13A/N- Thanks to Curlysquirt95 and Lara for your reviews they mean a lot to me! This is not a very long chapter, but I hope it explains alittle more, and makes some situations more clear. Please review, they make me extraordinarily happy . Oh, and if anyone is willing to beta-read this, i was be eternally greatful.
The captain did not look up. He walked away without looking up. Isha held her breath until she heard him walk away, she slid quietly into a hole in the floor above, and she watched from a dirty window until she saw the last man turn around the corner and out of sight. She jumped down, several minutes later, and stopped to listen. No sound. She stealthily glanced around the corner.
There was no one there either. She peered around the corner once more. A glint caught her eye and a coin lay in the middle of the alley way, newly placed. Isha bent down and took the cold metal in her hand, and then she lifted up her dirty skirts and ran. Instead of turning right that would bring her the same way as the soldiers had gone, out into the open streets, she turned to her right, to the north, that would take her deeper in the mazes of the city.
She could not get this soldier out of her mind.
He felt extremely guilty, because of him he had reduced this girl to mad fear, and he was starving her. But she was supposed to be a criminal. She probably was already. But why did he care? He shouldn't. He had killed men; he had tortured spies; he should not have to care about some poor urchin who was not as good as the rest of them. But why did he care? He had women and children arrested and put into dirty, dark jails, and he had burned convicted witches. But why did he care? She was no better, if not worse than the rest of those thieves.
Several weeks ago, he had received a command from the king to come up to Paris to hunt the gypsies. Apparently many citizens had complained and asked for their removal and the king believed that they were hurting their economy. Nobody liked them at all; even most of the church, many of them were under the impression that the Gypsies were witches and deserved the harsh treatment.
He felt extremely guilty, all through the time in the alley way, he felt terrible and could not get the fact that he was starving her out of his mind, and the blood on her hand added emphasis to this. He had to leave that coin on the ground in the middle of that alley way. He felt so terrible.
It was late in the evening as he made his way, his horses' reins in his large hands, and the night was steadily growing colder; and the first thought that passed through his mind was how cold the girl would become tonight, and whether she had a place to stay or not. For some mad reason, he could not stop thinking about this girl, she haunted him.
He walked slowly down one of those well-know streets and into a distinguished district, which housed many of the better known army men like himself. Several blocks down he walked, until he came to a door that he had learned to know, leaving the horse standing outside, and he entered in his new home.
The captain had not asked for this, he did not need much. But he had been furnished like a king and was set in a house too large for one young, unmarried man. A house keeper came and went, but they ignored each other mostly, and he was fine with that, other than her comings and goings, he was perpetually alone. He was not sure whether he liked it or not.
That same night, Isha silently walked down mazes of alleys that she was so familiar with, navigating her way through the darkness, in a steady march to a supplier she often frequented.
She still could not make her way out into the streets, the soldiers were still patrolling, even though the vendors and shops had long since closed for the night. But she knew she could purchase food from this person, even though no one was ever quite sure what was in the food, but it was still food.
She walked into the alley that would lead to the back door of this well-known but hardly ever talked about institution. And she came up to the door and knocked.
"Lisette Grenier," She called out, "Its Isha, let me in!"
A couple minutes later, the door opened slowly and a French girl only a few years older looked out cautiously.
"Oh, Isha, It has been weeks since I have seen you!" the blond haired French girl let her in.
Exhausted, Isha slumped down into a hard wooden chair in front of the kitchen fire.
"Where have you been?" Lisette reached up to a cabinet, taking down bowl.
"Running from soldiers," Isha replied simply, unwrapping the bandage from around her wounded hand.
"Etienne D'Avingnon."
"Pardon moi?"
"Etienne D'Avingnon." Lisette repeated, filling up the bowl with some stew. "He's that new captain."
Isha set the coin down on the table behind her.
"Where'd you get that?" Lisette asked as she set the bowl down beside the coin on the table.
"Ton D'Avingnon." Isha answered her. "I'm going to need change though." She spoke as Lisette picked up the gold coin.
"Ooh," Lisette whispered a mad smile on her face.
"You know I'm not like that." Isha spoke bitterly through each spoon full of her first meal in a long time. "What's in this?" she indicated the bowl she was eating out of and its contents.
"Not quite sure," Lisette shrugged, answering Isha's question. "How long has it been since you've eaten?" she spoke as she watched Isha scarf down the soup.
"I don't know, several days."
Lisette repeated something she had said often. "You could work for me. You are smart; Tu es tre belle; there's also a steady pay check."
"Again no. Unlike you, I have some dignity. I'd prefer to starve than work in a brothel." Isha said with apparent disgust.
"That's what I said until I got hungry."
Isha stood, walked over to a bucket full of dirty water and set the bowl down in it, after taking a drink from a pitcher on the table.
"Can I stay here tonight?" Isha asked, meaning the kitchen.
"Of course." Lisette handed the change back over to her friend, the coins clinking as she set them beside her.
"It's been freezing."
"Just don't rob me blind."
Isha laughed.
Isha left early the next morning before anyone had woken, after eating the leftover crusty bread from yesterday evening.
She walked silently back to the front streets of the shopping districts, surprised to see the amount of soldiers had dwindled to nearly none at all.
She still slunk along the wall, trying not to be seen, even though there seemed at first to be little danger, but from somewhere she felt a sense of deep imposing fear. She felt her heart pounding in her chest and her eyes were alert, waiting for something, anything to happen. It was odd, too odd after the danger of the previous days.
And then, suddenly, it happened. Out of the darkness beside her came a breath, half held, half hidden, and she came to face the one that she feared most.
Isha turned and ran.
A/N- French translations:
-"Ton D'Avingnon"= Your D'Avingnon
-"Tu es tre belle"= You are very beautiful
Hope that helps Please review!