Forte's Elegiac of Exaltation
by Linda J.
RATED: everyone
Disclaimer: Set to my version of the Disney BATB storyline including Belle and Adam's two young children Adam Jr. and Denise. All other characters belong to Disney, and I will not be making any money from this fan fiction.
Summary: Christmas time approaches, and everyone is eager to welcome the holiday festivities into the castle once more. All except one who still loathes the thought of all this mindless, jovial celebrating.
ch1
"Either the master has more steps added to this stair case every year, or I'm getting older!" Cogsworth huffed windily as he and Lumière climbed the last few steps to the attic door. Lumiere, who was noticeably less winded chuckled softly.
"I've told you a hundred times bon ami, you indulge too much in our fine french food. If you would shed some of that weight, you could trot up these stairs as easily as I do."
"Trot up these stairs?" Cogsworth mocked. "You broke out in a sweat long before I did!"
"I did not!" the frenchman flatly denied.
"Did so!" Cogsworth argued, determined to have the last word. Suddenly both men were passed by a castle's interior decorator Angelique, who stomped irritably toward the door.
"You two can stop that arguing any time now!" she snapped impatiently, tapping her foot as she waited for Cogsworth to open the door with the key.
"Honestly, if I did not need you two to help me bring these boxes down, I'd do this alone!" the woman reminded them both yet again.
"Angelique, belle ami," Lumière cooed subtly. "Why are you always so cross?"
Her reply was to stick her nose in the air and look the other way. "I cannot help it, Lumière; It is the way I am. Now, hurry Cogsworth, we haven't got all day."
"What I don't understand good woman, is why you come up here every year, and drag us along?" Cogsworth commented as he bent over to insert the key and turn the doorknob. "Why don't you simply stay down stairs while some of the younger men in the castle retrieve these boxes for you."
"Perhaps she misses her old dwelling place, huh, Angelique?" Lumière suggested as he gave the fussy woman a wink and coy smile. Instantly, Angelique's face contorted in disgust as she rubbed her temples.
"Oh no, no, no! Nothing could be further from the truth, Lumière! I have always deplored this dusty old attic! Every time I come back to this prison of mine, I have nightmares for at least a week." Then, as the door creaked open, Cogsworth stood back to allow Angelique to enter.
"If that is the case cheri, why don't you let someone else do this job?" Lumière followed behind with lit lantern in hand.
"No one else but me knows which boxes need to come down," she softly commented as she began to rummage through the attic.
"Its not really all that difficult Angelique," Cogsworth pointed out somewhat smugly. "Simply locate the boxes with the word 'Christmas' written on them and that's it. Anyone who can read can do this job."
"A-ah, you are wrong," the decorator replied with equal smugness. "No one else knows what has gone out of fashion except me. I will not use any decorations that have gone out of style. Besides, there is a very specific order in which these boxes must come down and only I know what comes first, and what comes last."
Cogsworth sighed; if there was one thing he had learned over the years is that arguing with a strong headed woman was pointless. "Very well, Angelique. Have it your way."
She smiled, quite pleased with herself, as she continued to sort and stack the boxes marked 'Christmas'. "I always do, Monsieur Cogsworth. I always do"
Suddenly, the sound of children's laughter as well as the distinct sound of heavy paws speedily tromping up the stairs echoed into the attic. Cogsworth turned around just as Prince Adam II and Princess Denise made their way around the final curve of the 1000 or more step spiral staircase. Instantly, he grimaced smacking his forehead, as he saw the prince was riding on the back of his sister, who was known throughout the kingdom as 'La Fille Bête'.
The female beast like creature, romped up the stairs on all fours, like the beast she preferred to be, rather than walk upright as the human her parents insisted she was. "Oh young master! How many times do we have to tell you not to ride your sister through the house?"
The prince was still laughing when they reached the top of the stairs, "I know, but this is so much fun! You should try it some time Cogsworth!"
Cogsworth turned red with embarrassment. "I would never do anything so undignified; and shame on you young lady for encouraging your brother!"
"Oh stop being such a fuddy-duddy, Cogsworth!" Denise snapped, sounding a bit rude. "It doesn't hurt me to give Adam a ride, and besides, it was the fasted way to get up here in time to help."
"Yah, momma said we could help you bring down the decorations." Adam explained as he dismounted from Denise's back who then rose to stand up right like a human again.
"Very well then," Cogsworth tried to regain his composure as the two royal children began to explore the attic. "Angelique, just point out what you need taken down stairs and we'll happily oblige."
oOoOoOoOoOoOoOo
On the castle's main floor, set off to a far corner and apart to itself, was the chapel. A large and solemn room with a ceiling that rose three stories high. The sanctified room was ornately decorated in typical baroque fashion, with faces of angels peeking around every corner, as portraits of pious saints graced the stained glass windows that allowed only a fraction of light; though that light shining through would beautifully illuminate the room in shades of blue, red, yellow, and green. White mabel pillars trimmed in yellow gold held up the mahogany arches giving those who came inside to sit in the rows of mahogany pews an unobstructed view of the chapel's surrounding beauty. The maître de chapelle, Monsieur Forte was there of course, as he always was; perched three stories high in his loft, along with his cherished pipe organ. He sat on his green velvet bench quietly reading his what he'd been working on all night and into the morning, humming the sheet music to himself, smiling as he marveled at his newest compilation of sheer genius.
Suddenly, Forte's attention was distracted as he heard a distinct sound coming from one of the open air ducts by his foot that was used to distribute heat from one of the castle's wood burning furnaces. It was the sound of the royal children talking to each other as they walked to the center royal reception hall; their voices echoed so clearly, it was as if they were yelling into a megaphone. "Where should we set these down?" Adam asked Denise as he looked aimlessly around the gigantic room.
"I'd say this is as good a place as any Adam," his sister offered as she set her box down on the floor where she stood.
'Boxes?' the quirky musician wondered to himself. 'Why on earth would they put boxes in the reception hall?' Forte stopped what he was doing and leaned in closely to the air duct, curious to hear anything else the children might say.
"This is where they put the tree last year," Denise began to say, only to have Adam quickly contradict her.
"No you're wrong; it was more over that way," he argued as he pointed the left side of the room.
"No, I'm pretty sure it was here," Denise insisted, only to have Adam shake his head with defiant certainty.
"No, cause remember it being close to those windows over there." he flatly insisted.
"Well, little brother, I've been in this house longer than you, and I say the tree always goes up right around here."
Forte continued to listen in on their little disagreement, 'Why would they be talking about bringing a tree into the reception hall when it's not even Christm-m…', "oh no!" he gasped under his breath. Immediately he stood from his bench and dashed down the narrow black iron spiral staircase that connected his loft to the rest of the world.
When he arrived to the hall, Cogsworth, Angelique and Lumière were already there with their own boxes and all were debating on the location of last year's tree. "It does NOT matter to me where I put the tree last year," Angelique snorted arrogantly to end the pointless argument .
"This year, I think it should go-o-o-o-o…" She looked around the room for some kind of inspiration. She turned herself around to look toward the entrance way of the hall and walked toward the main doorway. "Right about…here."
Suddenly, her expression turned sour the moment she saw Forte entering the room. He was hurriedly tying his hair back with a black silk ribbon. The ribbon blended well with the black of his own hair, though many strands of his white lock refused to be tied down, and stubbornly dangled about his ear and cheek. As he stormed his way to confront her face to face, Angelique sneered, "Go away you miserable old wretch."
Forte ignored her insults, "It's bad enough we have to look at what's inside those boxes on that dreadful day woman, why would you bring that torture upon so soon? Or do you want to see my eyes bleed?"
"We do not care whether or not you approve of our timing for Christmas celebrations, Monsieur Forte," Cogsworth sternly announced. "And as far as seeing your eyes bleed because we have put up the decorations too early for your liking, well," the pudgy man chuckled and grinned so wide his eyes nearly squinted shut. "That's just an added bonus for everyone else in the castle."
"Monsieur," Lumière kindly interrupted. "Christmas is only two weeks away."
Forte threw his arms in the air, "Two weeks? Good heavens, let's just drag some ugly tree into the castle on All Saints Day! Perhaps we should pull out the yule log in July or start exchanging presents in April!"
"Monsieur Forte, stop being such a- fuddy-duddy." Cogsworth smiled very pleased that he could easily pass the title Denise gave him onto someone more deserving. "Christmas comes but once a year, and even the likes of you can tolerate a little good will and cheer."
Then remembering the last Christmas Forte had actually spent in the castle, Lumière leaned in close to Cogsworth and whispered. "Perhaps we should just let sleeping dogs lay, aye Cogsworth? We know how, um, irrational our friend here can become."
Overhearing what Lumière had said, Denise's brown eyes widened as far as they could. In an excited but growling tone she turned, pointing her finger at Forte. "That's right; you tried to kill our parents on Christmas eve!"
Instantly Forte folded his arms over his chest turning his nose in the air and sneered. "How many time must I say I'm sorry for that?"
"When we've heard it enough, we'll let you know." Lumière seemingly joked, though his tone was entirely serious. Forte's lip curled and his brow cocked, giving the frenchman an icy glare.
"Enough of this temper tantrum, Forte." Cogsworth snapped. "Now that you have returned to your, a-hem, hu-man form;" the castle's majordomo paused momentarily giving Forte a hard look over from head to toe, questioning if 'human' was even the correct thing to call the musician. "Considering your horrendous behavior that last Christmas you were here in the castle, the least you could do is attempt to try to make amends with all of us and join in the celebration of Christmas."
Denise then walked to Forte's side, and put her furry arm around his. His instinct was to cringe a bit, recalling from his childhood the sensation of touch too often followed by pain, Reluctantly he grit his teeth and allowed the princess to have his arm but nothing more. "Maestro, I want you to play something just for me on Christmas day. You will do that for me, right?"
Forte stared coldly at the beautiful beast's face as he vividly recalled how, when her father was a young prince, before the enchantment, had demanded music from Forte. However in spite the fact that Forte went out of his way to make the tune up tempo, the master hated it; called it gloomy in fact. "You know not of what you ask from me, my child."
Denise merely tilted her head slightly, the exact way her mother often did and smirked the same way as well. "You're weird Maestro Forte; but I like that about you."
Young prince Adam also approached the strange man he had come to think of as some kind of eccentric old uncle. "There'll be all kinds of good food, and drink Maestro Forte. And Angelique will make this room so-o-o-o beautiful; and Maestro Fife will play music and the grown ups will dance, and there will be presents for everyone, and…"
"What did you say?" Forte interrupted sounding a bit miffed. "Fife will be playing the music?"
"He has preformed every Christmas since, well, since he took your job." Lumière explained, hoping not to upset the sensitive artist too terribly bad.
"I see," Forte's eyes, though black as coal were as chilling as solid spheres of blue of ice. "Well then your highness, perhaps you should ask that simpleton to play you a song instead. That sort of nonsensical gayety related to Christmas is precisely his um…" the mean spirited old man grinned devilishly, "-Forte."
"I hear jealousy coming from of that wicked tongue of yours, Monsieur Forte." Angelique commented in her own cool manner, folding her arms she began to impatiently tap her foot. "Now, if you have nothing positive to contribute to this matter, you should just be on your way."
Forte's eyes widened taking offense to Angelique's bluntness. "Very well," he coolly snapped as he whirled on his heels and left in a huff.
Feeling proud of her ability to shoo Forte off, Angelique smiled as she began to open up the first box. "If I had known it was that easy to get rid of that oily snake, I would have spoken up sooner."