When the Wolfbane Blooms

Chapter 4 - Man Is No Man

The elaborate brass door knocker on the front doors of the Villenueve manor was in the shape of a lion adorned by roses. It was an interesting design. The lion was an animal favoured by Adam's family and the manor had plenty of lion motifs throughout. The roses, however, were entirely the touch of Adam's mother. Elise Villenueve had been very fond of gardening and favoured roses in particular. The Villenueve manor was surrounded by rose bushes. The door knocker was a fitting compromise between Olivier and Elise Villeneuve.

Belle had used that door knocker countless times since she was a child, but now as she stood before it she paused for a few moments. Those past two days had been quite difficult for everyone.

Three hunters from the village had been killed by the beast. Two of them were found in the woods in a condition no one dared speak of, and the third had made it as far as the manor before perishing.

And then Adam had been attacked. Belle had visited him the day after it happened, and it hadn't been a pretty sight. The wolf - the beast - had left deep claw marks in him. Without Madame Potts and Lumiere's quick actions, he surely would have been killed as well.

Belle took a deep breath and reached her hand up to use the knocker. Even from outside she could hear the dull echo of it through the main entrance.

After a minute the door opened.

"Good morning, Lumie-," Belle started saying, but stopped once she realised it wasn't Lumiere or even Madame Potts that had opened the door. "Adam?"

"Good morning, Mademoiselle," Adam said with a lopsided smile.

Belle stared at him in shock before shaking out of it. She had seen Adam just the day previously and he had still been recovering in bed. She could recall seeing his bloodstained clothes in a bin, and Adam barely being awake, but now he was standing before her like he hadn't just nearly been killed.

"You look well," she said, still very caught off guard by his appearance. He still looked very tired, his hair was unkempt, and he was in need of a shave. But he didn't look to be standing with any difficulty and he seemed to be in good spirits.

"I'm surprised, too, believe me," he said, opening the door wider for her and moving aside to let her in. "Yesterday I felt like I was on death's door, now I just have a terrible headache."

"Are you healing well?" Belle asked, following him inside the manor. He shut the door behind her.

"Remarkably well. The wounds from the other night are closed now, I don't think the wolf scratched me as deeply as we first thought. Would you like some tea?"

She followed him into the drawing room, where both Madame Potts and Lumiere already were. Lumiere looked like he was in a good mood, but Madame Potts seemed uncharacteristically glum. Belle gave her an encouraging smile when they greeted each other. She knew that Madame Potts had essentially raised Adam after his mother had passed, she was likely still very concerned about the attack even now that he was healing well.

Not to mention the hunter who had died just outside of the kitchen. Belle repressed a shudder at the thought. The three men who had passed weren't men she knew beyond a few brief words here and there over the years. They were all a decent amount older than her and mostly kept to themselves. Two of them were married and had children they had left behind. Even without knowing them, her heart broke for them and their families. And she was afraid knowing that the beast hadn't been killed that night.

Gaston had locked himself in his home the entire day after the full moon and refused to see anyone. As far as Belle was aware, even now he was only speaking to his friend LeGume. He clearly was distraught over the death of three of his fellow hunters and angry that he hadn't managed to kill the wolf. Belle tried not to think about the night Gaston had come to her with his werewolf story.