“Why be scared of summat you can’t stop? And anyway, if it’s quick, it’ll only hurt for a minute. Then… nothing. It will be as if I’m asleep, won’t it? Finally finally at rest where nowt bad can keep happening.”

Eponine shrugs off his concerns. She is scared - or she was. She was scared of what the gang would do to her when they caught her. She was scared of the pain they’d put her through for betraying them. She was scared of a slow death all alone. But here, Susan wouldn’t let it come slowly, and she wouldn’t be alone. She’s manipulated enough people into feeling sorry for her that she knows she’ll never be truly abandoned.

“What’s it like there? My Pa used to talk of going on a ship for a new life there.”