Chapter 25- Buried Treasure, Plans, and Proposals
...
Chip, Mirielle, and the Enchanted Object Renaud found a ride to the castle the next morning, thanks to Luc and Noel Saggitaire, the two brothers who lived and farmed in Molyneux but grew up under the curse. Luc was also the man who'd shot Renaud in the shoulder months ago.
The humiliated and grumpy shovel took a spot beside Chip in the back seat, while Mirielle sat snuggled close to her true love, joyful and relieved. The brothers drove their horse drawn wagon laboriously uphill. When they were halfway up the mountainside, Noel and Luc were amazed at the re-appearance of the magnificent, alabaster spires and towers of the royal family's castle.
"There it is! It's back!" Luc exclaimed. "Now that all this magic foolishness is over, we can get back to our normal, provincial lives."
"I agree, mon frere! I've definitely had my share of magic in my time. Don't want to see it ever again!" declared Noel.
"What do you mean?" Renaud found himself piping up in curiosity. Chip gave him a stern look to be quiet. Noel turned around and addressed Chip, assuming that his was the male voice which had asked this question.
"Chip, you know what I'm talking about!" said Noel.
"Oh! Yes. Of course," replied Chip. "I guess I meant to say that...disappearing and reappearing castles can be exciting, but mundane, provincial life is much better!"
"Yes it is! Madame- I should call you that now-" Luc said to Mirielle- "I'm sorry for the loss of your husband. I'm worried I might have had a part in it."
"Monsieur, that's impossible," replied Mirielle, deciding to continue with her fabricated story while catching a glance at the cursed shovel's defeated frown. "Renaud fell from the castle tower after he tried to assassinate Prince Adam. It wasn't from anything you could have done," she explained, attempting to appear more sad than she actually was. Chip had his arm around her, and she tried to hide the happy blush coloring her cheeks.
"To tell you the truth, under the circumstances I wish I'd aimed better, in hindsight!" Luc admitted. "But I'm sorry for how that turned out for you," he added apologetically, feeling sorry for Mirielle. "I shot him in the shoulder when he was racing the Duchesses' stagecoach to the castle months ago. I'd suspected him to be a revolutionary, planning to kill the family."
"Luc...you were absolutely right. That was his plan," Chip said. "But I would rather we not talk about it at this moment," he added, seeing the furious look on Renaud's metal face.
..
A great celebration was underway. With the lifting of the 'vanished castle spell' and the assurance that the Enchanted Rose would protect the family from harm for ever more, Adam and Belle decided to have a holiday party. Chip, with Mirielle by his side, joined his cousin Felicity with her parents Cogsworth and Madame Pippa Cogsworth in the kitchen as they helped prepare a sumptuous feast. By five o'clock, the castle doors were open for the villagers to arrive. The ballroom was prepared and set with dozens of tables for a fine dinner, and a dance was to follow.
Belle and Adam, along with their children, celebrated at the head table. "Adam, do you remember what we were discussing before about me helping the poor in Paris?" Belle asked Adam.
"Do I? I'm not...quite sure," the Prince said, his memory of the conversation muddled by the recent attempt on their lives.
"I still would like to go in the spring. With Chip and Lumiere accompanying me, and the children if they wish."
"You can, I'm not stopping you. But I...had something else planned for a trip," said Adam. "I wanted to tell you later."
"Travel? You made a plan to travel?" Belle asked in surprise. He rarely liked to travel, although before the Revolution he used to visit cities and towns across France in his role as Prince.
"Yes. I received a letter from the King of Denmark. He would like us to go there to visit, and perhaps...stay for a while. I thought it still might be a good idea with the Revolution still raging through France. I thought you would like to leave, to visit a faraway place, Belle. You've talked of it for years."
"Denmark? I've never been to Denmark," Belle replied, her interest piquing. Vincent and Hélene's faces lit up. "Please, Maman! We would want to sail the ocean and visit the King and Queen of Denmark!" exclaimed Hélene.
"Yes, Papa. Could we go? Please?" asked Vincent.
"All right. We will. In the springtime, we embark," said Adam. At this announcement, Vincent and Hélene cheered.
"But...Adam!" Belle exclaimed all of a sudden. "Papa! I can't leave Papa behind. He's getting sicker and sicker all the time, and...I want to be with him until..."
Poor Adam had the look of a deflated balloon. He had forgotten that Maurice was still very ill in his room, and Belle and Hélene had spent all of their time at his side lately. "Forgive me for not thinking of Maurice's illness- again," said Adam, feeling crushed. "I know you don't want to leave him behind in his sickbed."
"It's all right," Belle said apologetically. "You and the children go to Denmark. I can stay behind, with Papa and the servants. Perhaps I can travel...someday."
"Wait!" Adam's eyes widened. They begin to twinkle in the way they used to; a way that Belle hadn't seen in quite some time. "Belle! I have an idea. A perfect idea! Maurice, and you- will be able to go after all!"
"How?" asked Belle. Vincent and Hélene shook their heads in doubt.
"I will consult with Delphine," Adam explained. "She has a way."
"By magic?" Vincent asked, with a skeptical look. "I thought we were all finished with Mademoiselle Delphine's magic."
"Vincent, please," said Adam, flashing a stern look at his son. "Let me consult Delphine for just one more act of magic. For your mother and grandfather's sake," he said in determination.
...
A few hours later, the ballroom was packed with dancing singles and couples, both villagers and castle servants. Chip and Mirielle danced slowly at the edge of the crowd; Mirielle still showing respect to her presumed 'dead' husband by wearing a simple black mourning gown.
"Mirielle...have you ever thought of- you know- remarrying anyone?" Chip finally asked after they'd danced in silence. He cleared his throat. "Ahem, I mean, I was just wondering, you have to be proper about these kinds of things and-"
He was interrupted by her gentle laugh. "Chip, for heaven's sake!" she chided him. "You sound like you've been around Cogsworth way too much! I've been thinking about 'remarrying' all day. In fact, I've done nothing but wonder if I'll ever be asked."
"Oh! Really? I mean, sure! I guess you'd want to be formally asked, wouldn't you?" Chip fumbled.
"Yes," Mirielle wrapped her arms tighter around Chip's neck and stood on her tiptoes to whisper in the tall, fair-haired man's ear. "Charles Potts- I am a patient woman, but you needn't go beating around the bush."
"All right. I'm sorry." Chip's face was as crimson as the holiday vest he wore with his grey suit.
"Well?" Her brown gaze was piercing. He gulped, and leaned down to speak quietly in her ear.
"Mirielle, will you marry me?"
A small peal of laughter escaped Mirielle's throat; she looked around at all the others dancing. None seemed to be looking at them.
She whispered back in his ear. "Yes."
"Oh, good! Thank you!" Chip said in a voice somewhat higher-pitched than his usual tone. "So, sh-should I tell Cogsworth soon?"
"We ought to wait two weeks. I'm in 'mourning.' Then you can tell him whenever you'd like."
"Okay." Chip lowered his face and caught Mirielle's lips in a chaste kiss, trying to avoid being conspicuous in the crowd.
...
Antoine DeLouche, now a humble fry cook at Gigi's Cafe in Molyneux, was also a reluctant guest at the castle ball. He sat near Gigi, his boss, with her husband Jean-Claude, her sisters Mimi and Fifi and their husbands Luc and Noel, trying to enjoy himself but sadly scanning the crowd once again.
"Antoine, you need to stop this and just go find her," Gigi finally said after seeing the young man crane his neck one more time looking at a cluster of young women.
"Find who?" Antoine snapped his head back sheepishly.
"Your former girlfriend! Who else?" Gigi said with a shake of her blonde coiffure. "Chanelle, or whatever her name is. Monsieur Lumiere's daughter!"
"Chandelle," Antoine whispered, glancing down at his half-eaten plate. "And yes, she's Lumiere's daughter. Which makes it hard because he's Cogsworth's best friend. And Cogsworth can't stand me. They'll never forgive me! I insulted the memory of the great Chef Bouche, and I...I...did something else. Something else...bad," he added miserably.
Gigi's pretty brow furrowed a bit. "What are you talking about?"
"I buried and hid some of Prince Adam's diamonds. Renaud told me to do it for him."
"Renaud? You mean Prince Adam's would-be assassin? You conspired with Renaud?" she said in an angry whisper. Her husband Jean Claude, Mimi, Fifi, Luc, and Noel overheard the conversation. They gave Antoine shocked looks.
"Why would you conspire with that evil man? I know he's dead now, but why would you do something so- stupid?" Gigi pressed.
"I don't know. It's just that- Renaud was so- he was the kind of fellow who could talk you into anything. He made me feel important, and said he'd pull some strings and make me become Head Chef, and well, that never worked out. He was using me for his greed. I was stupid. I'm sorry," said Antoine with remorse.
"You sound a lot like my good friend Lefou," sighed Gigi. "It never pays to be a bootlicker for a cruel and evil man!"
"If you buried and hid some diamonds, then you need to go find them for Prince Adam," Gigi's husband Jean-Claude said sternly.
"I know. I'll do it. Tonight." He glanced over at the group of castle maids again and stood up. "Excuse me. I'm going to look for those diamonds."
Antoine walked swiftly out of the ballroom and down the hallway, trying not to be noticed. He descended several flights of gilded staircases until finding the back exit to the castle. All he had to do was find a shovel and dig up those diamonds he'd buried for Renaud near the late Chef Bouche's grave.
He shivered as he walked out into the forest and into the servants' cemetery. His breaths came out in visible puffs of steam as he tried to remember where Renaud's largest diamond burial site was. It wasn't that far from where Monsieur Bouche was laid to rest, he remembered. The cold was going to make it so difficult now; the ground was nearly frozen. The light of the nearly-full moon guided his path, and for that he was thankful.
"Antoine!" called out a voice.
Antoine jumped. "Who- who's here?" The young man's heart began to pound as he looked around him. There was not a fellow human in sight in this graveyard.
"Look down!" the voice commanded. Antoine felt a sharp and painful tap on his knee. Glancing downward, he saw a shovel levitating in midair.
"A shovel! Hey, that's just what I was needing! But Monsieur, where are you?" Antoine demanded, taking the shovel's handle in his hand and lifting it closer to his face.
"Antoine, you dunderhead! It's me! Renaud! Don't you recognize your old friend?"
"AHHHH!" the man screamed as he dropped Renaud back on the snow-dusted ground. "You're a g-g-g-GHOST!"
"I'm not a ghost, idiot! I'm an Enchanted Object. I'm alive! And under a magic spell. So tell me, Antoine. You came out here to dig up some treasure for yourself now that I'm presumed dead, didn't you?"
"N-n-n-no!" Antoine insisted, shivering with terror. "I just w-w-want to dig the diamonds back up for Prince Adam! It's driving me mad with guilt!"
"Ah. That's good, my young friend. You see, I'm now the magical guard and caretaker of His Highness' diamond mine. It's my punishment, but also my job which I am fortunate to have. An Enchantress saved me from the clutches of the villagers. I could have been hanged on the gallows for treason if the Enchantress hadn't took pity on me and turned me into...this."
"Oh," he said, shocked. "I'm sorry, Renaud! Well, at least you're not dead! An Enchantress, huh? But Renaud, I have to return to the Prince the treasure I helped you bury. So can you...dig?"
Renaud rolled his eyes in his shovel-head face. "Yes, Antoine. I believe I can dig." He hopped to the edge of the cemetery and in a matter of minutes, he was digging deeply into the chilly and hardened ground until a pile of diamonds were unearthed, shimmering in the moonlight. Using his newfound Enchantments, Renaud made the dozens of diamonds levitate. Antoine caught the treasures as they floated to him. He stuffed several diamonds in his coat pockets and held the others carefully in his arms.
"Merci, Renaud! Now I can make my wrongs right, and confess my underhanded dealings to His Highness! It is the only way I can ever turn my pathetic life to the straight and narrow again!" Antoine said mournfully.
"Good luck. Now, can you just leave so I can get my beauty sleep?"
"Yes. You do need it. Adieu, Renaud!" Antoine ran as fast as he could back into the castle, arms and pockets jam-packed with diamonds. He went straight to the ballroom, scanned the crowd and found Their Highnesses Prince Adam and Princess Belle in the center of the grand hall, shaking hands with their subjects. Adam had just announced to the villagers of his departure to Denmark in the spring.
Antoine clumsily rushed and bumped past several people to get to the front of the line. He spread his arms out, and the diamonds spilled on the floor in front of Adam and Belle's feet. He emptied his pockets, laying the larger diamonds on the marble floor.
"These are all yours, Your Highnesses."
"Diamonds from the mine?" Adam said, shocked. "Why, we were running out! My miners said they were nowhere to be found anymore! Wait...Aren't you Antoine, who used to cook in our kitchen? The boy Cogsworth fired?"
"Yes, Your Highness," Antoine said, bowing his head.
"Where did you find these?" Belle asked him. She smiled at her children in hope. Perhaps this could support the staff and keep the castle running when they were gone! It had been worrying her and her children for the past few hours.
"I have to tell you the truth. I found them- in the servants' cemetery. I'm so sorry," said Antoine.
Adam gave him a forgiving look. "I understand. But you didn't desecrate any graves for these, did you?"
"No. But...but there was one grave that was going to be desecrated by someone. It...was the grave of our late Chef Bouche. Someone buried a huge trove of diamonds close to his gravesite on the day of his funeral."
"Who?" Adam asked, his forgiving face now disturbed.
"Renaud," Antoine said with a sigh. "He told me to keep it a secret. I had to come clean about this! Please forgive me, Your Highness!" He decided not to reveal to the Prince that his former friend was now a shovel. Perhaps Adam already knew of his fate.
Adam shook his head. "I see. I'll deal with that situation later. For now, I want to thank you for your discovery. It's just what we needed! I had no idea how we could support the servants without any income. Now, thanks to you, it's no longer a worry. I appreciate this, Antoine."
"Thank you." Antoine glanced around and saw that every single servant from the castle was staring at him as he conversed with the Prince, and the fact he had just laid a pile of diamonds at the royal family's feet. Chandelle stepped forward and began to approach her ex-beau.
"Antoine? Is that you? Where did you get all of these?"
Cogsworth also stepped forward, a look of anger on his reddened face. "Sire! This young man was a crook! He used to fraternize with that scoundrel, Renaud! Don't believe he was doing this for your benefit!"
"Cogsworth, it's all right," said Belle assuringly. "What's important is that all of you will be financially secure when we leave for Denmark."
"But-"
"Cogsworth, let bygones be bygones, please?" Belle said, smiling at him.
"Ohh...all right!" the majordomo said, unable as ever to resist the Princess' smile.
Lumiere, not far from Cogsworth's side, clapped his friend on the shoulder. "Have a heart. Look! Even my daughter who spurned him is now talking to him again!"
Chandelle was amazed at the treasure Antoine had brought. "You knew about this all along?"
"I did. But since I was fired and banished from the castle by Cogsworth, I never had the chance to...I knew Renaud was stealing them. But I didn't know of his plan to kill the family! You have to believe me, Chandelle. I only wanted to succeed Monsieur Bouche as Head Chef after he died, and I was rude about it when Cogsworth overheard me. I wish I'd never befriended that awful man! Can you forgive me, Chandelle? I...miss you."
Chandelle looked at Antoine, then at her father. Lumiere nodded and smiled. "Could we go out and talk alone?" she asked her papa.
Lumiere nodded. Chandelle took Antoine's arm and they walked out of the Great Hall and out into one of the gilded balconies, where the chill air made the girl wrap her arms around herself, shivering. Antoine took off his coat and put it on her.
"Merci, Antoine."
"You look so pretty tonight," he said sheepishly.
"Merci." The girl's cheeks were red from the cold. She looked so lovely; tears formed in Antoine's eyes as he realized how much he'd missed her, how he'd been so rude and impatient with her during the months of their relationship. If only she'd give him a second chance.
"Chandelle...please forgive me for everything. Being cruel to you that day when you saw the revolutionaries, me losing my job here because of my rude tongue, and my conspiring with Renaud to steal diamonds. I did some awful things. But now I've been working in the Molyneux restaurant. It's good, honest work. I only wish we..."
"You are a good man, Antoine. I do forgive you." Chandelle reached out and hugged him tightly. "Can we start over?"
"Yes," he whispered as he hugged her back, stealing a kiss on the top of her dark brown hair. They embraced for a long, long time, not saying anything.
"Chandelle! Antoine! Well, goodness! Hello!" said a sweet, British-accented voice coming from the doorway. Chandelle and Antoine broke their embrace.
"Felicity!" Chandelle's best friend had also decided to come outside to the balcony for a bit of cool air. She was with Henri-Gaston Lefou, her new beau.
"Bonjour, Henri!" Antoine said sheepishly. "One of my best customers at the restaurant. He likes his eggs almost raw," he told Chandelle.
Henri laughed, his brown eyes twinkling. "I've tried to eat five dozen eggs a day since I was a little boy. It was something my Pop made me do. But I'm about as tall as I'm ever gonna get!" Towering over his girlfriend Felicity, Henri put his arm around her. "Say, Antoine, you know, um...I was kind of hoping to get Felicity here alone, away from the crowd and all, but...you're here."
Felicity shook her auburn-curled head. "Henri, why are you trying to get me alone? You aren't about to turn into a deplorable rake, are you? If you are, I'm telling my father!" she chided him.
"No! Felicity, no! I didn't mean to offend you!" argued Henri, his hands up in defense. "I just wanted to get you alone to- to ask you to marry me!"
Felicity's mouth opened wide in joy. "Really? Did...I hear you correctly?"
"Félicie, yes! I am proposing to you! So what will it be?" Henri grinned down at her, his confidence now increasing. "Will it be a 'yes?' Or will it be an 'oh, yes?'"
Felicity laughed. "It will be a 'most definitely yes!'" She embraced her beau and he captured her lips in a long kiss. "But shouldn't you ask my father for approval? And what would your father say about you taking on a wife, Henri?"
"Oh, I know my Pop'll be overjoyed that I'm marrying," Henri assured her. "I'll tell my parents tomorrow."
"Congratulations!" Chandelle and Antoine clapped and cheered.
"Well..." Antoine said awkwardly to Chandelle, "Since they're having a wedding soon, and Felicity's your best friend, you know...we could make it a double. Will you...marry me?"
"Mon chere, of course I will!" Chandelle exclaimed. "I am even willing to move to the village to be with you!"
"Chandelle- I love you so much!" Antoine said, his words muffled against Chandelle's hair as he embraced her again, trying not to cry with joy and thankfulness. "I'll make amends with your father and Cogsworth. I just hope they give me their blessing."
"My father will. Don't worry about him. Now Cogsworth- he might be a challenge, but I'll get Belle on our side!" she said to him assuringly. Chandelle kissed Antoine with vigor. Their embrace was soon interrupted by the joyful Henri's clap on his friend's shoulder.
"Congratulations are in order, I take it?" Henri asked Antoine.
"Yes, Henri. They are," Antoine replied. "Now, let's get our girls out of the cold and back to dancing!" The four of them went back into the royal party and danced the rest of the evening away.
...