Disclaimer : Not mine *sigh*

Author's Notes : Yeah I know this chapter is somewhat dull, but it will get better I promise! : ). Just to explain (so I don't get flamed) farm owners would look for workers on the streets because urchins were normally desperate for work and would work for next to nothing.

And special thanks to Darkness and Charlie5587 – my first ever reviewers! (ah, don't you feel special?).

And you have to pay your way, at the end of the day

I grew up under a bridge. Sounds bad? Well really it wasn't. There was a group of us, all orphans, all huddled under this bridge. We were like one big family – the older girls were mothers, the older boys were fathers.

The bridge was just outside Montreuil-sur-mer, a small bridge that went over a little stream. It was hot in the summer, and bitterly cold in the winter. It was the bridge where some of the older boys had found the small basket containing me only ten years before.

They had taken me in, even though there was no room and I was just one more mouth to feed. But the boy who found me said I was "a fighter". And I really was. For all those ten years under the bridge I never caught so much as a cold. One of the older boys named me Christine, then one of the older girls named me Rose. For a while I was Marie, then Nicole. But a passer by ,who saw me running about in the rain, gave me the name Fantine. And it stuck.

I was always a pretty child, long golden hair and big blue eyes. Even people who would hurry away from urchins stopped for me and would give me pieces of food and mutter things like "what's a pretty girl like you doing in this kind of life?"

I would smile and take the food back to our bridge where even the smallest portions could be divided between twenty of us.

It was July, and ten years to the day when I had been found, a baby in a basket. The day was also important because one of my closest friends, a girl named Marie was going off to work after being spotted by the wife of a wealthy land owner.

"I don't want to go" she complained.

"Stop whining, it's a job" one of the older boys said. "You get paid, you get your own room – more than we've got"

"And you said Madame Enjolras is nice" I said.

"She seems nice enough" Marie sighed. "But it's not her who runs the farm is it?"

"You've been lucky" I told her. "Just go."

"Will you come with me?" Marie asked shyly.

"I don't think –" I began to speak, but we were interrupted by the sound of a cart on the bridge above us.

"That's her!" Marie exclaimed.

One of the boys laughed. "She's giving you a lift aswell!"

Marie blushed. "She doesn't trust me to make the walk by myself. Fantine, I'll ask her if you can come along."

"I don't think it will work Marie"

"It will, I told you she's nice" Marie ran up the banking and we heard her light footsteps on the bridge. A few moments later she called down to me.

"Fantine! Madame wants to meet with you!"

I made my own way up the banking and came face to face with one of the most beautiful women I'd ever seen. She was tall, had blonde curls that flowed down her back and blue eyes. She was heavily pregnant, but still held herself gracefully.

"Fantine" she smiled. "Marie tells me that she simply will not come to my husband's farm unless you do too."

I glared at Marie, who gave me a broad smile.

"I was on the look out for another maid" she said. "What do you say?"

I smiled at her. "I'd be glad to."

Marie clapped her hands.

"Don't you need to run and get a few things?" Madame Enjolras asked.

"I don't have anything" Marie and I replied in unison.

Madame Enjolras was very kind. We stopped in town on the way and she bought us both dresses and shoes. It was the first time I wore anything that I wore anything that was the right size. She explained that her husband liked his servants to be dressed smartly, it made him seem a kinder boss.

"But he's not" she told us both. "I recommend you stay out of his way, he doesn't have any patience with young girls. " She continued pointing out of the window of the carriage. "That's the barn. The younger servants sleep there, and you see next to it? That's the servant's quarters, the butlers and such live there."

As we turned a corner, a beautiful house came into view. It was white with huge pillars around the doorway.

"And that's where my husband and I live" she smiled.

Marie and I were amazed. We had never seen such a house, you don't really get a good view of the world from under a bridge.

Our carriage came to a stop and a maid (who had been waiting outside) held open the door so Madame could get out. Before Marie and I could, she closed the door.

"Your husband wants to see you," the maid said. "And he wishes to see the girls too."

"Thank you Estelle. I'll make my own way up, can you bring the girls?"

"Of course" Estelle replied. Then she rapped her hands on the side of the carriage "come on girls. I'm not going to give you any special treatment."

Marie and I jumped out, and got our first good look at the maid.

She was large, with flaming red hair pulled up on her head. She introduced herself as "Estelle Thernardier." A name that was to have a large effect on the rest of my life.

"I'll take you to see the master," she said curtly. "You're to be errand girls – running into town, fetching water and other odd jobs." She strode across the field, Marie and I running to keep up.

"Now when you meet the master, don't look him directly in the eyes. Don't speak unless you are spoken to" she ordered. "He's been very kind letting Madame take you two in. He's not that keen on having urchins working for him."

We reached Monsieur Enjolras's office. Estelle went inside first, then called Marie in. I sat outside in silence, listening to the murmur of voices from inside the office.

Marie came back out, and Estelle called me in.

I quietly walked inside. Monsieur Enjolras sat behind a dark panelled desk facing the door. He was a handsome man – blonde and blue eyed like his wife.

I began to sit down in a chair in front of the desk.

"Did I say you could sit?" he snapped.

I jumped.

"Stand beside the chair please."

I did as I was told.

"Name?" he barked.

"Fantine."

He wrote it down on a sheet of paper, and glanced up at me. "Just Fantine?"

"Just Fantine, Monsieur"

"You don't have a last name?"

"No, Monsieur."

He muttered something about urchins and then barked "age?"

"I'm ten years old"

He scribbled that down too.

"May I ask what this is in aid of Monsieur?" I asked quietly.

He glanced up. "So I can keep track of who's working for me. Address?"

I fidgeted. "Well, I don't really have one"

"What do you mean you don't really have one? Where did you live girl?"

"Under a bridge Monsieur"

He sighed and wrote aloud "under a bridge. Family?"

I fidgeted again.

"None" he wrote aloud. "That is all Fantine. You may go to the barn."

"Thank you Monsieur" I said, although I didn't really know what I was thanking him for. I turned and left the office, desperately wanting to be back under the bridge – strange as it sounded.