Before Beauty Read online

  “If you are unwilling to answer me, I will have no choice than to find out for myself. I suppose you have heard of my strength?”

  Of course Ansel had. Though few knew how the monarchs’ power worked, everyone knew that their kings, and sometimes their queens, wielded a special gift. It had been the very reason Destin was the most feared kingdom in the realm. And it was most definitely not the kind of power Ansel wanted involved with Isa.

  “It wouldn’t be difficult for me,” Everard continued, “to find whomever or whatever you’re protecting. It also would not be difficult for me to share the sickness of this place with them.”

  This was more than Ansel could take. Defenseless against such a threat, he closed his eyes and spoke, his voice barely above a whisper. “I have a family, Your Highness. I promised them I would come home safely.”

  “Tell me about this family.”

  “You wouldn’t be interested in the family of a common merchant, Sire. We are much like other families of our kind.”

  The prince paused again for a moment before replying. “No, I don’t think you are. You’re too careful, too protective of them. Oh come now, don’t be so surprised. I’ve given my life to studying strategy and defense, and you, Tradesman, are putting up all your defenses. Now, I truly do wish to hear about your family. As you can guess, I get few visitors at the moment. Entertain me.”

  Ansel swallowed hard before answering. King Rodrigue had despised weakness, and after his son’s attempt to weed out Ansel’s daughter, it appeared the prince despised it as well. Ansel chose his words carefully.

  “My wife is a shrewd woman, and runs my store as well as I do. She has also taught all of the children to be of use there. The youngest, Megane, is just a child, but she already shows a talent for weaving. Launce, my boy, is nineteen, and he’s training to take over the mercantile one day. My oldest daughter…” Ansel’s voice faltered for a moment. What if the prince knew her name? What if he remembered her? “My oldest daughter has a strong heart and a quick mind like no other.”

  The prince held up his hand, and Ansel stopped.

  “A strong heart, you say. What is this daughter’s name?”

  Ansel faltered again before answering. “Isabelle, Sire.”

  “And what about her heart makes it so strong?” The prince’s voice was cynical, but Ansel detected a keen interest in it. His heart pounded as he struggled to answer the prince’s question.

  “She…suffered an injury as a child, but she never gave up. She was determined to be strong once again, and she is. Isabelle never gives up hope.” Ansel prayed that would be the end of the prince’s interest in his daughter, that the assurance of her strength and productivity would be enough, but he had no way of knowing. The prince’s expressions were hidden in the dark. It seemed like a very long time that the two men sat there in silence, one kneeling and the other hunching in his throne. Finally, the prince spoke.

  “So, Ansel Marchand, I have an assignment for you.” His voice was quiet and terrible again, and for the first time, Ansel could just make out two glowing rings of fire what watched him through the darkness. It sent a shudder down his spine.

  “Yes, Sire?”

  “When the road is clear enough to return, you will go back to your home. Isabelle will gather her things and say goodbye to her family and friends. Then you will bring her back here to me before dusk on the third day. Three days should be more than enough time for her to do so properly.”

  It was as if Ansel’s heart had stopped and his lungs had collapsed. He fought for his voice as he threw himself at his prince’s feet.

  “Your Highness, please! There must be some mistake! Take me! I will stay here in the stead of your servants! I will do anything you ask of me! But this I cannot do!”

  “You can,” the prince said testily, “and you will.”

  “No!” Ansel rose to his feet, his voice shaking as rage overcame his fear. “I will not give my child to you! You may sit here in the darkness of your great Fortress, but outside of it, you are nothing! If you were still in power, the trade routes would no longer be filled with robbers and vagabonds, and Destin would once again thrive! You, Sire, cannot make me do such a thing!”

  “Oh, but I can. Have you forgotten my threat? I may not leave the Fortress, but that doesn’t mean my power is limited by gates or byways or walls. With just a wave of my hand, I can send this dark sickness upon your whole family as well. I’m sure your daughter who is strong of heart wouldn’t want such a thing to befall her brother or sister or mother. No, sir, I do not think you are willing to risk your entire family’s well-being for that of one.”

  Ansel’s knees gave out, and he collapsed onto the cold stone floor, cursing himself for ever setting foot in the wretched citadel. It would have been better if he’d died in the storm.

  “Take him away.” The prince flicked his hand, and invisible beings grasped Ansel by the arms and dragged him out of the throne room. The unseen hands were gentle as they laid him in a bed that smelled of dust. He struggled to get up, but they firmly held him in place. Eventually, he could fight no longer, and his fatigue won. But even in sleep ,he could not escape the torment of the guilt that consumed him.

  In the middle of the night, he was awakened by an idea that had slipped into his dreams. Cautiously, he sat up. It appeared the shadows had left him alone once he’d stopped struggling. Silently, he hurried to put on his boots and winter coverings. They were not entirely dry yet, as the fire the shadows had built in his room was very weak, but he hardly noticed. There was a way to keep Isa safe.

  In three days’ time, she and the rest of the family would be far away, and the prince would have to end these vile, continuous attempts on her life. Ansel wondered if the prince knew about his attempted escape as he sneaked out to his horse. The animal stamped its feet when he arrived, seeming as desperate to leave the place as he was.

  Less than an hour later, they were on their way home. Snow had made the mountain road nearly impassible, but the merchant could not have cared less. Isa would be safe, his family would be together, and Heaven help the man that tried to stop him.

  CHAPTER SIX

  Something Terrible

  In the months since the almost wedding, Megane had tried her best to stay out of Isa’s way. Launce had stopped his teasing and replaced it with muttered threats about what he would do if he ever got his hands on Raoul. Deline had taken over Isa’s hardest chores, and had suggested as many ways as she could think of to get Isa out of the house. Picnics were planned, the horses were taken for rides in the country, and Isa’s favorite dinner was made more often than ever before. Despite their well-laid plans, however, outings were quiet and awkward, as the other three attempted to draw her into their jokes and stories.

  To Isa, there was simply little to say, and everything that should be said could be spoken at home. Leaving the house was perilous, fraught with reminders that other people were still living their lives, happy, continuing to move through time. That Raoul was still living his life in the city without her. To Isa, time would stand still forever.

  Despite Isa’s objections, however, four months after Ansel had set out on his journey Deline continued to insist that life would go on. And she insisted also that Isa move along with it.

  There had been a snow the night before, ridiculously early for the season. Still, the ground looked pretty all covered in white, and Deline seemed to think the new scene might cheer her daughter. So Isa was goaded into accompanying her mother to the tailor’s shop, much to her disdain, where she had been forced to answer trivial questions as to how she was faring.

  They were just returning when Margot, their neighbor, caught up with them. As the plump little woman ran towards them, the look on her face promised juicy gossip. Surely enough, before any greetings could be exchanged, Margot was speaking.

  “Have you heard?” Her voice nearly squeaked with excitement. “Have you heard about young Master Raoul?”

  Though she ma
naged to keep her eyes on the ground, Isa’s heart beat unevenly. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw her mother give her an uneasy look.

  “Isa, why don’t you go inside and prepare some tea? I could use a warm drink, and I believe our guest could use one, also.”

  But Margot shook her head, her words tumbling out faster than Isa could walk. “No, I believe Miss Isa should hear this, and she’ll know just how fortunate she is not to have married that horrible young man.”

  “Margot, I–” her mother tried to interject, but the older woman just kept talking.

  “I was just down to the butcher’s shop this morning, when Harriet Bissette skipped into the town square to show off her ring. Can you believe it, Isa? He gave her exactly the same ring that he gave you!”

  His grandmother’s ring. Isa’s thumb instinctively moved to rub the spot that, for two months, had been occupied by the silver band. Not so long ago, he’d placed that ring on her own finger. Suddenly, it was hard to breathe.

  “…less than a year, and he’s already proposed to a second girl!”

  “Really, Margot!” Deline protested, but their neighbor babbled on.

  “Isa, you should count it a blessing that you two were not wed! You have a lovely face, my dear, but with your lame leg and hand and all, you wouldn’t have been able to hold him. Better to be alone and keep your dignity than to know your man is off chasing other women because you can’t satisfy him!” And with that, she spotted another neighbor, and was gone before Isa or Deline could say anything else.

  Isa bolted for the door before any other well-intentioned friend or relative could find her, and ran upstairs as quickly as her ankle would allow. Deline was faster, however, and she followed her daughter into the attic before Isa could get the door closed.

  “I don’t want to talk about it!” Isa threw her things down on the bed and went to stare out the window.

  “Isa, you knew it was bound to happen.”

  “That doesn’t mean I want to hear about it. This is why I don’t leave the house!”

  “You can’t stay locked up in this attic forever,” Deline said. “We have tried to be kind to you, to be sensitive to things that remind you of him. But you can’t live the rest of your life hiding from the world!”

  “What if I don’t want to be part of the world?” Isa finally turned and faced her mother. “Thanks to our hero prince, the world thinks I’m good for nothing anyway! There is a reason all the women my age are expecting babies, and their little sisters are getting married, and I’m not. Is it so much to ask that my nose not be rubbed in my loss? That I get to simply remain where at least I know I’m wanted?”

  “But you can’t do that!” Deline was now just as loud as Isa, her voice quivering.

  “And why not?”

  “Because you were born for more than that!”

  Before Isa could reply, however, Launce burst into the room, out of breath.

  “Mum, Isa, Father’s home. Something is wrong.”

  In a flash, Deline was downstairs. It took Isa longer to make her way down the wooden steps, but when she finally did, she could see that something was indeed wrong. Ansel’s face was pale, and no matter how many blankets Megane and Launce piled on him, he shivered. What frightened Isa the most, however, was the wild feverish look in his eyes. He looked like a dog cornered in an alley.

  It was ten minutes before his teeth stopped chattering enough for him to speak a single sentence, which was directed at Megane, asking her to take care of his horse.

  “Let Launce do it,” Deline told him as the girl bounded off. “She’s been dying to see you, and the horse will take at least half an hour.”

  “I know.” Ansel finally looked up from the tea they’d placed in his hands. “But I have something I must tell you all, and I am afraid it will frighten her.”

  At this, they all stopped what they were doing and stared. Isa felt a chill touch her heart. For though he spoke to them all, it was her he was looking at.

  “We must pack what little we can with great haste. Take only what you need. I will send a message to Marko. We are leaving tonight after the sun sets.”

  Dumbfounded, Isa looked at her mother and brother, but they seemed to be as much at a loss as she was.

  “We’re doing what?” Launce was the first one to find his voice.

  “We’re leaving with the Caregivers tonight. All of us.”

  “But…why?” Deline frowned.

  “Father,” Isa put her hands on her father’s arm and knelt close to him, “what happened?” Her touch seemed to calm him some, but when his eyes met hers, they were wild with worry.

  “Isa,” his voice was hollow and old, “it is all my fault. I have done something terrible, and I cannot undo it. This is the only way I know how to save you. I…I was caught out on the mountain when the storm hit. I was afraid I would freeze, so I took the only familiar path I could find.” Ansel swallowed loudly before looking beseechingly at the rest of his family. “I sought the shelter of the Fortress.”

  The silence was deafening as a familiar feeling stirred in Isa’s heart. She suddenly knew what kind of turn her father’s journey had taken.

  “The place is surely cursed,” Ansel spoke again, shaking his head at his tea. “I used to laugh at such superstitions, but there was hardly a light in the entire stronghold.”

  “The servants?” Deline placed her hand over her heart.

  “Shadows….phantoms. I do not know. There are no bodies to serve the prince, but the spirits are certainly not lacking. And they do his bidding as well as any staff.” He shivered. “And then there was the prince. I don’t know how, but he somehow escaped the enchantment. At least, he still has a body I mean. I couldn’t see much for the darkness. He saw me, however, and he demanded to know about my family.”

  A sob suddenly wrenched itself from Ansel’s body. “He said he would send a plague upon you all with his power if I did not obey! Isa, forgive me!” Her father dropped his tea cup on the floor and clutched at her hands desperately, his brown eyes desperately searching hers. “I tried so hard to shield you. I told him only of your strengths, and as little as I could. And yet, he has demanded that you come to the Fortress to stay with him.”

  Horror gripped Isa. Even under a curse, would he never stop? Why couldn’t he simply let her be? As the fear moved through her, however, it was quickly replaced with an even stronger emotion. How dare he? How dare this man threaten her family, using them as leverage to wage this strange war upon her?

  “We can make him leave his hiding hole to come here and face us like a man! We could gather a militia!” Launce was fuming when Isa realized they were still talking.

  “No, we do not know the true strength of his power,” Ansel replied. “It would be best if we simply went with the Caregivers. They are our fastest way of escape. I don’t think he’ll be able to reach us on the third day if we leave tonight. We’ll be nearly out of the kingdom by then.”

  Isa quietly stood and slipped back up to her attic. Her family meant well, but their attempts would be fruitless. They didn’t know the true power the prince wielded. She did.

  The accident had taken place fourteen years before, when she was only nine, but the day was etched into her memory like writing on a tombstone. Lean and nimble, she’d weaved her way through the crowd to the street to see the handsome young prince as he rode by. She’d seen him from a distance a number of times when visiting the Fortress with her father, but this was the closest she had ever been to him. Someone had bumped her from behind, however, and it had sent her sprawling right into his horse’s path.

  How noble he had looked when he had jumped down to help her up. It had taken her a moment before she could shake the giddy fog from her mind, and by then, he had left her side. Instinctively, she’d run and grabbed his sleeve, unaware at the time that it was inappropriate to touch a sovereign.

  The pain of the horse’s hooves had been excruciating, but what she had never told anyone was that the
pain hit before the horse’s heavy hooves ever touched her. The moment he shook her off, a white hot pain had shot through her, as if he’d taken a branding iron and made her blood burn. The animal that had trampled her seconds later had left its mark for the rest of the world to see, but Isa could still recall the first pain more clearly than that of her broken ankle and wrist.

  If the prince had threatened her family, Isa had no doubt that he had the ability and the intentions to carry through with his plans, Caregivers or not. There was no other choice.

  Isa would have to go to the Fortress.

  She nearly had nearly started back downstairs to tell her family, when she quickly realized they would never listen. Her father would die before he let her go, and her headstrong brother would probably get himself killed as well. She would need to leave before they had a chance to try anything foolish. So she returned to the family, but stayed quiet. Her father was instructing them on how to prepare for their journey.

  “We must bring as little as possible and go about our business as normal for the rest of the day. I don’t want anyone aware that we’re all leaving. Only the Caregivers will know.”

  “And our mercantile?” Everyone turned to see little Megane standing in the doorway, her face white.

  “I am sorry, Megs.” Ansel sighed and held his arms out to her. “I didn’t see you standing there. No, we will have to leave our shop. But it will be alright. We will have one another, and we will set up a new life in the new land where Marko takes us. But we must not tell anyone, you understand? Anyone at all.”

  Megane nodded seriously, her golden curls and round blue eyes shining brightly in the fire’s light.

  “That’s my girl,” Ansel put his hand gently on her head before dismissing them all to do as they were told.

  With a tight throat, Isa managed to grab both of her parents in a hug before gathering her things. They hugged her back, but Isa was sure they simply believed her to be afraid. They didn’t know that it was probably the last embrace they would ever share.