It was a quiet flight out of the city. Gold focused on piloting the helicopter, trying to ignore the sleeping woman next to him. She had pulled on the extra jacket he kept on the backseat and seemed to curl up and fall asleep almost immediately. Her head rested gently against his shoulder, if it weren't for the scent of her shampoo he wouldn't have even realized she had slowly slumped towards him. This was truly the last thing he needed, there was already too much distracting him from his work.
"Belle." He said softly. She didn't stir. "Belle!"
"Hmm?" She sat up and looked around.
"We're about to land."
"Where are we?" Belle questioned as she peered out of the windows, taking in the lush green hills and the large loch they were flying towards.
"Home." Just ahead of them there was a decent size castle, not too big, not too small, but still a castle. Belle's breath caught in her throat as she took in all there was to see.
"Impressive estate you have here." She teased, climbing out of the helicopter as soon as they landed.
"It is rather." Gold nodded. Without another word he started towards the door, not bothering to make sure that she was following him. The entrance way was rather standard, solid grey stones made up the walls and the floor, a short staircase lead towards a slightly more lived in area. Worn rugs covered the hardwood floors that lead to another closed door. It seemed that everywhere she looked there was another door or window. "In here."
The hall was beautiful. A fire was already glowing in the hearth keeping the room warm for their arrival. A long dark wood table ran half the length of the room while a pair of leather chairs sat in front of the fire. The ceiling was lined with heavy beams, breaking up the monotony of the grey. Belle slowly circled the room, inspecting the treasures on display.
"You've been struck silent, that must be a first." Gold mused with a smile as he saw to two tumblers of whiskey.
"It is. Is all of this…" she gestured to the paintings, "yours?"
"You mean are they legally in my possession? I suppose you aren't to know." He offered her a glass. "To the job."
"The job." She nodded before downing the amber liquid in one go. "Who else do you bring here?"
"No one."
"That's sad." Belle frowned, turning to examine what appeared to be an original Manet.
"Why's that?" Gold countered, finishing his own drink.
"To have all of this and no one to share it with. All of this beauty, locked away."
"You don't steal for your own enjoyment?"
"I steal for the sake of preservation. I never agree to a job unless I know the item is going to a better place. Or… well, never mind."
"Or?"
"Or for revenge. The only other reason I approve of."
"You're rather bitter for one so young." He sighed, taking their empty glasses back to the table before moving towards another door.
"I've lived more than someone my age." She shrugged, trying to play off the conversation.
"Well," he paused. "Come along, I'll show you to your room."
Gold led her up a narrow flight of stairs, a back route to the next floor. Belle tried to stay close to him as they moved down the dark corridor, while lights were left on downstairs someone apparently forgot about this area. He came to a stop outside of a heavy, dark wood door, pushing it opened and letting her pass. It was a beautiful room, probably one of the nicer spaces Belle had ever seen. The dark purple curtains hung around the four-poster bed, offering a bit of privacy. A window overlooked the loch, offering a window seat that Belle was dying to curl up in with a book.
"This is where you'll sleep."
"And where do you sleep?" Belle asked, lying across the foot of the bed.
"What?" Gold nearly fell over at the question as he turned from the window to look back at her. His mouth went dry at the sight of her lying on the bed, she had settled onto her back, propping herself up slightly with her arms. Her blue eyes were watching him closely, almost teasing him.
"Where do you sleep? In case I need you in the middle of the night."
"You won't need me."
"And if I want you?"
"Has there ever been a man you couldn't charm with those big blue eyes and pretty mouth?" He asked, sitting down next to her.
"Hmm… none I can think of at the moment. I am rather charming."
"A fine trait, one that I lack."
"Do I make you uneasy?" She asked.
"Baffle me is a more apt description." He admitted. "Now might be a good time to go over the rules."
"More rules." Belle sighed, letting her head fall against the gold satin comforter.
"An important one. For this to work, this job, there must be complete trust. Nothing will work without trust between thieves. For that to happen there must be a lack of personal connection between the two of us. There can be nothing more. No distractions. You do your job, I do mine, we both walk away a bit richer."
"Distractions can be terrible fun." She smiled, shifting to her side and forcing him to be a bit closer to her. All will to fight her fled as her slender fingers found the buttons on his blue shirt. It was easy enough to undo the first button, her index finger making brief contact with his skin. He shuddered as she lightly traced his Adam's apple, he had to stop this before it went too far. His hand wrapped around hers, halting her movement.
"Not when there's danger involved. Perhaps after, if you haven't come to your senses."
"I rarely come to my senses. Where's the fun in that?"
"Is that why you do this? Fun?"
"You should try it sometime."
"Not tonight."
x-X-x
"I don't know if I should show you this room." Gold announced, pausing outside of a pair of doors.
"What is it?" She asked, trying to peak around him as if she could see through them.
"Keep in mind I know every item in this room, I will know if something were to go missing." He warned.
"Well now I'm far too excited to wait."
"Very well." He pushed the doors open and allowed her to enter. Every wall was lined with custom made bookshelves, all of them filled with what appeared to be first and second editions of classics.
"Rum…" She breathed softly, looking around the room slowly, barely keeping her hands from reaching out to touch either him or the books. "It's beautiful."
"While you are here, you're welcome to use of the library." He said passively, making a valiant effort to ignore the smile on her face. "But first, we have work to do."
x-X-x
The afternoon was spent in the first room he had taken her to the day before. The long table was now covered with the blueprints of the Charming estate. First they would have to find a way in, then they would deal with the maze of laser beams, cameras, motion sensors, and other traps.
"We'll have to go in here." Gold explained, pointing to an underwater tunnel that led into a subbasement.
"Through the lake."
"It wasn't always a lake. The tunnel was once used by the owner of the land, a way to sneak his mistresses into the estate."
"Cunning." Belle giggled. "And once we're in we go up through the floor into the main exhibit."
"Through the lasers."
"Arriving at the case, just here." She pointed to the spot that had been marked for the display.
"Where you'll put in the code to unlock our treasure. A code you'll be sharing with me now." He demanded casually.
"Will I?"
"I'm starting to doubt if you actually have it."
"You don't trust me."
"I don't. I'm starting to doubt if you're even the thief you propose to be." Gold shouted, taking their tray from lunch out of the room to set aside for the housekeeper.
"I'm a thief, Rum. I'm a terrific thief!" She shouted after him.
"That's what you say, dearie."
"I stole the Holmes."
"Did you?" He called from outside of the room.
"Rum, ask me how I did it!" She replied before turning her attention to the wall of jagged bricks that made up the wall. It was quick work to scale the pieces, reaching the wooden support beam as Gold returned to the room.
"How did you do it?" He asked, unfazed by her climb.
"Hydraulic lift, dropped me right outside of the window." She explained, easily performing a back flip across the wide beam.
"Really? The alarm?"
"I have an app for that." She grinned, walking back to the middle before slowly lowering herself into a split.
"Of course. How did you get it out of the building?" He asked, reaching for the briefcase he had brought with him in the helicopter.
"That is the most beautiful part. I slipped it in the mail."
"No!" He scoffed, "you wouldn't do something so simple."
"It was perfect. Absolutely perfect. Simple, effective." She swung her legs around as he spoke and slipped backwards, propelling off the beam and flipping so that she landed on her feet on the table below. "Perfect."
Gold simply smiled, opening his briefcase and pulling out the envelope she had slipped in the mail shoot.
"How did you get that?" She demanded as he pulled the book from the protective wrapping.
"Why go to the top floor when you can wait in the basement?" He smirked.
"Rum! That was meant to go to Grumpy! He's going to kill me when it doesn't arrive." She sputtered.
"Is he? That would be a shame. Odd man to do business with. Leroy Deem of all people, why him?"
"He has promised intel on another job." She explained simply.
"Must be a big job."
"It's a personal one."
"Now there's a curiosity. What does the bookish Miss French find personal?"
"No, no. First we try, then we trust."