Chapter Sixteen: How Can it be?
Thenardier coughed into a hankercheif, staggering up to the Gentleman. "Please m'sieur, come this way." He led him slowly towards his wife, who was pretending to cry. "Here's a child that ain't eaten today." He gestured to the bundle in the woman's arms. Cosette went to the child, and whilst her father wasn't looking, she was slapped away. "Save a life, spare a sou, God rewards all the good that you do." Suddenly, Thenardier's back straightened. "Wait a bit. Know that face. Ain't the world a remarkable place?" The mans concerned expression faded. "Men like me don't forget. You're the bastard who borrowed Colette!" His eyes drifted to the golden haired girl. "Cosette!" Corrected Madame Thenardier. A look of shock went across the girls face.
"What is this? Are you mad? No, Monsieur, you don't know what you do!" He stood protectively in front of Cosette.
Éponine was listening nearby, and feeling shocked. Cosette?
"You know me, you know me, I'm a con, just like you!" Thenardier's rank breath was in Valjean's face. Then he heard a girl's voice. A dirty girl dressed in rags ran over, grabbing Thenardier's arm. Gentleman and daughter recognised her as the street rat from the park.
Cosette stared at this girl in shock. Eponine?
"It's the police, disappear! Run for it...it's Javert!" Éponine cried. Valjean gasped. Loads of spectators ran away. Thenardier froze. The policeman, Javert, stormed over to them.
"Another brawl in the square, Another stink in the air! Was there a witness to this? Well, let him speak to Javert!" Javert spoke to the gentleman without really looking at him. "M'sieur, the streets are not safe, But let these vermin beware...We'll see that justice is done!"
Javert faced the Thenardiers. Whilst he wasn't paying any attention, Valjean and Cosette slipped away. Marius gazed after them.
"Look upon this fine collection, Crawled from underneath a stone! This swarm of worms and maggots, Could have picked you to the bone! I know this man over here, I know his name and his trade, And on your witness, M'sieur, We'll see him suitably paid." Javert turned to the man, to see he'd disappeared. "But where's the gentleman gone? And why on earth did he run?"
Thenardier hobbled over, acting humble. "You will have a job to catch him-He's the one you should arrest! No more bourgeois when you scratch him, Than that brand upon his chest!"
Most of the police ran after Valjean. Javert gasped. "Could it be he's some old jailbird, that the tide now washes in. Heard my name and started running, Had the brand upon his skin! And the girl who stood beside him, When I turned they both had gone Could he be the man I've hunted? Could it be he's Jean Valjean?" Something flared up in the policeman's eyes...something almost mad.
"In the absence of a victim, Dear Inspector, may I go? And remember when you've nicked him, It was me who told you so!" Thenardier slyly said.
"Let the old man keep on running, I will run him off his feet! Everyone about your business, Clear this garbage off the street!"
Everyone who'd gathered to watch ran off, whilst Javert arrested Thenardier and his wife. He passed Éponine off as too young. After they'd been arrested, he went about his thoughts.
Gavroche sat on the theatre roof. "That inspector thinks he's something, But it's me who runs this town! And my theatre never closes, And the curtain's never down! Trust Gavroche, have no fear, Don't you worry, Paris dear, You can always find me here!" He smirked, after singing to himself. Paris was his home, and the theatre or Cafe Musain was where he usually was.
Whilst sitting down on a wall, Éponine was thinking to herself.
Cosette...now I remember! She remembered the girl. Her mind flashed back..
A regular day at the inn. Éponine and Azelma had been playing with their beloved dolls. Éponine decided to put her doll to the side, and started dressing their kitten in rags. Whilst she was speaking to Azelma, Cosette had taken her doll. When Azelma saw, she pointed, and Éponine told her mother. Cosette had dropped the doll in her fear, and it had broken. Ruined. Did Cosette have to ruin everything? She remembered the muddy, almost ugly looking girl who'd left. She then remembered how Marius had looked at that well-dressed, apparently pretty lady...
"Cosette..." She shook her head. "How can it be?" She was whispering to herself, wondering how that creature turned into that lady.
We were children together... She shook her head in disbelief. Look what's become of me. Éponine looked down at her clothes, and her dirty skin, and matted hair, and sighed. She remembered her reflection in Marius' mirror.
She heard footsteps. Looking across the street, Marius was walking past. She climbed down and ran after him.
"Good god, oh what a rumpus!" She exclaimed. He didn't hear, for he was lost in thought, as he leant his shoulder against the wall of Cafe Musain.
"That girl-who can she be?" He murmured to himself.
Éponine tapped his shoulder. "That cop, he'd like to jump us! But he aint smart, not he!" Éponine laughed.
"Éponine! Who was that girl?" He turned, desperation in his eyes. "Some bourgeois two-a-penny thing." She turned her face, hiding her disappointment and pain.
Marius didn't notice. "Éponine, find her for me?"
"What will you give me?" She said teasingly.
"Anything!" He replied excitedly. Éponine studied his expression, still teasing.
"Got you all excited now..." She trailed off, turning away. "But god knows what you see in her." She stepped away slightly, still avoiding his eyes. "Aren't you all delighted now!" She was close to tears. She had to get away.
Marius tried to give her a coin. "No." The coin clattered to the floor. There was silence, before she looked him in the eyes. "I don't want your money, sir."
She pulled away to leave, when she felt an shock on her arm. He'd grabbed it. He turned her around, and took both her hands, looking into her eyes, and gently spoke. "Éponine, do this for me...discover where she lives! But careful how you go...don't let your father know!"
Éponine shook her head sadly. Little he saw...didn't he know she wouldn't tell her father that? Didn't he know she would do anything for him? He was so close to her, they were almost nose to nose...but he was talking about Cosette.
"'Ponine! I'm lost until she's found!" He let go of her hands, smiling into the distance and stepping away.
"You see! I told you so." She stepped after him. He barely heard her. "There's...lots of things I know." He was walking away, and he stepped into Cafe Musain.
"'Ponine." She said his nickname for her in a bitter tone.
"She knows her way" She swallowed the lump in her throat. "Around..."