In truth, he hadn't really wanted a wife. Not after the agony that was his marriage with Milah. Not after the utter mess that was his affair with Cora. This girl however, Belle, was nothing like either woman had been – he wouldn't have taken her for this position if she were – and though she was now his wife, that truly meant very little save that, should he so desire, she could not refuse his presence in her bed. Truly, it was such a position she had been raised to in Avonlea, where women were expected to be seen and not heard, and completely subservient to their men.

She'd likely only gotten away with bossing her father around because her assertiveness had shocked him so much that he'd just dumbly gone along with it all.

Really though, he'd taken her because Harry needed a female role model, as per the deal with the lad's mother that he be raised properly (Lily had stipulated 'dancing' among her many requests for her child, and that was one activity that didn't just work better with a female partner, it required one). That Rumple's rather large estate would benefit from having a woman's touch about it was a side-issue.

Besides, her hand was truly the best price for such a service as he had rendered. Other options were less palatable to genteel folk, especially ones who traded their daughters in politics all the time anyway. It was why the damnable fairies never told their charges about the price of their wishes. If they did, then the little bugs wouldn't have half as nice a reputation as they presently enjoyed. As it was, they were so ridiculously choose-y about who they helped. Rumple went to anybody who called, offered them a deal, and then it was up to them if they took it, with eyes wide open and (mostly) aware of the consequences.

"Come along my dear," Rumple urged gently. "I'll show you where your chambers are, and then, if my charge has woken from his nap, we will all have a meal together."

"Charge?" Belle asked. "Nap?"

"It was a deal, dearie," Rumple explained as he led her through the halls. "A young mother from another realm promised me rather a lot in exchange for the health, happiness, safety and sound education of her son. He's the only child that stays with me, though I frequently take children in deals. Those children are always passed on to another, who has begged me to make a deal to give them a child. I do believe you'll like the boy."

On the way to what would be her chambers, Rumple gave Belle a bit of a tour. After all, the Dark Castle would be her home from now on.

Ballroom – never used. Dining hall – rarely used. Kitchen – where he tended to make and take his meals. Laundry – regularly used, as he preferred the feel of clean clothing to the smell of the unwashed. Guest rooms – almost perpetually empty, and rarely occupied for more than a week at a time in the rare event he actually did have guests. There was a regularly-used nursery there though, where he kept and cared for the children he 'stole' until he found someone to 'gift' them to, and one of the guest rooms had only fairly recently been vacated by his last student. Belle was given firm instruction that she was to make herself scarce if anybody appeared in the castle that Rumple had not specifically introduced her to.

Eventually, they reached the family wing.

"There's more to the place, of course, and you may explore it at your leisure," Rumple said. "It is your home too, now," he added thoughtfully. "But here are your new chambers," he declared with a flourish, and opened the doors for her.

He watched as Belle tentatively crossed the threshold of her new rooms, and smiled slightly at the way she seemed able to only gape in awe as she took in the sight of the chambers that her new husband had given her.

"What is it dearie?" Rumple asked her in a lightly teasing tone. "Not what you expected? Hm? Oh," he stopped himself as he looked passed her and her awed expression. "I forgot about that," he muttered, and was even vaguely apologetic in his tone. He had forgotten that the very fine room that never got slept in he had started using to keep all the extra books in. "I really must get around to properly expanding the library. Can't have my wife's personal chambers serving as storage space."

Belle turned sharply at that, eyes bright. "Library?" she asked hopefully.

Rumple chuckled at her enthusiasm, written across her face as clearly as the ink on the contract her father had signed. There was a reason he had drawn up two contracts, rather than stopping at only offering to take her as a servant, and here it was, displayed to him. The girl adored reading, for enjoyment as much as for gaining knowledge, and she was so beautifully innocent as much as she had flashes of greatness and wisdom, as she had displayed in urging her father to sign one contract rather than the other.

"Yes dearie, I have a library. Larger than this room, though perhaps a bit dusty and a trifle disorganised. Maybe you could help me straighten it out?" he offered. "But later. You have to meet Harry!" he declared, and danced out of her room and towards another door that shared the hallway.

~oOo~

Belle, though she yearned to take even one book off those shelves and start reading straight away, was too curious by half about this child not to follow.

What she saw when she followed him into the next room surprised her. It wasn't something that made her jaw drop with awe, the way having a room that was completely lined with books from wall to wall and floor to ceiling had. Instead, it caused Belle's brow to furrow in confusion and thought as she watched, and tried to figure out just what she was seeing.

The Dark One was sitting on the edge of a bed that was made up in soft-looking green sheets and walking his fingertips along, up the body of the child, who he then proceeded to tickle into wakefulness.

"Stop Uncle Rum!" the child squealed happily, batting at the arms connected to the hands that were so playfully attacking his sides. "Stop!" he begged through his laughter.

The Dark One chuckled. A soft, loving chuckle rather than the disturbing, darkly gleeful sound he'd given voice to in her father's castle.

"What's the magic word, Harry?" the Dark One asked with a smile – a smile, not a stretched grin, but a genuinely happy smile – as he continued to tickle the boy.

"Please Uncle Rum!" the little boy gasped out. "Please stop tickling me!"

"Oh very well," the sorcerer agreed, and relented. "There is someone I must introduce you to in any event."

"Intra-doos me to?" the child parroted.

"Introduce," the Dark One confirmed, and gently corrected the child's pronunciation at the same time. "Yes. My new wife, and your new aunt, Aunty Belle," he presented, and turned where he was sat on the edge of the bed.

Belle stepped into the room feeling like an intruder, even though she was being waved over by the man she was now bound to.

"You got married, Uncle Rum?" the child asked, surprised.

"Well, there wasn't a wedding lad," the Dark One explained. "I went to her papa with a contract, and now she's my wife."

The child frowned, and Belle couldn't help but smile at how truly adorable he was with his cheeks puffed up and his bottom lip sticking out in thought.

"You gonna have a wedding later?" the child questioned.

"Probably not," answered the Dark One, his voice soft and gentle. "Belle, come sit, please. You need to understand this as well."

The child shuffled closer to the Dark One on his bed and gave Belle an eager smile as he patted the part of the bed that he'd just shifted away from.

Belle smiled back and accepted the invitations, taking her place on the other side of the child, facing her new husband.

"My work, the things that I do, my trade," he started, a little hesitantly, like he didn't really know where to rightly begin. "People always want things," he tried again, "but you can't get something from nothing. Life doesn't work like that, and magic doesn't work like that," he explained to the child. Then his eyes, with their large brown irises and very small pupils shifted up to Belle. "No matter what the fairies might try and trick people into believing otherwise," he informed her lowly.

Belle bowed her head slightly. She admitted, she had been thinking about that. That the fairies never charged people for their magic.

"Fairies just let the price be inflicted upon someone else and never breathe a word of it to the one they're 'helping'," the Dark One elaborated. "But I don't lie to people like that. I don't lie at all if I can help it, though I may leave out a detail or two. I always explain up front that the magic they want has a price, and I have them pay it, rather than passing it on to someone who won't know why they're suffering."

"That makes sense," the child declared. "When we go to market, people pay for the food and cloth they're getting. They should pay for magic too."

Belle was gifted with the sight of that tender, gentle smile on her new husband's face again, and marvelled at it, as well as the lesson she was learning, and the wisdom of the child.

"Yes," the Dark One agreed. "But people don't like it when I tell them what their magic will cost, so when I take the price of the magic, they forget about the magic they asked for, and only complain about no longer having the thing they agreed to part with."

"That's stupid!" the child objected.

The sorcerer chuckled that low, soft, much more friendly chuckle again. Belle felt her skin rise into goosebumps at the sound, but couldn't understand why. Maybe she'd just felt a chill at the same time.

"Yes Harry, it's stupid," agreed the man with the green-gold skin. "But it means that there are lots of people out there who don't like me, and would like to hurt me. They might try and hurt you to do that, they might try and hurt your new Aunty Belle," he explained, and again he looked up from the child to fix his gaze on her.

Belle felt her breath catch in her throat at the thought. Being taken and tortured because she was his wife? Part of her protested that she hadn't signed on for that, but she had agreed to be his wife with eyes wide open. She could have chosen to be his servant instead.

"That's why I keep you hidden," he said. "That's why I'm going to teach your Aunty Belle magic."

Belle nearly jumped in surprise at that declaration.

"I'm to learn magic?" she asked, stunned.

"Oh yes," the man agreed, that teasing lilt returning to his voice. "No short-cuts though, no shirking. I've learned better how to teach after my last students were such disappointments."

"Anything worth having is worth earning," Belle declared resolutely.

She got a smile in return, and a gleam entered her husband's eyes that seemed proud of her for that, though she wasn't at all sure that she trusted it.