Belle: A Retelling of “Beauty and the Beast” By Cameron Dokey Read Online Free Page A

she’s talked about since your letter arrived. It came on her birthday.
    Did I tell you that? She declared it her favorite gift.”
    “Is that so?” Monsieur LeGrand inquired, and then he smiled. His eyes grew
    brighter, and all the wrinkles on his face seemed to join together to form a new pattern of lines more complex than that on any sea chart. “That’s the nicest bit of news I’ve had in a good long while.”
    “Yes, Mare Louise?” my mother’s voice slid beneath Monsieur LeGrand’s.
    “Luncheon is served, Madame,” Marie Louise murmured from just inside the
    parlor door. Three paces in and not a step farther unless she is requested to do so.
    “Thank you,” my mother said, nodding. I stepped back, so that my sisters and I
    were standing in a perfect straight line.
    We all knew what would happen next. Monsieur LeGrand would offer Maman his
    arm. He would lead her into the dining room, pull out her chair, then sit down to her right, the position a guest of honor always occupies. Papa would take Celeste in. April and I would follow along behind. All of us would be in our proper place, our proper order. Things would be completely back to normal.
    But Monsieur LeGrand surprised us all. For instead of turning to offer his arm to Maman, he closed the distance between us and offered it to me.
    “Will you give me the pleasure of taking you in to lunch, ma Belle ?” he asked as he executed an expert bow. “Think of it as the rest of your birthday present.”
    I laughed in astonished delight before I could help myself. For here was a gift I had never even though to wish for: the chance to be first in line.
    I shot a quick glance in Papa’s direction and saw his lips lift in an encouraging smile. I didn’t quite dare to glance at Celeste, who was now destined to follow along behind. I wondered if she would recognize my back, for it would be unfamiliar to her. I remembered to keep it perfectly straight as I dipped a curtsy in response to Monsieur LeGrand’s bow.
    “Thank you, Monsieur,” I said. “I accept your gift with pleasure.”
    Both of us straightened up, and I stepped forward to meet him. Slipping my
    fingers into the crook of his elbow, I let him lead me out of the parlor and into the hall.
    It wasn’t until at least an hour later, when lunch was nearly over, that I realized I’d walked the entire distance from the parlor to the dining room without feeling the pinch of my new shoes at all.

CHAPTER FOUR
    Late that night I lay in bed, rolling the events of the day over in my mind.
    The rest of Monsieur LeGrand’s visit had passed as smoothly as the silk he had
    exported for so long. In the excitement of the day and listening to his stories of lands far away, I had allowed the strange and unhappy moments in the parlor to steal away to the farthest corner of my mind.
    This was not the same as saying I’d banished them forever, though. They were
    still there, simply biding their time. Now that the house was quiet and my mind had no other distractions, the memories of what had happened crept forward once more.
    Belle . I mouthed the word silently in the darkness. I am Annabelle Evangeline Delaurier, but everybody calls me Belle .
    Everybody called me Beauty, in other words. But what if what I had feared in the
    parlor this afternoon was true, and I wasn’t so very Beautiful after all?
    How do you recognize Beauty when you see it?
    What is Beauty, anyhow?
    I turned my head, the better to see April’s where she rested in the bed beside
    mine. Even in the dim light of the moon coming through the window, April’s hair
    glimmered ever so faintly, like a spill of golden coins. I was pretty sure there wasn’t another head in our entire city that could even dream of doing this, of shining in the dark.
    If anything is Beautiful, surely that is it , I thought.
    But was shining hair enough? Was that all it took to make my sister Beautiful? Or was it also the way her green eyes sparkled when she laughed? The