Chapter Text
i. Zeal (27)
Nearly eight years have passed. The world remains broken. Too many poor; too many criminals; too many babies. Miserable.
Since being promoted to prefect of police in Paris, the best thing that Monsieur Jean Chaboulliet feels he has done to bring order to his little place in the world is to pluck a guard from Toulon and bring him into the realm of law enforcement.
He must admit that he initially disagreed with his all-but-husband’s suggestion. “Mathieu, you identify too much with that boy,” were his words. But as usual, the doctor is right. Javert was made for the police.
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ii. Placid (62)
All Jean Valjean ever wanted was to live and die in peace, and to do as much good as he can along the way, but he could not have imagined this. He had never dreamed that an ex-convict and his false name could be thrust upward to such heights.
As the mayor of Montreuil-sur-Mer, though, like it or not, he is in the best of all possible places to atone for sins of the past. Schools, hospitals, support for the downtrodden and the cursed, all are within his grasp. He supposes it is worth one man’s discomfort in the role.
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iii. Delight (35)
Prison is no place for a growing boy.
Jean-Mathieu Javert is a quiet child with soulful eyes, a rare grin, and his father’s stubborn ability to grow but not particularly flourish where he is planted. He eschews the children of Toulon for the prison hospital staff that raised him through toddlerhood, but he likes his father’s company best.
“Papa,” he calls him in his thoughts; “Sir,” he calls him aloud. But when his father is promoted, and tells him that from now on, he is to be called “Inspector,” Jean-Mathieu cannot be prouder to have been born from this man.
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iv. Zest (92)
Javert chooses to ride into town to meet his new superior, because to walk would mean not only to mingle with the excesses of humankind, but the possibility of mud on the boots he worked so hard to shine that morning.
This is his chance, he knows. This is the chance to rise from the scum he was born into, and to pull the boy along with him. His written orders for the mayor light up his saddlebag from the inside.
He bows even before he sees the mayor’s face. For once, this will be the start of something right.
(100 words)
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v. Feel (6)
It is amazing what years of maintaining deceit can do to a man. Madeleine is certain that he is speaking to the new town inspector, but his consciousness has no idea what he is saying.
He is not exactly certain why. This man has sharp eyes and a ramrod-straight back, and such lawmen make him understandably nervous, but there is no suspicion in that gaze. Perhaps it is just that he senses the man’s curse, though he would never bring it up; clearly, it has not hampered him in his police duties. But while Madeleine is polite, Valjean is uneasy.
(100 words)
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