Rose couldn't sleep that night, as she lay in her bed instead of sleeping on the floor as she had done, not really thinking about anything except the ball and wondering how she was going to ask Leon to be her escort and was worried that he would refuse her.

Katrine had assured her that he would definitely say yes, since she had been so kind to him and that he couldn't possibly say no, but Rose would be fooling herself in thinking that but Katrine, Rebecca and Babette sounded so sincere, she didn't have any reason to doubt them.

And it would just be the two of them, with no stuffy nobles looking at them, no ladies to pick her up and give her unwanted hugs and attention and to throw up on, so they could just dance, relax and have fun, which made her a little less nervous, but she remembered about the dancing and was worried that she would trip, bump into Leon or stand on his feet and that made her worry again.

Her mind was racing with these thoughts, which prevented her from sleeping, as she tossed and turned. She got out of the bed and walked out onto the balcony, the cold winter air ruffling her fur and nightgown, as she shivered slightly and looked up at the sky.

She then thought about her parents and how she wished they could see her now and meet Leon and seeing her getting back to the daughter they had loved and adored, even though she was still a beast outside but she was no longer one inside.

'I know I can do this, Mama and Papa,' she whispered to the sky, 'Leon is no longer afraid of me and he likes me for who I am, not what I look like as he has learned to see beyond appearance, but only as a friend. He's more than that; he's the one that I love with all my heart, who I've waited ten years for.

But I fear that he won't feel the same but Katrine, Rebecca and Babette are adamant that he does and this ball that everyone has started to plan, like the one you had years ago, will be the thing that will bring us together and declare our love.

Then, when the spell is broken, you can meet him and see what a wonderful person he really is.'

She then saw a green star shining, which she knew would be Irena and she would no doubt be watching out for her and be happy that Rose was at last being less like a beast and more like the human princess she had been and thought that she would never be again and that her faith in her had been restored.

'I can do this, Irena,' she whispered, 'what you have said to me has not been for nothing and thank you for bringing Leon to me, even though imprisoning him , sending his mother away from him and treating him badly hadn't been the best way for him to meet me.

'But he's not my prisoner and never was, he's my love and I am his, if only he would admit it but Katrine has assured me that he is. I only hope that she is right and that what she has told me will come true.'

The star glowed before fading in the sky, although Rose could have sworn it had smiled serenely at her, knowing that she and her parents would be proud of her and were happy that she had found true love.

Seeing the stars twinkling like diamonds, Rose thought of a song in her head, that reflected on what she and Leon had been through, their disastrous first meeting and growing relationship and sang,

This boy, who came to me

By pure chance

Everyone believes that he is the one

To break the curse

And to fall in love with me

But when I first met him, I made things for him worse

By treating him shamefully

Like the beast I was

I took his freedom, sent his mother away from him

Never to see her again

I lashed out at him, even though he meant no harm

Made him run away into that vicious pack of wolves

And yet I saved him, though I got hurt for my pains

He treated my wounds and thanked me for saving him

We shared a love of reading

Painted together, played in the snow

And mocked dear Uncle Cogsworth with our silly accents!

Rose snickered at that last line.

Now my feelings for him have grown stronger

And I've come to realise

That I truly love him

Rose smiled to herself, as she thought about Leon, seeing him in her mind, yet the doubts and fear she had were coming back and she sang,

But will he ever love me?

After all I've done to him?

Does he give me a grin

On his beautiful chin?

Does he even know I love him?

He says I'm his friend

But I see it being more than that

But will he ever love me?

Even though I'm a beast?

It's because of him

That I've come to see

There is a girl in me

Yearning to be free

I love him

But will he ever love me?

Rose wrapped her arms around her to protect herself from the cold, as it ruffled against her fur, as she kept singing,

This boy

Is not just a tool to break the spell

For he has treated me with such kindness

As I have for him

He made me forget that I was a beast and about the curse

Yet he doesn't know that I'm a princess underneath

This beastly body

He brought me out of my misery, made me feel alive again

Gave us all hope, when we thought it was gone

But will he return the feelings I have for him?

Will he realise that he loves me like I love him?

Before the last petal falls?

Rose sighed as she glanced at the rose for the umpteenth time, trying not to think the inevitable if she wasn't able to tell Leon her love for him.

I can only hope that I won't be too late

To say three little words to him

'I love you'

But will he ever love me?

Yawning, Rose went back inside, closing the door behind her, as she walked through the animal bones and remains of her dolls, hoping that it would soon get cleaned up, as she hated looking at it, more so at seeing Rebby's head and body lying on the floor.

And seeing Rebecca trying not to wince when she saw the dolls she had made so beautifully for her, reduced to pieces of porcelain and dismembered bodies crushed under the animal bones.

'Maybe Katrine can sew your head back on, Rebby,' she said, while holding the aforementioned head. She knew that she would now be far too old for dolls, but while the porcelain ones were irreparable, the ragdolls were able to be repaired, with a simple stitch and reattachment of their heads and she had wanted to keep them, especially Rebby.

But that would have to wait until morning, as Rose climbed back into bed and fell asleep, wondering what she was going to do with Leon and finding the perfect moment when she would ask him to the ball.

The next morning, Rose and Leon went out to the stables to take Phillippe and Sabine for a stroll, along with Sophie, who had wanted to come for another ride and to be out of the way, since her parents would be busy with the long-overdue clean-up of the art studio and Sophie would have distracted them, as they had done the previous day.

As Rose had anticipated, Phillippe had been nervous about seeing her and had actually backed away, whinnying loudly, for he didn't recognise her, instead thinking she was going to attack him, in spite of having seen a beast before during the first enchantment, when he had Adam on his back after the wolves had injured his arm and when he took him out with Belle in the snow.

But, after some coaxing from Leon and some gentle reminders about Rose like patting his nose and tugging his ears, like she had done before, Phillippe calmed down and saw the familiar gentle eyes of his young mistress as he nuzzled and nickered her.

He had been glad to see her and eager to go outside, to Rose's delight and relief that he hadn't run away, like she had expected him to.

Sabine, however, had approached Rose without hesitation, having already seen her in the forest, and had helped her by alerted Leon that she had been injured by wolves, when he was about to abandon her and Rose liked the strong, tough, friendly and gentle mare, admiring her bravery and instincts, as the horse nickered against her.

Cogsworth watched the two, as they went outside with the horses, Sophie riding in the travel bag on Sabine, certain that they were out of his sight, so he could gather everyone in the foyer and inform them of the big clean up that he had planned yesterday, to make the castle tidy for the ball.

'The coast is clear, the mistress and the boy have gone outside,' he announced, as the servants entered into the foyer and gathered in a huge group awaiting instructions from him, so that they could get to work.

Katrine was in her workroom, still making the outfits, which she was nearly finished with, having worked for two whole days and nights, barely finding time to sleep, like she had always done, but she was certain that she would get them done before the ball.

Amelie and Raymond were already at work, cleaning and dusting the art studio, which badly needed it and they were sick of living and working in a place that was such a mess.

'Now you all know why you are here,' said Cogsworth, pointing to everyone who was listening and paying attention, except for Remy who was looking bored and clicking his tongue. George nudged him and he said, rather cheekily,

'So you can boss us around to do chores that we normally wouldn't do?'

'Oh dear, we have a comedian here,' Lumiere muttered, 'Do shut up, Remy and let Cogsworth finish. You're not being funny or clever and no one is impressed with your remarks.'

'Oh, Lumiere, leave Remy alone, he's just having a laugh,' Rebecca said, only to realise what she had said and everyone looked at her quizzically, like they couldn't believe what they had heard- Rebecca defending someone she hated and had let everyone know about it.

'I mean, Remy, don't interrupt Cogsworth, it's rude to do that,' she quickly said, winking at Remy to show that she didn't really mean it and he gave her the biggest smile he had, then he said,

'And how come Soph, Ray-Ray, Ami and Kitty Kat aren't here? How did they manage to get out of doing this clean up?' as he had noticed that they weren't around to be lectured by the little clock and assumed that they had made up some excuse to not take part in the preparations.

'Because Katrine is working on..something special, Sophie is out with Leon and the mistress, since her parents are busy in the studio and they are working too, so they are not being lazy, unlike some people I can mention.' George said, giving his troublesome brother a hard stare.

'But Cogsie, I'm in no mood to clean the castle!' Remy whined, 'can't we do it tomorrow, because like what I said yesterday, why do today what you can…'

'Shut up, Remy and let Cogsworth finish speaking. It's rude to interrupt and stop being lazy and trying to get out of the big clean-up that we plan to do,' George said.

'And we are going to do it TODAY and don't moan your head off, because YOU and I are going to help out as well, arms or not, we are going to do our share, so stop whining!'

'Are you done giving me the lecture of the century, Georgie?' said Remy, 'Because Cogsie was in the middle of talking and you rudely interrupted him!'

'I did not, that was you, Remy!' George said, irritated by his brother's behaviour.

'Ahem,' Cogsworth said, which cut the brothers' argument short, 'as I was saying, before I was interrupted by BOTH of you,' giving Remy and George hard stares, 'we have exactly two days to create a magnificent atmosphere worthy of a man, woman or beast,'

He chuckled at his little joke, while Remy rolled his eyes and some feigned chuckles, having heard it before.

' For you see, the mistress is hosting a ball for the first time in her life, for her and the boy which will commence the day after tomorrow,once she invites him and hopefully, he will accept her invitation.' Cogsworth said.

'But that isn't a lot of time to prepare for a ball,' said Rebecca, 'we didn't really think this through. I mean, it is next to impossible to clean the castle and the ballroom, make decorations, get the candles, make a menu and prepare a formal dinner..'

'In case you haven't noticed and hadn't been listening to Katrine yesterday,' Cogsworth said, as a table walked near him with the wilting rose, which made everyone gasp at seeing it, finally realising how fast it had wilted, which meant that their time was running out at a rapid rate, as Cogsworth pointed at it.

The table wobbled, sending out gasps from everyone, fearing that it could tip over and the bell jar would be smashed, sealing their fate right there.

Luckily, the table managed to stay on its feet, keeping the rose intact, to which everyone sighed in relief, as Cogsworth kept speaking, having not noticed that he had nearly caused chaos.

'The rose has now wilted, which means it won't be too long before..'

'The last petal falls,' everyone recited in unison, the words so familiar to them, as the table made a hasty retreat back to Rose's room, careful not to send the bell jar and rose on the ground.

'Then again, it could be possible to prepare for a ball in two days,' said Rebecca.

'Unless you wish to spend the rest of your lives as nothing more than a soul trapped in an unmoving and unbreathing household object, you will agree to co-operate and work together without fighting, bickering or wanting to head butt or lash out at each other to clean up the castle.

And we need to also prepare the mistress and the boy for the ball, if you want to be human again.' Cogsworth said, to which everyone, including Remy, agreed to.

Nothing would be worse that have their remaining humanity fade away and be a motionless object forever and they wanted nothing more to be human again and for Leon and Rose to fall in love, being at their wits' end to bring them together from the first day and they didn't want their efforts to be in vain, which they hadn't been yet.

'Oh, to be human again,' they sighed.

'Right then, half of you will do the East Wing, half of you will do the West Wing and half of you will do the ballroom. The rest will do what they have already been assigned to do, since they know what they are doing. Are there any questions?' Cogsworth said.

However he was left on his own, as everyone had scurried away, eager to get to work, singing about how much they wanted to be human again, to lighten the mood and to get away from Cogsworth.

'Well, that's that then,' he said, 'if only they would show that much enthusiasm when they do their regular duties.'

But he smiled to himself, thinking about his long-awaited retirement by the sea, where he wouldn't be so tense and living in a shack, sipping tea and being far away from fools made of wax and cheeky, rebellious, obnoxious and loudmouthed washboards, which enjoyed adding sadistic strains on his already high blood pressure.

'Oh, how I can't wait to be human again,' he sighed happily, as he waltzed around the castle in a daze.

All the enchanted objects were feeling the same, as they worked hard cleaning the areas they had been assigned to and without fighting or physically hurting each other which would have made Cogsworth grin like there was no tomorrow.

Sending ten years' worth of dust and cobwebs out the window and making the castle look pristine like it had been before the curse may have sounded like a daunting task in the little time they had left but by working together and singing, along with the optimism and hope they had thought they had forgotten, the job went by quicker and didn't seem as challenging as they thought.

'If it all goes as planned, our time may be at hand, any day now!' they sang, 'when the boy sets us all free!'

'We know that he will break the spell any day now!'

'So let's open the shutters and let in some air!' Babette and the feather dusters sang, as they, along with Mrs Potts, the dust pail, chairs and broom were in Rose's room, cleaning it up to make it fit for a princess, as they opened the balcony doors, the sun shining in the room, making it look bright and inviting and replaced the torn curtains and bedding.

The feather dusters were soon busy dusting the cobwebs off the walls, while the bed was made with fresh linen, which Remy and George had washed.

'Put these here and put those over there,' Mrs Potts instructed the chairs, as they moved the broken furniture and replaced it, while the dust pail and broom got rid of the dust and debris from the floor.

The animal bones and smashed porcelain dolls were gathered up and thrown away, just as a sewing box with a needle and thread came in and reattached the ragdolls' heads to their bodies and placed them back on the shelves with Rebby being placed on the bed, where she had always been.

'Sweep up the years of sadness and tears and throw them away!' everyone sang, as the dust flew in the air and soon, the room was tidy and pristine, just like Rose had always kept it.

The West Wing no longer looked sad, neglected and forbidding and the place where Rose spent her time, hiding away, pacing and growling and lamenting on the life she had lost, but a bright and happy place, where a human princess once slept as a little girl and would do so again as a young woman and with her true love.

In the ballroom, the mops and buckets were mopping up the floor when Sultan came running in from outside, with muddy paws, leaving paw prints as he sniffed around, looking for Lila, so that he could chase her, but the mops were not to be deterred, as they simply mopped up the mud.

Except for the melodramatic mop, who was not in the mood to deal with the mischievous footstool, who seemed determined to make his job difficult for him.

'Get away, Sultan, you're not going to dirty the floor again with your muddy paws!' he hissed but Sultan took no notice, as he finally spotted Lila snoozing on a chair and barked at her.

Lila yowled, as she jumped off the chair, knocking over buckets of water as Sultan chased her, leaving muddier paw prints, which the mops had to clean for the umpteenth time, chasing the two silly pets out of the ballroom, while the melodramatic mop shouted,

'THAT'S RIGHT, GET OUT OF HERE, YOU BLASTED ANIMALS! Always making my job difficult by making more messes to clean up!'

'Now I'll have to wash this HUGE FLOOR again and it takes forever! And the ball is in two days, so how am I going to get this room clean when those blasted animals keep messing it up?' he said.

'OH SHUT UP!' the buckets said, fed up with the mop's complaining, as they continued cleaning.

In the small room where Belle, Adam and Maurice were, Babette was dusting the cobwebs and dust off them, while she looked sadly at their frozen pose and facial expressions that hadn't changed since the curse was placed.

The motionless stone statues of her beloved masters, who had been doing nothing but gather dust and cobwebs in a small, dingy room for ten years, cruelly separated from their daughter who they loved and adored and not being able to support and help her adjust to her form. If they had, Rose wouldn't have been so angry and beastly.

Yet, she smiled at them, for they would have been happy that their daughter had stopped being the monster she had been in the years they had been apart and had found a boy who was her true love and could break the spell and had met in similar circumstances to her parents.

'Ah, my dear Belle and Adam,' Babette said, as she dusted, 'you would be so proud of your sweet darling Rose, if you were to see her now. She's not the terrible monster she once was, like you were, Adam. She's changed and for ze better.

She's met a boy, masters, and a very good-looking, intelligent village boy, who she has fallen deeply in love with as has he, although he doesn't realise it yet, even though they had hated ze other at first sight, much like you did when you first met and she had done ze same things that Adam had done.

But they have come together on their own and now we're having a ball for them the day after tomorrow, like you did, so they can confess their love before the last petal falls, so we can be human again and you can come back to us.'

Even though she knew that they couldn't hear or talk back to her, Babette nonetheless kept talking, as she finished dusting,

'Oh, how Rose has missed you dearly over the years. If only you had been there to help and support her, then she wouldn't have been the way she was, so BEASTLY to us and acting like it too.

And I know that you've missed her dearly too. Although you have been here, gathering dust in a small, dark room, we knew zat you did, because we felt your pain and heartbreak, what you must have felt underneath all that stone, when Rose was transformed into the beast and you were separated from her, depriving her of your undying love and devotion.

But it won't be too long before you are free, so you can be reunited with your dear daughter and meet the boy who she loves dearly and hopefully you will love too.'

Humming to herself, Babette left the room and she took one last look at the statues, before closing the door, hopeful that the next time she and everyone else would see Belle, Adam and Maurice, it would be in the warm, soft flesh instead of cold, hard stone.

So the song that Rose sings, 'Will He Ever Love Me?' is one I wrote myself, so I hope it's okay (did I mention I'm not naturally a songwriter?) and don't worry if you see there isn't any Rose and Leon stuff in here, it will be in the next chapter, when she will ask him to the ball and the ball itself will be in a couple more chapters, so hang tight!

Reviews are your friends! :)