Little Gaston

Chapter 16

Belle and Adam were walking around at the fair which was spread out on the grounds of the castle. By now everything was set up and the approaching noon signalled the arrival of what seemed to be the whole village.

Everyone was bustling around and waiting for the official opening, the mayor of the village gesturing to Adam.

The prince stepped forwards, welcoming them all in his rehearsed speech, and bidding them to enjoy themselves. An applause sounded, and soon the area was filled with talking people and laughing children, who were doing their best to be underfoot, but no one really minded.

"Why don't we go look around," Adam said, offering Belle his arm.

With a smile, she slid hers in his and slowly they walked through the fair, making sure to stop at every booth where luckily Adam did most of the talking.

It did feel slightly awkward to be in this kind of position. She had never really fitted in with the rest of them, and things like this made it painfully obvious.

Socialising had always been more Gaston his thing than hers, where he would love to be in the middle of the crows, and she would just love to sit somewhere cozy and read a book.

But even so, she had always gone to the summer fair, and she loved looking at the different activities, even if she rarely joined most of them, feeling too much as an outsider.

"Aren't we going to see your little, milord?" the baker asked, when they bought three tarts from him, Adam giving one to Cogsworth to keep safe in the kitchen for when Gaston returned.

"Ah, he's feeling rather shy," Adam said, sounding regretful, "he preferred to be a bit on his own."

"Is he now? That's a shame," the baker said, looking at them with a frown, and Adam nodded, and walked away gracefully without saying anything more.

It was obvious that it was weird that their little wouldn't be at the fair when they were. Even if he hadn't been known or was shy, it was actually expected him to be here as well.

"They'll gossip about it," Belle said, taking a small bite from her tart and glancing back to the baker, who was leaning towards the widow, who nodded with a faint look of disapproval on her face, her wig slanting just a little.

"Let them," Adam said, shrugging and not caring about the villagers. They could gossip all they wanted, but they didn't have the power to make an impact, "if our little one doesn't want to talk to them, it's best not to force him."

"He's afraid of their opinions," Belle said, looking a little unhappy. Normally, she didn't care a lot about the opinions of the villagers, having dealt with their stances about her free spiritedness and their disapproval about the fact that she, as a woman, had bigger ambition then to be a housewife or a nun, but Gaston had always seemed like such a fish in the water with them.

It seemed almost weird that he was the one pulling back and she was the one mingling, as if it had all turned topsy-turvy.

"We'll get through to him. I can't wait to see him running around here next time. You think he would dare to do so in headspace?" Adam said, seeing several of the adults busy with apple bobbing and just imaging their little Gaston succeeding and running up to them, half wet with an apple in his mouth.

"Who knows," Belle said, greeting another villager, and talking a bit. It didn't surprise her when they started to talk about how they thought that after refusing that horrible Gaston's marriage proposal, she would grow to be a spinster.

"Imagine you stumbling on a magicked castle and finding a prince," the slightly drunk woman said, leaning against her laughing husband.

"Imagine that," Belle said dryly, the smile on her face was gone by then.