While I appreciate kind reviews (and lots of them :)), please don't be afraid to be brutally honest if I've missed something along the way or if it's just far too sappy. The story is already completely finished, so I can post as often as readers want, but comments and suggestions are welcome if anyone thinks it should take a different direction.
Here goes... Hope ya'll enjoy.
Standard Disclaimer: I don't own anything in this story except for the concept and the two characters of Nicole and Monsieur Clary. Erik is, unfortunately, the property of Gaston Leroux. My Erik is based off of Gerry Butler's version of the Phantom.
Chapter 1
Ever since she was a child, music had been Nicole's passion. Long ago, her father, Monsieur Clary, saw that his daughter was a natural after she had picked up his violin as a child and tried to play, so he had started giving her lessons on the violin and taught her all he knew. He bought her a violin of her own, and they entertained themselves by playing simple duets together. It was one of her favorite activities as she was very close to her father and enjoyed spending as much time as she could with him, given that he was usually busy with business affairs.
During a routine walk around the family grounds as a child, she had come across an old abandoned church which she loved to explore. As the years passed, the church became a favorite hiding place to go to escape the rest of the world and dive into a world filled with her music. Because she spent a majority of her time practicing scales and pieces over and over, she came to the church frequently because it gave her a place to practice her violin in peace and quiet instead of driving everyone in the house crazy.
As she did nearly every day, Nicole made her way through the small section of woods that separated the old church from her family château after promising her father for the millionth time that she would be careful as always. This outing to the church during the mid-morning hours started out as it always did. She walked the short distance to the church, went inside, and put her case on a pew near the front altar so she could unpack her instrument and music. And as usual, she was unaware of the eyes that followed her every movement as she unpacked her violin and bow, set up her music, and began to practice.
Her practice session wasn't going very well, and her fingers refused to cooperate as she fumbled through a particularly difficult passage in the Mozart violin solo she was practicing. She got so frustrated that she finally decided it was time to just pack up and try again tomorrow. After she put her violin away, she walked up to altar and knelt before it as she had time and time again.
Many times after a frustrating practice session, she had knelt at this same altar and asked for an angel to be sent to her to guide her in her music. After the day's fiasco of a practice session, she consented that another prayer might be in order, that perhaps if she was unrelenting in her request, eventually she wouldn't be refused, and an angel of music really would be sent to her to guide her playing and help place her fingers where they were supposed to go.
This time, though, as she got up from the altar, she heard the faintest whisper call her name.
"Nicole…"
She looked around, wondering if she had only imagined a voice calling out to her in the church, or if it was maybe the sound of her father's voice being carried on the wind from the nearby woods, calling her back to the château as he had so many times before when she'd lost track of time. When the voice did not come again, she convinced herself that it was indeed her father calling her name, so she went to grab her case and go home when she heard her name again.
"Nicole…"
Again, she spun around in an effort to find the voice, but could see nothing. This time, though, the voice continued, "Your prayer has been answered, Nicole. The heavens have granted your wish and have sent an angel of music to guide you." The voice was so beautiful that she allowed herself to believe it must be telling the truth.
Nicole wondered if she was dreaming. Could the heavens really have sent her an angel of music? Since she believed nearly anything was possible with enough faith put behind it, she decided to accept the possibility that she had indeed been sent an angel.
"Are you my angel of music?" she asked, looking around the shadow-filled church, searching for the source of the beautiful voice she'd heard.
"Yes, I am," came the soft reply.
Nicole looked around in astonishment, hoping that she was not just imagining the voice. Being an only child, her imagination had been known to run away with her from time to time. At home, her father frequently had to call her back to the present because she would stare off into space, daydreaming of far-off lands and adventures like the ones she read about in the numerous books found in the huge library her father had amassed over the years.
"And you were sent by the heavens to guide me with my playing?" she asked hopefully.
"Just as you have requested," the voice responded.
She thought for a moment. "Then since the heavens have seen fit to grant my prayer and send me an angel of music, I shall endeavor to obey," she said to the unseen voice.
"Then shall we begin?" the voice asked.
With that, Nicole returned her case to the pew and unpacked her instrument once again, tightening the bow and laying out her music. She began to play again, and again, her fingers failed her when she came to the difficult passage. "See, Angel? See why I have prayed to have an angel sent to me for guidance? I've practiced this passage until my hand is worn out and can no longer move, and still I cannot get my fingers to go where the notes on the page command that they go. Can you help me?" she pleaded.
"If you promise to do as I say without question, and you practice as faithfully as you have these last several months, you shall have no more troubles with this difficult passage or any other," the voice replied.
"Ask and it shall be done, my Angel of Music," she promised.