Beauty Is A Beast

"I'm losing my patience Rose"

Chapter 1

Rose snuck through the village, ducking behind barrels and sprinting through alleyways, praying that no one saw. But of course, as luck would have it, she ran straight into the one person she dreaded most. "Ah my precious Rose, I was just looking for you." A rich baritone voice called out.

"Austin, good morning, I'd love to talk but I really must get going." Rose said, stepping forward to go around him.

Austin sidestepped in front of her, blocking her exit. Rose sighed heavily, looking up with a bright, well-trained smile on her face.

"What do you need, Austin?" She asked, knowing she wasn't getting out of there without listening to him first.

Austin cleared his throat and an equally bright smile spread across his face. "Well, it's just I noticed that I haven't gotten a reply yet about my proposal and It's been six months. Last week you said you'd decide soon."

Rose's jaw tensed with frustration. "Well, as I told you before, I have had many proposals and it would be foolish not to go over them all and consider each one thoroughly."

Austin furrowed his eyebrows in confusion.

"What do you mean? There is nothing to consider! I am the strongest, bravest, richest not to mention most handsome of them all! I'm obviously the perfect choice. You will choose me and everyone knows it, so just announce it and be done with all this nonsense, Rose."

Rose's barely contained anger went unnoticed to the brute. "I'm sorry Austin but I must consider everyone. As I said, it would be foolish of me not to." She walked around him once again, sighing in relief as she stepped out of the alleyway. Rose didn't make it two feet before her movement was suddenly halted when Austin grabbed her forearm with a bruising grip. "Rose, I'm losing my patience." He spat through clenched teeth. Seeing his tight grip on her arm he quickly let go, breathing deeply to control his anger. He looked up into her eyes and relaxed a bit, putting a pained smile on his face. "Good day." He said hesitantly as if there was more he wanted to say. But instead, he left.

Rose stood still, watching his retreating form until he disappeared from sight. She wasted no time once he was gone and bolted the rest of the way home. Upon reaching the house, she quickly went inside, locking the door immediately.

"Woah, slow down there Rose. What's got you in such a hurry?" A gentle feminine voice said.

"Just the usual, running from my many suitors." Rose said, as her countenance instantly changed to a less eloquent one. She sat at the kitchen table where her mother was sorting bean sprouts and began to help. Her mother stopped to observe her and noticed the growing bruise on her arm.

"ROSE!" Her mother called out in surprise and quickly crossed around the table to inspect her arm. "Oh dear, what happened?" She asked.

"Oh, that, don't worry about it. I fell out of a tree I was hiding in." Rose said calmly without hesitation. Her mother looked at her incredulously.

"Rose, it's in the shape of fingerprints!" Her mother whined and shook her head.

Rose sighed. "Okay I might have been stopped by someone on the way home and they might have gotten a little angry with me. It's nothing to worry about mother." Rose said, grabbing her mother's hands and squeezing them reassuringly.

"Who? Who did this? I'll ring them up by their neck!" Her mother exclaimed, huffing angrily.

"It doesn't matter. They didn't mean to, so I'm sure they'll be more careful in the future." Rose said going back to her sorting.

"ROSE!" Her mother yelled, causing Rose to jump.

"Okay, Okay, it was Austin. He said he's getting impatient waiting for my reply to his proposal. He lost his temper a bit but I'll be more careful to avoid him in the future, so please don't worry."

Her mother started crying. "That's it, Rose! You can not wait any longer to accept a proposal. I'm your mother. I want to support whatever decisions you make dear but I need to keep you safe most importantly. You have to decide who you're going to marry and soon before this gets any worse." Her mother said, wiping her tears.

Rose was taken aback by this reaction, it was too extreme for a simple bruise. Rose stood up and reluctantly pulled her mother into a hug. "Mother, calm down, it's just a bruise," She said, rubbing circles on her back.

"No, no, it's not just a bruise, every day some suitor's father or mother comes to threaten me saying that if you don't accept a proposal soon they'll force us from the village. Oh dear, we'll be homeless and you'll have no husband to take care of you and you'll have to work and then you'll have no time to find a husband and then you won't have me any grandkids and I'll die from heartbreak don't you see!"

Rose froze in shock. She pulled away to face her mother's tear-stained one. "They can't do that! They can't just throw us out of the village." Rose's shock was replaced by anger. People dared to threaten her mother.

Her mother sniffed, "Of course they can! They're practically the whole village! And might I remind you that Austin's father is the village head, one word from him and the whole village will drag us out with pitchforks and torches."

Rose's mother always had a touch for the dramatics, but Rose was sure that this was no exaggeration. Rose collapsed into her chair trying to think of an escape plan. But for once, none came to mind.

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a/n

I really wish I knew how to fix the line spacing!

😭

Good Day!