Beauty and Her Beastly Love (Passion-Filled Fairy Tales Book 2) by Rosetta Bloom Page A

enchanted as the manor. Then, Beauty lugged the mattress inside and lay it on the floor a few feet from the fire. She told her father to lie on it, which he did, moving slowly as if the actions caused his bones to ache. She ran back to the carriage, conjured blankets and came back and covered her father. She spent the evening using the enchanted carriage to get the supplies her father and she would need to live for the next few weeks. Clothing, food, pots, pans, another mattress, firewood, seeds for the vegetable garden, more blankets, even a couple of chairs and a small table to eat at.
    She had been thankful for the cover of darkness and the cottage’s secluded location. No one saw the magic that had come from the carriage. While she could have packed some of the things, there was no way all that she brought out of the carriage could have fit inside it.
    Beauty was exhausted and went to sleep in her old room. She woke early in the morning to her father’s moans. She made him vegetable soup and gave him some bread. He ate that alright and went back to sleep.
    He’d barely been awake during the hearing last night. He’d simply nodded when the judge asked if he’d signed the contract. Pierre was generally an honest man, but even he knew lying about that matter was best. Or perhaps he had been so out of it that he would have said yes to anything he thought would grant him freedom.
    Beauty spent the next day nursing her father and trying to get the house in order for when she left again. Part of her wanted to take her father with her, to have him live in the enchanted manor with her and Beast. But she was afraid. Beast’s greatest gift to her, that phony marriage certificate, had exposed his real name. She’d told her father that the certificate was fake, that it was created to help her get out of this situation. But she worried that he might figure it out at some point. That he might call Beast Emile, and then, then…. The very thought of what would happen hurt her heart. She couldn’t take that chance. She would have to nurse her father back to health and get him prepared for life without her. She would go back to Beast and tell him she loved him. She would agree to be his wife.
    But she needed her father safe and healthy first.
    There was a knock on the door. Beauty went to answer it. When she opened it, she recognized the man immediately: M. Dumas. He was dressed in a fine suit, with a top hat hiding much of his sandy brown hair. His face was freckled, and he smiled crookedly at her. She had the urge to slam the door in his face.
    “I’m Mathieu Dumas,” he said, tipping his hat. “May I come in, Mademoiselle?”
    Beauty shook her head. “It’s Madame,” she corrected. “I am married, and I am sure my husband would not have the man who sought to steal me from him and imprison my father enter this home.”
    Dumas’ smile faded, and his nostrils flared. “So, you still want me to believe that you have married someone else?”
    “I have,” Beauty said. “And my husband sent gold to repay my father’s debt to you. The judge should have given it to you. Though, I must admit, given that you paid my father’s creditors, I was surprised to find the house empty when we returned the other day. I had to send my footman to bring us supplies.”
    Dumas scowled. “So, where is this husband of yours, Monsieur de Verran?”
    Beauty smiled and said the exact lie she’d told the magistrate during her father’s hearing. “He is a merchant and was due to meet his ship at port, just as we got word of my father’s imprisonment. He had our carriage packed and asked our footman to safely guide me home and collect my father. He will join us as soon as he can.”
    “And your footman?” Dumas asked.
    “He went into town to get provisions.”
    “But he left the carriage and the horse?” Dumas asked, pointing to the horse tied to a post and the nearby carriage.
    “There were two horses,” Beauty said. “He took one.