“Fairies,” she whispered, surprised by the urgency in her voice. “Open the door.”
The door opened, and the cool night air rushed in to the front hall to greet her. How glorious! She hadn’t been outside, in nature, since that horrible night she almost got ripped to shreds by the wolves. The night the Beast spanked her for nearly getting herself killed. And for cutting him, she amended.
Belle stepped outside, wrapping her robe tightly around her. The moon and stars lit up the sky magnificently, and she gazed on them with wonder. Was her Papa looking up at the same sky, thinking of her, as she was of him? Maybe he was, right at this moment.
“If you can hear me, Papa,” she said softly, “I will come home to you soon.” She paused thoughtfully, imagining the night, in only a few more months, that she would be set free. “I’ll have a horse and carriage to lead me safely through the woods and home to you, and I will get there as fast as I can. I promise, Papa.”
At her words, a horse-drawn carriage appeared at the front drive, finely appointed with plush cushions inside, and thick wooden sides that would keep her safe from the predators in the woods.
“Oh my word,” she gasped. She looked around the empty landscape. “Fairies, what have you done?”
She hadn’t meant to make a wish. She hadn’t meant to ask the fairies to help her escape. But in speaking her desire out loud, Belle had summoned the fairies into being accomplices in her betrayal.
That was what leaving the Beast would be—a betrayal. She had promised him six months of servitude without him needing to fear she would escape, in lieu of a lifetime in his dungeon. If the Beast came back to the castle now and saw the horse and carriage, he would be furious. Even worse, he would be…heartbroken.
“I didn’t mean for this to happen,” she whispered.
But it had. And if she chose, she could hop right into that carriage and leave the castle, the fairies, Frederick, and the Beast behind.
She’d never have to see them again. Ever.
Belle took a step toward the carriage, her heart racing. The wind picked up and blew straight through the thin silk of her dressing robe, and she shivered. Escape was but a few steps away.
But she hesitated. Why? Here was her chance at freedom! She could go, now. She could be gone before the Beast even knew she was missing. He would think she was asleep in her suite, and not even look for her until morning.
Frederick would know, when he couldn’t find her in her dreams (because she doubted she could sleep as the carriage took her through the treacherous forest), but what could a man who only existed in her dreams do to her?
Nothing. If she chose to leave, she’d be safe. Somehow, after all this time together with the Beast, she felt he cared for her too much to make good on his threat to find her and eat her if she ran away. She could go home tonight and be at her Papa’s side once more.
There was only one problem with her plan.
Belle didn’t want to leave the Beast.
Yes, she wanted to be with her Papa again, and she hated the thought of betraying her word to the Beast by escaping. She also hated the thought of how brokenhearted the Beast might feel upon learning that he’d been made a fool for trusting her.
But the primary reason she couldn’t seem to take another step toward that carriage, toward her freedom, was that she wanted to spend more time with the Beast (and Frederick, if she were honest with herself). There was still so much to learn from him, so much to share with him.
She was afraid of the Beast, but she cared about him as well. Both the Beast, and Frederick. Seeing them both, the beast and the man, was the highlight of her long days.
If she went back home, she’d be going back to her simple, boring life, as quiet and sweet as it had been. Belle wasn’t certain she’d be happy if she couldn’t walk the halls of the grand castle, exploring its secrets and frightening herself near to death every time she rounded a corner and ran into her massive, monstrous, handsome beast.
“Go away,” she said, her voice cracking. “Fairies, please, take the horse and carriage away, before the Beast returns. I don’t want to leave tonight.”
Maybe tomorrow night she’d change her mind, or the night after that. But right now, what she really wanted was to stay at the castle. With the knowledge that she could leave at anytime if she simply summoned up the means to do so, she was no longer the Beast’s captive.
For the first time, Belle truly felt like an honored guest. Even more, the castle was beginning to feel like it could be home, in its own way. Not home like the warm little cottage she shared with her father, no, but the warmth in the castle came from the heat the Beast created within her. The fire.