Despite Cogsworth's misgivings, the Illyrian contingent were duly directed to their rooms, from whence they emerged some time later and made their way to the ballroom. Belle and Lumière were dispatched with a hand-picked selection of the prince's political advisors to join them and the careful dance of diplomacy began. It was fairly easy stuff to begin with. Even when the prince displayed to visitors was the genuine article, it was necessary for Cogsworth to sit down with the royal couple and a sheaf of papers and outline the known details - names, marital status, political leanings and so on - of the expected visitors and, truth be told, Lumière had studied these much harder than the Prince ever had. Watching him make his way around the room with Belle on his arm, a glittering whirl of charm and small talk, Cogsworth was reluctantly impressed. Indeed, by the time a kitchen boy of harrowed appearance manifested himself at his elbow to inform him that dinner was ready, he was beginning to feel that this might actually work. Although that wasn't to say that he had relaxed.

He adjusted his cravat and cleared his throat. "Ladies and gentlemen, if you will kindly make your way to the dining room, dinner is served." As the assembled crowd made its collective way to the door, he ducked skilfully into it, resurfacing beside Lumière. "If I might trouble you for a moment of your time, your highness?"

Lumière made to respond, but found that he and Belle had already been steered into a corner. Cogsworth was good at what he did. They stood in silence for a moment as the room cleared.

Belle was the first to speak. "I think you're doing very well, Lumière."

"Thank you, cherie. It is good of you to say so."

She ventured a small smile of encouragement. "The first time I had to do this, I felt-"

Cogsworth cut her off. "No time for chit-chat, I'm afraid. Lumière, this is where we're counting on you. During dinner it'll just be more of the same. Ask them about the weather in Illryia or something."

Lumière raised an eyebrow. "For five courses? They must have the meteorology of a-"

"Yes, yes, alright. That's your department. But after dinner, they're going to want to get down to business. Once the plates have been cleared away, Belle-"

"I excuse myself," Belle sighed, thinking of lonely evenings reading in bed by candlelight while her husband managed international relations over a couple of glasses of wine.

Cogsworth coughed, pointedly. "If I could continue without any more interruptions? We have only a few moments before the two of you will be missed in there." He gestured towards the dining room.

Belle nodded, silently, embarrassed to find that she was starting to cry. How ridiculous. She knew that Cogsworth didn't mean it, that he was only, like the rest of them, trying to do his best in a difficult situation, and yet... No, she wasn't doing this now. Later, she could lock herself in any one of a dozen bathrooms and leak stupid tears at her leisure, but not now. Right now she was a princess, and princesses didn't cry over nothing at important dinner parties. Right now, she had a job to do.

Cogsworth continued. "Once Belle has gone, things will begin in earnest. The official meetings won't start until tomorrow morning, of course, but, in my experience, both sides will have made all major decisions by the end of tonight. The Prince's advisors know what we're looking to achieve. I've told them the Prince is sick, a relapse of the illness that he supposedly recovered from two years ago." When telling a lie, Cogsworth had learned, it was important to mix in as much of the truth as possible. That was diplomacy. "They know the Master well, of course, so you won't fool them, but I've explained that you're taking his place so as not to offend the Illyrians."

"I thought we were in a hurry?" Lumière interjected, with a sidelong glance at Belle. She looked upset, but he could tell she was trying to hide it so he pretended not to notice. To anyone who didn't know her, she would simply have looked thoughtful.

Cogsworth's eyes narrowed. "Very well, Lumière, these are your instructions. Remain amiable and charming, but firm. You need to follow the lead of the Prince's political advisors while appearing to be in control. Given your proven track record at talking at length without saying anything of importance, I am confident that I'm leaving the kingdom in safe hands. Understand?"

Lumière rolled his eyes, expressively. "Yes, Cogsworth. I understand."

"Good." With that, Cogsworth was gone, dashing off to supervise the serving of dinner.

Lumière turned to Belle. "Do not worry about him. If Cogsworth were wound any tighter his springs would pop out. Come on."

Belle gave him a wan smile and they walked together into the dining room.

As Belle took her seat beside Lumière for dinner, she reflected that this nerve-wracking experience was actually remarkably similar to her wedding day. After all, here she was, sitting down to a huge meal that - despite the efforts of the castle's formidable team of cooks - she would not enjoy, beside a man who wasn't the Beast she'd fallen in love with and under the scrutiny of a whole parade of well-dressed strangers. She'd gone along with it then because she loved her husband and because it was what had to be done. She supposed it was the same tonight.

The evening progressed exactly as Cogsworth had said it would. Lumière kept up an unfaltering stream of conversation and jokes with the people seated near to them, pausing only to fork in the odd mouthful of food in order to keep up the pretence that they were having dinner and not engaging in political drama with edible props. As the remains of an excellent dessert were cleared away, Belle caught Lumière's gaze.

"I do hope you'll excuse me," she said, directing a final, dazzling smile at no one in particular. "I'm a little tired. I think I'll retire now."

Everyone rose with her and a general murmur indicated that they hoped she would rest well.

Lumière kissed her on the cheek. "Good night, cherie," he said, gently.

A footman opened the door for her and she made her exit. Behind her, she made out obligatory remarks of a "your delightful bride" variety as the loaded conversation faded behind her.

She found the Beast lurking at the top of the grand staircase. She dug deep in her reserves and found a smile for him. "There you are, darling. I've left Lumière to it. Do you want to read together for a little while? Not research, unless you want to, just a story or two. What do you think?"

He nodded brief assent and they walked a couple of steps together in the direction of their quarters before he asked, "How did it go?"

"Very well, actually," she replied, electing to remain positive. "Lumière is doing a really good job. I'll admit that I had my doubts to begin with, but he's a natural host. He's so good at that sort of thing, making conversation, turning on the charm - he even kissed me on the cheek when I left." She hesitated, noting a sudden change in the atmosphere. "Not that you're not good at those things, of course, just that we were all worried that Lumière - that someone would notice..."

"He kissed you?" the Beast had stopped walking.

Belle frowned. "Yes. As I was leaving. I really don't think anyone can have suspected..." she trailed off. This couldn't be going where she thought it was.

"I see," he said.

"What?"

"Nothing." An undertone of growl was evident in his voice. "I just don't see why he had to kiss you."

Belle knew she had a choice. She could just leave it there, change the subject. It was more than likely that he'd regret saying that soon enough, if he remembered. She knew he couldn't really suspect that what he was insinuating was true. But why should he be allowed to insinuate it in the first place? She knew it was a stressful situation, that he was deeply unhappy, that he felt trapped, left out. Her heart ached for him and she would do whatever it took to help him break the curse again. But why did she have to be the one to stay calm? Why did it have to fall to her to be reasonable, to fix everything?

"Don't talk to me like that," she said.

The Beast bristled. "I'll talk to you however I want!" he snarled. "I'm not the one who was down there just now kissing someone pretending to be my husband."

Belle violently tugged jewel-studded pins from her hair, releasing it so that it fell, tangled, around her shoulders. She pushed her fingers through it, glowering at the ground. "You're being unreasonable."

"I'll tell you what's unreasonable!" his voice was approaching a roar now. Belle widened her eyes and indicated the still-visible door to the dining room below them. Somehow still united while arguing, they moved into a vacant room and closed the door before continuing in hushed tones. "I'll tell you what's unreasonable!" he repeated. "That I've had to stand up here, hiding in the dark from the people I was supposed to be talking to today, while my wife stands next to someone else, pretending he's me, smiling and laughing like everything is fine, while I'm... this! This hideous monster, a prisoner in my own castle-"

She cut him off mid-flow, staring up at him, cheeks red, lips taut. "It's what we had to do! We talked about this."

"We didn't talk about Lumière kissing you."

"For goodness' sake! You're behaving as though you've caught us in flagrante in the rose garden!"

"Oh, something I missed?" He knew he was being ridiculous now, but somehow he couldn't stop. He just wanted her to know... what, exactly? But the argument had started.

In the absence of words, Belle let out an aggravated squawk. "Ugh! I suppose you think you're the only one who's suffering, do you?"

He spread his paws, indicating his altered physique. "Certainly looks that way to me."

Belle took a deep breath. The air felt thinner, somehow, the real world distant. For now there was just her and her anger. "Because it always has to be about you, doesn't it? There's just your world - your castle, your rules. You think because the curse broke, because we love each other, that you can do no wrong now. But the Enchantress was right - all it means is that I'm in your world too, that once in a while you think about us instead of just you, but you can't even get that right - I mean, for goodness' sake, Cogsworth and Lumière had to tell you how unhappy I was!"

"Belle-"

"And you promised me an adventure, just you and me, and that meant so much to me, and now all we can do is stay here and try to fix this horrible spell..." She was crying now, tears rolling down burning cheeks. "And I know you're unhappy and I hate that and I'd give anything, absolutely anything, to make this go away because I can't stand to see you miserable, but for you to stand there and say that..." She stopped, almost panting. Part of her knew she'd gone too far. Part of her was just glad that she didn't have to hold it in any more.

The Beast looked at her for a moment, then turned and stalked off.

Belle gave a whimpering sigh, unclenched white-knuckled fists and sank into a chair, exhausted.

They both found their way to the bedroom at about the same time. They met on the balcony and stood in silence for a moment, each aware of the other's presence but neither wanting to make the first move. Both felt that things had been said that should not be immediately forgotten, but neither wanted to be apart that night.

Then, all of a sudden, they both lifted their eyes to one another and muttered, "I'm sorry."

They moved together slowly, cautiously, as though newly in love and not two years married, and folded one another in a silent, thankful embrace.

Woah. This chapter just kind of happened to me. Like, I'm aware that I've been sitting at the computer typing for a while, but I don't know where the words came from. This was just going to be a chapter about Lumière enjoying his temporary royalty but somehow I wrote this instead. I'm really very pleased with it. Let me know what you think - I won't take it personally if you don't like it because I don't quite believe I wrote it!