A/N: It's almost summer where I am, so hopefully soon I should be able to get more updates in. I doubt though this story will be finished soon (which is a good thing for some of you). Anyway, at last here it is…
Lace and Calico
The Thenardiers' wagon was not very big, so Fantine was forced to put little Cosette in her lap while Gilles squeezed in a corner atop the family's valises. Valjean still walked outside with Nicolas.
Paulette gave Fantine an once-over as the latter was trying to keep her child from moving too much. "What were you and your father doing before you set out for Paris?" she asked.
Fantine busied herself with retying Cosette's hair. "I was a needlewoman, and my father had a business, which failed," she said with a smile. "And you Madame?"
Paulette made a noise which was something between a grunt and a sigh. "We tried our fortunes in business too," she said brusquely.
Fantine shuddered, both from Paulette's tone, and also at the realization that the older woman was somehow sizing her up. "Clearly she does not think very much of us, what with the little we have brought ," she thought. She bit her lip as she remembered all the things that they'd left behind in Montreuil-sur-mer, things which she knew had some value.
Just then, Eponine tugged on Paulette's skirt. "Maman, how far is it to Paris?" the child asked.
"I have told you already, it's far away! Stop asking!" Paulette snapped.
Eponine's cheery expression soured slightly as she went back to sit with her sister. She pretended to rub dust off her sleeve with an affected attitude before looking at Cosette. "Do you still want to play?"
Cosette looked up slowly, clearly having been caught daydreaming. "Well, yes."
"Fine, I'll be a lady," Eponine pronounced. "You and Zelma can be visiting me." The little girl looked around before snatching up the most ragged of the dolls and giving it to Cosette. "This is your baby. Mine is someplace," she added, picking up another less shabby toy.
Cosette broke into a grin as she took the doll from Eponine and joined the Thenardier sisters in their corner. Paulette chuckled at this sight. "See how friendly these children are."
"Indeed Madame," Fantine said. She noted with some pride that though Cosette's dress was made of calico, it still managed not to look so decrepit beside the finery of the other girls. "At least that is one thing I can still do."
She heard Paulette's baby stirring in his cradle, which was really nothing more than a wicker basket. "I think he is hungry," Fantine said. She caught sight of Gilles apparently absorbed with folding a gray sheet of paper.
Paulette got up, nearly making the wagon lurch as she reached for her son. "This little brat always is."
Fantine bit her tongue as she inched towards the front of the wagon, where she had a good view of Valjean in deep discussion with Nicolas. She strained to catch some snatches of their conversation.
Nicolas was fidgeting with his hat. "Listen Monsieur, unless you can prove that you are respectable, I will have to take precautions even before we get to Paris. My family is respectable, you know."
"So is mine," Valjean said. "But listen, I do not have much I can spare. I will pay for the passage, then we will go our own way."
"As you are?" Nicolas asked. "I can get help in Paris too, that is if you can manage to stay with what it entails."
Valjean's seemingly tired face suddenly lit up with a smile. "I am more inclined to think, Monsieur Thenardier, that you are the one who needs our assistance, not the other way around."
"Considering that we are bringing you, the girl, and those children to Paris, that would be fair," Nicolas grumbled.
As Fantine leaned to listen in better, she felt someone move nearby. "Madame Fantine, have you got a cord or string to spare?" Gilles asked, showing what appeared to be the beginnings of a fan.
"If only you had some paint, better paper, a few sticks, and a proper cord," Fantine said as she untied her hair ribbon and handed it to Gilles.
Fantine became aware of the glances that the Thenardier girls were sending her way. She heard Paulette cluck her tongue. "Such a pity a pretty girl like you had to come this way," the matron said.
Fantine sighed as she ran her hands through her hair, arranging it behind her shoulders. "It's the same old story all the time, isn't it?"she wondered bitterly.
"Keep your head low," Valjean instructed Fantine as afternoon began to wane. Their little party had stopped to water the horses, giving Paulette an opportunity to prepare a modest meal, for Nicolas to smoke, and for the children to play more freely. This time, the girls included the youngest Thenardier in their game, and now the little boy was toddling along as his older sisters and Cosette ran around, shrieking in their fun.
"We're reaching Paris, I see?" Fantine said to Valjean. "And none of us have passports!"
Gilles stirred uncomfortably. "Could we separate from them, and say we came from a nearby town like Lagny?" he asked. "My father once told me that you don't need a passport if you didn't move far from Paris."
"That might work, but what if M. Valjean is recognized?" Fantine asked.
Valjean looked around. "There is the river. I can go in that way, but you three must stay with the Thenardiers."
"How will we find you?" Fantine and Gilles asked.
Valjean reached into his coat furtively. Fantine heard the sound of ripping fabric before the gentleman handed her some notes. "Give some of these to the Thenardiers for our passage. Find lodgings--nothing too expensive. Leave Gilles' fan in the window," he instructed, glancing towards the end at the fan the boy was still holding.
"Understood," Fantine said. "M. Valjean, I'm so afraid."
"Take heart, Madame," Valjean said, donning his cap. "I had better go, for all your sakes. Give me a few days, and I promise I will make my way to your lodging."
"Paris is a big city. God help you!" Fantine said before Valjean hurried into the darkness.
Paulette peered out of the wagon. "Where has your father gone?"
"He forgot he had a creditor in Lagny," Fantine said.
Nicolas scowled at them. "Are we to wait for him?"
"No," Gilles said, getting back into the wagon.
"Eponine! Azelma! Gavroche!" Paulette called after her children as Fantine went to collect Cosette.
Cosette's bottom lip stuck out on finding her play interrupted. "Now, Maman?" she asked Fantine.
"We really have to get to Paris, cherie," Fantine said.
Cosette looked around. "Where is M. Valjean?"
Fantine wisely chose not to answer this as she led Cosette towards the wagon.
The cart approached the Barriere de Monceaux. In the shadows, not a single guard was present. Quickly Nicolas signaled to Paulette, Fantine, and Gilles. "We must push this cart before the sentries come! The horse is about to collapse."
The trio leapt out of the cart, much to the stifled laughter of the children within. Fantine got behind the cart beside Paulette, while Gilles pushed from the side. With this supreme effort, they made their progress towards the gap in the barrier. Just when they were almost through, a voice shouted, "Halt!"
Everyone looked up at the patrol standing near the barrier. "Where do you come from?" the sergeant heading the patrol asked Nicolas.
"Montfermeil," the man replied. "With my wife and children."
"And I as well. I and my nephew and my daughter just sought passage," Fantine said, cutting off the sergeant before he could ask her.
The sergeant, taken aback, only nodded. "Very well then," he said, ushering the group forward.
Once they were far away, Fantine caught the gazes of the Thenardiers. "Montfermeil?" she asked matter-of-factly.
"Bother the passports," Nicolas said under his breath. "And you as well, you and what you said!"
Fantine bristled. "I had no time to rummage for papers."
"I do hope for his sake that your father has a passport," Nicolas said. "Do you know anything of lodgings in Paris?"
Paulette threw her husband a significant look. "You brought us here without knowing where to go? Any place you know?" she asked.
Nicolas scratched at his stubble. "Les Halles."
Fantine shrugged. "For lack of a better place."
Paulette elbowed her husband. "If only you had talked to that general!"
"A general?" Fantine asked curiously.
"Waterloo!" Nicolas said out loud. "But forget that, girl, we have more pressing matters at hand. There has got to be some place we can think of."
Fantine bit her lip. "The Quartier Latin. I used to live there," she said.
"And will anyone remember you?" Paulette asked.
Fantine nodded. "Even if I want it otherwise" she decided.