“I don’t see how that’s possible,” she said, but it was a lie.
The desire in his eyes aroused her. Yes, perhaps she’d allow Frederick to spank her. It was just a dream, after all.
It was, wasn’t it?
***
The following morning, Belle couldn’t find the plain blue dress she’d arrived in. But the armoire was filled with glorious gowns, the sort of dress she’d never worn, out of modesty. It didn’t seem right to be bedecked in jewels and pearls and lace when she rode in her wagon past children begging on the streets.
Of course, that was in another life. Before Papa lost everything. Perhaps if she’d agreed to buy the dresses when she had the chance, she would have been able to sell them later. Instead, they moved to the country and she wore even plainer clothes than before.
Wearing something plain didn’t look like an option right now.
Belle picked a stunning pale pink dress from the armoire and dressed, calling on the fairies to help lace her up, and to pin her hair.
She had to find the other prisoner, Frederick. Last night had felt too real for him to be just a dream (in which case, she had behaved shockingly inappropriately). Or if it was a dream, surely that dream was meant to inspire her to find him.
She tip-toed down the hallway, pausing only to look at the handsome Prince’s portrait. Heat warmed her cheeks at the memory of his touch. Silly to blush from a dream.
(was it really a dream?)
Where was the Beast? Every corner she turned, she feared she’d run into him. That he’d ask her if she was ready to…begin.
I’ll never be ready
. The Beast frightened her almost as much as the strange desire he aroused in her, whenever he looked at her from his towering height.
But Frederick had implored her to go to the Beast. If only she could find Frederick, she could figure out what was going on.
She knocked softly on every door she passed, praying at each one that it wouldn’t be the Beast’s room. The handsome young man couldn’t be in the dungeon, because she’d already been there, and had felt frightfully alone. So he must be living in the castle, somewhere.
“Fairies,” she whispered. “Show me the way to Frederick’s room.”
A candle on the wall lit, and she turned to it in surprise. With the sunlight streaming in through the windows of the castle, she certainly hadn’t been expecting candlelight.
To the right, another candle.
Belle followed their lead, walking in the direction of each newly flaming wick. The fairies had led her to a closed door at the end of wing.
Shivers of anticipation rushed through her. If Frederick was indeed beyond that door, would he know her? Or had her dream been a vision of which he played no part?
Carefully, Belle pushed open the large wooden door. It creaked on its hinges from years of disuse.
“Prince Frederick?” she whispered.
No reply.
The room was clearly a young man’s room, and well-appointed. Glass shards covered the floor. Belle skirted around them. A long, floor-length mirror stood in the center of the room, the looking-glass smashed to pieces. The violence of the act left a thrumming vibration in the room, it seemed.
“Frederick, are you here?” she asked again.
No reply.
Of course. Her over-active imagination at work, once again. But then, why did the fairies lead her here, if Frederick didn’t exist?
She crossed the room, stepping over the broken glass, and sat on the bed. The sheets were askew, as if no one had bothered to straighten them after some…some sort of struggle.
Belle smoothed the sheets into place, and uncovered a leather-bound book.
A book!
Having something to read would help her pass the time, and hopefully make the next six months go by quicker.
She just needed to give herself to the Beast so her six month sentence could start. But how?
I can
never
—
—
don’t think about that now. Just read. Escape.
The book’s yellowing, aged pages were all handwritten. A diary, perhaps.
She opened it to the first page.
The Journal of HRH Prince Frederick, to be read by no one.
Belle smiled. Goodness, that sounded almost like how she’d started her diary as well, when she was a teenager.
Settling back onto the satin pillow, Belle turned the page, and read.
~~~
None of the women at Court want to play the games I wish to play. Lady Amelia is almost as old as I, sixteen, and yet she only wants to steal kisses, then giggle with her friends when they see me ride by.
I finally got Amelia alone in the wine cellar, but she guarded her virginity with more ferocity than Father’s men guard the castle gate. My attempts to woo her resulted in nothing more than me getting a slap across the face with her glove.
I told her I’d like to use that glove on her, perhaps on her cheeks (I touched her derriere to let her know exactly what I meant), but she gasped as if I’d suggested murdering her, and ran away. I do believe I will cease courting her.
~~~
Belle laughed out loud. She could only imagine the look on the Lady Amelia’s face when the young Prince requested to spank her. It probably looked a bit like the expression on her own when the Beast told Belle to bend over.
From the looks of it, Prince Frederick had quite a taste for tying girls up and spanking them. But only if they were willing. Belle flipped through pages of entries, each detailing his pursuit and failure to entice dozens of young ladies into his bed.
~~~
Surely it is my Stepmother’s doing, that no girl will have me. A spell of some sort. Heaven knows she has enchanted the King to do her bidding. It is as if no one recognizes that when my father is gone, I will be King, and the woman of my choosing will be Queen. That when I marry (if I marry), the woman I choose will be a Princess until I ascend to the throne.
None of that is apparent. It can only be black magic to cloud the Court’s minds against the subject. A rumor has gone around that my Stepmother gave birth to a demon that died at birth. My father won’t comment on the matter. Can’t he see she’s using her magic to give him an heir, when God Himself doesn’t want her to spawn a child?
Why does he need an heir, when he has me? Aren’t I enough?
~~~
Belle had no memory of a King, or a castle, or an Enchantress Queen or a Court or any of the things Prince Frederick wrote of in his journal. Was it all just the imaginative musings of a teenage boy, wishing his life were more interesting than it was?
Or was it…real?
Clearly, the castle was real. The portrait of Prince Frederick was real. The castle did have some sort of…something, happening. Fairy infestation.
Could it be that this evil Queen had “clouded” everyone’s memories, as the journal suggested?
Either way, Belle could empathize with the young man’s feelings. She too felt like she wasn’t enough, at times. The only daughter to her Papa, a poor consolation when they were forced to move out of town and into the country to work for a living.
Her stomach grumbled rudely, interrupting her thoughts.
“Fairies,” she said. “I would like some breakfast, please, and tea.”
She sat up on the bed, awaiting the tray that would be magically appearing, but none came.
“Fairies?” she asked. “Are you through granting wishes?”
A note fell on her lap, settling against the luxurious pale pink fabric of her dress.
Belle picked it up, eyeing it warily.
~~~
Please do me the honor of joining me in the main dining hall for Breakfast.
With Devotion,
The Beast.
~~~
She dropped the note to the bed with a gasp. The handwriting…it was larger, more heavily scrawled, yes, but it was so…similar, somehow. One could almost imagine the Beast studied the handwriting in Prince Frederick’s journal. Or perhaps it was something else?
Belle picked up the note and used it as a bookmark to mark her place in the journal, and hid it in the folds of her gown. None of this made sense. She’d need to study it further later, when she was alone.
Right now, it was time to dine with the Beast.
***
Belle took deep, calming breaths as she navigated the immense castle to meet with the Beast. It was only breakfast, after all. The Beast has promised her that she could be the one to let him know if—when—she was ready to take things to the next level.
The more…intimate level.
Perhaps she could close her eyes and imagine the Beast was Frederick. It probably wouldn’t work, considering the sheer size of the Beast and his thick muscles and fur (he’d feel nothing like the way Frederick had felt in her arms), but maybe it would help her get in the mood.
Frederick had made spankings sound almost fun.
The Beast was waiting for her, prowling the sunlit atrium where breakfast was served. Bowls of fresh fruit—even oranges, which didn’t grow there, and had to have been shipped overseas at quite an expense—beckoned her to the table. Cups of steaming chocolate and little jam-filled pastries made her decision (if it was, indeed, her decision) a bit easier.
She would dine with the Beast, and she would be pleasant, and good Lord in Heaven, she would do whatever she had to
(whatever she desired)
to get herself closer to her release date. To freedom, a mere six months away.
And if she happened to enjoy herself during that six months…well, no one had to know. Here, alone in the castle, only the fairies would be witness to her submission to the Beast’s darkest desires.
4: Dining with the Beast
The Beast
caught the girl’s scent as she rounded the corner into the atrium. A night in her new suite had done her good—she smelled of rose water and linen, not fear-sweat and hay.
He rose on his hind legs, to help her see him as more human. Still, she gasped and drew back against the doorframe, as if he’d risen to pounce.
“Good morning,” he said. “Thank you for joining me.”
Belle smiled hesitantly and stepped forward, allowing him to pull her chair out for her. “Thank you, sir.”
“If this meal doesn’t suit you,” he offered, “you can always request something more to your liking.”
“This is perfect,” she said. “Beast. Sir. Will you sit with me? Please?”
The Beast nodded, his heavy mane swaying down his back. He’d grown unaccustomed to eating properly, at a table, in a chair. With silverware. As the years had worn on, he became more beast than man, and most of his meals now were eaten raw, fresh from hunting in the woods.
“Of course,” he said, setting his enormous weight into the chair. “All chairs in this castle should be able to support me,” he added, glancing at the chair sternly. He’d given the castle its warning. If the chair broke under him now, it was in big trouble.
“Those fairies of yours are quite something,” Belle said, daintily nibbling at a pastry.
“How did you sleep, beauty?” he asked. Had she dreamt what he had dreamt? Did she see him, kiss him, in his human form? Or was last night a memory for him alone?
“Um…” Belle took a sip of chocolate and smiled, as if to apologize for being unable to respond with a full mouth.
The Beast waited. He had nowhere else to be, so Belle was either going to tell him how she slept (if she’d slept at all) or they would have a long, silent meal.
“I had a vivid dream, to be honest. And I awoke feeling less than refreshed.”
Belle looked at him closely. What did she see when she stared at him so?
“This castle has a way of doing that,” Beast said. “Making dreams seem real.”
“I need to know where you’re keeping Prince Frederick,” she said suddenly.
The Beast’s fork clattered from his hand onto the parquet floor. “Pardon?”
“Frederick. I saw him last night. He told me he was here, a prisoner in the castle. I must find him. Please, lead me to him.”
“I can’t, Belle. That’s impossible.”
He wanted to. He wished he could scream to the world about what had been done to him, about who he truly was.
“What have I done to upset you?” Belle cried.
The Beast dropped to all fours and paced the wall of windows overlooking the garden. “Nothing, beauty.”
“Then please, stop growling at me,” she said. “It frightens me.”
“If you want to be gone so badly, then perhaps we should get your six month sentence going, don’t you think?” he asked. This time, yes, it came out as a growl. Not what he intended, and most definitely not the best way to woo her.
“Yes,” she said, standing. “Absolutely. Let’s begin and be done with it, once and for all.”
The Beast rose once more, until he towered over her. Belle quieted and looked up at him, as if waiting for him to make the first move.
He would, if only he knew what to do, and how to make her love him.