The Brothers Reunited

Chapter 2

A servant of the castle was sitting at his desk, sifting through the many letters that come to the kingdom each day from all over. Most were things for the king, occasionally for servants who had family elsewhere. But one letter stopped the servant.
"Maurice?" He looked up and decided to find Lumiére, Head Butler and the King's advisor, because surly he'd know what to make of a letter to the queen's father.

"No, no, no. Ladies, you must listen to me. Turn it to the side and then put it in." Lumiére  was trying to help the maids stuff all of the extra linen into a storage closet. "The /other/ way! Why is this so difficult?" The maids were still struggling to get all the blankets in properly. The mail servant came over quietly behind Lumiére, which made the advisor jump when he saw him. "Pierre, please don't startle me like that!"
"Apologies, sir. I have a letter and... it's for Maurice." Lumiére stepped closer and looked down at the letter.
"Belle's father?"
"It must be. There's no other Maurice in the castle, is there?"
"Not that I know of. Thank you," Lumiére took the letter from Pierre's hands. "I'll take it to him." The servant bowed his head and turned away. Lumiére turned back to the maids, setting the letter in his coat pocket. "Ladies! This is not a hard task..." he sighed, falling back into his frustration. "I wish Plumette could start work again."
"But sir, she is with your new baby!" One maid turned excitedly.
"Yes!" Another maid chimed in, "it is so wonderful!!"
"I know, ladies, I know. But what I do not know how she deals with these tedious tasks." The maids just turned back to continue with the linen. Lumiére put his hands in his pockets and was reminded of the letter to Maurice. "Just keep at it, ladies, I'll be back." He turned and headed for Maurice's workshop, where he was from dawn until dusk most days, it seemed.

Lumiére walked up to the door and knocked.
"Maurice?" A faint "come in, come in" could be heard from the depths of the room, so Lumiére swung open the door. He stepped in while looking down at the letter, then looked up to find no one in sight. "Maurice...?"
"Yes! Yes, Lumiére!" The advisor followed the sound toward a pile of canvases and buckets of oil paint. Suddenly a canvas was shifted to the side to reveal Maurice had been behind the pile the whole time.
"Oh! Maurice, are you alright?" Lumiére asked, pushing two paint buckets aside.
"Quite so, Lumiére, but if you could hold this painting against the wall so I could perhaps stand up, that would be wonderful."
"Of course!" Lumiére skipped to the slanted painting leaning on Maurice and held it to the wall, it was revealed to be a portrait of Belle as a young girl. "My, my, what a lovely work, Maurice." The old man stood up and turned, smiling at it.
"Oh, thank you Lumiére, Belle has always been my favorite to paint. Her likeness to her mother..." Maurice smiled, then shook off the memory long before tears could come. "What do you need?" Lumiére simply handed the letter he'd been clutching in his hand since he arrived.
"A letter came for you!"
"Really?" Maurice scanned the letter almost skeptically. "Well I've never received any letters before. Who could it possibly be from?"
"I do not know, Monsieur, but you are the only Maurice in the castle." Maurice was still looking at the letter, as if he could place the handwriting of the address. "I will leave you to read it in privacy," Lumiére said, bowing his head and leaving the workshop quietly.