way out of it. Every other threatened infraction had been knocked back by Doctor Ealing for one reason or another, this time I had disobeyed the rule and put Zachariah's life on the line. If Robert had just continued on to find Samuel, Zachariah would have been out of the tree before the branch broke.

There was no way for me to talk my way out of the infraction and I was going to have to be a lot more careful in the future. Anything I did posed the risk of being turned into an infraction and three of them meant I would be out of the house. That wasn't an option.

"That's the second time you've saved Zachariah's life," Robert said, his arm wrapped around Zachariah's shoulder.

"Thank you, Rosie," Zachariah mumbled.

"You're welcome, but you have got to stop getting yourself into dangerous situations, which means..."

"Staying out the trees."

"Right. You have the whole of the grounds to enjoy without needing to venture into the trees and put yourself in danger."

"Rosie's right, you've been warned before. Perhaps now you'll listen."

Zachariah looked at the ground and scuffed his shoe along the grass whilst mumbling something incoherent to himself. He reminded me a lot of myself when I was a child, before the factory. Both Mother and Father, as well as my brothers, gave me a list of things I wasn't allowed to do and placed I was forbidden from going to. I did it anyway. I always thought the forbidden places and activities were far more exciting than those I could do. Usually, I was right.

"Is your shoulder alright?" Robert asked, furrowing his eyebrows as I continued to loosen it up, only it felt as though it was getting worse rather than better.

"I think so, I must have just banged it slightly. Nothing to worry about," I lied.

"Are you sure?"

"Positive. I should get back to the kitchen, or Miss Jenkins will start wondering what I'm doing."

"Alright, well thank you again. If you hadn't had been here and known how to climb trees, who knows where we would be."

"It was my pleasure." I turned to Zachariah. "You need to stay out of the woods young man, do you promise?"

"I promise."

"Good. I'll see you later."

Smiling towards Robert and Zachariah, I left them in the trees and headed back towards the house, trying not to move my shoulder too much as I went. I hadn't intended to lie to Robert, it would have been easier to tell him the truth about my shoulder and just how much it was bothering me. Getting an infraction for failing to complete my work is one thing, getting another one for being unable to work because of my shoulder was not something I wanted to face. My left up put me out of action enough, adding my shoulder into the mix would only have made things worse. Mrs Ealing wanted rid of me and both of my arms out of action gave her the perfect excuse.

I had hoped being confined to the kitchen could help cover up the injury to my shoulder, but there was no guarantee Mrs Ealing would move me back to my regular chores by the next day. Instead, I walked out of the trees and towards the house moving my shoulder as I went to try and loosen it up. Working with a bad shoulder wasn't going to be a fun experience, but it would have to do until I was able to use it properly. With any luck, it wasn't going to be too much hassle unless I had to lift anything heavier than Zachariah, and that was unlikely.

Rolling my shoulder one last time, I pushed open the door to the kitchen and gave a small smile towards Miss Jenkins before settling into my previous spot at the sink. Whilst I had been gone, stopping Zachariah from breaking a few bones, Miss Jenkins had finished preparing lunch and the dishes I had been cleaning before I left were starting to overtake the whole of the kitchen. I felt lucky that dishes didn't involve any heavy lifting.

"I take it Zachariah is out of the tree?" Miss Jenkins asked as I pushed up my sleeves up to resume my previous duties.

"Yes, though it may have involved me climbing up the tree," I said, muttering the last bit and hoping she didn't hear me.

"I'm sorry, you did what?"

"The branch he was on looked as though it was going to break so I climbed up and grabbed him before he did."

"Why didn't Robert climb the tree?"

"I don't think he realised the branch was as thin as it was. From the ground, it looked fine, but I've climbed my fair share of trees to know the branches further down are the weaker ones."

"Mrs Ealing isn't going to be impressed with you if she finds out. You weren't even supposed to be out there. If she finds out you climbed a tree she will count it as an infraction and there will be nothing anyone can do about it. You know she's trying to find any means necessary to give you the three infractions that will get kicked out of service with no reference."

"I know, but what was I supposed to do? If we had waited any longer the branch would have broken and Zachariah would have ended up injured, though I probably would have gotten the blame for that as well. "

"You could have told Robert, he could have gone up instead of you."

"I don't think Robert has climbed a tree in his life."

"Well, you better be prepared for the repercussions. I suggest you get on with your chores so Mrs Ealing doesn't have something else to use against you."

"Yes, Miss Jenkins," I mumbled.

Turning my attention back to the sink I grabbed the mug I had dropped in there before I went outside and continued to wash it, but my mind was elsewhere. If Mrs Ealing threw me out, I would have nowhere to go. With no reference from a previous employer, I wouldn't be able to get a position anywhere else and I had no skills to do anything else. It would be as though I was back to that first night on the streets after the fire. When I had nowhere to go, no one I knew, and the whole of London stretched out in front of me. The Ealing household had been the one place in seven years that I could consider a home, but the longer Mrs Ealing's vendetta went on for, the less it felt that way.

Then there was Matthew.

If it came to it, would he be willing to take me in if I had nowhere else to go? I had met him only once with the promise that he would be back but that didn't mean anything. He may have been family by blood, but I knew nothing about him other than what he had told me. He also had a family of his own. Despite him wanting to see me, I couldn't help but feel as though I was impeding his own family life, disrupting everything he had. I didn't want to be the person to destroy his own family unity because I had lost my job over something as stupid as climbing a tree.

Staying out of trouble was a remarkably difficult thing for me to do. Even back at the factory, I was blamed when things went wrong, even if I was nowhere near it. That trend appeared to have followed me to the Ealing household, it was almost like lice.

Not wanting to get in any more trouble, I pulled myself out of my thoughts and back into the kitchen as I continued to wash the dishes that appeared to be growing out of control. My shoulder ached every time I moved it and I had to bite my lip to keep from screaming whenever a wave of pain would travel down my arm. Whatever I had done to my shoulder, it wasn't going to go away any time soon. I would just have to work around it until it healed.

"Have you almost finished those dishes?" Miss Jenkins asked, taking a pot of the stove and resting it on the table.

"Almost," I said, scrubbing the cloth around a plate.

"Excellent. When you're done, there are some sheets in the basket that needed to be washed. The washbasin and board are just outside on the grass. You can put everything through the mangle and hang it up after luncheon."

"Yes, Miss Jenkins."

Finishing the last of the dishes, I placed it on the draining board to dry and grabbed the basket of sheets from the edge of the kitchen. My shoulder protested under the weight of the basket as I used my back to push open the door and step out onto the grass outside the door. Miss Jenkins had placed the metal wash basin just shy of the door with the scrubbing board inside, leaning against the rim of the basin. Dropping the basin onto the floor, I knelt beside the basin and grabbed one of the white sheets from inside the basket.

I knew my shoulder wasn't going to agree with me scrubbing the cloth across the board, so I used my left arm and set about cleaning the sheets. It was a lot harder to scrub the sheets against the washboard with my left hand then it was my right, but there was nothing I could do about it. If my shoulder was going to get any better, then I needed to minimise how much I used it. Though that was going to be considerably difficult. If the injury happened to my left shoulder, I could simply use the burn as an excuse for not doing certain things. It still caused issues with heavy lifting or other chores, but at least it could have been the fall back if my shoulder got any worse.

The problem was, the injury to my shoulder was not new. Back at the factory, the foreman had once asked me to clean under the machines whilst they were still running. He didn't think I had done my job well enough the previous day and that small pieces of fluff had escaped and become trapped. Whilst crawling out the other side of the machine, I had knocked my shoulder against the edge of it, doing something more than bruising it. With no doctor in the factory, Agnes had looked at it after work and tied a strip of bedsheet around it to keep it in place. It never really healed after that. I had been plagued with shoulder pain before the tree, but it had gotten worse because of Zachariah.

Finishing up the last of the washing, I left it in the basket and laid it against the wall to put through the mangle and hang up later on. Dark clouds loomed overhead as I stretched my right arm out to try and loosen my shoulder. I knew it wasn't going to do anything, but it was better than nothing. After a few seconds, I dropped my arm back to my side and grabbed the edge of the basin with the intention of tipping the water out across the grass. Wrapping my fingers around the edge, I pulled it upwards just as a wave of pain ran over my shoulder and down the whole of my right arm.

I dropped the basin and grabbed my upper arm, biting on my lower lip to stop myself making any sort of noise. The whole of my right arm felt as though it was burning with pains spreading right the way down to my fingertips.

"Are you alright?" Robert's voice asked. I turned on my heel and watched as he closed the kitchen door behind him, furrowing his eyebrows as he saw me clutching my arm.

"Fine, the basin's heavier then I thought it would be," I said.

"Are you sure? You were holding your arm earlier on."

"Positive. I said I banged it earlier, so it's probably just bruised a little."

"Hm, maybe. You should get Father to look at it if it gets any worse, we wouldn't want it to stop you from working. Or tipping over washing basins."

"I will. I promise." I paused. "Can I help you with anything?"

"Mother wants to see you. She knows about what happened with the tree and she's called a meeting."

~~~

A/N - Chapter Six has arrived!  Chapter Seven is in progress so our weekly updates will continue! I'm going to try and write some chapters in advance so the weekly update schedule can continue when I go back to uni, just in case dissertation stuff gets too much. 

Anyways, so, Zachariah is fine, but Rosie is now injured... Do you think she was right to not tell Robert about her shoulder, or Miss Jenkins? What about Miss Jenkins, does she seem a little harsh? Also, what do you think is going to happen next?

Comment below!

Dedication - This chapter is dedicated to Kaikay12321 who sent me a really sweet PM and also gave me something to think about regarding Robert and Rosie's relationship... I'M SAYING NOTHING ELSE!!!

First Published - July 2nd, 2019