Embracing The Light (Arno Dorian x OC), an Assassin's Creed Fanfiction

Chapter 6 : Margot and Louis

Once they silently walked inside the orphanage, they noticed how deserted it was. Everyone was in the dining room, so the rest of the house was quiet and dark. Arno decided to grab the candle on the table at the front door to see where he was stepping on, while Rosalie put her basket down.
She initiated the conversation to break the silence "Léon is going to be furious when he'll hear that we went through his stuff." she smiled.
"By the way, what kind of relationship do you two share ? Are you siblings ?" Arno frowned.
"Well, we are and... we are not. I've found him in front of the cloister of Saint-Denis six years ago. His mother had to abandon him to leave France, she is Morisco. I brought him to Madame Margot and visited him everyday until I left for Paris. He did not get along with the other children and, sometimes, they were bothering him, so I was defending him."
They slowed down once they reached the steps. Rosalie held the banister with one hand, and Arno's arm with the other, taking her time to climb.
She continued. "One day, Madame Margot heard him say «If you annoy me again, my grande sœur (big sister) will kick your arse !»."
They both chuckled and Arno watched her looking down. "So, oui, we see each other as siblings." she concluded as she reached the upper floor and let go of the banister.
Fortunately, Léon's room was right next to the stairs. Rosalie opened it with her free hand and, once she stepped in, the first thing she noticed was the plush on the bed which had a little cut on it. Rosalie left Arno's arm and knelt down to observe the toy as she sighed.
"He managed to rip it again." she muttered to herself. Rosalie then turned at Arno and showed him the stuffed animal. "One of my creations." she said with pride.
The young man raised his eyebrows with surprise. "You made this ?"
Rosalie nodded. "I've knitted this plush with Madame Margot for Léon the same year he arrived here. It helped him to calm down. He never slept without it ever since." she then put back the toy where it was.
"You clearly have a gift for knitting." Arno spoke and she smiled.
"I've had a good teacher." she responded, referring to the old woman. "Madame Margot gave me this passion I have for knitting. When I was still living here as a child, I was knitting clothes with her for Léon and all the other orphans who live here. That's mostly how I'm spending my days in Paris when the tavern is closed as well. I prepare socks, pullovers, mittens and bring them here each time I come to visit."
"Attends (Wait)." Arno stopped her. "You lived here ?"
"Does that surprise you ?" she unironically asked.
"It's just that... I ignored you were an orphan." he explained.
"Well, there are many things that we ignore about each other, so..." Rosalie slightly looked away.
She then grabbed Léon's box under the bed and opened it. She directly noticed the missing plate and took it before she stood up and approached Arno to analyze it with the candlelight. But as soon as she did, the plate started to shine inside her hand. They then both stared at each other and realized how close their faces were. With embarrassment, the young woman smiled politely whereas Arno cleared his throat and revealed the two other plates. Once they put the three of them together, they both observed.
"This looks like a map." she said in a low voice.
"Because it is one." he responded as he started to leave with the plates. "This will lead me straight to the artefact."
"Arno !" The young woman called him before he had the time to completely disappear. "Be careful." she told him with concern.
The man nodded quickly with the light of a smile on his face before he vanished for good. Rosalie sighed as she started to put the box back in its place. She then heard footsteps coming from the corridor, and Léon appeared.
"What were you two d..." he stopped when he noticed the box inside the young lady's hands. "What are you doing with this ?! I've told you not to touch it !" he yelled as he walked towards her. Léon's little treasures were very sacred for him.
"Calm down." she sighed. "I was about to put it back."
After he rolled his eyes with annoyance, Léon asked. "Did Arno find the other plates ?"
"Oui. He came to take the one you stole." she accusingly replied, making the little boy look away. "And he left straight away... without helping me to go back downstairs. Great."
Rosalie then tried to get on her feet and started to limp towards the corridor.
"You can use my sword as a cane if you want to." Léon told her.
She turned back and smiled. "That is very sweet of you, but I can handle this."
After managing to go to the ground floor on her own, she led towards the dining room which now was almost empty. Only two children were inside and Madame Margot was eating with Monsieur Paul on a seperate table. Rosalie went to the kitchen and grabbed a plate she filled with some pot au feu. The young woman then sat next to Madame Margot and in front of Monsieur Paul — against her own will. She was thankful that the old man did not make any comment about her eating at the orphanage this time. Rosalie preferred to avoid any kind of contact with him and this, until the end of the meal at least.
Madame Margot then broke the silence. "How is Louis doing ?"
She glanced at her and responded. "Fine, as always."
"Bien (Good)." she whispered.
Madame Margot and Louis had the same father, but their respective mothers were different. When Louis' mother died, his father remarried another woman with whom he had had a daughter, Margot. The two of them got along very well during their entire childhood, despite Louis' issues with his stepmother who saw him as a burden. One time, she even got brutal against him, when his father was not around. But when Louis complained about her to his father, he did not believe him. And because of this, the man always hated both his father and Margot's mother.
However, Margot and Louis became accomplices, even after the woman got married and moved to Provence with her husband. They kept sending each other letters, talking about anything and everything. Louis also had been the first one to know about Margot's willing to come back to Paris when her partner started to show his... violent side. After she abandoned her son and her husband, Louis welcomed Margot in the very little apartment he freshly bought above his future tavern at Le Ventre de Paris with the money he had earned by working hard for an entire decade, letting Margot the time to prepare herself to face her mother. But she never got the time to do so.
The very old woman passed away due to an unknown illness she suffered from for several years. Even though Louis hated her, he was not completely heartless, and supported his half-sister during the dark path she went through. Margot felt so lost, she started to regret abandoning her child, but she knew she could not go back there. So, with the fair amount of money she inherited from her mother, Margot decided to buy the big red house in Saint-Denis — which then became Franciade, to turn it into an orphanage in honor of her deceased mother. Monsieur Paul only arrived years later.
Louis came to visit her for a few hours whenever he could and then returned to Paris. Madame Margot told him about Rosalie sometimes, but the eighteen year old girl was too scared of him back then. As she always had had a bad experience with men of his age, she avoided them as much as she could. That was the main reason why Madame Margot was calling Rosalie when Monsieur Paul was not around. When the old woman managed to make Rosalie meet Louis, the man was moved by the young girl's story. He never thought about taking a little child under his responsibility, Rosalie was too old to be considered as a child anyway. So, he proposed her to work for him at his tavern and, in exchange, she would have had a home. But Rosalie kept doubting about the man's sincerity.
After Madame Margot reassured her and Louis promised her that they were going to come back to Franciade each week to visit the orphanage, the young girl accepted. Even though at first she struggled to work due to the amount of stress that she felt, Louis had been patient and, with time, Rosalie managed to fight her fears and regained self-confidence to become the woman she was now. She and Louis visited Madame Margot and Léon each Sunday, Rosalie also brought the clothes she knitted for the children with her to give them to the old woman. But things changed after Louis and Margot's father died a few months ago.
In his will, the very old man wrote down that he wanted his little fortune to go exclusively to his daughter, which made Louis become furious. He kept saying that his stepmother brainwashed his father and influenced him to stand up against his own son. When Margot took her mother's defense, not accepting her half-brother disrespecting her, Louis was hurt so deeply that he decided to cut ties with Margot who used that money for the orphanage. The old woman kept trying to talk to him, saying that it was not her fault, but it did not change anything. Louis saw through her the reason why his father forgot that he had a son. Rosalie visited her on her own since then, by renting a fiacre with Louis' money. But he did not want her to talk about his half-sister ever again.
Once she had finished her meal, Rosalie grabbed the other empty plates on the table and tried to help Madame Margot to do the dishes by limping around. While she was dipping a glass in the basin filled with soapy water, the old woman spoke.
"Who is this jeune homme (young man) who was here with you ?"
Rosalie blushed slightly as she understood who Madame Margot was referring to. "A... friend."
"Well he seemed to care a lot about you for a "friend"." she replied.
"He's a caring friend."
"Oh, allez (come on), don't be so shy !" the old woman chuckled as she did a little hip bump to Rosalie who could not hide a smile.
"There's nothing between us, I assure you."
"Why not ? He seems to be a good man."
"That is the main issue actually." Rosalie sighed. "I don't know if he is what he seems to be. I don't know anything about him at all."
"Everyone has secrets my dear." Madame Margot turned to face her. "The more you've suffered from your past, the more it's difficult to open up about it. I'm sure that he doesn't know everything about you either."
Rosalie looked away, thinking about all the painful things that happened to her. She was not even sure if she was ever going to be capable of talking about those memories to Arno someday.
"Don't try to rush things. It'll all come naturally with time. Trust me."
The young woman nodded with a little smile as she was done with the dishes. She then remembered. "I have brought some new clothes I've knitted in Paris. Let me show them to you !"
Then they both led towards the vestibule where Rosalie left her basket full of knits. As she held her candle above it, she showed to the old woman all the mittens, socks and other clothings she created.
"There's this one that I was still knitting." She said as she grabbed the unfinished pull. "Oh, I've also noticed that Léon's plush had a slight rip."
Madame Margot responded with a smile. "I'll take care of it."
She then picked up all the knits to bring them upstairs. After she disappeared, Rosalie heard someone knocking at the front door. She slowly tried to walk towards it and opened the peephole. When her eyes met Arno's, she instantly held her breath while he slightly smiled. Rosalie then quickly closed the hole back and unlocked the door to let the young man in, with a box in his one hand, and a head-shaped lantern in the other.
"That was quick." she remarked.
"The map led me directly to the artefact. Captain Rose and his men were there as well, they did not make things easy for me, but I have it now." he responded as he walked inside.
Léon ran down the stairs when he heard Arno's voice. "Did you find it ?" he asked with excitement.
The young man only responded by showing him the little box he had and a huge smile appeared on the boy's face, who jumped on Arno to hug him.
"You did it !" he joyfully screamed.
The man was first perplexed by Léon's attitude. He then turned his gaze to Rosalie who chuckled while she was looking at them, so Arno decided to imitate her and put his stuff on the table next to him to hug the boy back. Once he let go of him, the young man responded.
"I could not have done it without your help, petit homme..." He then looked at the young woman, and added. "... and yours. So thank you both."
Rosalie gave a tender smile to him and they stared at each other like this for a few seconds, until Madame Margot called Léon, telling him to go to sleep. After Rosalie took the boy into her arms and let him go back to his room, she turned to face Arno.
"Are you staying here ?" he asked.
"Non." she replied. "I'm going back to Paris, but I need to rent a fiacre first."
"We can use my carriage together." he proposed.
The young woman let her mouth open with surprise for a few seconds before she finally spoke. "Oh... I don't want to bother you..."
"It's not a problem to me, really. I insist."
Rosalie thought for a moment. Arno was a mysterious person for sure, but this little trip with him might help her to learn a few things about the young man. She truly wanted to believe that he had good intentions, despite the things he did, and the only way to find out whether it was the case or not was to speak with him directly, try to know him. Besides, her ankle hurt her too much, she needed someone to help her to walk properly.
"D'accord (okay)." she finally said in a whisper. "I'll come with you."