𝐌𝐎𝐑𝐄 𝐓𝐇𝐀𝐍 𝐓𝐇𝐀𝐓 𑁍 𝑹𝒐𝒔𝒆 𝑮𝒓𝒆𝒆𝒏 (Hetty Feather)

𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐥𝐨𝐠𝐮𝐞

"My name is Rose Green. Don't mock. It's not my real name. But... not much about me has ever been real."

Jul, 1882

Rose sat in the carriage, her blonde-turning-brown hair blowing about slightly, as she leaned out the window. She was heartbroken to be leaving her foster family, but even more so when she saw the dirty streets of London.

"We're here, Rosie, look," her borrowed brother, Jake, said, as he learned out the window with her. Jake was about nine, so four years older than Rose, and he had been Rose's best friend on the farm for the past few years of her life.

"I want to go home!" Rose said when she couldn't take it any longer. "Jake, please, we can run, take me home!"

As she sat back into the carriage, she saw her borrowed mother, Anne, and said. "Please, mother! Please, someone, just take me home!"

"Rosie!" Jake cried sadly.

"Rose, you're upsetting Ned," Anne said before Rose could shout again.

Ned was also a foundling, and he and Rose had been fostered together. He was definitely less outspoken than Rose, and less fiery, but he was very smart. He wore glasses, which he had done since he was little, and he was a few months younger than Rose, who loved him with all her heart.

"If you were my own flesh and blood, then of course you could stay," Anne leaned forward. "But Rosie, we're your borrowed family. It's time for you and Ned to go back."

Rose's eyes widened. That was the first moment she knew that things were changing, and that nothing was ever going to be the same.

"I love you," she mouthed to Ned, who smiled back at her.

As the carriage arrived at the foundling hospital, Rose had to steel herself to stop from crying.

Before her lay a huge pair of black, padlocked gates, with a long gravelled path beyond them, and then, after that, was a huge, grey brick building.

She hated the look of it.

"Your mothers left you here at the foundling hospital, and we brought you up," Anne explained.

"But you can still do that!" Rose shouted to her. "You can still-"

"I'm sorry, Rosie," Anne said softly. "But... we can't."

She knelt down in front of Rose and Ned, holding out two string necklaces with little penny shaped tokens on the end of them. Rose's said 25623.

"Your foundling numbers. So they'll know exactly who you are."

Once it was round her neck, Rose collapsed into Anne's arms. She didn't want to cry. She didn't want to give whoever was running this hospital the satisfaction.

"I love you both," Anne said comfortingly as she pulled away. "So much."

Jake also hugged her. "Remember," he told her. "When you grow up, I'll be waiting for you."

"You promise?" Rose checked.

"I promise, Rosie. I'll never forget you," smiled Jake. "You're my borrowed sister."

As he stood up, Rose turned to Ned.

"I'll look after you, Ned, I promise I will," she said firmly.

They held hands as the gatekeeper opened the gates.

Rose turned and waved to Anne and Jake as she and Ned slowly walked down the gravel path.

"Goodbye," was Anne's final word.

Jake didn't say anything.

And Rose, for once, didn't either.