The Cover
Prologue
Everyone knows the tale of Beauty and the Beast. Well the question is what happened after the fairy tale did they have a happily ever after? Well a week after the transformation Belle and Prince Adam Wed. All the servants in the château were completely ecstatic. A an after the royal event Belle gave birth to twin girls. One was named Annette for this child had beautiful brunette straight locks and piercing blue eyes. The seconde baby girl was named Lillian for this baby had bronze tinged curls and deep brown eyes. The night on which they were born and asleep in their room the enchantress appeared above their cradles. She could see right through to their very souls. Annette would be strikingly beautiful and an almost perfect copy of her mother but with blue eyes. She would be a kind and gentle person full of compassion and hope, she would always lend a helping hand and would l’amour to read, she would also be a talkative outgoing person as she got older. Lillian would be a beautiful girl who resembled her father accept with brown eyes and would pass as the girl version of him. She would be soft spoken and quiet, she would be little less outgoing but would l’amour to explore, she would have nice manners and would always be polite to others, she would look through each person to see their true self’s and never judge. The enchantress could tell these two girls would be special so she gave both of them special gifts. Annette would get the gifts of dancing chant and musicality of pretty much anything. She would always be very smart and she would also have the power of enlightment meaning she could cheer almost anyone up. Lillian got the gifts of patience and agility at every sport and ou thing she would be smart and a quick learner. With giving the children the gifts the enchantress soon left and the real story began…..
“Shhhh…” whispered Annette looking back at her sister tip toeing behind her. The two 14 an old twins were silently making their way down the corridor of the château in which they lived in. The two were silently making their way past their parent’s room which they had to pass if they wanted to get to the library.
“Don’t shhh me I’m the quiet one!” Lillian whisper yelled to Annette who wasn’t even listening and was jouer la comédie like she was engrossed with the candlestick in her hand. The two were polar opposites when it came to personality and gifts. They had found out they had gifts when the enchantress visited them a mois il y a without telling their parents. She explained they had gifts and a weirder past then they were lead to believe. For the past week they asked everyone without talking about the enchantress what happened before they were born but no one told them.
“Here we go” Annette whispered opening the huge door to the bibliothèque and letting Lillian in. The two looked around them observing livres on different levels all over the place the red curtain was pulled over the window covering up the pitch black winter night. They started a feu in the fireplace and sat in front of it.
“We aren’t getting any information” Annette stated looking into the feu as if the answer itself was in there.
“Listen I know that, what I want to know is why I’m here so late at night ou should I say early in the morning” Lillian snapped looking at her sister. She wasn’t exactly a morning person. She wasn’t so quiet and polite in the morning either.
“I found something” stated Annette holding a book out to Lillian that had no cover. Lillian took it and observed it with her brown eyes. It was a worn black diary that had a lock on the side.
“So it’s a diary, big deal” Lillian a dit looking at Annette with a dubious look. Annette looked down and studied her pale hands. She then looked up and her blue eyes pierced through Lillian’s soul.
“It may be a diary to toi but to me it’s a key to the past; I bet toi that is what it is!’ Annette exclaimed clearly mad at Lillian. ”I found this book outside the west wing” Annette a dit almost guiltily for their father forbids anyone in the château to even walk outside the west wing.
“You went to the west wing I’m telling papa” Lillian exclaimed and jumped to her feet and ran out of the library. Annette was soon behind her but Lillian was always the fastest out of the two. For that was one of her gifts and all Annette could do was sing basically. Annette chased her down the hall till she reached her parents door which was already open and Lillian was already inside.
“Mama, Papa Annette went to….” But Lillian was suddenly cut off par a hand covering her mouth. They took in the scene in front of them their parents already out of lit and rushing towards them both looked worried and tired but mostly worried.
“What?” Belle asked looking at her daughters in concern. They never shouted ou yelled unless one was in trouble. She was still one of the prettiest people they had ever seen. She looked so young even though she had gotten 14 years older she hadn’t changed that much. Standing here in a white night robe and her hair messed up from sleep and eyes barely she looked older then she ever had.
“Care to explain?” Adam demanded looking down at his daughters faces. Now he loved his girls but he couldn’t handle being woken up from a deep sleep. He had aged a tiny bit but still had his distinguished look and had almost let go of his temper, almost.
“Ummm well toi see Lillian saw a araign? e, araignée and it scared me so I got up and killed it so then she got mad at me called me a araign? e, araignée killer then a dit I would get in trouble for doing that to the poor thing then she ran in here it was all a misunderstanding good night!” Annette explained quickly then ran out of the room with Lillian in her grasp.
“What were toi doing were toi even listening to me when I a dit I found the book outside of the west wing par the stairs” Annette explained quietly as she could dragging Lillian with her to their room a couple of doors down.
“Yeah but still that is bad” Lillian whispered looking behind them hoping their parents weren’t following them. They then reached their room and closed the door shut then they could use normal voices.
“I have seen toi walk right par it two toi know I’m not the only one!” Annette basically screamed at her sister as Lillian looked at her hands and blushed. Annette was right she had been outside of the west wing multiple times.
“Look I’m tired lets go to sleep” Lillian whispered climbing onto her pure white lit and snuggling into the sheets.
Annette went and sat on her bed. She felt so inslaved in her own room with its eggshell white walls and dark wood furniture and one mur covered with red velvet curtains. The room also had dark wood floors and furniture and one fireplace.
An heure of just sitting on her lit and listening to Lillian’s delicate snores Annette jumped up and made her way back to the library. When she got there she added plus wood to the dim feu and crawled onto her father’s old chair. She too was exhausted but too curious to go to sleep just yet. She observed the diary on the ground and gently picked it up in her fair hands.
“What are toi hiding” she whispered shaking the book and turning it over in her hands.
She blew the dust that was on the cover off of it and examined the worn black leather. On the back there was a tiny name written in rather sloppy handwriting almost like her mother’s. Annette sat there for nearly an heure just looking at the book in her slim hands.
Her eyelids began to drop and the book slid out of her hands onto the granite floor below making a loud boom on the floor but par the time it was echoing through the room she was too tired to even care.
par this time Belle and Adam were already up and dressed for the jour ahead. They usually got up early so they could go to the bibliothèque and watch the morning sun rise above the treetops of the once dark forest below. They were walking arm and arm to the bibliothèque discussing the weird behavior of their daughters.
“You don’t find it strange that they be up at that late heure and basically screaming and just saying that it was a spider?” Adam questioned his wife looking at her with his clear as the ocean eyes. In return his gentle gaze was met with a warm smile.
“They are teenagers my l’amour they will act strange don’t get all suspicious!” She playfully scolded him and smiled. The last time they had acted weird when they were eight hadn’t gone so well for he had cogsworth and lumiere spy on them for weeks. The former clock and candle did not do such a good job of so called “spying”
“If toi say so” Adam a dit with a smile in return and opened the door for his wife. They stepped into the unnaturally warm room and took in the scene.
The red velvet curtains were back and toi could see jour breaking over the trees which were covered in blanket and blanket of snow, they turned to see a dimly lit feu still burning and their daughter in her night robe snoring quietly with one hand almost touching the floor where a strange book was laying.
“Well she is her mothers child” Adam whispered to himself as he walked over to his daughter and pushed her straight brunette hair out of her eyes. She was beautiful like her mother. She always had been. She was an almost exact replica of her mother except she was a tiny bit taller and had his own blue eyes. She did everything like her mother but her personality was all his ofcourse not his beastly character but all the good ones he held on to for all those years. She was only fourteen but to him it felt like she was six. He had always had a special relationship with Annette as had Belle to Lillian.
“Poor thing looks exhausted……oh no” Belle whispered coming over and picking up the book on the ground par her sleeping daughter. She examined it over and over again. It had been her diary from when she was captive in the château when her husband was merely a beast.
“What is it dear?” Adam questioned already cradling Annette lovingly in his arms ready to take her to her lit where she could sleep plus comfortably.
“I….I….how” Belle couldn’t think straight. She had left this book in the west wing when Adam and herself got married and here it was. Had her daughter gone into the west wing against her parents wishes?
“Is that the diary?” Adam whispered in awe for he had never read her most prize possession from when she lived in that poor provential town . For that is what he thought it was that was why he had left it out of the west wing and hid it in the hall to read later but find the key first.
“Adam this diary is from the time I came here to the transformation all of our secrets are in this diary!” She exclaimed in a whisper worried to wake her daughter. Adams mouth popped open and his eyes went completely blank. He now knew why the diary was hid away from any servants ou himself ou his children in the west wing.
“She didn’t open it did she?” He questioned in a quiet voice hoping not to wake Annette who would wake any minute.
“No at least I don’t think so I haven’t seen the key since the night of the twin’s birth” Belle whispered looking out the window now filtering in sunlight from outside.
“Papa? Mama?” Annette a dit now awake in her father’s arms and now chattering from the cold in the room. Adam lifted the veste from around his arms and draped it on his daughter holding her tighter.
“Yes sweetheart?” Belle asked touching Annette’s face lovingly. She’s always felt bad because she didn’t spend much time with Annette because the two really were opposites but even if they weren’t always together they loved each other all the same.
“I’m hungry” Annette a dit blushing now awake and standing par her mother and father. Her father chuckled and her mother giggled because like every morning when they woke the girls up that was the first thing Annette said.
“Adam why don’t toi go fetch Mrs.Potts to make a cup of thé and a couple of croissants and send them up here” Belle asked sweetly with a smile for even if she offered she knew her husband wouldn’t let her go get the motherly former teapot herself.
“Of course love” Adam a dit s’embrasser Belle on the forehead and giving his daughter a hug before leaving the library.
“Are toi okay?” Belle asked her daughter lovingly and put an arm around Annette and leading her over to the small canapé par the fireplace.They sat down and Belle took a good look at Annette. Her daughter was paler then usually and unnaturally warm and she was shivering into her father’s jacket. Annette shook her head no and then let out a loud sneeze.
“Oh I don’t feel to good” Annette replied with a very stopped up nose then coughed a delicate cough. She snuggled into her moms embrace even though her mom was only wearing a ruby red jour dress that was silky that everyone knew was the coldest material in all of France.
Annette looked at her mother’s hand which had just put something on a bookshelf behind the two of them on the jour couch. Annette gave her mother a questioning look which was just returned with a concerned look.
“Will toi be ok while I wake your sister and grab toi a blanket?” Belle asked wanting to get out before being questioned.
“I will be fine” Annette a dit holding her head indicating that she had a headache along with a cold ou worse the flu.
“I will be back in a seconde Anne” Belle exclaimed leaving the room and using Annette’s nickname that everyone called her besides Adam who called her Nettie.
While Belle woke up Lillian, Annette studied the ground on which the book she held in her hand was left last night.
“Oh no” she whispered and then sneezed the flood of emotions hit her then but out of all of them came worry. She was in deep trouble and she knew it.
Right that seconde Mrs. Potts came bustling In with her thé tray with croissants on it and a hot cup of thé which to Annette right now looked like heaven.
Her Father, mother and sister then came into the library. Her father had a thermometer and blanket in his hand probably from her mother, and her sister came in angry for being woken up.
“Here toi go little one” a dit Mrs. Potts wrapping Annette up delicately in the warm wool blanket that had been laying in her fathers arms. Mrs.Potts looked the same as always old with gray hairs but cheery as if she was fourteen. The motherly and warm old women handed Annette a cup of thé with a smile then quietly left the room. She hadn’t been all the same since Chip announced he would be going to Paris to work on his studies.
“Sweetheart I already talked to Madame and Cogsworth and they a dit toi could skip studies today and get to feeling better” The girl’s father a dit smiling at her affectionately even though he was a nervous wreck that his daughter was sick. He then turned to Lillian who had her mouth open. “Sorry Lily toi do have your studies today please go get dressed and try to avoid the sick one” Adam a dit to his daughter with gentle eyes for he didn’t want her to get mad nor sick.
“Yes papa” Lillian a dit exiting the room. Typical she thought to herself, Annette got all the attention but she could understand her sister was sick.
“Annette here” Belle a dit handing over the thermometer from Adams hand and placed it in her daughter’s. Annette placed it in her mouth and just sat there. Finally it was finished rising and clearly stated she had a fever.
“My poor sweet has a cold” Belle a dit grabbing Annette and taking her in her arms. She then remembered the diary and had to ask the question she had been dying to ask. ”How did toi find my old diary?”
Annette paused from drinking the warm thé and looked at both her mother and father. They were both curious not mad…..yet.
“Well one jour I was merely curious about what I saw on the stairs of the west wing I had also heard a noise I walked up and looked around I saw a door at the end of the hallway which I did not enter because that would be disobeying, I grabbed the book and later found out it had a lock…..and it was your diary.”Annette trailed off looking at her parents faces to see if they were angry right when they were about to say something to her Cogsworth and Lumiere entered.
“Oh Master is she ok we can’t have the little one sick can we!” Cogsworth very nearly shouted. He was just as nervous and tense and he was as a clock it was almost funny to see the plump older man running around fussing about everything going on in the castle.
“Yes is madomeiselle velling well is she very sick?” Lumiere questioned in his heavy French accent. The skinny fellow had filled out over the years and was graying.
“I’m fine but thank toi monsieur’s for asking” Annette a dit glancing at her parents who were still staring at her with weird looks. Annette couldn’t handle all this at once they were too fast talking.
“Yes madame if toi need anything we will be of service” Cogsworth then bowed same with Lumiere they then left the room and bickered all the way to the stairs.
Annette then stood up shaking almost uncontrollably from both exhaustion and the cold.
“Oh l’amour we are being inconsiderate we will discuss this later toi need sleep I will carry toi if toi would like” Adam a dit although still pondering what to do he was also concerned about his daughter who had never been this sick.
All Annette could do was nod. Adam picked up his light weight 5’2” daughter and exited the bibliothèque with Belle right behind him. They walked down the hall Adam cradling his trembling daughter and Belle smoothing Annette’s hair around her face and looking extremely concerned.
They walked silently into their daughters room. While Adam placed his daughter in bed, Belle tucked her in. Adam lit the feu and Belle made sure the window was shut. They placed a Kiss on their daughters forehead and silently left the room.
“What are we going to do?” questioned Belle as they walked down the hall to go downstairs. She grabbed hold of his hand, a nervous habit.
“I truly don’t know” Adam answered s’embrasser Belle’s hand. They didn’t want to reveal what happened so many years il y a but they might have to.
“Now sing Ah….Ah….AHHHHHH” Madame belted out in her high soprano voice. The old looking big women with now wirely glasses was sitting with Princess Lillian now dressed in a green jour dress with a ribbon tied in her curly bronze hair.
“Madame face it this is one thing I got from my father I cannot sing” Lillian stated looking at the women firmly in the eyes from her sitting position in the huge chair in the lounge.
“You have to believe toi can” She replied to the girl standing up from her crouched position and looked at the petite princess who has never sung in her life while her sister adores it. ”Come on little one Anne does it why don’t you”
“Because Madame I simply can’t and that’s all” Lillian stated looking down quietly and blushing when she was with her sister she wasn’t that shy but now that Annette was sick it was like feeding her to the sharks.
“Ahhh dear Lily not to fret that’s why I’m here, to teach you” Madame a dit in here big operatic voice while she puffed her chest out in a mostly arrogant way.
“Madame may I be excused I’m slightly hungry?” Lillian asked looking up at her instructor. She wasn’t really hungry she just wanted to get out of here.
All Madame did was nod and point at the door exasperated for the girl just wouldn’t even give chant a try.
“Anne got the gift of chant while all I can do is run, such a fair trade” Lillian whispered to herself as she exited the room into the or entry hall of the castle. She had always found it unfair that Annette got all the beneficial talents while she didn’t.
Lillian turned the corner of the hall very nearly knocking over one of the wood carved side tables. She realized she has never taken that hard of a turn in her life and figured being distracted while walking in this château wasn’t smart.
She noticed that it was strangely quiet. Usually toi could hear Mrs.Potts humming in the cuisine while she prepared lunch and toi could always count on hearing Lumiere and Cogsworth fighting about up coming events taking place at the castle. But she could only hear the noise that her heels made on the tile flooring.
Lillian a volé, étole a glance at the west wing staircase that was the darkest place in nearly the whole castle. Her sister was right Lillian had gotten curious and gone up there before. She quietly looked around, no one was there.
Lillian gathered all her courage and headed to the staircase leading to the west wing. She climbed the tile stairs as quietly as her heels would let her.
When she got to the haut, retour au début landing of the staircase she looked around. The hall was dimly lit with candles casting shadows on every painting and object. The place had an eerie forbidden feel to it almost scary even. She heard a startling noise from down the hall and hid under the wooden table.
“I don’t know Belle she’s already found the book wouldn’t it look suspicious if it just disappeared?” Adam asked his wife as they closed the door of the west wing. Going in there always brought back memories to both of them some unpleasant but some good.
“It’s the only way” Belle sighed linking her arm through his and continued walking down the dimly light hall. They couldn’t afford their daughters finding out, not now at least about the past of the castle. They both had kind souls and would never have to go through something like that as long as they held onto the kindness that shone through them.
“Ok dear but we can’t hide it forever” Adam a dit looking at his wife doubtfully. She didn’t reply but she did understand what he meant. This was one of the secrets that they could not hide.
Lillian remained in her crouched position as her parents passed. She listened to their receding footsteps down the stairs and into the formal ballroom. Lillian sat back from the balls of her feet and put her back on the cold mur behind her. She let out a whispered relief then realized that Annette hadn’t been joking, that diary held something meant to be hidden from them. The secrets of their past were in that book.
A week had passed since the jour Annette had been sick and Lillian had found out where the book was. The seconde Annette had woken up Lillian had told her everything and the had formed a plan.
A week of keeping quiet not mentioning anything about the book ou about any secrets and then one night they would find what they were looking for.
“Come on lets go!” exclaimed Annette from outside Lillian and her’s massive closet. Tonight was the night, the night they were going to the west wing. They had been planning it for a week and Annette wasn’t going to be held back par Lillian who was trying to find some clothes.
Annette had already dressed in a navy blue dress that was warm and dark so if anyone passed them they could go about un-noticed, she had also put on a warm woolen veste for she didn’t want to get sick again, and some little slippers that wouldn’t make noise on the tile.
“One minute Anne” Lillian a dit quietly as she quickly put on a dark green dress, dark flats, and an old veste from long ago.
“Lets go” Annette a dit opening their wood paneled door and grabbing a single candlestick that could easily be blown out. The two sisters carefully placed their slippered feet on the cold tile floor in the hall and crept down the corridor.
They passed several Suits – Avocats sur Mesure of armor and tapestries from medieval times. They reached the golden plated stairs and carefully walked down them anticipation hung in the air when Annette’s foot slipped and she let out a squeak. They looked around and listened, no one had heard the noise.
The girls ran across the short way to the west wing staircase and quickly climbed up them as silently as they could.
When they made it up quickly and quietly as they could each girl placed a foot on the landing and glanced around. Both had been up here before but in the daylight when they could have gotten caught so they hadn’t had time to look around but now they finally could take a good look.
The hall had always been dark and gloomy with pictures of people with creepy smiles hanging on each side and rusty old pairs of armors on each side, finally the door that separated them from the west wing.
The two ran straight to the door as if the hall was something that they couldn’t bare due to the complete alert able eeriness that hung in the mere air.
Lillian opened the door quietly not letting it creek as she let Annette in for she was the one with the candle that lighted the room enough for them to take a glimpse at what was so forbidden. She then closed the door quietly and they took one big step into the west wing. When they observed the room they very nearly gasped from shock.
The west wing was in shambles with chairs knocked over and animalistic claw marks on the legs of them. The tapestries hanging from the ceiling had scratches all over them obscuring whatever picture they had held once. Every table, tableau was knocked over on the tile floor surrounded par class from the huge open window with a terrace outside of it. A picture of their father at a young age was above the fireplace and was teared and slashed right through his face.
They looked over at the once glass panned window and realized there was one table, tableau upright in front of it with an old antique hand mirror. Their was also a glass dome with the diary of their mother concealed inside of it.
