𝐌𝐎𝐑𝐄 𝐓𝐇𝐀𝐍 𝐓𝐇𝐀𝐓 𑁍 𝑹𝒐𝒔𝒆 𝑮𝒓𝒆𝒆𝒏 (Hetty Feather)

𝐒𝐄𝐑𝐈𝐄𝐒 𝐎𝐍𝐄 𑁍 1

Five Years Later

"Is this all we've ever got to look forward to, Harriet?" Rose asked her friend with a roll of her eyes in the dorm one night. "Growing up to be a servant?"

"We're foundlings, it's how it is," sighed Harriet.

"It's not like we can do anything about it," said Polly from beside Rose.

"I want to," Hetty sighed.

"But we can't, we'd get put in the tench!" Mary said.

The tench was a dark, cold, dirty old ice house that Matron locked a foundling in if they did something unforgivable. Mary was terrified of it, because of a past encounter years ago when she was just a new foundling. Rose thought it was only a matter of time before she got put there.

"Here you go," Harriet muttered to Rose, handing her a silver backed hairbrush that they shared round the five of then each night.

Rose took a second to look at herself in the back of the brush. She certainly looked a lot different from the last time she had seen her reflection.

Her hair had grown out since Matron had cut it five years ago. It was now a light brown, long, and straight. Her face had also changed. It was now... older, somehow, with rosy cheeks, pale lips and piercing green eyes.

Rose liked to think that she had inherited her last name, Green, because of her eyes. She didn't know if this was true, of course, but she hoped it was. Foundlings all had their names changed, anyway, so she knew that even if she had been named Green because of her eyes, it wasn't her first name anyway.

Matron had also been undeniably right.

Her past wasn't clear anymore. She couldn't remember her brother, or what his name was, or even what he looked like. It was all a memory. One that she wouldn't get back.

That day, the girls were in the laundry, sorting through all of the clothes and washing them before using a mangle to squeeze them and hanging them up to dry. It was dull, repetitive work.

And Rose wasn't feeling so well.

"Rose, are you alright? You're burning up," Polly asked her, frowning in concern.

Truth be told, Rose was feeling really warm and sweaty, and also a bit dizzy.

"Polly's right, Rose, it looks like a fever," frowned Polly.

"I'm fine," Rose got out, fetching another sheet from the basket to wash.

"Stay away from me, Green!"

Rose turned to see Sheila, Elizabeth and Monica, three other girls in their dorm. Rose rolled her eyes. Monica and Elizabeth were pests, but Sheila, the one who had spoken, was just downright insufferable.

"Urgh, Rose's got the lurgy!" Elizabeth added.

"Don't be stupid," Rose rolled her eyes.

"Leave her alone!" Hetty shouted.

"Bleuch!" Elizabeth mimed being sick.

"Don't go near her!" Monica added.

"Who wants to go near her anyway?" Sheila scoffed.

Rose felt too dizzy to retort, so she just uttered. "Leave me alone."

"Don't worry. We will."

But then all three of them started to chant. "Rose's got the lurgy! Rose's got the lurgy! Rose's got the lurgy! Rose's got-"

"What on earth is all this noise?!" Matron demanded as she walked into the laundry, outraged.

"Urgh-" Rose started-