disclaimer: I do not own OUAT or any of it's characters.

oooooooooooooooooooooooooooo oooooooooooooooooooooo

After Belle left the dungeons she returned to the kitchens. Her dress that once was beautiful now lay wet and ruined. She stoked up the fire and set some water over it for tea. She poured through the pantry and decided it would be safer for everyone involved if she stuck with something simple like soup untill her cooking skills improved.

As she cut potatoes and added them to a pot, she took a moment to sit down and have soome tea. She hoped her dress would some how dry before she was made to go back to her cell for yet another cold, miserable night. Belle had never felt so filthy. She had contemplated taking off the dress and hanging it by the fire, but she was not properly dressed underneath for such an undertaking.

She used a dry towel to rub at her dress perhaps that might have helped on stronger fabric but now the delicate silken threads began to pull away at the seams. Belle felt hot tears well up behind her eyes, this was miserable. She tried mopping her tears away only to find them replaced with more, she missed home and her papa. The poor man in the dungeouns reminded her of her father. She wondered how long he had been down there.

Rumplestiltskin said he was going to pay for his crimes, what had he done she wondered. As she sat there, trying to spred her ruined gown out as best she could before the fire, a sound caught her attention. She turned her head to see him standing in the entrance of the kitchen. Startled she sprang to her feet, wiping at her face with the back of her hand , she didn't want he witnessing her tears.

"My my, in the course of one afternoon you've went from spoiled little princess to filthy kitchen wench dearie, that's quite the transformation, I can't say that it suits you."

Belle sniffed back unwantd tears as she starred unhappily at the floor. "Your supper is almost ready, m'Lord."

"My Lord?" Rumple smiled, "Well, I must say I like the sound of that as it rolls off your tongue," he walked over to her, removing the towel from her hand. "I was on my way down here to see if perhaps you would consider joining me, but I can see by the state of your dress, things are far worse than I feared." Gently he raised her chin up so that she was looking at him instead of the floor as he wiped the left over tears from her cheek.

"I can't have you getting sick, spending your nights down in a cold dungeoun cell with nothing to keep you warm but a thin , wet ball gown, tsk, tsk,I've come to escort you to a new room, there, dosen't that sound much better dearie?" Belle nodded as she watched him discard the towel and offer her his arm. She realized for the first time as she looked at him that he really wasn't that much taller than her. She watched a smile turn his mouth up at the corners, when he wasn't looking cross at her he looked much younger. His strange skin seemed to almost change and glow with the light of the fire playing across his features, he raised his eyebrows in a gesture for her to take his offered arm and follow him.

"What about your supper then?" "Oh, I have a feeling it won't be going anywhere, it will be waiting when I return, I assure you." Belle gave him a shy smile as she accepted his arm.

She followed him quietly up the stairs to the upper floor where they passed door after door. He seemed to be in a relatively good mood and she thought this would be as good a time as she was likely to get to inquire about keys.

"May I ask you something?"

"Proceed" he said to her looking at her sideways. Belle cleared her throat, thinking of the best way to approach what she suspected might be a precarious subject. "well, you told my father that you wanted a caretaker and, um...well, most of the rooms here are locked I presume."

"you presume correctly." "Well,how can I clean properly if I can't get to any of the rooms?" Belle felt she had made a good argument. " Rumple pursued his lips in a frown as he listened to her words. "Well, dearie that is an excellent question, I do in fact possess a skeleton key that fits every lock" as he spoke he patted his chest indicating that he kept the key inside a pocket in his jacket. "I tell you what, let's just see how things go and perhaps we will see that you do indeed have access to the many rooms in the castle, how does that sound?" Belle nodded her head as they stopped at a door.

There was nothing special about the door, in fact it looked just like all the others, except this one had a large hook that was fastned up high in the center. Belle wondered what it was for. "Here we are" Rumple took a key from his jacket, Belle studied it as he procedded to unlock the door , he gestured for Belle to enter.

The room was warm from the fire burning bright, There was a large cosy bed in the center of the room. Belle's eye caught sight of a smaller door off to the corner on the other side of the bed. Rumple saw her look, "It's a washing room, I took the liberty of drawing you a bath, why don't you make use of it and I'll see that you have something more fitting to wear" he studied her ruined dress before his eyes met hers, " something more comfortable."

Belle nodded, wondering why he could be so callous one minute then almost caring the next, he was most definitely a puzzle. Belle made her way to the room after Rumple excused himself and as she dipped her finger into the bath water was pleased to find the it nice and hot. Her ruined dress felt cold and heavy and she was in a hurry to take it off. She locked the door and turned around to survey the room, first thing she noticed was that there were no mirrors, she had wanted to inspect her hair which she was confident was an unsightly mess. She made quick use of the provided chamber pot and noticed two large drying towels placed beside the tub for her. She had a hard time believing he had went to this much trouble for her, never the less she intended to enjoy the hot water she thought to herself as she slipped down into the water. She took this time to inspect her hands, the blisters felt sore and tender and the muscles in her arms were quite sore, she wasn't used to any sort of manual labor and sweeping and mopping stairs had made her ache in places she didn't think were possible.

A decrative glass bottle filled with some kind of soap that she assumed was for her body sat on a small table by the tub, she opened it and inhaled the sweet fragrance within. Belle didn't emerge from the tub till she was pruny from the hot water and her hair was throughly scrubbed and shinning. She used the large towels provided to dry off and wraped one around her. She took a few tenative steps out of the washing room to find a beautiful pink gown layed out on the bed. She picked it up, holding it out to examine the material.

It was made of light silk, the neck was wide with embroarding around it of small pink rose buds, it was lovely. The rest of the gown was ribbed, it felt soft and feminine, she couldn't wait to see how it felt against her body as she quickly abandoned the towel and pulled the gown over her head.

"A perfect fit dearie." Belle gasped as Rumple appeared in the doorway, leaning against the open door. He smiled at her but Belle could see the desire smoldering in his eyes. She dropped her eyes to the floor as she nervously bit her lip, trying to avoid his direct gaze.

Rumple watched her figdit uncomfortablly as he removed his jacket and layed it across a chair by the fireplace. He liked the control he obviously had over her emotions, it would make things easier for what lay in store for her.

"Come here Belle, let me see how lovely you look." He spoke kind words but looked cross again, she hesitated, she remained where she was, she planned on getting the key to help poor Geppetto, but she was frightned of what he might do if she obeyed , of how it made her feel and even more frightned of what might happen if she did not. "NOW." she jumped, shyly she crossed the room to stand in frount of him. "Show me your hands."

What? Why did he want to see her hands for? She obliged him and held out her arms toward him. Suddenly he was holding a strap of leather that moments before she was sure hadn't been there. He began to bind her wrists with it. "What are you doing?" Belle tried to pull her hands away but he had looped the strap in such a way that when she did it only tightned around her wrist.

"Whatever I want," he informed her," you belong to me dearie. Now, raise your arms above your head."

"Why?"

"Now Belle." Belle could tell he was getting angry, she was completly at his mercy, she had no other choice but to comply . She shut her eyes as she did as he commanded. She felt miserable being on such a display in frount of him.

Rumple couldn't believe how hard it made him, watching her struggle to obey. her gown was as lovely a pink as her face was. He took the strap and led her to the door and fastened it to the hook with her back against the door, then he examined his catch.

Belle had her face turned into her arm as if she could hide from him. She was biting her lip so hard that she was sure any minute she would taste blood. Rumple hoped she did make it bleed, he wanted to taste that beautiful swollen lip, to suck her blood off of it. The sleeves of her gown had fell back when she raised her arms reveling long graceful limbs. He rubbed his hands down the length of them. Her breasts were perfection, jutting out of the ribbed fabric. He gently took them into his hands, feeling thier slight weight, lightly massaging them as he felt thier peaks harden. Belle gave a small cry as he pushed them together, playing with them gently.

She gave her arms a light tug when he lightly ran his nail over her nipple."Shhh, It's alright, I'm not going to hurt you, much." He chuckled as Belle whimpered. He continued carrassing her as he felt the silky fabric cling to her delicate skin. His touches felt soft against her aching breasts. Why did they suddenly ach she wondered, he hadn't hurt her, she couldn't understand why they felt as they did. She didn't want him touching her, but her body was responding just the same. She suppressed an urge to arch her body into his hands, she felt as if the straps hadn't been holding her up she would have certainly fell to the floor. He was so close to her now, his positioned his knee between her legs holding her body up with his, she could feel the leather of his pants against her, it made her want to... she didn't understand what it made her feel like with him so close, touching her, keeping her restrained as he was.

Suddenly she heard a noise and opened her eyes. He had heard it too, he didn't look happy. He growled in irritation,"I'll be back dearie, I have to go pull the wings off a certain troublesome crickett, now don't go away." He laughed at her quietly, how could she do that, he had her tied up.

Rumple marched out from the room, leaving her there. She watched him go, in desperation She struggled with the strap, no use. Thats when she noticed his jacket, he had left it laying on the chair... the key.

Perhaps she could get loose and get it. What had he meant about pulling the wings off a crickett, it must have been a metaphor for something, she wasn't sure. She began rotating her wrists back and forth and sure enough she was able to wiggle one hand through. After she was free she stole a glance down the hall, she heard nothing. she quickly rushed to the jacket, feeling for the pockett. She found it, a small black key with a dragon emblem etched on it, how fitting she thought.

Could she find something in that room that could perhaps save the old man's life or at the very least make him more comfortable? She had to try, perhaps she could get something and hide it and get back before he came back. She had to, no telling what he might do if he returned to find her gone. She reasoned that it probably wasn't that much worse than what he had planned for her already. She gripped the key tightly as she entered the hallway, listening for any sign of him...nothing. She made her way quickly through the corridors toward the tower, her gown flowing around her as she left.

"