Twin Roses: A Beau Rivage Short Story Read Free Page A

she accompanied the sisters to the door.
    “She’s so jealous of her brother,” Mrs. Hansen confided. “It’s nothing to be jealous of, believe me. My son has had that awful Beauty and the Beast curse since he was six. I’m always worried that this will be the year a fairy changes him into a Beast. Can you imagine? Covered in fur, with claws and whiskers?”
    “He’ll still be himself,” Pearl said. “He’ll be the same person, just hidden inside another form.”
    “I know that,” Mrs. Hansen said. “But I’m not big on transformations. I like things to stay the same.”
    “Better go check on that cake,” Ruby said.
    “
Yes
. Because she would feel no remorse, let me tell you. Thank you so much for bringing it over. I already paid your mother, but here’s a little something for the two of you.”
    They thanked her for the tip and headed down the front walk. “
I
wanted to swipe a crown from that cake,” Ruby admitted. “You should make me one like that for my birthday.”
    “
Our
birthday. Maybe I will. If you do the dishes.”
    “That could be arranged.”
    They weren’t due back at the café right away, so Ruby took a detour, driving through some of the fancier neighborhoodswhere the cursed kings and queens, princes and princesses, and other tycoons lived. Ruby liked the Rambles’ house just fine—it had charm, and the perfect amount of space—but there was no denying the appeal of a mansion. These were the castles of Beau Rivage: rooms filled with fairy-tale heirlooms, furniture you weren’t supposed to sit on, treasure that was meant to stay in its chest.
    What Ruby really wanted to see was the Wilders’ enchanted rose garden, but it was surrounded by a high stone wall that blocked it from view. Rafe Wilder, another soon-to-be Beast, threw parties all the time, but Mrs. Ramble wouldn’t let her daughters go to those.
    Ruby had been scanning the edge of the stone wall, hoping to catch a glimpse of just one enchanted rose peeping over the top, when Pearl yelled, “Dog!”
    Ruby hit the brakes. She narrowly missed hitting a white pit bull that ran across the street in front of them.
    “Thanks. I was looking at—”
    “Unbelievable,” Pearl muttered. She unhooked her seat belt and climbed out of the car.
    “Pearl?”
    Ruby had been so elated not to have hit the dog that she hadn’t bothered to check where it went. But now she saw that the dog was attacking someone on the front lawn of one of the estates: a man stuck in a hydrangea bush. His skinny legs flailed, and purple flowers shuddered back and forth.
    Pearl—who wasn’t exactly a dog person—was clapping her hands and calling, “Hey! Get away from him!”
    Ruby ran up the lawn. Even from a distance, she could see that there was more than just an ungrateful bearded man inthe bushes. There was also a sack of jewelry and a large framed painting balanced crookedly on a bed of mulch. A rope made of bedsheets hung from a second-floor window.
    Ruby snapped her fingers. “C’mere girl!” She dropped to a crouch and went on snapping and calling, not even sure the dog could hear her over the sound of her own growls.
    Finally, the dog released the man’s leg, wheeled around, and dropped onto her back for a scratch. She squirmed in the grass, head and butt wriggling in opposite directions, while Ruby patted her. “What’s your name, girl? Wonder Dog? Defender of Justice?”
    Pearl made her way past them to help the bearded man out of the bushes. He was limping, rubbing his chewed pant leg, but at least there was no blood. His pants were stained with mulch and his short beard had bits of flowers stuck to it.
    “Do you want us to wait with you until the police arrive?” Pearl asked. “So you can explain how that painting got here?”
    “Would
you
like to explain what you’ve done to my clothes?” the man retorted. “I’m sure the police would be very interested to hear why you let your dog assault me—when I was simply minding my