Chapter 3
Eponine woke up, for a minute she forgot where she was. It was hurting to breathe so she didn't even attempt to move, she knew it would cause more pain. She saw Enjolras sitting in a red arm chair to the right of her; he looks very handsome asleep she thought.
She wriggled her hand out of the sheets and gently tapped Enjolras on the knee, startling him. Enjolras jumped and almost tipped the chair backwards. "You frightened me!" he said, looking at Eponine worriedly, she seemed paler then yesterday and looked like she had a fever.
"How are you feeling today?" He said, leaning in closer to her. "Terrible, actually" she said, her voice croaking.
Enjolras lifted up a hand to her forehead, feeling her temperature. She was so hot it burnt his hand to touch. "Be back in a minute" he said, looking Eponine in the eyes.
He went into his room, next door, and saw that Azelma was fast asleep. The pillows had been pushed onto the floor. He walked over to her and whispered in her ear "boo". Azelma screamed and jumped into the air, she was expecting to see her father standing over her but when she realised it wasn't him she allowed herself to relax. "Azelma, I'm sorry" Enjolras said, realising that state she was in. "It's okay, i- I was just expecting to see someone else" she said, taking a sigh of relief.
"Can you do me a favour?" Enjolras asked, Azelma nodded. "Can you run and get Joly for me, you know where he lives?" Azelma nodded again. She was about to walk out the door but stopped, turning round she asked "Is Eppy okay?" she asked, this time it was Enjolras who nodded.
Azelma left and ran down the street to Joly's house, wanting to be quick encase her father or any of his gang saw her. She bashed on the door loudly, Joly answered straight away. "Let me get my stuff" he said. Azelma seemed uneasy. Joly looked around to see if there was anyone who would make her feel this way, he saw nothing suspicious and so ducked back into his home, grabbing a selection of items and followed Azelma back to Enjolras' house. Azelma was cautiously eyeing the alleys around her as they walked in silence.
Joly rushed through the front door and straight into the bedroom where Eponine laid, Azelma hot on his heels. Enjolras got up and met Joly at the door of the bedroom; Azelma went straight over to her sister and held Eponine's hand in her own. Enjolras kept his voice down and talked to Joly, so that neither of them could be heard.
"How is she Enjolras?" Joly asked.
"She said she felt terrible, and her head is burning" Enjolras answered, looking over to the two sisters by the bed, he gave a smile as he saw that they were both watching them attempting to lip read anything that was being said.
Joly went over and placed his hand on Eponine's forehead "you're very hot Eponine" he said, feeling that Enjolras wasn't exaggerating when he said she was burning. Eponine coughed, grasping her chest in pain.
"I see that cough of yours hasn't shifted yet" Joly said, Eponine shook her head. "I know something that should help" he said, leaving the bedroom.
Whilst studying medicine at the University, Joly had just learnt about coughs and how they could be soothed. He went through Enjolras' cupboards. When he found what he was looking for he grabbed it, along with a spoon.
"Can you sit up for me?" Joly asked, looking towards Eponine and then to Enjolras. Enjolras knew what Joly was trying to do and so he went over to Eponine who was trying to sit herself up. Enjolras placed himself behind the girl and slowly helped her to sit up, taking it slowly as she was in a lot of pain. He held onto her whilst Joly gave her spoonfuls of honey.
Eponine found comfort in having Enjolras so close to hers, and she felt herself blush slightly. No one noticed though as she was already bright red in the face due to her temperature. She felt the honey go down the back of her throat and it felt nice and soothing. "When your chest feels tight or your throat take a spoonful of this" Joly said. Once Eponine had finished swallowing the last spoonful of honey she spoke.
"thank you so much" She said, her voice was still a little croaky but not as much as earlier when she had spoken to Enjolras.
"Eponine, it's not a problem at all" Joly replied, smiling at Eponine.
Joly moved into the chair that was still by the side of the bed, Azelma moved to the bottom of the bed.
"Eponine listen to me, you are bed bound for a week at the least then maybe, depending on how well you're healing, you can start to move around again" he saw Eponine roll her eyes at the thought of being inside for this length of time, so quickly added "I think you have a chest infection as well, which isn't good when mixed with a broken rib. You have a severe cough, and last night you were coughing up blood and today you have a high fever and clearly you are still really weak, so please just take my advice a stay in bed"
"Fine, okay, I will, it'll probably hurt me to leave my bed anyway" She replied, reluctantly.
Azelma was listening into the conversation and her mind was thinking very quickly. A week, how can she stay in bed for a week? Where will she stay in bed for a week? If she goes home father will beat her more for being gone this length of time already, me with it. We can't go home but we can't stay here.
"Now I want you to rest here, I need to talk to Azelma and Enjolras outside" Joly said, getting up from the chair that he was sat in. He walked into the living room with Azelma and Enjolras following.
Eponine took this time alone to allow a few tears to run down her cheeks.
"Azelma, where do you live? Eponine needs to be at home in her own bed" Azelma ignored Joly's question and moved to look out the window.
Brujon. Azelma could see the man from her father's gang walking in the street below, she moved away before she could be seen.
"Azelma?" Enjolras said, noticing she hadn't responded to Joly's question.
She walked over to a chair and took a seat, resting her elbow on side of it and resting her head on her hand. Should I tell them? She thought to herself.
Enjolras' noticed the reluctance Azelma had in replying to the question asked and so went over to her, he knelt down in front of her. "Azelma is there something you're not telling us?" he questioned.
Azelma turned to look at the young man. Joly joined in, using a stern voice he said "Azelma"
"Fine" She said, rolling her eyes at what she was about to tell them. "She can't go home"
"Why not?" Enjolras asked, concerned.
Azelma rolled her eyes once more. "Our father beats us, Eponine especially" She ran her fingers across her shoulder remembering a beaten she had required a few months ago. The two men looked at each other.
"It was him who caused all those injuries. On Tuesday she had been out pickpocketing and had made a lot of money, but she didn't give our father all the money and kept some of it for herself. One of our fathers…friends... was sent to get her but she refused and he beat her up, she then came to the café. When she didn't come home father lost his temper and hit me. When she did finally come home father was mad and beat her, almost to death. She passed out and then dragged her up the stairs and then locked us both in our room. The next day the door was unlocked but Eponine was still out cold and I didn't dare leave her to get help, fearing for her life" Azelma spoke so quickly that Joly and Enjolras struggled to keep up, they were in shock.
Once she had finished she burst in to tears. Joly comforted the girl and rubbed her back "It's okay Azelma, we're here now, we won't let anyone hurt you"
"You can stay here for as long as you need, both of you" Enjolras joined in.
"Thank you Monsieur, but we can't, when we do eventually go back it will just result in an even worse beating, and we're needed to make money for the family" She said through broken sobs. "Eponine can stay until she's better, it's safer here for her at home where she'll be forced to go and work, but I am okay so therefore I must be leaving, thank you for everything" and before anyone could stop her Azelma got up off her chair and left.
Enjolras and Joly stood in shock for a moment; Eponine's fierce cough was what finally brought them back to their senses. They rushed into the bedroom where Eponine was laying on her side, leaning over the edge of the bed. She couldn't help coughing and yet it caused her so much pain.
Joly started to pour some honey onto a spoon whilst Enjolras gently rubbed Eponine's back. Once her cough has subsided she took the opportunity to take a mouthful of honey.
"Thanks" she smiled, sitting herself up in the bed, leaning on the headboard. The two men couldn't help but feel sorry for the poor young woman; if only they had known sooner then she wouldn't be like this now.
"Where's 'Zelm?" Eponine asked, noticing that she had not yet entered the room. "She told us, Eponine" Enjolras said with a tone he hoped would reassure her. "Eponine, you should have said something, we could've helped you sooner" As he spoke Eponine turned her eyes away and stared at her hands, her wrists had little bruises on them from where she had been held down.
"I know, I just- I just didn't want to make a fuss" she said shrugging her shoulders, not breaking the she stare she still held with her hands.
Joly gently placed a hand on Eponine's right shoulder. "Where's 'Zelm?" She asked again, even though she could already guess what the answer would be. Still she had no answer so she looked up, into Enjolras' eyes "She's gone home hasn't she?" she asked, he nodded "we couldn't stop her" he clarified.
There was nothing she could do about it apart from hope that her father would have some kind of mercy on her sister, she thought about her all day. Was she going to get beaten? Probably.
