Glaring at Eve with her piercing green eyes, Louisiana Dawson then turned to her elder daughter with tears shimmering in her gaze, eyes so strikingly similar to Eve's. The Duchess had always been considered a beautiful woman, youthful for her age, yet now the shadows beneath her eyes betrayed dark rings, marks that seemed to come from many nights of sleepless worry.
Was Eve telling the truth when she said our parents couldn't sleep out of concern for me? Belle wondered as she stared at the mother she hadn't seen in so many long months.
"Isabelle..." her mother breathed softly as she raised her hands to cup Belle's face before pulling her into a trembling embrace, sobbing openly. Belle had never seen her mother shed a single tear for her.
