A tale as old as time with a rather different twist. When Beau's father steals a cursed rose from the garden of a terrifying beast, Beau bravely offers to take his father's place in servitude.
Cursed to appear in the form that will terrify the beho...
"We don't have much longer," Beau whispered against Brielle's ear. "They'll find us in a second."
Beau, his sister and his father had been living in the castle for almost a week now. Louis and Gabe had declined to join them, though they had taken sizeable allowances with them back to their newly acquired townhouse. Since the girls had moved in, they'd been monopolising Brielle's time, claiming her as a big sister and close friend. As a result, Beau was struggling to get a moment alone with her himself - and it looked like his plans had once again been foiled.
"You know, I think they might actually like me!" Brielle beamed, her face glowing with wonder.
"Of course they do! How could they not?" Beau replied as he pulled her close, kissing her lightly on the lips.
"Ew! Gross!" Rose exclaimed as she burst through the door, screwing up her face.
"Get a room!" Clara chimed in behind her.
"This is my room! Maybe it's time you two got out of it!" Beau replied, laughing. He kept his hand around Brielle's waist, keeping her close even though he could sense her trying to move back in embarrassment.
"We can't. If we do that, you'll just keep kissing all morning," Rose replied. Her young face clearly indicated she couldn't understand why anyone would want to waste the day on such a pointless pursuit.
"And that's a) gross, and b) really unhelpful because we need you," Clara added, her own expression solemn.
Beau laughed again. "Need us for what?"
"Not you," Rose rolled her eyes. "Bree. We need her to come and play hide and seek with us - Estelle's counting and Bree knows all of the best hiding places. We need her help."
"Oh," Brielle looked taken aback at being included. She looked to Beau, unsure what she should do. Beau shrugged.
"Go on, 'Bree'. They need you. It would be rude not to come to their aid!"
Eyes sparkling, Brielle kissed him on the cheek then left the room, holding each of the girls by the hand. "This way," she told them. "She'll never find us in the library - and we can read the books while we wait."
Beau didn't believe in fairytales, or happily ever afters. But he did believe in happily right nows. And with Brielle at his side, he knew that the future was much brighter than it had once seemed.
{I had a lot of fun writing this one, and I hope you all enjoyed it too. Please vote and comment to let me know your thoughts. If you'd like to read more fairytale retellings, I've currently written four, and you can find them all on my profile.}
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