The Beginning of Our Hope

As I have already explained, one of my most important duties is making guests feel welcome, or at least it would have been if the master had ever had any visitors. That being, I sometimes ignore orders for the greater good.

The master had informed us that if the girl would not eat with him, she was to have no food at all. Cogsworth had commanded me to stand outside the door and inform him at once if she changed her mind.

I had more important things to do. More specifically, I was conversing with Babette. We were discussing important matters, such as…

I might as well be honest. I was flirting with her. Surely I have mentioned that out of all the ladies in the castle, she is one of my favorites to woo. In fact, now that I think about it, I believe she may very well be my absolute favorite.

As I took her into my arms, I kept imagining her human again. How wonderful it would be to feel rose petal hands stroking my face and feel her heart beating when I drew her into my tender embrace! Perhaps I could surprise her by getting her a beautiful dress, any color that wasn't black, gray, brown, or other drab hues, and maybe I would get her a lovely pair of shoes to go with it. Then she would have no excuse not to dance with me. Just imagining her arms around my neck once more as I stroked her hair, which was an attractive shade between auburn and chestnut brown…

My reverie had distracted me to the point where I almost hadn't noticed that our guest had emerged from her room. I hurried into the kitchen just in time to greet her with a kiss on the hand. Even if the master falls in love with her, I will always have the pleasure of knowing that I kissed her first. It is sort of a tradition I have: trying to kiss every young lady in the castle before she finds a husband so I can always say I had the honor of giving her the first kiss. Besides, what gentleman would not politely kiss a lady's hand? Cogsworth was certainly about to try before I beat him to it!

Mrs. Potts was delighted to hear that the girl was hungry. It seemed the elegant meal we had prepared would not go to waste after all! Cogsworth reminded us all that the master had forbidden us to feed her, but Mrs. Potts and I had other ideas.

This was to be the most important moment in my career. Never before had it mattered this much how welcome a guest felt in the castle. If I could convince the girl that this was truly her new home, full of kindred spirits who would gladly demonstrate their hospitality to make sure she felt welcome and see to it that her stay was comfortable, then it was possible that she would break the spell. If my welcome failed, she might leave the castle, taking our chances of being human again with her.

"Ma chère mademoiselle," I began, "it is with deepest pride and greatest pleasure that we welcome you tonight, and now we invite you to relax. Let us pull up a chair as the dining room proudly presents your dinner."

I invited her to be our guest. It sort of had a double meaning. The first meant that she was welcome as our visitor, but the second was a way to let her know she was free to do as she pleased, and we would gladly accommodate her. She wanted dinner? Be our guest! She was more than welcome to help herself. She needed service? Be our guest! We were glad to oblige.

My efforts were rewarded by her applause…and Cogsworth taking the credit as if he had organized the presentation of her meal. However, she smiled and she was eager to look around the castle, graciously accepting our offer to give her a tour.

For the first time in years, I began to believe we had a chance of seeing the spell broken.