The Raven and the Rose.
Summary: When Eponine's protective nature demands that she treat Cosette with kindness rather than cruelty she unwitting changes the course of not only Cosette's life but her own as well. In the care of Jean Valjean Eponine grows to become a protector of the poor and a beacon of rebellion, she is both the Raven and the Rose but can she play these two rolls and live to tell the tale.
Authors note: Here is chapter two, my plan is to post a chapter per weekend until the whole story is up but you know what they say about the best laid plans and all that, so we will just have to wait and see I suppose. This chapter was fun to write and I may or may not have hidden a few future characters in it, some are better hidden than others so let me know if you spot them. Enjoy!
Warning: there will be mentions of violence and drunken behaviour in this story I will only include these when necessary and I have no intentions of glorifying them. I don't think it ever exceeds the rating of T but I wanted to give you all a heads up before we started.
Chapter two
A promise kept
The night that changed both Cosette and Eponine's lives was the coldest that either of them could recall. Snow lay thick on the ground and any warmth that the weak winter sun had provided had disappeared hours ago when night had fallen. The bitter wind that had been battering the Thenardier's tavern all day became even crueller in the dark, it blew so hard that Cosette feared the glass panes might be blown clean out of the windows.
Eponine had been sent up to her cosy bed with a warm drink but not Cosette. She had been sent out into the cold to fetch water from the well, Cosette was scared to be out in the woods alone but she was more afraid of making Madame Thenardier mad, so with no shawl or shoes she set out into the frozen woods.
In that moment Cosette could not suppress a pang of jealousy, oh badly she wished to swap places with Eponine.
No sooner had that thought entered Cosette's mind than it was chased away by a rush of guilt. Eponine did as much for Cosette as a nine-year-old in her situation could and her life was not all that easy either.
The Thenardier's business had started to fail and Eponine's Father was making much less effort to hide his illegal activities, he has begun to gather a gang of thieves around himself and on top of that he was beginning to pull Eponine into his schemes as well.
Thenardier had trained Eponine in every form of thievery he knew, from faking injuries to beg for money all the way up to helping herself to someone's money by picking their pocket. Eponine didn't enjoy her Father's lessons and did not want to steal however once he introduced the if you don't steal you don't eat rule, she had little choice but to comply. Eponine probably would have held out for longer had Thenardier not included Cosette in his rule, he was not a foolish man and he knew the best way to motivate his Daughter.
The worst of Thenardier's lessons had been only weeks ago he had taken Eponine to Paris, which was hours away from the inn and left her there to find her own way home.
Cosette was beside herself with worry when she over heard what the vile man had done, Madame Thenardier was not happy either. She had screamed at her husband that he was only meant to be teaching their Daughter her way around. Thenardier had actually cackled with glee when he explained to the distraught Mother just how quickly Eponine had learnt to traverse the streets of Paris, he claimed it was like she had been doing it all her life and he had decided she needed a challenge.
He left his only child alone in a city she had never visited before and he seemed to think that was a good thing, Cosette couldn't believe him.
Madam Thenardier had sobbed for hours and begged the man to go back for Eponine, when he refused, she wailed that the girl was gone forever and Cosette feared that she was right, thankfully she was not.
By some miracle Eponine was home before sun down, a rich family with a son not much older than Eponine had passed her on the road, a few other carriages had already rolled by and done nothing but splatter her with mud as they went, so she had been surprised when one had actually stopped.
Eponine had explained she had lost her Father in Paris and she was attempting to walk all the way home; the Father of the family was happy to leave her to her trek but the Mother didn't like it and the Son was not having it. He had insisted that they would take her home and he had entertained her through out the long journey.
Once she was safely home Eponine shared all of his tales with Cosette. Some of them were stories that the girls already knew but Eponine explained that the way the pretty blond boy had told them made them sound like she had never heard them before. He had a way with words but eventually he ran out of fables to tell, so he found another way to entertain his unexpected traveling companion. His Mother gave him a handful of her writing paper and with her help he folded each piece into a rose for Eponine. By the end of the journey she had a whole bouquet of them and she swore to Cosette that her paper roses made all of her fears over being lost worth it.
Cosette didn't believe her friend's bravado for a moment but for Eponine's sake she pretended that she did. The older girl liked people to think she was tough so Cosette had little choice but to play along with her.
The more she thought about it the surer Cosette became that she didn't want to be Eponine but she didn't want to be herself either or at least she didn't want to be living her current life. She didn't wish Eponine's life on her either, she used to dream of an escape for both of them.
She would imagen the beautiful lady from the castle on a cloud swooping in and taking her and Eponine to a lovely place where there were no floors to scrub and no pockets to pick but as Cosette got older and the kindly woman faded further from her mind she took those dreams with her, now the girl was only left with a comforting lullaby.
"Cosette" a voice hissed from above her. Instinctively the youngster cringed and shut her eyes tight, she expected it to be Madame Thenardier hollering at her, the woman really did hate to be kept waiting.
"Oh Cosette" the voice called again, much softer this time. Cosette risked glancing up and was relived to see Eponine leaning out of her bedroom window. "What are you doing down there?" Eponine asked her gently.
"Madame sent me to fetch water from the well" Cosette explained, holding up the almost rotten bucket for her friend to see.
"Alone? I the dark?" Eponine sounded shocked but Cosette didn't know why her Mother's actions still surprised Eponine, nothing either of the Thenardier's could do would surprise Cosette any more. "Wait there" Eponine ordered before disappearing back through her window.
Moments later Eponine was climbing down from her room despite Cosette's whispered demands that she go back. The dark-haired girl studiously ignored her fair-haired friend as she used the jagged stones that made up the old buildings wall as if they were a ladder to reach the ground below with barely a sound. Looped over one of Eponine's arms was a wicker basket, Cosette could tell it was filled with something but she wasn't sure what.
As soon as Eponine was at Cosette's side she began pulling items from the basket and giving them to the other girl. She had bought a bonnet, a cloak and some shoes down with her, all of them were Eponine's old things that were getting too small for her but they were still a bit too big for Cosette.
"Put these on" Eponine urged, pushing the cloak into Cosette's arms and dropping the shoes at her feet. "Come on Cosette" Eponine encouraged placing the bonnet on her friends head her herself when the other girl refused to move. "Do you want to freeze?" Eponine asked briskly, starting to lose patients with Cosette.
"Ponine, I can't" Cosette protested, trying to give the cloak back to its rightful owner. "If your parents ever find out-" she trailed off with a shudder, unable or unwilling to imagen just how angry the Thenardier's would get over Eponine's kind gesture.
"They won't find out" Eponine assured the younger girl throwing the cloak over Cosette's shoulders. "Now hurry" she pressed pulling her own cloak tighter around herself, it was getting colder with every passing second and Eponine dreaded to think what would have happened to Cosette if she really had ended up out in the woods all alone.
Thankfully Cosette seemed to be done arguing and was slipping her feet into the shoes that Eponine had given her, they were definitely too big for the smaller girl but at least they would provide her with some protection against the cold.
Eponine stashed her basket in the bushes beside the tavern, then she moved to help Cosette with the bucket, it really was too big for one small child to carry alone and that was before there was any water in it to add to the weight.
The further into the woods the two girls went the colder the night seemed to get. Eponine had taken care to wrap herself up warm before slipping out of her room and she had given Cosette the warmest clothes she could find but they still found themselves shivering with every step they took.
"Why don't you sing your song Cosette?" Eponine suggested when she was sure they were a safe distance from the inn. She hoped singing would raise the other girl's spirits even if it did nothing to warm her up.
Cosette remained silent for a long moment and Eponine thought her friend was going to refuse her request but then just as the well came into sight the blond began to hum the familiar tune and Eponine was quick to join in. she had heard the song so many times over the years that she had come to know it as well as Cosette herself did.
Singing to one another they worked together to haul the now full bucket from the well. That was how Jean Valjean found the two girls that would change his life just as much as he changed theirs.
Thank you for taking the time to read, I would love to know what you think so far. Thanks again Millie xXx
