Éponine's Not-So-Abandoned Warehouse, Saturday Morning

[filleauloup]

Éponine, at eight years old, had been away from home a few times before and to tell the truth she didn't mind much; usually she only had to go with Magnon, pretend to be her daughter, and be quiet and well-behaved long enough to convince some judge or rich gentleman or other that she was properly taken care of. She wasn't usually sent off by herself. (Were she aware that Magnon paid her father a few francs for these loans, she'd wonder how much it was worth this time.)

She wasn't going to complain, though. She didn't at all mind being away from the noise and funny smells of the inn, or having to try and stop Gavroche's crying because Maman certainly didn't bother, and now that that strange man in the ugly yellow coat had taken Cosette away she definitely didn't mind not having to be home. It meant more for Azelma to deal with but, well, perhaps next time it would be Azelma's turn so it was all fair anyhow.

And there was a cat for her to play with, at least! Alouette had not expected her human to suddenly be tiny, and therefore had been at a disadvantage, which meant that now, well . . .

There was a nicely-dressed, clearly rather pampered little girl sitting on the front step outside the warehouse, singing to the basket on her lap, in which a rather disgruntled cat was dressed up in doll clothes and wrapped up in a blanket.

[OOC: I never thought I was going to get a chance to play around with an excerpt cut from the early drafts of the book. (Read it, though, it's hilarious.) Open, but SP until evening probably.]

Comments

[14andseven]

"I suppose I could," Roland said. "Though this is my job, you see, so at some point I'm going to have to stop playing for you for free."

[filleauloup]

". . . you make money that way?"

Éponine might have looked less impressed if she hadn't assumed it was lucrative.

[14andseven]

"It's a living," Roland said. Which was possibly actually an exaggeration, yes. "Only job I want."

[filleauloup]

"What if you couldn't make money at it?" Éponine wanted to know. "Even then?"

[14andseven]

"I'd have to go find a place where I could, I guess."

[filleauloup]

"That doesn't sound like much fun," Éponine decided. "I don't think I'd like to do that."

[14andseven]

"It's not for everyone," Roland said. "You have an idea what you do want to do when you grow up?"

[filleauloup]

"Me!" Well, that was new. Éponine had never even considered the possibility of a job, not seriously. "I haven't any idea, but if I marry someone rich I won't have to worry about it, will I?"

[14andseven]

Roland laughed. "Guess not. Not all that easy to do, though. Rich people mostly just hang out with other rich people. Are you rich, now?"

[filleauloup]

"No," Éponine admitted very slowly, after a long reluctant moment, then added in a hurry (and stumbling a bit over the words), "but we're respectable at least."

Not really, no, but she bought into the pretense as much as everyone else in Montfermeil seemed to.

[14andseven]

"You don't have to tell me," Roland said. "Some of the most important people I've ever met were homeless."

One of, anyway. But she was very important.

[filleauloup]

If someone had said that to Éponine when she was really eight years old the first time . . . well, that begged the question of whether she'd even remember it, but Victor Hugo was big on this sort of thing so let's just say it might have made a difference.

At the moment, though, she didn't look like she believed him. Good thing she didn't feel particularly argumentative. "If you say so," she said in the tone of voice that meant 'not that I agree but I'm going to humor you.'