A Deceptive Beauty

Chapter Twelve

Belle stood there frozen for a few moments before springing into action.

There were two possible outcomes of helping this man: one, he was faking and might hurt her, and two, he really was hurt and she needed to help him.

She decided that she would rather risk her own safety than his health.

"Mister? Mister!" Belle called out, running towards his crumpled form. She picked up her almost soaked dress so she wouldn't trip over it.

As soon as she arrived at his side, she knelt down to flip him over, since he had landed face first. Based on what she could see in the dark, he looked fine, but he was still unconscious.

He needed to wake up, and quick. Sleeping in the rain was not something she would recommend, spoken from her experience.

Belle grabbed him by the shoulders and shook him gently. "Wake up, please. Please wake up," she pleaded.

When the man gave no sign of waking up, Belle knew she needed to get him inside. But how was she going to carry a full-grown man all the way to the castle? Or even to a room, since she couldn't just leave him on the floor by the doors. She also hoped that Kaiden wouldn't mind if she brought him in.

Luckily, they were right next to the stables. If she could get him onto a horse, then it would be easy to get him to the castle. She could worry about getting him to a room when she got there.

Just before she went into the stables, she noticed a horse under the cover of a tree. She put a hand up, to block the rain from getting into her eyes, and made sure that she wasn't seeing things that weren't there. Even in the dark, she could see that the horse was white, which meant it was neither Cora or Shadow.

Did the man ride here on the white horse?

Most likely, Belle answered her own question. That would work fine. The horse would recognize its rider and be more inclined to help him out.

Cautiously, she approached the horse. "Hello there. Is that your owner there? He collapsed and I would appreciate if you could help me get him to the entrance," she said to the horse, hoping that the horse could somewhat understand her request.

The horse snorted in response and walked towards her. Belle took the opportunity to grab onto the reins and brought the horse to the man. Then, she tried to lift the man onto the horse.

Oh dear! Belle thought to herself. The man was very heavy. His lean body was very deceptive. Maybe it was because he was completely unconscious.

She put her arms around his waist to pick him up and place him on the kneeling horse's back. After she finally got him on the horse, she let out a sigh of relief. One part was done.

But then she noticed that her hands were sticky. Her hands looked a little darker and suddenly, the smell of copper hit her.

Blood.

He was bleeding! She needed to get him to the castle, and quickly!

Getting him to the castle was easy. All she did was lead the horse to the doors. Belle struggled taking him off the horse, but settled with pulling him off. She quickly tied the horse to the tree and then returned to the man, who was lying on the ground.

Dragging him, and wincing at the same time, Belle felt uncomfortable. Anyone who saw her would get a scare. It looked like she had killed a man and was dragging his body off to hide it.

Belle carefully thought about which room to bring him to. It had to somewhere on the first floor, because dragging him up the stairs would be impossible. But that one room, the one she had stayed in when she was hurt, was a good place to take care of him.