“Chew,” Belle heard a voice say as she surfaced from the darkness.
Doing what she was told, she chewed. Whatever it was was dry. It scratched across the inside of her mouth and over her tongue.
“Do you want some water?” She heard the voice asked. She thought she shook her head ‘yes’ but she wasn’t sure. But quickly after, she felt moisture in her mouth. The crumbs that had stuck to her tongue, moistened and slid down her throat.
As she continued to chew, she felt her energy slowly return. Her mind felt like a snowball gaining momentum as it inched its way down a hill. After a few more chews and swallows, she felt like she could think again. She cracked open her eyelids and squinted as the image in front of her came into focus. She didn’t recognize the person standing above her initially. But as she gathered her wits about her, she did.
“Captain Bernard?” She mumbled before the man above her hushed her.
“Don’t try to speak. Not yet. Your body is still in shock. I can’t believe you went so long without eating. The people of the village are devils. They couldn’t recognize an angel in their midst if they wanted to.”
Belle didn’t know what to expect from the man slowly feeding her, but his words made her feel better. He was on her side. She had always thought of him as just another man who was after whatever he could get, but he wasn’t. He wasn’t one of the rest of them. Perhaps he was someone that she could trust.
The more the Captain fed her, the stronger she felt. Soon she felt strong enough to speak. He again tried to hush her, but Belle was never one to be silenced.
“What happened?” She asked still a little confused.
“Well, you apparently starved yourself for a week and then went to the shop to get some supplies. After the witch who owns the shop wouldn’t sell you anything, I came to your rescue. I then walked you back here and as soon as we stepped inside, you collapsed. That would be everything in a nutshell,” Captain Bernard said with a smile.
Belle wasn’t too confused to notice that he mentioned that he had rescued her. That wasn’t exactly something a gentleman would do. But, then again, she knew who the Captain was. He wasn’t a gentleman, he was an animal. But maybe he didn’t always have claws.
“Thank you,” Belle said gratefully.
“There is no need to thank me. I just wish that I could give you something a little tastier than battlefield recipes. Sadly that is all I know how to make. Flavor isn’t a high priority in the middle of war.”
“No, it tastes amazing.”
“I guess I’m the benefactor of a generous critic,” he said with a disarmingly vulnerable smile.
Staring up at him, Belle wondered if she had misjudged the man who stared down at her. Would anyone else in the village have done what he had? The only other person who might have for anyone else would have been her father.
It was after Belle thought of her father that she sprung up from the bed.
“Hold on there,” the Captain said restraining her. “You’re still weak. You need to get more rest.”
“No, I have to get up. My father, I have to find out what’s happened to him.”
The Captain looked at her confused. “I was going to ask you about him. How did he let this happen to you?”
Belle searched her memory trying to figure it out. “He didn’t mean to. My father gets forgetful. He forgot to replenish our supplies before he left for his trip. But he has been gone longer than he ever has before. I’m afraid that something might have happened to him. I have to go look for him.”
“First of all, you are in no condition to go anywhere.” He looked at Belle trying to piece things together. “You say that he’s been gone longer than he said he would be?”
“Yes,” Belle said before pausing. “I mean, he said that he might be a few days longer than usual. There was a clock that he was trying to sell at a higher price. And he mentioned that there was something else important that he had to do while he was in the city. But it has been over two weeks. This is the longest that he has ever been away.”
“But he said that he would be away for a little longer this time?”
“Yes, but I don’t think that he would’ve chosen to be gone for this long. I think something has happened to him.”
“Is it possible that it could just be taking him longer to sell his clock?”
Belle thought about it for a moment. It wasn’t unreasonable to think that it might take him an extra week or two depending on the price he might be asking. He hadn’t mentioned the price he would be asking for it.
If he was hoping to get enough for them to start a new life, he might be asking too much. Her father was a wonderful man and an incredible artist, but he wasn’t a great businessman. Thinking about it with a little food in her stomach, she began to see how it might take her father a little longer than a week to do all of the things that he wanted to do in the city.
“I guess it’s possible,” Belle admitted. “But I am beginning to worry about him. I’m thinking that I should go out looking for him. What if something has happened to my father like it did to…”
Belle stopped herself from saying it but Captain Bernard completed her sentence. “Like it did to Trudeau, your fiancé?”
Belle looked at him surprised. “What do you know about Trudeau?”
“I know that he was your fiancé and that you cared about him very much. I know that you two had made plans to get married but before you got the chance, he was killed by wolves as he crossed through the Dark Forest.”
There was something in Belle that relaxed hearing the Captain’s recount. She had always felt very sensitive about anyone mentioning Trudeau. Most people didn’t recognize the relationship that the two of them had. Most skipped the part about him being her fiancé instead choosing to view her as a trollop.
But the Captain hadn’t done that. He gave Belle’s lost love the respect that he deserved. He gave Belle the respect she deserved. That statement alone endured her to him. Belle was beginning to understand that she hadn’t treated the Captain fairly. He was a much better man than she had given him credit for.
“Yes, that is what happened to Trudeau.”
“But the city and the Dark Forest are in opposite directions. There would be no reason for your father to head towards the Dark Forest if he was heading into the city, would there be?”
He was right. There was no reason for her father to enter the Dark Forest if he was going towards the city. “No, I guess not.”
“Isn’t it more likely that it has taken him longer to sell his goods than he had anticipated and that he could be back at any moment?”
Belle thought about his suggestion. “Well, I guess it’s possible.”
“Certainly it is. And if you promise to give me a few days to help you recover, I promise to head to the city to search for him myself.”
“Would you?” Belle said both excited and relieved.
“Of course. How could I come to the rescue of a damsel in distress without helping her with what’s distressing her?” He said with a smile.
Belle stared up at the smiling man above her. She had never noticed it before but he was fairly handsome. He was barrel-chested and muscular while his face was chiseled with the angles of a statue.
He really was a good-looking man. It was no wonder that all of the girls in the village fawned over him. It made her wonder even more why he had chosen to focus all of his romantic energy on her.
“Thank you,” she said gratefully.
“You’re very welcome, Belle. I hope that you know that I would do anything for you.”
There it was again, Belle noticed. He expressed such devotion towards her. It made sense when she thought that he had misunderstood her relationship with Trudeau. But he acknowledged that what had happened between the two was between an engaged couple. So if he didn’t think of her as another possible notch on his bedpost, why was he so devoted to her?
Belle continued to think about it all day and night. The Captain insisted on sleeping over. Belle was a little suspicious but he told her that he would sleep on the floor by the door. She didn’t think that he would actually do it, but he did. He was nothing but a gentleman all night. More than that, he was an attentive nurse.
“War is the bloody activity,” the Captain explained. “If you are incapable of taking care of your men, you will find your troops depleted very quickly. I wasn’t always the Captain of the guard. For many years I was just a foot soldier. It was up to each of us to keep each other alive. So you can thank my many battles for my amazing bedside manner,” he said cheekily.
Belle stared at the Captain with a smile. She wasn’t completely incorrect about him. He still had a little arrogance and cockiness to him. But it was clear that he had a softer side as well. He was more complex than she had given him credit for. He was like one of those richly drawn heroes from her books. Or, more precisely, Captain Bernard was the dashingly good looking rogue who had saved the heroine’s life.
Belle and the Captain talked for most of the second day. Although still very weak, by afternoon, Belle was out of bed. The Captain had tried to insist that she rest longer. Her response was that his horrible cooking necessitated her getting up.
“I will teach you how to make something a little tastier,” she had told him. And together the two baked a bread and made a stew that tasted as good as the Captain had ever had.
“This is fantastic, Belle,” he said appreciatively.
“Thank you,” she replied surprised that his complement had meant so much to her.
Belle paused and thought as she stared into his eyes. “Tell me something, Captain…”
“I told you, Belle, call me Bernard,” he said interrupting her.
“You’re right. You did ask me that. All right. Tell me something, Bernard, is it true what they say about you, you know, on the battlefield?”
Bernard’s face melted into seriousness. “You mean about my viciousness?”
“Yes.”
Bernard’s eyes drooped. “The things you have heard are true.”
“But I don’t understand. How could you be a man like that out there and yet be so different here?”
“When I am out there, I am a different man. On the battlefield, I no longer have to hold things back.”
“So you’re saying that at your heart, you are the animal that everyone says you are?”
Bernard thought for a moment. “If I am, then I have every right to be,” he said firmly.
Belle looked at him confused. “What gives you that right?”
“Injustice. Anger.”
“What do you have to be angry about? You are the Captain of the guard. Your power over the people is near limitless. You have a great salary and the choice of any girl you want.”
The Captain didn’t answer. “Perhaps I shall tell you another day. For now, why don’t you tell me your story.”
“But you know my story. You seem to know it better than anyone else in town. There is nothing new I can add to it.”
Bernard looked around. “Then how about you tell me about that book that you’re reading. That is yours, isn’t it?” He asked pointing at a book beside the bed.
“It isn’t exactly mine. It belongs to the church. But I am the one reading it.”
“What is it called?”
“It’s actually a play.”
“Oh really? And what type of play is it?”
“It’s a romance. It’s called ‘The Taming of the Shrew’. I keep reading it hoping that one of these times the story will end differently.”
“Why is that?”
“Why do I keep reading it, or why do I want it to end differently?”
“Why don’t you tell me both,” the Captain said with a smile before settling into his seat for the night.
Belle smiled back. She was beginning to like the Captain. There was no denying it. And it was then that, for the first time since her last night with Trudeau, she thought about the way that Trudeau had touched her. It had brought her so much pleasure. Could the Captain’s touch do the same, she wondered. Settling into her chair about to talk about her favorite book, she suspected that it could.
The next morning, Belle felt strong enough to leave the house. She suggested to the Captain that she would be okay if he left her to find her father in the city. He disagreed. He told her stories about men who he had found half-starved in the forest. He told Belle that they were never as strong as they first seemed.
Belle couldn’t argue with that. In truth, her legs still felt a little wobbly and her stomach still quivered whenever she ate anything. She was intent on convincing the Captain that she was fine, though. And that meant proving to him and herself that she was as strong as she ever was.
“I have an idea,” Belle said as the morning began.
“What’s that?”
“You had asked me how I was able to catch fish in the stream.”
“Yes.”
“Well, how about I show you?”
“You want us to walk down to the stream?” Captain Bernard asked hesitantly.
“Why not? I’m feeling strong. And when we’re there, I’ll be able to teach you a thing or two about fishing,” she said playfully poking his male ego.
“Oh, will you now?”
“It is a little sad that here you are, a big strapping man, and you need a little girl like me to teach you how to fish, but if that’s what’s necessary, then I am willing to help you out,” she teased with an impish smile.
“So you think that you can out fish me, do you?”
“I think we’ve already established that. The only question now is, by how much?”
Belle had to admit that she was enjoying this. This was how she would tease the boys before she had become the village pariah. She missed this. In fact, she missed having someone close to her own age to talk to. She had tried not to think about it but the last few years had been very lonely for her. What was more, Captain Bernard was very easy to tease.
“Then, you’re on. We’ll go to the stream and have a fishing contest. When I catch the most fish, I win,” Captain Bernard told her.
“And, when I catch the most fish?”
“Belle, should we really be worrying about something that could never happen? Aren’t we both a little too old for pretend?” He asked with a smug smile.
It was Belle’s turn to be riled up. “Oh, really? You know, Captain Bernard, I was planning on taking it easy on you. But it seems now that I am going to have to teach you a little lesson about who is better than whom.”
“… At fishing?” He clarified.
“No, I think you know what I meant,” she said with her own smug smile.
After packing a lunch, the two walked to the stream. It was a little more challenging than Belle had thought it would be. She was fine once she got there but she wasn’t looking forward to walking back anytime soon.
With a blanket rolled out next to the stream and all of their stuff spread out on it, Belle got to work assembling her fishing box. As she sat starving in her home, she had thought up a few adjustments to make it more efficient. No fish had any hope of escaping anymore.
She couldn’t wait to give it a try. She also couldn’t wait to see Captain Bernard’s face as she retrieved each of her catches.
“What do you call that again?” Captain Bernard asked.
“Your demise. That’s kind of my nickname for it.”
“Oh, is it, now?” He asked playing along though he was genuinely interested in learning more about it.
Pulling out the second fishing line, Captain Bernard baited the hook with a nearby worm while keeping one eye on everything Belle was doing. Peeking at look as she held the box open, the inside of the box looked like the inside of a clock. Captain Bernard couldn’t imagine how a clock was going to help her with fishing.
“Are you ready?” Belle asked wondering if after not catching a thing for weeks, her luck was about to change.
“The question is, Belle, are you ready to be humiliated?” He asked still brimming with confidence.
“Ahhh, it’s going to be so fun watching you lose. Let’s begin,” she said gathering extra line in her hand and tossing her hook into the water.
As if all of the fish were waiting for Belle’s hook, as soon as her hook hit the water, a spring triggered in Belle’s fishing box and a fish was automatically lifted into the air. Belle couldn’t believe it. Where was this fish a week ago when she was slowly starving to death? She was genuinely surprised that she had caught anything at all, but turning to the Captain and seeing his utter amazement, she quickly acted casually and tossed the fish into the basket.
“One,” she said with both satisfaction and more than a little cockiness.
That wasn’t the only fish Belle caught during their contest. Quickly her first fish was followed by another and then a third. Belle couldn’t believe it. She was beginning to believe that there had been something preventing her from catching fish when she needed it most. How could that be, though? That didn’t make any sense.
“I don’t understand. How are you doing this?” The Captain said. “You have got to be cheating somehow.”
“What? Do you think I have someone waiting underwater attaching the fish to my hook as soon as I throw it in?”
Bernard didn’t answer. He simply stood up, stared deep into the water, and then sat back down. “No, because that would be ridiculous,” he said rebuffed.
“Then I guess it’s time for you to admit that I am the greatest fisherman in the world and that you are nothing.”
Bernard chuckled. “Oh no, there is no way you are going to get me to say that.”
Belle approached the Captain like a cat. Kneeling in front of him she playfully poked at his lips. “Come on, you can say it. I am the best fisherman in the world.”
“No,” he resisted.
“Oh, it’s easy,” she said taking the edges of his mouth between her fingers. Imitating his gruff, deep voice she moved his lips and said, “Oh, Belle, you are the greatest fisherman in all the land. I am nothing. You are everything. There is so much I can learn from you.”
Without removing her fingers, he mumbled, “there is nothing I can learn from you.”
Belle replied again imitating the Captain and moving his lips. “Don’t listen to what I am saying, Belle. You are the greatest fisherman ever. If only I was as great as you.”
“Stop it,” he said turning away like a little boy.
Belle crawled after him. “No, wait. There’s more that you want to say.”
“No, there is not.”
Belle crawled on top of the Captain continuing to reach for his lips. “Yes, there is.” She imitated him again. “Oh, Belle. You are so fantastic and I am nothing. If only I could…”
Belle froze as she realized that she was staring into his eyes with her own lips inches from his. The thumping in her heart increased. Suddenly she felt the rush that she had felt as Trudeau touched her. She felt lightheaded and drunk.
In that instance, she wanted so badly to kiss the man who had rescued her. She wanted to be closer to him. She wanted to touch him in a way that she had only touched one other.
Restless, she was about to speak when the man who she was falling for, leaned forward and pressed his lips against hers. It felt magnificent. Barely able to breathe, Belle wrapped her arms around his muscular torso. He cupped his large hands around the back of her head. He held her with strength and security. She melted in his grasp.
Losing herself in the moment, she felt Bernard do something strange. With his lips, he parted her own. Was he meaning to do it? She wasn’t sure. But caught in the moment, she followed his lead and was surprised to feel his tongue touch hers.
The sensation made Belle shiver with delight. This was new to her. It felt so intimate yet so right. As the sensation wriggled through her, she became clay in his hands. She desperately wanted to be touched in the way Trudeau had touched her. And when she felt the Captain loosen the buttons on the back of her dress, she nearly exploded with anticipation.
“Yes,” Belle said breathlessly. “Touch me,” she whispered into his ear resigning herself to his will.
It was then that Belle learned how the Captain had got his nickname. His hands pawed her like an animal’s. He was strong and determined. Stripping the clothes from her, he removed his own. Belle felt wonderfully helpless beneath him. And when he took her perky young nipples between his firm lips, a bolt of electricity cracked between her legs.
How could any woman resist such pleasure? Belle didn’t know. Her body rose and fell in waves of ecstasy and when the Captain’s thick fingers slid down her body and between her legs, it settled on a point that no one else except herself had fingered. She whimpered hardly able to contain the ecstasy.
Interrupting the waves of pleasure, the Captain laid her down and kneeled beside her. She had had her eyes closed. Immediately missing his touch, she opened them. The Captain’s naked body was beautiful. His horn was larger than Belle could ever have imagined. It was thick and rigid. She couldn’t imagine how it could all fit in her, but she had no doubt that she wanted him to try.
Repositioning himself between her legs, the captain pressed his thighs against hers pushing her knees into the air. Belle felt like one of her dolls. Still inching closer to her, the Captain leaned over her and slipped his large hand between the blanket and her back. He lifted her into the air with ease. As he did, her sensitive button rubbed against the length of his horn. When it stopped, the tip of him was pressed against the swollen folds between her legs. She could barely stand the wait for him to enter her. She didn’t have to wait long.
When the Captain pushed into her, Belle screamed. It was painful yet with it came pleasure. It hurt but she wanted more. As he pushed deeper, Belle felt herself losing control. And when he shifted directions as if pulling himself out, Belle’s eyes rolled back into her head and her toes curled.
What she had felt with Trudeau was good but there was no preparation for this. It felt like there were fireworks going off in her head. She couldn’t breathe.
As he strummed the length of his horn across her insides, she felt like she was about to pass out. It was with relief that the Captain began to grown. There was something rumbling inside of her too. Belle couldn’t move. She didn’t want to do anything but be in that moment and experience whatever it was happening to her. An explosion was building within Belle and she couldn’t stop it.
With her toes clenched so hard that her bones could break, a sudden wave of pleasure overcame her. She was drowning in it all. She felt like she was tumbling. She still couldn’t breathe.
When the Captain released a bellow, his thrusts stopped. It was with his strong arms around her that she regained her bearing. The sea of her mind was still a storm but the skies were beginning to clear.
Belle inhaled deeply as if coming up for air. With it came another wave of pleasure. There was no question, she was in love with the Captain. She never wanted to leave his arms. She never wanted to be away from him again.
Belle could feel it as the Captain’s thick horn shrank and slipped out of her. When he exited, her opening snapped shut painfully. She had never felt as sensitive down there as she did today. The Captain was a magnificent lover. And awash in the moment, Belle imagined what it might be like to be with the Captain for the rest of her life.
Neither of them spoke for what Belle thought was an hour. Needing to hear his voice again, she was the one who broke the silence.
“Captain Bernard?”
“I think it is time for you to start calling me Bernard.”
Belle smiled. “You’re right, again.” She paused. “Bernard?”
“Yes, Belle?”
“You had said that you are the way you are on the battlefield because of anger.”
“That is true.”
“What makes you so angry?”
It was then that Captain Bernard let go of Belle and rolled onto his back. Belle wasn’t sure how to respond. Not yet ready to be separated from him, she rolled onto her side wrapping her leg and arm over him.
Captain Bernard spoke in a thoughtful tone. “Belle, have you ever wondered why I feel for you the way I do?”
Belle hadn’t expected him to ask her that. “Actually, I have.” She wasn’t sure why, but she was suddenly afraid to hear the answer.
“Would you like me to tell you?”
Belle couldn’t get herself to speak so she shook her head ‘yes’ instead.
“It was because of the way I heard people speak of you. I’m sure you know this, but you haven’t made the same choices that others in your village might have. The close-minded people around you have rejected you for it and it is both heartbreaking and despicable. Well, Belle, I know what it feels like to be rejected by everyone you’ve ever known.”
It was only then that Belle dared to speak. “How could you know that, Bernard? You are the Captain of the guard. All of the men in the village want to be you and all of the women want to marry you. How could you possibly know what it’s like not to be accepted for something that you have done?”
Captain Bernard paused. “I am not the man you think I am, Belle.”
“What do you mean? Are you not Captain of the King’s Guard?”
“That is who I am. I am talking about what I am.”
Belle looked at him confused. “I don’t understand what you mean.”
Captain Bernard looked at Belle and paused again. He took a deep breath.
“Belle, there was once a time when I thought that I was in love. I was young so perhaps I didn’t know what love was. But I believed it and I thought that the person I loved, loved me back.”
Belle searched her mind trying to understand. “But young people fall in love all the time. Why would the people around you reject you for that?”
“It was who I fell in love with.”
When he didn’t continue, Belle found his hand and squeezed it. “Who did you fall in love with, Bernard?”
“If I tell you, Belle, I’m afraid that you might never love me back.”
Belle was utterly confused. “Who could you have loved that might cause me not to love you back?”
Gathering all of his courage, he told her. “Belle, it was a man. I once loved a man and I think he loved me back.”
Belle’s heart sank hearing the words. Her mind scrambled trying to put it all together. “Do you mean that you loved him like a brother?”
“No. I loved him like I now love you. And, the reason I feel the way I do for you is because I’m hoping that you might understand what it feels like to be on the outside. Maybe we could be on the outside together. Do you think you could ever love someone like me, Belle?”
Stunned silent, Belle wasn’t sure what to say. She had never heard of anything like this. In no book had she even read about such a thing.
And what did this mean about the way he felt about her? Did he want to be touched by men in the same way that she did? If he did, then why would he have said that he wanted her to be his wife?
When Belle’s silence drew out for longer than Captain Bernard could stand, he spoke. “I have made a decision, Belle.”
Having been offered something she could respond to, she replied. “What’s that?”
“That you’re finally strong enough to manage on your own. So, as I promised, in the morning, I will head to the city to find your father.”
With her spirits dampened from his confusing confession, she said, “Thank you, Captain Bernard. For that, I am very grateful.”
Silently devastated, he said, “You’re welcome.” Swallowing in order to prevent himself from crying, he changed the topic, pulled away from her and sat up. “Now, why don’t you show me the miracle that is your fishing box. A man deserves to know what it is that he was beaten by,” he said forcing a smile.
Removed from his body, Belle felt exposed and alone. Forcing a smile of her own, she did her best to seem casual as she reached for her clothes. She was so sure that she had begun to love the Captain. Perhaps she had. But she didn’t know if she did now.
Putting her clothes on and moving towards her fishing box, she wondered if she could ever again feel for him the way she had only moments before.