Hi everyone! As always, I apologize for the delay in updating. I'm afraid that this is really a filler chapter, but hopefully you all will enjoy it. Massive thanks to everyone who reviewed the previous chapter: sss, jeccabelle, fairytalefanatic, Me, Bloody Phantom, JanEyrEvanescence12, Kyuubigurl74, AvilaAddy, and the guests who reviewed!

Chapter 14:

The sounds of laughter, music, and frivolous conversation wafted lightly through the streets. A visitor might follow the music if he chose to. He would soon find that it came from the finest home in the whole town, an impressive but welcoming structure of red brick. Its many windows glowed with light.

Inside, well-dressed men and women talked and flirted as servants removed the plates and swept the crumbs from the dinner table. Soon there would be dancing. Most had already secured their partners for the first set, and were eagerly anticipating the pleasures of the dance floor. There was one young lady, however, who was of a different mind.

"Belle, won't you come back inside? The night's growing colder."

Belle looked over her shoulder and smiled half-heartedly at her concerned sister. "No, Marie. It's a warm night. I'll stay here." Placing her hands on the rail of the balcony where she stood, she gazed across the town.

Behind her, Marie sighed with frustration. "You're being unsociable. This party is for you. Everyone wants to talk to you."

"Everyone wants to talk about the suffering and the starvation and the castle and the Beast. I can't properly explain the truth. No one understands. You certainly don't, although you do try, and I'm grateful for it. Since I can't make anyone understand, I'd rather not talk about it. But everyone is so curious."

"Can you blame them?"

"Of course not. But I can avoid them."

Marie came to stand beside her younger sister. "There are several very nice gentlemen who I think you should meet."

Belle barely contained a bark of laughter. "Definitely not."

"You really should meet them. One gentleman in particular – Hugo is his name – he's quite an intellectual. You'd like him, now that you're so academic."

"Marie, what on earth does that mean?"

"You read so many books now. And you like new ideas."

"I don't like books and ideas for their own sake." Belle tried to keep the edge from her voice, but could not suppress it entirely.

"Then why?"

Belle moved as if to speak, then closed her mouth without saying a word. After a brief pause, she laid a gentle hand on her sister's arm. "You seem happy in your marriage. I'm glad."

This was Marie's favorite topic. Her expression immediately brightened. "Adam is a wonderful man."

"And so wealthy," Belle remarked, though in the back of her mind, she couldn't help but spitefully add that Adam certainly did not live in a castle.

"He could have been poor. It wouldn't really have mattered. With the chest of riches that the monster gave to Papa, we had enough money for me to marry anyone."

Now Belle really did laugh. "What a relief it is to know that all this trouble was actually worth it!"

"What do you mean?"

"You have the husband and, soon, the family you've always wanted. Adele is at school. Louis seems well-established in his business."

"Yes, he likes working at the bank. And he's very much sought-after. All the ladies are hoping to win him."

"He could stand to flirt less, from my perspective," Belle dryly remarked.

"But it's all in good fun, Belle. I hope he chooses Elise. Have you met her? She's absolutely lovely. Very sweet, very kind, and her taste in gowns is above reproach. Simply adorable."

Belle ignored Marie's ramblings. "Out of all of us, only Laurent is unchanged."

"He could have made something of himself, like Louis did. He still can. That chest is still full of jewels. But he won't touch them. He says it's all blood money."

"Isn't it?" Belle looked at her sister with a sharp expression. "I was in that castle for a while. Plenty of time for enormous physical and emotional agony."

Marie could not form a reply. "Belle, I didn't mean – what else could we do?"

Belle laughed again. "No, I don't blame you. Forgive me for speaking like that. I've grown so harsh. Sometimes I just want to turn soft again."

"You can start by dancing," Marie tentatively suggested.

Belle imagined that it must be very pleasant in Marie's world, where the worth of a person could be assessed from their conversation and social civilities. In the past, Marie's world had also belonged to Belle. Although part of her resisted, she reasoned that she might as well try to reenter that world, if only for one evening.

"Then I will dance, if you will fetch me a partner," Belle said, turning to her sister with a manufactured smile. Marie returned the smile with one far more genuine, and together they glided from the balcony back into the crowd of cheery visitors. Perhaps it wouldn't be so bad, after all.

"Laurent, I think there's something critically wrong with me."

Belle was back in her childhood home, which now contained only Laurent, since her beloved Papa had moved to town to live with Marie and her husband. She and Laurent sat before the fireplace. She stirred a pot of soup hanging over the flames while he clumsily attempted to mend his boots.

"What makes you say that?" he asked, though it was clear that his mind was on his present task.

"The party was awful."

"Why?"

"I think I've become very strange." Belle sighed heavily, staring at her small but no longer dainty hand as it slowly stirred the cauldron before her. "It was difficult to talk to people."

"In what way?" Laurent was better at asking questions than providing solutions.

It was a difficult question. Belle did not have a ready answer. "I suppose everyone seemed…shadowy. They were not very straightforward. At least most of them. The ones who were truly honest were all like Marie. People like that are perfectly fine: woefully inconsequential, but very pleasant. I can talk to them. But how can you hold a proper conversation with someone who refuses to speak his mind?"

Laurent chuckled over his threadbare boots. "They're just trying to be polite."

"It was made worse by the fact that Marie kept throwing me at various men."

"You didn't like any of them?"

"They were weak."

Finally Laurent stopped his work. He looked at Belle with a stern and somewhat hurt expression. "There's no need to speak like that. The men of this town may not lord it over their servants in a castle, and they may not be particularly learned, and they may not have very forceful natures, like this Beast you seem to have befriended, but they are on the whole honest and good. You'd be a fool to take those qualities lightly."

"But he is also honest and good," Belle murmured to herself as she stared into the fire.

Laurent's expression softened somewhat as he saw his sister's sorrow, but he spoke firmly. "You have a decision to make, Belle. You can either pine for what will never be, or you can take stock of the life that current circumstances have offered you and make the most of it."

Although she knew that Laurent spoke the truth, Belle looked at him sharply. "There is a third route. You overlooked it, perhaps because it applies to your own situation."

"What do you mean?"

"If I chose, I could also live entirely in the past, refusing to advance in any way, lest I damage my precious memories of what was and what has been lost." She glanced briefly about their childhood home. "Nothing here has changed, Laurent. You have not allowed it to change. Not a single pot or pan has been rearranged."

"I see your point," her brother said in a low voice, returning his gaze to the boot that he was mending. "But I didn't stay here just so that I could relive the past. I wanted to be prepared for my sister's return."

There was immense hurt in his voice, and Belle regretted her harsh words. Still, something had to be done. They could not lament by the fireside forever. "You are the best brother I could ever imagine," she said softly, "and I'm unspeakably grateful that you waited for me."

Laurent looked up at her and smiled fondly. "I'm the eldest son. It's my duty and my joy to care for my family." But Belle knew that it was the joy, more than the duty, that had made her brother keep vigil for her.

She thought for a few moments before saying, "You have not regretted living in the past. Do you think if I did the same, it might turn out well for me, too?"

"No," he immediately replied, with the bluntness that seemed to characterize their family. "I do think it would turn out well at all."

"Then I must move forward."

"You must."

"I think I'd better live in town."

"That seems wise to me."

"But what will you do, Laurent?" Belle looked at him with a good deal of concern. "You mustn't wither away here."

Laurent leaned back in his chair and chuckled. "The people of our family do not wither. You proved that during your time with the Beast. I'll stay here, but I promise not to remain stagnant any longer."

"I think you should find yourself a wife," Belle suggested with a devious grin.

Now Laurent laughed more heartily. "Perhaps. Then she could rearrange all the pots and pans. That would put your mind at ease, wouldn't it?"

Brother and sister spent a quiet evening together, reminiscing on the past and planning for the future. The next day, Belle packed up her meager belongings and went to live with Marie and her household. There would be no more pining. Or so she hoped.

So that's what's happening. I'm already at work on the next chapter, so hopefully I can give you a more satisfying update soon!