Chapter 2.16

Isabelle had a nightmare.

She was laying on a bed; it was a big bed, soft and comfortable, with a canopy above her. But she could not enjoy it as she was in pain, and she somehow knew she was bleeding. A young woman hurriedly entered the room with a basin in her hands and towels over her shoulder. Steam rose from the basin letting Isabelle know that it held hot water.

The young woman put the basin on the night table, wet a towel in the water, wrung it to get rid of the excess and walked towards the bed.

However, a voice stopped her actions. "Leave it. You do not have to make her comfortable." It was the same voice that always scolded her for her behavior, not proper of a lady.

The young woman hesitated. "She's bleeding too much."

"That is the price she has to pay for whoring herself around." Isabelle could not see the owner of the voice, but she could hear the disgust. "Maybe like that she can stay put for a few days. Really, as loose as her father. Such a disgrace." The voice spat, and then footsteps walked away from the room. Isabelle sobbed not only from the pain, but from the hurtful words hurled at her.

"Belle…" Someone called out to her from far away as a warm hand posed over her shoulder. "Belle, are you ok?" The image started to vanish as she started to wake up, but her eyelids felt very heavy and refused to budge. "Isabelle!" She forcefully opened her eyes, barely able to see Ethan's worried face before her.

The sudden intake of light was too piercing, making her head hurt and her stomach revolt. Knowing her body's impulse, she jumped out of bed and ran out in panic, ignoring Ethan's call.

"Ethan! Th-that…" When Ethan was already at the door, ready to follow her, Felix's frightened yell halted his steps.

The youngest brother shakily pointed at Isabelle's bed where a bright red patch of blood stained the sheets; he was very pale and ill at ease. After looking at what Felix pointed at, Ethan sighed, realizing why Isabelle seemed to be in pain while dreaming. She was actually in real pain from her bleeding days.

He had thought it had to do with her head injury, that her memories were returning to her together with a powerful migraine, yet the reason for her discomfort was simpler than he imagined.

"It's fine, Felix. That's just proof Isabelle can have children." They had taught Felix everything he had to know about his changes as he became a man, but they had forgotten – Ethan had forgotten – to mention about women's changes that deemed them fully grown. "Help me change the sheets. And also… you'll have to wash them." He said with a troubled expression.

That was the only thing that could be done as they did not have more sheets.

The teen grimly nodded still looking at the glaring red patch. He was no stranger to blood as they gutted animals, but it was his first time seeing that much blood coming from a person. He was worried it would not come out after washing; but more than anything, he was worried about Isabelle who left all that blood.

As the two brothers were peeling off the stained sheets from the wooden board, Joseph walked in with tightly furrowed brows. "Isabelle's not openin' the door. I think she fainted after pukin' her guts out."

Moments ago, the brothers had just finished their breakfast.

Ethan and Felix had gone to wake up the still sleeping Isabelle. It was strange she had not woken up yet as she had claimed she had to wake up early everyday to eat and then start with her embroidery. They had thought she had a fever after overworking herself the previous day. Both were understandably worried.

Lucas had been carrying the bowls from their breakfast to wash them and Joseph was about to start watering the herbs when they saw Isabelle rushing to the loo while covering her mouth. The loo was not that far, so they could easily hear when Isabelle violently retched as soon as she closed the door.

No matter how much the two called, she only continued throwing up, sobbing, throwing up a bit more until it was silent inside. Joseph knew what he had to do, but Ethan had repeated over and over to them that they had to respect Isabelle. So, he was basically asking for permission to break into the loo to check on her without having their brother raging at them.

Ethan nodded. "Force the door." After Joseph left, he looked back at Felix who was done taking off the sheets and was sporting a tight expression on his face.

"She threw up 'cause she swallowed it yesterday?" He miserably asked, even looking on the verge of crying. Ethan startled and quickly patted his youngest brother's head to calm him down.

"That ain't true. I've heard some women suffer all sort of illnesses while in their bleeding days. It's nothing to do with you, don't worry." The eldest brother hurriedly explained what little he knew about women's special days. He looked down at the sheets being held by Felix and quickly changed the topic. "Try to save the ones with less blood, I'll buy new sheets at town."

Although the sheets Isabelle used were the newest ones they had, that did not mean they were not actually old. There were many things they had to replace in the house, and maybe the incident was a well-timed reminder for them. They only used to care for their survival, so food was their number one priority.

However, having a Wife changed those priorities. They had to make sure she was comfortable, either with the things she used at home or with them.

"D'you need my savings?" Felix worriedly asked, successfully focusing on another important matter. Sheets were very expensive at town, no matter how good or bad, and replacing a few of them would force the two brothers to join all their savings.

Being the one who went out to work every day, Ethan earned more money and was the only one who was able to give Felix some allowance, so the latter thought it right to contribute that money to buy the sheets.

Joseph saved the money he earned from selling the vegetables they were unable to eat without getting spoiled; they once tried that and Felix suffered a lot from a stomachache, so they never tried it again. Lucas had the money from when he sold the game he hunted. Some of the same villagers bought it at a very cheap price, yet his real source of income was when he sold it at town.

Those savings were technically for personal use, but they often shared it to buy things for the house, like sheets.

Ethan paused and smiled at Felix. "You've grown up." When Felix was a kid, he used to say that he would use that money to buy candies. Then, as he grew up, he said he would use it to buy delicious food. To think he would end up using that money for his Wife. He was starting to learn that, sometimes, sacrifices had to be made and the money one saved for oneself would be used on others or for others.

Lucas with Isabelle in his arms intruded in the two brothers' conversation. "Joseph's cleaning. She didn't arrive on time." The second brother commented on the situation in the loo after they forced the door open. It was just a fortune she had not fainted right on her vomit.

"Quickly go wash those." Ethan said to Felix who nodded and hurried to the river. If he did not wash them soon, then the stains would not come out. "We'll put her on the bed, just gimme a minute." He told Lucas before going out to get the woven straw mat Lucas used to sleep whenever he went hunting overnight from the kitchen.

The mat was easy to wash, so it was fine if she slept on it than to lay her directly on the bed that could only be cleaned with a hard brush. However, they still had to buy the pads for Isabelle; otherwise, she would keep staining not only the sheets, but the bed and her own clothes, too, for however long her bleeding days lasted.

Ethan really would have to use all his savings to buy all those things.

"Gimme." Joseph suddenly said, having heard from Felix what was going on, and reached to grab the mat from Ethan's dodging hands. "It's gettin' late, you've to work." Ethan just stared at his brother with narrowed eyes. "What? You don't trust me? Nobody in this family of men has taken care of a woman in her bleeding days. D'ya think ya can do a better job? Or you gonna quit to become her caretaker?"

Although the words came out a bit provoking, it was the truth.

Ethan and Joseph knew what a woman had in between her legs, that did not mean they had actually taken care of a woman in those days. So, apart from Ethan, only Joseph could provide better help to Isabelle than their other two brothers. Sighing, Ethan relented, "Warm a bit of water to clean 'er. Also, put a warm cloth below her stomach."

"Anything else?" Joseph asked. He had heard of that warm cloth thing, but he had not known what they used it for. It seemed there were still more things Ethan knew that he did not.

"That's all I know. As ye said, we've never taken care of a woman in her bleedin' days. And Mom never mentioned that to me." There was a bit of helplessness in Ethan's voice. They had gotten used to not having a mother, yet he missed her in that situation. "Go boil the water." He ordered to end that line of conversation, and returned to the house with the mat. "We're going to town, Lucas. I need to work, so you'll buy the things for Isabelle. I'll tell you where she works, maybe those ladies can help you."

Lucas nodded as he placed Isabelle on the mat after it was laid on their bed. They used one of their sheets to cover her and watched with a frown how she tightly grabbed her cover and curled on herself; her face creased from the pain.

"Let's go." Lucas said. They could not keep her waiting. What if her condition worsened? They really hated to see her suffer. Once out of the house, he quickly grabbed a basket and followed his elder brother to town.

Coming right out of the kitchen with a bucket of warm water and a few pieces of cloth, Joseph headed to the house. He glanced at the glaring red stain on Isabelle's bed and he felt his heart shudder. Right, maybe he was not as prepared as he thought he was; a fever and a headache were completely different than bleeding days.

He still moved towards the big bed and found her tightly curled with his sheet covering her. He put the bucket and the pieces of cloth aside, then peeled off the sheet off her face. She was frowning and her breathing was very labored. Her face was very pale and the coppery smell of blood lingered in her. Seeing her miserable countenance, Joseph started to act.

"Come on, Isabelle, turn around." He pleaded, but it seemed she was too invested in her pain because she did not move. Not wanting to lose more time, he tore away the sheet from her hands and battled to put her body face-up as she kept on curling on herself. Luckily, thanks to the continuous moving, her pajamas rolled up, giving him the chance to work.

As fast as he could, he grabbed one piece of cloth, dipped it in the water and wrung it to place it on her lower abdomen. He put it right on her navel. Feeling the warm cloth, she lowered it where the pain originated and sighed before another toe-curling cramp racked her body.

As Joseph prepared another cloth, he watched how Isabelle curled her legs, giving him a complete view of the bloody mess she had down there.

"Fuck!" If it was a different situation, he would have gotten excited due to her position, but at that moment, he could only force himself to not shudder out of revulsion. It was awful! Same as Felix, he had helped Lucas gutting the animals he hunted, but he could not conceive the idea of why she had to bleed that much.

Forcing himself out of his thoughts, he quickly moved and grabbed her knees as he noticed she was about to roll to her side. He had not felt it before, but she was very cold to the touch. He thought rubbing her body with another warm cloth would help her, but he first cleaned the bloody mess.

He began with the blood around her thighs, and then moved to the groin area. In no time, the cloth was full of thick blood and he still had more to clean, so he put that used cloth aside and prepared another one.

Thanks to the relatively clean intimate part, Joseph could finally see from where the blood came out.

A woman's body is confusing. The same place that felt good if properly touched could bring Isabelle so much pain.

As soon as he deemed the place clean enough, he left a cloth right on her intimate part so the blood would not keep staining her clothes and the mat below her – which Joseph also cleaned.

With his cleaning task over for the time being, he used the last cloth to rub her cold legs. She appreciated the warm feeling as her breathing went back to normal. He once again dipped the cloth on her lower abdomen in the warm water and put it on the correct spot. He let her curl on herself, checking that the cloth in between her legs was not too bloodied and left it there.

After tucking her with all of their sheets so she remained warm, Joseph picked up everything and headed to the river, where Felix was still struggling to wash the sheets. Seeing his brother arrive with a bucket full of pieces of cloth, gave the teen a short respite. His hands were already tingling and a bit stiff from the cold morning water!

"How's Belle?" Felix hurriedly asked, rubbing his hands together.

"Bit better." Joseph reassured him. "I just cleaned 'er and brought ya this." He then said, passing the bucket to Felix. "We're out of those, too. Is there a sheet you couldn't save to tear it up?" Joseph asked, eyeing the pile of sheets still on the big flat rock they used to wash their clothes.

Felix scratched and lowered his head in embarrassment. "Outta the three, I could only save one." No matter how much he rubbed those two sheets, the blood had already stained them, so they ended up with an orange patch in the middle; those were the sheets that served as mattresses because of their thickness. The one that was saved was the one she used to cover herself.

Joseph paused, realizing what that meant for them: they would have to buy new ones. He inwardly cursed as his brothers had already left, otherwise, he would have given them his saved money to buy new sheets. "Gimme one of those. The other one… we'll think about it later." Felix nodded and went to fetch one of the stained sheets, wrung it as much as he could and gave it to Joseph, who made his way back to the house.

Once the sheet was turned into pieces of cloth, he returned to his task to rub Isabelle with a warm cloth, clean her, and change the piece on her abdomen and groin. He was so focused on his task that he did not notice Felix's moves as he carried a few buckets of boiling water to the river from the kitchen.