Chapter 20:
Phoebus had never been so incensed by Fleur's behavior. He did not remain long after he sent Esmeralda off on her way. Instead he stood before her and her gaggle of subordinates with a tight-lipped, barely contained smile.
"Consider this the end of our acquaintance," he told her. "I am not your betrothed, I am in fact free of your insipid behavior forevermore!" He turned on his heel and was only halted by her high-pitched wail as she threw herself at him.
"How could you leave me for her? She's not even French! Didn't you see how poor she is?"
"I'm not leaving you for her!" Phoebus exploded, and his eyes met with the poor old woman in the corner, shaking with the violence of all this shouting. Poor old woman… "I'm leaving you," Phoebus said a little more softly for the sake of the old woman's sensibilities, "because I find you repulsive."
She was still screeching at him when he left, but he did indeed leave. The sunlight embraced him when he was free of her house, and he didn't even care that she was still shouting after him when he left her house behind.
He would have to write to his parents, of course, they would require an explanation as quickly as it could possibly reach them, and he was sure Fleur was composing one of her own, as well.
It would be best to get the word out in the plainest terms so as to avoid disgrace at the slanderous hands of Fleur. She was a lady of high standing, and it would be sure to ruin him if got her way.
As he rushed home, he felt a creeping sense of dread crawl along his back. Something worse than Fleur's scorned ire was brewing, and he could all but hear it as some witch stirred something foul in her cauldron.
He tried to ignore it as he focused instead on writing out the missive for his parents, but there was a knock at the door just as he was signing his name.
As a precaution, he checked out the window so that he could be prepared for what was coming.
There was a cloaked figure there, not some obvious soldier. In the fading light, he could even see that the cloak was blue, and the person wearing it had knocked, rather than picking the lock and creeping up on him
He paid this individual the courtesy of approaching the door and pulling it open without actually drawing his sword. Instead, his hand remained poised on the hilt.
The person he found on the opposites side of the door swept into the house before he'd said a word, and he was on high alert until she pulled back her cape's hood.
He shut the door swiftly to prevent anyone outside from seeing that he had Esmeralda with him in his front room. "I can't believe you made it here… Er… this is my home. Well, it's my temporary home, anyway. Would you like me to show you around?"
She smirked at him, and glanced at the room she stood in. "Are you sure you live here? It looks abandoned."
"I don't… really have much care for the place, I've only been here a few days. Anyway, I guess I'll stay for months, so at some point I'll make it look like a home… I've just had other priorities." He looked her over, absently seeking proof that she was unharmed, and then remembered. "Allow me to apologize again for the conduct of my former fiancée, I will not countenance it."
Esmeralda peered at him, and he waited as he realized he had probably used words she didn't know, but didn't want to embarrass her by elaborating. "Did I ruin your marriage?" she asked.
"No, no! You saved me from making a bad one!" he grinned, then bowed to her. "I am in your debt, my dear… would you like for me to take you somewhere so that I can properly thank you? I can't prepare food to save my life, and I feel as if that is the sort of thing one offers a woman who's done such great things… I don't think I can hope to top the jewelry you're already wearing, and any clothes I could buy you would only arrive after a few weeks."
Esmeralda began to grin. "I would love to go somewhere with you! Where would we go? An inn?"
"Oh, probably… but a nice one, this time." He watched her eyes widen and had to chuckle.
"But won't the people there see me?"
"Yes, but they'll see that you're with me."
She took a step closer to him with a sad smile. "But they will know that you actually like me. Then you could get in trouble, especially with Frollo… I wish we could just go as if there were no consequences, but I don't want to harm you."
He couldn't stop himself from reaching out and cupping her jaw in his hand. "Then I'll have to make up for it with whatever I've got lying around," he said, glad he had at least the charm to hold himself up and pretend he wasn't panicking inside.
He rarely felt so woefully inadequate. He had some scraps of cheese and bread lying about, and these he offered her.
"I have an idea," she said, "I have a little money, thanks to you, and if you and I both go and get food, we can bring it back here and share it."
Phoebus grinned at her. "What a lovely idea!" The creeping foreboding which had menaced him previously pounced on his heart, but he chose to proceed with what he thought was courage rather than give it mention. "I have a message for my family that I ought to send out, so if you arrive before I do, just hide nearby and wait for me to let you in."
He watched as light grew in her eyes, and an answering light grew in his heart.
"I'll go!" she cried. "It'll be an adventure!" She threw herself into his arms, and he found himself instinctively swinging her about.
Too soon, she was gone from his arms, and his house, and he was standing in the empty, all too desolate building with the letter in his hand that would declare his freedom from the harpy, Fleur.
First things first, he instructed himself, he would deliver the letter, and then he would declare himself a free man who could pursue his fancy for this young feisty creature full of life and beauty. Nothing could please him more!
As he was locking his door behind himself, he noticed a cloaked figure in the reflection on his moonlit window. He turned around, expecting it to be that of Esmeralda, but instead, the figure faded into indistinct shadows, where it could trouble only his mind as he went about his business.