Hi this is my first ever fanfic so its a short one, so please be kind but im open to any hints and tips hope you enjoy the story.
This might have been the best day of the whole summer.
Cosette thought, as she awoke on the last Monday of August. She has left her window open the previous evening and as she lay in bed now she could hear and smell the world coming awake. She stretched her arms right up over her head. She was alive, she was nearly seventeen years old, and this was the morning of her picnic. Just for today, she would try to forget the terror in which she lived in.
Cosette quickly got out of bed and looked at the clothes she intended to wear today. Last night the cream dress with the box-pleated skirt had seemed to her simple, yet classically elegant. Matched with a wide-brimmed bonnet she had thought to be plainly but strikingly dressed. This morning the outfit appeared to her eyes as ornate and fussy. A little girl playing at dressing up. What would Margo wear, she wondered, to suit her dark eyes and hair gleaming with copper highlights? Cosette thought herself pale and insipid beside her. The older girl was half a head shorter as well, Cosette remembered, making Cosette feel tall and ungainly. She decided to wear what she had selected but replaced the heeled shoes with a flatter pair.
Helen, the maid, brought her a cup of tea as she was doing her hair. "It's a beautiful day for your outgoing, mademoiselle. Here, let me help you with that". She set the cup and saucer down and fixed some pins in Cosette's hair.
"What do you think of my dress, Helen?"
Cosette asked her.
"It's lovely. Just perfect for a summer picnic."
"Not too fussy?" persisted Cosette.
"Not at all, mademoiselle", said Helen. "I'd wear that dress to go walking out with my young man any day".
Cosette blushed "Ssh Helen, papa doesn't know"
"Sorry mademoiselle I didn't realise, have I spoken out of term" Helens shoulders shrunk down as she looked at the floor.
Placing a hand upon her shoulder, Cosette was not angry with Helen just worried that her father would find out, she knew it would break his heart and she didn't want to do anything which may hurt him.
"How is Lucas?" Cosette asked Helen trying lighten the mode in the room as it had suddenly grown very cold.
"He's just grand. I know it's not my place to say but I'm hoping for a winter engagement and a spring wedding"
Cosette gasped. "How can you say that? What makes you think that he will ask you to marry him?"
Helen laughed. "Oh, there's a way of getting around men. You just make up to them with big eyes and act as though they were the most important creature on earth. Then take a huff but do not tell them what for and they will start to bring you pretty gifts and try and coax you out of it. And soon you have got them so that they do not know if they are coming or going. I cannot believe you did not know how to play that game. You have got Master Maruis wound round your little finger. How else would you have got him to take you on this outing?"
Cosette laughed right out loud at this.