Depravity, A Beauty and the Beast Novel(38)

Though, I’d done a fair job, the hearth still needed attention. Squaring my shoulders, I set to work.

An hour later, I had removed the ash and brushed the stone clean. It hadn’t been as dirty as I’d thought. I set new kindling down, ready to light should anyone have a need, and picked up the final bucket of ash. Outside, as I dumped it a few steps from the door in the overgrown weeds, I noted a swirling mass of dark fog rolling my way.

I hurried back inside and moved to the water I’d pumped after emptying the first bucket of ash. The wind had taken the dark powder and dusted me generously. By letting the water sit for an hour, I could use it without shivering. I quickly washed my hands and face. The door opened when I had a towel pressed to my face for drying.

When I opened my eyes, I could only see faint outlines of the objects in the now familiar kitchen. The shadow of the beast paced on four legs just inside the door. His back easily stood as high as my shoulders. I could make out little else about him. Yet, what little I saw was enough to make my knees weak. I rather liked the mist.

“You made better progress yesterday,” he said with a low rumble.

I frowned at him.

“The work yesterday was easier.” He grunted in response. “I’ll just go pick my tomatoes and be on my way.”

“Will you stay, Benella?” he asked quietly, confusing me.

Hadn’t he just complained about my work? I was reluctant to keep giving him the same answer he’d received so poorly in the past yet had no reason to answer differently.

“I cannot,” I said.

He whirled about and left with a roar. Gradually, sun began to filter back into the room. Near the door lay just enough tomatoes to fill my bag. I rushed to change and used my dirty clothes to cushion between the layers of the soft red orbs.

When I reached the gate, the beast’s mist surrounded me again, forcing me to stop walking.

“Tomorrow, there will be meat if you return. As much as you can carry home in return for an hour of cleaning.”

I knew I would sell the majority of the tomatoes since they didn’t last long. The coin could buy meat, or it could be used to buy more milk and oats. I nodded in agreement, and the mists lifted enough that I set off for home.

As I had the day before, I arrived before anyone else. When Bryn returned she exclaimed over the tomatoes but didn’t question how I’d obtained them; and I, in return, didn’t ask her where she’d been.



Since moving, I slept in Father’s bed and he in his chair, as there was no room for me in with my sisters. He made very little noise when he rose and hadn’t yet woken me. However, exhausted from my day’s work, I’d fallen asleep early. Even the slightest noise would have woken me the following morning.

Laying in the dark, I listened to him dress then walk out the back door. When I heard the scrape of the bucket as he lowered it for water, I quickly rose from bed, dressed, then once again crawled under the covers. I wanted to respect Father’s unspoken wish to keep where he taught private, yet his secrecy worried me. Bryn and Blye’s secrecy I could accept. It was part of who they were. But, Father had never kept secrets before.

He quietly reentered the cottage but didn’t eat. He only washed and grabbed his materials for the day before leaving via the front door.

Flipping back the covers, I quickly eased the front door open and set to following him.

He headed toward the center of town, passed the Head’s house, then slowed before the house of the Whispering Sisters. There, he went to the back door and nodded to the guard standing there. The guard started to nod in return, but then caught sight of me. Father turned and saw me standing half hidden behind a tree.

Even from this great distance, I saw his shoulders slump. I stepped out from my hiding place but remained near the tree as he turned to walk toward me. My heart went out to him. He was a moral man and didn’t understand how a woman could go into such a trade. We’d talked about it at length on several occasions during a family dinner. I knew the lectures were to help us, his daughters, stay innocent for our future husbands.

That he’d taken a position in the house of the Whispering Sisters to educate the women there must bother him a great deal. And I knew why he’d done it. To remove me from Konrall. To keep me safe.

When he stood before me, his guilty eyes met mine.

“Benella, I—”

“Didn’t eat breakfast. You can’t keep doing that. I see the weight you are losing. Without you, I have no one, Father.” His eyes widened in surprise. “Do they offer you food?”

He slowly shook his head, and I knew I’d puzzled him by not asking why he went there.