Elise yanked up her blanket and squeezed her eyes shut. Belle exchanged a smile with Granny T and tried not to laugh.
“All right. Let me just find the right place.” Granny T flipped through the tattered pages.
“This is Granny T’s story, you know,” Elise whispered to Belle. She peered at Belle through one open eye.
Belle lay down and drew up her own blanket. “I remember,” she said. “You told me she gave the book to you.”
“That’s not what I mean. It’s her story.”
“That’s enough, Elise,” Granny T said. “No more talking or there won’t be time for me to read.” Elise closed her eyes again.
“Here we are,” Granny T said. “ ‘Marie had been flying so long on her dragon, she’d lost track of how much time had passed. The clouds hugged them, making it difficult to see above or below.’ ”
Belle noticed that although Elise’s eyes were closed, her lips moved as she recited the words Granny T spoke.
“ ‘She caught glimpses of gold through the mist, glimmering and glittering, and then disappearing again.’ ”
Instead of reading from the book, Granny T had set it on her lap. She, too, was reciting from memory.
“ ‘As they drew closer, Marie saw a castle gate. It rose so high that its top disappeared into the clouds.’ ” Granny T kept her eyes on the fire, which crackled and sparked. “ ‘Behind the gate was the misty outline of a grand palace.’ ”
Belle gazed at the ceiling as she listened. She pictured the enchanted palace floating above her, encased in its cottony cloud bank, its shimmering gates slowly swinging open.
After a few more minutes, Elise’s lips stopped moving. She curled onto her side, and Belle could hear her breathing fall into an even rhythm. Granny T smiled down at Belle.
“She has it memorized herself,” Granny T whispered. “Even after the book falls apart completely—which won’t be too long from now, I’m afraid—she won’t have lost it. She’ll still have it. Here…” Granny T tapped her head, and then her heart. “And here.”
“I will, too,” Belle said.
“That means a lot to me,” Granny T said. In the light from the fire, Belle could see Granny T’s smile and the sparkle in her eyes.
“Have you always loved books?” Belle asked.
“I’ve always loved stories—listening to them and reading them. We did have a few books here in the village when I was growing up. My friends and I would pass them around. They helped me learn there was more to life than the limited experiences I’d had in this small town.”
Belle was stunned. Here was someone else who had felt just as Belle had when she was growing up in Villeneuve! Granny T had longed for adventure, and she’d found it, just like Belle.
“So you went to Paris!”
Granny T nodded. “My husband, George, and I. He was a baker.” She smiled at the memory. “Life in Paris was as exciting as I’d dreamed it would be. I hope we’ll go back one day. I’d love for Elise to see it.” She gently set the book next to Elise and lay down. “Now it really is time for sleep,” she said. Her face faded in and out of the darkness in the waning light from the dying fire.
“Bonne nuit, Belle.”
“Good night.”
Belle closed her eyes. Thoughts swirled around in her head—events of the day and tasks that lay ahead. Gradually, however, her breathing slowed to match that of her sleeping companions.
She’d almost fallen asleep when an idea occurred to her. It came and went in a flash—something inspired by the book, but what? Belle opened her eyes and tried to latch on to it, but weariness had made her thoughts hazy and jumbled. The idea slipped away, lost among other ideas and memories and stories.
The last of the fire’s orange embers winked out, and Belle closed her eyes again, giving up….
Then, at the last moment, the idea came back. “That’s it!” Belle whispered to herself. She needed to think more about it and work out the details. She might not sleep, but she didn’t mind. This was worth lying awake for.
She’d figured out a way to rescue the Prince.
“I think…maybe…yes…let me just set it down softly here….”
“Mon Dieu, Cogsworth! Stand up, already!” Lumiere rolled his eyes as Cogsworth tentatively tapped the toe of his bad foot on the straw mat next to the bed.
“Don’t rush me, Lumiere!” Cogsworth protested. “Do you want me to reinjure it?”
“There is no weight on it yet!” said Lumiere. “And you have two people to hold you up, and two more making sure you don’t fall.”
“And I promise we won’t let you fall,” Belle added.
Cogsworth let out an irritated sniff and allowed Belle and Lumiere to lift him off the bed, his arms wrapped around their shoulders. Granny T and Nicole were ready to grab him if he should suddenly stumble.
“Carefully set your foot down,” Granny T instructed.
Cogsworth obeyed, a tense grimace on his face. He squeezed his eyes shut in anticipation of pain. “I think it’s down. Is it down?” He tipped his head to the side and peered out of one eye.
“Oui. You’ve landed,” said Lumiere. “And you are still alive. Quel miracle.”
Cogsworth ignored Lumiere’s sarcasm. “I must say, it doesn’t hurt too much. A slight twinge, but…” He leaned forward a little, gripping hard to Belle and Lumiere. “Definitely improved from yesterday.”
Belle smiled. “It looks like you won’t be lame for life after all.” She was genuinely happy at his recovery.
“It will keep improving,” Granny T promised Cogsworth. “A few more days and you should be walking fine without any help.”
“We’re back!” Paul called as he entered the house with Elise.
Elise darted forward, holding her branch sword from the day before. “I brought it from the field! Monsieur Cogsworth can use it as a cane,” she said.
“Very kind of you, young lady.” Cogsworth took the branch and tapped it on the floor. “Seems very sturdy. I shall practice walking with it immediately…after a brief rest.”
He handed the branch back to Elise and shot a beseeching look at Belle. Belle nodded to Lumiere, and together they lowered Cogsworth onto the bed.
“I have good news,” Paul said. “Our friends Antoine and Jacques are heading out to the river this afternoon to fish. They’ll clear the way for us to follow, and I’ve borrowed a mule and cart from Monsieur LeFer, the blacksmith, in return for some of the scrap metal we collected yesterday. I’ll drive you to the river and wait with you until a barge or boat comes by to carry you north.”
“That’s wonderful!” Cogsworth declared. He turned to Belle. “Why didn’t you tell me you’d rescued the Prince?” he asked before she could stop him. “Where is he?”
“Cogsworth,” Lumiere hissed, his eyes flashing.
“What?” Cogsworth finally noticed that Elise and her family were all staring at him. “Oh, dear…What I meant was…”
“He meant our friend the valet/stable hand, of course,” Lumiere said quickly. “We call him the Prince because…because he is a prince of a guy!”
“Yes!” Cogsworth cried. “That is precisely what I meant!” Drops of sweat appeared around his hairline. “Precisely.”
Belle’s stomach dropped as she mentally scrambled for a way to steer the conversation in another direction—any direction. She’d lain awake most of the night formulating her rescue plan, but she hadn’t stayed awake the entire night. She’d finally drifted off midthought, exhaustion over-taking her. As a result, she’d been the last one in the house to wake up that morning.
By the time she rose from her bed by the hearth, Nicole and Lumiere were already fixing breakfast, Granny T had rewrapped Cogsworth’s ankle, and Paul and Elise had left the house on a mission Belle hadn’t been aware o
f—until now. She’d had no time to fill in Lumiere and Cogsworth on her idea, or to come up with the best way to explain the true purpose of their journey to their new friends.
The staring continued—but not by Elise, who leapt up and down with excitement. “There’s a prince? That’s almost better than a monster!” She crossed her arms and looked sharply at Belle. “I want to see him,” she demanded. Every other pair of eyes in the room now turned to Belle.
Belle decided the simplest explanation was the truth—the whole truth. “We weren’t sure what to tell you last night,” she began. “It’s all so complicated….It is true that we came here to find our friend. He’s not a stable hand or a valet, though. And we aren’t servants in a mansion—”
“We’re servants in a castle!” Cogsworth chimed in. “A very large castle—which I run with meticulous precision.”
“We are not all servants in the castle,” Lumiere corrected him. “Belle merely lives there with her father.”
“The castle belongs to the Prince,” Belle explained. “His mother was your Queen Cecile’s sister. The Prince knew about the struggles in your village, and I’m pretty sure he came here to see if he could fix things. But something went wrong, and we think he’s been imprisoned in your castle. That’s why we’ve come: to rescue him.”
Paul shook his head. “Like I told you before,” he said, “there’s been no news of anyone entering the village in months, or trying to get into the castle. Maybe he never arrived here.”
“He’s here!” Cogsworth declared. “We saw him get thrown in the dungeon!”
“You saw…?” Paul asked. “How?”
“We, um, saw him from our balloon,” Lumiere said. “Through the dungeon window.”
“The dungeon is belowground,” Paul argued. “The windows are at ground level.”
“We had a very strong telescope,” Lumiere said.
“That’s true!” Cogsworth said. “We did. Unfortunately, it fell from the balloon and we lost it.”
“Which is the truth, exactement,” Lumiere said.
Belle sighed. “I don’t want to lie anymore.” She turned to Elise and her family. “We saw him in a Magic Mirror.”
“Magic Mirror!” Elise ran to Belle’s side and grabbed her arm. “Let me see it! Let me see it!”
“I don’t have it with me,” Belle said. “I dropped it before we left, and it broke.”
“Of course it did,” Paul said with a laugh.
“Belle is telling the truth,” Lumiere insisted. “The Enchantress gave the Prince the mirror when—”
“Enchantress!” Elise clapped her hands in delight.
“That’s a whole other story,” Belle told Elise.
“I want to hear it!”
“I’ll tell it to you another time.” Belle needed Elise’s family to believe her, which meant she had to keep the magic to a minimum. “First we have to rescue the Prince—but we can’t do it alone.”
“Why would his own family imprison him?” Nicole asked.
“I don’t know,” Belle said. “Something happened in the past, but he wouldn’t tell me what. Once we rescue him, we can find out.”
Paul was still unconvinced. “How did the Prince get onto the castle grounds when no one’s been allowed through the gates for years? How did he get to the kingdom in the first place?” Belle hesitated, unsure how to answer. “Don’t tell me,” Paul said. “It was magic.”
“Ooo! Did he fly, too?” Elise asked.
“In a way,” Belle said.
Paul shook his head. “I’m sorry, Belle, but this sounds like something…like something out of that book.” He waved at Elise’s copy of The Kingdom in the Clouds.
“I know it does,” Belle replied. “But I promise, it’s the truth. Will you help us?”
“I believe her,” Granny T said.
“Of course you believe her, Mama,” Paul said. “You’ve got the wildest imagination here—even counting Elise.”
“I believe her, too!” Elise declared.
“Just because you don’t the how or why of something doesn’t mean it isn’t true,” Granny T told her son.
“I believe her, too,” Nicole chimed in. “Why would Belle lie? She’s obviously come here on a mission that’s important to her and her friends. Now she’s explaining to us what it is.”
“And asking for our help,” Granny T added. She turned to Belle. “Which we will give, to the best of our ability.”
“Three against one, Papa!” Elise said.
Paul let out a defeated laugh. “Not for the first time.” He folded his arms and sighed. “Well, let’s hear it, then,” he said, addressing Belle. “How can we help?”
Belle explained her idea, and she, Cogsworth, Lumiere, and Elise’s family figured out the basic plan. Paul then left with Elise to carry out his part, while Granny T joined Nicole at the loom.
Belle sat with Lumiere and Cogsworth at the fire to work out more of the details. “I should play the visiting king,” Lumiere insisted. “Due to my theatrical background, of course.”
“I need to be the king,” Cogsworth argued. “I’ll have to ride in the carriage, don’t forget.” He waved to his burlap-bound ankle.
“Cogsworth’s right, Lumiere,” Belle said. “It’s better if he acts as the king.”
“See?” Cogsworth said. “I’m right yet again.” He drew himself up straight in his seat. “I do look the part, if I say so myself. And my injury will fit perfectly with my disguise. They’ll think I have the gout. It’s a very royal illness. Many, many kings have it.”
“Lumiere,” Belle interjected. “Your role is just as important. As the chief courtier traveling with the king, you have to charm the guards.”
“Ah! Mais oui!” Lumiere cried, delighted. “I understand now. If charm is what you need, I am your man. Cogsworth is absolument what I would call inadequate in that department.” He ignored Cogsworth’s glare.
Belle’s idea was inspired by a scene from The Kingdom in the Clouds. In it, Marie posed as a visiting princess and tricked the castle guards into letting her through the gates. Belle had combined this with a scene from a different book in which an army snuck its soldiers into an enemy’s fortress by hiding them in a giant wooden horse sent to the enemy as a “gift.”
Together these two plots made up Belle’s plan. Lumiere and Cogsworth would approach the castle gates in a carriage. Lumiere would capture the attention of the guards by explaining that “King Cogsworth” had come from their tiny kingdom in the hopes of forging an alliance. Once the guards had opened the gates, Belle, hiding in a secret chamber inside the carriage, would slip out onto the castle grounds.
“The Magic Atlas is in there somewhere, along with the Prince,” Belle explained to her friends. “I just have to locate the window to his cell. Once he tells me where he last saw the atlas, I’ll find it, and we’ll use it to escape.”
“What if they actually admit us into the castle?” Cogsworth asked. “What do we do then?”
Considering that the grief-stricken king and princess had banned all visitors, it was more likely the guards would send them back out and shut the gates behind them. “If you meet King Robert or Princess Marianne, ask them about the kingdom and its history. The more you can keep them talking about themselves, the less they’ll ask about you. Then say you’d like to tour the kingdom and visit the village before dark. If the Prince and I have already left the castle, we can meet you outside the gates, and we’ll all leave together.”
“We’re ready for a fitting!” Granny T called from the other side of the room.
In The Kingdom in the Clouds, Marie had a cloak made from magic silver threads given to her by a friendly sorcerer she’d met along her journey. The cloak could transform into whatever type of clothing Marie wanted—including the royal gown of a princess. Belle and
her friends didn’t have a magic cloak, but they did have the “magic” Nicole could weave on her loom.
“Monsieur Cogsworth first,” Nicole said, holding up a shimmering cape. She’d woven together scraps of blue silk taken from the balloon, and Granny T had sewn on a stripe of fluffy furlike cream-colored wool for the trim.
Belle helped Cogsworth stand, and Nicole and Granny T draped the cape around his shoulders. The cape seemed to act as a tonic to his pain, and he gestured for Belle to step back. Holding tight to his makeshift cane, Cogsworth stood regal and proud, without wavering.
Lumiere studied Cogsworth. “Hmph,” he mused. “Not bad.”
“We thank you for your kind words, humble courtier,” Cogsworth said, with a slight bow of his head.
“The robe makes the man, as they say,” Granny T observed. “Or in this case, the king.”
While Belle and Granny T helped Lumiere with the satin tunic that had been made for him, Nicole opened the shutter over the window next to the hearth. “Do we have the crown yet?” Nicole called.
A moment later, Elise burst in, carrying a ring of tin. Sharp, triangular points had been shaped along its brim, each adorned with a colorful, shimmering “jewel.”
“Some are from a broken glass bottle that Papa chipped into smaller bits and polished,” Elise said, pointing to each gem. “And some are stones from the river.”
Belle placed the crown on Cogsworth’s head. He straightened even further, growing taller before their eyes.
“Have you ever seen a magic cloak in real life, Granny T?” Elise asked.
“No, I haven’t,” Granny T replied. “But that doesn’t mean one doesn’t exist somewhere.”
“Then how did you know how to describe it in the book?” Elise said.
“Well, I just imagined it….” Granny T caught herself. She exchanged a quick look with Nicole.
“You imagined it?” Belle asked, confused. Granny T’s cheeks grew pink.
“It doesn’t need to be a secret from Belle,” Nicole told Granny T. She turned to Belle. “Granny T wrote The Kingdom in the Clouds.”
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