A/N: To clear this up, I forgot to say that David and Leon- young village lads are my OC's too. I apologize for any confusion any of you had when I randomly had their names in there. And finally, I got this chapter typed up. The next chapter may be a bit because I am dividing this chapter into parts, as this ended up being longer than expected. I'm also waiting either to see Beauty and the Beast again, wait til full scenes are uploaded, or the DVD to come out which should be soon. I'm relying on all memory right now lol.
Please enjoy this part! One of two original songs and Stanley's POV in this chapter! The song 'Gaston' and other original song next chapter!
Chapter 4: A Chance Meeting
'You wear your heart on your sleeve and hold us up like a crown. Til we find, why we thrive, in this poor forlorn town, in your drinks we will drown and never will we frown!'
I sit cross legged on my window seat, elbows on my knees and hands in fist beneath my chin to prop my waking and aching head up. I've been thinking back on last night and everyone's words to me. Once I may have thought too deeply for some things such as the men 'still burning for more' even though I turn them down. Albeit some are too old, but some not as old to where there is possibility to live a bit of a long life with them and be wealthy enough by this town's standards. I would chiefly maintain my current position in society except I'll be married only increasing by one percent.
But have I felt love for any of them? No. Have I tried? Yes. I was younger then, though. In love with the idea of love and still am. Perhaps this is what is blinding me from finding anyone perfect. There was one middle aged man who used to live in Belle's home before they moved in several months ago and I thought this man stole my heart, but he was the first to announce he had no ardent feelings for me whatsoever and that he wouldn't be living here long enough for such feelings to try growing. Despite it was only I who loved him, I still felt crushed even more so when I realized I didn't in fact love him. I was drawn to his maturity, somewhat good-looks, and wealth.
Since then, nothing new and nothing great. Luckily no dreams appeared of any kind affiliated with my thoughts in my sleep. It was an exhausted deep sleep where at once the world was peaceful and perfect for me. All for me.
'Til we find why we thrive in this poor forlorn town…' How are we still thriving? It is indeed a miracle that half our population did not flee the village for better living—neutral living conditions and a town regular controlling the town (my brother) since after he came back from the war. It has been this way since I could remember arriving here, and our arrival I recall was warmly welcomed. Once my brother was drafted into the war and he came back a celebrated war hero (the only in our town), everyone flocked around us like geese as well… Then something happened that I don't quite remember which bothers me to no end. But until I remember, I suppose our town's togetherness is what holds us all together even though not many individuals are happy and always working, cleaning, farming, or drinking away all woes at our tavern.
'No matter how hard we try to be like you we'll never amount up to what you do…'
What do I do for them other than shaping everyone up to be something greater in my eyes? My stomach curdles at my own awful being and thorny mind unsure of everything yet so sure. Perhaps if I received an education like my brother I'd understand him and everyone better than I have been and know my place. My place by his side and believing myself better than anyone else, that is. Which I am. Ugh… This new-found light in me, however, a light because I feel as if the sun is in the center of my chest and rays dart out like water in a shot up barrel, stirs the deepest parts of me that I was unknown of existing or merely forgot.
And the scary part is that I'm beginning to believe this light is not bad, but good, and it is what I truly am. It is how and who I am meant to be. But no… I'm a queen. I'd have nothing if I were my true self and not what I made of myself. So odd… I'm turning out to be odd and I have no idea how to react to this!
Then it all occurs to me at once on what I can do until my brother comes back.
"Belle," I whisper as if her name, this strange beautiful word, answered everything. It all changed when the peculiar mademoiselle came to town.
I raced out the tavern quicker than I ever had out of a feeling other than excitement, but one of trouble. The more my mind thinks about myself changing my person I feel troubled, and going to Belle of all people for help—no one must know. The dark brown suspendered breeches I wear make me walk this much fast, and my dark riding boots have a mind of their own as I stride through town with anxious steps.
"Farmer breeches? Going riding again?" Clothilde drawls walking past me with an eyebrow risen as high as her odd pouf of hair, and her face masked with its usual frown.
"Later. I'm just going to see from the edge of town if my brother has returned yet," I lied a little, slowing down some to meet the woman's appraisal eyes before continuing on my way.
"Haven't seen him yet!"
"Bonjour!" the rounded baker greets me as I walk past his shop and the smell of the pastries blowing in the summer breeze caused by the drafty alley way next to his shop.
"Bonjour! I'm sorry monsieur, I'll come back later!" I regrettably say as I continue and overhear everyone else's bonjours and offers to people to buy their goods. The same routine every day.
"Here I go again my mind is spinning. Though not more than theirs I can say…" I trail off catching the eyes of the young boys and the flirtatious farmer's bright, seducing blue eyed gaze, winking at me and puckering his pink lips on his tanned face sensually. It's hard to believe my brother nearly considered him as a potential husband for me, it surely would have never worked. Besides, the farmer has a wife now so I am safe from ever being matched with him if I was forced. Not that I'd ever be forced, where did that thought come from?
"If only they all knew, that I am fading to a duller hue, they would know what it's like to be me day by day…"
I ignored everyone else's tones too focused on finding Belle. She wasn't at the atrium; perhaps she is done with laundry there for a while after yesterday's incident, so she must be at her home.
"Bonjour!" the flirting farmer surprisingly diverted his gaze to my back already several feet away from his stand.
"Bonjour, don't you see her?" the pretty fishmonger strides up to the farmer as she does every day. Her smile bright and white on her bronze complexion so the thin gap between her teeth is hardly noticeable at first glance. The farmer could care less about that one visible imperfection.
"How can I not she is dressed so enticingly," the farmer's face is hit by a fish flung at him by his wife.
"Odette, her face, she's thinking," Chapeau notes nearby with a concerned frown overhearing everyone's conversations. "She's still downhearted from last night."
"But she's marching as if nothing in her sight can deter!" Clothilde mentions, walking up to the man she has ties with. "She said she was searching for her brother."
"That explains it. She's beginning to look lost without him," Chapeau replies as he waits for a young lad late for school on his doorstep. "Enough already I know you're playing hooky!"
The said lad with disheveled hair responds from his room above, and throws a tomato at the ground, splattering all over the leaving fishmonger's dress barely missing the top of Chapeau's tricorn, "You're not the boss of me, sir!"
"Then miss today's lesson for all I care!"
"There she goes striding past us slender, tall and fair.." Tom, Dick, and Stanley chorus from behind the cart delivering bottles of drinks to the tavern. They eye her every move and where she is walking to. "She's ignoring us all more than she ever does."
"She's dressed so unusual," the Bimbette's mother calls out from her lady's wear shop. "Did she sleep with a farmer?"
"No mother, she's better than that! She reaps what she sows," Her daughters answer together with curious frowns and green eyes peering out their shop window and following their favorite girl in town.
"I think I like them with a little more fat…" David frowns taking in Odette's now emphasized long legs hidden underneath her pants.
Leon looks at his twin with an eye roll, "I think you're crazy mon frère."
"I think I have something that can cure that…" the apothecary calls out next to the baker, seeing me in an uncommon mood.
I felt everyone's gazes on me, but their voices not in harmony as they usually are, and finding this they grow silent and return to their regular conversations, and finally I'm left alone to my own thoughts and left alone as I make my way further back to the edge of the village where Belle's home is. Only chickens and small sheep run around the cobblestone and dirt covered ground.
"I want to make sense of what I'm feeling. Every instant every second I find my dignity fleeting... Oh brother if you're near please come back," my voice falters from frustration to one of melancholy and hope as if I went from walking on the streets and into a magnificent church.
"And Belle I pray you're there so you can help me… But if only someone else can see… Find me. Listen to me… Then maybe it'll all make sense once more…" my words gone with the summer breeze when I walk up to Belle's gated cottage and reach over the waist-high gate to unlock it from behind before walking through, and up the incline of steps going to her door.
"Belle?" I call out before I knock, thinking she'd be outside in the yard on such a windy day as this but dry enough to where no woman's hair or dress would be disarrayed.
Hearing nothing promptly, I knock twice and waited for what felt like five minutes until I let it be and left.
Turning back around and glance at my surroundings of the simple view of the cabbage patch across the road… a whole row of them squished flat completely! Her little garden, well her father's probably—he isn't even around! And the mini stable with no horse or cart near one of the young oak trees next to the home. Only the mule and chickens are walking atop the hay in the bend.
Walking through the gated fence, I glance back at the crushed cabbages then to the alleyway where cobblestone meets dirt and bright green grass. One of the many exits from town everyone knows like the back of their hand. I stood there for some minutes to see if Belle is out there with her father, or my brother for that matter. He should be coming back today.
Unless maybe he is going to propose to her after all! In the rolling hills, in the woods… Gaston would probably shoot a bear and put a ring inside its carcass to only skin it in front of Belle and then proceed with the proposal! It's avant-garde in my brother's own, mad way.
The thought of this makes me laugh to myself when I turn around and head back the way I came, and it is this happy thought of my brother being happy making me consider. Maybe living with him and Belle wouldn't be so bad, and I wouldn't have to change her. Why should I have to change her? Gaston apparently fell for her looks and whatever she offers other than reading. To start anew elsewhere however? I can probably talk my brother out of this part… and the one about me finding someone—anyone that I love… and doing what I please such as not being the regular homemaker-
"Oh!" my deep thoughts gone and replaced with shock as I walk straight into someone's chest as I rounded a corner. A man that much I am aware of by a quick register of his virile clothing on his masculine frame and the firm coated arm, shaking out of nerves or shock himself, wrapped behind me.
"Miss Ode—Mademoiselle, I'm sorry," he stammers in a thick, rich French accent.
I blink twice more and finally meet his non-expressive face, long side-burns sluggishly growing into a beard forming on his lower jawline, high cheekbones, medium refined nose, and guarded brown eyes. Hmmm, he isn't that bad on the eyes.
"Stanley, why are you here? What are you doing here?"
The man in the red tricorn hat and dark brown coat covering his attire like my own is sets me back up to my feet with ease. His movements stiff and careful as he casts glances all around us.
"I was sent to follow you wherever you were going. You looked like you were roaming far."
"I'm merely around the corner where all three of you are standing, only further back… some… But not enough for someone to walk with me," I defend myself gently.
"I'm aware you are one of my brother's henchmen but you are not mine. I am safe in this town even when he isn't here. He's left me before without one of you following me around," I then complain more to myself and groan with displeasure when he didn't respond before.
"This time is different… I'm afraid he said," he murmured almost shyly, his mouth barely moved. He has nothing to be shy about! Shyness on him a large contrast to his tall and dark features much like my brother but much brusquer. Maybe because now I know he is a henchmen… possibly a killer too… Then I know nothing of what henchmen do but follow people around with certain orders. It is much like a king's royal guard.
The shyness does tell me he is still a young man and is corrupted by the way of the threatening men in this village, hence my brother, but that's not my problem. Men are to be shaped up more so than women to keep our entire village functioning.
"If you were to ask this he said you'd know what I mean." Indeed. "And it's only until he returns..."
My face hardens at this, and I stare him down even though he is but a head taller than I. I am after all his superior, next to my brother equally, "Well I dismiss you and Tom, and Dick. And all of you will leave me be for the remainder of the day."
He chuckles mirthlessly, no smile even trying to stretch across his mouth now emitting all coarseness. I'm reminded of the disagreement with my brother last night. His surliness not so much to make my bones grow cold, but I know he is outright serious and trying to persuade me without being too harsh, "He said you weren't to order us around either unless it was to bring you elsewhere in addition to your safety."
"Well… I am done back here, so you have no need to follow me anymore…" I glance down at me feet with a sudden idea, and peer back up at him from under my long eyelashes, free of any kind of maquillage like my face as I said last night. Today would be a natural day.
And it would be one of my free days without my brother around… even if there are henchmen assigned to me now. No man will attempt to flirt with me save the married flirtatious farmer and possibly David and Leon who are much younger than me.
"Elsewhere? So anywhere as long as I'm safe?" I ask gently, finally meeting his dark eyes much better than before, and I can glance at his striking and sharp facial features no matter how gruff he may appear, he is rather fine. I've never looked at him this much like this. Normally a measly glance.
"…Yes." His large dark eyebrows matching his eyes furrow in their own way, suspicious of what I'm asking. "And where were you going before we ran into each other? Which I apologize again for doing, I wasn't meant to be caught."
Ignoring my pointed eyes he continues tensely, "But depending on where it is I can take you—"
"—No that is fine. It was nowhere important." My idea of flirting with him to drive him away was tossed aside. He appears as the more harassing type until he gets what he wants. Then maybe he should get what he wants…
"For you to ignore almost everyone you walked past? You looked serious about your destination which leads to me believing it was important. Still is, I presume, my lady?"
His flowing voice like a dangerous waterfall floods my senses—dangerous because they were two sided words to be taken either kindly or sarcastically. My brother made all three of these men suspicious of my actions. For this I feel my mouth parting for a quipped retort which comes out frustrated instead and not at all kind, as the 'good' part of my mind was reading his words as kind.
"You presume wrong. My business is my own, monsieur. In fact, if I may presume, why is it none of you use my name? Everyone is nearly on a first name basis in this town. Is this another one of my brother's pointless orders you staunchly follow?"
"Nearly. But yes, indeed they are his orders," he answers knowingly with a smirk in his eyes but it quickly dies and he doesn't elaborate further. As I waited he only stared down at me and we shared an awkward silence until I took my chance to drive him away from me.
"I was looking to see if my brother was coming back, nothing more. You are a very devoted follower… I'd say henchmen but the word always sounded evil to me which I'm against, but it doesn't take away the fact you are close with my brother and that makes you close with me," I slowly stepped closer to him and put my left hand on his coat so that he may see my ring-less finger, which he noticeably catches my gist staring down at my hand wistfully.
"I- I suppose," he stutters before swallowing tightly. His serious mask beginning to crumble much already. The woman always had this dominating nature from what he was told before he met her at the tavern when he began henchmen life. Her standing right in front of him now without his trusty pals and no one else, Stanley let his guard down only a bit, a bit, and began to ponder life before he became a henchman and pictured how differently life would've been if only…
"When my brother gave you and the others- the only three men in this town he trusts, orders to not let me out your sight, did you know what last night was really meant to be like?"
His eyes gaze back up into mine with a hardness only an ardent suitor would have, then as if it never happened, half of his serious mask that fell off before was plastered back on once more, "I did. And how much you lucked out startles me to no end, I must admit."
I hesitate before questioning. Perhaps he doesn't currently have the eyes of an ardent suitor. I cannot flirt with him for my own gain in solitude for nothing! "Lucked out?"
"No one here is good enough for you, take it from someone who knows, mademoiselle," his eyes betrayed a sense of anguish. "I wasn't surprised when Gaston cancelled such a… disgusting festivity to parade you around to every man he thinks worthy, which are none. He cares for you that much."
A chicken clucking flapping its wings and hopping off a crate nearby startles the both of us out of our rather private discussion. The moment this thought crosses the mind I step back uncomfortably, but Stanley seemed to appear like he did something wrong.
"Not that it wasn't disgusting to watch you dance!" He quickly corrects himself with wide eyes and worried breaths coming out in quick exhales like gasps for air. "Or sing. I meant it was just the intended act to… gain men's…"
I press my lips into a tight thin line, shutting my eyes for a moment as I nod my head briskly, "I understand what you meant. But you don't know half of what really happened. Since my brother cares for me that much, it is also rule between us two… Me and Gaston, that I am to be happy."
"I-" Stanley stops speaking altogether and lowers his head to take my words in fully. He reminded me of a dog that reached for an entire ham of the counter and is now being scolded. At least my father isn't here to shoot him like he did our dog, from what my brother told me when he told me stories of our parents.
"I am not happy now. And I won't be happy until my brother comes back to town and I see his face. If I tell you and the others to stop watching out for me—"
He goes to cut in but I hold my finger up.
"—just for the day or when he returns," I nearly growl, "I have that right to be left alone without anyone looking out for me, my brother's word or not. Besides, I have my handy sword."
My left hand went to rest on my left hip where my sword's hilt is protruding from underneath my coat.
"I will fight you if I must. Let me get my own pastries, ride my horse and shape people up without being watched like a hawk!" my eyes burn into his, evaporating whatever argument he wanted to make before. I haven't fussed at anyone like this since a young woman I encountered six months ago who had no idea what to do with herself and who to be, and after much convincing and persuasion, she became a bar maid at our tavern. Her values misplaced in some places, sadly now that I look back on it, but she didn't want to work with changing that. She wanted something easy, and she wanted me to teach her my ways of being dominating… Of course, I showed her, but I didn't give away all my secrets! She is not allowed a sword at her side—as her mother and father still have a hold on her, and women are not to be armed anywhere outside their home… except for me. And she's not allowed to wear pants in public or when riding a horse.
If she wanted all that I have she would have done something in the past six months to get her change. Some people just settle too easily… or it is all they need. I swallow back some saliva in attempts to douse the said 'sun' in my chest.
"O-Of-of course. If you say so, my lady," Stanley swallows, and defeatedly he steps away from me and I walk past him with a now kind smile he didn't return, but he only looked down at his feet. His tricorn covered his face on either side so any reaction he had could not be seen.
"See? It wasn't so hard to let a woman do what she wants. If only all men were you and my brother," I call back to him. His feet scuff the ground so swiftly it's as if he turned around to look at my retreating form.
As the wind was blowing in my face, blowing my long hair behind me, I make to turn around before I disappear into the streets ahead to tell him something; just when the wind changed direction as if to swerve around me and force me to turn if I didn't.
"What?"
Stanley couldn't believe his ears. Has he heard what he has been waiting to hear forever to escape her sweet lips? Is the Lord above finally helping him win this battle to earn her hand and heart? The troubles he has been through blinded him all this way, but her brother remains in the way…only for now.
"I'll see you this evening, Stanley. Perhaps if Gaston is in a good mood he may let us speak as more than just equals," I giggle to myself watching his entire body grow stiff and jawline tight while his cheeks were beet red. He maybe took what I said too seriously.
"In a sword fight, you mean?" he called out but I didn't answer to leave him in wonder. Perhaps not, I giggle inwardly. What a conflicting man Stanley is, but overall very serious. He mustn't have experience in talking to ladies that much I can say. But how did I ever not consider him as a match for me nevertheless a trusted friend that isn't a woman? If he can't be approved by my brother he could be a friend I had no idea existed. A man to defend me at my side other than my brother wouldn't be too bad to ask for.
Well, as friend or a lover, I never noticed Stanley until he and the others began to hover more and more around my brother and me as years and days went on. As I said earlier, I gave nothing more than a measly glance and knew voices to their blurry faces. And today, I finally see. Stanley is good looking—just as I imagined my dream man to be, and submissive. Submissive just as my brother and I want. Well, mostly me…
A blessing in disguise- just when all hope is beginning to be lost I have found a rescuer. A potential love?
I'll see.
Stanley found himself walking hastily towards Belle's cottage after Odette left him to his own thoughts, and stopping at the alley way leading out of town, waiting and pacing in place for his and the town's front-runner Gaston to return.
He has never been so eager in his life more than this moment. It was a promise of sorts between him and Gaston that if she even acknowledged him as worthy or like her brother—which he knows Gaston won't believe a bit until after some convincing—Gaston would approve of a future marriage between him and Odette.
Stanley looked out on the hills once more, seeing what looks like a person atop a horse far off, so he takes it upon himself to lean against one of the cottage walls in the shade, removing his tricorn until the moving figure comes closer.
The relationship he had with Gaston before he became a henchman was always rocky and frightening. It was after he was entrusted with the duty to do everything the captain told him when things seemed to look up. Nothing to do with Odette, but his own self-worth and honorable reputation as a preserver of the peace and hoodlum. Not necessarily a hoodlum or criminal, that was more in his appearance in visible demeanor. Tom, Dick, and Stanley were shaped up by Gaston to be like him but not him. A celebrated war-hero and town leader like Gaston needed unquestioning assistants to dish out order to the public, and dispose of those who did not wish to follow order.
Stanley shivers during his reminiscing of the only time he helped dispose of someone, and that was the middle-aged man who lived in Belle's cottage before she came. He eyes the same cottage across the way with a heated glare. The said middle-aged man could not believe his ears on the regulations put forth in Villeneuve: brawn and beauty always visible- especially to not pay tax and to be viewed as higher classed and privileged if you were that good looking, no speak of education with women or under privileged men… the list goes on. The man wished to leave immediately- paying no tax for the short time he lived there because tax in his book is law and order.
But this was when the name Odette reached Stanley's ears after months of not hearing it during his time becoming a harsher, manlier man thanks to Gaston's time with all three of them, shaping them mentally and physically to be like him. It was then Stanley remembered his true intentions to becoming what he is and becoming a better man with a better reputation. It made him anxious to not mess up this one chance to earn a closer place to Odette.
When the middle-aged man apologized for not being able to stay to get to know Odette and let their feelings for each other grow, Gaston was livid. The captain had no idea the man had been fooling around with his sister or even considered her as his future wife. But the man wasn't really fooling around, he made sure to defend himself for not wanting anything to do with her. It was the insult to her name- calling her a gold digger, naïve to see the horridness of this town and fixing it, stupid to consider herself better than he who received an education, and a helpless wench.
Stanley had his sword drawn to end the man then and there- not the wisest thinking to some- but that's the henchmen life and time for chivalry. Stanley will never forget the gleam of appreciation in Gaston's eyes for his devotion to him (and his sister, but mostly him). This act, stabbing the man or not earned him the position under Gaston he is in now.
Tom, Dick, and Stanley, under orders of Gaston after he punched and perforated the man unconscious, the three henchmen took his body out in the cover of night to the borders of the next town over, and left him to his own. Returning after this, Stanley approached Gaston and asked about Odette, but this was when the captain unfortunately stared him down like he'd always done, and told him no chance, yet. You need to be more like me, try to be even better to be able to be a potential husband. And do not call her by her name. She is my sister, and a young lady unaffiliated with you. She has never met you in her life, that's improper. Stanley, understood completely, and left it to fate and himself to earn Gaston's favor.
As for the middle-aged man's things in the cottage, they were not burned as much as Gaston wished to do, but to keep the village Villeneuve in good image, the man's things were shipped off to the town he was disposed in and told the village the next day he left during the night- not paying the tax.
The cantering of a horse draws near, and all of Stanley's thoughts cease, not even finishing recalling his entire past as a henchman.
Gaston is sure enough atop the horse; his usual red vest underneath his copper war coat is enough to recognize him.
"Ah Stanley! I trust last evening went well?" Gaston beams at the tall distrustful looking man in the shade riding into the alleyway, who was severely frowning from his thoughts but now smirks, putting his tricorn back on. Gaston indeed knows the man isn't distrustful. He has never been so proud to make a threatening looking young man walking up to him with purpose and willingness to do anything he was asked to do.
"Yes it did. It was another regular night save for a few more drunks than normal," Stanley responded carefully, not mentioning Gaston's little sister just yet.
"The more the merrier, more drunks after I'm gone always. Do you find that?" Gaston laughs a deep throated laugh, making Stanley even chuckle at the contagiousness of it.
"It's because they missed you, I'd say. Without you their world's stop turning."
"Ah yes," Gaston hums in agreement, casting a short glance at Belle's cottage with a curt look before hopping off his horse with ease. The grey wolf hide on the back saddle shining blue in the morning sun.
"But not all, I must say."
Stanley moved closer to the captain and nodded understandingly, knowing he meant Belle didn't miss him as much.
"I'd go barge in there with flowers, and hidden on one of the stems a ring to make her mine, but she'd refuse. It's a pity that's the one thing in the world that can drive a man insane, being told by the person you love they will never marry you," Gaston says wistfully, finally tearing his gaze away from Belle's cottage and looking at Stanley shortly. "What are you doing out here?"
Stanley was at a loss for thought and words, more worried about Gaston's reaction to asking about Odette after around five months not after what Gaston just said. Part of it applied to even Stanley himself, being told in the past he can't have her. But did Odette want him? He was now thinking this. Did Gaston ever talk to her about him?
"I- I actually came- was sent to see if you were returning anytime soon," the red tricorn hatted man stumbled in speech. "If I can recall correctly, your sister asked all three of us if you were alright or would be back soon. She missed you last night."
"Oh I pray she didn't cry. I feel terrible, I must go see her before I take this heap of fur to the seamstress."
"She told me a bit ago that she was going to go riding and to the bakery. She ran into me watching out for her since she came to the borders of the village," Stanley admitted with a boost of fear and confidence, fear of not wanting to lose this chance of telling Gaston with no others around.
Gaston assessed the man silently, nostrils inhaling and exhaling calmly with an enquiring face.
"Tom and Dick sent you?"
"Yes, sir. We finally met after years not. She even-" Stanley paused trying to recollect his thoughts from the sterner and surprised face Gaston has now. "We talked, because she found me watching her and was upset. But after assuring her it was your orders and for her safety, in parting ways she admitted 'if only all men were like you and I.'"
Gaston was no fool when he saw the burn of hope and sureness in the man's eyes, faces leveled like bulls in same height except for the tricorn on the man's head.
"She considers me as your equal, sir. As what we both wanted and I was waiting for."
"I didn't want any men flirting with her as I recall ordering," Gaston's eyes flared in anger.
Stanley splutters out, "Gaston I didn't flirt with her- not last night or this morning I swear. She said this out of her own will. I kept my distance."
"Not so well, apparently," Gaston spits out stepping closer to him. "I know my sister's will. She wouldn't be so foolish to take a liking to any man she just met, one of my henchmen! She hardly knows you!"
Stanley tilted his head in understanding, "True, but with your permission we can get to know each other, as we agreed months ago once I am like you—her own words herself at that—I can be allowed… allowed…" Stanley trails off losing the small smile he had no idea was on his face seeing Gaston's familiar face of disproval and more interestingly, disappointment.
"Oh Stanley," Gaston shakes his head, feigning a miserable frown. "You'd- you'd think you be the perfect husband for my sister? Think I'd approve of a poor sod like you? I would have thought you had grown out of this forbidden romance by now."
Stanley gulps unhappily, both at what Gaston is beginning to say and remembering something else entirely of what Gaston made him do long before he became a henchman. He shoves that terrible experience in the back of his mind. "I don't understand."
"No, no you don't. And you never will," Gaston shakes his head, clapping the man on the shoulder. "You will never have my blessing, or my little sister. She deserves someone better—outside this town's walls. Don't go messing up something good you have going for you now. It has nothing to do with my sister, it never has."
He lied to me. Stanley's entire being shook by this man's final words.
"I have my own plans for her, it is my duty to worry about her well-being. You are to never be near her again unless you're with Tom and Dick. I'd hate to lose one of my key men over something so... unimportant."
Stanley, with all the force he could muster—ashamed part of him knew from the start it wouldn't end well and he didn't listen to it- he nodded once, briskly, "Yes sir."
Gaston nodded his head to him in return, "Good man," and lead his horse away. Disappearing into the streets, getting busier with people and horses walking around. But Stanley remained where he stood for some time, letting the words—orders—sink in. His heart seized beating in his chest and his ears lost all sense of sound like a piece of cotton was shoved in them. Feeling miserable as he had all those past times he tried to earn the proper blessing. It's all the proper blessing. If he had it his way he'd take Odette—
He inhales sharply, ceasing all deep thinking of the only thing he ever thought more than some pence about, and that was Odette. Now, he has no reason to. Even if he had all the strength in the world, and the audacity to whisk her off her feet and elope—hoping she'd love him in return, that is—he wouldn't do it. Her brother and she belong together. It'd be wrong.
The more and more Stanley comes to terms with his matters of the heart, he finds he is pushing it all away by the hardest, but it's working like a thimble. It covers the thumb and even though needles prick the other fingers, the one finger is protected. Instead the thimble is over his heart.
He can live the bachelor life, the henchman life following wherever need be, and keep to himself as much as he wants. His old line of work as a jeweler is out the window.
Odette's smiling face, dark hair blowing behind her with her white cloak and dress passing by his window—like an angel from above who stole his heart but she never knew, and never will know. This memory haunts him tauntingly when he decides to start walking again, hoping every step away from where he and Odette once stood talking- for the first-time face to face having a real conversation- would help put the entire past behind him.
But so, wrong. Like loud frying pans, clanking chains, swords, and guns tied to his ankles were being drawn behind him as he walked, the weight getting heavier and heavier the more the name Odette crossed his mind like verses from a prayer book. She will never escape his thoughts or his heart. She was in it before the thimble covered it. That clever woman.
Luckily his hat was tipped low as his head hung low to cover the possible tears that began to leak out his eyes in pain that can't be explained. Until making it to the main streets of the town, filled with people, he looked up, tears dried and gone with his usual inexpressive face. Now he looks forward to joining his fellow men in the shade since there is no breeze on this hot summer day within the main center of town.
He has a duty to live up to, still. Always will. And he will enjoy every moment he can just looking at Odette, enjoy the memories, few of those… And accept that maybe not in this time but in another he will be able to be in her presence freely and perhaps even able to love her freely. If she loves him, that is.
Like the fool he knows he is, he would like to believe she would.
A/N: Ok, I don't know about you, but I was in tears by the time I finished this! Poor Stanley. So you all know a good bit of Stanley's past and current thinking. He has been 'shaped up' by Gaston more than anyone in town I'd say and from what was just revealed. Gaston has a part of him hidden from everyone including his little sister, obviously now. I'd like to think henchmen were brainwashed like gangsters in a sense, except henchmen follow blindly or blinder. The spell on the people not making things any better *SPOILER ALERT*. Stanley has a deeper story that will be revealed later on. Then there's Odette hoping to even just have Stanley as a friend because he considers her an 'equal'. LeFou, of course he treats her equally and very friendly (LeFou and Odette will have sweet moments later on!), but Stanley is the stranger that comes into her life out of the blue, and is the 'bad boy' so to say. Oh yeah, he was/is a jeweler. This shows his softer side and he seemed like that'd be his career in the village and farming produce for extra money. Plus it has something to do with my plot... Will not spoil that lol.
Hope you enjoyed! I am trying to get the next chapter up as soon as I can! Thank you all to those who reviewed, followed, and favorited! :)
