Reddest Rose

Chapter Three

For several weeks Gaston's attention grew and focused. It began with a hand at her back that had no place there. Several days later his fingers tangled with her own when she reached for the reigns of her he was cornering her as she exited the bookstore, or following a few strides too closely as she took a long path home. Several times he'd demanded a kiss hello or goodbye, and once he'd gotten very close to stealing one. Except, it wasn't teasing. If it had been, she might have teased back. No, the green-hued and fading bruises on her arms declared Gaston's true intentions. It had gotten to the point that she was concerned for her own well being. She prayed her father would return soon to relieve her of these unwelcome advances.

Yet the weeks passed...and passed again...and then the months...and still there was no sign of him.

It was fear of encountering Gaston that had her home on Christmas Eve, rather than celebrating with her sisters at the tavern. She'd lit candles and made a thick cider to lull herself to sleep. Outside the wind howled. Her sisters would undoubtedly seek a night with their friends in the village, and their horse would be warm and dry in their stable. She'd curled herself into her father's chair with a book, and let her hair tangle free around her shoulders. She was relaxed, she was almost asleep... Then her father tumbled in through the door she'd left unlatched. The wind howled at his back, and pushed a flurry of snow over her clean floors. He coughed and retched as he dragged himself inside, away from the fury of the storm. Belle overturned a table in her hurry to get to him, her book discarded and forgotten in the slush that had gotten inside. "Papa!" She pushed the door closed and dragged a second log onto the hearth. On the floor her father shook and coughed, sending phlegm and spittle flying from his mouth. His cheeks were sunken, his skin sallow and icy to the touch.

What had happened to him? She dragged him closer to the fire and stripped away his filthy, wet outer layers. It was only then that she realized just how bruised and cold he was. There was a strong possibility that he would lose his toes. She forced hot cider down his throat and pulled the blankets from the beds to nest him. It was several hours before his trembling stopped, but she couldn't possibly risk going into the village to fetch the doctor. She treated him as she had the calf they'd once found laid in the snow, its skin mostly blue and almost as stiff as a new book spine. She warmed him and fed him once he was willing to take food, and by the time the sun rose he had some color back in his cheeks.

"Papa," She breathed a sigh of relief as he stirred, stroking the thick growth of hair around his jaw. "Papa, where have you been?"

"B-belle?" It took him a minute to focus his gaze on her, and when he had she was horrified to see the glaze of tears. "Belle, I've done the most terrible thing." He pushed himself from the chair and waved away her help. "No, no, I have to...I have to think. Oh Belle, you can never forgive me." He walked upstairs as though each step was thousands of miles high, and she thought for sure his trembling would send him right back down again. She brought him tea and soup, which he thankfully ate and drank, but he said barely two words to her. Only when she went back upstairs to tell him her sisters were home did he show any sign of interest.

"Papa's home? Why didn't he write to us? We would have been here to meet him!" Laura said with a scowl, unpinning her curls from the loose bun they'd been confined to.

"He wasn't in any shape to, I don't think. He was half dead when he crawled in the door. I nearly died of shock myself," Belle shot back, her fist forcing a bubble of air from the ball of dough she kneaded. She pulled and twisted it into a braid which she then placed into the stone oven set atop the fire they had blazing.

"Did he say anything of the money? Or the dresses?" Pauline asked, licking a bit of jam from her little finger. Both girls had entered the house famished beyond all reason (according to Laura) and Belle was making certain their father would hear none of their complaints.