lark_in_flight: Cosette in a large bonnet, looking neutral or slightly uncertain (Default)
Cosette Fauchelevent ([personal profile] lark_in_flight) wrote2016-01-13 10:45 pm
Entry tags:

Fantine & Cosette

[Just before.]

Cosette knocks on her mother's door.

If there's no answer, she'll let herself in. But perhaps her mother is in already.
farouche_bravoure: Fantine with bonnet in rainbow colors (Default)

[personal profile] farouche_bravoure 2016-01-25 12:37 am (UTC)(link)
Fantine lets out a long, soft hiss. "He tried to kill you, as a child," she manages to say, when she feels capable of speech. "He tried to keep me from you, and then to keep M. Madeleine from you, and if M. Madeleine hadn't escaped him, you would have been left with the Thénardiers. They--"

She breaks off. Cosette has forgotten the Thénardiers, so M. Madeleine has said, and Fantine won't force her to remember. "If Javert told you of M. Madeline's past, it was out of malice, to hurt him. It must have been. Some might share the truth out of kindness, or simple honesty. Not Javert. He was trying to hurt your father by revealing his secrets as he lay ill."

She laughs, suddenly. "And what a fool he is. Surely you can't hate your father for stealing bread! How can that be a crime? Those who set the bread prices too high, the police should send them to prison!"
Edited 2016-01-25 00:38 (UTC)
farouche_bravoure: Fantine with bonnet in rainbow colors (Default)

[personal profile] farouche_bravoure 2016-01-25 05:19 pm (UTC)(link)
Fantine sees the pallor and the shiver, and regrets that the name crossed her lips. "Oh, darling. They're horrors you've escaped. You're free of them forever. It's all in the past. I can tell you more, but do you want me to, right now? It can wait until you feel a little better, maybe have something hot to drink?" Gently, Fantine starts to pull away from Cosette, making ready to rise. "I can bring something from Bar, and then I can tell you all you wish to know."
farouche_bravoure: Fantine with bonnet in rainbow colors (Default)

[personal profile] farouche_bravoure 2016-01-26 04:49 am (UTC)(link)
"I'll be right back, darling, I'll get you some chocolate," Fantine says, with a brief kiss to Cosette's forehead. She slips out and down the stairs to Bar, and comes back just as quick with a hot mug.

"Here you are." Fantine draws up the little nightstand and puts the hot chocolate on top of it before Cosette. "Now just drink it, and then you can ask me or tell me anything you like, hmm?"
farouche_bravoure: Fantine with bonnet in rainbow colors (Default)

[personal profile] farouche_bravoure 2016-01-26 03:39 pm (UTC)(link)
A rat raps on the door and comes in with a tray of small sandwiches. Fantine had requested them of Bar when she went down. Now she takes the tray and puts it on the nightstand. The skylark, which had been uninterested in the hot chocolate, swoops down to peck at the sandwiches, but Fantine diverts him: "Not for you, little one."

To Cosette, she says, "That's right, darling. Drink up, and have a sandwich, too."
farouche_bravoure: Fantine with bonnet in rainbow colors (Default)

[personal profile] farouche_bravoure 2016-01-27 04:51 am (UTC)(link)
Fantine slips an arm around Cosette's shoulders. "There, there, darling." She hasn't been good, not all the time, but Cosette doesn't need to know all that now. "Finish your sandwich." To please Cosette, she takes a half-sandwich herself, though she's not especially hungry.
farouche_bravoure: Fantine with bonnet in rainbow colors (Default)

[personal profile] farouche_bravoure 2016-01-27 05:18 am (UTC)(link)
Fantine is startled into a laugh. "All right, my dear, all right. You may say I'm good, and I won't contradict you! I--I've always tried to be. And I know God forgives us all, and I always tried to keep you safe and happy, and look, here you are, married to a good man, and everything so nice for you! And now you can be even happier, now that M. Madeleine is back with you and will get well soon. And I can see you whenever you come here, and there's nothing to keep us apart. So God has answered my prayers and forgiven all my sins, and he must be smiling down on both of us."
farouche_bravoure: Fantine with bonnet in rainbow colors (Default)

[personal profile] farouche_bravoure 2016-01-28 01:39 am (UTC)(link)
And now there are tears in Fantine's eyes, as she holds Cosette close to her. "My darling little girl--no, not little anymore. All grown and married now, and taking care of your father, and so good and kind."
farouche_bravoure: Fantine with bonnet in rainbow colors (Default)

[personal profile] farouche_bravoure 2016-01-28 03:45 pm (UTC)(link)
"Oh, how lovely!" Fantine smiles. "Then you can both visit M. Madeleine, and me, too! When can I meet him?"
farouche_bravoure: Fantine with bonnet in rainbow colors (Default)

[personal profile] farouche_bravoure 2016-02-03 04:51 am (UTC)(link)
Fantine sees the unspoken problem: Marius can't yet bear the introduction to a dead mother-in-law, on top of all the surprises of the day. Let alone learning she's not the sort of mother-in-law a baron should have.

And she doesn't want to make any problems for Cosette. "Of course, darling." She smiles. "Whenever you'd like, then."