The first sign had been when she was taking Belle her lunch, a startling spasm of pain through her gut. She was momentarily stopped by it, having to lean against the wall of the corridor she'd been walking down, her fingers clenching a hold of the metal tray in her hands as she tried to breathe through it. It passed and she shook off the feeling, ah, the unwelcome parts of being human that she had easily forgotten as a feather duster.
Righting herself she carried on and pushed the library door open with her shoulder. "Good afternoon mademoiselle" she called.
Belle smiled up at her over her book, curled up in one plush armchair. "Good afternoon" Plumette walked over and placed the tray down on the table beside her, setting to work pouring out the tea. "I can't possibly eat all this by myself" Belle spoke, eyeing the plates heavy with sandwiches and fruit. She was unsure if it was a matter of not being used to the larger meals nobles seemed to indulge in or the staff were simply over feeding her trying to show their thanks for breaking the curse, either way she had kept receiving far too much "You should join me"
Plumette paused, uncertain "I do not think that would be appropriate Miss"
Belle pouted, after the curse had lifted two days ago it had become somewhat uncomfortable with some of the servants, she had met them when they were household items, knick-knacks, who hadn't been taking too much notice of what was appropriate or not, they were more open with who they were as people and now they were human again with jobs to properly return to and rules and expectations it was almost like meeting them again, only now they were a little more withdrawn. Apart from Lumière of course, who had that morning taken Belle by the hand and lead her in a mockery of a dance, but then he had never seemed to be much of a one for rules to begin with.
"Please, you haven't eat yet either" she implored, gesturing to the chair beside hers, the one that their Prince usually occupied. "Sit here, Adam won't mind"
Plumette glanced from her Lady to the chair and back again, cautiously moving to sit down and eyeing the door as if she expected the Prince to come in and yell at her at any given moment.
Belle beamed at her, passing her plate of sandwiches and letting her choose one. "I was wondering, if I may ask, how long have you worked here?"
"Since I was eleven" the Maid replied, gently nibbling at her sandwich.
"... Eleven" Belle repeated, her face tightening in discomfort.
"Oui, I was sent from Paris to live with my aunt in a nearby village, to get away from the plague you see" she explained, purposely leaving out the fact that her parents had died from the outbreak in the city, Belle nodding in sympathy. "But there was not enough money to keep me, it was here or the workhouse, my aunt knew Mrs Potts who had convinced Cogsworth to take me on as a Scullery Maid"
"And Lumière? How did he come here?" She asked, popping a grape into her mouth.
"Oh he arrived a few years later after training to be a Footman, he likes to claim he was trained in Versailles but do not listen to his stories, he was nineteen and I was seventeen at the time"
Belle smiled "Did you know he was for you straight away?"
"Au contraire, when we first properly spoke in the kitchen I threw a cooking pot at his head, he likes to play tricks and fancied he could sneak upon me and make me scream, I caught him with the pot, he'd probably tell you it was love at first hit. He brought flowers the next time he tried to surprise me" she spoke, smiling to herself, Belle sat with her hands cupping her chin, taking in each word of the story, but then she frowned. "Of course, it was all quite improper"
Belle's grin slipped from her face "But why?"
"Staff should not behave in such a manner"
"But you love each other"
"Oui, but it was still not allowed" Plumette sighed with a shrug, the subject was dropped, the girls moving onto another topic until they had finished the meal and the maid took the plates away back down to the kitchen.
The second instance was later that same afternoon, after feeling quite unwell since the morning, a fact she hadn't shared with anyone else, she currently was in the ball room, pushing around a mop without much enthusiasm for the task. She would have usually grumbled at being alone with the work, one of the other maids who was supposed to be helping had fluttered off to do something else but now she only welcomed it, not feeling up to both the chatter of the other girls nor anyone to see how slowly she was moving.
The spasms had continued on and off, making her pelvis and back ache something awful, perhaps a hot bath later would lessen the aches, she pondered the possibility of asking Lumière to prepare her the water this evening before bed.
She gasped as a harsher pain hit, the mop handle falling from her hands to clatter on the floor as she bent over in agony, her legs feeling like they had almost disappeared again but she locked her knees and held steady. Her eyes widened as something wet trickled down her inner thigh. Pressing her thighs together she stumbled, blood drops across the floor (her clean floor!) beneath her feet.
She lowered herself to sit on the floor, not much caring for how it was still damp, while she tried to breathe through the pain. The blood continuing to run down her skin and more than likely staining her skirts. Her monthly bleeds had never been this awful before, but then perhaps she should have expected the first one to be unpleasant after years, or perhaps her humors were simply unbalanced. She pressed her fingertips across her abdomen that felt strangely hard, perhaps she had too much blood. She hoped she would recover alone before the use of leeches were deemed necessary, she had been prescribed leeches in a time of sickness when she was a child and it was a not a thing she ever wanted to repeat.
The door creaked open, Chip's face peering around into the room. Plumette quickly snatched up a cloth from her water bucket and wiped at the blood, making herself look busy. "Hi, Plumette!" the boy called.
"Hello Chip" she nodded back, satisfied she had cleared away the embarrassing evidence.
He took a step in further "Have you seen my mama anywhere?"
"Not recently I'm afraid"
"Oh" he pouted and turned around back to the door before he remembered something and his head popped in again. "Oh yeah, Lumière told me to tell you he loves you, bye now" with that he trotted off to find his mother, closing the door behind him.
By supper time the pain had grown almost unbearable, she sat rigid in her seat at the table down in the kitchen, one hand gripping her abdomen and the other idly stirring her spoon around her bowl of beef stew that she had absolutely no appetite for whatsoever. She had run up to her room after cleaning the ballroom to change her skirts and now sat with rags inside her underwear to stop the blood flow.
The majority of the household staff had taken their meals earlier and it was now the turn of who was considered the higher ranking servants, a group she had somehow slipped into years ago without much comment on it, besides it was well known Belle intended for her to become her handmaid anyway. Also Chip was included, but that was simply because he never left his mother's side and he really didn't even have a job role either, if one was to look up the household records (something only Cogsworth bothered to do) they would see the boy was technically listed as the house's chimney sweep, technically because he had never been up one in his entire life, over her dead body, Mrs Potts had sworn. It was merely a matter of he had to be put down as something to receive his small wage. Subsequently the chimneys tended to be neglected.
Lumière slipped into the empty seat at her side "Bonjour, ma cherie" he cooed, pressing a kiss to her cheek, she grunted in reply and pressed her face into his shoulder.
"She's not feelin' well" Mrs Potts explained, placing a steaming bowel down for the Footman. "She refused to go off to bed early" she shot an accusing look at the girl, her motherly instincts not appreciating it when someone didn't listen to her advice.
Lumière turned to Plumette, his eyes stricken. "Cherie, what's wrong?"
"Sick" she mumbled without any other explanation, wanting to curl up in his arms.
The rest of the meal past uneventfully, Lumière spending most of the time trying to bribe her to eat, not being above attempts at hand feeding her that she refused. Afterwards he insisted on carrying her up to her room, just as well as she wouldn't have been able to make the journey herself.