Will and Testament // Sequel to the Rosie Grey series

Chapter Twelve

When I got home, I dropped my satchel in my room and changed out of my school dress and into something a little more comfortable.

The house felt empty with Mrs Smith, Mary and Helen all down in the kitchen and me having free reign of the rest of the house since Mother and Father weren't home. I couldn't remember a time when I had the opportunity to do almost whatever I pleased without getting into trouble or having anyone nearby. With several hours to go until either Mother and Father returned or for me to go to bed, I had to find ways to amuse myself and that turned out to be easier said than done.

With so many rooms in Grandfather's house, I decided I wanted to explore them since there were a few I had yet to set foot in and ones no one would allow me to enter. Some of the additional rooms upstairs were just old bedrooms that were no longer in use and hadn't been for some time. None of the beds had anything on them and the wardrobes were empty but someone had taken the liberty to open all of the windows and keep the rooms dust free just in case they were used again in the future.

Some rooms had been piled high with broken or unwanted objects including old toys that must have belonged to my aunt and uncle. It was like a treasure chest from the past. I stepped out into the hallway and moved along the hall in search of another room to go through, but the only rooms left to look through were Mother and Father's bedroom and Grandfather's room. No one had gone in there since he died.

"What are you up to?" Mrs Smith asked, appearing at the top of the stairs with the laundry basket resting on her hip.

"Trying to amuse myself."

"Is it working?"

"I'm not too sure yet."

Mrs Smith laughed. "Well, if you're stuck for things to do, you could always clean your bedroom."

"That's a last resort. It always will be."

"Don't go getting yourself into any trouble then."

"Me? Trouble? Never!"

She laughed and moved into Mother and Father's room to collect their laundry. I stood in the hallway and waited for her to move downstairs, the laundry basket now full. Once her footsteps had disappeared completely, I twisted the door handle and stepped into Grandfather's room for the first time in weeks.

The window had been propped open, but I don't know if someone else did that or Grandfather. It looked like the room had been dusted recently which meant that whilst we had all been avoiding the room and avoiding sorting through his things, someone had been going in to dust everything off. The familiar feeling of anger started to rise inside me and the thought of someone else being in Grandfather's room, touching his things, but I swallowed it down and closed the door behind me.

Everything in his room was right where it should have been and as he left it on the day he left for Ireland all those weeks ago. The bed had been freshly made, the stack of books on his nightstand straightened, although the very top one was missing because he took it with him when he left. His old jacket has been draped over the back of the chair that sat at his writing desk. It all looked like a photograph, an image that hadn't changed for months.

I sighed and slowly backed out of the room without touching anything. The last thing I wanted to do was disrupt the order of everything in Grandfather's room. I decided it would be better to leave Mother and Father's room alone rather than go in there and accidentally disrupt something. Instead, I walked down the hall and down the stairs, running my hand along the bannister. Part of me wanted to run back upstairs and then slide down the bannister but I knew I would probably slide off and hurt myself.

Someone knocked at the door and with Mrs Smith no doubt busy with the laundry and Mary and Helen completing their afternoon chores, I opted to open the door myself. I opened the door and almost ended up closing it again at the sight of Aunt Matilda standing in the doorway.