At some point in the night the Beast must have drifted off. When he awoke the fire had started to die down and the castle was dark, just the last few embers of the fire lighting the room. The Beast looked over to where Belle had been lying but she was gone. He sat up quickly, surveying the room in a panic, but soon found her curled up in the armchair behind him with a book. Her legs were tucked in under her dress and pulled tight to her with the book resting on the arm of the chair. She noticed him looking at her and looked up from her book. The two looked at each for a moment before speaking.

"You're all right." he said, unsure of whether that was a statement or a question.

"I'm more than alright thanks to you." she said and there was that smile again. He had never met anyone in his entire life who smiled as much as she did and he loved it. "I suppose I'm going to have to get used to you saving my life."

"Or perhaps used to me putting your life in danger. Unless you make a regular habit of being attacked by wolves and kidnapped."

"No I have to say that's only something that's recently started happening to me." she said teasing him.

"Did you know him?" the Beast prodded.

"Who? Gaston...ugh yes unfortunately. He lives in the same village as me and wants to marry me."

"Oh." The Beast said. He hadn't thought about Belle having other men in her life.

"I think I've turned him down nearly a hundred times by now, but he is relentless. Maybe you actually managed to scare him off for good and for that I would forever be grateful." she said.

"I'm sorry no one noticed, that I didn't notice he had come for you. It has been so long since we had any visitors in this castle that our defenses are quite lacking these days."

"It's ok. My father told him how to get here. He promised my father he would come and rescue me. That's the only thing I feel bad about. He will be disappointed when Gaston returns empty handed."

The Beast lowered his eyes to the ground. He knew he was the one standing in the way of her happiness and that she missed her father.

"Is your promise the only thing that keeps you here?" he asked her. When she looked at him quizzically he spoke again, "When I first found you missing I thought you had run away again and now I often find myself wondering why you haven't run away again."

Belle smoothed the folds on her dress, scrunching up her face in thought before she spoke. "I don't know. I can't say I haven't thought about it. There isn't exactly a guard outside my door or anything, but lately I haven't found myself wanting to leave and I don't know why."

"Well if you ever decide to run again head East, not West, at least until you get out of the woods. The wolves stick to the West." he told her, wondering why he was telling her this at all. There was a bit of silence between them then, neither one of them wanting to acknowledge their strange relationship.

"I suppose we should be off to bed," The Beast said.

"Here is good. I like being by the fire and reading," she said, "Do you want to hear some late night Hamlet?" He nodded at her and she climbed down from her chair. She laid down on the blankets in front of the fire with him and started to read aloud. The Beast watched her for a moment before laying back down on his back, letting her words drift over him as the night grew later and later. He had always had everything he wanted in his life, parties, food, wine and company, but for the first time he was starting to realize that all of things didn't matter and there was only one thing he truly wanted in this world.