Angels of the Battlefield
Chapter 3
Here's the next chapter, hope everyone's enjoying this. I got a bit stuck on this chapter, but here it is and is it just me or are these chapters getting longer and longer?
Eponine, who was sitting on the bridge that crossed the Seine, sighed. How could she have thought that her plan would work out? She knew that in top organisations designed to overthrow governments members were especially paranoid about new members. Especially about ones who asked to join in without consulting a member. Eponine knew that if she was the leader of such an organisation she would be paranoid about new members.
The other problem though was Marius. He hadn't noticed her anymore since her arrival at the café. That was where he was now, probably. Cosette; what was it about her that made Marius so love-struck. She'd even talked to Cosette and she was just happy that someone new was courting her, so that was not a part of Marius' extreme devotion for her. The world wasn't fair, she decided, in the ways of love. She'd known that it wasn't fair before, otherwise why would she be poor when she hadn't done anything wrong. But with Marius it seemed so awful that he loved a person who didn't wholeheartedly love him back when there was another who was head over her heels in love with him.
Someone's hand on her shoulder interrupted her quiet reverie. It was Feuilly and for a moment Eponine thought that he had discovered her true gender.
"Excuse me, but I was told by one of the urchins that my technique for portraits was lacking," he said solemnly, "And that if I wanted to see what real portraits were like than I should speak to you."
Those words cut the string of panicked thought that had been rushing through her head. Eponine sighed with relief, he just thought her an artist.
"Well," she said, "Let me see your technique."
When he put his hand into his jacket to pull out a drawing, she shook her head.
"No, I want you to draw that girl who's sitting there," she said, "I will too and we'll compare them at the end."
Feuilly agreed and both began drawing the little girl that was sitting in a café, holding her mother's hand.
She finished before him and had a chance to admire his drawing technique. It was excellent, but he wasn't adding the background, nor was he making it as life like as it could have been. She knew just how to help him.
When he finished Eponine said, "I want you to compare our two drawings."
Feuilly looked at them and his eyes became round like saucers, "How did you do that?" He asked, "I mean it looks like she's standing right in front of me."
"Well," she said with a mysterious smile, "I added a background. On your fans try to either draw a picture like this or simply draw he lines that make up the face and have a nice color as the background. Hope I helped, bye."
And Eponine disappeared into the throng of people that was Paris; leaving behind a confused looking Feuilly. He was left with the feeling that he'd met her before or that he'd seen her work before.
Suddenly a flutter of paper caught his eye. He picked up the paper; it seemed to be a portrait of someone. It was obviously a rough copy of a painting and the face seemed familiar. Still it was only half-drawn and so he really couldn't be sure. A name at the side caught his eye "La Solitaire Painteuse". It seemed familiar and suddenly he remembered why. Bruisqué's penname was "Le Solitair Painter". Feuilly decided that "La Solitaire Painteuse" must be Bruisqué's sister; he'd have to ask him about it next time. In the meantime, Feuilly would try to improve his technique with the help of the drawing.
Feuilly had no way of knowing that he two people were one in the same, or that Eponine used the female version as her code-name when she wished to be female or the male form when she wished to be male. Any and every urchin knew that, but even if Feuilly had thought of asking them, they wouldn't have answered, some things are kept at that level, especially when it concerned their elite. Of course if Feuilly had asked to see either "La Solitaire Painteuse" or "Le Solitair Painteur" they would have brought him to Eponine just before they would have told her which one to be.
Eponine watched all this from above; she was sitting on a roof top. But she had no way of knowing how close Feuilly had come to finding out her secret or that the picture that he had picked up was the rough draft of his portrait.
And so the story continues, but will someone discover Eponine's secret, will life get better for her and will Feuilly realise what's going on. I will try to update once a week or more, but during the summer I'm travelling a lot so I don't think I'll be bale to keep up with it, but you never know. Will continue soon and remember to review because reviews make authors happy. It means that people are reading their stories.