Prologue

Once upon a time in a faraway land, another king sent for Adam.

"Will you really be gone for so long?" I asked.

My husband smiled. "I'll be home before you know it. Besides, this is your chance to be the master of this castle all by yourself. When I come back, all the servants will probably be singing about the books they read instead of doing their chores!"

I closed my eyes as he took me into his arms. I could feel the strength behind the hands that gently rubbed my back and stroked my hair. How was it possible that the same arms that held me now had once destroyed furniture and defeated a pack of wolves?

"Take the mirror," I advised. "You'll be able to see how things are going here while you're away."

"You'll need it to keep an eye on the servants, not to mention our children." Adam sighed. "Sometimes I'd swear the children behave better than the servants." He kissed me. "Goodbye, Belle. Take care while I'm gone."

I watched until the carriage was out of sight before I went back inside the castle. How strange it was thinking that I alone was the master! I had never been in charge of the castle by myself before.

Cogsworth tapped his fork against his glass during dinner that evening. "Attention! Your attention, everyone, please."

"Will you get to the point already?" Lumière muttered under his breath.

"As you're aware," Cogsworth began, "King Adam will not be with us for the next few weeks, and I know I speak for everyone when I say I wish that he may have a safe journey, and we all shall do our best to make life easier for our dear queen..."

"He's bluffing!" one of the caretakers of the royal forest exclaimed.

Everyone stared at him.

"No use fooling yourselves," he continued. "Cogsworth will make a long, pompous speech about what good servants we're going to be and how we'll all work together to do our respective chores and making sure everything's going well, but I've got half a month's wages to prove my own words. It won't be any longer than a few hours before the first unkind comment is made, no longer than twelve hours before the first argument breaks out, and not even a full day before we've resumed our usual habits!" He paused before adding, "Does anyone deny my claim?"

Cogsworth looked shocked. "Where do you find the audacity to make a biting remark to your own head of household?!"

"If you think that was a biting remark," commented Louve, another forest worker, "you ought to see what my brother did to his own master."

Her brother glared at her.

"Queen Belle is a wonderful woman," Louve remarked. "Any man would give his right arm for her, and King Adam almost did! Is it not so, Loup?"

Loup's hazel eyes had a slightly amber tinge. "Louve, if we weren't in Her Majesty's presence..."

"You'd draw your sword," she finished for him. "Do as you will, brother of mine. I'm not some peasant girl you can frighten just by making a few threats."

"And we all know how kindly and graciously you escorted Her Majesty's father, Monsieur Maurice, to the castle," Loup replied. "Did he thank you for your courtesy when you opened the gate for him and politely led him through by the hand? Did he enjoy the amiable conversation you had with him as you led him through the forest?"

For a moment, Louve looked as if she had been slapped; then her eyes sparkled as if she were about to laugh.

"Bien dit!" she complimented. "I deserved no less."

Although they seem to quarrel often, Loup and Louve know they couldn't handle being in charge of a forest without each other. They actually work well together; they just can't resist any opportunity for sibling rivalry.

Lumière and Cogsworth, on the other hand, really do seem to enjoy finding faults with each other, and as a result, sometimes their chores are accidentally left unfinished.

Before I fell asleep that evening, I looked in the mirror to see how Adam was doing. He was pacing in a guest room that had been reserved for him.

"Attempt to act like a gentleman," he muttered to himself. "Attempt to act like a gentleman. Attempt to act like a gentleman." He sighed and massaged his head as if trying to relieve a migraine. "But they are being so difficult!"

Poor Adam! After all the problems he seemed to be having, he didn't need to come home to a castle of unruly servants. I promised myself that I would once again do what I had done when Adam and I first met: start the process of making decent human beings out of everyone in the castle and improving myself in the process.