Chapter 1

"You have given birth to a daughter, Madame" the old village told the exhausted young woman.

"A daughter?" she chocked.

"Yes, a fine healthy daughter." The doctor clarified.

"No! It was suppose to be a son! A Son! You told me it was going to be a son!" the woman held her head in her hands and cried. Her violent sobs shock her delicate body that had just injured a difficult twelve hour labor.

The old doctor felt a sharp pain of guilt. He had told her she was caring a son. He assured Belle and her husband that the child going to be a boy, a boy that was going to become a strapping young man just like his father, Gaston.

"Madame Belle," the doctor started, "I am very sorry I gave you the false information. But your daughter is beautiful and healthy. No doubt every woman will envy her when she grows up."

"No! I needed a son! Gaston, he won't accept a girl! He told me 'This better be a son Belle or else'. I have already had two miscarriages and a daughter. He wants a son! This will be the end of me! He'll throw me out onto the streets! And what he'll do to our daughters I can't imagine!" Belle sobbed to the doctor.

He placed his old arm around her shoulders cradling her like a little scared girl. He remembered how upset Gaston had been when she gave birth to their daughter, Cosette, nearly two years ago. Belle had never accused him of beating her but the black eye she received and swollen lip said it all. Belle had tried to please her husband ever since but she failed. Twice in the past year Belle had gotten pregnant and miscarried. The old doctor warned Belle of having too many pregnancies in a short amount of time but she ignored him and was pregnant a month after she miscarried the last child. The minute Gaston had known his wife was pregnant he took her to the best doctors money could buy to find out the sex of the child. They all told him it was to be a boy.

"Madame Belle, please don't cry. You should be happy, this pregnancy was a success." The old doctor coaxed.

"How can I be happy knowing that I will be beat senseless and so will my children?" Her brown eyes were muddled with tears. She started to cry again.

Her sweat drenched brown hair was loose around her shoulders, instead of being tied back by her usual blue bow. Her face was red from crying not the composed pale face everyone saw her with. She looked terrible. She was already in such a delicate state; these emotions would only make it worse.

At the sound of her mother's cries, the newborn baby woke up. She cried and rattled her fists. The doctor ran over to the cradled tried to hush the child.

Belle stopped her crying and wiped her tears away. "Let me see her" she ordered.

The doctor gently placed the newborn child in Belle's arms. Her sad expression was immediately replaced by a happy one. She looked down lovingly at the child. The child hushed the minute she was placed in her mother's arms as if she knew who was holding her. Belle admired how beautiful the baby looked even though she was just born. She had black curls that she had inherited from her father. Her face was obviously Belle's. She was perfect.

Belle kissed the little girl on her forehead "I need your help, doctor" she told him looking up from the child's face.

"Anything Madame Belle, I am at your service. I owe it to you."

"I need you to take my child away, far away, a place where Gaston will never find her. I want you to take her to my aunt in Biscarrosee. She has no children and I know she will raise my daughter as her own. She will be safe there"

The doctor nodded his head in response. Belle was smart to think of this plan, but not smart enough, "What will we tell Gaston?"

"I could say the child was stillborn." Belle made a face at the thought of what Gaston would do when she would tell him that.

"But he will hurt you. He will be so upset." the doctor cried. He shuttered at the fact of such a sweet loving woman like Belle being beaten by such a huge brutal man like Gaston.

"I have already gotten beaten so many times. This time won't be different from any other." Belle's eyes started to get watery again but this time she held them back; she didn't want to cry when she was holding her beautiful daughter.

"I believe I have an idea," the doctor smiled at his plan "a friend of mine's wife just died yesterday while giving birth to a son. My friend is very sick you see and won't last long. He is planning to give the child to someone before he dies." Belle's face lit up "I could get the child and give it to you. You could pass the child off as your own. He has back hair just like Gaston, he won't suspect a thing!"

Belle looked relieved. "Yes doctor! Please get the child for me! Now and hurry! Gaston will be home from his hunt soon and will want to see the child."

The doctor ran out the door. Belle looked down at her daughter again "Poor little girl, you are not what your father wanted. I want you but to save you I must give you away. I hope one day I will see you again and you will understand why I did such a horrible thing."

Belle kissed her child and let the cries and tears escape; it was just too much to hold back. She wanted to keep her beautiful baby girl. She wanted to see her grow into a wonderful young woman, but because of Gaston she couldn't. This wasn't the life she wanted. Belle wanted adventure in the great wide somewhere, to have freedom, and to eventually find love. Instead she was forced, at age fifteen, by her father to marry Gaston, the twenty year old brute of the village. Her life became a living hell after that. She was beaten for voicing her thoughts and opinions. Eventually she stopped talking altogether in pure fear of what Gaston would do to her. By sixteen she was pregnant much to Gaston's delight. The child was born in the early hours of January 1 right after New Years. To the disappointment of Gaston it was a girl. Belle on the other hand was delighted and was grateful she had a daughter; a son would belong entirely to Gaston, a girl she could keep. As soon as Belle was well and could get out of bed, Gaston beat the living daylights out of her demanding to know why she hadn't given him a son. Belle panicked and got pregnant three months after she had Cosette. It had to be in the third month when Belle miscarried. She was beaten as she expected receiving a broken jaw bone and a massive cut behind her ear that eventually scarred. Three months later Belle was pregnant again. Around the third month, same as the second pregnancy, she miscarried again. This time the beating was worse and Gaston actually broke some of Belle's ribs and her wrist. Only a month after the second miscarriage she was pregnant for the third time in that year. She took extra precaution and the pregnancy progressed well.

It wasn't until yesterday did Belle go into labor. She prayed constantly that the child be born alive and a boy. Gaston had already planned to go out hunting with his friends and told Belle that he would be home the following day and expected to met his son.

Belle sighed as she looked at her daughter's face, the undesired child. She kept on crying again but the baby fell asleep in her mother's arms. The both of them remained this way until the doctor finally came in holding a baby in his arms as well.

"Is that him?" Belle asked.

"Yes. He is asleep." The doctor walked over to the cradle and placed the sleeping baby boy into it. He then went over to Belle.

"On my way back I heard Gaston. He shall be here in a few minutes. I am going back to my house and I will take your daughter with me. I promise I will leave first thing tomorrow morning. I just need the address."

"Yes, doctor. My aunt you see lives in Biscarrosee , as I said, in a green house on the edge of town. Ask anyone for Madame Rousseau if you cannot find it." Belle informed the old doctor.

"Yes, Madame." The old doctor held out his arms "I believe it is time to say goodbye."

Belle looked down at her daughter's face for the last time. She kissed her softly and whispered "I will love you always."

Belle held the child up and placed her in the arms of the caring old doctor.

"Could you do one thing for me doctor?" Belle asked holding back tears.

"Yes Madame?"

"Tell my aunt to call her Rose, because she is as beautiful as one."

"Of course" and with that Belle saw the doctor and her daughter leave.

She felt as if her heart was being shattered. She did not know when or how she would ever see her daughter. According to Gaston she never existed so how on earth could she explain she needed to find her?

Moments later the door swung open followed by a booming voice "Where is my son?"

Belle tried to compose herself. She quickly wiped the tears and smoothed out her messy hair "He is over there in his crib sleeping" she pointed to the cradle at the foot of the bed.

Gaston walked over and picked up the sleeping child "Finally Belle you have fulfilled your duty." He smiled "oh he looks just like me. I think I shall name him Tristan."

She tried to seem happy "That's a wonderful name."

Gaston walked over to his wife with Tristan. He placed the baby in her arms then leaned down and gave her a passionate kiss. Belle closed her eyes and tried to forget what was going on.

"You're a good little wife Belle. You have given me one son which is fine for now. But I except another by next winter" He kissed her again, touched the baby's forehead and then left.

Belle shivered at the thought of bearing another one of Gaston's children. His words were true and she was terrified. She had gotten lucky this time with adopting a son and passing him off as her own. But this was sure not to happen next time she got pregnant and what would happen if she bore another girl? She forced herself not to think of that subject or the subject of her little girl that she had to give up. Belle tried to focus on a more positive topic. She looked down at Tristan sleeping peacefully. He did indeed look like Gaston with a strong chin and jet back hair. Belle knew he would never doubt the boy's origins and she would be safe. She kissed him on the forehead "Good night, Tristan, my son" and then fell into a dreamless sleep.