"You remember her, then? Fantastic." Preston said with glee before making eye contact with Lucy. "Why don't we leave them to get re-acquainted and head back to town, Lucile?"

"Now wait a moment, Preston, Timothy and I were talking—"

"—it's alright, Ms. Greene. Go ahead with him," Timothy said, his voice much lower and sterner. Ms. Chambers gazed at Lucy as she shot him a look of offense and surprise. "Ms. Chambers must be here for some very important reason, otherwise…she wouldn't be here at all. I think it best if you go now."

Ms. Greene?

"Yes, well, perhaps we can persuade Loren to open up shop long enough for me to buy you a bonnet," Preston firmly suggested. Lucy's mouth was still open, shocked and hurt at Timothy's sudden dismissal of her.

"I…I would appreciate that, Preston," she finally conceded. "I'm sure the Reverend and his long lost lover will have a splendid time getting re-acquainted." Stubborn as a mule and twice as agitated, Lucy quickly broke away from Timothy and made a beeline for Preston's waiting arm, which she let take her arm and lead her away towards town.

In her upset, she didn't look back once. If she had, she would have seen Timothy gazing longingly after her as she walked away.

"I thought we were here for a bonnet, not a dime novel," Preston said lightly, moving behind the bookcase where Lucy had taken up a hardbound book that piqued her interest. Preston looked at the book's gilded title: The Blue Fairy Book.

"A children's book?" he asked. Lucy looked up from the book with a queer, offended look in her eye.

"Don't be so condescending," she retorted strictly. "I love fairy stories even now. And I heard about this fellow, Andrew Lang, and how he traveled the world just to collect the stories to form this treasury."

Preston smiled, genuinely amused. "I must say, you surprise me, Lucile."

"I surprise most people. It's when people surprise me that we being to have issues."

"The Reverend having a fiancée, you mean?"

"No."

Lucy came out from behind the bookcase with Preston following. She went up to the counter, where Loren Bray was giving her a dour look.

"I opened up the store on the Lord's Day so you could by a story book?" He scowled.

"No, and this, Mr. Bray," Preston slid a straw bonnet decorated with violet ribbons, onto the counter top after the book. "And remember, I promised to pay you double the price for your trouble."

"In my day, a man courted a lady with flowers and chocolates, not gaudy hats and novels," Loren mumbled back. "And I highly doubt you'd be able to afford my SUNDAY prices. Aren't you still in debt?"

"Yes, but sometimes someone comes along who may be worth more than all credit and any debt," Preston answered. This made Lucy look over at him with a pleasantly surprised countenance.

"Preston, I—"

"—that will be three dollars and twelve cents," Loren said stiffly. Preston nodded and took his wallet out of his breast pocket, paying Loren without another word.

"I thank you for going to the trouble, Mr. Bray. Lucile, shall we?" He offered his hand to her again. This time, she took it willingly and let her suitor guide her into the street and down the road.

After a considerable silence, Lucy broke it by expressing her gratitude. "That was very kind of you, Preston. Not just buying the book for me, but what you said."

"About what?"

"About me being worth more than money," Lucy continued. "No one's every said that to me before."

"Lucile, I know I've behaved rather haughtily, and I've had time to think about it. You've only been in town for over a week and I think I came on too strongly from the get-go."

"I concur," Lucy added. "Your interrogation of my private affairs Friday night didn't win you much favor in my mind."

"Yes, well…I'm not used to being nervous around people," Preston continued.

"I thought someone like you was never nervous."

"On the contrary," Preston sighed. "Before you came here…in fact it was a few years ago now…the bank collapse hit the town hard, and it hit me more than anyone. I…I let down a lot of people, and most of them still haven't forgiven me."

"I barely remember that happening," Lucy said. "Manhattan felt the effects more than Brooklyn."

"I'm bouncing back, and I'm doing it honestly this time. But I still am a pariah, and the past few years have humbled me a bit. But old habits die hard, and when I want to impress someone, I go on the offensive. I get…aggressive," he confessed.

Lucy absorbed all of this with sympathy and shame for her own treatment of him before.

"Then you were pushed off of that train, and I saw you and I felt something I hadn't felt in a long time. I saw your hair setting the air on fire. I never knew anyone so pretty could also be so strong and independent. I…I panicked and regressed back into my old self. The self that betrayed Colorado Springs a long time ago." Preston pulled a handkerchief out of his sleeve and wiped his forehead.

"But you're not a beast?" Lucy asked.

"Don't judge me based on what you saw after nine days," Preston insisted. "Don't judge anybody based on first impressions."

Lucy sighed. "I think I've made that mistake already."

"Oh?"

"With Timoth-the Reverend Johnson," Lucy sighed. "He was so sensitive and sincere. I thought a parson wasn't one to sweet-talk a lady."

"The Reverend sweet-talked you?" Preston asked. "He seemed rather quick to be rid of you earlier."

"Exactly."

"Lucile," Preston turned in front of Lucy and stopped her in order to face her head-on. "You're sweet on him, aren't you?"

Lucy shook her head. "I thought I was until an hour ago. But I see I let myself feel too much beyond my place here. I'm still a new person. I'm an outcast."

"And so we both are, it seems," Preston added.

Lucy smiled and opened her new fairytale book. "Would you mind I read something to you? I..I think we both can identify with this story."

"A child's story?" Preston asked skeptically.

Lucy rolled her eyes. "Humor me, please. It's about looking beyond first impressions and finding real love in the last place you'd expect. It's called Beauty and the Beast."

Preston looked into Lucy's eye and felt his chest flutter. He smiled.

"I just hope you aren't calling me a beast," he laughed.

Lucy flipped through the book to the story with a smirk on her face. "Are you saying I'm not a beauty?"

"I can't possibly say that. It's a lie," Preston replied. Lucy could feel herself blush under her burned cheeks. "I just…want you to give me a real chance before you dismiss me again."

Lucy nodded. "I will, Preston."

Then she began her story.

"Once upon a time, there was an old merchant with three daughters, all beautiful. But the youngest daughter was the most beautiful of all…"

"Why are you back?" Timothy asked.

Louise Chambers had aged remarkably in the years since their last meeting. Wrinkles lined her face. Her hair was no longer bright blonde but beginning to dull and fade to gray. She was still pretty, but she wasn't the brightest star in the sky anymore. Far from it. The one part of her that hadn't aged were her eyes, and they were only young and vibrant because they were steel, and steel never aged.

"I'm only passing through," she admitted. "I'll be here for three weeks until a train comes through heading to California. I could've gone by way of Missouri and been there by next week. But…I had to see you."

"Again I ask…why?" Timothy repeated.

"We never said goodbye last time," Louise answered. "We didn't leave on good terms."

"I broke off our engagement because of your treatment of children!" Timothy protested. "I had seen you as what you showed me, not as what you were."

"And what was I, Timothy?"

"A child abuser," he replied, turning away. "I may not be young and spry anymore, but I still find that I have more in common with the heart of a child than I do with yours."

"Abuse! Everyone insists it was abuse," Louise scoffed. "It was what I myself was taught, and I still am not ashamed of it."

"That doesn't excuse it," Timothy retorted. "How can you imagine I'd be happy to see you?"

"Well, you sent that redhead away quickly enough. You did want to see me again. If you did not, you wouldn't have dismissed her."

Timothy bit his lip. He had been incredibly rude to her in the heat of the moment. And she walked off with Preston. There was no telling what move he was planning to make on Lucy next.

"I was indeed unkind to her. And I will beg for her forgiveness soon enough, even though I'm not worthy of it."

Louise drew a deep breath. "She's your wife, then."

Timothy sighed and shook his head. "She was abandoned here last week on her way to California. I have been getting to know her, but no, we are not attached in any way beyond acquaintance."

"Just as well. She is just a child herself from the look of it," Louise dismissed.

"Oh, but she isn't. She is far more of a woman than you still are."

"Timothy, how can you use such venomous words against me? We aren't a couple anymore, but we have a history that is longer than that redheaded girl's entire lifespan! Would you throw away our friendship over a botched romance?"

Timothy turned his back on her and stared out onto the creek.

"I prayed for months that your return was imminent, Louise. I felt as if I'd made a mistake in letting you leave. But God told me that what I did was right. We may have had love between us once. But not all feelings last forever. God had something better somewhere for me. I've been through the worst of times to arrive there, but I am arriving there. I can feel it. And you aren't supposed to be there waiting for me."

"Are you saying God separated us? How could you possibly fathom such a thing?" Louise said with injury. "I thought what we had was beautiful and you destroyed it because of how you feel about children!"

Timothy shrugged. "Christ himself bade the children come to him, and He took them upon his lap, as gentle as a shepherd would the littlest lamb."

"I still don't see your reason for letting me go."

"Because…I want to be a father," Timothy confessed. "I am not young, but I still feel as if it could happen."

"And as I said long ago, you have an entire congregation of people! It wasn't God telling you otherwise, it was greed!" Louise accused.

"That might be, Louise, but I've come to admire my decision, and I wouldn't take it back for the world."

After another elongated moment of silence, Louise spoke again.

"I will still be here for three weeks, Timo—Reverend Johnson," she said coldly. "And know that I won't pursue you. I am an old maid and I accept that as my lot in life. I have a placing in a small hamlet outside of San Francisco, and I will be gone forever when that train comes for me, whether I am alone, or if I manage to find a companion."

"A what?"

Louise walked closer to Timothy, as stiff-backed and straight-laced as she ever had been.

"I am in the market for a female traveling companion to take with me. I will pay for her train fare, and her living expenses until she can find other work upon our arrival. I may be heartless to the likes of you and men, but I am still lonely, and I am through traveling by myself. I'm sure there is some young lady in Colorado Springs who wants to see the world and has no ties here…perhaps that red-haired girl," Louise explained. "What is her name?"

"Her name is Lucile. Lucile Greene," Timothy said quietly. He smiled at the thought of Lucy traveling west in the employ of Louise Chambers. The two were night and day. Louise used intimidation and force to hide the fact that she feared chaos and the unknown. Lucy was chaos in its true character, a girl who would let the wind carry her with it if she could. They would prove a disastrous match.

"Well, I will have to speak with her while I'm here," Louise noted. "But I'm tired from my travels. Will you at least escort me back into town?"

"Very well," Timothy consented.

By the time Timothy and Louise reached the main road, it was halfway through the afternoon. Timothy quickly dropped Louise off at the hotel as if she were a pest he felt compelled to desert, and went back towards the chapel.

As he passed the telegraph office, he found Preston and Lucy sitting on the steps, a book open in Lucy's hands, and Preston smiling with admiration looking over her shoulder at the text as she read.

"…the Beast collapsed onto the grass, and as Belle wrapped her arms around him, he faded away into the blackness of death. Belle cried out to him one last time, proclaiming her love for the creature, and no sooner had the tears begun to fall from her eyes that the body before her had disappeared, and in its place there stood, healthy and strong, a handsome prince. 'I am your Beast,' he answered her puzzled gaze. 'And I pray that—"

"Reverend?" Preston interrupted. Lucy looked up to see Timothy standing before them.

"I am sorry to interrupt you, but I was hoping—" before he continued, he removed his hat in respect. "-I was hoping to speak privately with Lucy."

Preston looked at Lucy, whose face betrayed her hurt from earlier, and her cold stubbornness now.

"Mr. Lodge and I were engaged in a story, sir," she explained. "It is very rude of you to interrupt and assume that I will just abandon my present company in order to indulge you. Especially after how you were so willing to abandon your company an hour ago."

"Lucy—" Timothy began to protest. Lucy shook her head.

"I will speak with you tomorrow afternoon at the café. I am working by myself and I am told you are the only Monday regular at that time," she insisted. "If what you wish to say is so important, then you will keep the appointment as I have proposed it and leave Mr. Lodge and I now," she finished.

Preston worked hard to hide his amusement. Even Lucy herself was surprised at how cold she sounded, almost lawyer-like. It wasn't her usual conduct.

It didn't take Timothy a moment to accept the appointment and to obey Lucy's request. He respectfully bowed his head and silently replaced his hat.

"Until then," he remarked, and left the pair on the steps, his tail between his legs. Lucy did not waste any more time with the tense moment.

Timothy could hear her finish her tale as he walked away.

"—"I am your Beast, and I pray that you will allow me to offer you my hand, my heart, and my life." Belle, in her rapture, accepted the prince's proposal. The two were married that very evening, and they lived in happiness and splendor all the days of their lives."