She was in a hurry. Ordinarily she wouldn't be on a Saturday, she preferred to sleep in on the one day she didn't have lessons or instructions or meetings with anyone, adult, young, female, or especially male! But today was different. When Lydia had come in at her regular time to wake her, before she could tell her to let her sleep another few hours, she'd let something slip. Samuel was in the castle.
The name was all it took to have her fling herself out of bed, dress, and practically run down the stairs that would take her to the courtyard. It was the place that she knew he'd be waiting simply because it was the place that he was always waiting for her this time of day. She couldn't wait to-
"Oh!" she cried as she collided with someone in the hall. "Mother! I'm so sorry I…I didn't see you!"
"Belle, what on earth?"
"Sorry," she smiled checking the basket she was carrying with her, the one she'd retrieved from the kitchen only minutes ago with a picnic lunch in it. Everything still seemed in place. "Sorry, I have to go! Samuel is here!"
"Belle!" But she didn't hear any of what her mother had to say because she'd taken off for the courtyard yet again. She made it in record time and the moment she saw the boy that was standing there for her she let the basket drop from her hands and threw her arms around him. "Samuel!"
"It's good to see you too!" he exclaimed hugging her back.
"What are you doing here?" she questioned when he finally let her drop back to the ground.
"What am I doing here? What are you doing here? Father and I have come once, sometimes even twice a month for nearly the last four months and you are always the one that seems absent."
She took a deep breath and shook her head. The last four months...she'd rather not think about them, but if she had to think about them she'd rather it be here, with Samuel than anyone else. "It's a long story," she excused.
"I have time to listen to it. Lord knows I have all the time in the world!"
She glared at her best friend, the son of the general, but couldn't hide the smile of amusement that crept onto her face. "Your father brings you to the meetings for a reason Samuel, you might try attending them every once in a while..."
"Gah! Meetings. Dull, ghastly, very boring, your life on the other hand...much more interesting. So...tell me where you've been, it's probably more interesting than artillery reports."
"I seriously doubt it," she groaned picking up the picnic basket and climbing the little hill in the courtyard with Samuel so they could sit and eat dinner under their favorite tree. She'd known Samuel for years, ever since she was a child. His father was her fathers most highly decorated general and oversaw most of the small army they had. Because of that he reported to the castle every six months to give her father updates and status reports. He often brought Samuel with him, for educational purposes as he hoped that Samuel might one day be nearly as successful as he had in the army. But Samuel was a carefree spirit. While she had no doubt that he had all the talent required to be like his father Samuel didn't have half the motivation. He was a boy in a man's body and didn't seem to mind or want to change. Which was unfortunate because it seemed like more and more the world wanted them to change.
The the last four months she'd returned to the castle only to learn that Samuel and his father had been there, but she hadn't. She'd been off doing what her mother called "her duty". What exactly was her duty? Men. Lots of them. Her birthday was six months ago, she and Samuel had celebrated right here on this very hill and only a few weeks later, her mother had taken her to her first appointment. The first was a duke, the second the cousin of a king, the third was a prince in a neighboring kingdom by the fourth she'd begun to get suspicious and asked her mother why she had to meet all these men. It was her duty, her mother told her, now that she was of marrying age it was time to choose a proper suitor for marriage. The announcement had nearly made her jaw drop. She'd argued with her mother, told her over and over again it wasn't true, that she didn't want it to be this way. Her mother looked flabbergasted. Surly she had known that it must be this way, it was the kingdom's tradition, she couldn't rule without a husband, she needed one. She didn't honestly expect to find a shepherd or a tailor from the village did she? Honestly she hadn't known what to expect. She was a princess, somewhere in the back of her mind she always knew it worked that way, she'd just never really considered it before. There were times that she felt very much like Samuel, like she was still a child only in a woman's body and she was too young for all this. But her parents disagreed and it was done whether she was ready or not.
She explained all of this to Samuel as they ate their lunch on the hill and she told him story after story of the men she'd met that were asking for her hand. She was lucky, her parents dismissed some of them on sight for her. "A duke!" her mother had spouted when they got back into the carriage, "I should have known he'd lie about his age. I am sorry my love, we'll find someone closer to your age, you shouldn't have to spend the rest of your life wit a leacher looking for a bit of fame!" Others were dismissed for the opposite reason. One boy had been just that, a boy of no more than sixteen, hardly a suitable match for her. But the majority of them...they were disappointing all on their own. She had yet to find one that really impressed her simply because they all tried too hard to be "impressive".
"He's an idiot," Samuel declared, sitting up and grabbing a bunch of grapes from the basket. "Any man that wonders how you read a book with no pictures is certainly not for you."
She breathed a sigh of relief at Samuel's agreement and popped a few grapes in her mouth as well. It was nice to be with Samuel, someone who was familiar and a friend, not to mention someone who finally agreed with her about all of this. "I don't suppose you've gotten any offers yet from him have you."
There was no need to ask Samuel who the "him" was. She could think of only one person in all the Kingdoms that held the possibility of suitors which one he meant and for once she felt absolutely relieved that there was one person she had yet to meet. "No, nothing from Gaston...yet."
"You should count yourself lucky then."
She smiled. "Trust me, I'm thrilled every day that he doesn't come around here. You've heard the things they say about him! I doubt I'd be able to fit in the banquet hall with that big head of his."
"Big head...probably has the worlds smallest brain. I've met him you know...his fathers army is outstanding, my father has taken me several times to watch their drills and each time I feel like there is this horrible expression in his pretty little face. Openly tried to court not one, but two unaccompanied women right in front of us. Nothing but vanity and lies I'm sure," he concluded almost bitterly. Too bitterly. These lunches used to be fun, her only source of fun for long periods of time! She didn't like where this one had gone and she certainly didn't like that she was spending her time with Samuel being bitter rather than laughing like they usually did.
"Well it's not as if you haven't had your fair share of lies. You told me that the flower I drew from my first drawing lesson was brilliant," she suggested trying to lighten the mood.
"It was brilliant!" he argued.
"It looked like wilting pile of manure!"
"Well…yes but…it was a brilliant wilting pile of manure!" A smile cracked at the corner of his mouth and she finally let out a snort at their conversation, happy that she'd successfully diverted it. It was silly to think it, she knew. He was her oldest friend, her best friend, not to mention her only friend besides her mother and father. He knew everything about her and she knew everything about him, but...lately, sometimes, she wondered if they were beginning to outgrow one another and if it was possible to grow into one another again as time wore on. Sometimes he just seemed so distracted and opinionated. He seemed to look at everything so negatively as opposed to when they were younger and he had not one bad thing to say about the world. But now...
"Did you get the invitation yet?" she asked taking the sandwiches the cooks had prepared for her from the basket. It was better that than wondering what would happen if she and Samuel weren't friends. And talking about something like a happy marriage was far better than talking about an unhappy one.
"For that wedding next year? Aye, the betrothal finally became official. Poor saps."
"You don't know they were betrothed. Who says they didn't ask for it?" she defended, upset that he could turn something as happy as a wedding back into something unhappy. "Who says that they didn't fall in love? Who says they didn't meet at a ball, dance until dawn…fall in love?"
"Common sense," he drawled. "They're both the children of nobles. Nobles who happen to have a strong alliance and need something like a marriage to 'seal the deal' as it were. The chances of them ever meeting and falling in love all by themselves on a whim is-"
"Not impossible!"
"Slim. I was going to say the chances are not impossible but small." He was right. Again. It was logical and made sense in the simplest way. But she hated that such a thing as arranged marriages and betrothals were the reality in this kingdom, in her class. She hated that it was happening to her. She preferred the world her books presented her with; a world where heroes triumphed and did miraculous deeds and proved their worth! Where they fell in love with brave Princesses and married them because they couldn't wait to spend the rest of their lives together. Not because they were contractually bound to. Frankly, the only way she was getting through suitor after suitor was by allowing herself to imagine that one day she was going to go to a ball or get our of a carriage and be absolutely taken with the handsome young man before her. He'd be smart and witty, he'd like the things that she liked, they'd have conversations by the fire about books and politics, and she'd feel like they were a single unit instead of two awkwardly shaped pieces of metal welded together no matter how poorly they fit.
"I think I'd rather not know," she admitted as Samuel munched. "I think I'd rather just imagine some whirl wind romance than know the truth sometimes."
"Since when are you a head strong girl? To deny the truth is to be just as ignorant as...oh what was the one you just told me about? Simpleton? Simpson?"
"Sampson. And when did you become so pessimistic?"
"I'm not, I'm just…preparing for the inevitable."
"The inevitable?"
Samuel nodded then sighed as he stared deeply into his sandwich, avoiding her eyes. "The truth is you're not the only one meeting people they'd rather not. It seems I can't go to a ball these days without my father personally introducing me to the daughters of some noble or other. It's just our age. More often than not I tell my father I don't like them and he tells me not to shut them out. Whether I like them or not doesn't seem to be important. Politics reign supreme at our level. I fear in the end the connections we make in our matches will do far more to determine our happiness."
"No, not for me," she insisted shaking her head. "My father would never do that to me and my mother certainly wouldn't allow it! Force me to marry a man I don't like?! One I don't love! Never. That's why they're having me meet so many, they don't want me to be unhappy."
"You're one of the lucky ones then, perhaps that's the joy of being true royalty instead of nobility. Maybe you have options we don't."
"You have options!"
"Yeah, as a child. But it's a law of the universe, you can't get something for nothing. Look around us, we have lived wonderful, joyful, spoiled childhoods. And the price we'll someday pay will be a prison of marriage."
She felt a sudden swell of sadness inside her chest. Strange. She looked forward to seeing Samuel so that they could talk and laugh and have a good time together instead of focusing on their dull lives and when she'd heard he was in the castle this morning she'd been excited to see him and leave reality behind but this conversation was hardly what she'd hoped it would be. She had no idea when it had become so depressing, when he had become so…opinionated.
"You don't know that will happen to you…" she encouraged, trying to get her friend back from this dark turn he'd suddenly taken. "You might meet someone at the wedding and find you can't live without her."
He only smirked and shook his head while he chewed and swallowed. "The truth is that as long as there are nobles and royals, peasants and paupers…we will never be people. Only pawns in a great chess match."
Yay! Samuel! Alright, refresher because I don't think it's been long but I know that it feels like a long time. In 2015 Once Upon a Time released their second comic book, Out of the Past, that had a Rumbelle story called "Truths and Daggers". That story was the first appearance of Samuel and because A&E have said that what is in the comics is canon (that wasn't easy trust me) Samuel made his first appearance in Moments Series in May when I added him and the comic story into Moments Known and Unknown. So...here is the origins to Samuel and Belle. If you need further refresher Samuel's story is in chapters 30-37 in MK&U and here we can already begin to see a bit of the man that Samuel will become there shining through. Obviously he has a hint of those values and opinions that will only grow as time goes on and turn him into the Samuel we encountered there...will encounter? This prequel stuff is weird. Also, fun fact, the last chapter was really more of a prologue. Moments Lost is going to cover 6-7 years of Belle's life so obviously there will be jumps in the chapters over months, but even with that I see chapter 1, Belle with her family, taking place 2-3 years before the fiction really gets started (I don't count that last chapter in the 6-7 years). Chapter 1 is intro and this chapter I see as being the real start of the story.
Yay! Thank you to Valerie3956, TruestOncer28, Raizen Yusuke, Ladybugsmomma, Teresa Martin, Rumbellefan, Kathryn Claire O'Connor, Fox24, and Grace5231973 for your reviews on the last chapter! I'm so glad that ya'll are back to read this fiction with me! I hope that you'll like what I've crafted for you here and I won't let you down! Peace and Happy Reading!