Chapter 3. In Which Belle Tricks Frollo and Finds Information
It was nearly sunset. Belle had met Adam at the cathedral, then walked around the city more. On their way back to the inn, they saw a woman crying outside her house.
"What's wrong?" asked Belle.
"Do you see that red mark by my door?" asked the woman. "My house has been marked for destruction. Judge Frollo found out I was harboring a gypsy."
"That's terrible!" said Adam. "This city is truly in the grip of evil, if Frollo will kill his own people for doing the right thing!"
"Don't worry," said Belle to the woman. "I have a plan. Do you have any red paint in your house?"
"Red paint? But why would you need that?"
"I am going to do what Morgiana did in the tale of Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves. If it doesn't fool Frollo, it will at least fool the guards, and you'll be able to escape with enough of your things to survive." The woman nodded, though she didn't quite understand Belle's allusion. She scurried back inside the house and fetched out a can of red paint and a brush.
Belle knocked on the door of the house next to the woman's. "Would you be willing to help your neighbor?" asked Belle. "Her house will be destroyed, but I am trying to fool the guards by putting the same mark on every house on this street."
"You don't understand," said the neighbor. "Frollo won't care that you've fooled his guards. He'll have every house on the street burned."
"Then none of you will be there for it," said Adam. "We'll lead this entire street to safety tonight, and mark all the houses. He may burn them still, but none of you will perish."
A guard came down the street, alone. He was wearing a helmet over blond hair, and came up to Adam and Belle.
"What are you doing here?"
"We are trying to help innocent people," said Belle. "Something you guards should have been doing, but instead you are oppressing them."
"I am Phoebus. I have been subverting Frollo's orders ever since I met a gypsy girl named Esmeralda. What are you trying to do?"
"We are trying to mark every house on this street with the same mark as that woman's, and lead the people away so that Frollo either is fooled and burns nothing, or is enraged but burns only empty houses."
"An excellent plan. Where will you house the people?"
"In the Court of Miracles," came a voice Belle recognized. Esmeralda had appeared on the other end of the street. "Clopin has never taken in anyone but gypsies before, but at least one person on this street is a friend to us, and the city will be in greater danger if we do not learn to work together against Frollo!"
Belle and Esmeralda began knocking on doors, then putting the red mark on the doors. Once all the people were gathered outside their houses, each carrying a little bit of food and clothing, and many holding babies or leading small children, Esmeralda looked them over, then spoke to Phoebus. "Phoebus, I want you to go create a distraction for the guards. Tell them there's been a crime in the furthest district of Paris that you have to take them to investigate. Belle, Adam, I want you to help me escort these people to the Court of Miracles. We'll go three different ways, so that we won't all be caught at once if worst comes to worst." She gave Belle and Adam one map each. The map wasn't a paper map, but a small wooden frame with a grid of the city made out of string. "Each one leads to a different entrance to the Court, from a different route through the city."
Once Phoebus had left, they waited a while before each taking a group of people and heading in a different direction.
A short time later, Belle had led her group to a city cemetery, and was standing in front of the tomb the map indicated. After some of the men slid a stone out of the way, the people saw a set of stairs. Belle lit a torch and ventured down the stairs, followed by her group.
Esmeralda and Adam had already made it to a large chamber at the end of a hallway, and Esmeralda was speaking a different language to a man with long dark hair and a purple outfit. She turned to Belle and said in French, "This is Clopin, the King of the Gypsies. He has agreed to let these people stay here until we can learn what Frollo does with their houses. After that, they are the responsibility of the two of you."
Adam stepped up onto the podium and spoke loudly. "If, God forbid, your homes are destroyed, I will provide money from my treasury to make sure you can rebuild them. Tomorrow, I will accompany Phoebus in an attempt to find out if the unusual things Frollo is doing have anything to do with the attack on your homes."
The next morning, Adam and Phoebus went on patrol, while Belle decided to find out some information in a different way. She put on her peasant's dress, tied a scarf over her hair, and went directly to the Palace of Justice.
"Halt! Who goes there!" said a guard.
"I have just been hired as a maid at this palace," said Belle. The guard let her pass through. It was easy enough to find an office, where Frollo was loudly complaining to one of the guards. Belle took her scarf off and pretended to mop the floor with it, while listening carefully.
"Lady Tremaine's message from last week says that I should keep digging under the palace!"
"For what, sir?" asked the guard.
"She says it's something extremely valuable that her employer is searching for. I told her that I did not have time for this. I am searching for Esmeralda, and any other gypsy who dares defy me. I have never been closer to finding the Court of Miracles, and this nonsense arrives at the same time. Take this letter to the lady. I can only hope she can convince whoever this employer is to not come here and upend my palace himself."
Belle stood up and ran out of the palace, stopping when she reached the square. Esmeralda was dancing again.
"Esmeralda!"
"Belle?"
"I went to the Palace of Justice this morning. Apparently, a woman has been sending Frollo messages on behalf of someone else, telling him to dig for something valuable under the Palace of Justice. He is quite angry about them, and would rather search for the Court of Miracles. I think you ought to warn Clopin."
"Frollo has thought he was close to the Court of Miracles before. And he never was. I won't believe he's found it until he crashes through the door. Still, I'll warn Clopin. Whether he's close or not, it can't be good for us."
The next day, while the evacuated citizens waited in the Court of Miracles, Phoebus and Adam (disguised as a new guard recruit) rode out with Frollo to the street with the house scheduled for destruction.
One of the other guards looked at all the houses and said, "Sir. They've all got red marks on them now, sir. What should we do?"
"An amateurish trick!" snarled Frollo. "Did they think that that would fool me? I remember very well which house was hiding gypsies. The third one on the right side. Burn it."
"Shouldn't we at least get the people out first, sir?" asked Adam.
"Yes, very well, we'll have to wring a confession out of them somehow. Bring them to me."
Phoebus and Adam walked up to the door and kicked it open. After looking around, they emerged, and Phoebus said, "Nobody is in there, sir. They must have escaped."
"Paris is full of holes for rats to hide in," said Frollo. "Very well. They have escaped. Burn the house regardless."
Frollo grabbed a torch and lit the edge of the roof. Other guards, and finally Phoebus and Adam, followed suit. Once the house was on fire, Frollo told Phoebus, "Stay behind. Watch the fire."
"Very well, sir. I will consider it an honor to make sure no innocent people's homes are burned." He saluted as Frollo and the other guards rode away.
"Adam! Grab that bucket of water! We can still prevent a lot of the damage to this house if we act quickly!"
"Right!" said Adam, grabbing water and throwing it onto the burning house. Phoebus did the same, and while some of the roof and one of the boards of the outside wall had fallen off, the house was still usable when they were done.
"I meant what I said. No innocent people's homes. Until we can stop Frollo, I'll have to keep disobeying him. I can only hope Belle found out something useful today."
When they met back up in the Court of Miracles, Phoebus asked Belle what she had learned at Frollo's palace, but the information was disappointing.
"I had hoped at least that his work on the dungeon would be a distraction, but it seems he would still rather pursue me," said Esmeralda. "Belle, Adam, I thank you for your help, but you might want to go back to Lecroix. It could become very dangerous here to be seen with me."
"I won't leave," said Belle. "The city needs all of us."
"I won't leave either," said Adam. "I was stuck in my palace for years, longing to see the world and have an adventure. Now that I've been given my chance, I can't go back." Belle nodded. She was a princess now, but didn't think that meant she had to stay in her palace doing nothing.
"Why were you stuck in your palace?" asked Esmeralda.
"Because I was enchanted. When I was very young, I refused hospitality to an ugly old woman, who was actually the Green Enchantress in disguise. The Enchantress cursed me into the form of a hideous beast, and said that if I could not learn to love, I would be a beast forever. I had almost given up hope when Belle came to my castle. She saved me from the spell…no, she saved me from myself."
"Be that as it may, I still don't think you get it. I don't know if running from Frollo is really the sort of adventure you were looking for."
"It isn't. But we do want to help people," said Belle. "I know what it's like to be an outcast in the city you had hoped to be at home in. Everyone in the village thought my father and I were crazy."
A week later, the messenger arrived at Lady Tremaine's house. Lady Tremaine tapped the crystal Jafar had given her.
Jafar appeared to be standing on a ship, yelling at a man in a foppish red hat. When the crystal glowed, he walked away from the man and looked into it.
"My dear Lady Tremaine. I am most sorry you had to see that. This pirate captain promised to take me to someone very important, but he has gotten us all lost. Additionally, another pirate is pursuing us."
"You lead an interesting life, your Majesty. My message is regarding Frollo. He says he is too busy to excavate under the Palace of Justice."
"Too busy doing what?" asked Jafar.
"Oh, chasing down the gypsies. You could tell him not to bother, but I doubt it would work."
"His single-minded obsession could work in my favor," mused Jafar. "I think it is time I see Frollo for myself."
Lady Tremaine gasped. "But Drizella was so looking forward to taking a message to Paris! And you will not get anywhere with Frollo looking like…well, you know."
"Like an Arab sorcerer. Yes, I know. That is why I intend to look like a knight. And why, incidentally, your precious daughter will still get to deliver a message to Paris. A knight offering his services to a beset city ruler would hardly want to arrive unannounced."
"Mother! Mother, is that Jafar? Can I see him? Hello, Jafar! Do I get to go to Paris?"
"Drizella! I am ashamed of you!"
"Let her speak," said Jafar. "Drizella, I have a very important message for you to take to Paris for Judge Frollo before I arrive in the city myself. I want you to write a letter informing him that Sir Theophilus of Constantinople is arriving to discuss a solution to the problems of his city."
"But what are the problems of his city?" asked Drizella.
"I see your mother was not wrong when she recommended you to me as clever. A stupid person would not ask such a perceptive question. You see, that is a rather weaselly phrasing that means two different things. To Judge Frollo, the problem with his city is that it is full of Gypsies. To me, the problem with his city is that I am not ruling it. I intend to solve the latter problem, while making Frollo think I am solving the former."
Drizella nodded. She began writing the letter from "Sir Theophilus" right away. The crystal ball went dark.
"Mother? Can I stay in Paris until Jafar shows up?"
"Yes, Drizella. I admit, he has truly outdone himself. Are you ready to travel?"
"I have everything but some food."
Drizella loaded the rest of her things into a carriage, then went into town. At the bakery, she saw Anastasia sitting behind the counter.
"Annie? What are you doing here? I thought you were here to find someone to make us pretty."
"There's a witch who said she'll do it, but I didn't have the money, so I started working in this bakery. The thing is, I've gotten good at baking, and I would hate to leave my friends. Especially Johann. He's one of the other apprentices here. Don't tell Mother, I don't think she would like it that we're in love."
"I don't think Mother cares. I mean, yes, she still cares about you, but she's pinned all her hopes for advancement on me. She thinks I can impress Jafar, and I hope she's right."
"You're still on about him? Really?"
"Yes, Anastasia. I'll be meeting him in Paris, you know. But I really came in because I need bread for my trip."
"I wish you luck. But I still can't see why you like him."
"He has a brilliant plan. I wish you could have heard it. Not to mention he's actually sort of attractive, in a bizarre way."
"Did not need to know that," said Anastasia, handing Drizella the bread and walking into the back room. Drizella waved goodbye, and after she had bought the food, continued on her way to Paris.
Author's Note: 1. Belle is referencing the Arabian Nights, but just because she's read Ali Baba doesn't mean she's read Aladdin. I decided to get rid of that particular Celebrity Paradox. 2. Yes, Anastasia falling in love with a baker is taken from the Cinderella sequels. No, his name isn't. Anastasia becoming less "evil" is one of the reasons I actually liked the Cinderella sequels, even though they were hardly great.