Esmeralda turned over sleepily and blinked in the morning light. For a moment she writhed in the comfort of the bedsheets before realising where she was. Clutching the sheets to her chest, she sat upright and looked around the room. There was no sign of Frollo and it looked to be around mid-morning. Esmeralda slipped out of the bed and crossed to the window to look out over the city. She took note of the ongoing repairs to buildings and turned back to the room. Frollo had laid out a basin of water next to the fire where it remain warm and had supplied her with a fresh towel. Remembering her promised duties today, she washed quickly and crept out of the door.

Within minutes, Esmeralda was lost inside a maze of halls and an unending throng of Parisians, all jostling to see some clerk or judge – the richest or most unfortunate being sent through to Frollo himself. Unnoticed in the crowd – or perhaps deliberately ignored by the guards on Frollo's orders, she couldn't tell which – she found no trouble in leaving the Palace of Justice and headed out to the city. Heart pounding, she walked to the cathedral to break the news of his reassignment to Phoebus.

Phoebus and Quasimodo turned in unison as the door at the bottom of the spiral staircase creaked open. Expecting Esmeralda and dreading Frollo, Phoebus crouched low behind a gargoyle. Quasimodo quickly cleared any evidence of the captain's presence and pretended to be busy with his diorama of the city below. Scarcely daring to breathe, the two men waited as light footsteps approached up the stairs. Quasimodo smiled as the graceful form of Esmeralda turned the corner, grinning widely as she saw Quasimodo and rushing to him to give an embrace.

"It's Esmeralda, Phoebus – you can get up now." Phoebus stood and rushed at Esmeralda, holding her to him tightly.

"Tell me you didn't…" he started, looking down into her eyes.

"He kissed me. Then he got up. He didn't want to sleep with me last night."

"But if he had, would you have given yourself to him?"

"In a heartbeat. He has promised freedom for my people and for you if I just spend my life with him. What is my life compared with all that?"

"You are worth more than my life and the lives of all the gypsies in France put together! Don't you dare go back to him!"

"You don't understand Phoebus. Every politician in Paris is in awe of him – worse, most of them agree with his genocidal treatment of the gypsies. If I refuse to go back to him, no-one will stand in his way when he wreaks bloody retribution on my people. And your promotion will turn into an execution."

"Promotion?"

"You are to be sent to Burgundy. You must report to your barracks today."

"Why?"

"Because Frollo thinks if you were to remain in Paris, you would attempt to rescue me."

"Damn right I would!"

"Which is precisely why he wants you and I remain far apart."

"I refuse to leave you!"

"You must! I will not watch while Frollo kills my people because you and I wanted to be together. I barely know you Phoebus, it would have been wonderful to find out if we could ever have become more than just friends, but…" She was cut off when Phoebus swept her up into a kiss. Quasimodo looked away, the thought of the two in front of him being in love more than he could bear at the moment.

"He will not have you," stated Phoebus simply, holding her to his chest.

"Please Phoebus, just go to your barracks. I cannot let so many people suffer for us."

"Esmeralda…"

"Goodbye, Phoebus." She broke free and ran from the room, heading down the stairs at lightning speed. Phoebus reached out a hand after her as she fled.

"What will you do?" asked Quasimodo. There was a painful silence.

"I'm going to report to my barracks." Phoebus gathered his cloak and left the bell-tower without a further word.

Esmeralda cried freely as she walked to the cemetery, approaching the patterned headstone that marked the gypsies' entrance to the Court of Miracles still sobbing and unable to focus through bleary eyes. She held a copy of Frollo's declaration of the gypsies' new rights within Paris. It was not long before she met the advance guard, who allowed her to pass without challenge. She found Clopin and pressed the scroll into his hands.

"I've bought your freedom," she whispered bitterly. "Please don't throw it away." Clopin took the scroll and skimmed through the conditions of the 'freedom' granted to the gypsies. They would be allowed to sell their wares and perform street-entertainment for money, but would be restricted to the backroads of Paris and not the main streets. Should any noble or aristocrat order it, the gypsies must concede to be moved from wherever they were working without argument. Any gypsy found thieving would be hanged and any gypsy refusing to move on when instructed to would face a week in the stocks. Other such commandments and punishments were scrawled over the scroll. Esmeralda watched Clopin's face as he read through the parchment.

"This isn't worth your life, Esme."

"Yes it is Clopin. While I am with him he will not harm any gypsies unless he has a damn good reason. He would be – afraid – I might leave."

"Frollo is afraid of nothing."

"I think he's afraid of losing Clopin. If I leave and he cannot get me back, he loses. In his temper about that fact, he would harm you. But if I stay with him, he wins and he will leave our people alone."

"I hate it when you're right."

"I know."

"What of your young captain?"

"Sent to Burgundy. By Frollo."

"Is there any way to change your mind?"

"I cannot see any other way to win our freedom. If you can, please come and see me at the Palace of Justice."

"Frollo would allow that?"

"He allowed me out of the Palace without a guard didn't he?" Esmeralda sighed and looked down. "I need to get back."

"Have you and he, um…?" asked Clopin.

"No. I think he's worried about his immortal soul or some other Christian nonsense."

"I would tell you to corrupt him in revenge for this situation Esme, if only the mental image wasn't so disgusting." Clopin and Esmeralda laughed manically for a moment, then looked at each other sadly.

"Take care, Clopin."

"And you, La Esmeralda." They hugged for the last time and Esmeralda left the Court of Miracles.

Alone in Frollo's apartments, Esmeralda leafed through a book written in Latin. She couldn't read it of course. The ability to read French was a necessity for a gypsy in Paris, but Latin was strictly the reserve of the upper classes of French society. Esmeralda often wondered if the common people who attended mass understood the Latin chants inside the cathedral, or if they simply nodded piously because that was what they were expected to do. She heard Frollo enter the room behind her and turned to face him.

"Reading my dear girl?" Frollo crossed to her and slipped an arm very deliberately around her shoulder and down to the book on the desk.

"Just looking at the pictures." The manuscript in the book was highly illuminated. She had guessed the book had some kind of religious significance from the elaborate decorations of priests, serpents and flowers on the page she had been gazing at for the last five minutes.

"But you can read?"

"French. Not this." She squirmed away from his arm, then remembered herself and rested back against it.

"Do you know what this book is?"

"The bible?"

"Well done! I think perhaps it is time we started to teach you Latin." Frollo lifted Esmeralda out of her seat and sat himself down, pulling her onto his lap and opening the bible to the first page.

"Must we?"

"If you are to become my wife, yes." Frollo held her waist and smiled up at her.

"I would be happy as your mistress. Marriage somehow formalises this arrangement beyond that which it deserves."

"But do you not know that to sleep together before marriage is a great sin?"

"Greater than making a mockery of marriage itself?" Esmeralda watched as Frollo considered her reply.

"No. Not quite. Now, In The Beginning…"

Two weeks later, Esmeralda again perched on Frollo's knee trying to understand the Latin text while they read through the bible together, she realised she had lost the will to live.

"And Shem lived after he begat Arphaxad five hundred years, and begat sons and daughters," droned Frollo, patiently trying to point out the complex grammar in Genesis. Esmeralda realised she'd lost count of who begat who and how old they were when they did their begatting. Or begetting. Or whatever.

"Who is Arphaxad? Is he important?" Frollo turned to her and glared before carrying on.

"And Arphaxad lived five and thirty years, and begat Salah. And Arphaxad lived after he begat Salah four hundred and three years, and begat sons and daughters. And Salah lived thirty years…" Esmeralda shrieked and closed the bible roughly on Frollo's hand. He jumped up in pain, dropping Esmeralda to the floor. She stood and smoothed down her skirt before pointing an accusatory finger at Frollo.

"This is not going to work. I cannot sit here and listen to you droning on about old men having dozens of children whose only great achievements were to have more children! Is there no other way I can learn this language? Or the gist of the bible?"

"No."

"But…"

"No. You must convert to Christianity before the archdeacon will baptise you. Only then will you be eligible to marry in a church. In order for me to marry you, you must be a confirmed Christian. You did say you would do anything for your people." Frollo leered at Esmeralda.

"There are limits," growled Esmeralda in reply. She glanced back at Frollo and forced a smile. His company had not been too tiresome over the last fortnight. She missed Phoebus, her freedom and her people and had gained an impressive knowledge of Hebrew first names. "Could we do something else?"

"What did you have in mind?"

"A walk? We could go for a ride."

"Except that you cannot ride a horse."

"Teach me. No more bible studies today, please!" She walked up to Frollo and looked up at him appealingly, hoping it would work. Frollo responded by leaning over, sweeping her up into his arms and carrying her back to the chair. Plonking her in front of the bible with little ceremony, Frollo redirected her attention back to Genesis. He smiled gently as Esmeralda grudgingly opened the book and started to read aloud.

"And begat Eber…"

In the next chapter…

A year has past and Esmeralda has just been made a confirmed member of the Catholic church. A number of relationships have changed – some for the better, some for worse. Stay tuned – I will update soon, I promise.