Beauty and the Beast

Chapter 6 The Mirror
Beauty watched the Beast as he left the room.
She felt sad for him but she didn't love him.
She tried to read her book, but she was too worried about the Beast.
"Maybe I should marry him - to make him happy. But I can't - he told me to tell him my real feelings. I must tell the truth. Father told me always to keep my promises, and to tell the truth."

But when she thought about her father, she felt sad again. She missed him so much!

Poor Beauty! She felt worse and worse. Her father was not happy, the Beast was not happy and she was not happy. She tried to forget all the sadness, and she looked down at her book.
A tear fell onto the page. Another one and then another. Beauty went to bed and cried herself to sleep again.
In her dream the Prince came to her once more.
"Beauty don't believe everything you see. Find me, my love, and save me."
The dream ended, and the next thing she heard was the clock waking her up.
Beauty thought about his message. What did it mean? And where was he?
Many months passed. Beauty discovered a new room every day, and new things to make her happy.
She played all day. Every evening the Beast visited her, asked the same question and she gave the same answer. And every night she dreamed of the Prince. His message was always the same, but she still didn't understand it.

As the days went by Beauty noticed something. She wasn't frightened of the Beast any more. His voice was strange - but no longer terrifying. And although his face was certainly very ugly, when she looked in his eyes she saw that he had real feelings in his heart.

The Beast often came to visit her and asked her about her day in the castle.

One day something strange happened. Beauty opened a door in one of the long hallways and walked into a golden room.

There was a golden table, a golden wardrobe and a big, golden bed.

"I wonder who sleeps here. Maybe this is the Beast's bedroom."
She opened the doors of the wardrobe.
They certainly were not the Beast's clothes.
Inside the wardrobe there were the most magnificent clothes: dresses, robes, hats and crowns. Beauty picked a dress. It was golden, with beautiful big pearls. She put it on, went over to the mirror, and looked in it. It was beautiful - she looked like a queen.

"If only my sisters and my father could see this! I miss Father, I wish I could see him."

Suddenly, a cloud appeared in the mirror.

"What is happening?"
Beauty put her face closer to the mirror - and the cloud cleared away. But the bed was not the same. Now it was a simple, wooden bed. It was a bed for a country cottage - not for a castle.

It was her father's bed and he was lying in it.

His face was white and he looked terribly ill. Beauty cried out, "Father, don't die! Wait for me, I'm coming to take care of you!"