A/N: OMG I (almost) HAVE 100 REVIEWS! This is my first fanfiction and I was expecting like 20 reviews or something… So I'm excited. WOO! And also, Les Mis comes out on Friday and I don't know if I can handle my excitement! Ahhh!
Eponine left her room precisely one minute after Enjolras had gone. The library immediately sprang into her mind, and she decided that it would be a good place to go explore first. Wracking her brains, she tried to recall the path she would have to take to reach the library. Looking at her feet, she marched onwards in the correct direction.
She turned left, but when she looked up she didn't recognize the halls around her, and she felt as though they were suffocating her. Panicking slightly, she ran back in the opposite direction, and was faced with a long staircase. Was that there before?
Curiously, she advanced the staircase despite the fact she knew it was the wrong way. Every now and then, Eponine would spy a maid bustling about. At the top of the stairs, she decided to turn left. As she kept walking, the halls narrowed, and Eponine's heart started pounding in her chest. She was completely lost.
She should have listened to Enjolras.
Panicking she started to walk backwards before spinning around quickly. Yet the action was cut short when she ran into a tall man with a white wig and fancy attire. The man's eyes were small and beady, and they seemed to be piercing straight through Eponine.
"I beg your pardon, monsieur," Eponine apologized as her heart sunk through the floor. She remembered that she did not look like a street rat and would not be treated as one, and that comforted her and gave her false confidence.
"What the hell are you doing here?! You let you come here! This corridor is off limits!" the man barked in Eponine's face, yet she managed to hold her composure.
She was Eponine Thenardier, and she was not afraid.
"I was lost, monsieur," Eponine spat 'monsieur' with a certain venom that hadn't been in her voice the first time she spoke.
"I don't bloody care if you were lost! You should know your place, girl!" the man spat furiously.
"It's not my fault that I was merely lost! Enj- Albaric nor Clara nor Madame Agnes warned me about anything that was off limits!" Eponine shouted, and the man sniffed.
"You came with Albaric," it wasn't a question, and Eponine wasn't foolish enough to answer.
"I am Jacques Enjolras. My brother was Albaric's father," he said curtly. Eponine was so used to calling Albaric 'Enjolras,' it felt strange to hear another man use that name.
So this was Uncle Jacques. Eponine mentally kicked herself for making such a wonderful first impression.
"Nice to meet you, monsieur. Albaric mentioned you. I am known as Eponine Therrian," Eponine said formally. Jacques made no gesture to acknowledge she had spoken.
"Sorry to be frank, monsieur, but when someone is speaking to you, it is polite to respond," Eponine said after a long silence. Jacques' eyes snapped back to the girl.
"You should be quick to hold your tongue, Eponine," he said icily. "Leave. Now. Before I have you removed."
Eponine firmly stood her ground.
"I do not like the way you treat me, monsieur," Eponine said. The 'monsieur' was unnecessary and sarcastic, and Jacques could hear it in her voice.
"Albaric would be shamed if he heard how you spoke to his old uncle in such a way," Jacques shouted, and in that moment, Enjolras conveniently stumbled upon the scene.
"Incorrect; I am terribly ashamed of how my uncle is treating the woman whom I love! I was trying to find you so we could have our discussion, but this house is so enormous that it takes forever to find who you are looking for. I assumed you would be somewhere upstairs and I ran over here immediately when I heard Eponine shouting," Enjolras said as he enclosed Eponine's small hand in his.
"You love her?" Jacques said, blatantly taken aback, and Albaric looked horrified.
"Do not treat a mademoiselle in such a way!" Enjolras shouted. Eponine was touched at how Enjolras was defending her, and she tauntingly flashed Jacques the large smirk on her face.
"Wipe that look of your face, it is not becoming," Jacques said, directing the comment to Eponine.
"Uncle!" Enjolras shouted, his nostrils flaring in anger.
"Albaric, come with me, we have much to discuss. I will fetch a maid to escort Eponine back to her room," Jacques said changing the subject.
"I can find my way back," Eponine retorted.
"I will fetch a maid," Jacques said with finality in his voice.
That was how Eponine and Enjolras found themselves looking back longingly at each other as they were dragged away by their respective person; Jacques was leading Enjolras to who knows where, and a plump maid in a black dress with a white apron was literally dragging Eponine back to her room.
"That was real foolish to go and upset Monsieur Enjolras," the maid said, and it took Eponine a moment to realize she meant Jacques.
"It was foolish of him to upset me," Eponine said harshly as the maid slammed Eponine's bedroom door in her face.
A/N: OOOOOoooooOOOO family feud! Who hates Uncle Jacques? I DO. But Aunt Agnes is very nice Okay I know I said this chapter would be the dinner, but for real this time, the next chapter will be the dinner. I just had this idea so I wrote it quickly before the next chapter.