Chapter 2.22

Isabelle laid awake on the bed that night, brushing Joseph's tresses as he absently thumbed her side. Both were trying to enjoy their moment together. Because, even if she could not take baths due to her bleeding days, they still wanted to have their alone time with her. So, cuddling on the bed was it.

The day before, Isabelle had comfortably slept in Lucas' arms. Enjoying his warm body and broad chest. It had been one of the best sleeps she had. Then, that night Joseph had claimed the spot beside her. His position was mildly uncomfortable for her, what with his head laying on her bosom, yet Isabelle said nothing because she had scolded him a lot during that night's lesson.

Everybody was doing their own progress at learning how to write and count, but Joseph was severely lagging behind. Isabelle was not going to slow down the pace of the others because of him, so she basically left him aside and continued the lesson with the other brothers who were starting to learn how to write more words and do simple additions.

It was their eagerness and determination that allowed them to progress by leaps and bounds.

Yet him...

"Why do you not want to learn?" Isabelle whispered at Joseph while all the other brothers were snoring, deep in sleep.

His thumbing stopped. "It's not like that." He quickly said. Then, he tried to deflect the topic by moving his hand to rub her thighs.

Isabelle grabbed his naughty hand and twined his fingers with hers. It was a very serious conversation, there was no need to get physical. "It is like that. Everybody has noticed it. Do you not want to learn?"

If he did not want to learn more complicated things, then it was fine by her. As long as he could write his name and read, it was enough. She did not want him to become a huge scholar that knew everything about the world. Isabelle had guessed letters and numbers were not his thing. However, she could actually feel a certain resistance to learning from him beyond his own struggling to absorb the knowledge.

He was actually boycotting his own education.

He remained silent for quite some time, so she guessed he would not answer. He had reasons he did not want to disclose and she was not going to press for them. So, she closed her eyes to sleep. Before she could even get comfortable, he moved to hover above her and buried his face on her neck to pepper some kisses.

"No matter how much we learn, Isabelle, they'll always look down on us." He quietly confessed after his short ministrations. It was a bit embarrassing for him to admit it out loud, but the sincere concern in her voice gave him some courage to say it. He just hoped she did not look down on him for admitting that.

"Who?" Although she had inkling as to whom, she wanted to hear it from him. As she asked, she made some space between her legs for him and he laid down on her, embracing her body.

"Those scholars from town." His voice was laced with a bit of anger, resentment and distaste. Isabelle grabbed his head and forced him to look at her, so she could properly look him in the eye.

She never considered the fact that Joseph would feel inferior to those snotty scholars. With how confident he always portrayed himself, it was very surprising! She had to accept having education was a desirable prospect, yet there was also a downside to it.

"I am not teaching you to be like them, but to be your own person. Sometimes, those who learn from books are the dumbest people and the most annoying, too. I want you to learn to not be deceived by those dumb people. Would that not make you dumber?" She teased him, making him snort.

"Guess you're right." He replied, reaching up to peck her lips in gratitude. It felt like a huge burden had been lifted from his shoulders. She did not mind his shortcomings and just expected him to do better for himself, not for anyone else.

"Of course, I am. I am one of the few and rare people who turned smarter after learning." Isabelle joked and also indirectly let him know that not all the people who had a high degree of education were pedantic and arrogant like those he had met before in town. He must have had the bad luck to meet with the ones with ginormous egos.

"'that so?" He purred to then start a slow kiss.

"That is so." She replied between kisses that turned a bit heated.

His hands started to misbehave by getting into her sleeping garments, sliding higher and higher towards her breasts. As he changed his position to kneel between her legs, separating them even more, a rush of blood fell on the pad, making her tense and reminding her that they could not go further than kissing. She sighed dejectedly.

"We cannot." She whispered in his lips.

"We can go outside if you want to." He daringly proposed, latching onto her neck while his hands finally found their prize. He had been amazed at how big her breasts were, and was even more amazed of the fact that his hands were not big enough to hold them completely. They were so soft and full, and he knew he would never get enough of them.

Isabelle would have taken his proposal into consideration if she had not been in her bleeding days. Due to not getting a bath and thoroughly cleaning herself, she could feel a certain smell coming from her body. Maybe they did not mind, but she did mind that she was not clean. So, she could only turn him down.

"No. Stop." Isabelle firmly said. Even if she was enjoying his kneading, she had to grab his hands to halt them. Then, she gave him one final kiss and ordered him to, "sleep."

Joseph sighed, equally dejected, but said nothing and laid beside her before getting comfortable while hugging her.

The next day, Isabelle was extremely happy when she noticed that on her third day of bleeding, the flow became almost nonexistent. It meant her bleeding days truly did not last so long.

Furthermore, except for the harsh first day when she even fainted and could do nothing but stay in bed resting, the other two days were rather calm; with only a little pain here and there and heavy fatigue. She, of course, took advantage of those two days she felt better, and tackled her work with great efficiency. Her embroidery sped up and she could see the end of the task very soon.

It was all done at the expense of her body though: she felt so tired from working nonstop that she wanted to sleep for days, nonstop!

But, since she had an order to finish, she could not remain resting as she would have liked. Luckily, by the end of the day, she had 96 handkerchiefs embroidered. She only had to do the rest the following day and then head to town to deliver them, not wanting to delay the order any longer.

"Tomorrow, I will go deliver my work at noon." Isabelle announced as they ate dinner. The brothers paused in their eating.

That night they had some boiled vegetables and the leftover broth from the chicken soup they had at noon.

The patch was giving vegetables little by little, so their portions of vegetables was increasing by the day until the big harvest happened. For the time being, they had a few onions, carrots and parsnips. It was not enough, but it was something.

They were even thinking of selling some of those vegetables to buy seeds or saplings, like tomato, lettuce and cucumber.

They never thought of planting them because they did not feel they needed them. But with Isabelle added to the family, they were really planning to give her a comfortable life. Indirectly, they were also improving their own lifestyle.

Lucas was also implementing the idea to raise animals and sell them.

He had been going to the mountains to catch wild chickens. Mostly hens as roosters liked to fight and hurt other roosters for the hens. That was why they only had one rooster and several hens. The care was hard, though. As they were wild animals, they liked to roam free in the yard and even in the lands around.

More often than not, they could hear Felix yelling at the hens and chasing them to keep them inside the yard.

But he could not completely control them and one, sadly, fell into one of the traps the brothers had around the house to keep other wild animals away – and there she thought they were living there just hoping for no wild animal to come, but it seemed the brothers thought about it and put traps around.

Because the hen was too hurt, it was killed and made into soup. Half of the meat was preserved and the other half was eaten.

They had five people in the family, so the intake of food for three meals had increased. But they did not feel pressured about it. After all, if they all ate as much as they could, then they would have more energy to do their jobs.

"I'll go with ya. I need to see the prices for saplings and that rice Ethan mentioned." Joseph quickly volunteered, it was not the same as taking her on an outing, but he would take any chance he could to spend some time with her. and if he could do other errands on the way, then it was killing two birds with one stone!

Ethan glanced at his brother, suspicious; however, since he had a good reason to go, he could not forbid him to go in case he just wanted to fool around at town.

Though Ethan, as cunning as he was, always had a way to ruin Joseph's plans. "Take Felix with you. He's never been to town before. It's good for 'im to also practice what he's learned with Isabelle."

Joseph stared at his brother, who stared back. The third brother immediately knew what his older brother was doing and thinking.

However, since the reason to take Felix to town was reasonable, then there was nothing Joseph could say to refute him. Mostly because, he was seriously going to see prices and not fool around as his eldest brother thought. Besides, going out with Isabelle was definitely not fooling around!

"Alright." Joseph shrugged, going back to his food.

Ethan rose an eyebrow at the ease with which his brother agreed. He frowned and looked at Felix who was enthusiastically chattering about what he would see at town, to which Lucas and Isabelle only indulgently smiled. Then, he looked back at Joseph's dispirited countenance.

He admitted to having been a bit mean to his brother, as it was a habit of him to put Joseph in his place so he would not misbehave. Still, he also knew that Joseph was very serious when it came to the patch and would not joke around about it. 

"Alright, time for our lessons!" Isabelle's voice took him out of his thoughts.

Right, they were all trying their best to move forward, to become better, so he had to let his brothers do what they thought was best without being prejudiced. With that, he promised himself to become a better brother.