I’ve always wondered what was there too (“there must be something there that wasn’t there before . . .” – in this case, I do think there was something there from the beginning).
The interesting piece to me is that Belle seemed just as eager to go as Rumple seemed to take her! So I have wondered if Rumple saw her and noticed that she was stiffled by her father and Gaston and somehow wanted to “rescue” her from the situation.
But Rumple was such a “loner” and not what you would call a “people person” so it is odd to me that he would have choosen to actually take her to his “rather large estate” (and okay you can’t tell me there was ANYONE who WASN’T thinking THAT when he said it!! 😉 ).
I have thought about this a lot since Skin Deep and even though I am a total Rumbelle shipper, even when I try to look at it in an unbiased way the only explaination I come back to is that they were truely perfect for each other. I mean Belle had this supposedly handsome catch of the town whom she was supposed to marry but the last thing she cared about was what was on the outside of a person. I am only familar with the Disney version of Beauty and the Beast but Belle was an outcast in her Village because she was a woman who liked to read and could think for herself – she didn’t care what anyone’s opinion was of her. She wanted someone who would appreciate her for who she was. She would have been very well spoken and well versed because of all the reading she did. After all of Rumple’s years I would imagine he would have also been very well read. Maybe he had been searching for someone to bring to the castle who would be able to talk to him and he noticed Belle – it could have been purely coincidence that she was a women. And then when she got to the castle we know what happened . . .