“Yes,” he says. “It suits me to be in the middle of nowhere. I’m a homebody. And I love the big kitchen. I like cooking. I like cooking for lots of people.”

“Good. Because my brother and I like to eat. And we don’t want to go yet, either. Can we all stay a little longer? Please?”

“To be honest, I do like having you all as guests. It’s nice to have someone besides Mr. and Mrs. Butler to talk to. Not sure if you noticed, but they don’t hear that well.” He plunks the chicken into the pan.

“I’ve noticed,” I say.

The chicken sizzles.

I clear my throat. “Mr. Beast, why did you get cursed?”

He tenses. “Excuse me?”

“Why did the fairy curse you? What did you do?”

He sighs. “I didn’t do anything. Nothing. Jax — the fairy — just cursed me.”

Jax. I remember Mr. Beast stomping his foot and mentioning Jax when Jonah and I arrived at the castle.

“You must have done something,” I say. “Were you mean to him?”

“Not that I know of. I hope not. I was just a regular prince. I had seen Jax around my kingdom once or twice, but I didn’t know him well. And then one day, I went into the garden and there he was. Sitting in a tree. I’ll tell you what he said when he cursed me.” Mr. Beast puts down his spatula and leans closer to me. “He said that I was too handsome and too rich and I had it too easy and that it just wasn’t fair. And the next thing I knew, poof, I was a beast.”

I feel a sinking feeling in my stomach. “So he did it because he was jealous?”

He nods. “I guess so. Jealousy makes people do horrible things.”

My face burns. “It does. It really does. What happened next?” I ask.

“Jax explained the curse. He said I would only go back to my regular self if and only if I convinced someone to marry me. The catch is that they couldn’t know that I’d been cursed. Which makes breaking the curse pretty much impossible. Because who would want to marry an ugly animal?” He frowns and covers the pot with a lid.

I stand up straight. “Mr. Beast, that’s what I want to talk to you about. Beauty will marry you. I asked her and she said she would! She likes you!” I say. Okay, fine, she doesn’t exactly like him, but she doesn’t not like him.

And now that I know the curse was because of jealousy, I feel even more pressure to make it right.

Mr. Beast shakes his head. “She doesn’t like me. She stomped on my foot!”