Chapter Two

1824

The last day of May came too quickly for Lamarque's liking. However, a promise was a promise, and he found himself awake earlier than usual that day planning out their activities. They would have a special dinner at home, complete with a birthday cake as colorful as the butterflies she chased in the garden, but he knew that she would want to explore the town square first. He decided that they would have lunch in the usual café that he stopped to eat at during his grocery shopping.

But first, he had to pick up her birthday present. He popped his head quickly into her room to check if she was still sleeping before sneaking out to retrieve her special gift.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you!" Annemarie squealed as the small dog Lamarque had carried into her room jumped onto her bed and licked her face. "I shall call her Evie." She clutched the puppy to her chest as though she would never let it go.

"You are welcome, Annemarie," Lamarque said warmly. "But you must remember to take care of Evie. She is a great responsibility. You must bring her out to the far side of the garden often to relieve herself, and you must make sure that you dispose of her droppings with haste."

"Yes, Papa." Annemarie said, scratching Evie behind her floppy ears. "May we leave now?"

Lamarque was silently hoping that she had forgotten about her request. He sighed and said, "Once you are dressed and have eaten your special birthday breakfast, we will go."

Annemarie had never dressed and eaten so quickly in her life.

Annemarie latched onto her father's hand as they walked out of their house. Right away, the children playing games on the other side of the street amused her, but she dutifully kept to her father's side. She ducked her head low so that her hair would flow around her face and hide it. Evie trotted obediently beside them, her tail wagging with each step.

As they entered the town square, Annemarie was instantly entranced. Shop windows displayed pretty dresses and coats, and the smell of freshly baked bread wafted around, making her stomach rumble. She watched in wonder as her father pressed a few coins to a man sitting with his back against a wall, and smiled warmly at the man as they walked past.

They passed by a flower stand. Annemarie was amazed by the beautiful pink flowers and asked if she could have one. Before she could say another word, Lamarque purchased a small bouquet of them from the vendor and handed them over with a flourish.

When Lamarque finally ushered them into a small café for lunch, Annemarie caught sight of a group of young boys a few years older than she was. They were sitting on the wooden steps leading to the second floor of the shop and were all talking and laughing loudly. Two boys sitting in the middle of the throng looked away from their laughing red-haired friend and caught a glimpse of her. She smiled shyly and lowered her gaze again to her feet. Evie nipped at the toes of Annemarie's shiny new shoes and panted.

"Here you are." Lamarque handed her a sandwich and grinned. "Where shall we sit to enjoy our lunch?"

Annemarie pointed towards an empty table near the door. No sooner had they sat down did Evie decide to take interest in the group of boys. Although Annemarie called her back, Evie trotted towards them and nipped at the toes of a dark-haired boy's shoes. The dark-haired boy laughed and scratched between her ears.

"What's her name?" he called out to Annemarie, who blushed under recognition by an older boy.

Lamarque lowered the sandwich he had halfway to his mouth and sighed. "This is what I was afraid of," he murmured to himself. Before he could stop it from happening, the conversation unfolded before his eyes.

"Evie," Annemarie replied proudly, unaware of her father's worry.

The boy smiled and continued to pet Evie. A few of the other boys joined in, laughing when the puppy licked their hands or sniffed their shoes.

Finally, the dark-haired boy walked the puppy back to the Lamarques' table. Evie wandered back to Annemarie's feet and playfully sniffed the toes of her shoes. She reached down and pulled Evie onto her lap.

The dark-haired boy wiped his hand on his trousers and smiled at Annemarie. "My name's Rene. Rene Grantaire."

"I'm called Annemarie," she said innocently. "It's my birthday today."

Rene smiled. "Well, happy birthday then. How old are you now?"

"Ten." She beamed at his greeting. "How old are you?"

Lamarque couldn't bear it any longer and stood abruptly, startling the boy. "We'd better be moving on," he said sternly, cutting off Rene's response. He grasped Annemarie's hand and hurried her away, doing his best to ignore the boys on the stairs.

"How I wish for her to remain this childlike and innocent," he murmured as he watched her play with Evie in the garden later that day.

But he had already gotten a frightful vision of her future, thanks to those boys near the café. Soon enough Annemarie's natural beauty will capture the interest of many a young man, and then what? He had not known the girl for long enough. He was not ready to give her away.

That night, Annemarie had Evie sit next to her at the dinner table despite her father's wishes. When the cake was presented, she had to physically restrain Evie from jumping onto the table to devour it.

"Thank you so much, Papa!" she exclaimed, running over to his side of the table with the intent of bearing a hug to him. "This has been the best birthday ever!"

"Happy tenth birthday, my darling daughter," he said happily, crouching down towards her. "May you forever be so sweet and loving."

As her small arms encircled his waist, he closed his eyes tightly and wished for a way to keep her the way she was at that moment.

Later that evening, after Annemarie was tucked warmly into bed, Lamarque was trying to train Evie to relieve herself at a certain spot in the backyard. It was a fruitless effort, but his thoughts were beginning to upset him and he needed something to distract him from them.

What if Annemarie were corrupted? Those boys in the café seemed harmless enough, but he really didn't know them. What if they were intending on robbing or harming her? What if there was somebody out in Paris who had seen her that day and had decided to take her for their own? The words "kidnapping", "assault", and "ransom" came up frequently in his worries.

He was startled out of his thoughts when a young boy's voice cried out, "Annemarie!" It was coming from the iron-wrought gates beyond the low branches of a tree. He approached the gates cautiously, prepared to fight to save his daughter.

Instead, the peculiar-looking dark-haired boy from earlier that day stood there, his hands tucked into his pockets. A paper bag sat at his feet.

"Hello, Monsieur," the boy said politely. "May I please speak to Annemarie?"

"It's late," Lamarque said shortly, obviously annoyed.

"My name's Rene Grantaire, sir. My father knows you quite well, or so he says." He chewed on his lower lip. "Could I please see her?" He nudged the paper bag with his foot. "It's important."

Lamarque sighed. A strange boy had appeared in the night with the intent of speaking to his daughter. What nerve he had! He wished to speak very curtly to him, to forbid him from ever thinking about Annemarie again, and was just about to tell the boy off when a sleepy voice from behind him called out.

"Rene!" Annemarie rushed forward, her long nightgown billowing behind her. "What are you doing here?"

Rene Grantaire smiled. "It's your birthday, Annemarie. My friends and I didn't forget." He picked up the bag and slid it in between the bars. Lamarque thought of intercepting it, but Annemarie grabbed it before he could do anything.

Without further ado, she plunged her hand inside without thinking. Lamarque winced. What were the contents of that bag? Hundreds of needles to prick her fingers? A gun? Something poisonous? He prepared himself to lunge and tear the bag away from her when Annemarie let out a gasp of delight and removed her hand.

Resting on her palm was a red, white, and blue cockade. She giggled and pinned it to the front of her nightgown before digging her hand into the bag again. Colorful paper flowers, a pink hairpin, a thin sheet of handwritten couplets, and four pieces of tightly wrapped candies completed the gift.

"Wow!" She beamed at Rene. "Thank you!" She reached her hand through the gates to clasp his, and Lamarque disgustedly noted the blush on the young boy's cheeks.

"It wasn't all my doing," Rene admitted. "My friends Marius, Julien, Jehan, and Etienne helped me."

"That's nice, but it is late, Rene." Lamarque forced himself between the two children. "Now, you must go."

"Goodbye, Rene," she said happily, looking around her father to see the boy she was addressing. "Tell your friends that I love their gifts."

Rene nodded and turned away.

"May I see him and his friends tomorrow?" Annemarie asked hopefully once the boy had departed.

Lamarque eyed Rene's retreating back. For someone proclaimed as "the people's man", he wasn't in a particularly charitable mood. "No," he said finally. "You will not."

Three days later, in the middle of the night, Lamarque woke with a start. The floorboards had creaked too loudly to be normal and Evie was barking loudly in the garden. He stood up and went to investigate immediately.

To his dismay, a group of gangly boys had snuck into the house, skulking about and pocketing expensive trinkets. Lamarque was quick to apprehend a few of them before running into Annemarie's room to protect her. He got there just before one of the robbers came from another room and tried to approach her sleeping figure.

"Get away from my daughter," he roared, holding up a poker from the fireplace to ward them away. The boys scrambled into the garden and over the gate, where they were snagged by a few inspectors who had heard Lamarque yelling in the dead of night.

"Are you all right, my dear?" Lamarque asked his shaken daughter once the boys were gone.

Annemarie balanced her head on his shoulder. "I thought the people loved you, Papa."

Lamarque sighed. "Not all of them do." He sucked in a breath. "I suppose I can't have you out anymore. It's too dangerous."

Annemarie averted her gaze to her bare feet. "Fine."

"We'll have to move, too. We'll live in a bigger home so you'll never feel closed in. I've been offered a really nice one in the town square."

"Fine." Her lower lip jutted out.

Lamarque was not satisfied with her answers, but he knew that he was doing the best for her. "Since that's settled, good night, Annemarie. Tomorrow, we will be moving into our new home." He pressed his lips to her forehead and sent her back to bed.

The following night, five young boys navigated the streets in search of the Lamarques.

"She lives this way," Rene said in a hushed voice. "But you have to be careful. General Lamarque's mean when it's nighttime."

"Jean Lamarque?" Etienne snorted. "There's no way that he's mean. He's 'the people's man'."

Jehan nodded. "Etienne is right. He can't be mean."

"What, the people's man can't get grumpy once in a while?" Marius scoffed in disbelief.

"Be quiet, Marius," Etienne snapped.

The house at fifty-five rue Plumet was quiet. All of the lights were out, but that was to be expected at the late time. The boys reached the gate and Rene expectantly called, "Annemarie!"

There was no response.

In a larger estate house in the town square, Annemarie Lamarque couldn't sleep. She snuggled her puppy close to her chest and squeezed her eyes shut. She already missed the butterfly garden and her nature-themed bedroom. She hated it in her new home. To make matters worse, there were vertical iron bars on her window to prevent people from getting in. Her bedroom was too big and therefore gloomy because she did not have enough toys to take up the extra space yet. Also, she was sure that she'd never see Rene or his friends ever again. She clutched the cockade they had gifted her in her palm and sobbed.

In between the bars on the window, the silver moonlight illuminated the miserable little girl on the floor, just like it had months before.

A/N: I hope that everyone is enjoying the rewrite. Please keep in mind that reviews keep me from forgetting about this story :)