Chapter 2
The ball had started. The room gleamed from the bright coloured lights, people were dancing and Belle, well Belle was putting on an act, smiling for her people and making sure that her last night of freedom was just that: free.
Gaston approached her and asked her to dance. As much as she hated the jumped up knight who bragged about his hunting conquests to the women and his more personal ones to the men she had to be polite and accept his request.
Well the Dark One, who had been lurking in the shadows, was having none of that. She belonged to him damn it!
"My lady I think that this dance belongs to me don't you?"
"Rumplestilskin. You couldn't let me have my last night of freedom. I heard you didn't grant mercy but I had hoped you would have let me have this, for me to be able to say goodbye to the people I love.I may be bound by a contract of my parents making but not until midnight. If you want to claim your dance, I suggest you wait until then."
With a mock bow and a smirk upon his face Rumpelstilskin walked back in to the shadows to watch his future wife. Oh she was a pretty one in her golden dress with her hair put up. She looked every inch the regal lady and just think in an hour he could lay claim on her. No other male would touch her. She would be completely and utterly his. So let her have her fun on the ballroom floor with the young jumped up knight. Soon she would be his.
Belle took Gaston's hand and went on to the ballroom floor. The nerve of that man! She wasn't his until midnight and he had the cheek to show up at her ball. She wanted one last night to enjoy time with her family and friends, enjoy the touch of a man in a dance, enjoy life! Her parents had sold her to Rumpelstilskin and her father didn't tell her until this morning. They should have told her, she would have understood. After all hadn't they raised her to understand duty to her people came first, that she should be willing to make sacrifices to keep her people safe?
She danced around the ball room and tried to forget the man lurking in the shadows, waiting to claim what by contract said was his. She tried to forget that come midnight she wasn't her own person anymore. The clock was ticking, time was slowly running out.
She heard his voice "May I cut in?"
She was now his.
