"You should have seen this one when he came home after seeing you for the first time. He looked as though he had found one-hundred pounds on the floor outside," Lily said as we walked down the busy London street. Matthew and Sebastian were just ahead of us, Sebastian giggled whenever Matthew lifted him in the air.

"I wish I could say the same thing. To tell you truth, I was a little unsure about everything, especially when Matthew turned up at the house," I replied, knotting my fingers together in front of me.

"It's understandable, after so long it must feel a little strange. I hope you don't mind me saying, but I wasn't sure you would agree to join us, especially after Matthew put you on the spot like that.

"Hm, I wasn't sure I would agree, either. However, it was going to happen sooner or later and it's a change of pace from usual Sunday afternoon."

"James will be pleased to see you, he's been trying to convince Matthew to take him to the house for days now."

"I hope he doesn't have high expectations," I mumbled.

I may have agreed to meet him, but something inside me told me to turn around and run in the opposite direction. Spending my Sunday down at the river with the reading material Doctor Ealing had given me still felt like the favourable option compared to spending my afternoon sitting across from James. Meeting Matthew happened by chance, something I never expected to occur but this time I had agreed to a meeting with James and his wife. No one held me to my decision, I made it on my own, yet I was starting to wonder if I had made the right choice.

Still, it was too late for me to back out and I would have had nowhere to go expect hang my head and return to the Ealing house knowing I had missed the opportunity to speak to my brother. As much as the fear gnawed away inside me, I knew it was something I had to do if I were ever to develop a relationship with my family. Knowing they had all become somewhat successful in their chosen line of work whilst I was simple a servant, working for a family where I was constantly threatened by infractions, certainly didn't help matters. If James had expected big things, he was going to be extremely disappointed with the person he meets.

Matthew led us through London's twisting streets and through the people milling around after the various church services throughout the city. We passed by the school where Suzanna and Lucy were as well as Doctor Ealing's office, it felt as though we were going into the heart of London; somewhere I had never been. As we walked, I found myself occasionally craning my neck to see if I could spot the factory. Though most of it had been destroyed in the fire, the building that acted as Mr Thompson's lie was still standing high and proud as though it had done nothing wrong. Doctor Ealing said there were plans to knock it down, but nothing had been done yet.

"Almost there! James was unable to attend the service today because of work so I told him we would meet him at a café not far from the shop," Matthew said, turning back to face me with Sebastian tugging on his arm.

"Is his shop always busy?" I asked.

"It can be, he's always looking for an extra pair of hands though I think that's mainly for cleaning. His office organisation, or lack of, needs a little bit of help. Even Kitty has given up trying to help him. Sometimes I think it's his lack of organisation that leads to the shop being so busy."

"Kitty is his wife?"

"Yes, they married last year and no little ones as of yet, but she's always around to help out at the shop if needs be."

"Right."

"Don't worry yourself so, Rosie. Both Kitty and James have been excited to meet you ever since I told them, everything is going to be fine. Out of all of us, James always liked you best and that hasn't changed over the past seven years."

"We'll see."

"You'll be fine!"

Matthew passed Sebastian's hand onto Lily and wrapped his arm around my shoulder, giving it a light squeeze. I bit my lip as pain travelled down my arm and reached my fingers, ebbing away just as quickly as it had arrived. Matthew didn't seem to notice as he removed his arm and lightly grabbed onto my lower right arm to pull me along behind him so I couldn't dawdle behind them. Sebastian looked less than impressed about being handed over to his mother, but Matthew didn't seem to notice as he almost dragged me behind him.

After walking a little longer, Matthew released my arm as we approached a small café made from red brick with a pale blue door and a window that faced onto the busy street outside. When Lily and Sebastian caught up, Sebastian dragging his feet behind him, Matthew pushed open the door and listened to the small bell above the door ding when it was brushed. Lily lifted Sebastian over the threshold, and I watched as he went running into the Café with Lily close behind. I hesitated on the step outside before following them in, standing just in the doorway as Matthew closed the door and placed a reassuring hand on the small of my back.

"Uncle James!" Sebastian shrieked, tearing across the room to a table in the far corner.

"Sebastian, inside voice," Matthew said quietly, though he knew it was going to have no effect on Sebastian's volume.

Matthew left his hand on the small of my back as he lightly nudged me amongst the tables that lay throughout the room. We approached the table at the far end of the room where Sebastian had disappeared to and I immediately wanted to turn around and run in the other direction. Sat at the table, his back to the wall, was James and he looked as though he hadn't aged in seven years.

His hair still lay in loose waves against his forehead only it was a little longer, sneaking past his ear and towards the collar of his shirt. He still had the mischievous grin from when he was a child and the glint in his eyes that always meant he was up to something. It was almost as though nothing had actually changed. Beside James sat a young, blonde woman with mid-waist length curly hair in a pale blue dress. She smiled politely at Lily and glanced over towards Matthew and I, and nudged James in the ribs. James, who was focused on Sebastian, glanced up to his wife and then turned his head towards Matthew.

It took a few seconds for James to realise I was standing there but the moment he saw me, he pushed his chair back along the ground. Standing up, his eyes scanned up and down my body and I found myself subconsciously covering the burn scar with my right hand so that it was hidden. After a few seconds of nothing but the conversation around us to break the silence, James took several step forwards until he was standing right in front of me. He was a lot taller than I remembered.

"Rosie," he said, almost sounding as though he breathed the word rather than spoke it.

"Hello," I muttered.

"Matthew was right, you look so much like Mother. If I had seen you on the street, I would have had to do a double take."

"You've gotten taller."

"Not by much, it must be you. You've gotten taller so I don't look as tall as I did when you were seven."

"That must be it." I smiled slightly, feeling a little more comfortable but still deciding whether or not to make a run for the door.

"Shall we take a seat?" Matthew said, gesturing to the table. "Sebastian, why don't you sit next to your Aunty Rosie?"

"No! Her arm looks funny!" Sebastian said, climbing over Kitty to sit on the seat beside her whilst Lily took the one next to him.

"Apologise, Sebastian, that's not a nice thing to say."

"It's alright, Matthew, he just met me so being a little apprehensive is understandable."

"If you're sure, but we'll be having words later on, Sebastian, about how to be polite towards others."

Matthew took his hand of the small of my back whilst I followed James around the table and took a seat beside him with Matthew on my left. I kept my left arm tucked under the table to keep it hidden and lightly rested my right wrist on the table, avoiding eye-contact with everyone around the table. Kitty, who I hadn't been introduced to yet, smiled slightly before turning to help Lily contain Sebastian as he struggled and fought to climb out of his seat. How Matthew and Lily dealt with him on a daily basis was a mystery to me, unless it was just Sunday's he acted out.

As conversations around the table burst into life, I found myself focusing on the white table cloth that dangled off the edge of the table. The fringe on the edge brushed the top of my thigh and I fiddled with the fringe to keep myself distracted. I had no idea what any of them were talking about and frankly, I didn't care all that much about it. Working on the Ealing's left little time for conversation except for breakfast or in the evening. Luncheon was eaten at haste in case the bell from one of the rooms rang and we were always too busy to talk to one another unless something had happened. I didn't know anyone at that table, and I felt like I was too out of place.

Matthew ordered the Sunday roast for us all and a sandwich for Sebastian who complained the moment the Sunday roast was mentioned. When it arrived, the table lapped into a silence and out of the corner of my eye I could feel Matthew watching me as I ate. I felt as though I had been put on the spot with everyone expecting me to say something or do something that seemed out of place. I ate in silence and even went as far as to use the napkin provided, not that it was something we often used in the kitchen.

"May I ask you a question, Rosie?" Kitty said, placing her knife and fork down on her now empty plate.

"I suppose so," I said, placing my napkin on the table.

"Matthew told us about where you were for the past seven years and I was curious as to how you came to work for the Ealing's. My friend, Annabelle, tried to get a position there as a nursery maid, yet they were difficult people to impress."

"It sort of happened by accident. The morning after I had been dismissed, I had the little money I had managed to gain stolen and it was Doctor Ealing's son, Robert, that helped me. He offered up his pocket money to get my burn looked at and Doctor Ealing offered me a two-week trial. Towards the end of the trial, the fire happened that exposed the factory for what it was, and my placement became a little more permanent. Though I don't think Mrs Ealing's all too pleased with that arrangement."

"Why do you say that?"

"No reason, I shouldn't have said anything."

"If there is something going on, Rosie, we might be able to help," Matthew said.

"It's nothing, I'm dealing with it and Robert has offered to help so there is nothing for you to get involved in."

I knew they were only trying to look out for me, but I had already said too much about what was unfolding with Mrs Ealing and I certainly didn't need them getting involved as it would only have made matters worse. There were somethings I needed to handle on my own, without my older brothers feeling as though they had an obligation to join in and dealing with Mrs Ealing just happened to be one of them. Although I liked that they were trying to act like my brothers, as though none of the past seven years had happened; they had, and I was far better equipped to deal with things on my own then I was when I was seven.

Still, neither James nor Matthew pressed the issue any further and I was glad for it. Instead, the summoned a waiter who collected our plates and returned with slices of the same almond cake that Miss Jenkins made for Matilda's birthday. That had been the only time it had been made and the only time I had eaten it. It may have only been a cake, but I couldn't help but think back to that night, to the first-time things had started to go wrong and my lie started to unravel. It was that night that I had first met the Warrington's and a small slice of the cake became the one good thing to come out of that evening.

It's funny how something a small as a piece of cake can hold so many memories; not all of them good.

Tucking into the slice of the cake with my fork, I watched as Sebastian somehow ended up with the cream all over his face whilst Lily battled to clean it off him. Everything Sebastian did looked as though it ended in some sort of fight to contain his energy or clean the cake off him. I smiled to myself and stabbed my fork into my own cake slice. As I went to eat the chunk of cake off the fork, a stabbing sensation coursed through my right arm almost causing me to drop the fork. I fought against it and tried to keep my face as straight as possible, but the sudden stiffness that crossed my body hadn't gone unnoticed.

"Are you alright there, Rosie?" James muttered, furrowing his eyebrows to look at me.

"Mm-hm, I'm fine," I said.

"You look as though you were in pain."

"I knocked my shoulder the other day, that's all. Being a servant and helping out with two small children is a dangerous profession."

"Did you get Doctor Ealing to look at it, in case it was something serious?"

"There was no point, it'll be fine in a few days. I just knocked it, that's all."

"It looked as though it was causing more pain then if you had knocked it. At least let me have a look, if it looks fine then I'll drop the issue. If not, you'll get Doctor Ealing to look at it, otherwise you'll only make it worse."

"I can't really argue against you, can I?"

"No, not really."

James grinned slightly and shuffled his chair a little closer so he could get a better look at my shoulder. The dress came up to the bottom of my neck, completely covering my shoulder, so I turned my head slightly so James could get to the clasps on the back. Despite everyone at the table now realising that something odd was going on, James slowly undid some of the clasps and pushed the sleeves just far enough to expose my shoulder. As he pulled my sleeve down my arm, burst of mummers filled the café as people thought that having my shoulder exposed was an immoral act. When he had exposed my shoulder fully, James gasped slightly and released my sleeve.

"Have you looked at your shoulder recently?" he asked.

"No, why?"

"It's really bruised and looks a little swollen. Take a look."

James grabbed my sleeve again and pulled it down my arm to re-expose my shoulder. Glancing over, I strained my neck slightly to get a better view of my shoulder and the damage that had been caused when Zachariah fell. James was right. My right shoulder had turned a dark purple colour and looked a few sizes larger than it should have, something I should have noticed when I had gotten dressed that morning. It certainly didn't look the way it was supposed to and was probably more damaged then I thought it would.

"Oh."

"Yes, oh. How did you not see this?"

"I didn't think anything of it. I thought I'd simply aggravated an old injury from the factory, it never really healed properly."

"You should let Doctor Ealing take a look at that, Rosie, it looks nasty," Lily said as James re-did the clasps at the back of my dress.

"I agree. If you don't get it looked at between now and the next time I see you, which will be sometime this week, I'll tell Doctor Ealing myself an insist you get it looked at," Matthew said, placing his fork on his plate and looking at me.

"That conversation will go down swimmingly, Mrs Ealing is going to have a field day when she finds out," I muttered.

"As long as you don't do any permanent damage to it, I'm sure everything will be fine."

"The damage is already there. It's an injury I picked up at the factory that didn't really heal."

"Still, it's better to be safe than sorry and if it get's any worse you could be out of a job."

I knew Matthew was right, but I didn't want to admit that to him. Although Mrs Ealing would be more than pleased for the injury to have me out of the job, the fact that it could prevent me from getting any further work placements wasn't worth thinking about. I liked being busy, having something to do at every hour of every day to keep me distracted from my own head. If I couldn't work, I wouldn't be able to complete Isabel's list and that was the one thing that was keeping me going despite Mrs Ealing and her desire to throw me out.

The problem was, if the injury was as serve as it looked, Mrs Ealing would surely use it as an excuse to throw me out the door. The injury was created by the thing that led to my first infraction and that in itself was no doubt an infraction worthy incident. Having Doctor Ealing look at my shoulder made sense in the long run, but it didn't feel as though it was worth the hassle. So many things could go wrong just by having my arm examined but Matthew would never have seen it that way. None of them would have. I doubt they even knew how important having that placement was.

As the afternoon progressed, the topic of my shoulder became a distant memory and I came to learn more about my brothers then I thought I would have. By the time we left the café and Matthew had arranged a taxi-carriage to take me back to the Ealing's I didn't want to go. I enjoyed spending time with them and getting to know them and their families from the beginning. So much had changed, but they were still the same boys I had known seven years ago. The still tormented each other at every opportunity and went out of their way to create trouble for the other.

The only difference being that they had gotten taller and had families of their own. I wish I could have said the same thing about myself. So much had changed for me and no amount of luncheons was going to change that. They could try with all their might, but nothing was going to return to the way it was, and I doubted it ever would.

~~~

A/N - Welcome back to another chapter of The Serving Girl and this week, we have met James! Also, I am now 6 chapters ahead in pre-writes and managed to enter The Factory Girl into the Wattys! I don't expect a win but I entered anyway xD

Before I get into the questions, I wanted you guys to know that The Factory Girl hir 40K reads!!! This is the first time that has happened to me and I owe it all to you lovely people!

Question time! What do you think of James? Any new views on Matthew or Sebastian? How about Lily and Kitty? Do you think Rosie will talk to Doctor Ealing about her arm?

Comment below!

Dedication - This chapter is dedicated to IslandApricot who went through and spam-voted TFG :) Your reads and votes mean a lot!

First Published - July 30th, 2019