Sorry everyone! I've been very busy with college finals, here's the next chapter. Don't bite my head, please!
While Adam was busy with Sagittarius, Belle decided to spend time with her own cousin, Tintement. They both took advantage of the silent library, but Belle still wondered who was the woman in white. She wanted to thank her for cutting the tight dress off. Tintement could tell that her cousin was very curious, so was she, but their curiosity was broken when Mrs. Potts came in after 12:00 noon.
"Mrs. Potts, is something wrong?" Belle asked setting her mark in the book.
"Mistress, I need to ask a favor." Mrs. Potts said, "Can you read to the children? I need something or someone to distract them because not only am I busy, all the other servants are too, including those Sagittarius brought with them. The last thing I want is someone to shout at the children. Can you at least try to calm them down?"
"Of course, Mrs. Potts." Belle said, "It would be nice to have others listening to the story." Mrs. Potts smiled, thanked Belle and went off to find the children. Tintement wasn't sure about having children around, mainly because she thought that kids were mean, rude and loud. She probably thought that because of experience from other village kids. Tintement decided to make the best of it and not get in the middle of her cousin's decision.
After fifteen minutes, Mrs. Potts came back with her son, Chip, and seven other children from the other servants. She told the children to sit down on the floor and that Belle was going to tell them a story. The children just looked at each other and sat down on the floor. Mrs. Potts left as Belle sat down in a chair in front of the kids. Tintement just kept to herself as she sat on a couch and tried to read her own book, but she was having a hard time doing that because she was listening to Belle's voice rather than her mind's voice. It wasn't long until Tintement got herself engrossed in the story Belle was telling the children...and that was because the story Belle was telling the kids...sounded like one of the fairy-tales that Tintement read to Belle when they were very young.
Belle was telling the story of a princess cursed to sleep until her true love kissed her, Tintement was starting to remember what life was like when she and her cousin were children. Their fathers would be busy with their jobs and their mothers would be busy with housework, Tintement and Belle had to keep themselves occupied. It defiantly explained how Belle got herself fascinated with books...since Tintement would read to her until Belle could read on her own. Tintement decided to keep the past in the past, set her book aside, lie across the couch and listen to her cousin's voice.
It was a long day for Adam since he spent the day with his cousin going over the usual duties of being prince. Because he had been busy learning what Sagittarius had been telling him, Adam didn't get the chance to ask his cousin about the woman in white that he, Belle and Tintement had saw. In fact, it even slipped his mind because he had been so busy.
While he and his cousin were outside doing archery, Cogsworth and Brimley brought lunch out for their two masters. They then left after Sagittarius and Adam sat lunch down on the outside table.
"You're doing very well, Adam." Sagittarius said before eating, "With more practice, you'll probably be as good as I am."
"I doubt that." Adam said after swallowing, "You're still a whole lot better than I am, even with more practice."
"Don't doubt yourself, cousin, I think you'll get better than me."
"Sagittarius," Adam said, "how long do you think you'll be here until...you have to go back and see Aunt Henrietta?" Sagittarius started picking at his food when Adam asked him that.
"At least for a few days," he answered, "just so that I've given you enough education to let you know what you're going to be doing...and also that I've spent enough time with you."
"Cousin, you're not doing a great job of hiding it." Adam said, Sagittarius looked up from his plate.
"Hiding what?" he asked, Adam just took a deep breath and said;
"You miss her...Sapphire, don't you?" Sagittarius just groaned and looked away. "Believe me, Sagittarius, I do understand that you miss her. You could've brought her."
"I didn't want to bring her because...this meeting was for you and me." Sagittarius said looking back at Adam, "I can only guess how she's feeling with me not being at the castle. Besides, even I did bring her, I don't think she can handle being here without me near her."
"Because she's so shy?"
"Sapphire...um," Sagittarius sighed, "how do I explain it? She's more than just shy."
"What do you mean?" Adam asked, Sagittarius put his right hand over his eyes.
"I was the first person that she managed to open up to." Sagittarius said, "Sapphire mainly kept everything to herself, her family, her thoughts, her likes and dislikes. It didn't take long for her to open up to me when I told her I was cursed, it was the servants that she had a hard time with."
"Why? Did something happen?" Adam asked.
"All I can tell you, Adam...is that Sapphire had suffered longer than you and I have." Adam just nodded his head, left the issue alone and continued eating his lunch.
After lunch, Sagittarius got back with Adam's archery lesson. He kept praising Adam, saying that he was doing better than Sagittarius did on his first archery lesson. But deep inside, Adam knew that Sagittarius was still thinking of Sapphire, just he was thinking of Belle and how she might be doing in the castle.
"Maybe a soft kiss will wake her." Belle said, still reading from the book to the children in front of her. "After the young prince kissed the Sleeping Beauty, her eyes fluttered and opened up."
"Awwwww!" Some of the girl children said, some of the boys rolled their eyes. Belle smiled and read the rest of the story.
"When the Sleeping Beauty woke up, so did everyone else in the castle. The thorns covering the castle vanished, the animals were making their calls and the snow disappeared. After everything returned to normal, the young prince married his Sleeping Beauty and they lived happily ever after."
"Another!" one of the boys said.
"Maybe another time," Belle said closing the book, "I think you should go outside and play."
"Belle," Chip said getting off the floor, "the ending of the story sounds like you and the master." Belle's mouth dropped when Chip said that and all the children laughed at her because they thought she was making a silly face.
"It does not!" Belle said.
"Does too!" Chip argued back, "You kissed the master and he woke up!"
"Chip, go outside and play with the others, please!" Belle said, the children just laughed and left the library. "That was just embarrassing!" Belle said when she was alone with Tintement.
"Try not to let it get to you." Tintement said, "That's how kids get to you." Just then, there was a knock on the library door, the door opened...and there was Chip there.
"Chip, I thought I asked you to go outside." Belle said, but when Chip came into the library, that's when she noticed the disappointed look on his face.
"Belle," he said, "I'm sorry for saying about you and the master. I was just saying that the story sounds like yours." Belle walked over to Chip, got down to his level and hugged him.
"I didn't mean to sound upset, Chip." Belle said, "Just next time, don't blurt it out loud."
"What's 'burt'?" Chip asked after Belle released him.
"Blurt, Chip." Belle clarified, "It's another way of saying something out loud in a loud voice and saying at the wrong place at the wrong time."
"Trust me, Chip," Tintement spoke up, Chip looked at her, "there have times where Belle has blurted things out that embarrassed me. So learn from this experience and remember it." Chip smiled and nodded his head. "Now I think your friends are wondering where you are." Without saying anything else, Chip turned to leave the library.
"Belle," Chip said reaching the door, "before I leave, I need to ask you something."
"Yes?" she said getting up off the floor.
"Who's the new girl?" he asked.
"You mean her?" Belle said pointing at her cousin, "This is my cousin, Tintement."
"I meant the girl in white." Chip said, Belle and Tintement were surprised. Chip was now the fourth person to have seen the woman in white, who had helped remove Belle's tight dress and corset.
"When did you see her?" Belle asked.
"When I was coming here to say 'sorry'," Chip explained, "I...bumped into her and said I was sorry. She's scary, Belle. I think she's a ghost!"
"Don't worry, Chip." Belle said, "I don't think there's anything to worry about, did you...tell anyone about this?"
"No, just you."
"Okay, try not to tell anyone else, Chip. Now...go play outside." Belle said, Chip nodded his head and left.
"That makes four sightings," Tintement said, "who else have seen her?"
"We need to find out who she is!" Belle said, "Maybe Adam knows by now."
"Maybe you can ask him around dinnertime," Tintement added, "who knows what he's doing now." Belle agreed with her cousin, but she was worried about what this woman might do to the children if another runs into her. Chip really didn't tell her what happened after she ran into her, her best guess was that Chip ran into the woman in white, apologized and ran back here. Belle could only continue who that woman really was.
After another couple of hours after Chip told Belle about the woman in white, dinnertime finally came. Belle and Tintement arrived at the dining hall the same time Adam and Sagittarius did. All four sat at the table, the servants brought dinner out and they ate.
"So how did today go for you, Adam?" Belle asked.
"Well, easy...for now." he replied.
"Don't doubt yourself, cousin," Sagittarius added, "you're doing great."
"Glad to know that," Belle said, "Adam, did you ask your cousin?"
"Ask me what?" Sagittarius said.
"Oh, I forgot to ask you earlier." Adam said, finally remembering, "Did you happen to bring...any women with you?"
"No, not that I'm aware of." Sagittarius answered, "Why?"
"Well, all three of us...saw a woman." Adam answered.
"She told me that she was looking for you." Belle said.
"Me?" Sagittarius said, "That's...strange. When did you all see her?"
"Both me and Belle saw her this morning." Adam answered.
"And I saw her last night riding a white horse." Tintement said.
"Whoa! Wait a minute! Wait a minute!" Sagittarius quickly said, "A white horse?"
"Yes." Tintement said.
"She was also wearing this white cloak," Belle said, "I couldn't see any part of her body...except her light blue eyes." Sagittarius had the look of shock on his face as he placed his left hand over his mouth and got out of his seat.
"Cousin, do you know her?" Adam asked, but Sagittarius was too surprised to look at his cousin.
"How, in the great heaven's name, did she manage to get all the way out here?" Sagittarius said out loud to himself.
"Sagittarius!" Adam said getting out of his own seat, Sagittarius then looked at Adam, "If you know her, then who is she?" Sagittarius sighed, looked down at the floor and placed his hands on his hips.
"I just can't believe that she did this." he said.
"Who?" Belle and Adam said at the same time. Sagittarius raised his head back up took a deep breath and said;
"...Sapphire."
Readers, I'm so sorry for not putting this up sooner! I've been so busy with finals that I didn't have anytime to work on this. Hopefully this one will last you guys for a while until my finals are done and over with next week.