The Barricade Girl (A Les Miserables FanFiction)

Chapter Forty-One

"Juliette?" He registers my face, a look of joyful realisation spreading across his own.

"Arnaud?" My mouth opens in surprise. "How lovely to see you again!"

"Are you okay? I hope I didn't hurt you when I knocked you –" He starts, bashfully apologetic.

"Oh!" I laugh lightly. "I'm fine, don't worry about it. I wasn't looking where I was going".

"Still as clumsy as I remember you to be", he jokes.

"Hey!" I pout jokingly, lightly slapping his arm as I fold my arms across my chest.

"Nice to see that some things haven't changed", he laughs, but in a reassuring kind of way. "So much does..." He sighs.

"Tell me about it..." I reply. "So, what have you been doing with yourself since..." I pause, counting in my head how many years it's been. "...five years ago?" I squint, and he nods. "Yeah, what have you been up to in the last five years?"

"I moved out of my parents' home, I bought a house, I got engaged, and I got offered a job as a solider –"

"Wow!!!" I exclaim. "You've been busy then?" I joke. "I'm really happy for you, Arnaud. You sound happy –"

"I am happy, very happy. And how about you?" He asks.

"Oh..." I reply, not really sure what to say after his exciting answer – I don't think I could possibly try to match it. "Not much".

"So modest, as always", he smiles.

"Just pottering around here and I recently got involved with...with...a charitable cause...in the city".

"Good for you!"

"Thank you", I blush.

"It's good to see you're still in touch with Courf!" He beams. "We had some great times together – you, me and Courf..." He sighs in memory of the years of friendship we enjoyed together.

"Yes", I smile back.

"I always thought you and Courf were going to end up together", he jokingly pokes me. I playfully swat him away.

"Oh no", I scrunch up my face as I shake my head. "That was never meant to be. We are still friends though, and I'm happy for that", I grin.

"And, I've heard through the grapevine...you recently got engaged, too? 'Recently' being tonight?" He nudges me. "That's our Jules!" He sounds proud of me.

"Well...I mean, it's not official. He hasn't actually asked me –"

"It definitely sounded like he asked you –"

"Well, we haven't spoken about it. Him telling Grandfather tonight was the first I'd heard of it..."

"You do want to marry him, right? You are happy, yes?"

"Oh yes, yes. Of course, of course I'm happy!" I gush. "But..."

"But what?" My old friend places a hand on my shoulder. "Come on, Jules. I know you better than that...something's the matter, isn't it? Something's wrong..."

"It's fine...there's nothing wrong..." I lie. I can't tell him what I'm really thinking – I can't tell him about Enjolras' plans and the uprising that is planned. I can't tell him about that, and I can't tell him that there's a chance that even I might not survive it – what if I don't live to see us married? But, no matter how much I trust Arnaud, I cannot tell him this. "I just...what if it doesn't happen?" I shrug. "I just don't want to get my hopes up..."

"It will happen", he squeezes my shoulder. "And when it does, I better get an invite!" He hints humorously.

"If it happens, you'll definitely get an invite", I pat his back. "But only if I get one to yours!" I hint back.

"Of course, of course you get an invite! That's a given!" He beams.

"So, speaking of your wedding – who is the lucky lady? Is she here?" I clasp my hands together in excitement, scanning the portion of the room that I can see from our spot in the hallway, trying to see if I can spot her and guess which one she might be.

"She is here, as a matter of fact!" He answers enthusiastically as he quickly grabs my hand and rushes towards the dining room. I have to rush to keep up. "I'll introduce you!" He hurriedly strides across the dining room towards a beautiful woman, elegantly dressed in a lilac ballgown. "Victoria!" He calls her, getting her attention, and she turns to face us. "I want to introduce you to a friend of mine. Victoria, this is Juliette Pontmercy, the Granddaughter of Monsieur Gillenormand, but we call her Jules. And Jules, this is my fiancée, Victoria", he places an arm around her waist and smiles warmly and lovingly at her.

"It's very nice to meet you, Victoria", I curtsey to her, and she does the same in polite response. "Arnaud is clearly punching above his weight. You are way out of his league!" I tease him, making Victoria laugh.

"I'm so pleased to meet you at last!" Victoria exclaims, taking my hand. "I've wanted to meet you for so long – the Juliette and Courfeyrac from all the stories of his youth. You're just as beautiful and funny as he described you to be".

"Oh, thank you", I can feel myself blushing. "There's so much I can tell you! I have so many stories that –"

"Victoria, my dear, do you mind if I have a dance with Jules?" He interrupts quickly, cutting me off out of fear at the risk of me telling Victoria my stories.

"Of course not, dear", she smiles warmly.

"But the stories –" I pout as Arnaud ushers me away from her as quickly as he possibly can. "I'll be back, Victoria!" I call back to her.

"I can't wait to hear all your embarrassing stories!" She giggles as she calls back.

"I love this girl!" I exclaim to Arnaud in excitement as he places a hand in mind, with the other on my waist, as we start to dance. "Good choice, Arnie!"

"Two minutes into you and Victoria's friendship and it's already dangerous", he rolls his eyes before breaking into a grin. "I'm glad you like her".

"Of course I like her! She's great!" I reply.

"Good to have your approval", he laughs lightly.

"And it's good to see you haven't lost your touch – your dancing is still as wonderful as ever", I praise him.

"Now all that's left to do is for me to meet your other half – see if he gains my approval", he jests.

"Well, he has Courf's approval, and Marius' approval – so if he gets yours, well, that's just the hat-trick isn't it!" I joke.

"We were your personal bodyguards for five years of your life – so of course getting the approval hat-trick is the dream", he replies, making me laugh. "And if any guy were to try to hurt you...he'd have us to answer to", he says, a little more seriously than before. "I still care about you, deeply, Juliette..."

"And I care for you, too..." I reply softly. And then someone clears their throat, obviously and unsubtly. I slowly turn my head, predicting who I'm going to see standing there, but praying I'm wrong because of the conclusions I know he'll have jumped to if he'd only been there long enough to hear the last two sentences of our conversation. But my predictions are right. Enjolras stands there, staring at us both before diverting his gaze to Arnaud, staring him down, and the knot that has formed in my stomach makes me feel unprepared for the exchange we are about to have.