After a long hiatus...
The Quartier Latin
Fantine had once heard from Tholomyes that only two things were constant in life: God and change. Today, if Fantine had encountered her former lover, she would have added "The Quartier Latin" to the list.
"Bah, this is full of unruly students!" Nicolas Thenardier griped as he led his family in Fantine's wake. "Can't you find some place more respectable?"
Fantine shook her head. "With what we have, maybe not. Anyway, Monsieur, this is just for a short time or so."
"You said you had lodgings here," Paulette said, balancing Gavroche on her hip. Éponine and Azelma clung to her skirts, fearful of the brash laughter of the students walking by.
"Yes, but I cannot remember the street name," Fantine said. She wished her feet remembered a little more of how to get to her old rooms.
Gilles blinked at a sign in a window. "The concierge says she has three rooms for boarders," he said.
"Yes, rooms in a garret," Paulette frowned, pointing to the building's upper storey. "You can take that if you like. I won't lodge there."
Fantine looked at her. "Then thank you, Monsieur, Madame. I believe this is where we have to part ways. I dare not spend too much of my father's money."
Cosette, sensing a calamity, ran over to her new friends. Paulette clucked her tongue at this sight. "These poor children! Just when they have become like sisters!"
"Listen Paulette, please note this address and let me know yours too," Fantine said. "You can bring the girls to play with my Cosette. And I do wish to find you all for friendship's sake."
Nicolas and Paulette exchanged knowing looks. "We will see each other, when your father returns," Nicolas said darkly. He took his wife's arm. "Come now, Paulette, bring the brats."
Fantine went to where Cosette was bidding goodbye to Éponine and Azelma. "Come now, Cosette," she said.
Cosette bit her lip tearfully. "I'll see you again, please?" she said to the Thenardier sisters.
"That depends on Maman," Éponine said, giving Cosette an awkward handshake. "Take care of yourself."
Azelma also shook Cosette's hand before running off after her mother. Cosette buried her face in Fantine's skirt.
"There, there, Cosette petite, they won't get very far," Fantine reassured her daughter as they went in after Gilles into the tenement.
The concierge, a brittle old woman, was sweeping the hall. "Of all the trouble upstairs!" she muttered to herself, unaware of the entrance of the three young people.
Fantine cleared her throat. "Madame, we heard you have rooms for rent?"
"One room in the garret," the concierge said. "My best room was taken by a student."
"Oh, that is no matter," Fantine said. "How much will I owe you for six months?"
"Thirty francs," the concierge said absent-mindedly.
"Is the room furnished?"
"Very little,"
Fantine bit her lip. "I used to pay better elsewhere!"
"Madame, I don't know...it was years when you left," Gilles pointed out. "Besides, I think we can manage with a good living and M. Valjean's return!"
Fantine nodded, willing confidence into herself. "We'll take the room, Madame. The three of us at first, but my father will join us after a while."
The bleary eyed concierge nodded. "Done then," she said, fishing a key out of her tattered skirt pocket.
Just then, footsteps sounded on the second floor. The concierge looked up sharply. "Now just where do you think you're going, young man?"
Fantine stifled a smile at the sight of a dark haired young student bounding down the stairwell. He was still in his shirt sleeves and a red waistcoat. "I'm off to the laundress to get back my coat," he said. "And maybe pay out the gendarmes who ripped it."
"You do that, I will evict you!" the concierge threatened her tenant. "I do not want trouble, Monsieur Bahorel!"
Bahorel merely shrugged cheerily. "You're taking the upstairs room?" he asked Fantine, Gilles, and Cosette.
"Yes," Gilles said. "My name is Gilles Feuilly. This is my aunt, Fantine, and my cousin Cosette."
Bahorel heartily shook Feuilly's hand, nearly breaking the boy's grip. "I wish I could have had a better introduction, courtesy of Madame. They call me Bahorel, but Damien will do."