ADIEU » LES MISÉRABLES | ✓

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

Claudine was used to speaking out anything that ran through her head. However, given what was running through her head at that moment, she was certain that the things she spewed out of her mouth would be complete and utter nonsense.

She wanted to explain the significance of the bracelet to Enjolras. That it was still a symbol of enormous trust, though the very thing it was meant to entrust - her home and identity - no longer existed. But she could feel his pulse beneath her fingertips, for once erratic just like hers, and everything she had ever meant to say dissolved into mush.

He was solid and warm and present, so unlike the marble statue the boys often likened him to. Claudine, finally giving in to her inner desires, closed her eyes and relished the feel of him around her. The words would simply have to wait.

___

She didn't tell him, and he never asked. As the days passed, the words 'I trust you' didn't seem to fully encapsulate the meaning of the bracelet anymore.

Still, in the pockets of time that interspersed the endless meetings, preparations and rallies, she caught him fiddling with the bracelet, trying to figure it out. In the soft, red-tinted light of dawn. In the dimly lit café, after he'd finished with his work. He directed a fierce, singular attention to the plain accessory, and that fact always made her a little flustered.

"I don't get it," he told her at last, one day. She was giving an apple to Melanie, who was awkwardly tied to a post outside his apartment since there was no backyard. "What does the bracelet mean?"

"It's mine," Claudine said, perhaps a little sharper than she had intended. "It doesn't have to mean anything."

"Save it." His voice was clipped and terse, as it always was when he wanted answers. "I know it does. I can see it in your eyes."

"Are you turning into Jean Prouvaire?" She quipped, in an attempt to lighten the mood. The boy was known for his quiet, romantic nature and fascination with poetry.

"Hardly," Enjolras replied, without missing a beat. "I still have yet to fall in love with a woman. Jehan becomes enamored with every girl he has the misfortune of meeting. But do not detract me from the issue at hand. Why did you give your bracelet to me, Claudine? What did it mean?"

Claudine fondled with Melanie's mane. Nowadays, she was finding it exceptionally hard to look Enjolras in the eye. There was something in his gaze that unnerved her, something in those ice-blue irises that managed to make them burn.

"Do you," she began quietly, "really want to know?"

"Yes." Of course Enjolras could not stand being in the dark for long.

"At first, it was because I trusted you. You were there for me the day my home burned down. You made space for me in your own house. You accepted me despite everything, and I knew you were good.

"But then I saw the panic in your eyes when I stood too close to the edge of the bridge. You outwardly expressed your concern for my safety, and I'd only ever seen that from my father. Even then, he'd always assumed I was strong enough to overcome anything - but I never was. In that moment, you saw that I was vulnerable. And yet, somehow, you still accept me, the mess that I am."

"It is what any decent human being would do." Enjolras mindlessly lifted a hand to touch Melanie, his eyes unfocused.

"Enjolras, I -"

"Ah!"

Enjolras let out an exclamation of pain. He snatched his hand away from the horse, his fingers red and swollen. "She bit me."