“Let’s not speak of it anymore,” she said finally. “Let’s remember fondly the week we had together. I love you, Papa, but I am no longer a child. You cannot keep here against my will.”
At this, her father stood. “Belle, you may be grown, but you will always be my little girl. Always. Time can’t change that. When you have a child of your own, then you will understand.”
Belle couldn’t wait much longer. The sun was setting, the day almost done. She placed a tender kiss on her father’s head, and resigned to her bedchamber to gather up what few mementos she had, to remind her of her dear father when she was back with the Beast.
It was then that she heard the click of the lock turning on her bedroom door.
“Papa?”
She ran to the door and pulled on the knob, already knowing that it wouldn’t open. He had locked her in!
“Papa, please, you must let me out. You cannot keep me here like a prisoner!”
Her father’s voice came back through the wooden door. “It is better I keep you as a prisoner here at home, where you will be safe, than allow you to return to the Beast.”
The sun had set, the day was done. She was late, late returning to the castle! What would become of her, what would become of the Beast?
She searched her room frantically, overthrowing the bedding in her haste. If she didn’t return to the Beast at once, he would think she had forgotten him, he would think she no longer cared.
Where is the golden ruby ring? How could she have misplaced an item of such utmost importance—the one thing that would get her home safely and immediately?
Home…is that what the castle, her prison, had become? Yes, yes, it was so. No longer her prison, the castle was the one place she most wanted to be. Home, with the Beast, with Frederick.
Belle picked up the Beast’s looking glass, hoping against hope that its magic would still work outside the confines of the enchanted castle.
“Please, looking glass,” she whispered to her own reflection. “I want to see the golden ruby ring. Where is it?”
The glass fogged up, obscuring her reflection. Please, please, be in my room. Then the glass cleared once more, and she found herself staring at the golden ring…sitting atop her father’s dresser, in his bedroom.
It may as well have been an ocean away.
Belle ran to the door and pounded on it with all her might. Her fists bruised with her efforts, and she cried out to her Papa to let her go.
“Belle, my child,” he sobbed through the door. “Don’t fret so. I love you with all of my heart, I have to keep you safe, don’t you see?”
“Let me go, let me go,” she cried. “You don’t understand!”
“Please, sweetheart, just go to sleep. Tomorrow is another day, you’ll see things differently once you’ve slept on it.”
How could she sleep? She took her hairpins and tried, in vain, to open the lock on the door. Nothing worked. It seemed her father had blocked her only exit with something heavy, the sofa perhaps, or the kitchen table. The door would not budge.
How could he be so cruel in his kindness?
Belle finally passed out from exhaustion, leaning up against the locked door, her cheeks stained with her tears, her eyes swollen and heavy.
As dawn broke on the eighth day, the meager sunlight reaching through the one small window in her room (too small to break and climb out of, for she had already considered that option), she picked up the mirror once more.
“Show me the Beast,” she whispered. Belle only prayed she wasn’t too late.
For some reason, she expected to find him prowling the great hall, stalking the castle entrance, awaiting her late return. He would spank her, surely, but she didn’t care. All she wanted was to be with him.
Instead, as the fogged mirror cleared, she saw the Beast lying just outside the castle door, his immense body sprawled across the stone, his heavy mane falling over his face.
His muscular chest, bared to the morning sky, was so very still.
“Beast?” she whispered, though she knew he could not hear her.
Then, a slight movement. Not much, but his chest rose and fell, a tiny bit. He was still breathing!
Thank the Lord.
His words came back to her… If you do not return within one week, I will die.
At the time, she thought he meant of loneliness, that he would be heartbroken and would suffer greatly. What a fool she was! In a castle filled with enchantment and magic, how could she be so blind?
The Beast was dying, literally dying, because she had broken her promise. She had sworn, sworn on her life, and he had so quickly turned it around onto his own.
She was killing him.
With renewed urgency, Belle raised her fists to pound on the locked door, to insist that her father let her go.