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

Chapter Thirteen

The rest of the day the office past without incident. Well, other than Robert complaining when even more people came in with sprained ankles. Working with only one hand turned out to be of a challenge then it had when I originally got burned. At least the burn, I still had some use of my hand and full movement in my upper arm, this time I was completely limited to one arm and it was a great deal harder to wash dishes only using one hand. Luckily for, Robert had volunteered to help with anything I couldn't do.

I knew Robert was only helping so he didn't have to deal with the sprained ankles, but it was nice to have him help. He also managed to make menial household chores rather entertaining, but I suppose that it came with his ability to entertain himself with nothing but a ball or the wax of a candle. It was amusing to watch him do household chores when usually he would just stand behind me and make my life that much harder. The only time he had ever helped me was washing the windows, and that had ended in a sponge fight and getting caught by Gregory Warrington. I'm just glad he wasn't around anymore.

With Robert's help, the chores around the office were completed by the time Doctor Ealing shut up his practice for the night. It still felt strange operating with one arm, but Doctor Ealing didn't seem to mind the pace I was having to work at due to my shoulder. He just looked glad that I had finally told him there was an issue. Miss Jenkins on the other, didn't seem all that impressed with me when I walked through the back door that evening. Although she had been told about the injury, and my arm being in a sling, she didn't look all too happy to see me.

"I thought Doctor Ealing was exaggerating when he told me your arm needed strapping," she said, pushing a plate of chicken and vegetables in my direction.

"Unfortunately not. I have to do everything one-handed for the next week and maybe for a week or so after," I said.

"Hm, finding chores to do one-handed is going to be difficult, if there are any. How long is your arm going to be out of use?"

"I don't know. Doctor Ealing said he'll re-examine it when the bruising goes down, an old injury from the factory may have come back to haunt me."

"Meaning?"

"I was knocked by a machine a few years ago and hurt my shoulder, Doctor Ealing believes I had broken my collar bone and fractured my shoulder blade. Neither injuries healed properly the first time so they might have made a second appearance."

"And he can't tell that until the swelling goes down?"

"Apparently not."

"I suppose it'll be a waiting game for a few weeks. Go on, eat and then up to bed."

Smiling slightly, I grabbed the fork from the table and started to eat the chicken and vegetables on the plate. Although she didn't say it, I knew by her tone and the way she spoke that Miss Jenkins was none too impressed with the unknown time frame surrounding my injury. I didn't blame her, I didn't like it either. With an unknown time scale, no one quite knew when I would be able to return to my full duties and I hated the idea of feeling completely useless because I couldn't work the way I was supposed to. I had felt useless before, but I felt as though I had returned to that point.

Once I had eaten, I left the plate on the table for Miss Jenkins and climbed the twisting staircase to my room. Esther was still serving the family, so I was allowed to sit on my own in the room with nothing but the roaring fire to focus on. I sat on the bed and watched the flames dance around in the fireplace, the orange light filling the room with a warm glow as the wind outside increased and battered against the window. As I watched the flames dance in the fireplace, I glanced down at the scar on my left hand and saw how it twisted and moved itself around my lower up, just like the flames did the fireplace.