Free Beauty and the Beast (Erotic Fairy Tales) by Nicole Dreadful

CHAPTER ONE
    Once Upon a Time...

    There lived a rich merchant whose only misfortune had been the death of his wife, who left him alone with three daughters and two sons. To make up the loss of a mother, the merchant was always willing to let his children have everything they desired. His sons were well known in the gambling halls, while his daughters were always dressed in the latest fashions, even the youngest, who had hardly begun to develop the curves to fill out a dress.
    One day, however, the merchant's luck turned. His ships were lost at sea; fire destroyed his warehouses. A dusky call-girl turned up at the back door carrying a baby with the same dimples as his eldest son, Elliot. It cost to keep that quiet, and to pay his sons' gambling debts. One thing led to another and finally the merchant was forced to sell his remaining properties and move his family from town to the country.
    Several years passed and not a day went by when the children did not reminisce about their former life. Only the merchant's youngest child was truly happy. She remembered the silk and satin dresses her older sisters had dressed her in – for they had always treated her as their own plaything, laughing and calling her Beauty, instead of her own name – but those memories faded as she climbed trees, played with the cats in the hayloft, tended the little garden before the cottage, and learned to ride with her second brother, Daniel.

    One day word came that a few of the merchant's long overdue ships had limped into port, laden with cargo. The merchant made ready to meet them while his children thronged about him.
    "Father, bring me a new set of traveling clothes so I can return home in style," said Beauty's eldest sister, Mariela.
    "For me as well," the merchant's second daughter, Angeline, put in. "And make sure you visit the Hill Street milliner."
    His sons clamored for saddles, fine riding boots, and horses to go with them. Elliot wanted dueling pistols, for who knew what slanderous gossip about the family might be circulating?
    Only Beauty stayed quiet, rubbing the velvet nose of her father's horse. "What about you, Beauty," the merchant asked. "Is there anything you would like?"
    Beauty considered his question. She didn't have any use for the fine dresses her sisters wanted, for she had grown comfortable wearing her brothers' castoff clothing, but she could see she had to ask for something. She glanced around the little garden and pointed at the sagging white blossoms near the cottage door. "Bring me a red rose, Father," she said. "Then we'll have a pair."
    "Is that all?" the merchant asked.
    Elliot grabbed his sister's shoulder, pulling the baggy shirt tight against Beauty's body to reveal the curve of her breasts. "Bring her a dress, too, Father," he said. "She can't look like a boy when we go back to town, or we'll never find her a husband."
    "I'll bring something for everyone," the merchant promised as he turned his horse's head away from the cottage and down the lane. It might be an empty promise, but he loved his children. Let them have a little hope, who had lost so much.

    In the city, however, things went badly. After the costs of the long voyage had been paid, the cargo brought only a poor profit, and when word spread that the merchant had a little in his pocket, the old debtors appeared at his door, hands outstretched.
    After six months' trouble, he had no more money than when he started. It was winter, and as he rode out of town, he thought sadly of his children. He could not even fulfill Beauty's simple request for a rose, much less the more practical dress for her growing body. All three girls were of marriageable age, and there was no husband for any of them. He might send his sons to work for other merchants and gain their own fortunes and wives, yet he needed their help on the farm to keep their sisters fed and clothed.
    Lost in these morose thoughts, he hardly saw where his horse went. When he looked up, he did not