I'm back! Sorry it has taken me so long to update this fic. I am currently traveling abroad, with limited internet access, so please forgive my late posts.

Burning, Burning

It felt like all of the nerves in her body were burning as she looked deep into his laughing face. "You!" Belle exclaimed. All she received in return was a smile.

Grinning like the cat that got the canary, Gaston stood in front of her. "Cheri, you didn't think that your pathetic attempts to dissuade me would work, did you?" Belle bit her lip as Gaston went on, "When you rebuffed me in the square yesterday, I realized I did not need to woo you with kind promises. I could just take you, and take you I will." he vowed.

Mustering up some courage, she stated, "No, you need to bid just like everyone else. Or is Monsieur Gaston too high and mighty to follow procedure?" she spat his name like a curse.

"Oh I will enjoy watching you..." he breathed "Just look, it is beginning."

Indeed it was. The girls all around her were beginning to strip. As this barbaric tradition dictated, just as in old slave auctions, the young women would be forced to appear before the crowd clad only in shifts, in order to check if the "property" was undamaged. This humiliating ritual forced the girls to discard modesty, so that even if the lucky ones were bid on and returned to their families, they would still never be as pure and untouched as they were few lucky "survivors" of the last auction had demurely accepted whatever slapdash husbands could be gotten.

Belle was sure she wouldn't have that problem.

Maurice would surely bid for her, but he could never hope to compete with that bastard Gaston. Instead, she would live out the rest of her days as Gaston's pet-wife if she was fortunate, and his unwilling mistress if not.

Turning, she saw Plumette begin to pull off her skirts. Belle looked down at her modest attire. "No" she stated simply. "If you want me to go before that pyre and throw in my dignity along with my skirts, then you will be disappointed. You might as well tie me to a stake as sacrifice to the Gods in this country," with steadfast derision Belle made her bid.

Plumette stared at her askance. Belle stood resolutely in front of the now-jeering soldiers. "I would sooner die."

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