A Franc or Two - Les Misérables [IN EDITING]

Morning - Chapter 23

Your sleep was completely unproductive.

Madame Houcheloup, after setting up a bed composed of tablecloths and random items found inside of the staff room, had invited you to sleep in the back room...

But you couldn't sleep at all.

She wanted to talk to you about something— and it was important, too, considering the fact that she had been so insistent upon you staying the night... she had offered time and time again, but never before had she seemed so urgent.

Morning couldn't seem to come any sooner.

You woke up early, hardly able to feel refreshed after so much had been on your mind, although you avoided any contact with Madame Houcheloup if at all possible... That being said, you simply pretended to be asleep if she walked into the room to check up on you.

It took a while for her to wake you up.

"[Y/N]," she said shaking you gently in an attempt to wake you up. "It's half past noon... I made you break— erhm, lunch."

You blinked your eyes open, pretending to wake up for the first time. You rubbed your eyes and glanced over at Madame Houcheloup, who was rubbing your back gently.

"Easy does it, now," she said. For a moment, you were confused as to why she was saying that, although you soon realized that your entire body ached. It probably had something to do with the beating you had received.

"Thank you, Madame Houcheloup," you said, feeling quite sore as you managed to sit up.

"Yes, yes, of course," she said, quickly standing up and turning her gaze away from you. "I'll go fetch it for you."

Before you could respond, she was already off, hiking up her skirt as she rushed to get your "brunch."

You were right.

Something was definitely wrong.

***

"Madame Houcheloup," you said, wiping your chin from the soup dripping down. It had been a little too hot for you to swallow right away, but once you had, it felt like the entirety of your throat was completely raw. "Is everything alright?"

Madame Houcheloup was up and about, wiping down a table for the upteenth time, and she still managed to keep from looking you in the eye.

"Well..." she said, shaking out the rag and moving onto another table. "For me, yes."

Your eyebrows furrowed.

"But what about everyone else?" you asked, balancing the bowl of soup in your lap. "Did something happen? Is Clement-Hadrian alright? Or did his sister... you know..."

Thanks to the fact that you were incomprehensibly exhausted, Clement-Hadrian and his sister were the two people you last remembered Madame Houcheloup being horribly worried about.

"No, that's not it," she said, her voice breaking as she flattened a strand of hair to her head. "It's just..."

She trailed off almost immediately. She began to wipe down the table again, but after a moment, you noticed that she slowed quite a bit.