Belle Delphine Quotes

At the door to the shop, a bell tinkled, and moments later they seemed to enter the very flowering of lavender. The scent was all around them; it curled and diffused in the air with a sweet warmth and subtlety, then burst with a peppery, musky intensity. The blind girls moved into another room. There they arranged themselves expectantly around a long wooden table, Mme Musset welcomed them, and a cork was pulled with a squeaky pop. "This is pure essence of lavender, grown on the Valensole plateau," said Madame. "It is in a glass bottle I am sending around to the right for you all to smell. Be patient, and you will get your turn." Other scents followed: rose and mimosa and oil of almond. Now that they felt more relaxed, some of the other girls started being silly, pretending to sniff too hard and claiming the liquid leapt up at them. Marthe remained silent and composed, concentrating hard. Then came the various blends: the lavender and rosemary antiseptic, the orange and clove scent for the house in winter, the liqueur with the tang of juniper that made Marthe unexpectedly homesick for her family's farming hamlet over the hills to the west, where as a child she had been able to see brightness and colors and precise shapes of faces and hills and fruits and flowers.

It was a simple gold diadem inlaid with small rubies that had once belonged to Lio's mother. Belle's husband had offered to have one made for her, but she insisted on wearing Delphine's, knowing it meant a great deal more to him that she would be wearing the same crown his mother once did. Maurice had arrived home from his travels just in time to present her with a piece of gold used as a conductor in one of his old inventions, now braided along the base of the crown. Her father had sacrificed so much to make sure Belle had more opportunities than he did, and the crown meant more to her now that it had a piece of her father in it.

The second we connect, a tidal wave of awareness crashes into me. That’s when I see it, fucking feel it, and I’m not the only one. A heartbeat later, Delphine confirms it with a French whispered warning. “Elle est trop belle. Trop intelligente. Mais trop jeune. Cette fille sera ta perte . . .” She is too beautiful. Too smart. But too young. This girl will be your undoing . . .