The Serving Girl // Book 2 in the Rosie Grey series

Chapter Fourteen

"Nothing!" I said, scrambling to pick up the other piece of paper and turning it over. I felt myself visibly deflate as I read my own name on the other side; which meant James had the list.

"It looks like a rather extravagant to-do list," James muttered furrowing his eyebrows as he read through the list.

"I suppose that's what it is." I tucked the envelop back into my pocket and stared at James.

"Go to the seaside? I doubt you'll be able to do all of this in a few days."

"The list isn't mine, at least, I didn't come up with what was on it."

"I'm not sure I'm following," Matthew said, pushing himself off the chair with his newly bandaged hand and looking at the list of James' shoulder. Despite the two of them looking similar, Matthew was almost a head taller than James.

"I had a friend at the factory called Isabel, she was the one killed in the fire six months ago. She would always talk about what she was going to do when she got out, but she never had the chance."

"So, you're going to do it instead?"

I nodded slowly as Matthew spoke. He looked down at the list and I watched as his eyes darted backwards and forwards as he read the words on the page. Neither of them spoke as they read, both looked as though they were taking the information in and trying to figure out what to say next. I didn't blame them, the list was a strange thing to be carrying around, and the reason why was even stranger. Some of the things on the list itself were strange in themselves, but Isabel had never been one to do things by half. She was the one who suggested we all injured ourselves to get out of the factory and regularly screamed through the small window in the dormitories to see if anyone would hear her.

To those who didn't know Isabel, who didn't know what she was like, the list just looked like a mish-mash of different things. As James had put it, an extravagant to-do list with things that seemed improbable to a servant like me. Some were possible, such as owning a pretty dress that had been designed for me, and me alone. All I needed to do was save up my pay and if I had enough, I could pay someone to make me dress. Going to the seaside or falling in love were rather farfetched and extremely unlike. The first one could happen with the help of Doctor Ealing and some better weather, but the other felt impossible. I'm not sure why we even put it on the list.

"'Reacquaint myself with my family,'" Matthew read, bitterness laced his voice as he spoke.

"Isabel always said she wanted to see her family again, to ask them why they had left her at the factory. I kept it on the list because it was one of the most important things in her life," I mumbled, my eyes focusing on a small spot on the ground.

"What about you? How do you feel about it?"

"I was unsure, at first, that's why we wrote the list."

"And now?" He asked. I shrugged. "Did you agree to meet me - to meet us - to cross off a part of the list or did you genuinely want to see us?"

"Matthew, don't," James warned.

"At first the list played a part, but it was my decision to make, not a piece of papers."

"If this list hadn't have existed, would you have agreed to see us?"

"I don't know."

"So, we're here because of some list?"

Matthew looked up from the list and stared at me, his eyes cold as though he wasn't quite sure what to make of the situation. I didn't say anything. I had planned to tell them about the list, it wasn't something I was going to keep quiet for very long, but I needed to find the right time to tell them. Evidently, it was not the right time for them to find out and Matthew took it as though I had insulted him to his face. The list may have contributed to my decision to meet them, but it didn't make my mind up for me, I did. I decided I wanted to see him and talk to him for the first in seven years, the list had simply given me the nudge to do that. Matthew didn't see it that way, though.