Untitled, Part 1 (Send Me Title Ideas please!) By Julie
"What do you mean, Colette can�t come this summer?" Raoul whirled to face his older brother.
"I mean exactly what I say," Philippe replied. "She can�t come."
"Why?!"
"Because I don�t have time to look after two teen-aged children," Philippe said. "Now please stop pestering me; I have things to do."
"Philippe," Raoul protested, "We�re not children! I�m eighteen and Colette�s sixteen! You don�t have to look after us! We did everything for ourselves last summer!"
"Sure you did," Philippe said. "Until you decided that you needed money so you could buy another horse!"
"Colette said none one of ours were any good!"
"Ours were perfectly fine, and it might not have been such a big deal if you hadn�t �borrowed� the money to pay for the animal before you asked! And now, that horse is nothing but trouble, it�s worthless, it eats more than all the others combined�"
"All right, so maybe we shouldn�t have done that," Raoul admitted, "but that�s no reason for you to not let her come!"
"Has it ever crossed your mind that she might not WANT to come?"
Raoul gave his brother a look. "Oh sure. She only has a hysterical fit if her visit is delayed for a day or two."
"I believe her mother�s excuse over yours."
"What did her mother say?"
"It�s none of your concern."
"Philippe! She�s my cousin just as much as she is yours!"
"Colette is to be married this fall."
Raoul�s face turned blank. "What?"
"You heard me."
"It�s a lie, Philippe. Colette never said a word about getting married, in any of her letters."
"I�m telling you that it�s the truth. There are too many things to be done to get ready for her wedding and she cannot come this summer. I�m sorry, Raoul, but such is life."
"I promise she wants to come."
"It�s not a matter of what she wants. And you don�t know what she wants."
Raoul ignored the latter statement and stared at his brother. "Do you mean that she doesn�t want to get married?"
"I didn�t say that."
"But you meant it, didn�t you? Colette doesn�t want to get married, but her parents are forcing her, aren�t they? No wonder she hasn�t said anything! She�s probably been trying to talk them out of it! Who is the man?"
"Raoul, it�s none of our business what she and her family do."
"They�re our family! Why shouldn�t we?!"
"I�ve heard enough on this subject, Raoul. Drop it."
"I�m not going to drop it until she gets to come here. If it�s only for a week, then fine. If it�s only a day, that�s fine too. But I want to see Colette before this so-called �wedding�." He turned on his heel and came close to stomping from the room.
Unknown to Philippe, Raoul and Colette had discussed during her visit the previous year the concept of her parents marrying her off to someone she didn�t know and didn�t love.
"Raoul," she had said, "I don�t want to be forced to marry someone I don�t love. What would the point of marriage be? How could I be happy with a man who I don�t love and who probably doesn�t really even love me?"
"You couldn�t," Raoul had replied dutifully, though in truth he had not a clue what she was talking about. "But why are you so sure that your parents are going to try to find someone for you to marry?"
"I just know it," Colette had said. "I just have an instinct that they want me married by the time I�m seventeen. Raoul, can you imagine? That�s only a year and a half away. I�m not nearly ready to be married!"
"Can�t you tell them that?"
Colette had sighed. "I�ve tried. Father thinks that marriage is for marriage, for a name, for money, for heirs to the family name and for nothing else. I don�t want to marry for that. I want to find someone I can love, someone I can give my heart to, and someone who will love me back."
Raoul had scoffed. "Marriage isn�t just about love."
"Maybe not," she had shot back. "But love is certainly a bigger part of marriage than money or a name or anything like that."
Now, as Raoul pondered what she had said, he knew that she had not chosen the marriage Philippe was talking about. Had Colette found someone that she loved, she would have instantly written Raoul to tell him, to prove that she was right. Somehow, he had to help her get out of the marriage she didn�t want.
He didn�t know how. Philippe would never allow him to go to see Colette by himself, so there was no use asking. The only way to help her was to get her to the Chagny estate, to see her alone where she would feel comfortable talking to her. He would find a way.
Somehow, some way, he would find a way to help Colette.
~*~*~*~
Raoul watched anxiously from the front room window. After five weeks of pleading, begging, and pestering, Philippe had finally agreed to write and ask if Colette could come to visit for two weeks. Colette�s father had been very against the idea, but her mother, after long deliberated consideration and argument, decided that Colette should enjoy the last summer of her unmarried life in any way she saw fit, and just as Raoul assumed, she saw visiting him as the best way. Now it was the day she was scheduled to arrive, and Raoul could not contain himself.
When the day she was to arrive finally came, he could barely contain himself as the carriage came up the long driveway. He made himself wait just inside the front door until he heard the carriage stop in front of the house. He then threw open the door and ran through it toward the buggy as Colette emerged.
"Raoul!" she exclaimed, hurrying toward him.
"Colette!" he said, just as excited, as she threw her arms around him and out of impulse he did the same. Over the top of her head, he saw someone else getting down from the carriage and quickly pulled away from Colette.
"Who�s that?" he said.
She turned to look. "Pierre," she said gloomily. "My fianc�."
"What is HE doing here?!" Raoul hissed.
Colette rolled her eyes. "Don�t ask."
"But Colette--"
"My, my," the man was saying, "what a lovely place you have here."
"Thank you," Raoul said, his voice instinctively stiff as he watched the man peer at the grounds and the house. "Can I show you inside?"
"Oh, whenever Colette is ready to go in, I�ll go."
"I�m ready now," she said stonily. "Raoul, can I have my normal room?"
"Of course," he said, "we�ve got everything set up for you. I�m sorry, uh, Pierre, but we didn�t know you were coming, so there�s nothing ready yet..."
"Quite all right," he said. "It was a last moment decision. Colette announced that she could not last two weeks without me, so I sacrificed my busy schedule to come with her."
"How kind," Raoul said, noticing from the corner of his eye that Colette was rolling her eyes.
"I know, I am, aren�t I?" Pierre said, taking his own suitcase down from the rack. "Would you mind getting Colette�s things, Raphael?"
"It�s Raoul," he said stiffly.
"Oh, I�m terribly sorry. Ra-ohl."
Raoul bit his lip and said nothing. "Come on in. My brother can find you a room."
"Colette didn�t mention your having a brother."
"I forgot," she said, in a tone that said she very well did NOT forget.
"Oh well," Pierre said, oblivious to the meaning of her words. "Where is he, can I see him?"
"Sure," Raoul said. "As soon as we get inside."
"Of course," Pierre said, leading the way as if he knew where he was going. "Now," he said once they were inside, "where did you say my room was?"
"I didn�t," Raoul said, incredulous that the man couldn�t remember what had been said not two minutes before. "I�ll have Philippe find you one."
"Who?"
"My brother."
"Ah!"
Raoul gave Colette a sympathetic look and left to find his brother. He finally located him in the upstairs office.
"Colette�s here."
"That�s nice. I thought you�d be spending all your time with her, not me."
"Did you know that her so-called fianc� is with her?"
Philippe looked up in surprise. "Oh?"
"And she�s furious about it."
Philippe sighed. "Let me guess. I am being recruited to keep her fianc� occupied so that you two can have some time alone."
Raoul gave him a pleading look. "I won�t get a second with Colette if you don�t."
Philippe threw his hands in the air and stood. "Why not? It�s not like I have anything that needs to be done for the next two weeks." He gestured sarcastically to the desk, which was piled high with projects that indeed did need to be tackled within the week. "Where is he?"
"Downstairs. And he needs a room."
"I�ll have the maids take care of it."
"Thanks, Philippe." Raoul hurried back downstairs.
"My brother�s coming, Pierre," he said. "You can wait for him while I take Colette to her room." He scooped up Colette�s bags and nodded for her to follow him. She gladly did.
Once they were safely in her room with the door shut and locked, she unwound.
"I certainly hope you didn�t believe a word that man said," Colette fumed, throwing her hat onto the dresser in an attempt to relieve some of her anger. "I did NOT ask him to come, in fact, I pleaded that he stay HOME, but would he listen? No! All that gibberish about his sacrificing his precious schedule! He only wanted to come to see how rich you are--to see how much money he could con you out of!" She threw herself onto the bed. "Oh, Raoul, what am I going to do? I know you figured all this out, since you insisted that I come this summer--and I�m immensely glad you did, by the way--but what exactly can you do to get me out of it? Mother and Father are dead-set on my marrying Pierre, and I nearly gag at the thought of it! He has to be the most horrid, selfish, insane choice of a husband in the world! Just think of spending life with HIM!"
Raoul sat down beside her. "I didn�t mean for this trip to make things worse for you."
"It hasn�t," she said, "or at least it wasn�t going to. It was going to be the escape I needed. But now, with HIM here, what can I do?! I�ll be forced to spend time with him, and listen to his false promises of lifelong love..."
"I can only imagine what the trip here was like."
"You don�t want to imagine, Raoul. Our whole family has done nothing but argue ever since Father announced that I was getting married. You can imagine my reaction! I was furious. I still am. I�ve been trying and trying to tell them that it�s my life and I�ll be miserable for all my days if they make me marry him, but what can I do? When they say something is going to happen, it happens. I don�t have a choice whether or not I want to marry him."
Raoul, lost for words already, gave her a commiserating look.
"It�s not that I don�t want to get married," she said. "I�ve always dreamed of having children someday. But not so soon! I�m not even seventeen yet! I want to find someone I can love, someone I can cling to, not someone who marries me because he wants my family�s money and my inheritance. I wish there was some way..." She sighed and sat up.
"We�ll find a way, Colette," Raoul said. "There has to be at least one way that your parents would consider--"
"Believe me, if there was, I would have found it by now."
"Couldn�t you just sort of �forget� about the wedding and not show up?"
"I�m planning to, but it won�t do a bit of good."
Raoul sighed. "You�re right."
"I don�t know what to do, Raoul. There�s no hope left!"
"Don�t say that. We�ll figure something out."
"I don�t think we will."
"What if you told you parents you were going to marry someone else?"
"Who?! You? Philippe? You�re the only men I know, and you�re my cousins!"
"Isn�t there anyone else?"
"No one."
"If there was, couldn�t you try that?"
"Of course. I�d sooner elope than marry Pierre." She shook her head. "Why are we even talking about this? It�s so unnecessary. I�m stuck, I�m marrying Pierre this fall, and there�s nothing either of us can do about it."
Raoul sat silently. She was probably right.
"Oh well, let�s not spend the next two weeks thinking about this," Colette said cheerily. "We have better things to do. Though I�m not sure we�ll be able to accomplish much with Pierre around..."
"Not to worry, I�ve got it all taken care of�Philippe will be entertaining our unexpected guest."
"Oh, Raoul, are you serious?"
He nodded, letting out a grin. "I wonder if Philippe�s ready for what he has coming!"
She laughed and kissed his cheek. "I�m quite sure he isn�t! Now, let me change out of this awful traveling dress and into something more comfortable. I�ll meet you on the front porch in ten minutes."
Raoul smiled and left the room. "I think I�ll go make sure that Philippe and Pierre aren�t on the porch."
"Good idea."
~*~*~*~
"Where�s our horse, Raoul? Don�t tell me Phil�s gone and gotten rid of it!"
"He came close to it a hundred times," Raoul said, leading Colette to the back of the stable. "But then he decided that we would get no money whatsoever for it, so it�s sort of stuck here."
"Why? What does it do?"
"That�s just it--he does nothing!"
Colette suppressed a giggle. "Nothing?"
"Well, he eats, if that counts for anything. He won�t let anyone ride him, and he�s so skittish that if you get around him he starts to whinny and kick."
"I suppose we shouldn�t have bought him."
"Philippe certainly thinks so!" Raoul exclaimed, reaching the last stall. "He�s in here, if you want to see him."
Colette peered into the small window in the stall door. "Oh, he�s so beautiful!"
"Maybe in looks..."
"Raoul, I want to pet him!"
"What?!" Raoul shot his cousin a double-take. "Didn�t you hear what I said?"
"Of course I did. You said he doesn�t like to be ridden. That doesn�t mean I can�t pet him." She opened the stall door. Raoul braced himself for the horse to come tearing past them. After a minute passed and it didn�t, he slowly looked up. His mouth dropped in shock as he saw Colette standing next to the animal, petting it as if it were a cat.
"What did you say about this horse?"
"Uh..."
"I want to ride it."
"So you can get thrown, I assume?"
"Raoul, trust me, I know what I�m doing!"
"Three years ago you had never ridden a horse."
She shrugged. "That was three years ago. Would you get him out?"
Raoul threw his hands up. "I suppose if you want to experience being thrown from a horse..."
"Frankly, Raoul, compared to the thought of life with Pierre, it wouldn�t phase me."
Raoul rolled his eyes, grabbed the difficult animal�s bridle and dragged it out. He tied it to the fence and went for the saddle.
"I don�t want a saddle."
He stopped and turned around. "What was that? I think I�m having trouble hearing today. Did you say you didn�t want a saddle?"
Colette untied the horse and walked it out of the stable. "That�s what I said. Now help me up, would you?"
"Colette, that thing will--"
She shook her head. "No it won�t. I haven�t ever ridden bareback and I won�t get the chance after this summer. Now help me up!"
"But Colette--"
"You don�t ever ride with a saddle, do you? I believe I�m as capable as you. Now hurry up before Pierre sees us!"
Raoul, feeling like a fool for agreeing in the first place, reluctantly grabbed a footstool and set it next to the horse. Colette beamed at him, took his hand, and swung herself up onto the animal�s back.
"Go get your horse and we�ll go riding," she said.
"Colette, this horse hasn�t been ridden since last summer! And even then, it was only for about ten minutes!"
"It�s being ridden now! Hurry up before Pierre notices that we�re leaving him here with Philippe!"
Raoul shook his head and went to retrieve his own horse. He didn�t bother saddling it--if his younger cousin was riding bareback, he was most definitely riding bareback.
"Are you coming or not?" Colette asked.
"Yeah," he said, acting as though everything was perfectly normal. "Where are we going?"
"Into town."
"Why?" he said as he swung himself up onto his horse.
"Because I haven�t seen Paris since last winter, and then it was at a party, and goodness knows that doesn�t count! I want to go like any other normal person, and see what there is to see, before I can�t."
Raoul shrugged. "I suppose if that�s what you want."
She smiled and turned her horse toward the fence.
~*~*~*~
"Colette, aren�t you about done with that pastry by now?"
Colette, fingers covered in icing, glanced up at Raoul. "In a minute."
Raoul glanced anxiously out the window of the small pastry shop they sat in. "It�s going to be dark if we don�t get home soon."
"It is not."
"It�s almost seven, Colette."
"Oh, be patient, Raoul!"
"I don�t want to ride those horses home in the dark! Undoubtedly yours will decide that it can�t be in the dark, and it will throw you and then imagine the mess we�ll be in!"
"It won�t be dark for another hour. I�m nearly done," she said, licking her fingers. "Go get the horses untied and I�ll be out in a minute."
Raoul was only too happy to comply. He hurried outside and untied the horses from the post in front of the small bakery. Colette came out quickly behind him.
"Raoul, are you sure we--" She interrupted her own words with a scream.
Raoul�s head jerked up as she tripped over the edge of the sidewalk and went plummeting headfirst toward the ground. He ran toward her to catch her but was preceded by a man who suddenly got between Colette and the road and allowed her to fall on top of him.
"Colette, are you all right?!" Raoul exclaimed, instantly by her side and trying to help her up.
"I think so," she said, "Thanks to this man." She looked at the man expectantly.
The man looked up and Raoul recoiled. The man had large scars across his face, which also had an enormous discolored spot on one side. He looked ghastly, and Raoul quickly pulled Colette from his lap.
"I�m sorry," the man said hurriedly. "I didn�t mean to frighten you."
Neither of the two answered.
"I really am sorry," he said again, picking himself up. "I saw that she was going to fall and there wasn�t much I could do but that."
Colette breathed out heavily. "I...I mean...thank you. I was just...rather...shocked by your..."
"Everyone is," he said. "I�m used to it by now."
"How..." Colette whispered.
"I was born with it. My family said it would wear off, but it never has."
"I�m sorry I acted so surprised," Colette said. "It must get old, hearing people ask that all the time, I�m sure."
He shrugged. "I don�t mind too much when I�m telling someone as pretty as you."
Colette blushed. "I�m Colette de Chagny," she said.
"Alexandre Beaulieu," he said, reaching for her hand.
She held it out and giggled as he kissed it.
"Do you live around here, Miss de Chagny?"
"For the next two weeks," she said. "I�m staying with my cousins." She nodded toward Raoul.
Alexandre nodded at Raoul and Raoul stiffly nodded back.
"Maybe I could see you again sometime before you leave, Miss de Chagny," Alexandre said.
Colette smiled, and her eyes sparkled. "I�d like that."
"Where do your cousins live? Perhaps I could come visit."
Colette glanced nervously at Raoul. "I don�t think that would be the best place," she said quickly. "Maybe here in town, at this shop?"
Alexandre looked puzzled at her obvious refusal to say where she was staying, but shook it off with a smile. "Would tomorrow be all right? At the same time?"
Colette nodded dreamily. "It would be wonderful."
Alexandre nodded and kissed her hand again. "Until tomorrow, Miss de Chagny."
