Page 21 of Beau and the Beast

If something had done that to the other room, what was stopping it from doing it to Beau's new room?

"So, we're just not going to talk about that?" he asked.

She turned to him with an exhausted look on her face. "We are," Violet assured him. "Just not right now."

"Am I even safe here? Because getting mauled by some animal wasn't part of the deal I just signed up for."

"I assure you that you're safe," she said. "And if you weren't, your brother knows where you are now. We know that we'd be held responsible if something happened to you. Do you think we would've let you make that phone call if you were in any sort of danger?"

Beau tried to move on, looking around himself. The room they stood in now was almost the size of the entire apartment he shared with Noah.

"Where's the bed?" he asked.

She smiled. "This is the sitting room. The bedroom and bath are through there."

He followed her gaze, crossing the well-appointed room and entering a cozier bedroom.

It reallywaslike something out of a castle. There was a huge four-poster bed draped with dark, rich-looking fabrics. He approached, dragging his hand over the bedspread only to pull it away smudged with a thick smear of dust.

"I'm sorry," she said, rushing forward. "I didn't even think of it. Nobody's cleaned this room in ages. I'll get James to get you some fresh linens while you eat."

Everythingwas covered with dust, he realized now.

"Let's make sure the pipes in the bathroom work," she offered, crossing in front of him.

* * *

Beau was struckby the way that the staff was welcoming him.

It certainly wasn't the treatment he'd expected from the way they'd first met.

Violet had gone all around his new quarters, noting which areas needed to be dusted, what needed to be attended to.

It was odd, though. Had nobody stayed in the room for, what,years? Rich people were so strange. Why have an extra bedroom at all if you never intended to entertain anyone?

He followed Violet around as she asked James to fix up the apartment and then found Song to borrow some clothes.

"You're the closest to his size, I think," Violet said to the slim man.

"Sure. Beau, you can drop in my room whenever you want—I’m one door down from Violet. Clothes are in the dresser to the right of the bed. Take whatever you want."

Even Geoffrey, the man who had threatened him less than an hour ago at the dining room table, smiled at him when their paths crossed during Violet's tour.

The staff seemed...excitedthat he was there. Was that possible?

Their attitudes had seemed to turn on a dime and all at once.

He could barely tell them apart aside in his head, though.

Geoffrey was taller than Beau and looked to be the youngest person on the staff. He was also the most athletic, carrying himself like a boxer when he walked. Song was roughly Beau’s same build but much older—probably in his sixties with neat straight hair and perfect posture. James was broad and had a beard like a lumberjack that made it difficult to guess at his age. He reminded Beau vaguely of a bear coming out of hibernation. Alfie was slight, in his forties, had hair so blond that it was almost snow-white, and a slight accent that Beau couldn't place—maybe Welsh.

He quizzed himself on their names as he followed Violet, learning where the laundry room was, which hallways led where. She showed him a library with sweeping windows and the type of floor-to-ceiling shelves that he'd only ever dreamed of. There were other sitting rooms he could use, a wine cellar he was instructed to help himself to, and finally the kitchen.

"You can take whatever you'd like out of here," she said, "and you should make me a list of whatever you want us to get stocked for you. We have groceries delivered every other day and dinner delivered most nights. Are you hungry now?"

Beau didn't want to say yes. He'd always been so used to relying on himself, to turning down the things that were offered... But hewouldbe living in the penthouse for the foreseeable future.

Guess I'll have to get over that.

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