Free Beauty's Beast by Tara Brown

helped him feel better. He slept for a couple of days, and when he woke he said he was too late for the people he was meeting. So he put this in here to help Momma with the cleaning. She was very grateful.” His little voice squeaked as he popped a bubble too.
    I shook my head. “If he did this, how did he have time to kill a stag?”
    The little boy’s eyes lowered. “He was trying to help Momma. He was trying to get her some meat to repay her for her kindness. She had said that venison stew was her favorite—”
    “And then the master put him in the raven’s nest and his sickness came back?”
    He sighed with a small nod. “And then he got worse than before.”
    “What are ya two doing down here?”
    I turned to see Mrs. Potts standing red-faced and sweaty with a bundle of laundry in her chubby arms. She scowled at the bedding in my hands. “Leave that and go and get ya some breakfast. It’s in the conservatory. Chip’ll show ya where.” She nodded.
    He took my hand in his as I opened my mouth to protest but the look in her eyes told me she didn't want anyone meddling with her wash. I dropped the linens on the floor and let Chip lead me back up the stairs.
    He led me through a set of doors at the top of the stairs we had gone down. But I hadn’t been in this room.
    I would have remembered it. It was a conservatory all right, just empty and dusty.
    But even with the grime on all the windows, the sun shone in from every angle as every wall and even the ceiling was a window.
    Standing alone in the room was a small table set with fresh flowers and breakfast for one. The only thing that bothered me at all was that I wished I wasn't in the scant dress, as it wasn't proper for breakfast.
    I walked into the room, basking in the light, closing my eyes and taking it all in.
    “I haven’t seen it this sunny before. Not since I can remember. Momma says it used to be sunny in here before I was born. But she says back then it was sunny all the time—before.”
    I nodded, realizing how gray the village was too. I hadn’t really seen much of the sun since we had moved there. It always seemed to be raining, about to rain, or just recovering from a rain.
    I walked farther into the room, smiling at the breakfast laid out. “Your mother is a genuinely kind woman,” I muttered and pulled out the single chair at the small iron table. It looked like it belonged in a garden, not a room filled with nothing such as this one. I looked around for another chair but there was nothing else, including Chip—he too was gone.
    But I was starving, so I sat and ate, staring out the filthy windows and wondering how my father was. I should have been planning my escape or worrying about my freedom and where I would go once I got my father back.
    But I couldn't.
    I was tired of running and there was something about the old, dilapidated village and castle in ruins that piqued my interest. A whisper in the back of my mind said it was avoidance of the reality in my life, much like reading was.
    But I chose not to listen.
    I decided after breakfast I would find an outfit that was respectable and then explore while it was light out.
    I sat in silence and devoured everything she had left me to eat.

 
 

Chapter Seven

 
    I sighed in relief as I put the dress on. It sagged everywhere and hung on me like I was a child in my mother’s old gown, but I didn't care. It covered every inch of me, apart from my hands and face. The assault I had suffered at the hands of Gaston had made me uncomfortable in my skin. As if I was somehow to blame for his acting that way by leading him to believe that was acceptable behavior.
    I knew it to be a falsehood, and yet I couldn't shake the terrible feeling. He had made me feel guilty for his sins.
    I looped the ties around myself several times and then fastened them in a bow at my waist.
    It would have to do.
    A tall brunette with an incredibly slim build walked into the room. She blushed and winced when she saw