Only Skin Deep

Lost

Belle was hopelessly, irreversibly lost.

She peered closely at a flowering shrub, trying to work out if it looked familiar to her or not. She had been wandering the moonlit gardens for the best part of an hour, without paying any sort of attention to where she was going. And she was fairly certain, what with her previous experience of the mansion’s enchanted gardens, that the hedges had been moving about to disorientate her even further.

Belle glared rather moodily at a section of hedge. “You’re doing this on purpose, aren’t you?” she asked of no one in particular. “You just want to get me nice and muddled so I can’t find my way back to the mansion. What is it you have against me anyway?”

“Are you talking to that bush?”

Belle gave a strangled sort of cry and jumped back, wondering for a second if she had gone mad and the plants really were talking to her. Then she turned to see the Master, standing just a few feet away and trying very, very hard not to laugh at her.

“You have to stop sneaking up on me like that!” Belle clutched her pounding heart, as the Master gave up trying and spluttered with laughter. “You’re going to give me a heart attack!”

“I thought you might have gotten lost,” the Master answered, shaking his head with mirth.

“It’s no wonder,” Belle grumbled, “if these things keep moving around.” She gestured towards the hedge she had been conversing with.

“Indeed…” the Master murmured with a wide grin. “But I can assure you that they do not talk.”

Belle sighed and tried to look annoyed, but found she was smiling. She pictured what she must have looked like talking to the foliage and started laughing. The feeling was amazing; it felt years since she had last laughed.

She attempted to compose herself and looked up to see the Master watching her, his head on one side and smiling strangely. Belle’s giggles died down and they stood there somewhat awkwardly for a moment.

“Would you…?” the Master began, half turning back towards what Belle imagined was the direction of the mansion. “… care to walk with me?”

Belle thought back to her first weeks in the mansion, when she couldn’t bear to be in the same room as the Master. So it was with some surprise that she found herself agreeing and falling into step beside him. The walked along quite companionably in silence, before the Master turned to her once more.

“What is it you do to… entertain yourself?” he asked, wearing a genuine look of interest.

“You mean, what did I used to do?” Belle looked over at the Master and saw with some satisfaction that he was looking uncomfortable. She sighed. “I suppose… I liked to sing.”

Something like recognition flickered across the Master’s face, and his lips twitched up at the corners. “Ahh, singing,” he mused. “Do you think you would ever sing for me, Belle?”

“Oh...” Belle glanced at him sideways, having not expected such a request. “Now? With no music? I’m hopeless at piano. A friend tried to teach me once…” she babbled on, and smirked at the memory. “I believe his exact words were, ‘It sounded as though the cat had gotten loose over the keys’.”

“Aha,” the Master nodded. Belle looked at him curiously.

“Do you play, Master?”

The Master looked a little taken aback at the question, and frowned as if pulling a memory from the depths of his mind.

“No…” he eventually answered thoughtfully. “I believe I was given lessons once…” He shook his head. “But I never really took to it. However,” he continued with a sudden smile, “I think there is probably something I could do…”

A short while later the two of them entered the mansion (“I could have found it by myself, really,” Belle muttered) and the Master led Belle through to the back of the building. He pushed open a large pair of ornate doors and stood aside to let Belle pass. She gave him a suspicious look, before stepping through into the room beyond.

 It was a huge hall, and unfamiliar to Belle though she could have sworn that she’d been through every room in the mansion several times over. She gasped and her eyes widened as they raked over the hundreds upon hundreds of books, stacked up to the ceiling on shelves that ran around the perimeter of the room. Every wall was shelf space, save for the two floor-to-ceiling windows that stretched across the southern wall. In front of one of these windows, dusted in the moonlight that poured in through the glass, was a grand piano.

“How… where did…?” Belle tried to ask. She crossed to the piano and ran a hand over its smooth surface. It was impeccably polished, and not a speck of dust in sight. She turned back to face the Master, who was smiling expectantly at her.

“What do you think?”

“Where did this room come from?!” was all Belle could manage, her eyes still roaming the shelves of books.

“Well it didn’t just appear,” the Master laughed softly. “I’m good, but I’m not that good. This is my… ahh, personal space.”

Belle looked at him inquisitively. “I’ve never cleaned in here…”

“No,” he answered simply. “Before now you didn’t really give any indication that you’d want to spend any time in the same space as me.” He didn’t give Belle a chance to answer this, and instead waved his hand over in the direction of the piano. It came to life suddenly, and melody filled the air.

“Sing for me, Belle?” the Master asked, turning to face her.

Belle smiled. “I don’t know this song.”

“Sing,” the Master instructed, “and the tune will follow you.”

Belle regarded him warily but opened her mouth to sing, choosing a simple lullaby she would sometimes sing to Maurice and Angelique… the same lullaby her mother had sung to her when she was young. As soon as her voice danced into song the piano fell in beside her, enhancing the lullaby with a gentle melody. She faltered for a second in surprise, but then grinned at this impressive use of magic and sang on. Having never been able to master playing the piano, Belle was thoroughly enjoying controlling the music and was quite disappointed when she ran out of lyrics in her lullaby.

The last note rang out through the hall and the Master raised his head, smiling. A soft blush crept across Belle’s cheeks but she held his gaze.

“So now do you think…” the Master said melodiously, stepping a little closer, “that you might be able to enjoy yourself a little more here?”

Belle smiled, but a strained look passed across her face causing the Master to stop.

“What’s wrong?”

“It’s just…” Belle became aware of the fact that the two of them were now stood very close together, but she shook the thought from her mind. “It’s just that… I get awfully lonely, sometimes. I miss…” She cast her eyes down. “… I miss my family.”

The Master stood frozen for a second, before lifting a hand to Belle’s chin and gently tilting her face up towards his. He gazed down into the depths of Belle’s eyes. Up this close Belle could see the sharpness of the Master’s fangs protruding over his lower lip, but for some reason this no longer frightened her.

“I think I might have something,” he murmured quietly, “that would make you feel less lonely.”