When she was eight Cosette had all but forgotten about that man who had touched her, she had a slew of other unpleasant memories from the hands of The Thenardiers to replace that memory, all that remained now was an uneasy feeling about being touched. Luckily for her most people continued ignoring her or just stuck to name calling instead of grabbing her so she somehow managed to forget that horrible experience after a while.
Then one day another man entered her life, but this man didn't stare at her disgustingly and he didn't try to touch her either, no, this man was kind to her.
He found her when she was lost in the woods one evening; he helped her carry the heavy bucket she was struggling with, he asked her what her name was and he had such a nice smile that it made her want to trust him. When he held out his hand to her she took it gratefully and she didn't feel any fear at being touched by him at all.
This man was nicer to her than any other man she'd ever met, he bought her a doll and let her play with it and most astonishingly of all the next morning after he had appeared he told her that she would be leaving that horrible inn and she would be living with him from now on.
That day was wonderful for little Cosette, she rode in a carriage for the first time that she could remember and the nice man gave her food to eat. They had travelled all day and when Cosette got too tired to walk anymore he lifted her up and let her rest against his shoulder, she fell asleep that night in his arms and she thought that this man was the most wonderful man she'd ever met.
When she woke up the next day she didn't know where she was, she was in a bed in a room she didn't recognise. She rubbed her eyes and turned over and saw the nice man sitting by the bed smiling at her. She had a strange feeling of unease at this for a moment, it seemed familiar to her and somewhat frightening, but he was smiling so nicely at her that she forgot about any bad memories almost right away.
The man helped her out of bed and prepared her some bread and milk to eat for breakfast; while she ate she looked around the new lodgings and decided that she liked it very much.
"Is this your house Monsieur? It's very nice" she said to him when she had finished eating.
"Yes Cosette" he replied, "Actually it's ours; we're both going to live here now".
"Are we really Monsieur?" Cosette asked happily
"Yes my dear" he told her "And Cosette, you can call me Papa if you like".
Cosette looked at him for a moment, she had never known a father in her life and she wasn't sure if this man really was her father, but actually she didn't care if he was or not, this man was nice and she decided she would really quite like him to be her father from now on.
Cosette smiled at him, "Papa" she said, just to see how it felt on her lips. It felt good, and it felt right.
He smiled back at her and opened up his arms to her, she went to him willingly and happily and he held her in his arms so gently. Cosette had never felt so loved by anyone in her whole life, she felt incredibly happy and complete for the first time she could remember.
And then he said something that shattered her happiness a little.
"You need a bath Cosette, I'll draw you one". He said to her, and stood up to prepare the large tin bath that was at one side of the big room they had.
It was true, even though the man had given her new clothes the previous day she was still fairly dirty and grimy underneath, and she still smelled quite badly. The Thenardiers had never let her wash very often and she was never allowed to take baths, only Eponine and Azelma were given that privilege, but right now she didn't want to take a bath, in fact the idea of it scared her.
It wasn't that she didn't want to get clean; it was just that she didn't want to get undressed in front of this man. As nice as he was, she still had a feeling of unease about anyone touching her, or even looking at her when she was undressed.
As the man got the bath prepared and boiled water for her Cosette got more and more nervous about the prospect of getting undressed, the man didn't seem to notice though as he was too preoccupied with what he was doing, when he rolled up his sleeves though so he could help her wash her eyes grew wide with fear and she ran to her little inner room away from him.
"Cosette?" he said as he noticed her run away. He went after her and found her sitting on her bed clutching her knees to her chest and shaking.
"Cosette what's the matter?" he asked her as he knelt down next to her bed, she didn't answer him though she just looked at him fearfully.
"Don't you want to take a bath?" he asked her in a pleasant tone of voice, she was clearly distressed about something so he didn't want to sound in anyway angry at her.
Cosette shook her head, looking as if she was about to burst into tears.
"Why not sweetheart?" he asked, and while he asked her he reached out a hand to touch her on the knee, he didn't mean anything by it, he was just trying to comfort her, but she recoiled away from him in fear and started crying.
"Please…" she said through her tears "Don't hurt me".
The man looked at her for a moment in shock, "Those people must have really damaged this poor girl" He thought.
"Cosette" he said gently "I'm not going to hurt you sweetheart, it's just a bath". He stood up and reached out a hand to her and she looked at him hesitantly for a moment, she so badly wanted to trust this man, she really did, he had been so nice to her and had made her feel so safe up until now, so she took his hand slowly and he led her back into the other room and towards the bath.
"There's a good girl" he said softly as he led her by the hand, the words he used resonated oddly to Cosette; she didn't like the sound of them at all.
She hesitated again as she stood in front of the bath, she was still shaking nervously and the nice man knelt down in front of her placing his hands on her shoulders to steady her.
"Take your dress off sweetheart" he said quietly
Cosette shook her head again, even more terrified now about undressing in front of him.
"It's just a bath Cosette" he said gently, he really didn't understand the extent of her fear, and what he said next just terrified her even further.
"Here, I'll help you get undressed," he said and Cosette's heart sank as he started unbuttoning her dress.
Cosette thought she would throw up when he said that and she was shaking even more now "He's going to hurt me" she thought "I thought he was nice and now he's going to hurt me".
As he undressed her Cosette looked down at the floor and stared intently at it not daring to look the man in the eyes, when she was stripped down she tried to cover herself as best she could with her bony arms. She thought to herself that if she didn't struggle or cry out then maybe he would just be done with her quicker and it would all be over soon.
But what he did next surprised her, he didn't try to touch her anywhere, and he didn't touch himself either, he just lifted her into the bath gently and sat her down in it and began helping her wash.
"See Cosette" he said to her softly "It's not so bad now is it?" He smiled at her kindly as she kept her knees close to her chest again, he thought she was just scared of getting undressed because of the terrible bruises he could see on her body, he thought she was ashamed of showing them to him so he didn't say anything to her about them. He didn't know what she was really scared of; he didn't know anything about that horrible man at the inn who had touched her.
He moved some of her hair away so he could wash her back and noticed some terrible marks all over it; she had obviously been whipped with a belt by someone. Some of the marks were old and some were clearly freshly made and it made the nice mans eyes well up just to look at them. He placed a hand on Cosettes shoulder which he noticed made her tense up again, "She must have been scared to show me these marks, the poor thing".
He said softly to her "It's alright Cosette; you'll be alright now I promise". Whilst he said that he tried to hold back some tears that were threatening to appear, he managed it, but it was difficult after seeing the horrible abuse the little girl had suffered.
He helped Cosette wash her hair and poured jugs of water over her to clean her properly, after a while of this Cosette started to relax when she realised that this man had no intention of hurting her at all, he just wanted to give her a bath. And he was right, it wasn't bad at all, in fact it felt really nice having him use a rag to clean her face and neck gently, she even smiled at him a few times as he bathed her and ran a comb through her hair to get all the tangles and knots out. He was being so nice to her that she soon forgot how scared she had been only moments earlier, he showed her how to use soap and how to clean herself properly and he gently washed her back for her making sure not to touch her marks too roughly in case they were still sore, but she didn't flinch at all when he touched her
Eventually she looked like a brand new child, she was nice and clean and pink and rosy cheeked for the first time in years and she felt like she had been cleansed inside and out, it was almost like a baptism for the girl, a cleansing of her past sins and a rebirth into a new life.
The nice man helped her out of the bath and wrapped her up in a towel to dry her off again. She looked at him the whole time with doe like eyes, she was so grateful to him and so thankful, she knew he wasn't going to hurt her at all, and most of all she knew that this man was going to be loving and gentle and so very good.
He helped her get dressed again, and when he finished buttoning her dress back up he smiled at her and said "There now, you look very lovely Cosette".
Cosette had tears in her eyes again when he said that, but they weren't sad tears this time, or fearful ones, these were happy tears. She stepped forward to be closer to him and leaned gently against his shoulder, she was so glad when she felt him wrap his arms around her to hold her in an embrace.
"Thank you" she whispered to him, as he smiled and kissed her hair gently. Then she remembered what to call him so she said it again, "Thank you Papa".