The Heart of The Beast

by Susan Kohler

  “Of course, Isabella,” Lady Margarite smiled, “he’s a wonderful husband. I never dreamed I’d be so happy again.”

  “Then what’s wrong?” Beauty almost yelled. “Mother, you are acting very strange indeed.”

  “I’m just a little surprised, stunned really. I mean, I didn’t even think it was still possible... ” Lady Margarite muttered, “and I’m really not sure.”

  “Mother! Speak out, I implore you,” Beauty begged.

  “I think I’m... ” Lady Margarite began then she stopped completely.

  “You’re what?” Beauty grabbed her mother by the shoulders.

  “With child! I’m with child!” Lady Margaret shouted. “I’m far too old to be carrying a child, of course. It’s ridiculous for a woman of my age to be pregnant, but I think I am. I’m sure of it. Almost.”

  “Mother! That’s wonderful news.” Beauty hugged her flustered mother. “How can you say you’re too old? You’re not yet two score years. Just think, we’ll have our babies about the same time. Seth must be so proud.”

  “I haven’t told him yet. I wasn’t really sure,” Lady Margarite smiled softly, “and I’m a little afraid of how he’s going to react. We never talked about my having another child.”

  “He’ll react with joy, love and pride, Mother, for that’s what he feels for you,” Beauty grinned, even as tears of delight formed in her eyes. “We’d better keep up with our sewing. It seems we now have a much larger task facing us than first we anticipated.”

  Lady Margarite grinned back knowingly. “We have plenty of time, my daughter. In fact, before it’s over, it may well seem like an eternity.”

  “True, but when we feel tired or our bodies ache, we have something we can do about it,” Beauty laughed. “We can pester the men and make their lives a living hell.”

  “They deserve it, ’tis true,” Lady Margarite laughed back. “They have the pleasure and we get the rest of it.”

  “Well, to be fair Mother, we get some of the pleasure too,” Beauty laughed.

  Just then the Beast entered the room. “Are you two ladies planning something? You have mischief in your faces.”

  The two women looked at him, then at each other, and laughed aloud. The Beast stood there looking puzzled and helpless, like any other man when confounded by the women in his life.

  After looking to her mother for approval, Beauty told the Beast, “Mother was just telling me that she’s with child.”

  The Beast was surprised but hugged his mother-in-law with warmth and joy. “What does Seth say?”

  “I haven’t told him yet, Sebastian. Do me a favour and don’t mention the baby to him until he tells you about it.” Margarite’s voiced dropped before continuing, “I’m a bit worried about his reaction. Imagine a baby at my age!”

  “You will always be young.” The Beast kissed her cheek. “Do not worry about Seth’s reaction. He’ll be very pleased, Margarite, I assure you.”

  The next day Seth was running all over the castle telling the staff and the inhabitants his happy news. For that day, he was the proudest man alive. He and the Beast hugged each other and sat by the fire talking about their wives and the coming babes.

  The touching scene was repeated almost five weeks later, this time with Gwyneth. One day, Beauty and Lady Margarite found Gwyneth sitting by the fire in the great hall. She was staring off into a blank wall with a silly grin on her face. For the first time in Beauty’s memory Gwyneth failed to rise as she entered the room. In fact, Gwyneth seemed not to even notice the two women at all. She just continued to sit there and stare at nothing, grinning like a fool.

  After a moment, Beauty and her mother just looked at each other and smiled, communicating in that mysterious way women have, the way that doesn’t require spoken words.

  “Gwyneth, do you have news for us?” Lady Margarite asked gently.

  Gwyneth turned to the two women still wearing that silly, dazed grin and whispered, “I’m with child.”

  They hugged the woman who was more friend than servant. All three women shed tears of joy. All three men strutted as though they were proud roosters.

  “We’d better warn Tom,” Beauty quipped, “this is getting a bit absurd. It seems to be a pattern.”

  “I’m not saying a word to Thomas! He’s been such a grouchy bear lately. However I am relieved Lady Althea is back at court. Even he would have a problem getting her with child at that distance,” Lady Margarite said. “Although she would make a good bride for Thomas.”

  “I agree, she is one woman who could keep him in his place and make him happy. There is someone else we’d better warn to be careful.” Beauty paused. “The other one we had better warn is Nate.”

  She was only half teasing. “The lad is far more open to love than any of us. He already stands by Claire’s side with all the tenderness and support of a grown man, a husband. Indeed, he is almost a man, for all his foolish and childish ways. I do believe he truly loves the girl but nevertheless, he is far too young and she is still suffering too much from her ordeal for them to marry.”

  “I was the same age as Claire when I married your father, and Tom was born when I was barely fifteen,” Lady Margarite pointed out. “So his age, while young, is not going to stop him from loving Claire or prevent him from making any foolish mistakes.”

  “So Mother, which of us gets to talk to Nate?” Beauty asked. “And make sure he knows what he’s doing.”

  “How about Sebastian?” Lady Margarite suggested. “Tis better if the subject is discussed man to man.”

  “But Mother, who gets to approach the Beast and give him this task?” Beauty asked.

  “Why Beauty, of course that part of it falls to you.” Her mother grinned wickedly.

  As it turned out, Beauty wasn’t sure who had the worst of it. She found it difficult to explain just why she wanted the Beast to talk to Nate. The Beast completely failed to see a problem.

  “The lad’s feeling his age, ‘tis a passing phase, and he’ll soon find something or someone other than Claire to interest him.” The Beast dismissed the women’s concerns.

  “But M’lord, don’t you think it’s strange that we’re all pregnant at the same time? All three of us? ’Tis almost uncanny,” Beauty asked him, frustrated. “We just want to make sure that this strange circumstance goes no further.”

  “No, there’s nothing uncanny here. You’re all newlyweds with loving husbands. Husbands well able to get you with child and apparently willing to do whatever is necessary to achieve that end. We’ve all succeeded. What’s so strange there?” the Beast replied. “Tis merely a coincidence.”

  “M’lord Beast, I found out about Nate’s romance on the exact same day that I found out about Mother’s and Gwyneth’s. Now they’re both expecting. It seems to be an omen. Please, M’lord, speak to the lad,” Beauty pleaded, almost working herself into a nervous frenzy.

  Because he had learned that when Beauty was in a mood like this she was not to be swayed, the Beast reluctantly agreed to talk to the lad. However it turned out to be a total disaster. The Beast was better versed in battle strategy than in dealing with such delicate matters as teenage romance. He felt uncomfortable and unsure of what to say. He got nervous and stammered, feeling embarrassed for one of the few times in his life. He decided that he didn’t like the feeling. For his part, Nate just laughed aloud and told the Beast not to worry.

  “I promised not to do anything to hurt Claire, and I will not,” the lad told the Beast. “Tell Beauty everything is fine. I know what I’m doing.”

  For some reason that statement completely failed to reassure Beauty.

  During the deepest part of the winter Beauty began to find herself too heavy and uncomfortable to enjoy having sex with the Beast. It was then that the Beast found another complaint with his life. His problem was that he could not make love with Beauty. He could hold her, comfort her, cuddle with her, love her and desire her, but he just couldn’t poke her. The poor warlord was simply horny
.

  At the worst of the winter the knight worked long and hard in the barn training with his men. Every night he went to bed next to Beauty completely exhausted but it never seemed to help. Beauty’s pregnancy dragged on slowly, for both of them. The end seemed to be an elusive goal, in sight, but failing to come any closer.

  As the winter finally began to ease and the first signs of spring began to show, Beauty’s baby dropped within her. She was very uncomfortable and awkward. One day she was even more uncomfortable than usual. She had slight twinges off and on all day and her back ached constantly. That evening, shortly after dinner, she went into labour. The pains were already coming with some regularity before her water broke.

  The Beast assisted her up the stairs and helped her change into a loose shift and a robe. He called for a servant to build up the fires and to fetch Gwyneth and Lady Margarite.

  Beauty’s mother and Gwyneth arrived quickly and soon shuffled the Beast out of the room. They examined her and told her she wasn’t progressing as swiftly as they would have hoped. They suggest that she walk around a bit. The Beast held her arm and gently led her up and down the upstairs corridor of the castle for about an hour, talking all the while about the coming child. Finally her labour pains began to come closer together and with more force. Beauty took to the bed.

  The Beast stayed by her side for a while, letting her grasp his hand and curse at him during one of the pains and then relax and speak of her love for him after the pain was over. If he hadn’t been so worried, the whole business would have intrigued him greatly. He was shocked at the crudity of the words coming out of her mouth and bemused by the total switch in her personality when she turned tender and loving. He really wanted to stay by her side throughout the whole ordeal and comfort her during her labour but Beauty’s mother finally ushered him firmly out of the room.

  He found himself relegated to the fireside in the great hall with Tom, Seth and Henry and a few of the guards. Nate and Claire stood together in the corner, almost unnoticed, and watched the men.

  The men plied the Beast with stout ale and paced with him; Seth and Henry thinking of their own babies soon to come, and of their own wives soon to face this ordeal. Every time Beauty gave a scream the Beast started for the stairs and the men struggled mightily to restrain him.

  Upstairs, Beauty laboured long into the night, almost until dawn with her mother and Gwyneth by her side tending to her. They wiped her brow when she sweated with the strain of her pains. They told her when to push and when to relax and catch her breath. It was almost dawn before the baby’s head appeared in the birth canal. Lady Margarite eased the shoulders out of the tight opening. The rest of the baby followed quickly. The small baby needed no prompting to begin squalling vigorously. Lady Margarite handed the baby to Gwyneth who gently cleaned the baby while she tended to her daughter.

  “Tis a lad, Beauty,” Lady Margarite teased with a smiled. “He’s quite a good size. I already know he’ll be a very arrogant and demanding brute just like his sire.”

  “Then I’m most pleased,” Beauty said, reaching for her son. “For I love his sire very much.”

  The two women quickly handed the baby to Beauty who began to nurse him. At the sound of the baby’s cries, the men could restrain the Beast no more. He charged up the stairs and into the bedchamber to see his wife and son.

  As the Beast held his infant son who they had decided to name James, Beauty knew one thing: The infant had finally completed the task she’d only begun. The baby boy had tamed the mighty Beast. Beauty wept with joy at the sight of her proud husband holding his child with so much love and tenderness.

  As spring blossomed fully, Beauty and the Beast spent long hours together with the infant nestled between them. In contrast to his own childhood, the Beast was a tender and loving father. He couldn’t bear to be away from the boy. His greatest joy it seemed, was watching Beauty as she nursed the baby. Even changing dirty diapers was a chore the Beast took on with a basic joy.

  For the first time he pitied his parents that they knew no such joy. He now realized that they lost much of the joy they could have found with their son, and he lost much with them.

  Slowly, Beauty’s slim figure began to return. She aided things along by eating a bit less, riding her mare and making sure she took a long walk every day. The spring days were almost idyllic. The only problem the couple had was that the Beast was afraid to make love with Beauty. He felt compelled to give Beauty plenty of time to recover from the strain of childbirth.

  Finally the day came when Beauty knew it was time. She wanted her warrior in her arms again and she wanted him most fiercely. She set the scene carefully in their bedchamber with fragrantly scented candles and dark Spanish wine. She wore a shift of the most delicate lace, a gossamer bit of fluff that revealed and titillated more than it concealed. She made sure the baby was well fed and got him to sleep before she sent for her husband.

  It worked of course, as the Beast was more than willing to be seduced by Beauty, and Beauty was as saucy and seductive a vixen as he had ever seen. She smiled at him with a cunning look in her eyes and then practically ripped the clothes from his body. She only smiled sweetly when he returned the favour and shredded her gown from her body. He made sure she was ready for him, moist and open, then with a very firm thrust and a few preliminaries, he entered her and ended the long drought. He did try to be careful and gentle with her but Beauty herself made it almost impossible, rising up to meet his thrusts.

  At one point, when the Beast was being tender sliding in and out of Beauty’s velvet sheath with exquisite slowness and almost torturous gentleness, she wrapped her legs around his waist and drummed her heels sharply on his bare buttocks, urging him on.

  “Come on, my love. Ride me,” she whispered, even as she kicked his firm bottom sharply. “Take me there, faster and harder. Now.”

  Not so surprisingly, this ended things dramatically and rather quickly.

  “You kicked me! That’s what I get for trying to be gentle with you. Thank God you’re not wearing spurs,” the Beast jested.

  “Maybe next time.” Beauty kissed him, beginning the passion all over again.

  After that night the drought was truly over. Indeed Beauty and the Beast made love every night and many times during the brisk spring days. They made love in chairs, on tables and on the thick fur rug in front of the fireplace. The unspoken watchword for the two of them became “whenever the baby is asleep.” As they had before Beauty’s mother came to live in the castle, the staff soon learned to knock and await an invitation before entering a room.

  When the Beast was occupied with his men, Beauty stayed with her mother and Gwyneth. They were both getting large and uncomfortable with their pregnancies, and were both eager to see their babes arrive.

  One night Beauty turned to the Beast before sleep claimed her and asked, “M’lord, do you know what day this is?”

  “Nay, Beauty.” The Beast was puzzled. “I mean, I do know the date but cannot put any special meaning to it.”

  “Men are such fools!” Beauty fumed. “Tis exactly one year since I stood in front of you and bargained for my brother’s life.”

  “Beauty. I’m sorry I forgot the date.” The Beast kissed her gently but with a growing passion. “But I remember well the day. It was the luckiest day of my life, even if I didn’t know it at the time.”

  “I remember stripping myself bare and standing there naked, petrified but hoping that you’d find me desirable enough to spare Tom.” Beauty stroked his chest, flicking her thumb over his already tight nipples. “Thank God you were merciful that day.”

  “I was hardly merciful.” The Beast moved over her. “But it turned out well, and I promise to spend the rest of my life making sure you never look back on this date with any regret.”

  It was a long time before sleep claimed them. Then, as they slept soundly, the Beast heard a timid knock at the chamber door. They were awakened with the news that Lady Margarite was in labour. />
  Beauty kissed her warrior before she slid out of bed and dressed quickly. She bade the servant who had awakened her to fetch Gwyneth. Together the two women made their way to the small cottage where Beauty’s mother was indeed, in full labour.

  The Beast followed quickly. Henry joined him as he stopped to rouse Nate and Tom. The men tended to Seth, sitting with him and plying him with stout ale. They tried to keep a conversation going and joke with Seth but he was too worried to listen. The Beast watched as his servant paced and worried, and he realized that indeed they had the same feelings, worries and hopes in spite of the differences in their stations in life. Even though Seth was over fifty years of age, this was to be his first child.

  After three children, Margarite knew well how and when to push. With Gwyneth and Beauty beside her, she delivered a daughter in only a few short hours. Seth was truly beside himself with pride as he held his tiny daughter. They named the infant girl Alaina.

  The night after Alaina was born Beauty went up to nurse James before putting him to sleep, hoping that he would give her a long time with the Beast before demanding more attention from her. However as soon as she opened the door to his nursery, she knew the full meaning of terror. Wolford was there, as evil as a man could be, looming over the crib and reaching for her babe. He held a dagger in his hand. Beauty let out a scream that was cut off as soon as Wolford threatened to harm the babe.

  “Yer ladyship,” he said with a great deal of sarcasm, “if you want this squalling brat to live you will be silent. You will bring me all your jewels, all your gold coins and you will make sure no alarm is raised. Any sign of yer husband or any of his men and the babe dies.”

  Beauty fell to the floor, pleading for the babe’s life. It seemed like hours, but it was only minutes before he yelled at her. “Cease that wailing, slut. Fetch the jewels and be quick or you will have to bury the brat in pieces!”

  Numbly, Beauty nodded her agreement. “Do not harm my child, I beg of you.” Tears were streaming down her face as she rose from the floor. “I will do all you ask.”