A Saviour Passing By
Summary: When Jean Valjean went to the Thénardiers to fetch Cosette on Fantine's instruction, he had not realised that his own sister had been desperate enough to do the same with her own daughter.
Disclaimer: Who am I? Not the owner of Les Mis, so don't sue me!
Chapter One
Nineteen years had passed since Marina Sarcozet had last seen her elder brother, Jean. Nineteen years since her eldest son, Lucas, had nearly starved to death, only three years old. Nineteen years since he had been imprisoned for stealing a loaf of bread to save him.
Since then, Marina had been left alone with her eldest son, not to mention her three other children, another boy of fifteen named Pierre, and two girls, one of eleven named Bernadette, and one of just three months named Ebony. Her husband had died just a few weeks after Bernadette was born, which the woman had been eternally thankful for. Richard Sarcozet had been an abusive husband right from the beginning and Marina had been so close to killing him herself. The only problem was that when her husband died, she only had three children. Now, eleven years later, she had four.
She had had no choice. The children were starving, they hadn't eaten for three days. She had to get money somehow, so she had gone down to the docks of the town she lived in. She had only remained there for one night, long enough to earn her ten francs, enough money to get her children bread for the next couple of weeks. That had been a year ago, and she had not had to go back since. Local people had taken pity on her children, giving them the leftovers from their own meals. Until she had given birth, everything had been fine. Until Ebony was born, which was when she had finally been disgraced.
Ebony was a bastard. There was no other way of putting it, that was what she was. She looked utterly different from the other children, with chestnut brown hair and the same shade in her eyes, pretty in difference as opposed to the classical beauty of her other children. It didn't mean that Marina loved her youngest daughter any less, of course not, but in the eyes of the rest of the world, she was the scum of the earth. She did not want that inflicted on her child. So that was why she had to let her go.
Leaving the younger two alone with Lucas, Marina packed up a few things in a bag, wrapped Ebony up in blankets and went on her way. In truth, she did not know where she was going, but she had to find somewhere. She could not bear to watch her child be shunned like she would be if she remained in the town.
It had been the worst decision the woman had ever had to make, the most painful and probably the most vital. With one less mouth to feed, the other children had their chance at survival, while Ebony would get the life she deserved with the new family she would receive.
It had taken three long hours of walking along the treacherous roads, but Marina had finally reached the edge of Montfermeil. She had visited the town once before, just three months ago, and recalled a certain inn where a young baby had rested in a pram, being attended to meticulously by a woman that seemed to be the innkeeper's wife. It seemed to be the perfect place for Ebony.
Glancing up at the sky, which had now turned an inky black with the approaching of twilight, Marina was enveloped by the shadow the inn had cast on the dimly lit street. The shadow it was about to cast over her life.
The shadow was split by a shaft of light, as the door of the inn opened wide. There in the doorway stood the very woman that Marina had been thinking of. The innkeeper's wife. Her daughter's new mother.
"Is that her?" the woman asked, indicating the sleeping baby enfolded in the other's arms.
"Yes. This is Ebony." The woman scarcely listened to her, instead reaching out her arms for the girl. Marina obliged with a well hidden reluctance, handing over her youngest daughter to a woman that she had met only half a dozen times before.
"Her name can't stay the same. You know that?" asked the woman, smiling as Ebony curled a finger around one of her blonde curls.
"I know. But it could be similar, couldn't it?" Marina asked, hoping that the answer would be yes. Of course, she knew that her daughter would have to start her life completely afresh, but there was still a part of her that wanted every possible way of finding the girl, should her circumstance in life ever change.
"I suppose. I'll think of something." she responded, acquiescing to the woman's request, though she seemed rather reluctant to do so.
"Thank you, Madame." Marina said, tears beginning to swim in her emerald eyes. It was then that she reached out and stroked the cheek of her baby girl, who had now begun to waken. Knowing that she would want a moment to say her goodbyes, the innkeeper's wife returned Ebony to her mother, returning to the doorway while the woman spoke her final words to her daughter.
"Now, Ebony, I want you to make me proud. I want you to become a fine, educated lady, with a loving husband and beautiful children, just as I have always wanted for you. I want you to desire the world, and do all you have to do to attain it. I want you to have everything I never did. That is why I need to say goodbye to you."
When Marina finally handed over her daughter, she was nearly sobbing, and Ebony was much the same. She turned her back almost immediately, beginning the exhausting journey home. It was far too painful for the blonde to remain around her child any longer than need be after she had given her away. She knew that Ebony was safe, and that was all she needed to know.
From the doorway of the inn at Montfermeil, the wife of the innkeeper stood with the woman's child in her arms. It had been very clear how very much the girl had been loved by her mother, and, by the connection she had formed in the sparse time she had known her, the blonde felt that she owed it to the other to care for the baby as she would, and did, her own child.
"Don't you fret, my child. I will keep you safe. I will look after you, I promise. My Éponine."
A/N: I wanted to get this started, but I'm not sure how long it will take. Please review anyway, to give me a bit of encouragement.