Disclaimer: None of the characters are mine. I'm just borrowing them for a bit.
Note: Set during the middle of "Skin Deep" when Rumps sent Belle to the market for straw.
He wasn't waiting for her.
She wasn't coming back.
Of course she wasn't coming back. No one would. He'd let her go into town and he'd never see her again.
He didn't want to see her again. She'd been a fine distraction, sure. And she'd kept the place clean. But he didn't need her around the place. Didn't *want* her around the place.
With her smiling and her cheerfulness and her talking to him.
Always talking to him. Asking him questions. Asking him to tell her stories. Treating him like he was just a normal man.
He didn't need any of that. He had his power and his castle and himself.
What else could he possibly need?
So, he certainly wasn't looking out the window waiting to see if she came back.
He certainly wasn't waiting for her.
Certainly.