I Remember Nothing, But I Have Four Husbands

The breeze ruffled her loose hair.

She shivered and curled on herself to fend off the chill. The body next to hers moved and blocked the wind. She smiled at Lucas gratefully and resumed eating. She had woken up right after the brothers had done so, so she partook in breakfast with them. It was sinfully early, with the sun barely peeking in the horizon, and cold.

"Ya coulda stayed in bed." Ethan said, after seeing her shiver yet again.

She shook her head. "Hungry." She replied. The moment she opened her eyes, her stomach started to painfully remind her she needed sustenance, so she got up to eat. Otherwise, she really would have stayed ensconced in the sheets.

Ethan looked at her slow moves as she ate her food in small bites. He wanted to tell her that she could have eaten inside, but seeing her awake and eating with them lifted his brothers' mood a bit, so he just nodded and continued devouring his food. He had to arrive early at town to look for any odd job available.

As she chewed on the bread-like thing she was served, she noticed something. She had ignored it before due to her grogginess, but as her sleepiness faded, she started feeling it. There was a serious air at the table. None of the brothers were speaking; each eating their own bread and some sort of broth with zeal.

The food was good but not marvelous enough to leave them speechless… or, was it always like that in the early mornings? Had something happened while she was asleep? A fight? She wanted to ask, but thought it was not appropriate to meddle in their matters.

Furthermore, they were already grown-up men. They were perfectly capable of resolving their conflicts on their own. Reaching that conclusion, she moved on to another matter that she wanted to make clear to them, taking the opportunity that everyone was gathered.

Leaving her plate aside, she addressed the brothers. "Excuse me..." As soon as she spoke, the four brothers lifted their heads in unison and turned to look at her.

My, my, I am being watched by four handsome men. So happy! Focus! Focus! The matter at hand.

"I am not sure if Felix has mentioned it, but I was thinking, if it is no bother to you, to stay here. I can work, or help you with things in the house! I can do anything to not be a burden… Is that acceptable?" Her courage vanished at the end of her request under their intense gaze. It was bad for the heart to have the devoted attention of such excellent specimens of men.

The three younger brothers turned to look at the eldest in unison, leaving the final say to him. She also stared at him, waiting for his reply.

Ethan cleared his throat, probably not ready for such a focused attention either. More so because her words came at a very delicate moment; what with their conversation the previous night, her health situation and the overall uncertainty. He had to perfectly convey his and his brothers' decision.

"It's fine by us. Guess the most important matter's if you're fine with stayin' with us. You've seen the situation we're in. We cannot afford many things and we're lucky if we eat two meals a day; two poor meals at that. Our house's small; we don't even have the space to properly eat inside. The big bed barely fits… ah, but we can make place for 'nother smaller bed for ye. It has that little space available. Still, the decision's yours. Us brothers can easily, uh, let you stay."

She understood the implicit words. It was easy to let her remain in the house, but that would incur an extra expense in their already poor household. Meaning, that she would suffer some hardships during her recovery. Whatever happened after her recovery between them, be it romantically or otherwise, was something they could not control, so that was left unsaid. Not even hinted.

Furthermore, she also knew that she had the option to look for her real family despite being amnesiac. That should have been the most reasonable and logical solution; more so because she was injured and needed better medicine than what they could afford. However, the notion of going back home did not feel appealing.

Again, it could be due to her situation with her memory. But deep down, she felt that was not the case with her. Going back to her home was not an option for her.

"Yes, I am willing to stay." She decisively nodded. The air around suddenly turned light and bright after confirming her stay. "You are the only people I know. I cannot go around without an aim, too, right?" That was the most important reason she had for staying. Who cared if they were poor with only one meal a day! She had to start a new life somewhere.

"You need a name, too, pretty Sis!" Felix suddenly exclaimed, taking her by surprise. He was right. She could not go nameless for the unforeseeable future. More so, because she was not sure if she would ever have her memory back.

"I cannot think of one now…" What name was good? Maybe something pretty. Or perhaps one that sounded lucky, as she did have the good luck to avoid a great tragedy. "Do you have any suggestions?" She asked the brothers who had already finished eating. So fast…

Anyway, it was them who found and helped her. In a way, that new life of hers was given by and began with them. If they had an idea, she could accept it.

"Belle. Isabelle." Lucas spoke up.

Oh!

Not only her, the others also ruminated the name in their minds. "It suits you," Ethan nodded. "Isabelle, Belle for short." He smiled at her.

I love it!

And that was how her life as Isabelle started. In a quaint house in the outskirts of a village she had never heard of before with four handsome men that saved her.

As promised, her bed was put in a corner of the living room inside the house. The bed turned out to be the wooden board from before, but the sheets did not smell weird any more. The bundle of sheets Felix washed the day before were the ones she had been using, which had, in turn, been Joseph's favorites. She inwardly vowed to repay their kindness.

First things first, though, she had to find a way to truly repay them. After all, everybody in the house had a task to do.

Ethan had to go to town to search for random jobs and earn a few coins. Lucas had to go hunting again due to the extra mouth – hers – they had to feed. Joseph had to go water the crops and see how they were doing. Felix was in charge of cooking meals and the other menial chores.

Due to her condition, she could only stay in the house to help Felix out with any other chore, like doing the dishes. After her rendezvous at the river and her subsequent fever, she was forbidden from going until she felt better. Although she thought it was unfair, it was also reasonable and did not complain about it.

Though, the river matter reminded her of the dress. She could sew a few pieces of clothes for herself!

With the others gone to do their stuff, Isabelle began her own work: sewing. She took out the voluminous dress and cut up all the layers with the scissors that came in the sewing box Felix lent her. Looking at the dress and the quality of the fabric, reaffirmed her belief that she was someone from a prominent family, or at least a wealthy family.

But that was in the past.

The sudden dismissal of her forgotten life made her wonder if she was too callous to easily throw that life aside and not make an effort to look for her family. Her thoughts wandered as she skillfully sewed a pair of skirts. Next, she made long-sleeved and short-sleeved tops, and two sets of underwear with some of the silkiest fabric.

Contrary to her expectations of messing things up, she seemed to be good at sewing. She really did not have much problems with making the pieces of clothing.

"Yer stitches're really good. Way better than mine." Felix, who had nothing to do after he was done with his chores and had been staring at her sewing, quickly praised.

"Do you think so?" Isabelle asked, checking out if the newly-sewn sleeping garment was well made. It was put together from the torn pieces, so it was a bit mismatched and ended up a bit too short; though not as short as Lucas' shirt. To sleep, it was enough.

"Yeah! This cute figure of flowers here, it's really well done!" He pointed at the simple embroidery she stitched to cover up some tears in the fabric that would have looked scrunched up if she had only sewn them together. She wanted to make other patterns for the skirts and tops as decoration, but there was not enough thread. So, only the sleeping garment and a top boasted the embroideries. "Maybe you could sell these in town. I heard from Ethan they're really popular."

Her eyes sparkled at the opportunity to make money. She had to ask Ethan for more details, or even ask him to take her to town directly to ask around herself!

With new-found motivation, she sewed all her clothes in one sitting. It was a shame there was no more embroidering thread to make other designs. The threads she found in the sewing box had remained unused for who knew how long. Perhaps since the brothers' mother passed away. There were also not many colors, and it was the cheapest thread out there.

She had been so focused on what she was doing that she failed to notice Joseph had returned from the patch and was having lunch together with Felix. She occupied almost all the table for her creations and left the two to huddle in a corner. Seeing them like that, she felt a bit embarrassed for her lack of awareness.

"Uh, I apologize. You should have told me I was taking up space." She quietly apologized while moving the clothes to a stool.

"You were so into it, we didn't wanna bother ya." Felix explained with a smile.

"Ye really have talent for this." Joseph smirked while holding the lower piece of her underwear in his hand. Isabelle felt her face heating up in embarrassment and stiffly stretched her hand, asking for it. He lowly chuckled as he gave it back. Really, so embarrassing! "Felix said ye plan to sell embroidery." He, then, commented

"Ah, yes!" Forgetting all about the underwear in her hand, she wielded it around as she energetically spoke. "I do not know if it is really profitable but I want to give it a try! Though, I would need to buy thread and fabric. I am not sure if we will make a gain after the expenses." With the brothers' situation, she would feel bad if she wasted their money only for her venture to not kick off.

Joseph suppressed his smile as she waved her underwear. And when he glanced at Felix, as expected, he found the teen had completely averted his gaze. "I ain't sure 'bout the prices of thread and fabric. You have to ask Ethan." He diplomatically answered. She nodded at Joseph's suggestion, reinforcing her decision to speak to the eldest brother.

"Anyway, that's for later. You've to eat." Felix suddenly said, putting a small dish of sauteed vegetables and a bowl of some sort of soup in front of her.

Still unaware of what she had done, Isabelle simply put her underwear away and started eating. She had given up guessing what Felix gave her to eat as long as it was edible. She also missed the interaction between the brothers across her.

Joseph waggled his eyebrows at Felix while waving his hand the same way Isabelle had. The teen glared at his brother, his face still blushing, and kicked him. Joseph only rubbed where he was hit as he proceeded to silently laugh. Things had truly become more interesting with Isabelle's presence in the house that he could not wait to see what would happen next.