Page 45 of Beau and the Beast

“Bingo,” Song said.

"And yeah, we all worked in the same office,” Violet said. “Which I guess is why we got lumped in as collateral damage when it came down to the curse."

"And the stuff we do with MGEF isnotadmirable," Geoffrey said, frowning. "We did it because the boss told us to."

"That's not entirely true," James said. "We did it because we thought it might break the curse."

Beau raised an eyebrow. "What, like, you did bad in the world, so you needed to use money to do good?"

"Right," Violet said. "Wolfram thought about giving away his fortune, but in terms of the actual curse, we eventually came to the conclusion that we could create more good in the world by growing and managing the money than by simply giving it away."

"Makes sense," Beau said.

Song poured him a glass of wine and handed it across the table to Beau.

"Makes sense, but it didn't amount to much," Song said. "We're still stuck here and Wolfram still looks like a lion and a goat in a bad jiu jitsu match."

Beau tried to stifle his laugh and almost choked on his wine.

"How're things going with the old ram, anyway?" Alfie asked. "We haven’t seen much of you these past two days."

"It's been... ups and downs, I guess."

Violet frowned. "Let me guess: he bit your head off for no reason."

"Yikes, Vi," Song said, stifling a laugh. "The imagery there is a little much."

She rolled her eyes.

"Come on—you know what I mean—" she protested.

"When you're talking about someone who's literally capable of biting off heads, it pays to be a little more cautious with your lexicon," James offered.

She sighed and looked at Beau as if to ask, 'Do you see what I put up with?'

Beau smiled.

"Yeah. I got on the wrong side of his temper."

"He'll come around," Violet said.

"Or he'll bite your head off," Alfie cut in.

Alfie winced sharply and Beau realized that Violet had kicked him under the table.

"Guess that means you didn't take my advice to heart," Geoffrey said, looking at Beau with a disappointed expression.

It was Beau's turn to sigh. "If you wanted someone to just take dictation, you hired the wrong guy," Beau said. "I'm a reporter—not a biographer. I was looking for the heart of the story. I still am."

"But now you're going to back off of whatever pissed him off, right?" Violet asked hopefully.

"Absolutely not," Beau said.

There was a collective frown spanning the others at the table.

"If it makes him this mad to talk about his father, you'd better believe I'm not done with the subject," Beau said, setting his jaw.

He could barely believe the words coming out of his own mouth. Hadn’t he just spent the afternoon telling himself that he needed to be more cautious with Wolfram?

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