The Judge's Daughter

Chapter 2: The Life of Agnès

20 years later, Agnès grew into a beautiful young woman.  She was sitting on the bench of the window seat in her bedchamber, watching the villagers set up the Festival of Fools which only happened once a year.

How badly she wanted to go, but Frollo wouldn't allow her to leave the Palace of Justice by any means unless if she were going to the Notre Dame cathedral, for parts of lessons, like she did every Tuesday morning.

Ever since she was a child, she had a strong passion for gypsy culture and dance.  She didn't dare tell Frollo about it, however, knowing how much he hated the French-Romani population.

The first time she ever was exposed to it was when her adoptive father took her to the cathedral when she was roughly 4 years of age.

She spotted a gypsy woman dancing seductively in front of the cathedral for all to see to earn some coins and even went as far to copy the woman's dance moves, until she was caught and severely punished for it.

Even from a very early age, she knew not to piss him off.  She also knew by experience that things would end very bad for her if she were to do so, so she always heeded his warnings.

Therefore she was always fearful of her adoptive father to some degree, after being forced to suffer severe punishments he had put her through in the past.

She would typically be locked up in her bedchamber for weeks with little food or water.  Often times, she would be whipped too.  She had some faint scars on her back from it.

During this time, she would practice her dance moves she learned from the gypsy woman.  She had to make sure that NO ONE would catch her in the act, especially her adoptive father.

She didn't even want to think about what would happen if he were to ever find out.  He, let alone, didn't even know that she could dance at all.  Standing beside her was her pet goat, Djali, who hung around her like a puppy dog.   

He was given to her as a present from Frollo's younger brother, Jehan, all the way from Spain.  He felt bad that the poor girl didn't have any friends and was stuck in the palace 24/7.

Initially she tried hiding Djali, but Frollo found out about him soon enough.  It took a lot of convincing for her adoptive father to let her keep him in the Palace of Justice, but he eventually gave in much to everyone's surprise.

Djali was the only friend she had, since she hadn't seen Jehan since she was an early teenager when Frollo completely disowned him out of shame for his repeated actions and "sins" against him.

Plus her adoptive father never let her leave the palace unless if he were with her at all times.  Usually she was only allowed access to the Notre Dame Cathedral for part of lessons.

Therefore, most of her life was quite boring.  Growing up, she had no one to play with nor talk to.  The guards completely ignored her while the maids were far too busy to even acknowledge her presence, most of the time.  Not to mention Frollo had forbidden her from speaking to the maids.