It Comes With Pain

"Rosanna? My poor girl, I'm afraid I have some terrible news."

"Martha? What's wrong? You look like you've seen a ghost." I ask, looking up from the table where I sat with my papers.

Martha clutches a creamy waxed envelope in her hands and begins to weep, letting the paper sway to the ground. I rush over to her, carefully lowering her onto the sofa before grabbing up the letter and tearing it open so I could see what had made my poor housekeeper so distraught.

I blinked, the world slowed down and I lost my breath.

"I'm so sorry, I'm so very sorry my poor rose," Martha wept, "an orphan! My poor Rosanna has become an orphan!"

The paper slowly returns to its previous position on the ground and I walk over to the large glass windows opposite to me that looked out on to the emerald gardens filled with dainty, fragrant flowers. My hands shake as I place them onto the sill and I realise the servants and footmen were standing around the edges of the room solemnly, their hands clasped and heads lowered at my loss.

"He was a good man Rosie, your father was a good man." Peter murmured to me, his old wrinkled face drooping with sorrow.

I clutched my chest when a spasm of sudden pain hit me realising my life would change forever.