Chapter Ten: Stepping Out.
The two men worked silently together as they made the phantom a young and handsome man. He had always had the confidence of someone that should be in the spotlight but his deformities had always hindered him. His presence, his manner of speaking and his mind were all made for high and intelligent society, but his face was the stuff of nightmares. With these transformations, hours of makeup and clay molded his face into that of the man that matched his personality. His dress was more regal and proud, that of a baron or a count, he ran his fingers through the light hair of the wig and once again looked at a man in the mirror he did not know. Philippe had also changed his appearance. He no longer wore the uniform of his position with the de Chagny family but rather dressed as a gentleman's gentleman and assumed the countenance and the airs of a servant who also acted as confidant and second to the gentleman he served.
The carriage was ordered to the front of the grand house, but before they departed both men went in search of the poor invalid that sent them away on their errand. Erik spotted her first as he walked into the music room. She had moved from her place near the fire and had taken up her seat at the piano. No music was produced from her fingers. The room remained in complete silence and as he moved closed to her he realized that she was crying.
"Everything I have loved, I have lost," she whispered through her tears, "I do not even have strength enough to coax a few notes from this magnificent instrument."
"Do not worry, I will play as long as you like once I am returned," he said as he helped her up and moved her back to the fire, "you must rest now, warm yourself."
"I wish you luck," she said as she reached out and touched his face.
The chill of her hand penetrated through the makeup and he shivered with the cold that he felt from her.
"I will return," he said and kissed the palm of her hand.
"Thank you," she said and sank into the silence of the dark and desolate room.
Erik walked dutifully across the foyer and out of the manner house. Philippe followed him closely but did not say a work until the carriage was well on its way.
"How long has your mistress been in such a state of ill health?" he asked the man who sat opposite him in the carriage.
"It has been gradual, sir," Philippe answered, "her degeneration has been slow but I believed it started not long after her late husband withdrew his affection from the relationship."
"Why do you not call him your master?" Erik asked.
"He was never my master, sir," Philippe stated, "I have worked for my mistress for ages. I was her fathers butler, I knew her as a child. I was a very young man then, and very lucky in my situation. When my master died, I followed Miss Christine to the opera house but I did not take up residence there. I remained a servant of hers. When she removed with Raoul I was hired by her once again. I served only my mistress as her husband had his own servants. Madame has never possessed a ladies maid; I have been her one true servant."
"And are you privy to all of her secrets?" Erik asked.
"I am sir; I believe I am the only one that she trusts explicitly." Philippe confessed. "I know all about you."
"And her health, what is her diagnosis?" Erik asked ignoring the idea of his being a secret of Christine's.
"The physicians believe it to be degenerative, but they cannot say exactly what it is. It has affected everything in her life, but most unfortunately it affected her ability to truly be a wife to the Count. She could never bare him children and so he lost interest in my mistress." Philippe confessed.
"Without an heir the count would be nothing," Erik stated.
"He was a man of independent means, had he wished it he could have procured and heir." Philippe stated and Erik could see the rage in the man's eyes.
"But he did not?" Erik asked.
"He did not live long enough, lord knows he tried and he broke my mistress's heart in the process. He cared little for her degeneration, and though that Christine would surpass him on her way to the grave." Philippe stated, "I am glad to know of her redemption in becoming the soul beneficiary of all the Count's money for he did not believe he would have to revise his final will and last testaments and so my mistress was the one to gain everything. She believes herself cursed however, she didn't want his money, nor did she wish to remain where she is but her condition is too bad, and I fear that her condition is most severe now. I have never seen it this bad before, she is in constant pain, never warm, and moves very little. I do not believe there is much left to be done for her."
"She is a ghost of her former self," Erik said and looked out into the wilderness that passed them on their way.
"She wishes to live to see the spring bring beauty back to her secret garden," Philippe said. "I try, desperately it seems, to keep her hopes up but I fear even my prayers go unheard."
Erik road on in silence contemplating the distress and the degeneration that the man before him had witness; had he known he would have come to Christine years before in earnest attempts to give her comfort and happiness. He could have lurked through the great house and never been seen by that scoundrel Raoul. He could have protected her, given her happiness in her loneliness. He had turned his back and now would have to live with the idea that Christine was not much longer for this world.