Gaston and Belle spent the next couple of weeks as usual, despite the news. Belle did not vomit in the mornings, as Gaston had heard was the case with pregnant women, and she behaved as she always had, moreover, constantly emphasizing that nothing had changed.
They still rode horses and made love, took long walks in the woods. Belle climbed up on a stepladder to take books in the store from the top shelves and the like. Not that they ignored the fact that Belle was pregnant, but it was as if they both still wanted to stay free for as long as possible. And indeed, there was no belly yet, Belle felt fine as she said: "I don't notice anything at all yet" and got so annoyed when Gaston tried to clumsily hint that maybe she should have been a little more careful that he felt like some kind of idiot, and if he admitted to himself somewhere in the back of his mind - Gaston didn't want to annoy his wife.
While he himself did not tolerate any kind of objection or confrontation among other people, with Belle his temper was bumping even harder than his own, somewhere inside, deep, deep down, Gaston realized that psychologically she might even be stronger than he was. He didn't want to argue with her. She could overwhelm him with her arguments, with her sharp tongue, with a single raised eyebrow. And it was better not to ruin that delicate balance, that sense of happiness and belonging to Belle that was finally available to him. After all, it was Belle who knew exactly about her health and all those feminine things.
It went on like that until that morning came.
Belle was just standing nearby, keeping an eye on the machine that was washing the dishes, when suddenly she yelped and looked down. Gaston turned around and saw that she had blood running down her legs.
"Oh, my God, Belle!" the man rushed to his wife and picked her up in his arms. "Get down, get down!" He carried her into the bedroom and laid her on the bed. Belle slowly put her hand to her stomach and looked up at him, her face white as snow. Gaston, in some strange daze, stroked her shoulders with suddenly trembling hands. "Belle, my love, are you in pain? Does something hurt?"
She ran her hands over her belly, frowning as if listening to what she felt, and then grabbed his hand:
"No, nothing hurts, and that scares me even more! I feel like I'm bleeding! Gaston, please get a doctor!"
"But how am I going to leave you..."
"Please go get a doctor!"she clenched his hand tighter. "I'm frightened," Belle added almost in a whisper.
He hesitated for a while, but he really couldn't do anything himself.
"I'll... I'll be right back! And I'll get someone to watch you until I get back!"
Gaston ran out into the street and first ran down the road leading into town. Then he stopped, wringing his hands in excitement. The village doctor was completely useless, and no one ever called him. Gaston was rarely sick, and had always managed on his own, but now...
The castle. That's right, the castle! There should be a proper doctor in the castle!
"The Prince won't be able to refuse if Belle needs a doctor," Gaston thought and ran to his horse to get to the castle as fast as he could.
He mounted Noir, and galloped toward the castle. He had never been so scared, he didn't even want to think what could have happened. Belle and the unborn child could die right now.
Gaston raced to the castle gate, which was still guarded by sentries. Nearby, Chip was running. The boy backed away from the hunter as he dismounted, and Gaston held out his hands to him pleadingly:
"Chip, Chip, help me! Oh, God, don't be afraid of me! Belle is in trouble!" Gaston was silent for a moment, and then spoke quickly, so that the boy would hear what he had to say and not run away and have to fight his way to the castle through the guards. "Get the doctor, please!"
Chip stopped and looked at his face.
"The village doctor won't help, she's expecting a child and she's bleeding..." Gaston raised his hands and as if only now he saw that they were covered with blood, he must have gotten dirty when he took his wife in his arms.
"I'll be right there, I'll be right there!" shouted Chip, and disappeared behind the gate.
Gaston leaned his hands on the horse's saddle, his legs trembling. Time dragged on interminably, but soon enough the gate opened and Mrs. Potts came running out with Chip.
"My mother heals everyone in the castle," said the boy, "if anyone can help, it is she!" he was as pale as a sheet, too.
Gaston put Mrs. Potts on the horse, and sat down on the horse himself.
"Everything will be all right," said the woman, and so I wanted to believe her...
The hunter spurred the horse, and they rode down the road toward the village.
"I'll run after you, I'll help you if I have to!" shouted Chip.
"Thank you!" replied Gaston, spurring Noir. They rode as fast as they could, just to keep Mrs. Potts from falling off her horse. At last their cabin in the woods came into view. The man dismounted, helping Mrs. Potts off the horse and, grabbing her hand, pulled her into the house.
Belle lay on the bed, her face matted and pale.
"Gaston! Mrs. Potts!" she held out her arms to them.
"Come out, please," said the housekeeper to Gaston, and he obeyed and went out of the door.
Through it the voices of the women and their unintelligible conversation could be heard.
The man sat down on a bench outside the house and covered his face with his hands.
It was probably his fault. Belle was so fragile, so ethereal, so different from all of them. He'd taken her for himself, taken this airy creature into his lair, demanded things of her that she didn't really want. She didn't want marriage or children, maybe because somewhere in the back of her mind she realized that this was not her destiny, not her role. That she could not physically bear the harsh life of a hunter's wife.
And he, chasing the beautiful, forced her to be a woman, a wife, a mother, to do what her fragile body was not capable of.
Once in his childhood, as a child, he saw an amazing butterfly. Struck by its unusual beauty, he wanted to catch it. Gaston was already a strong enough child and when he caught that bizarre creature in his fist and then opened his fingers... On his palm lay a dead butterfly with broken wings.
Don't think about it now.
"Everything will be all right," someone touched his shoulder. Gaston took his hands away from his face - Chip was standing next to him. "You love Belle too..." the boy said quietly, as if he had just realized it.
"Of course I love Belle," the hunter answered simply. "But I'm only hurting her. It would be better for me to stay away from her."
"It's not your fault what happened," Chip said. "Sometimes bad things happen on their own."
The door opened and Mrs. Potts appeared on the porch. Gaston stood up as if awaiting judgment.
"Carrying a baby isn't easy," the woman said, making an inviting gesture into the house. "So far so good, the baby is alive and Belle is fine."
"You call that fine?" Gaston interjected.
"It will be fine if certain measures are taken," Mrs. Potts explained.
Gaston entered the house and went to Belle's bed, sat down and took her hand. She rested her face against his chest.
"She needs to lie down most of the time for two weeks for sure. The bleeding may be for a few days, but it should go down. We should try to keep her calm and spend those two weeks in bed. Then it should get better. I've given her some marigold decoction, look," the housekeeper showed her a cup of decoction. "About one cup of calendula leaves and flowers, boil it on the fire until the water is half evaporated. Give it to her half a cup five times each for two days. The bleeding should stop."
"I got it! Thank you, Mrs. Potts."Gaston said gratefully.
Chip came into the house, and he and his mother took turns hugging Belle.
"Everything is going to be all right," Mrs. Potts said again, and her lulling voice made it seem as if everything was going to be fine. "You'll have a healthy baby boy, you'll see."
They said goodbye, and went out, promising to visit Gaston and Belle the next day.
Gaston gave Belle another hug and asked:
"How are you feeling? Does anything hurt?"
She shook her head:
"No, nothing. But the blood seems to be stopping," she was silent. "I want our baby to be born, Gaston. I really do."
"Of course you do, Belle."
"No, you don't understand... I've always thought... Without even realizing it... I'm better than other women, I'm special. I'm different. They're just wives and mothers. Just mothers... And now I realize that being a mother is not so easy and... And I really want it. Now that I could lose everything, I realize how much I want our baby to be born. I never once helped a woman with a child, there, at the market... Although I could have, I had time and strength. I wasn't busy. But I'm special, I read books. And she buys eggs by the piece..." Belle cried.
Gaston thought about what to say, but he thought so himself. He had chosen Belle because she was proud, because she thought she was better than the others. Like Gaston himself. He reached out to someone as proud as himself, but the villagers, simple and kind, would forgive them for being arrogant.
"Belle, it will be all right,"he said."Bad things happen on their own, not because you are to blame."