Chapter Ten

BY THE PASSION AND THE BLOOD

Grantaire left Café Musain, grabbing a bottle of brandy in his right arm, and walked the streets, staggering because of the drunkenness. Despite of feeling sick, he drank another gulp of brandy. When he was almost reaching the end of the street he heard strange noises coming from the right corner; behind the porch of a house; the sound of people breathing heavily, hiding behind a stone column.

He went towards the sound, led by curiosity and peered into the dark: he saw a man's back, with his pants in his knees while a woman's legs were wrapped around his waist, covering his pale butt that was moving into her. Those blonde curls and red jacket were unmistakable: it was Enjolras. The drunken man walked, silently, towards them, while grinned at this scene, he thrust, silently, against the wall and watched them: he recognized Angélique's face, transfigured in delight, with her mouth open and moaning lowly, while Enjolras was kissing her neck, fervently.

"Ah-ah! Well, well… What do we have here?" Grantaire laughed "You must be really good at sex, Enjolras!

Enjolras look behind and faced the cynic Grantaire: the blonde young man was with terror spread all over his eyes and, immediately, pushed up his pants, while Angélique buttoned the top of her dress, hiding her breasts, and fixing her gown.

"Will you tell me I'm having hallucinations from the brandy?" Grantaire smirked "You're not a virgin after all, my dear Apollo."

"Grantaire…" Enjolras stuttered a little, in edge, for he did not know what to say.

"Oh God… How shameful!" Angélique whispered, hiding behind Enjolras; her face was red as his jacket.

"You don't need to say anything." Grantaire said "I apologize for interrupting your moment of pleasure, but I was not able to restrain my curiosity…"

"You shall not tell about this to anyone!" Enjolras asked with seriousness, walking towards him "You never saw this happening!"

"Are you threatening me, Enjolras?" Grantaire laughed. "What will you do if I tell anyone? Will you kill me? I just found all of this quite ironic!"

Angélique grabbed Enjolras's arm, preventing him to start a fight with Grantaire.

"He's drunk, Enjolras." she whispered into his ear "Please, let's go home."

"I may be drunk, but I can listen to you speaking." Grantaire said "She is right, Enjolras… You both should go home. I've always doubt you were a romantic fellow, but fucking with the mademoiselle on the streets as if she were a whore… It's quite unpleasant!"

Enjolras tried to break free from Angélique's arms to punch Grantaire, but she was able to make him stay still.

"Don't…" she said.

"I don't understand how you can remain so serene when he is insulting you!" Enjolras said to her. "And you, Grantaire, one more word against her and I will leave you bleeding!"

"The shame of have been caught is enough!" Angélique said with seriousness "Don't start a street fight over it. Tomorrow he will not remember anything. Look at him… He's drunk and he will vomit anytime soon…"

"I don't forget anything!" Grantaire said, pointing his finger at her "But I will pretend I did."

Enjolras was furious, looking into Grantaire's eyes. Angélique pushed him by the arm, for them to go away from those streets.

"Ohh… That stare is piercing my soul, Enjolras!" Grantaire joked. "Don't need to look so bother, mademoiselle… A women's face transfigured in pleasure is nothing I've never seen before!"

"Grantaire." Angélique said with seriousness "Go home to get some rest, for you are drunk."

"I think I shall stop by the lovely ladies on the docks in my way home…" Grantaire grinned "You two have opened my appetite!"

Enjolras stared at him, furiously, and Angélique rolled her eyes.

"Oh, come along!" she said, pushing him by the arm.

An enraged Enjolras and a sarcastic Grantaire exchange deadly stares and Angélique took the young Apollo home, by his hand, not looking back.

For the next two months, Enjolras couldn't face Grantaire: during the Friends of the ABC's meetings, the leader ignored his presence, pretending he was not there and continuing his speeches and never directed his words to him. The memory of that night continued to haunt Enjolras like a phantom menace; therefore he never spoke of it again, not even to Angélique.

Angélique started feeling ill; first, she got the nauseas and her mornings and nights were passed vomiting, and then the dizziness came, she couldn't smell any strong scent because she would start vomiting. Angélique, worried, wrote to her grandfather; telling him about her health condition and he send an old doctor called Guillaume Beaufort to examine her and a maid, Madame Loire, to look after her. This fact emphasized the discrepancy between the upper and the lower social classes in the eyes of Enjolras and gave him more determination for the planning of the revolution; for if Angélique was poor, she would have been left to die.

Paris, France

April 10th, 1832

It was midday and Enjolras went to Angélique's house, to see how she was: recently the doctor recommend for her to stay in bed, to rest. This was worrying Enjolras more that he would like to admit it and while him tried to focus on the revolution, his mind was always thinking about her and about her health, for he started worrying if she has some fatal disease. Madame Loire opened the door for him.

"Come with me, Monsieur." the old-women said with seriousness "She's upstairs, in her room."

"How is she, Madame?"

"She needs to rest." she answered "Please, do not let her anxious. And remember that I'm being dishonest to my patron by allowing your current visits."

Madame Loire guided Enjolras to climb the stairs to the upper rooms.

"I'm very fond of her." Enjolras remarked.

"And she's very fond of you." Madame Loire said, looking down upon him "That is what frets me… What do you for a living?"

"I'm studying at the University, here, in Paris."

"Studying what?"

"Law." Enjolras answered.

"Hmm, if you are studying at the University you must be wealthy." she remark "Perhaps you'll please the Monsieur, after all..."

"The Monsieur!?" Enjolras didn't understand about who she was talking about.

"Monsieur Apollinaire Beaulincourt-Marle, the patron." Madame Loire answered. "The mademoiselle's grandfather."

This was the first time Enjolras hear her surname; her name was Angélique Beaulincourt-Marle.

"Don't you worry, the Monsieur is not here in Paris, he's at his château*, in Marseille. But it is not proper to me to make remarks on my patrons' lives…" she ended the conversation.

Once they reached the hallway, Madame Loire opened the door to Angélique's room. Enjolras entered the room and saw her, sitting on the bed, covered by the sheets: she was wearing a white nightgown, with her dark hair falling down her chest and her eyes lost in the window, in her face was a strange expression that Enjolras couldn't decipher. When Angélique saw him, she sketched a little smile on her face, but she wasn't joyful to see him as usual.

"You can go now, Madame Loire." Angélique said, her tiredness was notorious "Thank you."

The old maid nodded and closed the door.

"How are you doing? Do you feel better?" Enjolras asked, sitting on the bed beside her and kissed her lips, gently.

She did not answer; her eyes looked at her hands, avoiding eye-contact with him.

"What's wrong?" Enjolras asked, caressing her forehead "You're cold… Are you alright? You seem to be in distress…"

But again Angélique did not reply; she was trembling and biting her lower lip.

"Tell me what's going on. What the doctor told you? You are worrying me…"

Enjolras caressed her face with tenderness but it didn't make her more comfortable, on the contrary, she seemed to grow more anxious.

"I'm pregnant…" she assumed in agony.

The blonde young man looked at her in panic.

"Are you sure?" Enjolras shuttered in nervousness.

"Yes… The doctor confirmed it this morning."

"How many months pregnant are you?"

"Three months, he said…" Angélique answered "Oh, God… What are we going to do? I can't have a child right now! No artist will ever accept teaching me with a child in my arms!"

Enjolras took a deep breath and passed his hand in his face, for he was distressed.

"Say something, please…" she begged, staring at him and noticing his concern.

"What do you want me to say?" Enjolras asked "This should be a happy moment for us but… It's the wrong time… The revolution is near and I might not come out aliv…"

"Don't you dare saying it!" Angélique interrupted him, holding his hand, tightly "Don't you dare saying that you will die, because I won't allow it to happen…"

"But it might happen…" Enjolras recalled, trembling "Does your family know?"

"No!" she denied "And I begged Doctor Beaufort not to tell them... If my grandfather finds out I'm pregnant I will have to return to Marseille... To be locked away in that horrible countryside lifestyle… And I will return to those awful balls and to those asphyxiating corsets! I shall never be free again… And they will want to find me a husband who doesn't mind about my bastard child but to who my family's money will be a good servant."

Enjolras stared at her and, for the first time, he did not think about the revolution being ruined about her pregnancy; for also she will suffer the heavy consequences.

"Forgive me, my love…" he asked, kissing her hand "I was being so selfish…"

"How being concerned with the People makes you a selfish person?" she asked with tears in her eyes "How did this happen to us? The child of our love should be a happy breeze… Although, yes, the time is wrong… How will I be able to join you at the barricades in this condition?"

"Join me at the barricades!?" Enjolras repeated with disbelief and rose from the bed "Certainly that idea didn't cross your mind!"

"But of course it has! Did you expect I would abandon all of you when the revolution would begin? Of course not! My fellows and I have been working for the same goal as you all along these past months."

"Don't be foolish!" Enjolras was enraged "I would never allow you to join us at the barricades!"

"Why is that?" Angélique asked, also, in rage "Because I'm a woman? You think that we, women, are so weak that we can't fight along men?"

"Because I love you."

Angélique stared at him: for it was the first time she heard those words from his mouth.

"You may think of me as a wealthy girl but I'm not fragile." she said, with serenity "I would, gladly, join you at the barricades and fight beside you. But now I can't. I will have to be here, lying down all day, because it is the doctor's prescription. While you are out there, fighting for freedom and risking your live for what we believe in!"

"And I'm grateful to your doctor for that prescription!" he sighed "I promised I would keep you safe and that's what I intend to do. I can't think of you as a "wealthy girl" for I'm also a wealthy person myself. But your death is not necessary for the revolution."

"And yours is?"

"I don't know my Fate." Enjolras declared "I don't know what tomorrow will bring… The time for the barricades to rise is a mystery; it all depends on Lamarque's death, for he is the only person in the government that stands for the people."

"I know that! But, today I know what tomorrow will bring…" Angélique said, caressing her belly. "What will be of him? Of our child? Without a father…"

Enjolras looked at her belly with sadness, and sat beside her.

"You talk with such certainty about my death…"

"I'm talking about that terrifies me…" she confessed "And my only wish is that I'm not talking about facts!"

"Is your belly getting larger?"

"Not much for now." Angélique said with a little smile "It's more rounded but the pregnancy still doesn't shows."

"Can I… touch it?" Enjolras shuttered.

"Of course! You are the father!" Angélique smiled while taking his hand and placed it above her belly.

"I still don't believe it…" Enjolras sighted "That I'm going to be a father! A father to a child! Oh, my…"

Angélique caressed his distressed face.

"You seem so tired…" she said.

"And I am." Enjolras confirmed "The meetings have been exhausting… Combeferre brings new plans for me to study every night… And I've been so worried about you and your health… I've been sleeping so little…"

"You shouldn't be." Angélique said "I have Doctor Beaufort and Madame Loire to look after me. Don't agonize about my health… For you have greater things right now. You have a revolution to be won… Please, focus on the revolution and succeed. When all of this is over, we can start thinking about the baby."

"You are so good to me, Angélique." he said, caressing her neck and staring into her eyes.

They were about to kiss when Madame Loire opened the door and, deliberately, cleared her throat to made them apart.

"Hmm, hmm! Monsieur, I'm afraid you will have to leave. The mademoiselle needs to rest."

Enjolras sighted and rolled his eyes and placed a kiss upon her forehead, caressing her hair, while she smiled to him.

"Goodbye." he said to her "I shall go now. But I will come back, I promise."

"Bye…" Angélique smiled, sadly.

Enjolras went towards Madame Loire and before leaving the room, glanced at Angélique with a smile.

"And you, mademoiselle, get some rest!" the old woman said.

"Can you bring me my watercolors, please?" she asked. "I would like to paint…"

"Of course, mademoiselle."

"Keep me company, please, Madame Loire." Angélique asked "I'm tired of being on my own."

Translation (French – English) and Historical Facts:

*Château – A château is a sort of a castle, a manor house or the residence of the Lord of the manor. Or, like in this case, it is the countryside house of a noble family.

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