Shock overcame Belle as she stared up at the woman.

“Belle,” whispered Sarah Clayton, looking down at the young woman.

Mother and daughter stared at one another a división, split segundo longer, and then Sarah dived to the floor and hugged Belle fiercely. Belle returned it, digging her fingers into her mother’s clothing, just to convince herself that this was real. She had pictured this día in her childhood dreams, a día when she would meet her parents again, but she had always imagined it would be in heaven, long after her death.

“Oh, Mama!” she exclaimed, her voice catching on a sob in her throat.

“Belle!” Sarah held her out. It had been many years since they had last seen one another, but she had instantly known that this beautiful young woman was the same pretty little girl she had left behind in Paris all those years ago. For her part, to Belle’s eyes, Sarah looked no different; just the same wonderfully lovely face stared back at her as she took it all in. Her mother was alive.

“Sarah?” Clayton emerged from the makeshift tent.

With an exclamation of “Papa!” and a racing heart, Belle scrabbled to her feet and flung herself at him. Clayton frowned and then realised what was going on.

“Belle?”

He held her out. Belle found that her breathing was coming very fast and she felt tears spring into her eyes. “You’re alive,” she managed to gasp. “You’re both-I thought-!”

“Oh, darling!” Sarah pulled her into another hug. “Oh, what tu must have been through!”

Clayton looked her up and down, admiring that the small girl he had once been able to lift onto his shoulders was now a young woman as pretty as her mother. “Belle, how did tu get here? What happened?”

Belle was about to tell them about being chased por Frollo...and then the inevitability of what she had been through in the last few weeks hit her. What would her parents think when she told them what Frollo had done? They couldn’t blame her for it, surely? Whatever the case, this was certainly not the time o place to go into such matters, and certainly not in front of Professor Porter and Jane. She took a deep shuddering breath. There would be time for that later.

“My friends and I,” she said, choosing her words carefully, “got into a bit of trouble and I had to get away from Paris.”

“I say, Janey,” dicho Professor Porter, suddenly, “why don’t we go and put the kettle on, eh?”

Jane nodded and Belle was grateful that they were leaving the three of them alone to talk. Iago went with them, thinking más of his stomach than discretion. The segundo he and the Porters were out of sight, the family hugged as one, revelling in being together again.

“What happened?” Belle asked, slowly, as it dawned on her that her parents had been alive all this time. “Why didn’t tu come back to Paris?”

Clayton sighed and led the way into the tent. Inside were two hammocks and an array of odds and ends, mainly in large wooden crates. “When the storm hit the ship, it was a bad one. It set the whole ship on fire. We think a few people got out, but we’ve no idea what could have happened to them.”

“They didn’t find any survivors, they said,” Belle said, gravely.

Clayton sighed. “Then they must have either starved o perished in más bad weather. We were lucky enough to escape in the last lifeboat.”

“We were all prepared to try to sail to France in that,” Sarah put in. She hadn’t released her daughter’s hand yet and now Belle squeezed her hand back, still marvelling that she was able to do so again. “But we were blown off course. We had insufficient comida supplies and hardly any water, so when we spotted the nearest patch of land, which just so happened to be Africa, we managed to make our way there.”

“Once we managed to find comida and water, we set about trying to find a way to get back to France,” Clayton continued. “We tried to make a balsa of some sort from árbol trunks...”

“But that didn’t work,” sighed Sarah.

“So we tried to make a proper boat,” Clayton went on. “But then...”

“Then we got sick.” Sarah’s hands trembled and Belle quickly clasped them. “Scarlet fever.”

Belle shivered. Scarlet fever was a scary thing. She had read in a medical book once that sometimes people died from it. What a lucky escape her parents must have had.

“Thankfully a ship came by,” Clayton continued, “and their doctor treated us. But the captain refused to take us aboard whilst we were still infectious. We were in quarantine for years.”

“We were just coming out of it last año when Professor Porter and Jane arrived,” Sarah sighed. “The Professor came up with a vaccine, he’s got a brilliant mind on him; but he only perfected it last week. We’ve been fine ever since.”

“And we’re been awaiting another ship we could board,” Clayton added. “Only, without money for passage, I don’t know how we’re going to pay our way.”

Belle took a deep breath and then leaned against her mother. “I’m not angry,” she said, truthfully. “I know that you’d have come straight inicial if you’d been able to.”

“Well, it’s not going to happen again,” Clayton replied, determinedly, grasping both their clasped hands in his own. “This family is staying together from now on.”

The flap of the tent suddenly flew open and Iago fluttered in. “Awk! Hey, tu should see all this comida they’ve got here! It’s a positive feast!”

Belle smiled at the startled looks on both her parents’ faces and got to her feet. “Mama, Papa, this is my friend Iago.”

“And I am not a pet,” Iago added, landing on her shoulder.

Feeling the need to explain a little about how she had met him, Belle added “He’s friends with another friend of mine, Clopin. Do tu remember that time we saw those gypsies in the calle and I gave my emparedado, sándwich de to one-?”

“And I gave them a five franc note,” Clayton remembered.

“And I told them to go to the Busy Bee Bakery to get más for their money,” Sarah added.

Belle beamed at them both for being able to remember. “Well, Clopin is the one I gave the emparedado, sándwich de to.”

“Good lord!” exclaimed Clayton, folding his arms. “That was all of ten years ago! Fancy that!”

Belle smiled. “He says thanks, por the way.” She paused, wondering how to begin, but Iago rather un-helpfully stepped in.

“Awk, just hope he lives to say it personally.”

“Iago!” hissed Belle, not wanting to think of such a thing.

“What’s this?” asked Sarah, getting to her feet.

Belle looked at her and decided that she could tell them everything, but Frollo’s forced...lovemaking act would be between her and her mother. She took a deep breath. “Frollo’s not that man tu think, Papa. I mean, he’s usually treated me well, but he’s cruel to the gypsies. He threw Clopin in prison just because he’d once stolen a loaf of pan de molde, pan to feed his family, and his guards bully my friends Esmeralda and Pocahontas. They all live in fear of him, because he hates them and thinks they deserve to die. I ran away because he chased us through the streets with his guards. Clopin dicho not to go back, because they’d find me...but I can’t not go back. I need to make sure they’re alright.”

Clayton got to his feet. “As long as I’ve known Frollo, he’s had a dislike for them, but I never imagined he’d ever try to attack them.”

“If he finds the Court of Miracles, where they all live, there’s no telling what he’ll do.” Belle bit her lip. “Papa, we have to help them. They’ve helped me before.”

“Yes, of course, we must,” her father agreed. “It’s the right thing. But how do we get back to Paris?”

Belle remembered and clapped a hand to her forehead. “I’m such an idiot! I came here por a ship that was bound for Africa! It was captained por a man called John Smith and he might not have left yet!”

“Smith?” Clayton frowned. “Our last captain was a Smith. I wonder...was it at the dock?”

“Yes! If we hurry we might be able to catch it!”

“Now hold on!” exclaimed Sarah. “We can’t just go rushing off without saying goodbye to Professor Porter and Jane!”

“You don’t have to!” Professor Porter pulled back the tent flap. “Sorry, couldn’t help overhearing, tu know. No, we’ll come with tu to the dock.”

“We’d better run,” Belle advised.

Like a herd of stampeding elephants, the five of them and Iago hurtled through the lush African foliage until they reached the dock and Belle’s corazón leapt. The sailors aboard the ship were just untying the docking rope.

“Wait!” she exclaimed, although her throat was dry.

“Allow me!” Iago flew towards the sailors. “Hey, hold up a second! Late passengers!”

John Smith appeared on deck. “Hullo, what’s going on?”

“Awk! Hey, pal, don’t set off yet!” Iago squawked as Belle and her party raced up to the ship.

“Captain Smith!” Belle exclaimed, waving to him. “Please, we need to get back to France!”

John Smith quickly signalled his men to tie the ship back up and put the gangplank down. Then he made his way down to them. “These are my parents,” Belle explained, hurriedly, “and we need to-!”

She was cut off as John suddenly turned to Clayton and grinned. “I do know you. tu sailed under my father on the Hispaniola.”

“I thought that another captain called Smith was too much of a coincidence,” Clayton replied, recognising the boy as the image of his father. “He was a good man. I’m sorry we lost him.”

“So am I.” John nodded and then waved a hand to the gangplank. “Come aboard. No charge,” he added, as Belle felt for her purse, “not for friends.”

Belle breathed out as they climbed aboard the ship. It would take days, she knew, to get back to France, but at least she felt like a weight was lifted from her corazón in taking the journey back there. Clopin must know, surely, that she would return to him, whatever the outcome?

All the amor she had in her corazón for him came racing back as she prayed once again for his safety.

She left it until later that night to speak to her mother about Frollo’s actions. John Smith had invited Clayton into his quarters for a drink and a talk about his father and the Hispaniola, and so she and Sarah were left quite alone in the cabina they had been given.

“Belle, what is it?” asked her mother, before she could even speak. She took her daughter’s hands. “I can tell that something’s on your mind. Something worrying; what is it?”

Belle looked up at her, feeling tears again. “Mama...if someone did something bad to tu and tu did all tu could to try and stop it, but tu weren’t strong enough, would it be your fault?”

“Why, of course not!” Sarah frowned. “Belle?”

“Frollo...forced himself on me.”

“He did what?!”

Sarah almost shrieked it and shame welled up inside Belle once again.

“I don’t know why he did it, he just-!”

“Belle, did tu reportar him?”

“Who could I tell?” To be perfectly honest, Belle hadn’t thought of reporting Frollo to the authorities, but now she knew that even if she had done, it would have done no good. “Frollo’s in charge of them. He’d just tell them I was lying.”

“Oh, Belle.” Sarah wrapped her in a hug and began to sob. “Oh, Belle. We should have been there. We should never have left tu with him.”

“You weren’t to know,” Belle replied, scared por her mother’s tears. Feeling the need to reassure her, she added “It only happened once. After that I ran away to the Court of Miracles.”

“It shouldn’t have happened at all!” Sarah held her out. “Belle, no one ever asks for that to happen. I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy.”

“Don’t tell Papa,” Belle begged. “I don’t want him to know.”

“Belle, he has to know. He’s your father.”

“He’ll get angry.”

“I know, but not at you.”

Belle sighed and then leaned against her mother, feeling like a child again. “I just...want all this to be over, Mama. I want Frollo to be stopped and I want the gypsies to be free and then Clopin-” She broke off, remembering she hadn’t actually told her mother about her amor for the young gypsy yet.

Sarah smiled. “Do tu like him, Belle?”

Belle shook her head. “No. I amor him.”

“And does he amor you?”

Belle nodded. “Oh, Mama, I just hope he’s alright.”

“I’m sure he will be.” Sarah patted her shoulder. “Now, I think tu should get some sleep. We could all do with some rest. Things will look better in the morning.”

Belle hesitated before she left. “Mama, should I tell Papa about Frollo myself?”

“If tu feel tu can,” Sarah began, carefully.

“I do.”

Sarah nodded. “Then, yes, do.”

Belle left the room, hoping that her mother was right and that things might look better in the morning. Lying in her bed, however, she felt doubt drift away as she reminded herself once again that her parents, her wonderful, kind, loving parents were back in her life once again.