Beast and Beatrice

Chapter nineteen- Beatrice

  Beatrice watched in complete surprise as Gilbert sprinted away. She still felt dazed and off kilter after that mind-numbing kiss. All she could think was how desperately she wanted him to come back and kiss her again. She had been so lost in that passionate embrace that she forgot all else. Her only thought was how could he kiss her like that and just run off? Hadn't he felt anything? She could barely think or even catch her breath, let alone find the physical strength to rush off like that.

  Her body ached to be held in his arms again, and yet she also wanted more. She didn't understand exactly what 'more' entailed. She had no idea what came after those delicious kisses of his but she was certain there was more than that. There had to be something and he was withholding that knowledge. She yearned for him to teach her. This needy wanting had her desperate to experience the rest and she found herself instinctively moving to follow him. 

  But then a large group of women marching past, heading down the slope to the bridge, jarring her from that passion-induced haze. Recalling the duties assigned by Mayor Howard, she lifted her skirts and scrambled after the others. There would be time for mooning about later. She caught up to them just as they reached the other side of the bridge.

"What do we do now?" One young woman asked.

"Spread out girls." An older, grey-haired woman directed. "Stay on the outskirts of the village but look for anything that will hold water. Buckets, pitchers, bowls, anything you can find."

  They all scattered. Beatrice and another young woman hurried towards a burned-out building together. There wasn't much left of the little structure. A couple of half-burned walls and a doorframe. Beatrice wasn't as familiar with this end of town. She couldn't tell if the building had been someone's home or one of the small shops in town.

"I don't think we're going to find much." The brunette scowled doubtfully at the charred ruin.

"We just have to keep looking." Beatrice replied.

  She stepped carefully across the threshold and found a water bucket sitting just inside. Considering the condition of the rest of the building, it was a sheer miracle the bucket was fully intact. It looked virtually untouched by the fire. Plucking it up off the floor she turned and passed it back to the other woman.

"Here, you take this to the river and I'll see what else I can find."

  As the woman raced off, Beatrice returned to her search. The floor of the place was barely visible through all the blackened debris. Fallen beams and charred remnants of walls blocked her way. She dare not go any further so she backed out and moved on to another building. There didn't seem to be anything else salvageable in the next place, so she turned and moved on. After searching two more ruined structures and finding only one washbasin, she gave up the search and hurried back to the river.

   Apparently, her search had been no more successful than the any of the rest. Between the group of them, they only had a dozen or so containers. But at least they had something. The women quickly formed a line from the river with a few teenage lads ferrying the buckets at the end of the line nearest the fires. It didn't take long until all the containers were filled and passed through to the men.

"What do we do now? We have no more buckets." Another young blonde woman asked.

  Beatrice looked down at her soaked skirts and suddenly remembered the Sheriff's suggestion. The material was old and worn but still good quality wool. Not only would it soak up and hold five times more water than some of those small containers, it would also be useful to beat the flames.

"Take off your skirts." She exclaimed, bending to yank her own off.

"Our skirts." One woman protested, horrified.