I am sorry this chapter is so long but your reviews sent me over the moon.
11: Dinner and a plan
Adams spine tingled for the wrong reason.
"Hello?" He called out as he pushed the door open a empty room. Something was wrong.
He walked across the cracked floor boards and called out again. "Hello? is there any one in her-" Adam looked down at the floor and reeled back as he saw blood spatter staining the floor. Backing up further in fear he slipped into a larger pool of blood from behind. Panicking he got up to wipe the blood off his clothes when it fell away itself turning into rose petals dancing back to the floor. Adam looked up and saw that all of the blood that had been covering the floor had been turned to petals, creating a sick aroma of iron and sugar.
He heard a squeal as a woman came from nowhere and ran into his arms, burying her face into his chest.
"Adam, you have to run!"
"What-"
"Adam! If they finds us-"
A gun shot rang out and the woman slumped into his lap. He looked up to see the outline of a beast standing in the dark corner of the room. The beast raised its gun again and a second shot ripped through the air.
Adam shot up out of his bed as the lingering clap of thunder echoing through his bed chamber. God it had been a dream. No sweet kisses or loving embraces. Death and roses had been the theme. Adam groaned and laid back down in his bed.
Sleep. He told himself. You need sleep. You wouldn't want to crack on your first day. What ever lies ahead you will need your strength.
Adam placed a pillow over his ears and fell back into a fitful sleep.
The next morning Adam had woken to the sun beaming down at him from a gray ray. He blinked several times and sat up and stretched. Looking up to the window where the offending light was streaming in from, Adam could tell that last nights storm was far away. He got up and shuffled over to the window and pushed it open. His jaw dropped. A thin layer of snow rested on the grounds. So the storm had brought more than rain. Well it was that time of the season for crazy weather.
The brisk air felt nice to his face as he yawned and watched a puffy cloud come from his throat.
"Knock, knock." Came a cheerful voice.
Adam turned to find a breakfast cart loaded with food came rolling in.
"Good morning, Mrs Potts. Did you see that we got snow?"
Mrs. Potts smiled "Very little but it has been getting colder. Step away from the window and come and eat dear."
Adam did as he was told and sat down on his bed where the cart had stopped.
Adam was enraptured by the smell coming from the cart and could feel his mouth water as he anticipated the delightful meal he as about to have. The fist thing he spotted was a scone that laid next to his glistening eggs. He grabbed it and bit off a corner. "Mmmmm..." he moaned as he picked up a cup of tea to wash it down with.
"We brought you all kinds of food!" Still so unused to inanimate objects talking, Adam gasped almost dropping the little tea cup.
"Now, Chip, don't bother our guest while he's drinking his morning tea!"
"Sorry mama!" Chip giggled.
"Its all right Mrs. Potts." Adam said regaining his composure. "Do all of the slaves get this type of breakfast?"
"Oh posh! You are not really a slave my dear, you're more of a... companion for her majesty."
Adams ears perked up "Majesty? What kind of royalty?" Adam asked doubtfully.
"Princess Belladonna Esmé Nicoline Shontaé Bourderel." Mrs. Potts said somewhat proudly.
"Could have fooled me." Adam murmured quietly into the tea cup.
Mrs. Potts frowned but said no more.
Adam quickly finished eating his breakfast. Although he was enjoying his breakfast he still did not like the idea of eating off of something that was alive.
"So now what?" He asked Mrs. Potts as the dishes headed off to the kitchen.
"What do you mean Dearie?"
"I mean the way I understand it is that the only duties I have are to escort Mistress... Belladonna On a walk at noon and join her for dinner. What do I do until then?"
"Just call her Mistress or Princess Belle, she hates her given name. And for as what you can do, you can do whatever you wish so long as you don't leave the castle grounds."
"Is there anything you need help with ? I'm sure I could help in the kitchen until noon." Adam asked looking for busy work.
"Oh heavens no! The dishes are already lazy as it is, I think it might go to their heads if you started doing their chores. Find something that you like to do." Mrs. Potts suggested.
"Um, well I like to read." Adam said a bit bashful.
"Well... we do have a library, but it's to close to the West Wing and seeing how you forbidden from there you will not be allowed to visit it. At least right now. Her Majesty had a rough nights sleep with the storm and doesn't wish for any visits around that area." Mrs. Potts said thoughtfully.
Adams face fell. He should have gone last night when he had the chance. It was unfair that just because the His new master had a rough nights sleep that she need everyone to stay away from her area.
"However, there are a few minor studies down the East hall they have some books in them. There's also writing desks with parchment paper if you wish to write or keep a journal."
Adam perked up a bit. "Well I do like to draw."
"Marvelous. And if you do get bored of that there are plenty of places to explore like the garden and I do believe we have three or four horses left in the stables. As long as you don't try to escape I don't see why you couldn't ride them around the courtyard."
"Don't worry about me trying to escape. I moved to this area a few months ago and since that horseless carriage brought me here, I have no idea where I am, or where I would go if I did leave."
Mrs. Potts nodded but said nothing else. Adam got up awkwardly and thanked Mrs. Potts for breakfast. "Where would I find those study rooms you were talking about? I would very much like to read a book."
"Oh I can show him mama! Let me! Let me!" Chip begged.
"Oh all right!" said smiling. "Show him the rooms and then come straight back to the kitchens, you have chores to do."
"Ok Mama!" The tea cup said jumping off the cart.
Adams heart skipped a beat fearing as soon as the cup jumped that it would shatter, but no such thing happened as one of the breakfast carts legs stretched out and made a slide down to the ground.
"Come on" Chip giggled "I know the best way there!"
Adam smiled and followed the cheerful cup out the door.
"I DON'T WANT TO GO!"
"Princess you are being difficult of course you have to go. This our only chance to break the spell."
"NO! Im not leaving my room."
" Cogsworth I had a rough night just let me sleep! I will meet with him tomorrow." Belle snarled.
"We might not have a tomorrow princess." Cogsworth said quietly. "All you have to do is meet with him in the gardens at noon, a walk might do you some good. We had our first snow fall last night. Everything is just beautiful. Just please princess, get up."
Belle stayed quiet under her covers.
"Cogsworth, hand me my mirror." She finally said breaking the silence.
Cogsworth waddled over to her dresser next to her bed and picked up the hand mirror. It was heavy but he hefted it into her open claws and watched the mirror disappear under the sheets.
"Show me the boy." She demanded quietly.
She watched as a scene shaped before her, it was one of the studies down in the east wing, the very same one she took her classes in when she was younger. She scanned the room but didn't see him.
Where was he?
She looked harder and saw to figures moving on a settee.
"Lumiere…oh Lumiere…!"
"Ah, Babette. Come to me, my little fluff!"
He took her in his arms and leaned down to kiss her but got a mouth full of feathers instead.
Agh – agh ahchoo!
"It's my feathers, isn't it? You do not love me anymore!" She cried on a sob.
"Ah, cherie…you cut me to the wick! Do you think a little thing like that would change my feelings for you? You have always been Beautiful to me but now, you really-" He smiled lasciviously. "-tickle my fancy"
Babette giggled and pushed him away.
"Oh no."
"Oh yes!" Lumiere said coming at her.
"Oh no!"
Oh yes!
"Oh no.…no…no! I've been burnt by you before!"
A deep chuckle came from the corner of the room. Belle gasped as it sent a shiver racing though her body.
"You guys are more entertaining than the books." The boy laughed as he sat up from another chair in the room.
With his sleeves rolled up to his elbows and a few strands of light brown hair falling across his eyes Belle was struck once again at how handsome he was.
"I thought you guys were fighting?"
"Ah but Monsieur Adam, This is what love does to us all. It makes you come back for more." Lumiere growled and pulled Babette to him. She squealed in delight and nuzzled closer to him.
"I see." He said picking up other book.
"But Monsieur Adam, have you never been in love?"
Belle held her breath. It had never occurred to her that the boy might have left someone back at home.
"No."
"But sure the madams have thrown themselves at you! I am finding it very hard to believe that not one has taken a nibble. Unless you... happen to enjoy the company of other patriarchs?" Luimere said inquisitively.
Adam barked out other laugh. "God no!"
"But then why?"
Adam shrugged. "Well, I guess I never really looked. I left that up to my brother. He found plenty of women enough for both of us."
Lumiere laughed. "I think I like this bother of yours."
Babette gasped. "What are you saying am I not good enough!"
"Come now my Babette. You are perfect for me, but after all women should be treasured."
Babette angry got up and huffed away.
"Babette! Come back you are the only flame for me!" Lumiere cried going after her.
Adam shook his head in wonder, as he set down another book and got up and stretched.
Belle put the mirror down and came out from under her covers where Cogsworth waited for her.
"Fine. I will have my lunch and then we will see if I'm up to the garden walk."
But to Belles luck the garden walk would never happen. A heavy snow storm rolled in and she was not about to go walking in that. Instead, however she sent Cogsworth to inform the boy that she would only be taking dinner with him.
This gave Belle a few more hours before she would have to see him again. She walked around her room thinking of conversation starters. The last few interactions with him had not gone very well and she needed to get the upper hand in this. She needed him to love her. If he had never really been in love before it might not be that easy to catch him.
Belle tried to recall the older girls she had grown up with. How had they caught their husbands? They all had to marry to climb the social ladder, but Belle never worried of such things knowing that as a princess she was to be assigned a husband. She wouldn't have to flirt or act coy. So she had never tried to learn.
Maybe the boy just thought he was to good for village girls. As a peasant he was looking for some one of higher class, to marry up in the world. Someone like her. It certainly explained why he had never tried to find love. He was a farmers boy after all, with extreamly good looks. He probably knew that one day he would catch the eye of a upperclass woman board of her aging husband, and he would be set for life.
It made sense.
So all Belle had to do was flaunt her wealth. She could do that.
She looked in a cracked mirror as she passed.
If the boy wanted a get rich quick scheme, than appearances wouldn't matter to him. And as her slave she could make any excuse for him to do something for her. Like a marriage for freedom. She could force this. All she had to do was act the part.
"Cogsworth!" She called.
"Yes Mistress!" Came a panicked answer as the clock came rushing into her room.
"Is it time for supper yet?"
"You have a hour Mistress."
She nodded with a smile baring her sharp incisors. "Perfect."
Adam sat at the dinner table nervous. He wasn't really looking forward to a repeat of last night.
He waited with a twisted napkin in his hands to keep him busy as he waited for his master to arrive.
Finally when the doors swung open Adam stood to greet her. He pursed his lips as the beast came in. Hood down Adam could finally see the monstrous face that she had been hiding from him in the shadows. she stoped in from of him with a cool expression.
"Chair." She demanded.
Adam jumped to obey. He pulled her chair out for her and then pushed it back in as she sat.
"Sit."
He did as he was told.
"Now Due to our last interactions I have no clue as to whom my new slave is. Elaborate." She sat across from him her eyes haughty and burning into his.
"Well, um Madame, my name is Adam."
"Hmm." She grunted unimpressed.
"What else."
"Well I can read and write latin. I like to draw..." His explication died on his lips as he watched her face become more and more unimpressed.
"So you can read and write that is unusual for a famers boy."
Adam squirmed in his seat unsure of what his new mistress was looking for in him.
"But as your new um, helper-"
"Slave."
"Yes slave." He grimaced. "I can learn any task you need of me."
Adam sat in his chair shrinking under her glare.
"Adam. As you have seen, everything in this castle, from the floors to you is mine. As a peasant, I am sure that you have never been around such splendor in all of your life."
Adam opened his mouth to speak, but Belle cut him off.
"Im still speaking." She growled. "Now due to this unfortunate snow storm we could not go on our noon walk. A pity, but not a loss now that I am here to grace you with my presence."
Adam nodded numbly watching her. She seemed to be looking for him to do something but was unsure what it might be.
She waited a bit before turning away. "Eat your food." she commanded.
Adam wasn't so sure he was hungry anymore.
"Will you be eating?" He asked off handedly.
"This peasant food may be good enough for you but I would rather eat my own supper in my rooms. I have my servants bring me the most lavish of things."
Adam frowned. The food on the table was lavish. Duck, venison and boar. He helped himself to a few of the vegetables and began to eat.
She regarded him. She didn't exactly speak, but Adam could understand her. The movements of her ears and whiskers, the flashes of her eyes, The way she curled her lips- all of these were part of her strange language. a Language that one would see in a dog or even a horse.
She was agitated.
Adam felt himself grow frustrated as he watch her from the corner of his eye. What did she want from him?
He gathered the courage to speak. "Is something amiss Mistress?"
"Im just thinking of how poor you must have been not to take any of the meat from the table. You only took vegetables. You must only be used to them. You can eat the meat too. There is plenty of it."
So this is what the beast thought of him? Just a poor pauper? She thought him the lowest of the low. Had he not just older her he could read and write? those things only came with an expensive education.
His frown deepened. So this was how it was going to be. A master demeaning to he slave.
He opened his mouth to defend himself. But the beast interrupted him again.
"You know life is hard for the poor. They will never get to experience the world. Not really. And the ones that do only do so because they marry into wealth. Tell me have you ever thought of such things." She said airily.
Adam was taken aback, "What are you implying?"
She snorted. But said nothing.
"Im sorry, Mistress I must retire. If you will excuse me." He said getting up from the table.
She didn't stop him as got up and left.