The Heart of The Beast

by Susan Kohler

  “Mother!” Beauty exclaimed shocked. “You keep a civil tongue in your head or I’ll tell the Beast that you stayed by his side fretting over him most of the nights just like the rest of us.”

  “I was but worried for you.” Margaret may have changed her opinion of the Beast but she wasn’t ready to admit it to the man yet. However she couldn’t hide the flush that crept up her neck. “I’d best go find Seth.”

  “Tis strange, Mother. He’s usually right behind you,” Beauty muttered solemnly, but her eyes danced with mischief.

  After her mother left the room Beauty looked over at the Beast and said wryly, “There’s another small romance, it seems. If the pair of them ever admits it, for I fear Seth is afraid to admit his feelings. Of course, as with many men, he is exceedingly stubborn.”

  “Tis very strange,” the Beast commented slowly, not quite looking Beauty straight in the eyes. “I’d always heard that he was in love, from afar, with the former lady of the castle. That she never knew of his affection because his love and respect for the old lord kept him silent, and surely her own love and respect for her husband was well known. Tis good that he’s finally gotten over her.”

  Ignoring Beauty’s look of blank astonishment, the Beast ate slowly, content to look at Beauty. He decided not to mention some of the things he’d heard while they thought he was too ill to hear their talk. The small piece of private conversation between Beauty and her mother puzzled him the most. From what he could make out, the words they’d left unsaid seemed more important than the words they’d actually said.

  Shortly after he ate, the Beast drifted off to sleep once more. His dreams were confused and troubled until Beauty appeared in them. Even in his dreams, she calmed everything down and eased his way. When he awoke again he lay there silently, just watching her with strange longings and even stranger feelings wandering through his head. For the first time in his life he thought the word “marriage” without a shiver of revulsion.

  In a couple of days the Beast moved down to the great hall to recover. He was a poor patient, always restless and grumbling. Luckily there were more things in the hall to occupy him. His guards and soldiers visited with him often, sharing war stories. Other servants brought him news of the village and the castle itself. Beauty made sure musicians played most of the day, lutes, flutes and harps mostly. A balladeer sang sometimes, and jugglers and acrobats performed in the evenings. Still the Beast grew ever more and more restive. He wanted to get up and search for Gerrin. He wanted Gerrin dead.

  Tom was now completely healed. He began to train again and acted as a liaison between the Beast and the guards, reporting to the Beast on the hunt for Gerrin and on the progress of the guards’ training sessions. Claire and Nate sat and talked with the Beast for short periods before they disappeared together. Off to play or to cause mischief, the Beast wondered wryly as he watched them go?

  Seth hovered over the Beast as much as he could without straying too far from Margaret’s side. That was quite a trick as Margaret’s softening attitude towards the Beast seemed to have disappeared as if it had never occurred. In fact, she avoided him as much as possible.

  At his question, Beauty reluctantly explained her mother’s attitude, “She admits that you’re a good man, M’lord, but she still refuses to accept our living together without being wed. Don’t be alarmed, for I explained to her that you required certain things of a potential wife.”

  “I do?” The Beast pretended not to remember.

  “You told me once that you required your future bride to have a title and a dowry, M’lord, but that else wise you had no preference for one woman over another,” Beauty reminded him coolly. “You once said you cared not to get married except to produce an heir so it mattered not whom you were married to.”

  The Beast feigned fatigue, muttering a single phrase as he seemed to drift off to sleep, “Mayhap I once was a fool.”

  Beauty briefly considered smothering him with his own pillow. “Men!”

  The next day the Beast sent for Tom. “I want you to go fetch the other Tom from the stables. I recently promised Beauty to implement some things to help the peasants grow more and better crops. I’ve decided to give the other Tom the responsibility of handling those matters for me. It’ll give him a chance to earn a little extra money and show him that I still have trust in him after... ”

  “After almost hanging him?” Tom smiled. “Admit it, M’lord, you’re trying, without giving him an apology, to make things up to him, like you did for me.”

  “Yes,” the Beast muttered. “Am I that easily read, then?”

  “Nay, M’lord. Tis a good plan,” Tom said, “and it’s a good plan to have me fetch him. If anyone else told him you wanted to see him in the great hall, he’d probably fear for his life. He’s still deathly afraid of you.”

  “I’m glad someone around here is,” the Beast muttered ruefully. “These women around here pester me constantly without the slightest fear of reprisal.”

  “Even Beauty?” Tom asked.

  “Especially Beauty, she wants my head on a platter,” the Beast muttered sardonically.

  “Nay, M’lord, she really wants your hand in marriage,” Tom grinned but he left the room rather quickly after that remark.

  When the other Tom, who came to be called Tom Two by most of the castle inhabitants, appeared in the great hall, the Beast bade him to sit by the fire with him so they could talk. The Beast described to Tom exactly what he wanted of him. He made arrangements with the young man for helping the peasants with their crops. A more astonished young man the Beast hoped never to meet, but as Tom Two’s bewilderment faded he began to show a surprisingly agile mind. He slowly lost some of his fear of the Beast. Finally, he spoke up and began to exchange ideas with the lord.

  The Beast also sent a rider to a nearby fiefdom to bring a travelling carnival to the village for a harvest festival. Beauty helped him make the plans.

  At night, Beauty and the Beast retired together to his bedchamber. As the Beast’s health improved he began to turn to Beauty in the night. He and Beauty made love, at first cautiously and tenderly, but soon passionately and endlessly.

  It was a rather idyllic time for all the castle’s inhabitants. Too idyllic to last for long. When the Beast could pleasure her fully with all the fierce passion and strength in his soul, Beauty almost wept, for she knew he would now leave her to search for Gerrin. The Beast, knowing his strength had returned, ordered his horse to be saddled. He went to head the search for Gerrin.

  Chapter Ten

  Before he left, Beauty was standing in front of the castle. She smiled bravely and kissed the Beast in front of his men with no small degree of passion. She stood there watching as the Beast and his knights rode away and his foot soldiers marched out the castle gate. She stayed watching until the men were all completely out of sight until even there dust from their passing had died down. Few noticed the tears welling in her eyes.

  Once the group of men were gone she wandered about the castle grounds aimlessly. Her bravado faded and the crushing fear and loneliness hovered over her like a black cloud. She was brooding and restless. The castle inhabitants, including Sir Gregory, the knight assigned by the Beast to protect her, worried greatly about her. Beauty seemed wrapped in her own thoughts. Although she was normally aware of people’s feelings around her, she failed to realize just how frustrated Sir Gregory was to be left behind.

  He was a warrior, not a Lady’s maid! The knight went about the task of guarding Beauty with diligence and courtesy however, as it was his nature to do whatever tasks his liege assigned him to the best of his ability. He was well read and intelligent, a fitting companion to Beauty.

  Margaret stepped in and took charge of the day to day running of the castle with the help of Seth, Gwyneth and Claire. With most of the horses gone from the stables, Nate had some spare time to spend with Beauty, but even he couldn’t lift her spirits. She felt cut off and alone.

  The Beast sent frequent mes
sengers, but most of the messages were disquieting. The bad news they received almost constantly from the Beast’s messengers did nothing to help ease Beauty’s state of mind. However much she hoped for one, there were no private, more intimate messages from the Beast.

  It seemed that while the Beast was recuperating and idle, lying in bed and healing from his wounds, Gerrin had used his time very well. He had roamed the countryside stirring up the unhappy peasants and collecting the most vicious men he could find. He had soon surrounded himself with a small army of nefarious followers. Peasant malcontents, roaming thieves, more than a few rebellious guards and some bloodthirsty mercenaries all joined his growing band of renegades. Before long he had a small but truly formidable army of miscreants.

  Reports of Gerrin and his treacherous band came to the castle from all over. Tales of burning villages, wild plundering raids, looting, cruel rapes and vicious murders abounded. Some reports had the band headed back towards the castle where they thought the Beast was still recuperating and his soldiers were not fully prepared to defend the castle. As the band of thieves approached, they were said to be raiding small villages and plundering other castles along the way. Nothing left behind in their wake had been untouched.

  Messengers were sent out to warn the surrounding shires and even to the nearest castles. Another messenger was sent to warn the local villagers, telling them to come to the castle for the safety to be found inside the great walls.

  Beauty, Seth, Gwyneth and Margaret worked hard along with the rest of the servants to provide some small comfort to the villagers who crowded inside the castle courtyard. Village women and the castle servants laboured long and hard together, cooking almost continuously to feed the extra mouths.

  The village men hunted for game, with Beauty’s permission. Others worked long hours with the blacksmiths to make weapons: Arrowheads, lances and swords. The few soldiers remaining at the castle and the village men banded together to shore up the castle’s defences. Even the villagers’ children worked, running errands and gathering firewood and water under the watchful eyes of the few remaining guards.

  The Beast and his men caught up with the outlaw group several times, attacking them and engaging them in small skirmishes. The thieves were too elusive however; they always seemed to have an escape route planned. Gerrin commanded his band with absolute authority and did not hesitate to kill anyone who disobeyed his orders. His right hand man was a callous former guard named Wolford.

  Gerrin and Wolford were both skilled and masterful at strategy, and they knew the Beast and his tactics well. Gerrin also knew the local forest as well as the Beast.

  In each of the skirmishes, the Beast’s men succeeded in capturing and killing some of the rebels, but Gerrin, Wolford and the fiercest of the murderous scum evaded the Beast time after time.

  At the castle, Beauty waited and prayed. She was afraid for both the Beast and her brother Tom, but she was also strangely restless. To make matters worse, since the Beast left she hadn’t had a spare moment to herself. Hardly even enough time to pray. The crowd of serfs camped out in the castle courtyard had questions and demands for her constantly, and the incessant smell of cooking food was making her feel out of sorts, almost queasy. Once or twice she had the strange thought that the sight or smell of even one more roasting chicken would cause her to vomit.

  Time dragged by slowly. Gwyneth and Margaret stayed by her side, both noticing the strain Beauty was under and the unusual pallor to her skin. They wondered about her and worried for her health.

  Nate and Claire were inseparable. They worked with the servants, keeping the food supplied and the castle clean. Nate also had his work in the stables and had begun to spend his few spare moments training with the small group of remaining guards. The older men took the boy under their protection and enjoyed helping him as he learned to be fairly proficient in the use of various weapons. Sir Gregory spent time with the boy whenever he could be away from Beauty.

  Two weeks after the Beast left to head the hunt for the outlaw guard, a horrifying report came in. Another young woman from the village had been found raped and murdered, but this time the body was found within sight of the castle walls. Looking at the mangled body, Beauty was so shocked she almost fainted. She had seen the woman before. It was the woman who had been tied up in the Beast’s bedchamber on the day she’d slapped the Beast. Several of the villagers knew the woman had been taken to the castle. In spite of his present absence and his recent wounds, some of the peasants blamed the Beast for the woman’s murder.

  Still seeking Gerrin and his band, the Beast knew naught of this new outrage. Following reports of raids, the Beast and his army of guards found themselves backtracking a bit. The more they searched for Gerrin and the pillagers, the closer the trail led them back to the castle. Finally, they took advantage of the nearness of the castle to replenish their food and supplies and get some fresh horses.

  The Beast and his men decided to spend the night at the castle before going out once more to search for Gerrin and his knaves. It was the wrong night to be home.

  The tense situation came to a head, exploding suddenly and unexpectedly. The anger and anxieties of the peasants erupted into a mob of murderous rage against whoever was looting and plundering the land, and against whoever was brutally raping and murdering the young village girls.

  In the villagers’ eyes, it was the same person to blame for both the looting, robberies and the murders. In spite of the fervent protests and denials from the castle inhabitants, the Beast was being blamed, especially for the murders. The word among the peasants was that if he himself wasn’t the one committing the vicious acts, then he was turning a blind eye and letting it happen. His quest to bring in Gerrin was seen as a sham.

  His past habit of taking the village women at will worked against him. His reputation was his own worst enemy. His ferocity and ruthlessness were legend, while his recently acquired humanity was virtually unknown.

  One of the village spokesmen, a man secretly in contact with Gerrin, sought to raise the ire of the rest of the villagers against the Beast. He was very loud and vocal as he accused the Beast of the barbaric murders of the young girls. The army following the Beast defended him, decrying the violent murders and insisting that the Beast had no part in the atrocities.

  For a while, it seemed there would be bloodshed between the villagers and the Beast’s men. It soon appeared that but for his guards, the Beast was in mortal danger of being killed by a mob of the very people he was working to defend. His own words didn’t help in his defence. He had been feared and hated too long. His recent softening and the changes within him had not been seen or even acknowledged outside the castle walls.

  Beauty stood in front of the crowd and added her voice to the Beast’s defenders of course, but her words went unheard. Although she was generally well liked by the villagers, she was also relatively unknown to them for she had always kept slightly to herself. There were a few vocal serfs loyal to Gerrin or to some of his men who worked to turn the crowds against her.

  She was accused by some of them of loving the Beast to the point of blindness. Others decried her, calling her a slut and accusing her of being nothing but the Beast’s whore. For the most part those few who would raise their voices to defend her were silent, and whether they were too fearful to speak or just knew not what to say was unclear.

  To her dismay, the villagers whom she’d always thought of as her friends, that she’d fought so hard to defend to the Beast, failed her utterly. Her months of working quietly with the Beast to improve living conditions for the serfs counted for nothing. Months of trying to get the Beast to think of them as real people just like himself, to consider their feelings and the struggles in their daily lives, and to deal with them more fairly, all that effort to aid the peasants was for naught.

  Her loud, fervent protests of the Beast’s innocence were ignored, for the mob was simply too angry and much too enraged and irrational to listen. Without knowing it, t
hey had turned on their one true defender. Beauty knew well their reasoning, but she was deeply hurt as well as afraid for the Beast. The worst part for Beauty was that they destroyed the image she still held deep in her heart, the image of herself as the Beast’s honoured wife, and not his whore.

  Some of the crowd openly wanted both Gerrin and the Beast ousted or killed. The castle inhabitants feared they would have to use the Beast’s own guards to defend him against the irate villagers.

  Surprisingly, it was the other Tom, the one known in the castle as Tom Two, who managed to defuse what was building up to a full blown riot. He gathered a rare piece of courage and stood at the castle gates in front of the crowd.

  “You don’t know the real Beast! He lives in the castle surrounded by mystery with a fearful reputation and a name destined to bring dread to all to hear it,” Tom Two shouted. “But you all know me very well. You know that I have had no reason to have any love for the new lord. He ordered me to be hung for a crime I didn’t commit.”

  Tom Two paused as the crowd roared, then continued as they fell silent again, “But lately, the Beast has truly changed. He’s grown much wiser and more patient than he was when he first came to us. Partly, I think because he’s learned to love, thanks to Beauty.” Tom Two gazed over at her as the crowd settled slightly.

  “Partly, mayhap because he’s no longer constantly at war, fighting for his King. Anyway, he’s offered me a position. A chance to help him to make your lives a little bit better. He has plans to help you in many ways, plans that you have yet to hear. I now know better than anyone else present that he has grown to be a worthy, wise and caring lord.”

  “He plans to supply the village with plow horses for the planting, and wagons for the harvest. Before this band of thieves caused so much turmoil, he had his blacksmiths hard at work making us some new ploughs. They’re ready for next spring’s planting. Unbeknownst to you, he’s even added more seed to that which you have stored and set aside to be planted. He’s even arranged to bring in more cattle, chickens, ducks, geese and goats from the neighbouring village so that we will have more food to eat and still have enough livestock to supply our eggs and milk. He wasn’t going to tell you any of this; I was just supposed to slip the extra birds, goats and lambs in with those you already have. He didn’t want you to know of his gifts to you. Is that the way a tyrant rules?”