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Description

If a person lay underneath La Fidel at night, they couldn’t see the brightly dazzling jewels that lined her interior. But Belle didn’t need to. She knew which jewels were where and how brightly they shone when the light caught them. They were so brightly polished a person could see their own reflection in each one. On those rare days when Frollo wasn’t around and Belle had had the run of Notre Dame to herself, she would often crawl beneath the rim of La Fidel and stand up inside the great bell to see herself in the jewels, though she had never been particularly vain. From a certain angle, she could see multiple Belles all around her, each jewel turning each one a different colour.

But now it was too dark to see herself and Belle wasn’t lying beneath La Fidel for that, anyway. She would often visit the bells when she needed time to think, before, that is, when she had called Notre Dame a home. They felt like old friends now, the familiar chimes she heard every day as she passed the cathedral always sounded like a greeting just for her. It was strange, she supposed, that people could form an attachment for inanimate objects, but it was unanimously decided by everyone in Paris that the bells of Notre Dame were beautiful, and Belle was no exception.

Presently, she was aware of the sound of footsteps, soft and light, approaching her, but she remained where she was. The dream had left her with a feeling of complete defeat that made her limbs feel heavy. Eventually, she felt Clopin settle himself beside her and found her voice. “How did you know I’d be here?”

“Because I know you very well by now, chere,” Clopin answered. “I know this is always the place you’ll think of as your first home.” Belle felt bad. Her true home was anywhere Clopin was and she didn’t want him to think otherwise. But he was right. This had been the first place she’d thought of as a home, and anything Frollo had done to her in the past hadn’t quite managed to erase her love for it. Clopin’s fingers curled gently around hers. “What is it, chere? Tell me.”

Belle took a deep breath. “The nightmare came back.”

Clopin didn’t need to ask which nightmare. For an entire two years into their marriage, Belle had been haunted at night by the memory of Judge Claude Frollo attacking her the way he had that awful night. It had only happened once but it had shaken her so much that even his death hadn’t stopped her from being afraid of it happening ever again. Clopin had been very understanding, however, and Belle honestly thought that she would never had allowed herself to trust a man ever again if she hadn’t already know what a good man he was. Slowly, the nightmare had stopped coming and she hadn’t thought about it in years. The memory of Frollo’s abuse still lingers deep within the recesses of her mind but it hadn’t defeated her, it hadn’t stopped her from living her life. Getting to work at the bookshop, marriage, having Melody, being able to be with her parents again were the best parts of her life, nothing Frollo had ever done could erase any of that.

Clopin frowned, turning to look at her. “You haven’t had that nightmare for at least ten years.”

“I know. That’s why it’s so strange.” Belle reached up her hand to touch the clapper inside La Fidel, resisting the childish urge to swing it back and forth. No one would thank her if La Fidel woke them all up at this time of night. “I think...I think it was that man we saw earlier, the circus owner.” Clopin stiffened. “Something about his eyes reminded me of Frollo. That’s why the nightmare came back, it has to be.” She turned, rolling over fully to face her husband. “Who is he, Clopin? I know you know.”

Clopin took a deep breath. “Sarousch. I’m afraid I don’t know his surname, or maybe that is his surname and it’s his Christian name I don’t know, although I doubt there’s a Christian bone in that man’s entire body.” The grim expression on his face when he said it confused Belle, but she didn’t say anything, just waited for him to elaborate. “When I was younger, not long before we first met...” Belle smiled at the memory. How could either of them have known then that they would end up married? After all, she had been a child, Clopin a teenager. “I teamed up with Sarousch. We were both on the streets. His mother was a maid for some great man, very beautiful from the way he tells it, though I suppose that could have been an exaggeration. She was imprisoned for theft and Sarousch was born in the prison. But she escaped, thanks to some of her friends. They were all set to leave Paris. Sarousch’s mother got her son aboard the boat that was to take them away, but the guards caught up with her. Sarousch never saw her again. He was raised by gypsies.”

Belle could picture the scene in her mind. “So...he returned to Paris, years later.”

“He wanted to find his father. He suspected the man who had employed his mother before her imprisonment. He told me he’d always suspected that she hadn’t actually stolen anything, that the man had had his way with her and cast her aside, then imprisoned her when she became pregnant so no one would know he had fathered a child with a common servant.” Belle nodded. She could imagine such a thing. There were still some very wealthy men in Paris like that. “I don’t know if he ever found him, at least he certainly didn’t when I knew him. Anyway...” Clopin took a deep breath. “For a while, we set up our own act. He’s a very talented juggler and we were both good at magic, so we were practically a miniature circus. My cousins would help collect the money people donated.”

“And then he got the idea to make up his own circus, which you didn’t join?” Belle guessed.

“Well, yes, but only later. You see, well...” Clopin tapped his chest. Belle knew what he was indicating, the brand he’d been awarded for theft long ago. “Even with whatever money we could make then, we didn’t always make enough to fed ourselves. Stealing food was just a means of survival, like when I stole that bread. One day, we decided to steal some apples from a garden. It was a large household with a family, though the parents were out that night, there was only a young woman at home there. We could see right into her room from the top of the apple tree. Thankfully, she didn’t see us. Sarousch seemed entranced by her, at least that was how it looked. When she went out of the room for a moment, he climbed along a branch that was right beside her window. I told him to come back, but he didn’t listen. I waited there for what must have been seconds but it felt like hours. My heart was in my mouth. Then, suddenly, he came back with a great big grin all over his face. I didn’t think it was wise to stay around much longer, so we gathered our apples and left. Once we were safely on the other side of the wall, he showed me something, a sparkling jewelled broach.”

All Belle’s illusions that this was Sarousch falling head over heels in love shattered. “He’d stolen it from her?”

“Right from her dressing table.” Clopin shook his head. “I was aghast, of course. Food was one thing, it was a necessity. I told him to put it back, but he laughed and said why should he when she had just left it lying around for the taking, and why should we be starving and poor whilst they were rich and had plenty of food. That was when I knew he was no good. Theft became an obsession with him. I assumed at first the broach would be a one off, tried to reason that the woman was rich enough to buy another so it wouldn’t really matter. Selfish, I know, but Sarousch was my friend, or so I thought, I wanted to be on his side.”

Belle nodded. She could understand that. “But he kept on stealing?”

“His illusions in our act became a front for pickpocketing. People were always too entranced by what was in front of them to notice that someone was stealing their valuables. When I realised what he was doing, I told him to stop, partially because it was wrong but also partially because I thought he’d get us both arrested. We argued. Sarousch was determined that it wasn’t wrong, he was just taking what the world owed him for his hard life. I told him that other people had had hard lives too, people who had known their parents had lost them.” He looked meaningfully at Belle. “Or lost others close to them. Some were starving on the streets worse than we were, or suffering horrific abuse.” His fingers closed tighter around Belle’s. “But they weren’t punishing others for it. I told him there and then that if this was the path he was choosing, our act was over for good. Sarousch was furious. He told me I was riding for a fall soon, and one day I’d come around to his way of thinking. That night, he packed up everything and left. I never saw him again.”

“Until now,” Belle finished.

“I thought he’d probably been arrested,” Clopin admitted, “or else stolen so much that he could set himself up as rich man somewhere else in France.”

“That’s why you were so apprehensive about us going to the circus,” Belle realised.

Clopin smiled. “Well, I don’t really want to disappoint Melody when she’s so eager to go.” He fixed her with a serious look. “Don’t bring anything with you that you would hate to lose, Belle. I don’t trust him not to have changed his ways.”

“You did,” Belle reminded him playfully, poking him in the chest. “You don’t steal food now.”

“I don’t need to now!” Clopin laughed. “After meeting Esmeralda and all our other friends, we were able to bring in more money than we’d ever had before. No one starves in the Court of Miracles!”

Belle agreed. It was a wonderful little community, well, family, they had built within the Court of Miracles, though decidedly smaller now than before. Esmeralda and Pocahontas had both left, inspired by Belle’s brave trek to Africa twelve years ago. They had decided, when Melody was three, that they would go to America, where Pocahontas was from, and see if any of her family were still alive. They hadn’t returned, although they sent letters regularly, saying now they were exploring across America. Pocahontas had reunited with her parents and younger brother, which Belle had been pleased to hear, but she still missed them both. And Aladdin and Jasmine had decided to simply “move on” from the Court of Miracles several years ago, restless for an adventure of their own. Belle missed them too. It was odd now that Jack and Boo, who now went by her real name, Mary and only Jack still called her Boo, and Lilo had all grown up now. Of all of them, Boo was closest to Melody’s age, having been a toddler when she was born, and Melody saw her and Lilo as older sisters. In fact, the more Belle thought about it, twelve years seemed to have passed so quickly.

She sat up. “Do you think there’s any need to be worried now that Sarousch is back?”

Clopin thought for a minute. “It’s hard to say. I don’t think his thieving ways will affect us, really. All the same, if he comes near you or Melody...” He shook his head. “I just don’t want him anywhere near my family. He’s not a good man.”

Belle couldn’t help smiling at how protective he was. “Well, he can’t be here forever. Circuses always move on, don’t they? And especially if he really hasn’t changed his thieving habits, he won’t want to stay long here if he might get caught.”

“I suppose you’re right, chere.” Clopin sat up beside her. Belle suddenly felt like they were very young again, like the first time she had shown him the inside of La Fidel, just after the fire at Notre Dame. Not everyone knew the secret that lay inside La Fidel, apart from those who worked within the cathedral, and Clopin had been fascinated by her beautiful interior. She leaned her head against his shoulder, her eyes adjusting enough now that she could just make out the jewels inside the bell. “Feeling better?” Clopin asked.

“Yes.” Belle took a deep, brave breath. “It was just a dream. A dream can’t hurt me, and neither can HE now he’s gone.” She go to her feet, readjusting her skirts. “Come on, we should get back now. Let’s go home.”

Clopin sprang up brightly but his voice was serious again as he took hold of her shoulders. “You will tell me if it happens again, won’t you, Belle?”

“I was going to tell you this time,” Belle said, truthfully, “when I got back. You beat me to it.” She leaned up and kissed him, feeling again like it was the first time. La Fidel had been rung the day they got married, like she was wishing them both her congratulations as well. Belle had been surprised that a wedding had been allowed to take place on the steps of Notre Dame, but it had been too nice a day for them to confine all their guests inside a stuffy cathedral. She had been surprised too that such a union had been allowed between a gypsy and girl who wasn’t one, but as the Archdeacon explained later, “people are people, whether they’re gypsies or not, and the Lord loves every single one of us.” Belle had always liked the Archdeacon, and he in turn had had a soft spot for her. She had confided to him about Frollo’s rape, a few days before she had got married, feeling she needed to talk to a man of the church about it, and he had reassured her that it was Frollo who was to blame and not her.

Hand in hand, they left the cathedral the same way they had come, through the secret tunnel in the empty prison area. It was never used as a prison now, though, instead it was where the sacred wine was mostly kept cool and fresh. Belle knew the passage backwards after all the times she had used it in the past and now as they walked along together, listening to the quiet sounds of Paris by night – the late traders riding home, the chatter and laughter from the nearby taverns, the sound of a stray cat telling another to get away from its territory – neither of them felt the same grip of fear they had during their first venture together down this tunnel. That was when Frollo had still been alive and had imprisoned Clopin for his former theft of bread years ago. It was the first time Belle had ever really defied him. She thought about that day a lot, and couldn’t help feeling maybe it was an act of God, or even fate, that had brought them together again that night.

Clopin meant what he had said. He thought it was probably fairly safe for the family to go and watch the circus sometime, as long as they didn’t bring any valuables with them, but he was also serious about keeping their distance from Sarousch. If that man came near his beloved wife and daughter, or anyone else in their family, well, then, Clopin was just going to have to spend the next ten or so years of his life imprisoned for grievous bodily harm.

[[ Sorry this is open-ended but I couldn't think of a better way TO end it! ]]

Description

If a person lay underneath La Fidel at night, they couldn’t see the brightly dazzling jewels that lined her interior. But Belle didn’t need to. She knew which jewels were where and how brightly they shone when the light caught them. They were so brightly polished a person could see their own reflection in each one. On those rare days when Frollo wasn’t around and Belle had had the run of Notre Dame to herself, she would often crawl beneath the rim of La Fidel and stand up inside the great bell to see herself in the jewels, though she had never been particularly vain. From a certain angle, she could see multiple Belles all around her, each jewel turning each one a different colour.

But now it was too dark to see herself and Belle wasn’t lying beneath La Fidel for that, anyway. She would often visit the bells when she needed time to think, before, that is, when she had called Notre Dame a home. They felt like old friends now, the familiar chimes she heard every day as she passed the cathedral always sounded like a greeting just for her. It was strange, she supposed, that people could form an attachment for inanimate objects, but it was unanimously decided by everyone in Paris that the bells of Notre Dame were beautiful, and Belle was no exception.

Presently, she was aware of the sound of footsteps, soft and light, approaching her, but she remained where she was. The dream had left her with a feeling of complete defeat that made her limbs feel heavy. Eventually, she felt Clopin settle himself beside her and found her voice. “How did you know I’d be here?”

“Because I know you very well by now, chere,” Clopin answered. “I know this is always the place you’ll think of as your first home.” Belle felt bad. Her true home was anywhere Clopin was and she didn’t want him to think otherwise. But he was right. This had been the first place she’d thought of as a home, and anything Frollo had done to her in the past hadn’t quite managed to erase her love for it. Clopin’s fingers curled gently around hers. “What is it, chere? Tell me.”

Belle took a deep breath. “The nightmare came back.”

Clopin didn’t need to ask which nightmare. For an entire two years into their marriage, Belle had been haunted at night by the memory of Judge Claude Frollo attacking her the way he had that awful night. It had only happened once but it had shaken her so much that even his death hadn’t stopped her from being afraid of it happening ever again. Clopin had been very understanding, however, and Belle honestly thought that she would never had allowed herself to trust a man ever again if she hadn’t already know what a good man he was. Slowly, the nightmare had stopped coming and she hadn’t thought about it in years. The memory of Frollo’s abuse still lingers deep within the recesses of her mind but it hadn’t defeated her, it hadn’t stopped her from living her life. Getting to work at the bookshop, marriage, having Melody, being able to be with her parents again were the best parts of her life, nothing Frollo had ever done could erase any of that.

Clopin frowned, turning to look at her. “You haven’t had that nightmare for at least ten years.”

“I know. That’s why it’s so strange.” Belle reached up her hand to touch the clapper inside La Fidel, resisting the childish urge to swing it back and forth. No one would thank her if La Fidel woke them all up at this time of night. “I think...I think it was that man we saw earlier, the circus owner.” Clopin stiffened. “Something about his eyes reminded me of Frollo. That’s why the nightmare came back, it has to be.” She turned, rolling over fully to face her husband. “Who is he, Clopin? I know you know.”

Clopin took a deep breath. “Sarousch. I’m afraid I don’t know his surname, or maybe that is his surname and it’s his Christian name I don’t know, although I doubt there’s a Christian bone in that man’s entire body.” The grim expression on his face when he said it confused Belle, but she didn’t say anything, just waited for him to elaborate. “When I was younger, not long before we first met...” Belle smiled at the memory. How could either of them have known then that they would end up married? After all, she had been a child, Clopin a teenager. “I teamed up with Sarousch. We were both on the streets. His mother was a maid for some great man, very beautiful from the way he tells it, though I suppose that could have been an exaggeration. She was imprisoned for theft and Sarousch was born in the prison. But she escaped, thanks to some of her friends. They were all set to leave Paris. Sarousch’s mother got her son aboard the boat that was to take them away, but the guards caught up with her. Sarousch never saw her again. He was raised by gypsies.”

Belle could picture the scene in her mind. “So...he returned to Paris, years later.”

“He wanted to find his father. He suspected the man who had employed his mother before her imprisonment. He told me he’d always suspected that she hadn’t actually stolen anything, that the man had had his way with her and cast her aside, then imprisoned her when she became pregnant so no one would know he had fathered a child with a common servant.” Belle nodded. She could imagine such a thing. There were still some very wealthy men in Paris like that. “I don’t know if he ever found him, at least he certainly didn’t when I knew him. Anyway...” Clopin took a deep breath. “For a while, we set up our own act. He’s a very talented juggler and we were both good at magic, so we were practically a miniature circus. My cousins would help collect the money people donated.”

“And then he got the idea to make up his own circus, which you didn’t join?” Belle guessed.

“Well, yes, but only later. You see, well...” Clopin tapped his chest. Belle knew what he was indicating, the brand he’d been awarded for theft long ago. “Even with whatever money we could make then, we didn’t always make enough to fed ourselves. Stealing food was just a means of survival, like when I stole that bread. One day, we decided to steal some apples from a garden. It was a large household with a family, though the parents were out that night, there was only a young woman at home there. We could see right into her room from the top of the apple tree. Thankfully, she didn’t see us. Sarousch seemed entranced by her, at least that was how it looked. When she went out of the room for a moment, he climbed along a branch that was right beside her window. I told him to come back, but he didn’t listen. I waited there for what must have been seconds but it felt like hours. My heart was in my mouth. Then, suddenly, he came back with a great big grin all over his face. I didn’t think it was wise to stay around much longer, so we gathered our apples and left. Once we were safely on the other side of the wall, he showed me something, a sparkling jewelled broach.”

All Belle’s illusions that this was Sarousch falling head over heels in love shattered. “He’d stolen it from her?”

“Right from her dressing table.” Clopin shook his head. “I was aghast, of course. Food was one thing, it was a necessity. I told him to put it back, but he laughed and said why should he when she had just left it lying around for the taking, and why should we be starving and poor whilst they were rich and had plenty of food. That was when I knew he was no good. Theft became an obsession with him. I assumed at first the broach would be a one off, tried to reason that the woman was rich enough to buy another so it wouldn’t really matter. Selfish, I know, but Sarousch was my friend, or so I thought, I wanted to be on his side.”

Belle nodded. She could understand that. “But he kept on stealing?”

“His illusions in our act became a front for pickpocketing. People were always too entranced by what was in front of them to notice that someone was stealing their valuables. When I realised what he was doing, I told him to stop, partially because it was wrong but also partially because I thought he’d get us both arrested. We argued. Sarousch was determined that it wasn’t wrong, he was just taking what the world owed him for his hard life. I told him that other people had had hard lives too, people who had known their parents had lost them.” He looked meaningfully at Belle. “Or lost others close to them. Some were starving on the streets worse than we were, or suffering horrific abuse.” His fingers closed tighter around Belle’s. “But they weren’t punishing others for it. I told him there and then that if this was the path he was choosing, our act was over for good. Sarousch was furious. He told me I was riding for a fall soon, and one day I’d come around to his way of thinking. That night, he packed up everything and left. I never saw him again.”

“Until now,” Belle finished.

“I thought he’d probably been arrested,” Clopin admitted, “or else stolen so much that he could set himself up as rich man somewhere else in France.”

“That’s why you were so apprehensive about us going to the circus,” Belle realised.

Clopin smiled. “Well, I don’t really want to disappoint Melody when she’s so eager to go.” He fixed her with a serious look. “Don’t bring anything with you that you would hate to lose, Belle. I don’t trust him not to have changed his ways.”

“You did,” Belle reminded him playfully, poking him in the chest. “You don’t steal food now.”

“I don’t need to now!” Clopin laughed. “After meeting Esmeralda and all our other friends, we were able to bring in more money than we’d ever had before. No one starves in the Court of Miracles!”

Belle agreed. It was a wonderful little community, well, family, they had built within the Court of Miracles, though decidedly smaller now than before. Esmeralda and Pocahontas had both left, inspired by Belle’s brave trek to Africa twelve years ago. They had decided, when Melody was three, that they would go to America, where Pocahontas was from, and see if any of her family were still alive. They hadn’t returned, although they sent letters regularly, saying now they were exploring across America. Pocahontas had reunited with her parents and younger brother, which Belle had been pleased to hear, but she still missed them both. And Aladdin and Jasmine had decided to simply “move on” from the Court of Miracles several years ago, restless for an adventure of their own. Belle missed them too. It was odd now that Jack and Boo, who now went by her real name, Mary and only Jack still called her Boo, and Lilo had all grown up now. Of all of them, Boo was closest to Melody’s age, having been a toddler when she was born, and Melody saw her and Lilo as older sisters. In fact, the more Belle thought about it, twelve years seemed to have passed so quickly.

She sat up. “Do you think there’s any need to be worried now that Sarousch is back?”

Clopin thought for a minute. “It’s hard to say. I don’t think his thieving ways will affect us, really. All the same, if he comes near you or Melody...” He shook his head. “I just don’t want him anywhere near my family. He’s not a good man.”

Belle couldn’t help smiling at how protective he was. “Well, he can’t be here forever. Circuses always move on, don’t they? And especially if he really hasn’t changed his thieving habits, he won’t want to stay long here if he might get caught.”

“I suppose you’re right, chere.” Clopin sat up beside her. Belle suddenly felt like they were very young again, like the first time she had shown him the inside of La Fidel, just after the fire at Notre Dame. Not everyone knew the secret that lay inside La Fidel, apart from those who worked within the cathedral, and Clopin had been fascinated by her beautiful interior. She leaned her head against his shoulder, her eyes adjusting enough now that she could just make out the jewels inside the bell. “Feeling better?” Clopin asked.

“Yes.” Belle took a deep, brave breath. “It was just a dream. A dream can’t hurt me, and neither can HE now he’s gone.” She go to her feet, readjusting her skirts. “Come on, we should get back now. Let’s go home.”

Clopin sprang up brightly but his voice was serious again as he took hold of her shoulders. “You will tell me if it happens again, won’t you, Belle?”

“I was going to tell you this time,” Belle said, truthfully, “when I got back. You beat me to it.” She leaned up and kissed him, feeling again like it was the first time. La Fidel had been rung the day they got married, like she was wishing them both her congratulations as well. Belle had been surprised that a wedding had been allowed to take place on the steps of Notre Dame, but it had been too nice a day for them to confine all their guests inside a stuffy cathedral. She had been surprised too that such a union had been allowed between a gypsy and girl who wasn’t one, but as the Archdeacon explained later, “people are people, whether they’re gypsies or not, and the Lord loves every single one of us.” Belle had always liked the Archdeacon, and he in turn had had a soft spot for her. She had confided to him about Frollo’s rape, a few days before she had got married, feeling she needed to talk to a man of the church about it, and he had reassured her that it was Frollo who was to blame and not her.

Hand in hand, they left the cathedral the same way they had come, through the secret tunnel in the empty prison area. It was never used as a prison now, though, instead it was where the sacred wine was mostly kept cool and fresh. Belle knew the passage backwards after all the times she had used it in the past and now as they walked along together, listening to the quiet sounds of Paris by night – the late traders riding home, the chatter and laughter from the nearby taverns, the sound of a stray cat telling another to get away from its territory – neither of them felt the same grip of fear they had during their first venture together down this tunnel. That was when Frollo had still been alive and had imprisoned Clopin for his former theft of bread years ago. It was the first time Belle had ever really defied him. She thought about that day a lot, and couldn’t help feeling maybe it was an act of God, or even fate, that had brought them together again that night.

Clopin meant what he had said. He thought it was probably fairly safe for the family to go and watch the circus sometime, as long as they didn’t bring any valuables with them, but he was also serious about keeping their distance from Sarousch. If that man came near his beloved wife and daughter, or anyone else in their family, well, then, Clopin was just going to have to spend the next ten or so years of his life imprisoned for grievous bodily harm.

[[ Sorry this is open-ended but I couldn't think of a better way TO end it! ]]