Fantine held her two year old child in her arms, trying to take on every detail about the small girl. She buried her nose into the blonde curls and breathed in, capturing the slightest smell. She let out a wavering breath and kissed her sleeping forehead. She knew it was for the best, leaving her here, but she would be leaving her daughter, her whole heart.
'She'll be happy,' Fantine tried to reason with herself, 'they'll take care of her just as long as I'll pay. She'll grow up happy with this family.'
She could see a roof over her daughters head and warm clothes on her back in the winter. She could see herself paying it all off working in some factory or another as Cosette played. She could almost see herself reuniting with her daughter, happily taking her and living a life somewhere new.
'Tomorrow.' She thought and unconsciously held on tighter. She had seen the way the two daughters bonded with her and how they accepted her, it was easy enough for her. 'Just like sisters.'
She child stirred in her arms and she began to rock gently. Those brown eyes sleepily blinked up at her for a few moments then drifted closed again. Her arms ached to do this forever, to never let the child down, to stay in that moment of heaven. Without fully realizing she had did it, she began to cry. Gentle tears rolled from each eye and onto the blanket. Small sobs escaped her lips until it echoed in the tiny room. Her outward appearance didn't to justice to the pain she felt in her heart. Her sobs had involuntarily woken the child who began to cry also.
"Shhhh..." she whispered, rocking the squirming infant, "Go back to sleep, darling."
Cosettes teary eyes stared into her mothers for the briefest of moments, in each, it felt like a knife had pierced Fantines heart. She kissed the girl again, gently as if trying to give every ounce of herself to her daughter. She began to rock again, this time whispering, "Cosette, I love you very much."
OoOoOoO
Someone somewhere tried to argue Fanitne abandoned Cosette so I began to think of the things she felt the night before she left. This is what came of that. Please review if you would like but even so, thank you for reading.
-Book Thief .