The Factory Girl // Book 1 in the Rosie Grey series

Chapter Twenty-One

"Are you alright?" Esther asked, crouching down beside me. Her hand was placed lightly on my shoulder, but she did know more than that as if she knew that I had to calm myself down.

"Mm-hm."

"What on earth is going on here?" Matilda said. Beside me, I felt Esther remove her hand from my back and shoot up to a standing position. I remained on the floor, knowing I wasn't going to have the strength to stand up until I had calmed down.

"Someone locked Rosie in the linen cupboard," Esther replied, answering for me.

"So that's why he looked so smug," Matilda muttered.

"Who?"

"Alexander. Go and tell Miss Jenkins what has happened before she comes asking, I'll stay with Rosie until she calms down."

"If you're sure, Miss."

"Of course. Go. If you see either of my parents on your way back to the kitchen, don't tell them what has happened. I'll tell them. For now, just let Miss Jenkins know."

"Very well, Miss."

From my position on the floor, I heard Esther's footsteps retreat down the stairs and towards the kitchen. I barely looked up from my knees as I felt Matilda shift beside me as if she wasn't entirely sure what she was doing. Even in my stressed frame of mind, I knew that Matilda staying to help was an odd thing to happen, especially as she hadn't been the nicest towards me since I had arrived. But Esther was gone and there was no one else around, so I had to accept it, even if my mind was telling me that she was going to use against me in the future. Any help was better than no help.

"You can't stay here, come on."

Matilda placed her hand on the top of my arm and helped me to my feet, not even giving me a chance to fully collect my thoughts. She grabbed my bonnet from the bottom of the cupboard and lightly lead me down the hallway and towards her room. Not having the fight in me to protest, to try and convince her that I was completely fine – though that was far from the truth – I allowed her to steer me into her room and to the wooden chair in front of her desk. Once I was seated, Matilda's hand left my shoulder and I heard her footsteps retreat and the eventual sound of the door being shut, a sure sign that we were alone.

Sitting on the chair, I pressed the palms of my hands into my legs, running the back and forth in a calming, repetitive motion. My breathing had calmed considerably but nothing I did was able to control my heart rate, it felt as though it was out of control. Matilda was just hovering about the room like an annoying fly, not really knowing what she was doing. It didn't do me any good, but it was fun to hear her footsteps across the floor, pacing backwards and forwards as though looking for something to do. I appreciated the thought, more so then I thought I would have, but the endless pacing was becoming more irritating as time went by.

With Matilda's pacing starting to get on my last nerve, I chose to focus on the sound of her footsteps to try and calm the nervous feeling that was still bubbling away inside me. I listened to the echoing sound of her steps across the wooden floor, the way they would speed up and then slow down to an almost stop. It was a repetitive action and the continuous sound of her footsteps reminded me of a heartbeat. A slow, steady, repetitive action, that after a while, became soothing. The original annoyance I felt passed and the sound of her footsteps became the thing that calmed me down fully, brought my heart back into a normal rhythm. I never would have thought that one of Matilda's annoying habits would actually be useful.

"You can stop pacing, it's rather annoying," I said, glancing up from my lap.

"Sorry," Matilda said, coming to a stop. "Are you alright, now?"