Chapter 10- The Wrath of Babette
The next morning, most of the castle servants chose to sleep in, temporarily relieved of most duties while the newlywed Prince and Princess were granted their privacy. The dishes in the immense palace kitchen were still unwashed, and the general consensus was that 'we'll get to it when we'll get to it.'
One maid in particular was perfectly willing to tackle the tasks. Physical work has a tendency to get one's mind off their cares and concerns, so at about nine in the morning, a petite, slender, dark haired figure came down into the kitchen alone and grappled the water pump. She filled the basin with hot, scalding water, threw in a bar of soap, and began slamming pots and pans in with determined vigor.
Crash! Bang! A few dishes were broken in Babette's cleaning frenzy. The noise caused Mrs. Potts and Maurice to come into the kitchen from their respective rooms on opposite ends. They still had their secret, shared with Cogsworth, that they planned to announce very soon, perhaps today if Adam and Belle happened to come down, which they had to, since eventually they'd get hungry.
"Good morning, dear!" sang Emmeline Potts, taking two large tea kettles and putting them on the great black stove, while Maurice grabbed some kindling for its fire. "Where is Lumiere this morning?"
Babette's face twisted. She was holding a frying pan by the handle, and she hurled it back down in its drawer with an ear-shattering bang.
"I DON'T KNOW, MRS. POTTS! AND GUESS WHAT? I DON'T REALLY CARE!"
Mrs. Potts widened her eyes. "I take it you had a quarrel, dear. I understand. Why don't you sit down with us? We'll have tea, leftover cake, and talk a while. Please?"
Babette tossed a towel down on the countertop. She put her hands over her face, and regaining her composure, obeyed Mrs. Potts' suggestion.
"I just don't understand that man! He and I have had this…thing…going for years, but it all got very serious the moment we got our human selves back, one month ago. Well, I have been trying to ask him how he feels about…commitment."
Mrs. Potts nodded in empathy. "Has he made it absolutely clear that he never wishes to marry?"
"Yes, he made that very clear. He even said the day he marries would be the day of his funeral!" Babette said despairingly.
"Do you think he is happy the way things are? Are his needs being met now as they are?"
"Yes," Babette said. Then her eyes went wide. "What exactly do you mean by that?"
"It is all right, dear," she replied gently. I just wanted to know if he is happy whilst you are not happy."
At that point, both tea kettles whistled, and Mrs. Potts rose gratefully to pour three cups for herself, Babette, and Maurice. She also got the sugar bowl, and a dainty china creamer pitcher, which were both empty.
"Maurice, love," Mrs. Potts asked her fiancé, "the creamer and sugar are both empty. We're completely out. Would you mind going into the village to the dairy farm and to the shop to get some more?"
"I guess I wouldn't mind. But doesn't Michel, or Sophie, or someone like that usually go out to get such things?" He and Belle used to have their reasons for not wanting to frequent Molyneux since the transformation. They had felt there was a stigma against them for staying for so long in the 'haunted' castle, befriending a Beast, and some blamed Belle for the death of Gaston. When Belle and her father had gone back to their home the week after the eventful night, they had felt the stares and whispers.
But since yesterday, at the wedding, the last vestiges of misunderstanding and mistrust between Adam, Belle, the castle residents and the villagers had been completely dissolved. Adam had completely charmed the peasants, especially the Molyneux women, and the men respected him and his hospitality. None of them had ever realized that he had actually been the Beast.
"I don't believe any of them are up yet," said Mrs. Potts. "The group of young people that Michel was a part of last night was in high spirits extremely late, and I saw Sophie talking and dancing for hours with some village gentleman. At any rate, everyone else here is asleep. I would rather you do it this morning."
Mrs. Potts knew that one of Maurice's quirks was that he could not stand plain tea. He was a stickler for wanting the same thing every day, and tea with milk and sugar in it was a must. He grumbled a bit. "Only if you would come with me and get it."
"I have breakfast to prepare. I don't wish to be off post when the Master and Belle come down. Actually… if you don't wish to ever be out of cream again, and the rest of us are not in a position to provide it for you, you ought to go to the farm and buy a cow yourself, dear."
At the moment that Mrs. Potts had uttered the phrase "position to provide it for you," her eyes had unintentionally- perhaps- fixed upon Babette's, before she shifted her gaze back to Maurice to speak the "buy a cow" part of her sentence.
Babette's face turned bright red, and her hazel eyes widened in hurt. She rose from the table and ran out of the kitchen.
"Whatever is the matter, Babette?" Mrs. Potts went after her. "What do you think I was saying- oh, dear! Heavens, no! I didn't mean that!"
"You think I am a scarlet woman, don't you?" Babette seethed at the sweet, grandmotherly maid.
"No, I do not," Mrs. Potts defended herself. She switched to a stern tone. "I honestly feel that if you love someone, and no commitment is made, it is best to set boundaries and if they refuse to abide to those boundaries, you may need to make ultimatums. And…" (Babette was still fuming, but was now hanging on to every word that the older woman was saying) "If you love someone, and you set them free, if they don't come back, they were never yours to begin with. But if they come back, they are yours. Believe me. I had to struggle with a similar agreement with my Nicholas, many years ago."
Babette's face softened. "I think I had better go talk with him."
Mrs. Potts put her hand on the younger woman's shoulder. "The best of luck, dear."
Babette took a teacup, took some leftover croquembouche, and went upstairs to the suite of servants' rooms.
By ten-thirty or eleven, large groups of servants finally came into the kitchen; helping themselves to leftovers and helping Mrs. Potts make more tea. Maurice found Michel and asked if Phillipe and Antoinette, the best horses, could be readied and hitched to a larger wagon with an additional hitching for a third animal. He had decided to buy a cow.
At that moment, a more casually dressed, slightly red-eyed Prince and Princess came down into the common dining area.
"Your Grace!" everyone greeted them. Adam and Belle were glowing in happiness. They had spent a delightful morning in intimate wedded bliss that far exceeded that of the night before. They wished to have a light breakfast, and take a leisurely walk to look at the birds and perhaps take a carriage ride alone through the woods.
Mrs. Potts gathered some eggs to cook. "Nothing fancy," said Adam, "we are very anxious to take our walk." Belle smiled at him. While breakfast was being served, Maurice gave Mrs. Potts a knowing look, and then turned toward his daughter. He took her hand, and stood before their table with Mrs. Potts by his side.
"Belle," he said, "…and Prince Adam, Emmeline and I have an announcement to make. We are getting married!"
The crowd of fifty to sixty servants in the dining hall cheered. Belle was the happiest of all.
"When, Papa?" asked Belle.
"Oh, we don't know yet. Possibly next month? May is a really nice time of year," replied Maurice.
"May sounds absolutely perfect," agreed Mrs. Potts. She took the little velvet box out of her apron pocket and Maurice opened it. He put the ring on her finger to another round of applause. The two of them, after having made certain that everything was spic and span in the kitchen, decided to take a drive to the village together, to the dairy farm and to browse the shops and little café.
Two servants were missing from the joyous camaraderie in the dining hall. Lumiere and Babette were still deep in conversation, upstairs.
After Belle and Adam went outside on their walk through the gardens, they looked back and saw a figure of a tall, very slender man riding one of the remaining horses, a grey roan stallion named Florian, in a full gallop. He came a little nearer, and Belle recognized the long nose and prominent forehead of one of her most dear servant friends.
"Good morning, Lumiere! Did you rest well after last night?"
"Very well, Your Grace! Is there anything you need of service, today?"
"No," replied Adam. "We wish to give the entire staff the day off. They can fend for themselves, and so can we. We already sent Mrs. Potts and Belle's father to the village to look for a cow-" (he furrowed his eyebrows in puzzlement) "-and have some time together. They are engaged to be married, of course!" Adam announced.
At this, Lumiere's tone lost its normal cheer and he looked downright cross. "I am happy for them," he said grumpily. He spurred Florian, and shot off into the distance, heading down the valley toward the village.
Belle and Adam had a pleasant afternoon bird-watching (they had made a game of counting pairs of chickadees, the number by the end of their walk was twelve, so six pairs in total) and they also hitched up Adam's fine carriage to his favorite dainty pair of white Arabians, Remy and Raoul. They explored the winding roads through the woods, and stopped by a little creek to toss pebbles.
Their conversation consisted of the future. Adam was concerned that he had too many people on staff, and since his family was dying out, he was not as wealthy anymore as he had been as a child. The riches would not last forever, and he fretted that he would be yet another penniless aristocrat someday. Belle tried to convince him that riches were not everything, and they would replenish their family line (while she nudged him in uncharacteristic flirtatiousness).
Yet, he was very worried that he would have to cut some staff. They had a new nanny, Pippa, and two underage children who needed to be educated and be allowed playtime in addition to their domestic chores. The palace staff population was now at seventy-two. Being the master of an immense castle with too many rooms, too many people to provide for, and with their own children to possibly be born someday, he had reason to worry.
"Well, Adam, perhaps some of the servants could eventually leave on their own free will," Belle surmised. "Look at those younger men- Noel, Luc, and whatever the other two are named- the guards? How much 'guarding' do they actually do? I noticed that they like to do other things. They hunt a lot, and they are also cultivating those vegetable gardens for us. I wouldn't be surprised if someday, they really wanted to be dismissed from the castle to become farmers. They make much better farmers and hunters than guards."
"You do have a point, my Belle," Adam said softly, his arm around her as they watched the ripples in the stream. "I never thought to ask the servants that now, if they ever wanted to leave, they could. I ought to. They probably feel like they are indebted to me for life. But they aren't. That was my parents' way of thinking, not mine."
They talked for a while longer, of their hopes and dreams for the future. Belle wanted to do more for the village children. Besides providing books for them, she wanted to show them the artwork and music that was such a part of their palace life. She wanted to arrange for schoolchildren to visit whenever they wanted, to read to them from her library, or hold painting or singing classes. Lumiere would be the perfect candidate for leading a children's choir, she thought. And the new nanny, Pippa, was very talented as a painter.
Belle chatted on and on about activities and projects she could set up for the village people, and Adam listened, nodding his head in agreement. He, after all, had nothing to be ashamed of as far as the peasants in the outside world. He agreed that it was a new era of benevolence and diplomacy, and that aristocrats are no better than anyone else, something he learned from Belle and her father, that was certainly not taught him by his parents.
He also liked the new order of laisez-faire that was going on in the castle the last several months since Belle came to be with him. At first he didn't like the servants testing his boundaries, and their tendency to act more like friends than subordinates after his transformation in which he couldn't scare them with his Beastly form any longer. But he realized that many of them were his friends. And as for the ones he was not as close to, he felt the need to let them know that they had the option to leave if they desired.
After a little while, they finally rode in their carriage back to the castle. They were greeted by Cogsworth, Pippa, and the children, who led them into the dining room for dinner. As they were walking through the great hall, they saw Babette running from the kitchen, apparently distraught.
"What is wrong, Babette?" asked Belle, concerned.
Babette turned her gaze tearfully toward the Princess.
"Francois and I have broken up." She then ran swiftly towards the stairs, to the staff women's rooms.
Belle and Adam looked perplexed at Cogsworth, who made a fist with one hand and clapped his other palm on it. "Why, I ought to…"
Belle and Adam sighed, and looked at each other. It wasn't a very good situation in light of their honeymoon period and what with Maurice and Mrs. Potts' happy announcement.
Belle hoped and prayed that the situation could work itself out.