Chapter 4- The Triplets
Also on that day after the funeral, in a pretty cottage right across from the tailor's shop and not far from the tavern, the Beaudette girls sat around, crying into their handkerchiefs.
"He used to say he needed me," Gigi disclosed.
"He said he needed me, too!" added Fifi, lifting reddened eyes from her handkerchief.
Gigi looked at her sisters woefully. "Did he ever say…'I love you'…to either of you?"
"No," Mimi and Fifi both replied.
Gigi sighed in relief. "He didn't say 'love' to me either. But he said 'need.' Need is close to love, isn't it?"
"It is," agreed Fifi, tears welling in her blue eyes anew. "I think that…we would have given him what he craved. We could have always been mistresses. Mistresses could have been more fun than being a wife, don't you think? No cooking, no cleaning, no wiping dirty nosed kids…"
"I would have had a dozen of his kids!" wailed Gigi. This set all three in a fresh wave of weeping.
"If it weren't for that stuck-up girl and her stupid monster thing and-"
"Why did he go after it for her? What was so special about her?"
And on and on it went. The three girls were as one in their despair. They were mourning, but also angry at Belle. Gigi couldn't understand, she had to have loved Gaston the most of all. None of them could truly have him as their one and only, but as they grew desperate, they were willing to sully their reputations for him. They all recalled events that led up to one night that winter, in the pub…
The Beaudette sisters had been working as part time barmaids in Gaston's tavern for months, which was something that had horrified their mother at first. 'A most vulgar and lowbrow occupation,' Madame Beaudette had said. Yet the girls didn't care; they didn't like to sew, only Gigi liked to cook, but not for a crowd like in the cafe, and besides, they could spend much more time with Gaston that way.
During the daytime hours, they could never really spend time with the object of their affection. He hunted from daybreak to three in the afternoon, and then, he would work with Stanley the butcher and the general store owner on selling his meat and furs.
Every evening except Sundays, as the owner of the tavern, he'd open it with the help of Lefou and a red-haired lady in her thirties named Colette, a part time barmaid. But Colette had announced she was quitting her job come winter; she was engaged to be married to Jacques, her boyfriend. That left just Lefou as a bartender, who had the tendency to be clumsy and spill things, especially when he'd overindulge in one mug too much for his five-foot-one body. Gaston, of course, preferred sitting in his fur throne and holding court with the men to serving drinks.
So the girls had happily offered to pour and serve beer a few evenings a week. It gave them plenty of time to flirt with Gaston, and he'd usually flirt back with the curvaceous blondes. They were crushed in October, however, when the proposed wedding to Belle was announced. The very next day, their hopes came back, as Belle had rejected him.
Then, shortly after, came the night of the first snowstorm of the fall. In the pub that night, after the men finished singing some silly song meant to help Gaston feel better, and Maurice DeFleur's strange announcement, Gaston started going off on some 'plan' involving Maurice. The girls overheard him, Lefou, and several other men agreeing that the wedding was back on! They were disappointed yet again when the discovered the 'marriage they will be celebrating' was not to any of them, but...Belle, who had been missing from town for a few days.
Weeks passed, and there was still no sighting of Belle. Every evening, Gaston became more and more cross and agitated. His mind was on Belle, in fact, she was all he talked of. The girls became quite cross as well. They would intentionally spill beer on patrons, refuse to clean anything up, and generally act disagreeable to the customers.
Gaston ignored all this. Despite his own moodiness, he seemed to be enjoying their behavior, and anytime anything was spilled, well, Lefou was happy to clean things up anyway. Lefou was annoying to the triplets, because he took Gaston's attention away from them. Why couldn't Gaston confide in or talk to them instead?
Finally, one night, they lingered around until after the usual closing at midnight. Lefou was doing the same; sweeping the same spot on the floor until Gaston yanked the broom out of his hands and told him quite crossly that the floor was clean enough, go home. After he left, looking dejected, the triplets sauntered up to Gaston and announced to him that they quit.
"Now, why would you want to quit? I thought you loved spending every night with me," he said, grinning down at them, puffing up his chest as he was often apt to do.
Gigi, red-faced, spoke up for all three. "We do. But we don't like spending every night listening to you talk about...Belle."
His grin disappeared and he started to look angry. Fifi and Mimi lowered their eyes to the floor, just as dejected as their co-worker had been a few minutes before.
Gigi continued. "Belle is gone away, we don't know where, and she might not come back for a long time so we just think you should-"
"Belle is coming back! She is going to marry me!" His handsome face begin to look less handsome and more scary. Gigi burst into sobs. Mimi and Fifi followed suit.
Gaston's expression softened, and he looked at them as if they were a row of fine elk hides. He stepped toward Gigi and lifted her chin.
"Now, now, there, there. I understand that you have...feelings for me. All of you-" he stroked Fifi's and Mimi's cheeks, and they lifted their faces to him- "and I have to say that there will always be room in my...life... for you three. I need you all. Perhaps, we could have a little...rendezvous. Tonight."
The girls' mouths gaped. Gaston took Gigi's hand in his large one. "Come upstairs with me."
His ice blue eyes bored into hers. Fifi and Mimi frowned.
Gaston turned to them. "You will come with me later. Go back home, and you-" he pointed to Fifi in the green dress- "come back here in half an hour. And you, dear-" he pointed to Mimi in the yellow dress- "come back in one hour." He winked, and his eyes blazed lust.
"But-" Mimi started to say.
"No buts. Just do as I tell you, and we will all have a good time. We'll make this a regular thing. I may be getting married, but look at me." The girls gazed up at him, sighing in unison. "I can't be stuck with only one woman the rest of my life," he said in a low tone.
He led Gigi, nervous but delighted, her face as red as her dress, upstairs to the pub's guest room. The room was usually empty, since few travelers came to Molyneux. It had become Gaston's extra apartment more than anything.
Gigi was trembling as he closed the door. It was nearly pitch dark; a torchlight from a neighboring shop illuminated the room slightly through one window. As her eyes adjusted, she saw it was furnished as expected, with extra overflow of antler decor about the walls, bear rugs, and firewood. It was dominated by a large, roughhewn double bed with two foxfurs thrown over it. The foxfurs still included the foxes' heads; their eye sockets were dead and blank. Gigi stared at them with unease. Gaston lit a candle. He threw the foxfurs to the floor.
In one swoop, he grabbed Gigi's shoulders and bent down to her face, planting a sloppy, deep, probing kiss on her mouth. He picked her up roughly and laid her down...
Fifi and Mimi had experienced the same, later that night. By three in the morning, they couldn't believe what they had done. They each wouldn't admit to the others that the experience was neither romantic nor loving...and quite painful at that- he had shown no tenderness, no feeling. And yet, they continued a similar routine; Mimi would come upstairs with him on Monday night, Fifi on Wednesday night, and Gigi on Saturday night. Or it could be mixed, it wouldn't really matter. He didn't care, but after the third week, they were just delighted that he started using their actual names, rather than just calling each of them "you."
For Mimi, she started to feel discouraged as the long winter drew to a close. She had enjoyed being his mistress at first, but she still had nagging doubts about what it would mean for the future. What if...she was Gaston's mistress for the rest of her life, and she'd have to give up all hope for a husband of her own?
The secret she and her sisters shared with Gaston had unfortunately been passed along- not to their naïve mother thankfully- but to a few of the men in the tavern. He had told them. Mimi was quite unnerved about that- as the men started to give the triplets funny looks. Some of them even leered at them. Others, like Lefou, acted embarrassed for them, and wouldn't look them in the eye.
That was how Mimi had found out; one night she was helping bartend, and she and Lefou happened to be filling mugs from the same tap. She'd asked him a question and he refused to look at her. That was in January, but for some reason Lefou stopped working at the tavern in February. Gaston said he'd sent him on a "mission." That mission involved standing in the snow in the DeFleurs' front yard. Odd, but at least Mimi didn't have to deal with his awkward behavior toward them anymore.
At any rate, the sisters' reputation in the town as marriageable young maidens was now spoiled.
Fifi was perfectly happy. She was not so much in love with the idea of marriage, anyway. She didn't mind the carefree life of living with their mother, working at the tavern some nights, and always looking forward to passionate times with Gaston. After all, royal princes and kings had mistresses. She heard about it from the seamstress, who had been to Versailles and Paris from time to time. They would be given all the pretty dresses and jewels they wanted. Now, Gaston was hardly royalty, but in Molyneux, he was a legend in her eyes. Certainly she didn't feel cherished by him, but maybe she could change that. She was patient enough.
Gigi still held up the hope that he would give up his scheme to make Belle marry him. The winter months went on. February came. No Belle. And Gigi continued to passionately give herself to him, sometimes twice a week. Certainly the little book-loving girl couldn't do that for him. She'd always been cool towards him; she saw it with her own eyes. He had to change his mind, and decide to marry Gigi. And eventually, perhaps, he might grow to love her- in a way- and learn to be more physically tender with her. Besides, Gigi had learned to cook.
"I know he would have married me," Gigi continued to declare.
"Oh, stop it, Gigi. You know how it is. He wasn't going to marry any one of us. He...was kind of using us. Belle was the only one he wanted to marry," said Mimi, in a soft, squeaky voice.
"Using us? We were important to him! We could have been with him forever!" screeched Fifi.
"That's right, Mimi- how can you say such a thing about such a wonderful, great, dreamy-"
CRASH! The shatter of breaking glass came from right outside the Beaudette sisters' cottage home. Screams and shouts were heard. A loud, booming animal sound made the house shake. It sounded like a sheep- but much, much louder.
Mimi, Gigi and Fifi rushed to their window. They screamed at the top of their lungs.
A giant sheep, about ten to twelve feet high, was stomping and crashing through the village main street, breaking everything in its path.
