The Apprentice Girl // Book 3 in the Rosie Grey series

Chapter Twenty-Nine

I regretted deciding to accept the offer when I awoke on Friday morning.

Part of me hoped it would be just like the time I had spent at Doctor Ealing's office when I worked for him. I had spent most of my time organising his paperwork with my limited reading ability rather than dealing with people. The only time I had been needed had been when Doctor Ealing needed a total of six hands rather than four. Those events were few and far between, but I had a feeling this would be different, and I didn't know if I could cope with it.

There was a stark difference between sorting through paperwork and having to interact with the patients themselves. The worst part is knowing they would ask questions about the burn, those questions were unavoidable. I didn't want to have to explain myself over and over again. The glove wouldn't be an option when it came to dealing with serious injuries so I would have to leave it uncovered. I didn't want to have to deal with the questions.

"Are you ready?" James asked. I checked myself in the mirror in the hall one last time, ensuring my hair had been pinned up entirely. The last thing I wanted was my hair getting in the way of helping someone.

"As ready as I'll ever be, I suppose," I said.

"You'll be fine. Just take a breath and stay calm, everything will be fine."

"You sound so sure."

"That's because I am. You were great during the match factory explosion and that was a very chaotic situation to be in. This will be a walk in the park."

He placed his hands on my shoulder, squeezed them slightly and shook me until I smiled. Small tendrils of hair had escaped the knot at the base of my neck, but I didn't have time to redo it. A knock at the door caught my attention and James released my shoulders, side-stepped around me and pulled it open. Doctor Ealing stood in the doorway, a carriage behind him with Robert leaning out the window and grinning like an idiot. I didn't think he had any reason to be that happy.

"Are you ready?" Doctor Ealing asked after briefly greeting James.

"We'll see."

"You'll be fine, Rosie," James said. "I'll see you later." He gave me a light kiss on my forehead.

"Bye."

"Robert and I will ensure she gets back in one piece."

"With Rosie, that's difficult to ensure."

Doctor Ealing smiled and I glared at James, but he smiled and shooed me out the door. He said he had something planned for the day but refused to tell me what it was and James having a secret, and being able to keep it, is never a good thing. I had tried to get Kitty to tell me what it was, but she had smiled and said I would have to wait and see. That didn't exactly fill me with confidence either, but I had to push whatever they were doing to the back of my mind and focus on the day ahead.

I stepped through the door and onto the street, walking the short distance to the carriage and climbing inside. Robert continued to grin at me until I had taken my seat and I wished he would look anywhere else. It was a little unnerving. Doctor Ealing shook hands with James, muttered something in his ear and then followed the same path I took to the carriage, climbing in and sitting beside Robert. Within seconds after he sat down, the carriage pulled away from the house and towards the office.

No one said anything as we moved through London, small drops of rain hitting the carriage window. The carriage moved slowly. The ground was slick with rain and small puddles were starting to form, people walking down the street slipped and skidded on the ground. It had been cold enough to snow, but rain fell instead and started to freeze not long after. Just walking down the street in that weather came with its issues, carriage rides were a whole other story. One wrong turn and the entire thing could overturn.