The Beast Within (Villains 2)

sp; Tulip wasn’t going to let Nanny get her worked up with her superstitious nonsense. She’d done it far too often in the past, and she wouldn’t allow herself to be swept away by it again. Not now.

“Oh, I know what you’re thinking, girl! You think Nanny is an old foolish woman, but I’ve been on this earth much longer than most and I’ve seen things most people only dream of.”

Tulip rolled her eyes, but Nanny went on.

“I’m telling you, I think this place is cursed.” Both ladies looked up from their conversation when they heard Lumiere clearing his throat at the room’s threshold.

“I just wanted you to know the doctor has left and the Prince is resting comfortably.”

“Will he be okay?” Tulip asked, worried.

“Oh yes, he will be fine. He’s recovering and exhausted, that’s all. I’m sure he will want to see you tomorrow,” he said, smiling in an attempt to lighten the mood.

“Tomorrow? Not today?” Tulip wondered, but she smiled back at Lumiere. She couldn’t help it; there was something about him.

“You needn’t fuss over us this evening for dinner,” she said. “You can just bring us something on a tray. We can eat in our rooms or perhaps next to the fire in the sitting room. I’m sure everyone is in a tizzy down there with Mrs. Potts and Cogsworth missing. I don’t want you worrying over us.”

Nanny looked pleased with the job she had done raising Tulip; she sounded not only like a real queen but a very compassionate one at that. But the flirty little Frenchman wouldn’t hear of serving guests on trays in the sitting room or any other room aside from the dining hall.

“Oh no! That will not do! If Mrs. Potts were here, she would blow her lid at the thought of you two eating off trays! And as for the menu this evening, never fear, we have something special planned for you!” He smiled another magical grin and said, “The dressing gong will be at six o’clock, dinner at eight o’clock. See you then!”

Then he was gone, likely dashing his way downstairs to arrange dinner and supervise the search for the missing servants. Tulip looked at her nanny coyly. “You don’t think the two of them snuck off together? Cogsworth and Mrs. Potts? You don’t think they’re in love?”

Nanny laughed. “I wish it were as simple as that, my girl, but no. Neither of them gave me the slightest notion there was something between them. No, I fear something dreadful has happened to them.”

Tulip rolled her eyes again. “Stop with all the talk of curses, Nanny! I won’t have it!”

Later that night, in the main dining hall, you wouldn’t have known two of the most important people on staff were missing. The room looked lovely, decorated with some of the hothouse flowers from Tulip’s surprise earlier in the day, and the candles were sparkling brightly in crystal votive bowls, casting an unearthly light. The two ladies were enjoying their dessert when the Prince stumbled into the room looking half crazed.

“I’m happy you ladies are enjoying your meal while the entire household is falling into shambles around you!” He looked terribly worn, as though he’d aged several years from the ordeal. Nanny and Tulip just stared at him, at a complete loss.

“Have you nothing to say for yourself, Tulip? Sitting there stuffing yourself while my childhood companions are suffering such a terrible fate?”

Nanny spoke first.

“Here now! I won’t have you speaking to her like that. She’s been worried sick over them and you. We both have!”

His face turned into something inhuman, something wicked and cruel. Nanny feared the Prince was losing his mind.

“Don’t look at me like that, old woman! I won’t have you casting evil looks at me! And you…!” He turned his anger on Tulip. “You lying strumpet, playing with my emotions, pretending you love me when clearly you do not!”

Tulip gasped and melted into tears at once, hardly able to speak.

“That’s not true! I do love you!” The Prince’s face was ashen, his eyes sunken and dark with illness, his anger growing with every word.

“If you loved me, truly loved me, then none of this would be happening! Mrs. Potts and Cogsworth would be here! The animals in the maze wouldn’t have attacked me, and I wouldn’t look like this! Look at me! Every day I grow uglier, more wretched.”

Nanny put her arm around Tulip, who was crying so hard she couldn’t breathe properly, let alone say anything in her defense. Though even if she had, he wouldn’t have heard her; his anger was growing completely out of control.

“I can’t stand the sight of you! I want you out of my castle this moment! Don’t bother packing your things.”

He rushed to the ladies, grasped Tulip by the hair, and pulled her toward the door, knocking over Nanny in the process.

“I won’t have you in the castle another moment, do you understand? You disgust me!”

Tulip was weeping harder than ever, screaming for the Prince to let her go so she could see to her nanny, when Gaston came into the room.

“What on earth is going on here, man?”