he was very pale, and his eyes seemed at once glazed over by a union of doggish hunger and turbid sickness wrapped into one. pale gaze held her own for as long as she would stand, the silence between their lips becoming so suffocating that the narrow road itself seemed choked of life and light with darkness ever closing in.
when next his steps began down the cobbled street, he made to linger beneath one of the tawny fire-lit lamps that would guide the city’s denizens to and from those hovels and into the beauty of the bustling streets where violinists wrote their plays. the light was lurid across his skin, reflecting back as if he were a mirror made entirely of ash or snow. well, this was true save for the pair of heart-shaped lips beneath his curved nose, which were extraordinarily red. were it not for the expensive burgundy fabrics and unmistakable damask that shimmered beneath the fabric of his dark cloak, he would have posed as a phantom in the night! though, still they did not move, did not greet the waifish woman in the slightest despite his unnatural approach. like a voiceless, whimsical ghost, the gentleman was but mist between the lampposts, guiding himself forward on those two long legs until he could extend to fantine his hand; a grouping of long, cadaverous fingers that were as cold to the touch as a night’s pouring rain.
❝ the evening is early, ❞ the count’s voice was soft, lulled a suave timbre and sultry intonation from the country of his birth. his fingers curled inward, a warm gesture of his patience as he awaited decision reject him or accept. ❝ and while the city is a marvel to the eyes and ears, i am in need of a distraction. ❞
EACH AND EVERY NERVE SEEMED TO scream at her that this was wrong, that she should not be here. But had they not been telling her that since her first evening out selling her body to anyone who would pay her coin for it? A shiver ran down her spine, and she could not say whether it was from the man before her, or the thin soles of her shoes letting in the chill of the cobbles below.
She shuffled to the side, almost as if she could escape under the light of a lamp and be safe, much as a child would hide beneath their blankets. The movement brought in a hiss, her hand moving to an area that had been rubbed raw by her old stays, the boning no longer contained neatly in its channels. She hadn’t the time or the energy to fix it.
Wide, gaunt eyes looked at the hand extended to her. Did she want this? Did she have a choice? Now he was closer, Fantine could the stranger’s clothes were finely made, even more so than Tholomyès’ had been. She could not risk losing out on any sum, not when the letters were getting more and more impatient and the writing within more and more abusive towards her.
The corners of her lips curled upward, although her eyes remained just as empty as she stared up at this fearsome creature. But when she spoke, she lowered her head again, still ashamed of the gap in her teeth a small portion of her vanity still feebly trying to climb toward the light.
“Then a distraction you must have,” she declared to the street, and tried not to jolt when she finally took his hand. How strange it was! How cold, how… corpselike. Swallowing down her fear, she spoke again. “Where do you wish to go, monsieur?”