She was sure no one else would notice how, in anger, his voice still slipped into something akin to a growl. But Belle had lived with the Beast longer than she had lived with Lio. She could pick out the parts that lingered still, but she would never tell him as much.

My point is that amid all this upheaval, you can stay the same. You can be the constant the kingdom needs you to be." She looked out to the horizon. "The person you are now is the same person who saved our kingdom. Why should you ever want to change into someone else?

Back home, she had become something larger than Belle. Whether they knew she broke the curse or not, the people of Aveyon viewed Belle as their savior. Some thought she had rescued them from an inattentive, reclusive prince; far fewer knew she had broken the curse that had been drowning the kingdom for a decade. Everyone wanted her to be their princess, to embrace her new role to the fullest extent.But she couldn't bring herself to do that, not yet at least.

Belle was an oddity: a peasant who was polite enough to dine with them without catastrophe. She didn't fit with their preconceived notions of how a peasant should behave, so they treated her like a rarity. It was absurd; Belle herself had grown up with many smart and worldly commoners, and met more than a few ignorant and dim nobles in just one night.

The happenstance of someone's birth should not determine whether or not they are impoverished. It is up to those of us with power in whatever form to work to make the lives of everyone better, starting with those less fortunate than us

The bad things that happen in our lives serve to shape us just as much as the good.

The immense dining room table all but sagged under the weight of the dishes: tureens of beef madrilène, bisque of shellfish, and cold cucumber soup mingled with heaving platters of beef ragout, scallops smothered in puréed chestnuts, salmon en sel, and ramequins of cheese soufflé. All the dishes perspired in the July evening heat under the glow of a thousand candles, but thanks to the duc's priorities, the champagne was pleasantly cool.

The people of Aveyon need egalitarian reforms before I get around to the library."Marguerite snapped a book shut and returned it to the shelf. "What could be more egalitarian than access to literature for all people of Aveyon?

Belle was different now too, from the poor, provincial girl she had once been to a queen in her own right.She stood tall in a gown as golden as the sun. It hearkened back to the dress she had worn the night she dined and danced with the Beast, when he had shown her a vision of her father and let her go to him, despite the fact that leaving meant an eternity as a monster. It was hard to understand how much had changed since then, and how far they had come.

You must not wait for others to save Aveyon. You need to trust your instincts and become the queen you're capable of being.