Esther returned that evening with a pleather of stories about working at the office that day, all of them appearing rather mundane compared to what I had witnessed just the other week. Still, Miss Jenkins allowed her to speak whilst she finished up the supper for upstairs and I sliced up the gingerbread cake we had made earlier. It was the only task I could do since I couldn't serve upstairs with only one leg.

"I don't understand how you do it every week, Rosie. People were coming in and out all day, some showing signs of influenza, others with injuries from the work going on around the city, it was chaotic. We barely had time to eat anything," Esther said. She slumped back against the chair and ran her hands over her face. She struggled to keep her eyes open and looked as though she was going to fall asleep right there and then.

"Get that down you, you need to stay awake. They'll be wanting supper soon," Miss Jenkins said. A cup of steaming dark liquid was placed in front of Esther and I watched as she seized it and drunk the whole thing in one go, not even waiting for it to cool. She pulled a face and placed the cup back on the table.

"Ugh, I will never get used to that. How Doctor Ealing can drink several cups of that a day is beyond me, it's disgusting."

"What is it?" I asked, taking the cup and looking at the dregs at the bottom. It certainly didn't smell all that appetising.

"Coffee, the last resort for tired servants." She took the cup of the table. "Go on, off you go. The table's already set, all you need to take up is the food. Spill any of it and they'll be no gingerbread cake for you."

"Don't worry, I won't."

Miss Jenkins handed Esther a large tray weighed down with a large pot containing the stew and a smaller bowl of mash potatoes. I watched as Esther struggled under the weight of the tray and made her way out of the kitchen whilst her footsteps gradually receded up the stairs. Mrs Ealing slid a wooden breadboard and a hunk of bread in my direction. She placed a large knife on the table beside the brad and I knew immediately what she wanted me to do before she had even said it. Whilst Esther spent the evening serving upstairs and spending all that time on her feet after a long day at the office, I was slicing up bread in the comfort of the kitchen.

It was unfair for several reasons, but the fact that Esther had to complete the hardest of chores on her own whilst I sat at the kitchen table and did nothing but slice up a loaf of bread. Doctor Ealing's decision to keep me on had been on the basis that I would relieve the amount of work Esther did and yet I had somehow managed to add to them rather than making it any better. It had been hard to pinpoint just how many days I had spent out of work rather than partaking in it over the past six months. Although the six months prior had been doable, with my workload being somewhat on par with Esther's, the last few weeks I had spent more time not working.

In truth, I felt bad about it. I had done nothing but add to the ongoing aggravation Miss Jenkins and Esther had to deal with. Rather than focusing on the chores they had to do, both had to worry on whether or not I would still have a job by the end of the week or whether I was fit to work after I had injured myself or come down with some sort of ailment. If felt as though I was more hassle than the twins since they were having to keep a better eye on me then I did on them. I was surprised Miss Jenkins hadn't been the one to throw me out by the ear when she realised just how much trouble I would bring to her doorstep on a regular basis.

"If you're done with that, you can wipe the knife and cut up the gingerbread cake, I need to finish the decorations on the trifle for upstairs. Strawberries are difficult to get in Winter, but Mrs Ealing insists on them. Luckily, I froze a lot of them in the icebox during Summer," Miss Jenkins said. She shook her head and slid the pan of gingerbread cake across the table.

"Yes, Miss Jenkins." I took the knife and a cloth and gently wiped the knife across the cloth to clean off the bread crumbs. I then grabbed onto the pan and pulled it closer towards me.

"Don't worry, you'll be serving upstairs in no time."

"I highly doubt that my knee was the size of a dinnerplate yesterday."

"Just wait and see, and in the meantime, I'm sure we can come up with other chores you can do."

"All of which are going to involve sitting down and I'm not the biggest fan of sitting down for a prolonged period. I like to up and moving around and doing something, less time to think that way."

"I've noticed. I'm sure you'll be fine with just a week or so of sitting down and there will be enough chores for you to keep busy with down here." She paused. "Now, get to cutting that up and mind you don't eat any of it, I'll know."

Miss Jenkins tapped her finger to her nose and grinned before passing by the table and disappearing into the hallway in search of the frozen strawberries. Although I appreciated the optimism, even with my decision to leave, I knew there were very little chores a person could do sitting down. Back at the factory, we always had work through our injuries unless it were a missing limb. When I had first injured my knee, I still had to crawl around on the floor and collect the leftover fluff. Doctor Ealing would never have allowed that, and I almost disliked him for it.

I knew Mrs Ealing's plan had to injure me so I couldn't work and therefore giving her the excuse she needed to get rid of me and Doctor Ealing had fallen right into that trap. He may have been doing it for my own good, at least in his eyes, but I would have preferred it if he had allowed me to continue working with the damage to my knee. Dusting was still possible with one decent leg and it would have meant Mrs Ealing's attempt to give me the last two infractions would have failed. Yet there I was, being confined to the kitchen with nothing to do but dishes and the occasional slicing of bread or cake.

It took Miss Jenkins fifteen minutes to hunt the strawberries down in the icebox and by the time she had returned, Esther had just remerged from upstairs with the dishes, and she didn't look all that pleased. Miss Jenkins failed to notice as she started to place the strawberries around the top of the trifle, and I didn't think it my place to mention anything considering my current standings with the entire family. Esther, however, could barely contain herself.

"You will never believe what they are talking about upstairs!"

"Calm down, Esther, or they'll hear you upstairs," Miss Jenkins said. Had she not needed the strawberries, I'm more than certain she would have thrown them at her.

"I highly doubt they'll care, you'll find out soon enough and I expect they'd rather you found out now so they don't have to go through the hassle of doing it."

"What on earth are you talking about?"

"Mrs Ealing is talking about sending Rosie to work for Lady Thatcher. Apparently, she's been looking for a new servant and we know how intrigued she is by her and how much Mrs Ealing wants to be rid of her. The worst part is Doctor Ealing isn't even attempting to talk her out of it, he's just agreeing with her!"

Miss Jenkins glanced up from the trifle, strawberries in hand and looked to Esther with a raised eyebrow and her lips pursed. She slowly lowered the handful of strawberries to the table and dropped them, allowing them to roll across the wood and stop just a short distance away from the bowl of trifle. She didn't say anything, and by the look on her face, she didn't need to.

Doctor Ealing had been the one who had defended me in front of his wife since day one, and yet he refused to do anything as she planned to send me elsewhere so she didn't have to deal with me. Out of everyone in the house, I thought he would have been the one person to defend me no matter what, and yet it looked as though he had finally given up hope on me. If he didn't think I was worth fighting for any more, then what reason I did I have to stay within his walls?

Some part of me hoped it wasn't true, that he may have just been humouring her and he would step in if she were to try and make it a reality. Yet, deep down I knew that that wasn't this case, and he didn't seem to care all that much that his wife was trying to get rid of me.

"I doubt there is any malicious intent behind it," Miss Jenkins finally said. She gathered up the strawberries and returned to placing them on the top of the trifle.

"It certainly seems like there is. Mrs Ealing has never talked about moving any of the servants before, not even Harriet and she was courting Jeremy during work hours. This is a new low, even for her," Esther said.

"If she is set in stone about it, I doubt there is nothing we can do about it. If she is going to move me, I hope she does it quickly," I said, shrugging my shoulders.

"You're not even going to fight it?" Esther raised an eyebrow at me as Miss Jenkins finished adding the strawberries to the trifle.

"What's the point? Mrs Ealing wants to be rid of me and I don't see the point in trying to fight it if it means I don't have to put up with her anymore."

"So, you'd rather get moved up North?"

"I never said that."

"Esther, you need to get this upstairs," Miss Jenkins said, breaking up the conversation. She pushed the trifle towards Esther.

"This conversation isn't over."

Esther grabbed the bowl of trifle and quickly left the kitchen to take it upstairs. Miss Jenkins didn't speak, she simply crossed the room and washed her hands at the sink to remove the strawberry juice that had stained her fingers. I turned my attention back to the knife that I used to slice the gingerbread cake and began to pick the crumbs off the knife and pop them into my mouth.

The tension in the room felt as though it had increased ten-fold and not even the sharpest of knives would have been able to slice through it. I knew I should have kept my mouth shut and just allowed Esther to rant about Mrs Ealing's plan to move me up north to work for her sister. Yet I hadn't and had ended up putting my foot in it, as I always did. I knew I had to tell them that I wasn't staying, but even with Mrs Ealing threatening to move me, I couldn't find the words to tell them that I didn't plan on being sent anywhere.

I would have to tell them eventually, and even though the perfect opportunity looked as though it may have fallen straight into my lap, once again I struggled to find the words, I needed to tell them. Talking had never been something I struggled with, my brothers would have told me that much, but this was such an important thing to tell them and I didn't know how to put. What do I say to the people who had taken me when they didn't have to?

"Enough daydreaming, missy. There are dishes to be done," Miss Jenkins said. She gestured to the sink where a large pile of dishes had appeared. I hadn't seen them there before.

"Yes, Miss Jenkins," I said.

I scraped the last of the cake crumbs from the knife and pushed my chair back along the floor. With the knife in hand, I grabbed onto the edge of the table and used it to move myself across to the sink. The cut on my hand ached as I started to fill the sink with water and start the task of scrubbing and cleaning the dishes that came with the upstairs supper. The soap we used to wash the dishes hurt the cut on my hand, but I didn't say anything to Miss Jenkins. Enough was going on without me complaining about a cut on my hand that had been the result of my own clumsiness.

Instead, I just kept to myself and washed the dishes without saying a word. My life had been a series of remaining silent over things such as minor injuries and even though I knew I didn't have to any more, I still preferred it. I had caused enough drama with my shoulder and my knee and neither of those had been my fault, I didn't want to limit my chores even further by complaining about a cut on my hand. Even if I only had a week or so left working for the Ealing's, I didn't want to add to their aggravation by doing nothing for that time.

Esther returned with the dessert dishes just as I finished up the ones from the stew. She glared at me as she dropped them into the sink and took a seat at the table. I didn't realise that I would have angered her as much with an offhanded comment that, to her, meant nothing. Still, I washed the dishes she had put in the sink whilst Miss Jenkins served up our supper and placed it on the table. I finished the dishes and dried my hands on a cloth before manoeuvring my way around to my seat. Esther continued to glare at me.

"There we go. I figured since they were having something simple upstairs, we'd have something simple," Miss Jenkins said. She pushed two bowls of hot soup towards us and then slid some spoons alongside them.

"I hate it when they have something simple upstairs, it's almost as bad as when they have parties," Esther muttered, snatching up her spoon and dipping it into the bowl.

"At least this tastes of something other than dishwater, not a taste I would recommend," I replied.

"I'll take that as a compliment." Miss Jenkins furrowed her eyebrows at me and shook her head slightly.

We ate in silence, the three of us taking mouthfuls of soup and occasionally opting for a slice of bread instead of a spoon. Miss Jenkins cooking was certainly something I would miss when I was no longer working with them. They had been the first real food I had eaten after seven years in the factory with nothing but porridge and soup that never tasted like soup. For the first team in years, I had eaten real food and Miss Jenkins cooked some of the best, I doubted any of her pies could be matched by anyone.

There were plenty of things I knew I was going to miss about working for the Ealing's, the food just being one portion of that. It would be having something to do all the time, watching the twins and meeting new people during my time at Doctor Ealing's office, I would even miss the nagging from Miss Jenkins when I didn't get my chores done in time. I wished it hadn't have gotten as far as it did, but the incident with the cane had changed everything and although I would never admit that it happened to anyone else, if that hadn't had happened, I would have simply stuck it out. Mrs Ealing made that impossible the moment she had struck me.

Doctor Ealing had saved my life and taken me in whilst his wife had driven me away.

When we had finished eating the soup, Miss Jenkins collected the bowls and dropped them in the sink before passing out the plates and placing a piece of gingerbread cake on each. I picked crumbs off mine with my fingers and waited for Miss Jenkins to take her seat. Once she had sat down, I took a bigger bite.

"I didn't get to ask earlier, but did you see James?" Esther asked, brushing her hands off and speaking me for the first time since we sat down.

"Yes, he stopped by earlier and we spoke in the woods," I replied.

"Good, I thought he would want to see you given what happened the other day." She gestured to the cane.

"Hm, he said he had seen you."

"Well, it was you he was looking for. It's one of the reasons why he came to the office. What did you talk about?"

"Nothing much, he just wanted to know what happened, that's all."

"If you say so."

"Stop questioning the poor girl, Esther. When you're done, you can go upstairs and complete your evening chores. Rosie, you can finish the dishes and then head up to bed since there will be nothing else for you to do here."

"Yes, Miss Jenkins," we chorused.

The two of us stuffed the last of the cake into our mouths and went about finishing our chores for the day. Esther left the kitchen whilst I shuffled around to the sink with the plates and started to wash them in the water that had been leftover from before. It didn't take me too long to wash the plates, bowls and saucepan that the soup had been prepared in. Once that was done and Miss Jenkins had asked me to put the leftover gingerbread in the pantry, I was able to slip upstairs and finally discover the contents of the letter.

I changed from my work dress into my nightdress and sat with my left leg crossed over the right on the bed with the envelope in hand. The fire Samuel had lit a few days before roared in the corner and filled the room wit heat against the cold wind that battered the window outside. My hands shook slightly as I undid the envelope and pulled out the folded letter.

Dear Rosie,

I expect you're wondering why I am writing this to you seeing as we live in the same house and it would be far easier for me to simply find you and ask you. To put it simply, I knew I would struggle to find the words when standing in front of you.

Although it may not seem it, I often find myself tongue-tied around you and find it impossible to say what I really want to. Often, I just watch you work. You tend to furrow your eyebrows when you concentrate.

When I met you six months ago, I thought I must have been insane to give up my pocket money to help someone I had just met. Now, I am extremely glad I did. You have been the only servant, the only person I have known, to treat me like a person. You have never had any shame in insulting me, in fact, you seem to enjoy it. You are the only servant to never refer to me as 'Master Robert' and I am grateful for that. It always felt as though I was somehow above a person, but I'm not.

Mother always talks about how important our status is, how important appearances are to the outside world. For years she has been talking about me marrying well to preserve the family honour, but I have never wanted to do that. I don't want to marry someone I don't love.

I want you, Rosie.

I don't care what Mother thinks, she can disown me and cast me aside for all I care. My fondness for you has grown over these past few months and I cannot see myself with anyone but you.

Please don't be alarmed, but I have to know. Do you, perchance, feel the same about me?

All my love,

Robert

I dropped my hands into my lap and stared at the flickering fire. Esther and James had both tried to tell me, but I failed to acknowledge what had been staring me in the face for longer than I thought. I liked Robert.

With that, my decision was clear. I couldn't stay. Not anymore.

~~~

A/N - Two chapters left! You'll be pleased to know that I'm making my way through the next book and I'm two and a half chapters in! Also, updates will return to Tuesday's as of NEXT WEEK!

For those of you wondering, last week's cover was a mock one made by Azanthiel and the one above will be the real cover! That's what you'll see in just a short period! I'm so excited :D

Alright, we finally have the contents of the letter! Was it as you all expected, or not? Let me know!  Also, what do you guys think of  Mrs Ealing and her plan to get rid of Rosie?

Comment below! 

Dedication - This chapter is dedicated to saintc who created a thread over in the Community called 'The Chuck Taylors' it's a really helpful thread and I would recommend it to everyone! 

First Published - December 30th, 2019