“Belle, are you sure you are going to be all right?” The Captain asked her as they walked towards the stable
“I’ll be fine. You took great care of me,” Belle said gratefully. “And if you find my father, I will be eternally grateful.”
“I promise you that I will do what I can. Are you sure that he didn’t give you a hint to where he might be staying or where he might visit?”
“He didn’t say. I think it might be my fault for not asking.”
The two entered the stables and continued to the pen that held Captain Bernard’s horse.
“Well, I’m sure there aren’t too many places a merchant selling a clock would go. Someone has got to have seen him. When I find him or get word of where he is, I promise I’ll come back and tell you.”
“Thank you, Captain Bernard,” Belle said positioning herself just outside of his reach.
The Captain stared back at her seeing how much distance there now was between them. His chest hurt understanding what that meant.
“You’re welcome, Belle. I want you to know that I would do anything for you,” he admitted hoping that his words would reignite the light he had once seen in her eyes.
“Thank you,” Belle said sensing Captain’s yearning.
About to climb onto his horse, the Captain stared at Belle again. His heart raced as he decided to give her a kiss. Hearing his thundering heartbeat in his ears, he leaned forward and took a step towards Belle. She recoiled turning her head to the side.
“Very well,” he said heartbroken.
“I’m sorry,” Belle said unable to explain why she had pulled away.
Without another word, the Captain got onto his horse and guided it to the exit. “I’ll be back soon,” he said without looking at her. “I will return your father to you,” he told her before shaking his reins and galloping away.
Belle stood at the door of the stables watching him. She hated herself for how she felt. She felt justified in not liking him when she found him arrogant and thought that he was only after one thing. But why didn’t she like him now?
He had taken care of her. He had shown her kindness when no one else had. And now, here he was, the only one willing to find her father. These were the acts of a nobleman. So how could his revelation affect her feelings so much? Was she no better than the townspeople? What did the way she treated him say about herself?
Belle stood there for ten minutes staring at the trees on the edge of the path leading to the city. She was hoping that by doing so, she might understand more. More about herself, and more about the man she had briefly loved. Alas, nothing came. Resigned, she headed back into the stables to cut back into town.
It was as she was about to turn towards the stable’s town entrance when something familiar flashed in the corner of her eye. With it came a familiar whinny. She spun toward it. It was a white mare that she had known for years.
“Tebo?” She asked the horse shocked. “Tebo, is that you? It is!” She said running towards it and touching her head to its. “What are you doing here? Where’s Papa?”
Thinking for a moment, Belle suddenly turned around and ran back to her house. In the time that she had walked the Captain to the stables, her father must’ve returned home. Moving her legs as quickly as she could, she approached the front steps of her house. Bounding up the stairs two at a time, she whipped open the door and yelled inside.
“Papa?” She yelled. “Papa?”
When no one replied, she entered scouring the large room. “If you’re here, please tell me. Don’t hide from me, Papa?”
Sure that she was alone, Belle sprinted out her front door and approached the first person she saw. “Mrs. Blanchard, have you seen my Papa?”
The sturdy older woman was startled. “No, Belle, I haven’t.”
“He’s missing. His horse is back but he isn’t,” she replied.
Not waiting for a response, Belle left Mrs. Blanchard and found the next person in sight. One by one she asked everyone in the square. When no one had seen her father, she sprinted back to the stables in search of the stable master.
“Mr. Willard, how did you get Tebo? My father left with him weeks ago and now neither Papa nor his carriage is back.”
“Your horse wandered in here three days ago. I thought that your father had forgotten to post him again so I put him in his stable and was planning on telling your father that he was here.”
“Three days ago? Why are you only telling me now? Why didn’t you come to my house and tell me when he first showed up?”
The older man was hesitant to answer. “Belle, you know that I have always liked you no matter what the people around here stay. But word was that for the past few days you have had a gentleman caller staying with you. I am not one to judge, but I thought it best to wait until that gentleman had left before I went over.”
Belle looked at Mr. Willard shocked. “No, you don’t understand. The Captain was there but he was taking care of me. I was… sick. Captain Bernard nursed me back to health.”
“So, are you saying that he wasn’t… courting you?”
“No!” Belle replied before remembering what they had done by the stream. “In any case, what might have gone on between myself and Captain Bernard is none of your concern. What is your concern is my father’s horse and letting me know that it had returned without my father.”
“Your father hasn’t returned?”
“No,” she told him before realizing that he couldn’t tell her any new information.
Leaving him, Belle returned to Tebo.
“Boy, can you tell me where Papa is?” Belle wasn’t expecting a response from her horse but amazingly enough seem to get one when it shook its head. “Can you?” Belle asked startled that she might’ve gotten an answer. The horse shook its head again.
With that, Belle retrieved the saddle from her father’s saddle stand and placed it on Tebo.
“What are you doing Belle? You don’t really think that your horse can lead you to your father, do you?”
Belle ignored him and continued what she was doing. When Tebo was saddled up and ready to go, Belle threw her leg over her mare and shook her reins ushering it forward.
In her village, good girls didn’t straddle horses like a man. It was thought to spoil them for their husband. Belle’s resistance to riding side-saddle was one of the first things that had made the villagers think that she was weird.
“How can you gallop if you’re riding side saddle?” She would ask them.
“Good girls don’t gallop,” they would reply.
“Then I guess I’m not a good girl,” Belle would say usually before galloping away.
Belle used all of her galloping skills as Tebo took her out of town into the field around it. Belle was expecting the horse to take her onto the path leading towards the city. It didn’t. Instead, it headed towards the Dark Forest. And thinking about all of the dangers that lay within, Belle’s heart clenched.
As her village disappeared through the trees, Belle thought that the air was growing colder. The deeper she went, the colder it got. She began to think that Tebo was leading her to her doom running randomly away from the village. Those fears were assuaged when Belle noticed something unnerving on the ground ahead of her.
“Whoa,” Belle said bringing Tebo to a stop.
Belle quickly slid off running to the object. The blood drained from her face as she touched what lay beneath her. It was a broken clock. It was her father’s clock. This was the item that he had left for the city to sell.
How had it ended up here? This didn’t make any sense. Her father knew how dangerous the Dark Forest was. Knowing that it had claimed Trudeau’s life, he would never have purposefully ventured in alone.
Leaving the mangled shards of wood and metal, Belle ran back to Tebo and threw herself on top of him. “Take me to Papa, Tebo. I think he’s in trouble.”
Tebo wasted no time returning to a gallop. Time seemed to speed up the faster he went. Not only did the day quickly turn into night, but the ground became covered with frost. Belle had never seen anything like it during late spring.
Filled with both terror and purpose, Belle clenched her fingers as the cold wind whooshed by her. It had become freezing and Belle was not dressed for it. The longer she rode, the harder it became for her to stay on her horse. Her legs and hands were freezing. And losing the feeling of the reins between her fingers, Belle felt herself begin to wobble unable to clamp her legs around her mare.
Considering slowing down, Belle quickly changed her mind when she heard a piercing howl echo through the forest. It was closer than Belle had ever heard a wolf before. As her fear overwhelmed her, she scanned the darkness for anything approaching. She wasn’t disappointed.
Like flashes of ghosts, patches of white fur penetrated the night. Belle saw one and then two. Suddenly there were three and then four. They were surrounding Belle and running beside her.
Running with all of its might, Tebo did everything he could to stay ahead of the pack. He was running for his life as much as Belle’s. And when the two entered a clearing allowing an eight-foot high metal gate into view, the horse found its stride and pushed itself knowing its life depended on escaping within.
Belle, doing everything she could to stay on top of her horse, felt a sense of relief as an unknown castle came into view. She had never heard of such a place in the Dark Forest, but at this point, she didn’t care. She needed to get inside of its gates if she was going to live. The only problem was that the tall metal gates were closed. How could she get them open without Tebo slowing down?
“Help!” Belle screamed at the top of her lungs. “Open the gates, please! There are wolves after me. Help me, please!”
As if hearing her pleas, just when she was about out of time, the gates cracked open letting out a piercing squeak. The opening wasn’t big, but it would have to do. Lowering her head and using every ounce of strength she had left, she made herself as small as possible. Guiding her horse toward the narrow opening, she held her breath and closed her eyes.
The metal ripped across her legs as the open gate brushed by. She couldn’t believe it. She had made it. Opening her eyes and looking back. She saw that she wasn’t the only one. As soon as they could, each of the wolves also filtered through. They were still coming. The castle was still a minute away and the bloodthirsty animals which had killed her fiancé were still snapping at her horse’s heels.
As the wolves caught up to her tiring horse, Belle’s freezing body was slowly losing its grip. She had given it everything she had. She had nothing left. She was about to give in to her fate when suddenly, out of nowhere, she heard a sound that she could never have imagined.
It was loud and scary. Tortured and angry, it rang out from the castle in front of her. It sent waves of terror through her heart. But it wasn’t just her heart that it’s terrorized, it also frightened the wolves which were moments away from grabbing her.
Snapped out of their pursuit as if coming to their senses, the pack of wolves did everything they could to slow down. Sliding across the snow, they fell on their backs trying to change direction. Their growls quickly turned to whimpers. Something had spooked them to their core. And needing to escape the castle grounds as quickly as possible, the wolves climbed on top of each other trying to get away.
Belle looked back seeing this. She had never before seen such frightened animals. As fast as they had run after her, they ran towards the gates. As if the gates were trying to keep them in, as the wolves approached, the metal doors began to close.
The last wolf made it out with a whimper. Its tail had been caught between the metal. It cried and pulled until with a tear, the wolf freed itself and joined its pack scattering into the forest.
Confused, Belle returned her attention towards the castle. What had she heard? What had scared the wolves so much? Was she wise to be racing towards it? No longer able to feel her fingers, could she change direction even if she tried?
It was not until they were at the foot of stone stairs that led to the grand entrance that they eventually stopped. Belle wanted to take the time to consider what she was doing. She couldn’t, though. Chilled to her bones, she could barely think. She needed to find warmth. Her fair skin was turning blue having dressed for a warm day.
Easing herself out of her saddle, Belle lowered herself onto her numb feet. It hurt to stand. She felt like she was walking on brambles. Their thorns seem to penetrate her skin and shoot a wave of agony up her spine.
Focusing her mind, she shoved her sensitive fingers in the warmth of her armpits and climbed the many stairs. It seemed to take forever but once at the top, she continued towards the oversized wooden doors.
Pulling out her hand readying to bang on the doors, Belle heard a crack. The doors were opening. The sound screamed how long it had been since the wooden doors had parted.
With the opening came a wave of light and warmth. It was beyond anything Belle could have dreamed of. As cold as she was, this was heaven. She scurried inside forgetting her manners. And overwhelmed by the painful relief of her prickly appendages, her eyes closed.
Belle could have stood just inside of the doorway forever. Perhaps she would’ve if, to her surprise, the large wooden door hadn’t slammed shut behind her. Her eyes shot open startled.
Looking around and not seeing anyone she meekly said, “Hello?”
No one replied.
As the feeling returned to her hands and feet, her first thought was of her horse. Would it be okay out there? Safe from the wolves and with a layer of insulation that Belle didn’t have, she decided that it would be. At least for now.
Next turning her attention to where she was, she looked around trying to figure out who it was that had let her in. Although there seemed to be candles lit everywhere, there wasn’t anyone else around.
“Hello?” Belle asked again. “Hello?” She repeated a little louder. “Is there anyone here? Thank you for letting me in. My horse and I were being chased by wolves. If you hadn’t opened your gates we might not have survived. I’m very grateful for that,” she said hearing her echo as the only reply.
Never having been in a castle before, Belle took a moment to appreciate where she was. It was magnificent. Everything was grand. The paintings of noblemen and women were in ornate frames. The grandfather clock against the wall was larger than any Belle had ever seen. And the furniture that lined the walls resembled something Belle could only create in her imagination.
There was no way that she would have otherwise been invited into somewhere so spectacular. She was just a village girl. Although she hadn’t even heard of such a place so close to her hamlet, the castle could only belong to the richest of kings and queens.
“I’m sorry to intrude, but I had nowhere else to go. I was looking for my father. I think he might have come this way. Has anyone here seen him?” She asked whoever might be listening.
It was then that a candle lit beside her. Belle jumped with a squeal. Her heart thumped frantically. Her feet became like heavy stones unable to move.
Whipping her head around, she saw nothing but a newly lit path. It led down the hallway to her right.
“Hello?” She said again finding the courage to walk towards it.
Now sure that there was someone behind all of this, Belle approached a mantle and retrieved one of the lit candelabras. It was heavier than she had expected it to be. Examining it, it was beautiful. It was covered in ornate swooshes and miniature statues. Something so wonderful could only be owned by a family of great wealth and taste. Where was everyone, though? Holding the candelabra in the air, Belle became determined to find out.
Approaching the end of one hallway, Belle jumped as the candles suddenly lit the path down another. Following the second and then a third, Belle was led to a staircase. She wasn’t sure where she was but she was sure that she was no longer somewhere the owner of the castle would show his guests.
“Hello?” She asked again before starting her ascent up the spiraling tower stairway.
“Hello?” A distant voice replied to Belle surprise.
“Hello? Is somebody there?” Belle asked speeding up her climb.
“Yes. I’m here. I’m up here?”
Hearing that, Belle began to run. “Where? I’m coming towards you. Keep talking.”
“I’ll keep talking. I don’t know where I am. I seem to be in some sort of prison. I don’t know how long I’ve been here. It never gets light here. It’s always night.”
As the man spoke, Belle felt something familiar. The louder the voice got, the more it sounded like her father. It couldn’t be. How could her father be in such a place?
“Papa? Papa, is that you?”
“Belle?” The voice asked shocked. “I can’t believe it. Belle, is that you?”
Afraid that this all could be a trick, Belle moved her legs as quickly as she could. Circling higher and higher, it wasn’t long until she poured out onto a platform. What she saw stunned her. Behind the bars of a prison door was a ragged old the man. He was dirty and unshaven. There was no question who this was. This was her father and there was something about him that made him look like he was turning into one of his cuckoo clocks.