Declaimer: I don't own Beauty and the Beast, and will never make any money off of this story.
CHAPTER THREE
Stone Cut
"As you can see, this particular piece of art is an earlier work of the famous…"
My mind began to wonder as Cogsworth went on about another aspect of the Castle: Art. It might have been better if he paused for breath, or to let someone else speak, but I wasn't that lucky. It had been fine at first, when he joined up with Adrien and me on our tour, but after an hour and a half it had become somewhat of a struggle. Or a big struggle.
"I apologize," Adrien whispered as he bent toward me.
I looked at him, surprised, my feet automatically made me follow Cogsworth on to the next item of history. "What for?" I asked. I couldn't fathom what he was talking about.
"I meant for this tour to be fun, but I did a poor job of steering us away from hazards," Adrien replied with a grin.
"I don't think anyone could have had much success at that," I replied solemnly. That was another benefit of being an eating utensil: the ability to escape Cogsworth easily. If he decided that he wanted to tell you all about the four-hundred and seventy-two tapestries in the Castle, you could simply get him talking and sneak away silently. When you were a human, your footsteps echoed, your breathing could be heard, and Cogsworth had peripheral vision.
"And that's how Lumier caught this one on fire," Cogsworth finished, tears of mirth running down his face. Even Adrien looked amused at the burnt section on a painting. Great. I had completely missed what he had been on about, and it was probably the only interesting thing he had said the entire time.
"Now, if you will direct your attention across the hall," Cogsworth began, motioning to a large painting of a particularly hairy looking man, "You will notice that the painter wanted to create a mood that suggested…"
"Oh, wow, look at the time!" Adrien exclaimed dramatically, his eyes widening as he looked at the large, golden clock that sat between the painting of Queen Caroline and the one of a bare-footed monk.
Cogsworth turned to him, evidently irritated that Adrien had interrupted him.
"We've been having so much fun that I forgot about our other errands to run," Adrien said, glancing at me. I had no idea what he was talking about, but before I could ask him about it, he elbowed me gently and raised his eyebrows meaningfully. Oh.
"Do you?" Cogsworth asked. With an annoyed sigh he said, "If you must. But this piece was one of the corner stones in the early 13th century, and…"
"Thank you so much for showing us around, but we really have to go," I said sweetly, absently taking hold of Adrien's arm and walking away. After hurrying through a couple of halls, I stopped at the bottom of the large staircase that led to the North Wing. "That was fun," I said lightly.
"Yeah."
Adrien's voice sounded a bit funny. I looked up at him. He was staring at my hand. I glanced down. I was still holding his arm. I quickly let go and took a step back, feeling my face begin to turn red. I hoped he wasn't offended. I didn't think he was though, since he was smiling again.
"Since we've had our fill of historical information for one day, what do you say to taking a short ride?" he asked me cheerfully.
"Okay," I murmured, trying to hide my flushed face by turning toward the wall. The paper covering it was a deep red with small royal blue diamond shapes patterned throughout. I wondered who had chosen it, and how long ago they had done it. We were in an older part of the Castle, so it had to be someone who was dead by now. Perhaps it had been the old king or queen.
Soon we were in the stables saddling our mounts. I chose a palomino that looked lonely, and Adrien picked out an impressive chestnut mustang. Taking the best brush I could find, I went over the palimino's coat until it gleamed. I liked to be around horses, but I wasn't so good at riding them. The saddles were awkward for me, and I was a bit too short to climb up onto the horse's back without difficulty. When I managed to mount, hoping that Adrien wouldn't see me struggling, I glanced down and saw that a name was printed in faded letters on the reins. Snowflower. I wondered who named her.
"Are you ready?" Adrien's voice came from outside.
"Coming," I responded, urging the horse forward. Snowflower was very obliging, I was happy to see, as I bounced around in my saddle. No matter what I tried, every time I rode a horse I flopped around like a dying fish.
As I looked up from adjusting my grip on the reigns, reminding myself to face my thumbs forward, I caught the end of a smile on Adrien's face. "What?" I asked.
"What do you mean?" He looked perfectly innocent. I didn't believe it.
"That smirk! What was it for?" I demanded. If I had been on solid ground and not swaying on a large beast, I might have crossed my arms threateningly.
"I don't know what you're talking about," Adrien replied cheerfully.
Scowling, I directed Snowflower the beginning of one of the many trails on the grounds. Fine, he could be that way. I wasn't going to give him the satisfaction of being too curious. Even though… No, I didn't care.
Adrien looked perfectly cheery as he caught up to me, giving me an infectious grin. I smiled back, enjoying the warm sun on my face and the slight breeze that made the trees whisper softly.
"So how have you been?" Adrien asked me.
I shrugged, and then grabbed for the horse's mane as I felt myself sliding off her back. Adrien smiled. "Try putting equal weight on the stirrups, and pointing your heels down," he suggested. I tried it.
"It works," I said, pleased.
"Who taught you to ride?" he asked curiously.
I flushed. I had taught myself. Well, attempted to, anyway. Riding English style was much harder than I had thought it would be. When I told this to Adrien, he looked surprised, and then laughed. It wasn't a mean laugh, and I thought it sounded… cute. I shook my head; I was losing it.
The rest of the afternoon was taken up as Adrien taught me to ride properly. I watched with fascination as my balance got better, and I managed to stay on my horse without tipping too far to the side. He even had me trot a bit. Of course, Snowflower decided that I should try cantering, so off we went, me too surprised to stop her.
"Pull back on the reigns, Sophie!" Adrien called out to me as I got too far away.
But I didn't want to. Sure, I was bouncing worse than I thought was possible, and I came within an inch of falling off before I righted myself, but that was okay. It was much better than trotting. Then I remembered that Adrien had showed me how to post, so I tried it. It was as though I was flying.
"Sophie!" I heard Adrien call as he caught up with me.
Finally I pulled back on my reigns, slowing Snowflower to a stop. I gave her a pat and looked over at Adrien, who had an odd look on his face. I didn't like having to stop, but the memory of the canter was still in my mind, and the feeling burst out of me in the form of a laugh.
"Enjoyed that, did you? Snowflower thought you would," Adrien said with a smile.
"I liked it very much," I giggled, "But, Snowflower, I would prefer that you wait until I ask, next time."
"Wait until you get good enough to gallop," Adrien said excitedly. I realized that he was very fond of horses. I hadn't known that before.
"I'm dying to try it," I told him, unable to stop smiling.
"And I want to see you try," he said back.
"Waiting to find out how many times I'll fall off my horse?"
"I'm betting twice."
"How very unrealistic; I was thinking at least three times."
We both laughed. I privately thought it might help me improve it I was to go flying into the dirt, and then make myself get back on, but I didn't want to at the moment. I looked over at Adrien. He looked wonderful; his hair was windblown, his eyes were shining with merriment, and his smile did funny things to my heartbeat.
"Oh, hold on, Sophie; you've got something stuck in your hair," Adrien said, frowning at whatever was caught caught on my head. I held still as he drew his horse closer to mind and leaned over toward me. My heart began to behave badly with him so near. His face was only a few inches from mine, but he was busy trying to carefully extract the offending object.
"There," he said triumphantly as he plucked a piece of bark out of my hair. He looked down at me, causing my body to tingle. It was rather strange to me, but I liked it. His smile faded a bit as he gazed at me, not moving back at all. On the contrary, he moved closer. Adrien hesitated when he was about two inches from my face, his eyes searching mine. I didn't move. I felt his lips just barely brush mine before his horse got impatient and danced away, pulling us apart. That excited Snowflower, and she began to prance in place.
"Whoa, Snow," I murmured to my horse, stroking her mane. Unfortunately, I don't have a way with horses. Snowflower must have decided that she was tired of just standing there, or that it was a good time to make a fool of me. She pranced forward, bouncing me up and down in the saddle before she sat down and sent me sliding off her back end.
I didn't make a sound as I went flying into the dirt and rolled across a particularly spiky patch of grass. I suppose I was too surprised. I had never seen a horse do that to anyone, and this was not the way I had envisioned being unseated from Snowflower.
The next thing I knew, Adrien was pulling me up from the ground and asking me if I was alright. I thought about that. I had just been sent sprawling by a sitting horse. The image struck me as funny, and I laughed.
"I'll take that as a yes," Adrien said, cocking an eyebrow at me. I suppose he thought I was a little crazy. If he did, he'd probably be right.
"I'm fine, except for my elbow; it stings," I said, bringing my arm up for inspection. I was shocked to fine out that it was bleeding rather badly. Looking at the patch that I had rolled over, I saw a sharp shard of rock that I must have cut myself on.
"Let me see it," Adrien said with concern, gently taking my arm. His hands were gentle as he pulled my sleeve away from the wound, making my whole arm tingle at his touch. Or maybe it was loss of blood. Anyway, I didn't think it looked so bad. It was only a little over an inch long, but it did seem to be kind of deep.
"It's a clean cut, so that helps," Adrien murmured as he pulled a length of cloth out of the mustang's saddle bag. I wondered what a really jagged cut would feel like, and decided I was fine with the one I had. Then it began to hurt. I bit my lip and tried not to utter a sound.
"It's painful?" Adrien asked knowingly, wrapping the cut.
"Yes," I said quietly, feeling the stinging grow to throbbing.
"There might be a piece of the stone still in the cut, but that can be taken care of back at the Castle," he said, tying the cloth. "Can you ride?"
I lifted my chin a bit. "Yes, I think I can."
Adrien said nothing, but I read concern in his eyes.
I made my way to Snowflower and gave her a glare before attempting to mount her. I couldn't manage it and landed on the ground with a thump. Adrien helped me up again, and before I could protest swung me up onto his horse before climbing on himself.
"I…" I started, beginning to say that I could do it myself, but I knew that was not true. "Thanks," I said instead, leaning against him as my head began to swim. Thankfully it did not take long to get to the Castle. I glanced down at my arm as Adrien helped down from the horse and saw, to my dismay, that I was bleeding worse that I thought.
"Sophie, what happened!" Angeline practically shrieked when I entered the kitchen with Adrien's help.
"She was… unseated by her horse," Adrien told her as he guided me to a chair.
I snorted. "The horse sat, and I flew off," I muttered, but no one seemed to be listening as they surveyed my cut.
"Somebody get Dr. Olivier," Angeline ordered a gaping kitchen boy, who took off as soon as he realized that she was talking to him.
My head began to get fuzzy as I thought about what Angeline said. It was a good idea to call the Castle doctor. I thought there was more than one, but I wasn't sure at the moment. I closed my eyes for a moment, and when I opened them Adrien was peering anxiously into my face, Angeline hovering over his shoulder.
"Sophie, is it getting worse?" he asked calmly.
"My…my cut?" I asked, feeling very light.
"Yes," Adrien said patiently, "Does it hurt more?"
I thought that he would make a good doctor. I had been to a few that weren't very nice to patients, but Adrien seemed to be very calm and knowledgeable. It would probably reassure whoever was injured. But, wait… Adrien worked at the Castle, and I wouldn't want him to leave. Wouldn't want Angeline to go either, I thought after a moment.
"Stop that," I said as someone shook me a bit. I opened my eyes, not having realized that I had closed them again.
"Sophie, the doctor is here," Adrien said from my right. I glanced at him, and then looked at the man in front of me. He was in his late fifties, with a very bushy mustache and clothes that looked too small for him. Yes, it was Dr. Olivier.
"Can you understand me, Miss Lambert?" the docter asked me.
"Call me Sophie," I responded, wishing the room would quit spinning.
"Okay, that's good," Dr. Olivier mumbled, taking my arm. It took me a moment to realize that he meant it was good I understood, not that he could call me Sophie. A minute later he said, "It's trying to close up, but there's an obstruction that prevents it from congealing properly."
"Oh," I said, not really paying attention. I was concentrating on not falling off the chair.
"The rock," Adrien said.
The doctor gave him a questioning look, and Adrien explained. "I see," Dr. Olivier said thoughtfully. "Well, I'll have to go in after it. You carry her, Mr. …?" the doctor glanced at Adrien.
"Blaze," Adrien responded.
"Mr. Blaze, carry her." Dr. Olivier said.
Adrien didn't hesitate before gently lifting me into his arms. I sighed a bit, feeling safe despite the pain in my arm. I had never been carried by a man before, and I had to admit that it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. Had I thought about it before? I might have. I couldn't remember at that moment.
I remembered when one of my cousins had gotten a hole punched in his lip while working in the woods, and he had almost passed out from that. How was I still conscious?
"Set her there," the doctor instructed Adrien, and I was set on a rather hard, flat surface. Once again Dr. Olivier was looking at my cut.
"It's pretty deeply imbedded," he said seriously. I wished he wouldn't use the word "imbedded".
"What does that mean as far as removing it?" Adrien asked. I wanted to know, too.
"I'll have to extract it," Dr. Olivier began, "but it will be painful." He looked at me. "I'll need you to hold his hand," he told me, gesturing to Adrien. Adrien took my hand and held it firmly.
"How much will it hurt?" I asked.
The doctor shook his head. I wanted to pass out.
"It'll be okay," Adrien said, squeezing my hand. I believed him, but that didn't stop my stomach from trying to twist itself into knots.
I didn't remember much about the whole thing, accept for my screams, the moment the sizable chunk of rock came out of my limb, and the feeling of Adrien's hand over mine. Finally, more from will than anything else, I lost consciousness.
I'm very sorry that this update took so long, but the reason is that I was at my dad's house last week and he hates anything electronic, such as computers.
Sorry for some of the grammatical errors, like things being repeated. My computer is going crazy and keeps copying text. I'll try to get it taken care of, but I'm not hopeful.
And a HUGE thank you to my reviewers!