The Beast's Bride (8 page)

"We are," Pippa said. "Belle's here to marry you, and I'm here to, uh, smooth things along."

"You could marry him," Belle said in an unhappy voice.

"No, I can't," Pippa said, straining to keep the cheer in her voice.

"Papa said either one of us, though," Belle pointed out as stew was ladled in front of her.

Pippa kept the smile gritted on her face.
All right, Belle, you little shit
, Pippa thought.
Don't
make me come over there.
"But you're the young, pretty one. I'm too old to marry. A spinster.

And not pretty."

The beast was silent, watching their exchange.

"Who cares if you're pretty?" Belle said with a sulk in her voice. "He's a beast."

"Belle," Pippa warned. "Be nice. We're his guests, and you're going to marry him."

Belle shook her head and turned pale, pushing the newly-filled bowl away from her as if she'd lost her appetite.

Pippa kept smiling like a fool, even though her face was starting to feel the strain of it. She was not going to let Belle destroy this. Muffin had told her this would be a challenge, but Belle would just have to freaking get over it. If she would only take a minute, she would realize the beast could be quite nice.

Theoretically.

She picked up her spoon and ladled a bit of stew, tasting it. Delicious. She smiled encouragingly at Belle and took another bite.

The boar-headed butler returned a moment later with a covered silver platter and placed it in front of the beast. For the first time, Pippa noticed that he did not have a soup bowl in front of him. Uh oh.

4The butler removed the lid from the platter. Chunks of raw meat lay on a large plate, fresh and bloody. The meat had been cut into bite-sized pieces and piled onto the plate and rested in a small river of dark blood. As Pippa spooned stew to her mouth, the beast stabbed a chunk of bloody meat with his fork and ate it, chewing methodically. Raw.

Belle blanched. Pippa did the same, though she tried to hide it a bit better. Raw…meat? Dear lord. Was the man determined to make it impossible to pull him and Belle together?

The beast saw their expressions, and Pippa could have sworn that his lion-jaw clenched a little. He put his fork down, his paw resting on the table between himself and Belle. He looked over at his bride to be, but she just cringed and stared at the floor.

This was not going well. Time for drastic measures. Pippa got up from her chair and straightened her skirts. "I need to use the uh, facilities. I'll be right back."

Belle sat on the edge of her seat, alarm written into her lovely features. "But—"

Pippa waved a hand at Belle. "I'll be right back. Don't wait for me. Just keep enjoying your dinner."

Belle's gaze dropped back to the ground.

The beast frowned in Pippa's direction.

God, did she have to spell it out for him? She gave the beast a meaningful look and a head nod, indicating that he should converse with Belle while she was gone. When he still looked blank, she raised a hand and made a talking gesture, then swiftly exited the room, congratulating herself on her brilliance. After all, it would be much harder to ignore the beast if he was talking directly to Belle, right? Right. Pippa grabbed her skirts and headed down the hall. She paused in a nearby alcove and sat on a stone windowsill, waiting.

There were no clocks in the enchanted castle, so she stared at her nails and out the dark window as she waited for time to pass. Mentally, she tried to tick the minutes. Surely it had been at least five minutes at this point. Maybe ten? She waited a bit longer, her foot tapping impatiently. She had to give them time to get to know each other, she told herself. This had to work.

The sound of a door slamming caught Pippa's attention. Someone was coming out? She

peeked out of her alcove, confused.

At the far end of the hall, Belle dashed out of the dining hall and ran away. Even from the opposite end of the hallway, Pippa could hear the loud sobs of her sister.

4Well, shit.

Frustrated, Pippa headed back toward the dining hall. Before she could open the door, the beast stormed out. He took one look at Pippa's surprised face, snarled, and stormed down the hall in the opposite direction.

Okay, so her great plan had ended up being not so great. With an unhappy sigh, Pippa headed off after Belle, suspecting that a long evening of soothing Belle's frazzled nerves and convincing her of what a great guy the beast was lay before her.

~~***~~

The next morning, there was a soft knock at the door. Pippa climbed out of bed and answered it as Belle snored on, squinting at the early morning sunlight.

The boar-headed butler was there at the door, another silver platter in his hands. He indicated that she should step out into the hallway.

Pippa did so, curious. She shut the door carefully behind her and crossed her arms over her chest, pulling her nightgown close to her body. "Breakfast?" she asked with a yawn.

He shook his head and lifted the lid off of the platter.

A single white handkerchief lay upon a plate.

Pippa leaned over it, and then touched it to see if it was covering anything. Nope, just the handkerchief. Confused, she looked at the butler. "I don't understand?"

He picked it up and waved the handkerchief in the air. She stared at him, frowning.

And then it dawned on her. "Surrender?"

He nodded.

A triumphant smile curved Pippa's mouth. "He wants my help, doesn't he?"

Again, the butler nodded.

Maybe last night's dinner fiasco had been a good thing after all. "Give me time to get dressed."

~~***~~

Dressing in medieval clothing? Not so much fun. For one, the lacing of the bodice was not a solo task, and Pippa was trying to be stealthy. By the time she struggled into lacing herself up, 4she was sure that either Belle would have woken up or the butler would have disappeared. But that wasn't the case, and when she slipped back into the hallway, he nodded at her and then gestured for her to follow him.

She did and, a few minutes later, she found herself standing in front of a wooden door that looked rather familiar. The butler left her there, and Pippa lifted a hand and quietly knocked.

"Enter," called the beast.

Pippa pushed the door open and was not surprised to see the beast's messy chamber in front of her. There was daylight this time, at least, filtering in through the half-torn curtain over the dusty window. By daylight, though, the state of the room was even worse—now she could see fine cobwebs in the corners of the room and a light layer of dust on everything. The floor was covered with bits of broken wood and crockery. It was like he just didn't care.

And that was sad, really.

Her gaze wandered over the mess until she found him, curled up on a couch, his cloak acting as a blanket. His massive back was to her. Sulking, she guessed.

There was a fire in the fireplace again, and she carefully avoided it and moved to the center of the room. Pippa clasped her hands in front of her and kept her face impassive. "You asked to see me?"

"I yield," he said in a dull voice.

"Oh?"

"Your sister hates me. She will never consent to be my bride."

Pippa traced her initials in the layer of dust on a nearby table. "Not with the way things are going, no. So what are you going to do about it?"

He rolled over and sat up, and gave her a look of utter frustration. "Do? What do you propose I do, lady? Your sister cannot stand the sight of me."

For some reason, his annoyance made her feel a bit better. Anything was better than that depression. Pippa waved a hand casually. "Belle's just a bit flighty. You need to make her see past the fangs and fur and to the true heart of you."

That made him bare his teeth. "Lady, this
is
the real me."

"Okay. Then you need lessons on wooing a woman, because you're failing miserably. That's what I'm here to help with." She glanced around, and then brushed a hand over the red velvet seat of a nearby chair, dusting it off. The stuffing was half ripped out of the seat, but it was 5whole, so she didn't much care. Pippa sat and regarded him. "If we're going to get this marriage off the ground, you need to compromise. Just because you're a beast on the outside doesn't mean that you need to act beastly to her. You can still be a gentleman."

"Do not lecture me on manners, lady, when yours are sorely lacking. It is clear you have never been to court."

She rolled her eyes. "I'm not talking about court manners and how to hold a fork. I'm talking about being a decent person to my sister and not trying to scare her out of her wits like you did last night." She watched his face for a reaction and was pleased to see him flinch. "What exactly did you do, anyhow?"

He was silent.

"I can't help you if I don't know," she said in a cajoling voice.

"I…tried to kiss her." His gaze turned defiant, teeth bared, as if daring her to mock him.

"Oh dear." Pippa frowned, imagining how that had gone over. Belle sitting and staring at her food, waiting for Pippa to return, when the beast swoops in and tries to maul her. "And this after you'd been eating a bowl of raw meat, eh?"

He glared at her.

"Yeah, that's what I thought. Okay." Pippa clasped her hands in front of her and pursed her lips, thinking. "Jumping right into things is not going to work with Belle. Think of it like…I don't know, like chess. You wouldn't throw your king out there on the first move."

His golden eyes lit up, a spark of pleasure flaring in them. "You play chess?"

"I…well, it's been a while, but yes."

"Would you…would you play with me?" His voice was gruff, but she caught the note of longing in his voice. "It has been many years since I have had the opportunity. We do not often have guests."

A surge of pity moved through her at the hopeful look in his eyes. Poor guy. She wondered how long it had been since he had any sort of conversation or company. No wonder he was such a nightmare. No wonder he was grabbing at Belle as soon as her back was turned. He was probably terrified they'd both slip right out of his grasp again and he'd be left all alone once more.

"I can play," Pippa said, and gestured at the room. "But I don't see a board."

5He lumbered to his feet, his large, ungainly beast form looming over her. It didn't scare her now, though. All she saw was a lonely, cursed man, not a monster. "I scattered the pieces long ago, but they should still be in this room." He moved to an overturned lounge chaise and pushed it aside, then snatched a black piece off the ground and held it up for her in triumph.

"Well, you find the set, and I'll fix up the table," Pippa said with a smile, taking it from him.

"And I'll tell you how I think you should approach Belle."

"I am listening," he said, kicking aside a pile of broken wood and searching the floor for more pieces.

Pippa straightened the small table in front of her and considered it. She grabbed a scrap of material that was dangling from a nearby broken chair and ripped it off, then used it to dust the surface of the table. A moment later, a heavy marble chess board was shoved under her nose. She took it from him with a smile and set it on the table, placing a black pawn in its proper spot.

"Belle," she began, looking for another chair for the beast. "Is easily frightened, as I'm sure you guessed."

His snort of agreement was the only sound, but he returned to her with a few more chess pieces and handed them over without a word.

"She doesn't mean badly. I don't think she has a mean bone in her body. But she's a bit spoiled, and she's used to being the center of attention. It's no surprise. I mean, look at her. She's gorgeous," Pippa mused, idly setting the pieces on the table before returning to her search for the chair.

"She is pleasant to look upon," the beast agreed.

"She is," Pippa said. "And she's used to men fawning over her." At least, that was what she was assuming from Belle's lively chatter. Since she'd been more or less dropped into this fairy tale without a lot of background, she had to do some serious pieceing together of the story. "She feels very out of place here, but in the village, she knew everyone and was the darling of the town. She felt needed and wanted and cherished. Do you see where I'm going with this?"

"You are saying I should make her feel…needed?" He returned to her a moment later with a few more pieces.

She took them from his big paws and thought for a moment. "I don't know about needed,"

Pippa said. "But I think the cherished and adored part is key to getting her attention. You can't just rush right into things and kiss her. You need to woo her."

5"Woo?" He flipped over another couch and then snarled when his search turned up empty. "I am a beast, lady. Exactly how shall I woo a woman?"

"Well, you're the genius that insisted on having a bride here, so you tell me what your big plan was?"

He snarled at her snippy tone.

"Exactly. No plan." She gave him a triumphant look. "Which is why I think you need to woo her."

"And how shall I do this?"

He was listening, at least. Pippa took the next set of pieces he handed her and counted. "We still need three pawns, both queens, and a king. Keep looking. This wouldn’t be difficult if this place wasn’t such a disaster, by the way."

"Aye." He paced the floor again, sweeping through the mess, yellow eyes scanning for missing chess pieces. "I am well aware of the state of my rooms. Now tell me more of this wooing."

"I'm not saying you should sing her songs about her beauty or anything," Pippa explained.

"But show her that you want her to be here. Shower her with attention and make her realize this isn't so bad. Don't maul her, though, and don't yell at her. Actually, just don't touch her at all until she makes the first move. And then, when you do, don't kiss her on the mouth. It might be too much for her to handle at first."

He glared at her and rubbed a paw over his snout, but he appeared to be considering her words.

"If you want to romance Belle, there are other things you can do. Give her presents. Surprise her with thoughtful gifts or little gestures to show her that you are thinking of her. When she reaches out to touch you, don't immediately maul her. Take her hand in yours and kiss the back, perhaps. Show her that she is cherished."