Chapter Text
“Boy!” Madame Thenardeir shouted.
Julien jumped. The cleaning rag slipped from his hand. “Yes, madame?” he called and scrambled to his feet, wiping his hands on the seat of his threadbare trousers. His heart pounded in his ears.
Madame Thenardier approached him slowly from the kitchen, steps careful and measured, like a predator stalking its prey. “Do we pay you to be idle, boy?” she asked, her tone matching her steps.
You don’t pay us anything, Julien thought, but he knew all too well where voicing such a thought would take him. He dropped his gaze and said, “No, madame.”
“Then don’t let me ever catch you daydreaming again!” Madame Thenardier snapped. She raised her hand in a silent threat and smiled when Julien flinched. “This is your last chance, boy. If I catch you idling one more time, Cosette will finish scrubbing the floor for you. Understand?”
Julien nodded.
Madame Thenardier’s hand shot out and grabbed his forearm in an iron grip.
“I understand, madame!” Julien quickly amended.
“Good.” Madame Thenardier released his arm and dusted her hands like she’d just thrown the garbage out. “I was beginning to think you’d gone mute as well on top of everything. Though I suppose that would’ve been an improvement, eh?” She laughed as she slithered back into the depths of the kitchen.
Julien dropped back down to his knees and resumed his scrubbing with new vigor. He trembled from head to toe to the depths of his soul in fear and rage. He hated the Thenardiers. He hated how they treated him and his sister, how they spoke of his mother. Hated, hated, hated.
But worst of all, he hated how he could do nothing but stand there and take it all and pray that his sister was too young to remember anything from this horrid place.
Because someday they would leave this horrid place behind. Someday all these things would be a distant, almost forgotten nightmare. Their mother had promised that she would come back for them soon, and on days like this Julien held on to that promise with all the strength he had left.
Long after the last drunken guest had stumbled out the door, Julien slowly climbed up the ladder to the cold, dusty attic where he and his sister slept. “Cosette? Are you still awake?” he whispered as he tiptoed across the room to the old mattress with a single lump on it that passed as their bed.
“Mhm.” The lump on the mattress moved, and two big, brown eyes peeked out at him from under the strip of cloth that used to be a blanket. “Why were you gone so long?” Cosette asked in a hoarse whisper.
“I had a few extra chores,” Julien replied, choosing not to mention how Monsieur Thenardier spent ten minutes yelling at him just because he was drunk and didn’t have anything better to do. He sank down onto the mattress with a small sigh of relief. “Is your throat still hurting?” he asked.
“A little, but it’s better than before,” Cosette answered.
“Do you think you could try eating then? I saved you some bread from lunch.”
Cosette sat up a bit, dark hair tumbling down her shoulders. “Okay,” she said.
Julien smiled. He took out a small fist-sized chunk of bread carefully wrapped in paper from his pocket and handed it to Cosette. “Eat slowly,” he said.
As Cosette nibbled on the precious bread, Julien leaned over and pressed his hand to her forehead. Cooler, but still too warm to be normal.
“Did you drink the water I left you this morning?” he asked with a frown.
Cosette nodded.
Julien sighed. “Okay. Let’s just sleep when you’re done eating, okay? You need rest.”
“What about the song?” Cosette protested.
“I’ll sing the song, don’t worry.”
After Cosette licked up the last of the bread crumbs, Julien helped her lie down again and tucked the blanket securely around her shoulders. He lied down next to her, pressing his chest to her back and wrapping an arm around her waist to help keep both of them warm.
“The song, Julien,” Cosette reminded him.
Julien shifted so that his mouth was right next to Cosette’s ear. Then, softly so that only the two of them could hear, he began to sing.
There is a castle on a cloud
I like to go there in my sleep
Aren’t any floors for me to sweep
Not in my castle on a cloud