Blood & Cinders- Choose your Own Adventure Story

Chapter 16

The early morning cry of a rooster woke Isabelle instead of the ring of a breakfast bell. But she found it rather refreshing as she stretched her thin limbs out by the dying embers of the fire. Soot marred her toes and bottom of her nightgown. A stain the laundress would be sure to scold her for. Though she was happy to see that her legs and arms looked plumper and her ribs didn't show as much, though fatigue had increased with every drop of blood her body worked to replenish.

Isabelle offered to help Anna collect eggs for the Nobles breakfast that was prepared in the upstairs kitchen. The gray light had yet to appear. A thin layer of frost coated the grass, wetting her skirts and legs reminding Isabelle that winter was drawing near. She fell into step behind Anna, who walked the familiar path to the animal pens by candlelight.

Eggs were few, only a dozen or so and lamps rotated on and off in the hut to remind the animals of daylight. But it was still not enough. The hens didn't even bother to move from their nesting boxes as Isabelle slid her hand under their warm bellies looking for eggs coming back with nothing or sometimes only one.

Anna said it was the lack of light that had dulled their spirits and for those that stopped laying completely they became a roast or pot of soup. She filled the silence as they milked the cows snickering at her tale of how she would sneak pieces of honey ham and cider meant for the nobles breakfast for herself and John just to spite them. There were so many secrets behind the old woman's eyes that it might take Isabelle a lifetime of stories to hear them all, not that she minded.

Isabelle helped with the large pots of porridge for their breakfast until the other blue dressed maids came to take over.

"You think they'd feed ya better with all the bloody work you do." John snickered at his own joke, his eyes sliding to Isabelle who couldn't quite get the corners of her mouth to lift.

"Why don't they then?" She asked. Not for the first time feeling ire burn hot in her chest. The eggs she'd collected the sizzling ham none of that was shared. How was she supposed to keep her strength to offer her blood? "You think they'd want to feed the ones supplying them with blood a bit better."

"Aye," John nodded, taking the large pot off the stove. "But food is becoming scarce. They have to take from villages further away now."

"I didn't even see a sack of flour for two moons till we got a cart in from Lorraine." Anna cut in, looking up from the dough she was rolling, pointing her wooded pin at Isabelle. "They don't think you'll survive long enough for it to matter dear. So they keep the good stuff for themselves. Now off with you. Go get ready for breakfast!"

Before heading to the dinning hall she exchanged her stained gown for a fresh one with the laundress. Who's stare was enough to remind her to sleep a little further from the fire next time.

"Sleeping in the dirt, are we Isabelle?" Jaqueline scoffed as she walked past the gaggle of girls in the dining hall with her porridge later. Isabelle looked down at her fresh dress puzzled.

One of the girls-Tilly- made a rubbing motion on her nose. Isabelle wiped her own hand, palms coming off with a streak of black. Her face was covered in it.

"I think it's soot," one of the other girls commented.

"Cindersoot!" another girl shouted out.

"Really, you should take better care of your face, Cinderbelle," Jaqueline tossed her pretty blonde curls over her shoulder. "If you insist on looking like a pig, you might as well eat with them." The girls giggled and Isabelle tightened her grip on her bowl. Tempted to toss the whole thing on Jacqueline's pretty little head.