Forever Young

Chapter 8

The rest of the night passed quickly. Esme came to the room just a few minutes after Renesmee and I started coloring. I quickly ducked my head, not ready to look at her just yet. She had been sitting right next to me when I had gotten into trouble, and even though she had seen me completely naked the day before, what she had seen at dinner felt worse.

She took Renesmee and I to the bathroom, telling us that we would need to bathe together since my... punishment, at dinner had put us a little behind schedule. Bedtime, apparently, was 8 o'clock sharp on weekdays, despite the fact that Renesmee's schooling was suspended until I got settled in.

Renesmee didn't seem to mind sharing a bath, nor being sent to bed before the sun was even completely down. She immediately began stripping off her dress. I stood to the side, my hands rubbing at my thighs again. They still felt slightly warm, and I assumed that meant that they were still red. I didn't want to take my dress off. I didn't want them to see.

Esme noticed my hesitation. "Are you alright, Darling?" Her arms flitted to pull me into a hug. "That was a rough dinner, wasn't it?"

I nodded my head, biting down on my lip as I felt tears prickle at my eyes. Why was I about to cry? The punishment was over with. And yet, as soon as I was in Esme's embrace, I shoved my face into her chest, a few stray tears falling on to her dress as I sniffled.

"I know, Sweetie," she said softly. "I'm sorry it had to happen like that. But you knew the rules, didn't you? You knew that you were breaking them?"

I nodded again, pulling away to wipe at my tears.

Esme reached over and started unbuttoning the front of my dress for me. "Are you going to behave like that at the the table again?" 

Shaking my head vigorously as she lifted my dress above my head, I met her eyes for the first time since dinner. I wanted to make sure she saw the honesty on my face.

She smiled as she finished undressing me. "Good," she said kindly. "Then hopefully we won't have a repeat performance for quite some time then, hmm?" 

I nodded as she lifted me in the tub to sit beside Renesmee. Their bath was so wide that Renesmee was still more than a foot away from me. I wondered  if most baths were so large, or if that was only the case when you lived in such a large house.

"Carlisle will come in to speak to you before you go to bed," Esme continued, wetting my hair with the pitcher. I felt my face fall. Was he still mad? Was there a second part of the punishment that was coming?

Seeing my worry, Esme shook her head as she put shampoo on her hand, rubbing it into my hair. I winced, still disturbed by the texture, but didn't move away. "It's nothing to worry about," she promised. "He just wants to speak to you. Most of the things you've already heard, but you were still quite upset at the table. So he wants to be sure you understood."

I vaguely recalled Carlisle trying to speak to me after dinner, but I had still been too upset to really listen. Eventually he had sighed and stood up, patting my head gently as he allowed me to cry into Esme's shoulder. I hadn't processed any of his words.

Maybe I would be lucky, and he would say something along the lines of 'Get out and don't come back'.

I expected the thought to make me smile, but it didn't. Another tear escaped down my cheek, but I wiped it away as Esme rubbed over Renesmee's face with a washcloth. She didn't notice.

For the first time, the thought of escaping and leaving this house actually made me sad. It caused a pain to pound in my chest. I told myself that I was being silly. These people made me take baths and eat gross meals and had enforced strict rules, early bedtime, and painful punishments.