Chapter 6: No One Pines Like Gaston

Meanwhile, across the forest and back in Villeneuve, Gaston was still sulking. His all-day binge at the bar was quickly turning into an all-night bender, as Lefou dutifully kept the drinks coming round.

"Who does she think she is?" Gaston ranted, snatching another flagon of lager from his sidekick as he steamed in front of the fireplace. "That girl has tangled with the wrong man! No one says No to Gaston!"

"Darn right!" Lefou concurred, ever the consummate yes-man.

In his most insecure thoughts, Gaston supposed he should consider himself lucky that Belle had agreed to marry him and sleep with him at all. He knew their wedding had been sudden (which made it all the more romantic), but he thought his wife had known her place. To be a wife meant to also be a mother, or at least be one soon. He had assumed Belle would be ecstatic about the singular honor of bearing his children. Their argument this morning over breakfast had thus left him quite flabbergasted and fuming.

"Dismissed… rejected… publicly humiliated! Why, it's more than I can bear!" Gaston tossed his just-finished flagon into the fire.

"More beer?" Lefou pretended to mishear what the hunter had said.

"What for? Nothing helps… I'm disgraced!"

"Who, you? Never! Gaston, you've got to pull yourself together!" Lefou tried to cheer his buddy up by leading the rest of the tavern in a drinking song, and with the booze rushing to Gaston's head, it helped hearten the war hero, somewhat.

The revelry was interrupted by a sopping Maurice bursting into the bar, out of the thunderstorm, eyes wild. Gaston noted his new father-in-law with intrigue. Back from the fair, was he? He wondered if that contraption had debuted well… though with Maurice's reputation, he thought with a smirk, he was inclined to doubt it. "Help! Someone help me! Please, I need your help! He's got her! He's got her locked in the dungeon!"

"Who?" someone slurred.

"Belle! We must go! Not a minute to lose!"

"Whoa, slow down, Maurice!" Gaston chuckled good-naturedly. "Who's got Belle locked in a dungeon?"

"A Beast! A horrible monstrous Beast!"

A beat, and then the entire tavern burst into laughter. Gaston brushed past his friends, who were now calling out mocking questions, and took Maurice's arm. "Well, never let it be said there's a Beast I didn't want to hunt. Lead the way, my good man! I'll help you!"

Maurice looked abjectly relieved. "You will? Oh, thank you, thank you…" And the men exited the bar, Lefou hurrying after them.

The storm had eased by the time Maurice, Gaston and Lefou had gone a ways into the woods.

After more than a hour, Maurice was trying to hide it, but Gaston could tell: he was lost. At a fork in the path, the doddering old man had seemed convinced there was a trail where there wasn't one, apparently leading to a castle that, at least to Gaston's mind, he had never heard of.

It was getting very late, the trio of men were getting further and further turned around…. and Gaston was losing his patience.

"I've had enough of this! Where is Belle, Maurice?"

"I told you! She exchanged her life for mine, and is locked up in the castle with the Beast!"

Gaston groaned. "There is no castle! There is no Beast! And if you'll just follow me, we'll take you on home, and you'll see that Belle is waiting up for us on supper! She's probably worried sick about us both!"

Maurice blinked. "Why would she be worried about you? She's sometimes blushed whenever she's mentioned you, but other than that…."

Gaston stopped dead, Maurice's shot going home better than he would ever admit. He wheeled around, temper flaring. "Because a wife frets over her husband, that's why!"

Maurice's eyes expanded in the moonlight. "Husband…?"

Gaston exhaled deep out through his nose and plastered on a smile. "My apologies. That is no way to speak to one's father-in-law."

"Father-in-law?..."

"Didn't I tell you? Belle and I wed but three nights prior. A hurried affair, I must say, but she was so gracious and delighted to accept my proposal…"

"She married you? Willingly?" Maurice looked stunned. Gaston's entire neck stiffened. "And…. and you didn't think it proper to be wed in my presence?" The thought of him missing his only daughter's wedding because he had gotten lost and then imprisoned…

Gaston's confident mask dipped just a bit, and he recalled what a hesitant Belle had said when he'd asked for her hand. She had tried to protest about needing her father there to give her away… The hunter put it out of his mind. They would get back to the cottage, Belle would be reunited with her papa, and they would be a family. She would be delighted to see his safe return. After all, happy wife, happy life, no?

For some reason, Maurice was shaking his head. "There's an explanation for this…" he was muttering to himself. "Belle would have told me… I'll find her myself!" And before Gaston or Lefou could stop him, Maurice had dashed into the trees.

"Should…. Should one of us go after him?" Lefou asked nervously.

"In the middle of the night? You wanna try, be my guest!" Gaston huffed, swinging onto his steed and turning it for home. This was ridiculous! Belle would be home, waiting up with supper, and if Maurice ever made it back, fine by him. If he didn't, well… Gaston had to concede it wouldn't be much of a loss.

In-laws were a chore, anyway.