Dreamy became Grumpy within a few days of taking Belle’s advice. Probably about the same time it took for Belle to have her adventure and get captured. Assuming Snow got pregnant pretty soon after her “official” wedding, there is a 3 month time period within the year where the big battle for the kingdoms could have taken place. Regina probably didn’t enter the battle straight away until it looked like George was starting to lose. Also Emma was born early. So may be a year to a year and a half passed between Belle’s capture and the curse being cast.
Assuming Belle marked off every day and there are 365 days in a year in FTL, Belle should have 73 sets of marks on her wall. That’s quite a lot of marks. If Belle was there for 4 years, her cell walls should be white with scratch marks.
Maybe someone could tweet the writers and ask for the time frame?
All magic comes with a price!
Keeper of Felix