Anton and Louis worked hard at cleaning out the barn.  Despite Beauty’s regal appearance, the barn was the only place large enough for her to fit.  Anton and Louis even made a large bed of straw while her sisters brought her the biggest blankets they could find under their father’s orders of course.  The three sisters refused to help their sister in any way unless their father demanded it.  Beauty drug the trunk into the barn.  Beauty had to duck before entering the barn which only cause laughs from her sisters as they enjoyed seeing her doing something so unladylike. 

Once her family left her be Beauty opened the trunk to find a nightgown and robe as well as dresses fit for everyday wear.  The only regal gown was the one she was wearing.  She took off the tiara and pearls as well as the golden gown and put it away in the bottom of the truck.  She then put on her nightgown.    Beauty felt more comfortable wearing the clothes the Beast provided.  Some of the dresses looked like the type she wore when she worked in her Beast’s beloved rose garden. 

Beauty lay down on the bed of straw.  She reached over and rubbed the horse behind the ears.  She looked at the size of hand next to the animal’s head.  Her hand was the same size as his head.  The horse didn’t seem to care that Beauty was much bigger than him.  Beauty appreciated this after the episode with her sisters declaring her to be the size of a whale.  Their cruelty still hurt Beauty even after all these years.  Now they seemed jealous of her fortune.  What if it was one of them that went to the Beast instead of her?   Surely they could never care for him the way she does?

Beauty fell asleep thinking of her Beast and how much she already missed him.  Again she seemed unaware as her body and clothing began to slightly grow again.  Beauty put the ring on her truck and went fast asleep.  She dreamt of the world around her getting smaller and smaller.  She dreamt that she was holding her father in the palm of her hand.  He stared up at her lovingly.  She stood in the grand ballroom of the Beast’s castle but it wasn’t quite as she remembered it.  The room seemed lively and shining as people Beauty had never known lined the walls.  Even though Beauty didn’t know the faces, they all seemed familiar to her.   Beauty watched as her father stood up on her golden gloved hand and bowed to a presence standing behind her.  Before Beauty could see who it was she woke to the morning light spilling in through the cracks of the barn walls.

Beauty dressed in her simple peasant type dress with her wavy chestnut hair braided back.  She even put on an apron with simple flat shoes.  Beauty looked in the mirror that had been in her trunk.  It was the magic mirror from her sleeping chambers in the Beast castle.  The frame of the mirror is made of pure gold, roses and rubies accented the piece.  The mirror was strangely out of place in a barn with stalls and hayloft.  The mirror only reflected the truth and Beauty still couldn’t believe the face starring back at her every time she glanced at herself in it.  Little did Beauty know that the mirror never lied and the pretty face looking back at her was her own true face.

Beauty hit the frame of the barn’s double doors as she exited the barn completely unaware of the small amount of growth she experience the night before from thinking about her Beast.  Even Anton was unaware that his sister seemed a small amount bigger today as he greeted her with a smile.

“I see that you have more sensible garments today Beauty,” Anton said as he looked up at his sister.  He did his best not to show his amazement at his sister’s size.

“Oh yes, you know I am more comfortable in this sort of dress than a ball gown,” Beauty said as she bent down to meet her brother’s eyes.

“I have made a fire for you Beauty.  That is if you can still cook for us.  Felicia, Marie and Anna can’t even boil water.  Usually Louis or I end up doing all the cooking after working in the fields.  Besides we miss your delicious meals,” Anton tells Beauty unsure if her size would be a hindrance.  Beauty understood her brother’s words when he asked if she could still cook.  Beauty knew that the fire wasn’t the kitchen hearth but an open fire close by.

“I would love to.  Do you have the ingredients where I can get to them?” Beauty said with a smile.

“Everything is set up on the wagon.  Pots and pan and enough eggs to feed … an army,” Anton said as he was about ready to slip out the word giant.

“Great, I’ll do the best I can.  Maybe after breakfast I can help you and Louis out in the field?” Beauty said.  She wanted to keep busy on her week’s stay with her dear ones.  She planned on spending all of her time with her father and brothers and maybe, just maybe she can get a little closer to her sisters?

Beauty sat down in the grass outside the open kitchen doors so that she may dine with her family.  Anton, Louis and her father took their plated food and decided to dine outside on the bench near Beauty.  The three men understood that Beauty felt out of place because of her great size and they didn’t want her to feel out of place in her own home.  The sisters talk among themselves as they looked out the doors at the sight.

“Look at all that food,” Felicia commented on the wagon full of dishes in front of Beauty.  The wagon was now Beauty’s dinner table instead of the great gilded table in the dining hall of the Beast’s castle.

“She will eat us out of house and home within a week’s time,” Anna said in a low voice and the other two sisters laughed.  Beauty’s father knew his three older daughters were no angels.  He only blamed himself for their bratty behavior.  The three sisters spent a good majority of their lives wanting for nothing whereas Beauty had to learn misfortune at a young age.  Before Maurice lost his fortune as a merchant his Beauty was always the gentlest of all his children.

“I will have enough of that Felicia and Anna,” Maurice scolds his daughters.  The three sisters stood up straight in their chairs and held back the laughter trying to escape.

“We have harvested the wheat and now we must plow the field,” Anton tells Beauty.

“Poor Nellie is not feeling so well today.  Guess we are going to have to wait till tomorrow brother,” Louis said as he hung his head low.  Louis dreaded plowing the fields and hoped to be done with it today but with the horse feeling under the weather, it appeared to be for not.

Beauty looked down at the plow on the edge of the field.  She had an idea that would please both her brothers.  She grabbed the reigns attached to it and slightly pulled realizing she had more than enough strength to pull the contraption.

“Perhaps I may take Nellie’s place?” Beauty tells her brothers.  “The plow is not that hard for me to move,” Beauty then said as she yanked the plow again.

Anton and Louis’s eyes widened as they realized Beauty’s size has also made her as strong as a horse if not stronger.  Beauty tied the reigns around her waist while Louis smiled as he hopped onto the back of the plow.  Anton joined him and Beauty began to pull.  The three siblings laughed as the field was plowed in record time due to Beauty’s great size and strength.

Felicia, Marie and Anna peeked over the sheets at the commotion coming from the field.  Maurice smiled at the sight of his daughter pulling the heavy plow.  The sisters gave their father a dirty look.

“Wolf in sheepskin, indeed,” Marie mumbled.

“Look at her doing a man’s work,” Felicia huffed.

“More like a horse’s work dear sister,” Anna said coyly and the other two sisters laughed.  Anna noticed that Beauty wasn’t wearing the ring she coveted so much.  The wheels in the petite Anna’s head were turning.  She wanted that ring; no she felt she deserved that ring.  “It would make a fine bracelet,” Anna whispered to herself as she quickly walked away from her distracted sister and father to the barn.

Anna found the ring sitting on top of the trunk.  She reached up to find that the ring was way out of her grasp.  Nellie whinnied behind her.  The poor old nag had not been in the best of health lately.  Anna glared at the horse as she grabbed a hoe.  Anna smiled when she realized the hoe was sufficient enough for her to get the ring.  Anna smiled when the bracelet sized ring fell into her hand.  Anna than put her prize in the pocket of her apron so that Beauty and the others may never know.