Sorry for the delay I am out of town and had no access to Wi-Fi.

Chapter 4

Lady Lucretia de Villiers, the dowager Countess of Marlingham, loved to be of assistance to her family. She had never been a beautiful woman, and her husband had died without any issue to attend to her needs. Although he had an ancient and well-respected title, her late husband had not possessed a vast fortune. It would, if properly managed, have been enough to maintain a decent lifestyle, but for the late Earl's unfortunate death during a fox hunting party. Poor Lucretia was despondent for a long time but eventually learned to accept her fate. The match had been for love, not money or position. Lucretia, despite a rather formidable demeanor, was a romantic, though her pride kept her from displaying it too often. Once she and Erik had gotten over their initial mutual suspicion, she had employed that same romanticism in support of Erik's courtship of Emma.

After initially insisting to her brother that Erik was nothing but a criminal and a rogue, and far beneath Emma, she eventually had a complete change of heart. She had started to watch Erik and Emma closely, and recognized a kindred spirit in Erik. When her brother, the current Earl had expressed reservations about Erik's suitability, to Erik's surprise, Lucretia went to battle on his behalf to sway her brother to permit the match. She had given no signs of her change of heart until that moment, but suddenly gave him a mysterious smile, "I have watched this man and I believe that he will make my niece far happier than one of those overbred peacocks that spread their feathers at the various events of the London season. I approve of him because he has intelligence, a great heart and passion. Our Emma needs a man who will both understand and look beyond the event, which almost destroyed her. As our Emma was forced to suffer through no fault of her own, this man has suffered even greater blows, and yet retains that spark of decency that our creator has endowed within him."

Lord Randolph trusted his formidable sister's instincts, and approved his daughter's marriage to the Frenchman, despite his mask and his checkered past, he himself had found the man to be intelligent, and cultured, and his daughter simply adored him. And there was the small matter that he had saved their lives, although it had been his actions that had placed them into danger to begin with. He could not withstand the joint pleas of his sister, wife or daughter to allow it and so he did. Erik never forgot her help that day, and from that day forward she had a strong benefactor in him, which she needed.

To Lucretia's dismay, upon her beloved husband's premature death, most of his small estate went to a cousin, to provide the De Villiers with a proper heir. Lucretia was forced to live on a 'small' allowance that her late husband's estate had granted her as well as a slightly rundown 18th century townhouse in the heart of Belgravia. Her brother, the Earl of Mercia, Erik's father-in-law, had offered her more provided that she sell the townhouse and move in to their estate in Shropshire; but she had been an independent woman for some years and the thought of returning home and subject to her brother's authority was not particularly appealing to her. Erik had offered her some assistance, with no strings attached, but she accepted little; she was a proud woman and did not seek to be a burden to anyone. Erik and Emma still felt sorry for her plight and would make up various pretenses to aid her. While he claimed that she had cajoled him for many years to fix the house up, the truth was the opposite, he had cajoled her. He wanted to help. She had been an early supporter of him, and he wanted to return the favor, to prove to her that her support had been warranted.

While Erik could have easy have afforded to buy a townhouse in London with his own fortune, and indeed did own one that no one knew about, he pretended that he had no desire to live in one of his own. Instead he offered to modernize hers and pay for her staff, in exchange for his family's use of it, and of course her services as a Duenna for Olivia. They would still engage in fierce debate over many matters, but he was confident that he had been assured of her friendship, and even love. He was truly fond of 'the old bag' and she of her 'nephew'. It had been Lucretia who had pulled Erik out of his intense grief for Olivia's death, and forced him to move beyond it. Originally this same grief had been her impetus for supporting her brother's attempts to raise the children, but she realized that if she did not switch sides, and intervene once again, that the loss of the children would have devastated Erik. He needed something to hold on to and they would be his saving grace

With the exception of their three-year estrangement, when they wanted to take the children from Erik, Randolph and Isabelle Montgomery, the Earl and Countess, also enjoyed a very cordial relationship with Erik. Long ago, at the risk of his own life, he had saved all of them from the fire at the Opera House. They had repaid Erik by bringing him to England with them, and helping him get back onto his feet, after the heartbreak that Christine had caused him, and the whole affair at the opera house. Erik never forgot their kindness to him. They had helped to rescue him from the deep depression that he had found himself in, and find a new sense of purpose in the world.

Even when they wanted to remove the children from Erik's care, they had done so not out of dislike or disdain for Erik, but as an attempt to give him the freedom to grieve in his own way, and without any responsibilities towards anyone else. They knew both their son in law, and his deep ability to feel every sort of emotion, and they were afraid that his overriding grief would not be the best atmosphere for the children. In true Phantom style, when they had proposed taking his children, Erik had misread their intentions, as contempt for him. He ranted and raved and accused them of secretly disdaining him for his past. It took Erik almost three years to forgive them, and then only after Lucretia had intervened on many occasions to reconcile them.

Once time had slipped by and the confrontation had become more remote, she finally got Erik to realize that they had not done so out of any sort of dislike for him, or doubt in his abilities but out of love and altruistic desires. When he realized his mistake, Erik came to them and apologized to them, laying the responsibility for the breech on his own shoulders. The Earl and Countess graciously accepted his regrets and their formerly close relationship resumed. Still he felt that by allowing Lucretia to host, he was asserting to the ton that he was not only there due to the influence of the Montgomery family, but enjoyed broader support in the same family. While he did not care an iota about his own position, he wanted his children to have every advantage that had been denied to him. Of course just by being born looking normal, they had a better start than he did. But he did not want his children to ever suffer any of the privations that he had to. It was a source of great pride that he could provided them both with stability and security and if that meant that he had to augment his own standing he would do so.

Lucretia was thrilled for her great niece. Each time that she received a positive response to one of her invitations to the ball. She had decided, for Erik's sake, that she would make it a masquerade. Although the ton had long accepted his mask as an eccentricity, Lucretia knew that Erik would need to remain as calm as he could during his daughter's debut. The response and the reception could mean everything to whether or not she gained acceptance into the better circles of the ton. While the strictures had been loosened in recent years, due to many noble houses finding their estates more and more difficult to maintain, this was Livy's first real initiation into the social world of the haute ton. There were now daughters of industrialists, and even Americans, who were circulating in these formerly exclusive circles. Livy had a foot in both camps. While she did have some noble forebears and her mother, as the daughter of an Earl, was styled Lady Emma Montgomery, Erik was more akin to an industrialist in his social standing despite his baronetcy. It was therefore gratifying to see some Dukes and Earls accept their invitation to the event. Lucretia was especially excited that the young Marquess of Carisbrook, Alexander Mountbatten, would be attending, as he was the son of Princess Beatrice, and the grandson of the late Queen. There was a rumor that Princess Louise might attend as well as a gesture to Erik from the King. She was the King's oldest daughter and married to a Scottish Duke. Erik had trouble concentrating on all of the names and titles that Lucretia mentioned and struggled to recall the various undercurrents between everyone that Lucretia would take grain to explain to him, while he, in reality, understood that he would never be quite one of them. He would tease her that she was a walking Debrett's Peerage book, but nonetheless was pleased that she had taught Livy all of it. If it meant that his daughter could use that knowledge to gain admittance to the hallowed halls of British society, who was he to argue?

In truth Erik was shocked at the heights that he had achieved since turning his back on France. While his father had been a gentleman, his ancestors were not members of the French nobility. He barely remembered his parents anyhow because he had run away from home at the age of eight. He did recall how hard that his mother had worked to teach him the manners that a gentleman should have. She despised him, as did his father, and in their eyes he was nothing but a burden but she did understand that he was her son, and felt it her duty to instill some sort of sense of proper propriety into him.

To this day, he could still remember his mother telling him, over and over again. "You might look like a beast, but it doesn't mean that you have to act like one. Hold your head up high, and maintain a good posture. Remember to eat slowly and calmly like a refined man not like a monster. Perceptions will mean everything, especially when someone is as hideous as you. If you dress properly and exude culture and elegance perhaps you might stand a chance, if you act like a monster, you will be seen as the same. Never for a moment forget this."

Despite his own rebellion at the time, he did absorb his lessons just like he absorbed all of his other teachings from her. She had felt it to be her 'Christian duty' to raise Erik to be a gentleman, even if she could not bring herself to love him. His father was much worse. He would not acknowledge the 'thing' as his son and would hit Erik, if Erik ever decided to come near him. His mother fashioned his first mask to shield her eyes, his father's and brother's from viewing his repulsive face, but even then, none of them could abide looking at him. She would blanch visibly, when he would come near her, but at least she was not openly hateful of him like his father. She gave him books and forced him to write until his script was perfect, and most importantly, she introduced him to music. At the age of eight Erik decided to run away from home when he heard his parents having a heated discussion about sending him to a school for 'special children'. His father did not want the expense and discussed just sending him to an orphanage but his mother argued that such a place would be a death sentence for Erik. She proposed some sort of school in Lille, where priests and nuns would teach him a trade. He did not want to go to either place because it sounded like a choice between two prisons. Instead, in his infinite wisdom, he ran away and was given another 'special form of education'. His gypsy captors kept him in a cage for five years, and when he was not in a show, they would take turns tormenting him both physically and mentally.

They placed a mirror outside his cage and, for laughs they would force him to stare at his own hideous face for hours. If he turned away they would beat him. It was how he began to delve deeper into the world of music. He had taught himself to play the piano at his parent's home. He no longer had access to a piano but during his imprisonment, he would write compositions in his head and play the melodies inside his brain so that he could distract himself from looking in the mirror. It became his method of obtaining freedom from their brutish treatment of him. He found that if he could concentrate on the music in his mind that he would lose sight of the face in the mirror, even as his treacherous eyes stared into it. When he realized that he was in effect hypnotizing himself, he decided to try it out on others and began to master that art along, with others, such as ventriloquism, and sleight of hand. This music in his mind eventually taught him to lift his thoughts outside the day-to-day troubles of a hostile world, and showed him a new and more expansive world beyond it. It was an exquisitely beautiful world where his face did not matter, because it was a realm, which existed beyond the corporeal. Yet even in his quest to create this perfect realm, he was despondent over the fact that he would never likely find a woman who would understand it and share it with him. He knew that his face would probably keep his soul from finding it's intended mate, yet he did not give up trying, and hoping that it would happen. With all the love that had passed between them even Emma did not comprehend his realm, because her soul was earthbound and not musical. It was fashioned from ice and not fire. There was only one woman who might have been the one to understand and desire his realm, but his attempt to reach her soul had ended in fire.

He had once tried to get Christine Daae to see his beautiful world, to help her to release her heavenly voice in this one. He had foolishly believed that their music could transcend the hideousness of his abhorrent face. He had thought that if he could make her understand and admire his music's and his soul's uplifting beauty, that he would get her see who he truly was, behind his mask. For a short time he had thought that she did, that he had found someone else who had truly understood his world and could still desire him. She had accused him, of manipulating her, but in truth it had been she who had hypnotized him with her heavenly voice, and seemingly innocent and adoring eyes. She had been the only one who he had ever allowed admission into the heart of his world. Yet she only proved to be a plotting Delilah, who instead of embracing his world with all of its beauty and powerfully liberating music, had willingly destroyed it, and him with it.

She had destroyed everything that he had once been, and thought to hold dear. The music of the night was no more, never to be resurrected. She had murdered that part of him, just as surely as he had twisted his Punjab Lasso around Buquet's neck. He turned his back on his music and drove what little remained of it outside of his mind, and away from his shattered heart. Instead he had filled his mind with the logical geometry of architecture and created a new world upon the ashes of his old. His new world had proven to be more durable, and had become strong enough to survive the cataclysm of Emma's premature and tragic death. Yet Emma's death and the ensuing pain, was not strong enough to break him, as the collapse of his earlier world had done, because even in her death Emma had continued to breath life into him, due to the strong foundation that she had given him through her love.

It was no accident. If his relationship with Christine had been fire and passion, brought to its fruition by Don Juan Triumphant, his relationship with Emma had been forged in Ice. Where Christine exuded sensuality and another realm where angels and demons and Phantoms could reside, Emma was firmly grounded in the real world. Her ice blue eyes and Platinum hair brought calm and logic to his previously disordered and often dangerous world. Emma was able to tame the raging beast inside of Erik that Christine had feared so greatly. Yet she did so not by force, or in disdain, but in a gentle and kind and loving way. She made Erik see himself in a new light not so much to force change but to teach him to use his gifts to his own advantage, and for the benefit of those around him as well. Her love had given him purpose in turn he granted her a modicum of passion that she had been missing. In giving Erik purpose she also gave it to herself. There relationship was not grounded in mystical realms, as he had sought for with Christine, but in the here and now.

Olivia was the perfect fusion of both of her parents. She had Erik's passion for the arts and beauty, combined with her mother's icy and regal calm. She inherited her noble forebears aristocratic mien, yet her father's panther-like gait. She received the gift of elegance from both sides, with a touch of her father's French élan and vivacity. Albert imbibed many of the same traits from his parents, but he favored his English qualities more. Like Emma and her family he was grounded and kept a stiff upper lip. He had a spark of Erik's temper but was able to douse it in the sobering ice that his mother had bequeathed him. Erik often wondered if the boy would have the drive to recreate his own success. Unlike Erik, Albert was bright but not a genius. Erik loved both of his children equally but Livy was definitely the apple of his eye. He could feel his heart swell with pride at both of them. Who would have guessed that a man who was as hideous as he was, could father two such extraordinarily handsome children as his? As he watched his daughter descend from her room, adorned in her dress, he suddenly felt every year of his age. She exuded the same icy radiance that her mother did, a creature of light brought forth out of a perfect union of darkness and light. He had a sudden realization that the current chapter of his life would soon draw to a close, as his children would soon fly away, and he would have to reinvent his life once again.

As she entered the foyer where the family was assembled he could not help but shoot a triumphant glare at his mother- and father-in-law, and his brother-in-law. They all acknowledged his look of pride, and concurred with it, as if to concede that he had done what they had once not thought him capable of doing. Despite Emma's untimely death they did not blame Erik in any way. They were content to know that their daughter had lead a very happy and fulfilling life and they were grateful to Erik for giving her such happiness.

Once, they had feared that their daughter would never find happiness, as she had once been the victim of sexual violence by a random wanderer. Her despair had almost cost her everything, yet Erik's pain had healed her own. She could see a person who had suffered so much more deeply and more profoundly than she ever could have imagined, and he had ignited the flame of first her sympathy and then her love. When Emma had seen ugliness in its truest sense, Erik's hideous features, could not and did not, repel her. Emma had been a victim of a true monster, not a man who mistakenly believed himself to be one.

Olivia looked like a Queen as she greeted her family, giving each one of them a gentle peck on the cheek.

Her brother looked at her and smiled and told her "I will be leaving in a little while to bring my guests here." He looked at Erik "Thank you for letting the Comtesse and her step-daughter attend. I think that Annette might be the girl that I want to marry. You once told me to find the right soulmate to share my life with. I hope that you will all like her as much as I do."

Erik replied thinking of the hot fire that once burned inside of him with his first love and cautioned, "Do not be rash with your choice son, a love that burns too brightly can be dangerous to both involved."

Albert reassured them "When have you ever seen me do anything rash Father? You know that I am not impulsive in anything that I do."

Erik acknowledged, "That is true Bertie, but you are still my son, and despite your cool English nature, there is some of me within you. Both of you are getting to that age where your passions may make you more impulsive than you have been up until now. You owe it to yourself to make sure that this young woman returns your regard. I would not see my only son suffer the same fate that my passions caused me to suffer. Only your mother and her family saved me from succumbing to my despair wrought from my uncontrolled decisions which were made by making the wrong choice of a woman."

Albert smiled and reminded him, "Yet you usually tell me that I am too English in regards to my feelings, and that I should open myself up more."

Erik nodded "That is true but not in this one way. It is alright to let a woman, who you desire, to know the extent of how you feel, but not if she gives you any signs that she does not return your feelings. Before you plunge in to your emotions, give them some pause or the peace of your world might be ended as mine once was."

Albert insisted, "She returns my love Father, I can see it in her eyes and in her heart. Our attraction to one another was immediate and profound. The more that I know her the more that I know that she is my soul mate. I know that once you all meet her you will agree. She is sincere, honest, intelligent and kind, and yet so humorous. You will all love her. I know it."

Olivia replied, "I am sure that we will Bertie. I have never seen you have any interest in any girl who is less than appropriate. You have excellent taste."

Albert looked at his father "Would you save a dance with the Comtesse? While Annette says that her stepmother is a beautiful woman, her one-year period of mourning for her late husband has only just elapsed. She is afraid that her stepmother will retreat into a corner and make herself a wallflower. Perhaps if you, the host, will ask her to dance, then others will follow your example."

Erik smiled "I am glad that your mother trained you to be a considerate boy, Bertie. Of course I will do what you said." He turned to his in-laws I am sure that Randolph and your Uncle David can do the same. If we save the poor woman a spot, her card should be full enough without too much effort. It might improve your suit with her should you truly decide that this girl is the one."

"Thank you Father. You are the best." He looked to his Uncle and Grandfather. "You two as well. I cannot wait to introduce Annette to all of you. She is really nice."

"I have no doubt of it son." Erik replied. "I am just sorry that your mother isn't here to see how beautiful our Livy looks and how gallant you are my son. Most boys your age would not think to worry about some old stepmother."

"She is not that old Father. I have met her. She seems very kind. The Comtesse was much younger than her late husband. According to Annette she has not yet turned forty. I think that she is a year shy of it, so she is still young and in her prime." Bertie told him.

"Perhaps you should reserve two dances for her Father." Livy teased. "She is younger than you and French as well. You may find her to be attractive."

Erik replied stiffly "I am sorry Livy but I do not see myself remarrying, no matter how attractive that a woman could be. To begin with I already had the perfect bride and I do not see how any other woman could compare. Number two, I would eventually have to show her what I really look like under my mask and she would no doubt run to the next county, or even back to France to get away from this face." He joked. "The French worship beauty, and while I can disguise my hideous face for most of the world. I could never do so for a wife. I tried that once and it failed me completely. The girl was appalled by my face, and I reacted badly as well." Erik recalled. "It is one reason that I am done with women. Your mother was unique and quite special. I doubt that there could be a second woman who could overlook my 'liabilities.'"

"I have told you before that there must be someone out there who would not care about how you look. You treated Mother like a Queen, I remember how you would give her roses all the time, and plan special romantic dinners and walks in the park for her. I am afraid that you have spoiled me because I will look for someone like you in every man that I meet, and I doubt that I will find one that could measure up to you in all other areas but your face. I think that it is time for you to move on Father. Even Grandma and Grandpa agree don't you?" Livy averred.

Randolph cleared his throat. "It would seem that you have carried a torch for our daughter for too long. She would have wanted you to be happy. If you find the right girl we will not get in your way. You have honored our daughter sufficiently. Everyone, including us, would understand your need to move on."

Erik replied impatiently "But I have no need to move on. I have had an excellent life here in England which more than makes up for my terrible past. Even if I could find another woman who would see beyond my ugliness, I could never belittle Emma's memory by replacing her."

Realizing that not even the combined urgings of the entire family would sway him, Livy put the battle aside for the moment. She hoped that nature itself would someday align with her and grant her Father a second chance at happiness. She loved him too much to see her father return to the secluded world where he had felt comfortable since her mother's death. She was glad that she was 'coming out' because it forced her father to venture back out as well. At first he tried to just send her to London to live with her aunt, and let her handle Livy's whole 'English courtship ritual' as he called it. But she used his protectiveness over her to get him to come and be a part of it. She would not give up on finding him a new bride, because she herself could never be happy if she left her father alone to brood over their mother's demise.

He would be unselfish and happily free her to live on the other side of England, or even in Scotland or Ireland if she found someone from those places to marry. But she knew that if she let him do that he would fade away into the darkness, as his instincts wanted him to do. She cursed her paternal grandparents for making him believe that he was a monster, and the gypsies who had tortured him. But most of all she cursed his first love, that girl that he had nurtured, loved, protected and had offered his beautiful soul to, and yet had ripped his heart out and stomped upon it, and plotted to kill him with some foppish effete French nobleman. I hope that you, Christine Daae, have suffered greatly for what you did to my poor father. She thought to herself. I hope that you have led a shallow and unfulfilling life, just as you wanted. You scorned true beauty for an empty adornment. With that she proudly claimed her father's arm and they all donned their masks and stepped downstairs to await their guests. Bertie went to the Savoy to retrieve his new girlfriend and her stepmother and escort them to his sister's ball.