September 23rd 1916

Dear Eponine,

If I am being completely honest I am not a dessert man, no not at all. Why would I fuss with a sickly sweet pastry or cake when I could have proper food, pasta, meat drenched in a white sauce! I really should not have written that down as now I am starving, what I would do for some pasta right now, or really, anything that did not taste completely like cardboard and dirt.

And of course I remember Devil's Food Cake, every year from Courfeyrac's seventh birthday onwards his mother would bake a Devil's Food Cake and every year we would devour it as if it were to be our last meals – yes even me with my dislike for sweets – what can I say, that cake is a real treasure. As the months continue to get cooler I recommend brewing some mulled wine for customers and trying to sell it alongside the cakes and desserts. Also, perhaps a warm chocolate pudding would be great, as the weather gets colder. When I was younger we always used to have a self-saucing chocolate pudding. From the outside it just looked like a dry sponge cake but as soon as one's fork broke it in half the most deliciously rich chocolate sauce would ooze out.

Congratulations on mastering pastry, perhaps now you can make savoury pies, chicken, fish, steak and mushroom to further widen your appeal and gain more customers. People could purchase your pies for dinner and cakes for dessert, now that is what I call maximising your profits, just ask Courfeyrac he would most definitely agree with me on that.

Speaking of Courfeyrac, I can understand why you are not telling him about the deaths of Combeferre and Grantaire. Perhaps break the news slowly, in a few months sit him down and tell him that Combeferre died, a few months after that Grantaire and so on. We must avoid a regression; I believe that his continual progression is imperative for his survival. He may be away from the physical war but he still carries the mental war with him. You must be careful and approach the topic with delicacy.

That being said, he needs to find out what has happened sooner or later. What if I were to die tomorrow and my letters would stop coming. Surely he would notice and he would get suspicious. Then you would have to explain four deaths at once and I am positive that that will result in a complete and total metal regression, which he may never recover from, and that is truly terrifying. Ultimately, I trust you to make the right decision regarding Courfeyrac's health. You have done a brilliant job thus far and I believe that you are more than capable of judging when exactly the appropriate time to tell him is.

It has been an interesting few weeks here on the front. Running concurrently to our battle here at Verdun is the Battle of Somme, which is headed primarily by the British. Our British allies have now introduced tanks into Somme. I feel the need to tell you this because it truly increases the morale of us troops when we hear of our allies' successes and technological advancements. We can only hope that this tank will help swing the war in our favour and that the tanks can soon be bought here to help us out of the mess which this stalemate here at Verdun has become.

We are all very excited, hoping that at the least these tanks will help us win the war and, if we dare to dream, will terrify those Germans so much that they will yield immediately. Again, that is a small hope and a distant dream, nothing thus far has made them surrender, who is to say a tank will scare them. After what I've seen throughout the war, a tank would not scare me. War is so terrifying that you become desensitised to everything. I have witnessed men blown apart next to me, I have been spattered with their brains and matter, but this is not unique to me, no. Everything I tell you about has been experienced by hundreds of thousands, if not millions of men, allies and enemies alike. My experience is not unique and if I believe that I can handle tanks so will they.

However, the Germans have suffered another blow this month which further adds to our hopes that an end to this war may occur sometime in the immediate future – many of us are beginning to harbour fears of this war becoming the next hundred year war – and then I could definitively say that I would not survive it. Over on the Eastern front (where I believe Joly is working) the Russians have completed a massive victory, which has not only improved our position in the war but also decimated the Austrian-Hungarian forced but also forced the Germans to redirect troops to the Eastern front to help with the effort.

It is a welcome relief to us at Verdun. This battle seems as if it is never going to end but it has experienced a lull in the fighting, our ears will forever ring with the sounds of exploding bombs and the whizzing of bullets past our ears but right now, it does not occur as frequently.

This lull is terrifying because one feels themselves begin to relax, begin to let their guard down and at war there is nothing more dangerous. The Germans could step up their offensive at any minute; I hope I will not be relaxing too far from my gun when they do.

I wish you all the best in your endeavours in Paris. I also hope that when you do tell Courfeyrac about our friends who have fallen he handles it well and continues his recovery. Also, if you ever feel the need to rant and rave about your latest culinary inventions please, do not hesitate to write about them to me. Yes, they do make me hungry but they also remind me of home.

Enjolras

October 5th 1916

Dear Enjolras,

How dare you speak against sweets in such a way! I call it treason! How can you prefer savoury to sweet, I honestly cannot understand. The only reason I eat dinner now is so that I can get to dessert, dear me, I think I am in a state of shock! How will I ever recover? Though that being said you did concede that Devil's Food Cake is amazing so perhaps you can slowly work your way back into my good books. I am just teasing… but still desserts are amazing.

I will take your ideas on board in regards to introducing savouries into the stall as it may bring in some more customers. However, things at the stall have not been going as well as expected. There is one glaring problem – there are no people on the streets. A panic seems to have spread through the people of Paris who are absolutely terrified of being bombed. They do not venture out into the streets and if they do, they hurry with their heads down, avoiding all eye contact with people, as if we are the enemies they are trying to hide from.

This is severely impacting on business, as people are not stopping to buy my food. So I am throwing out (or most often) eating massive amounts of left over cake most of them do not last more than a day and need to be sold fresh. The lack of people on the streets does nothing to change rent prices though. They are as high (if not higher) than ever and this is making it absolutely impossible to make a profit and continue my business. I would love to start making pies, but that would mean purchasing meat and wine, which right now, the business just can't afford. Therefore I have come up with a new plan (one which I think you will love).

Those wealthy society women still go to the café, regardless of the fear, which has currently surrounded the city. These women have the money to purchase my products but they never actually go into the markets. Rather they walk to the café and stay there until nightfall. These are the women who can afford my food and I need to get it in their hands. Therefore I am currently preparing my favourite desserts to bring over to the café for their next meeting, which is tomorrow afternoon. I first plan on encouraging them to buy the cakes – because as you said, it is all about the profits. Then I will tell them where my permanent store is, this will hopefully encourage the women down to the market and with a bit of luck upon seeing the women in the market, more and more people will return to the streets of Paris.

By selling these women the cakes, I am establishing myself as an associate of theirs. From that point onwards I want to begin actively encouraging these women to take their concerns and grievances about the state of the nation and the state of the war to our leaders in an attempt to make them listen.

Of course, I know this will be difficult, I am relying on many different circumstances falling in my favour however I feel like this idea could work. It will not be easy but I believe that the women will eventually rally; I believe that they will protest and I believe that our protests will help bring you and the rest of the men away at war home.

I hope this improves your mood, we have not forgotten about you and we want you home. Please, even when the fighting picks up again remember that.

You are right, I need to tell Courfeyrac about at least one of the deaths and I need to tell him soon. This week he has been quite good, coming down to the market a few times and interacting with the locals. He is incredibly passionate and incredibly involved with the stall so hopefully it will help take his mind off his friend's death when I tell him.

I am only going to tell him that Combeferre has died. After seeing his reaction and recovery from that, I will decide how to approach telling him about Grantaire. I am worried for him, he is incredibly fragile but I am worried that he will resent me if I continue hiding the truth from him. It is such a confusing time right now and I really do not know what to do, but I will let you know if anything changes.

Thank you for being willing to listen to my rants as the rest of the family at home completely shut off whenever I talk about food, I apologise that it makes you hungry but hopefully the feast awaiting you will give you something to look forward to so perhaps it can be beneficial.

Gavroche has started up on wanting to join the war effort again and therefore I am quite worried. More and more of the boys at his school are leaving for the war effort and when they leave these boys are idolised, treated like heroes and it is very much the same when we receive news of their deaths a few months later. I cannot understand why he would want to go to war, he is constantly hearing about the death of his classmates and he has seen the injured at the hospital but for some reason still wants to "serve his country". I am not going to lie, I am worried for him, he is still a child and is not ready for war. He may have lasted in the streets of Paris but he will not last long in the trenches, this I know. Every month he grows closer and closer to eligibility for the war. This war needs to be over by 1918, that's when he will be of age to go fight. From what you have said, it may be, I hope so.

Stay safe and speak soon,

Eponine

AN: This is not a mirage, it is an update. I apologise for being absent for so long and I cannot say when the next update will come as soon I will be going away for a few months, but what I can see is that I will finish this story, I just can't tell you when and for that I am sorry. Thank you for reading and please comment :)

BellaCam, thanks, well all of this is largely dependent on Enjolras making it through the war… thanks for reading and commenting.

IvyGreen13 thanks for such a lovely compliment, sorry for taking months to update.

TheDandelionDarling thanks so much, this story will go into 1918, but I can't tell you if it will last the duration of the war as that might give away some spoilers :) Thanks for reading and commenting.

J91 I have finally gotten back into reading so it has been put onto my to read shelf :) And now I will go fix my spelling because I am a terrible editor, thanks reading and commenting.

Frustratedstudent thanks, it's only a matter of time before things go dark again though : (

S10Luxoka thank you so much, sorry this update too a while.

Thank you for reading, commenting, following or subscribing and please comment any constructive criticism is very much appreciated :)