Welcome to my first publication in the Les Miserables fandom! I've been a fan of the musical for years and while I do enjoy the movie, give me the stage show (and in particular, the 10th Anniversary) any day of the week. Since I've never read the book, most things I write for this fandom will be musical-based, but the book is on my reading list in the near future. I can't wait to get to it.
For anyone who has read my stories before or seen my profile page, you'll see that I'm a really big fan of Celtic Woman. This is my fourth Celtic Woman songfic to publish on this site and while I was going through my playlist, I found that several songs could be related to the Les Mis fandom. I'm currently working on another one about Enjolras, which I hope to have ready to publish soon. Anyway, the song is "Walking in the Air" sung by Chloe Agnew; it's the first song Celtic Woman performed at their first concert, which acts doubly as a tribute to the group who are on their 10th Anniversary tour this year. I've posted a link on my page. The story is based on Cosette while she's living at the Thenardier's inn, and remembers a lullaby that Fantine used to sing her. Happy reading!
"Cosette, mop the floors!"
"Cosette, clean the fireplace!"
"Cosette, stop daydreaming and get to work!"
This was all eight-year-old Cosette had heard every day for the past five years. Ever since her mother had left her with M. Thénardier, an innkeeper who lived in Montfermeil, she had been bossed and ordered about like a servant, waiting for the day her mother would come back and reclaim her. Even though she was miserable in the inn, she couldn't say it hadn't taught her a few things. She knew the difference between good and bad more readily than other children her age, and she knew what it was like to be surrounded by people and yet be completely alone. She was already very wise for her years and even more observant. She had a knack of seeing the good in others, but only if there was some good to be seen in them in the first place (she was positive Monsieur and Madame and their snobbish daughters didn't have an ounce of kindness in them at all). That being said, she also knew an unsavory character when she saw them and tried her hardest to avoid being seen, which wasn't difficult because M. Thénardier liked her to have her chores finished and be out of sight before the inn opened for the evening. Occasionally, Madame would parade her eldest daughter, Eponine, for the guests to see, saying what a perfect angel she was, and Cosette was just grateful that she hadn't yet thought to show the two girls side by side, an action that would only be meant to bolster Eponine's self-esteem and belittle Cosette.
Cosette shook her head as she watched from the shadows as M. robbed his guests of all their possessions without them even noticing, Eponine and Azelma helping occasionally. What sort of example was that for them? All of them attended Mass in order to keep up appearances, but Cosette was the only one in the inn who believed what the sermons taught her. She wanted more than anything to tell the priest her situation, but only knew it would lead to more trouble with her guardians, which lead inevitably to her wondering why her mother had chosen to leave her with them.
She suspected it had something to do with money, but she wasn't sure until she overheard M. and Mdm. discussing the subject one evening after the inn had closed. She had come downstairs after being unable to sleep and heard them debating various methods of persuading more money out of someone called Fantine. After a few more minutes of eavesdropping, she was able to glean that Fantine was her mother and she was paying the Thénardier's to keep her. So that was it, her mother couldn't afford to keep her and was working until she could. She went back to bed, all of this new information swirling round inside her head.
She laid staring up at the ceiling for a long time after that, trying hard to remember what her mother looked like. She had been only three years old when she was left at the inn and that had been five years ago. She hadn't seen her mother or heard her voice once in all that time. A tear ran down her cheek as she tried to imagine her mother's face, but couldn't. She closed her eyes and tried to will sleep to come to her, so she could escape to her castle on a cloud, her own personal paradise, and be away from the Hell she was living at that moment.
The sound of someone humming came from somewhere nearby. She smiled softly; there was a child a few houses down who sometimes snuck out and walked the streets of Montfermeil, always humming a soft and peaceful tune. She lifted her head slightly, listening more closely. She knew that song, why did she know that song? Then one instance long ago ventured to the forefront of her memory and she remembered the lyrics that went with the song. She frowned as she heard something, she could almost hear a voice on the wind. That wasn't the child who lived next door. She listened carefully, straining her ears for any catch of that voice. It sounded so familiar. Four words floated to her ears, "walking in the air."
"Walking in the air?" she whispered to herself, as she remembered that was indeed how the song was supposed to go. "How can anyone walk in the air? That's absurd even for a children's story." She had long ago stopped believing in fairy tales; if such things were possible, a fairy godmother would have come and rescued her already. Still, the song sounded beautiful and she closed her eyes and listened, remembering a long ago time when her mother would sing her to sleep. Slowly the lyrics began to come back to her and a picture began to form in her mind's eye.
She smiled; she could just imagine it now. She was floating in the air, the moon shining down on her, casting a thin veil of light over the dark earth below her. She felt the wind in her hair, stinging her eyes as she flew faster, soaring high and swooping low as the moment took her.
She gasped as she felt someone's hand gently take hold of hers. She tried to twist her head round to see that person, but they were covered in shadow. All she could see was a woman with a long sheen of beautiful brown hair and wearing a white dress, the face completely blocked from her vision. She wasn't afraid though, this was a lady she knew: the lady from her castle on a cloud, the one who held her, sang her a lullaby and whose warmth and comforting presence always made Cosette feel safe and secure (and whose image she brought to mind every time she suffered verbal abuse from the Thénardiers).
"She's nice to see and she's soft to touch. She says 'Cosette, I love you very much'." Cosette smiled, she was safe as long as this lady was near her.
She could see the landscapes now, small towns dotted across the earth, located in some of the most beautiful scenery she had ever laid eyes on. Sloping hills gave way to mountains looming up into the clouds, their peaks almost touching the stars. She and her guardian followed the course of a river as it flowed throughout the countryside, where it would eventually reach the sea.
Even though most were asleep, the few that were awake were gazing up at them. Children scrambled from their beds, dashing to their windows to view the little girl and her protector soaring above them. Cosette waved down at them and giggled as they all waved back, calling up to her to take them flying as well. She heard a melodic laugh coming from next to her and felt the lady squeeze her hand affectionately.
The chill in the air didn't touch her, the sting of the wind didn't bother her; all she knew was that now she had reached this height, she couldn't come back down.
And then...
There it was: the sea. She longed to fly across it and see what other lands there were to explore. She couldn't remember ever being outside Montfermeil, yet she longed to see what was beyond the town's boundaries. She wanted to go to Paris, to venture across the sea to some distant land, go anywhere and be accepted for who she was and never treated like a slave again.
She squealed as they spiraled down towards it, picking up speed the further they went. They skimmed over the surface of the water and Cosette reached down to let her fingers skim over the edge. She could see something moving below the surface of the water, but before she could see what it was, the lady in white had pulled her away and they were moving back towards the sky. She looked back and saw what looked to be a creature out of a fairy tale rising up from the water, but it didn't frighten her. Even it seemed to be greeting her as she flew through her dreamland.
They flew back over the village and she saw the children waving at them again, still calling to them. Her smile dropped though when she felt her guardian let go of her hand.
"Until another night, my love," she said, her voice echoing softly in the night.
"No! Come back!" Cosette called out to her. A moment later, she jerked awake, breathing deeply and staring at the ceiling in her meager quarters in the Thénardier's inn. She had dreamed it, she had dreamed the entire thing. She took a few moments to calm herself and laid back, pondering the dream. She had heard the child from next door humming the melody of a song she once knew, that was real enough. She had recognized the tune as a lullaby that her mother had used to sing her, though how she remembered that, she wasn't sure. She had begun to recall the lyrics to the song and must have fallen asleep while singing them to herself. She had dreamed the sequence of events described in the song. She smiled, it had been a very pleasant dream.
She had no way of knowing that several miles away, Fantine had been singing to herself that same song as a way of comforting herself after another customer had finished with her. She always sang a lullaby every night, imagining she was holding her precious daughter in her arms, and reminding herself why she was putting herself through this indignity. It was the only way to save her most valuable treasure.
When Cosette woke a few hours later, she returned to the same routine, doing her chores and trying to do everything Mdm. told her without being scolded. That didn't seem to work very well, Mdm. found fault with everything Cosette did, even if it was done to perfection. And anything she did incorrectly, Eponine would tell on her. She just weathered through it all, holding on to the dream from the night before as her lifeline. She didn't complain and she didn't fight back; she wouldn't give them the satisfaction of knowing that what they said hurt her to the very core. They soon grew bored of taunting her when they saw she was unresponsive and soon found other, more amusing employment, namely robbing their guests. She smiled at her small victory. Tonight, she would return to her paradise. Perhaps she would fly over the country with the lady in white by her side, or perhaps she would play with the hundred children in her castle on a cloud while the lady in white sat and watched them all fondly. Either way, her guardian angel would hold her and tell her how much she loved her.
This vision kept her going for several more days, until one night Mdm. sent her to fetch some water from the well in the wood. She met a man on her way back, a man with the kindest eyes she had ever seen, who escorted her back to the inn and announced that he was there on behalf of her mother and was taking her away. They left for Paris that evening and never looked back.
In the years that followed, Cosette and the man she came to regard as her father, M. Fauchelevent, experienced their own ups and downs, but she never forgot the things she dreamed as a child. Even though she visited her castle on a cloud less and less as she got older, she never let go of her favorite childhood daydream, saving it for the day when she had a daughter and she could tell her about it. She knew she would also sing her little girl her favorite lullaby and the two of them would walk in the air together, swooping over the villages, the forests and the sea. Even now, at the age of eighteen, she remembered the voice she'd heard singing that night, that far away voice that brought her comfort after a day of hardship.
So how did I do with my first Les Mis story? I tried to make Cosette into someone compassionate, but also hardened by experience even at a young age. They could have done so much with her character in the musical, but they made her into an ingenue, innocent, falls in love at first sight and marries him soon after. I don't know how she's written in the book, but I don't like how she's just lovesick in the musical (and don't get me started on Marius). I would've loved to have seen how her time at the inn followed by ten years with Valjean shaped her life instead of just getting a love story. That's why I tried to make her wise in here. Also, I know she probably couldn't have remembered the lullaby after five years of being away from Fantine, but grant me a little bit of poetic license. I think it worked. Please leave a review and thank you for reading!