Will and Testament // Sequel to the Rosie Grey series

Chapter Two

I ran my finger under the edge of my dress collar, trying to loosen it a little but it snapped back into place around my throat with the fabric digging into my skin.

The sun streamed in through the church windows, designating it the warmest day in April so far. Beads of sweat trickled down my back and I shifted uncomfortably but nothing could stop the back of my dress from sticking to me or the sweat that made the entire thing much more unbearable. Mother placed a light hand on my shoulder to stop me from fidgeting and I tried to stop moving but I couldn't help it.

We were packed into our local church with countless other members of our congregation and those beyond it with all of us gathered for an impromptu memorial to those who died during the sinking. They estimated that over a thousand people died that day due to a lack of lifeboats onboard and there were rumours that some of the boats left half-full. Grandfather was not on any of those boats. After almost a week, Father knew that he wasn't coming home.

The few staff Grandfather had attended the service with us - none of them went with him - and amongst the crowd of people were other family members who had come to mourn those who died when the ship sank. There were so many people that many were standing outside and I wonder how they were able to hear anything being said. Such a large-scale tragedy brought everyone together.

When the memorial inside the church finished, I followed Mother and Father out of the church and to the churchyard where everyone had started to gather. People moved through the gravestones and I wonder whether Grandfather would have one even if they never found his body. We moved through the crowd of people in the churchyard until we found my aunt and uncle with Grandfather's staff returning to the house.

"What happens now?" Aunt Charlotte asked, a handkerchief scrunched up in her hand.

Father shrugged. "We can stay at the house until Father's affairs and finances are in order, I asked the lawyer to hold off until after the memorial."

"Will Grandfather have a headstone?" I asked, tearing my eyes away from the graves that surrounded us.

"Yes, he will."

"I'll see to it." Uncle Zachariah said, smiling at me. Hannah gurgled in his arms and then started to whimper. "She was quiet during the service, I suppose it had to happen at some point."

"I can take her for a walk in the pram, try and settle her a little," I said.

"Thank you, Izzy." He lowered Hannah into her pram. "Why don't you all go? It will give us a chance to talk."

"Harry, Frank, you too." Aunt Charlotte turned to look at her sons.

"I'll watch out for them."

I grabbed the handle of the pram and started to push it along the path with Anna and John running on ahead and weaving in between the people gathered in the churchyard. They both managed to stay just within my sight with John having to stop every few seconds to stop his spectacles from falling off his face. Anna always waited for her brother when he stopped and they couldn't get very far away from me.

Florence skipped happily beside me with Harry and Frank lagging behind, neither of them too impressed about having been lumped in with the younger ones. I was the oldest of the group with Harry a few years younger than me and Frank a year younger than him. The twins had just turned six and Florence would be five in two months. Hannah was the baby of the family, her mother - Uncle Zachariah's wife - had died in childbirth a year prior.

The lap of the churchyard did very little to quell Hannah's tantrum and it didn't feel right to take her back to her grieving father if she was still so grizzly. Instead, I started to weave through the headstones to see if the slight rocking of the pram did anything to help her. Behind me, I could hear Harry and Frank grumbling about having to stay with us and I rolled my eyes which received a slight snicker from Florence.