For the next few days, I found it impossible to shake the thought of seeing my brother from my mind. As I completed my daily chores, his face would flash in my mind, the face I remembered from when we were children. For years I had tried to block out everything associated with my family and my life before I had ended up inside those factory gates. Isabel would always talk about what she would do when she saw her parents, what she would say. To her, confronting her parents was one of the first things she would do when she was free of the foreman. Of course, that didn't happen.

I had been given the opportunity Isabel had always dreamed off, and I was throwing it away because I was scared. Scared to know what my brother knew, or didn't know, about what Father had done. Scared to confront my own father for what he had put me through for seven years. When I was younger I wanted answers, I wanted to know why he did it but as I got older I realised it would be a pointless venture. Even if I wanted answers, I wasn't sure I would get the truth and I certainly didn't want to know the reason why my own father had abandoned me just a few months after my mother died.

Trying to complete my daily chores with the thought of my own brother hanging over me became harder and harder as the week went on. My mind was so focused on what I was going to do that none of my work was up to its usual standard and it didn't go unnoticed. At every given opportunity, Mrs Ealing criticised my work and explained how it wasn't up to a high enough quality. Whilst I was inclined to agree with her, she had said the same thing since the factory fire and it started to lose all meaning. It wasn't until someone else noticed it that I realised just how much it was plaguing my mind.

"Rosie? You've been making my bed for almost half an hour, are you alright?" Matilda asked, appearing in the doorway. She had been summoned to breakfast whilst I completed one of my first duties for the day.

"I apologise, Miss, I must have gotten distracted. I'll finish it right away," I said. Grabbing one of the pillows, I set about plumping and fluffing it before laying it back down at the end of the bed. As I went to grab another one, I felt Matilda's hand on my shoulder.

"What's going on? You have been acting strangely for the past few days, ever since you came back from Father's office. It hasn't gone unnoticed. Did something happen?"

"I think I saw my brother, at the office." I perched on the edge of Matilda's bed and she quickly followed suit.

"Your brother? Are you sure?"

"Not entirely. He had the same name and looked almost identical to the person I remember, but he was sixteen when I saw him last and people change. I doubt he recognised me."

"Why do you think that?"

"I'm not the same seven-year-old he last saw. Though he said he knew me but couldn't place me. One of his friends thought he could have seen the burn and read about me in the paper, but he didn't think so."

"What are you going to do about him?"

"I don't know. I can either forget I met him or find out if he is who I think it is. For years I've said I never wanted to see my family again, my brothers included. Isabel always used to say that the one thing she wanted to do more than anything was to find out why. I always thought she was mad."

"Maybe she had the right idea."

"Isabel had a lot of ideas about what she wanted to do when she left the factory, this was the only one I thought to be completely insane."

"If she had a list of things to do, why don't you do them?"

I hadn't thought of that. For six months, Suzanna, Lucy and I had tried to come up with a way to honour Isabel, to remember her. We had yet to come up with something that felt right, something true to who she was and what she may have grown into given the opportunity. Completing the list of things she had wanted to do seemed like the right way to honour her memory and still feel connected to her. The only problem being that it meant coming into contact with my family and trying to understand why I had been left with Mr Thompson and the foreman. That was a line I wasn't entirely sure I wanted to cross, but for Isabel, I would have done anything.

There were so many things she had wanted to do but will never get the chance because of the foreman and Mr Thompson. We used to say that surviving the factory was a matter of luck. Right place, right time. Isabel didn't get that. She was singled out by the foreman and murder for no logical reasoning. He never gave a reason for it, never admitted to what he had done but it was obvious to everyone what had happened. Isabel hadn't been given a chance to live, so we were going to live for her. If that meant coming into contact with my family after so many years, then so be it. Isabel felt it was something she needed to do, so I would do it instead.

"That's not a bad idea, we've been trying to think of a way to honour her. Completing her list might be a way of doing that."

"What else is on the list? We can write it down a see how we can go about completing it," Matilda said. She pushed herself up from the bed and crossed the room to her desk where she took a sheet of paper and a pencil out from one of the drawers.

"She always wanted to wear a fancy gown and attend a party as a guest. She wanted to go to the seaside, she had never been before. Learning to make an apple pie was also important, she said it had been her favourite dessert."

"Well the last one should be relatively easy seeing as you're learning to bake with Miss Jenkins, the other two may take a little persuading."

"I doubt your mother will go for it, she really doesn't like me."

"Leave that to me. Is there anything else of the list?"

For the next ten minutes, Matilda and I put together a list of things that Isabel had wanted to do when she got older. Some of them were harder than others, but I was willing to do anything as long as it meant the list was completed. Matilda was willing to help where ever possible, promising to mention the list to her parents to see if there was anything either of them could help with. I was glad to have her on my side, even if she had tried to get rid of them the first time she met me. After the fire, her attitude towards me changed completely and she became more of a friend than an enemy. I was glad seeing as Mrs Ealing no longer liked me.

After finishing the list, I completed the task I had originally been asked to do and returned to the kitchen with the list folded away inside of my pocket. I always planned on keeping the list in my pocket, just in case an opportunity cropped up to complete an item on it. Returning to the kitchen, neither Miss Jenkins nor Esther said anything as I grabbed a small cloth from the side room and headed back upstairs for my cleaning duties. I hadn't hung around the kitchen long enough to receive a telling off for my tardiness and I certainly wasn't looking forward to it at supper time.

Miss Jenkins had been kind to me in the weeks after Isabel's death, she even allowed me to take several breaks throughout the work day, so I didn't get overwhelmed. That had stopped, and she expected me to work as well as any other servants under her authority. Any delay between tasks was an instant infraction and too many of those were cause for dismissal according to Mrs Ealing and I had worked too hard to have it all taken away because I had been late for my next task. In order to minimise my infractions, Miss Jenkins gave me tasks that kept me away from Robert and the twins. She decided that they would be the main source of distraction, I suppose she never counted on Robert.

With the small cloth in hand, I climbed the stairs back up to the main house and set about dusting and wiping down the cupboards and cabinets that lined the hallways. The hallways were tinged grey from the cloud that covered the sky and blocked out the sun, rain threatened to pour down. Humming to myself, I wiped the cloth across the cabinets, moving photographs and small trinkets to dust underneath them. All the time I dusted, the list in pocket crackled against my leg with each movement. I wanted it to be a constant reminder of the things I needed to achieve, not just for myself, but for Isabel.

The Ealing's may have given me a second chance at life, but I intended to live for myself and for Isabel.

"I don't know how you can stand dusting, I think I would go insane," Robert said, appearing from the Library with a book tucked under his arm.

"It's a good thing you're not the one dusting then. Aren't you supposed to be studying?" I asked.

"I needed to get a book." He lifted the book from under his arm. "Besides, Father woke up late, so he hasn't even left for the office yet. I'm being more productive then he is at the moment."

"Well, there's a first time for everything."

"You are so mean to me, Rosie. Honestly, you hurt my feelings."

"It's the only bit of fun I get."

"I'm glad I can be a source of amusement for you."

Robert chuckled slightly and tucked the book underneath his armpit. As I continued to wipe down the cabinets and trinkets, Robert leant himself against the wall and watched me. I tried to ignore him as I continued with my duties but the further down the hallway I went the closer he got. It was a little difficult to concentrate with his eyes watching every little thing I did, but I couldn't tell him not to. Instead, I turned my head until he was out of my peripheral vision and continued down to the end of the hallway. Reaching the front door, I turned and made my way down the other side of the hallway, Robert still close behind me.

It felt as though I was back at the factory, with the foreman's eyes watching my every move and waiting for me to slip up and do something wrong. I know that wasn't his intention, it was just Robert trying to get out of studying, but that's what it felt like. As though I were seven-years-old again, not knowing what I was going and unsure of everything that was going on. I didn't like the feeling of being watched back then and I still didn't like it, even if there was no malicious intent behind it. Knowing someone was watching my every move unnerved me beyond belief, no matter what the intention may have been.

"You missed a bit," Robert said, pointing to a spot on the cabinet I had just wiped down.

"How would you know if I missed a spot?"

"I have these things called eyes, they let me see things and you definitely did not wipe that little bit right there." He pressed his finger against the cabinet, leaving a small smudge behind me.

"You did that on purpose!"

"Did I? Well, you'll have to prove it."

Scowling at him, I wiped the cloth across the cabinet to remove the mark before smacking him on the arm with the cloth. Robert pouted and rub the spot on his arm that I had smacked, making it look as though I had punched him rather than hit him with some fabric. As I finished up the rest of the cabinets, Robert continued to loom over me. He whistled quietly to himself as I wiped the cloth across the last cabinet and placed the cloth over my shoulder to replace the trinkets that decorated the top. I always wondered why there were so many cabinets lining the hallway, and why they had so many things on top of them. It just made it harder to dust.

Robert followed me down the hallway and into the drawing room where he lingered around the doorway as I started to dust and clean the whole room. Most of my tasks consisted of dusting seeing as it was something I could do without having to worry about the burn. That, and I was surprisingly good at it. All of my years cleaning the fluff in the factory meant that I had a keen eye for detail and spotted things that Esther or Miss Jenkins may have missed. It worked well for dusting and for washing, just in case a stain had been missed. Although the tasks were repetitive and slow at best, I enjoyed the time alone and the quiet. Most of the time.

Whilst I started on cleaning, Robert approached the piano. He dropped the book onto the top, the bang echoing through the room. Grinning, he lifted up the cover and pressed the palm of his hands against the keys, sending the sound through the room. I tried to ignore them as he tapped several of the keys down to check that it was in tune before he took a large, rather obnoxious breath before he started playing.

The music travelled through the room as I continued through the room with the cloth, dusting down the tables and chairs. It felt nice to work without the silence that I had started to grow used to. At the factory, there was always the sound of machines moving backwards and forwards or the sound of the other girls coughing because of the fluff. The silence may have been fine to work with some of the time, but most of the time it was hard to deal with. It left me alone with my thoughts for far too long, and I didn't like being left with my thoughts.

"If you don't start studying, you are going to be in an awful lot of trouble," I said, wiping the cloth along the windowsill.

"I like to live dangerously, you know that," Robert said. He continued to play the piano, not playing any particular tune but simply making it up as he went along.

"Hm, I'm not sure that's true. If you don't start your studying, your mother will blame me and you and I both know that it will count as an infraction."

"There is no way Mother would count it as an infraction if anything I'm the one distracting you."

"She hasn't liked me since she found out about the factory, you know that better than anyone. Anything I do is under scrutiny and she will not see it any other way. I need her on my side if I'm going to complete Isabel's list."

"List? What list?"

"Matilda helped me with it." I grabbed the folded sheet of paper from my pocket and handed it to Robert. "It's everything Isabel wanted to do before she died. I'm not going to be able to do all of it on my own, so I will need your mother on side to help me."

"The first one is about her family. Does that mean you're going to see Matthew again?" Robert's voice was low, as though he wasn't entirely sure what to make of the list and the things Isabel wanted to be on it.

"I don't know. I know it's what Isabel wanted more than anything, but I'm not her. For years I've tried to forget about my family and what they did, this list means I have to confront them and I'm not sure I'm ready to do that. There are too many things that could go wrong, but I feel as though I have to do it. For Isabel."

"There is nothing wrong with not doing it if you're uncomfortable. You shouldn't force yourself into a situation that you know you're going to struggle with. Isabel would understand that." He stopped playing the piano and closed the lid down on top of the keys, swinging around on the stool to face me.

"I know, but this is for her. She's never going to be able to complete the list herself and do the things she had dreamed of doing for most of her life. It's something I have to do."

"If that's how you feel, then I can't exactly stop you, can I? You'll do it regardless of what I thought, what anyone thought. I'm sure Father can help you track down Matthew, his address was in his file, so it won't take too long to find him. As for everything else, we'll get it done and I'm sure Father can do a little convincing for Mother and make sure she's on side to help you out. I highly doubt she's going to try and stop you from completing the list, it's not as though it will affect your work."

"No, right now you're affecting my work," I said, laughing slightly.

"Alright, I get the hint. I'll see if I can catch Father before he leaves for work, try and see what he can do about finding Matthew. He's going into the office anyway, so he can take a look at the file."

"Thank you."

"I'll leave you to it."

"I've just finished in here."

"Ah, so I made you work faster rather than slower."

"Hm, so I can get away from you quicker."

"You're mean."

Grinning at Robert, I grabbed the list from on top of the piano and tucked it back into my pocket. I threw the cloth over my shoulder and readjusted the small photograph frame on one of the side tables before leaving the room. Robert followed close behind, humming to himself as he drummed his fingers against the leather cover of the book. No matter what he was doing, or where he was, Robert always felt the need to be doing something. Whether it be humming, whistling, or tapping, he always had to be making noise. It was as though he had something against silence, sometimes it was a tad annoying, but I preferred it to the ongoing silence that I usually worked with.

As we stepped out into the hallway, a loud knocking sound reverberated through the small space. Robert glanced at me out of the corner of his eye and shrugged, no one expected a visitor and most of the time we didn't get any. Not really knowing what I was supposed to do, Doctor Ealing appeared from his office door. He looked back towards Robert and me before approaching the door and pulling it open.

"Mr Greyson? How may I help you?" He said, loudly enough for Robert and I to hear it.

"Sorry to interrupt your morning, Doctor Ealing. I was hoping to have a word with your servant."

"Now that's what I would call a coincidence," Robert said."

~~~

A/N - ~I finished the chapter before my allotted update time! It was a close one, I only finished it this afternoon, but at least I wasn't writing till the last minute. Anyway, we are well and truly in full swing with the sequel now, in fact, this book now qualifies for the Wattys alongside The Factory Girl xD

I'm loving the dynamic between Matilda and Rosie in this book, it is so much better than the first, don't you agree? What do you guys think of the list? What else is on it? Do you think Rosie and her brother are going to get on?

Comment below! I love all of your comments and I want to see more of them!!!

Dedication - This chapter is dedicated to Yoena321 who forgot about the sequel and this is your eternal reminder xD

First Published - June 11th, 2019