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Chapter 12

After the children were put to sleep Christine went to find her husband. He was not in their bedroom, which was unusual for him. She thought that he had received her signal that she wanted to give him a proper welcome home. She always missed him a great deal when he was gone. They would sleep entwined in each other's arms. He would speak and sometimes sing to her in his ethereal voice. Even after all of these years since their days at the Opera his voice retained its angelic qualities. He would also pleasure her in every way that he could, and she would do the same for him. It was gratifying to know that she could make him feel so loved and cherished, when he had been deprived of so much for most of his life. It fulfilled her to know that she could heal this once broken man. It had been some time since he had been so troubled. She knew that she needed to seek him out and bring him some peace and pleasure.

She found him staring at the ornament at his desk; he looked to be almost in a trance. She startled him out of his musings and he looked up at her with red bleary eyes.

She came around him and caressed his shoulders. He smiled up at her with complete adoration. She gave him a gentle kiss on his forehead and put her hand on his causing him to put the ornament down on the desk.

She continued to caress him and then looked into his emerald eyes "Erik, mon ange, what is wrong? Why does that ornament bother you so much? I am sure that we will find out where it came from."

He looked away and lied "It is nothing, mon amour, just a headache, that's all."

She looked into his eyes and could see his anguish. "I am sorry Erik, but I can always tell when something is troubling you. You always try to protect me because you think that you will upset me, but not telling me what is going on inside your mind upsets me even more."

Erik sighed conflicted as to how much to tell her. He had revealed much of his past to her, but not in such detail. It was hard enough for him to live with his pain and guilt about what he had done there. Christine was always telling him to forget his past, but it was hard for him to do. He had tried to expunge most of it from his soul, and atone for his actions but a part of him would always find himself unworthy of forgiveness for what he had done. He should have refused the Shah and Khanum, and fled Persia. He could never forget the hatred that he saw in the little boy's eyes when he performed his last assassination. The ornament brought that day back and all of the pain of his past. He wondered what happened to the little boy. Did the Shah catch and kill him, as he did the mother? Or did he escape? Erik hoped that he did escape and was able to live a good and fruitful life.

Christine again pressed him "Please Erik, I have told you before, nothing that you could tell me would change how I feel for you. Even if you had done terrible things and meant to, you are a changed man. At the time that you were in Persia you knew of nothing but hate. You have come so far, in such a short time by purging yourself of your anger and bitterness. Tell me what troubles you and we will face it together."

Erik looked at her sadly and told her about his last assassination and the little boy. "The boy was right to call me a dog. I was the Shah's rabid lap dog, there to destroy anyone who got in his way."

Christine told him "It is a sad story indeed, but you were given a terrible choice, the life of your only friend and that of a stranger. Even so, you did not follow your orders and kill the woman and her child. If anyone else had been sent they probably would have killed all of them. I remember when someone gave me a difficult choice, and I was angry with him at the time; but in the end my choice was wise and I have never regretted what I did. You cannot go back and change what you did in Persia but you have become a better man today. Perhaps you would feel better if you found the son, and did something for him.

Perhaps if you could get him to forgive you, you could forgive yourself. Do you know the boy's name?"

Erik replied "He is no boy anymore. If the Shah did not find and kill him, he would be in his late twenties: Older than you, mon amour. His name was Mirza Yousef Qajar but I doubt that he still uses that name. The Shah in Shah is still the same man that was on the throne when I lived there. In the unlikely chance that the boy lived, he would have been forced to flee Persia for his life."

Christine asked him "Does Nadir know of him and his family?"

Erik nodded "Of course; Nadir is a distant cousin of the Shah and also of the boy."

Christine caressed him "Then you should ask him to make inquiries about the boy, in Persia, since he is currently there. Perhaps someone would know what became of him."

Erik looked at her skeptically "It is doubtful that anyone would tell him even if he could find them. Whoever helped the boy would have made sure that they hid their tracks well. The Shah would still kill them."

"Nadir would do anything for you Erik, and he is very resourceful. I am sure that he will find a way to get the information that you need." Christine told him.

She was rewarded with a kiss "You have become very wise, my Christine."

Christine smirked "I had a very good teacher. He has taught me everything."

Erik reached for her holding her tightly "I have an excellent teacher as well, she has taught this loathsome creature how to love."

Christine shook her head in denial "No Erik, you have always known how to give love, you just did not have anyone who understood how precious that your love could be. Will you show me now?"

He picked her up and carried her into their bedroom, "I am always ready to give you my love my darling wife."

They made love that night. In the morning Erik felt better and decided to send a missive to the daroga. It didn't hurt to find out what happened to the boy, if possible. Christine was right; perhaps there was something that he could do to make up for his horrible past. If he did find the boy he would have to be careful. He knew from memory that in Persia, old enmities did not disappear. In that part of the world, blood feuds lasted for hundreds of years.

In the meantime, once again the Giry's and the Baron were invited to dinner. It would be the last time that Julien and Meg were to be entertained as an unmarried couple. Erik and Christine had a lot of trouble waiting to give them their wedding present. They wanted to do so in private and had arranged the dinner to do so. Erik asked both Giry's if they had lost a hair ornament during their last dinner. He showed it to both of them and Meg recalled that she had seen Carlotta wearing it. They all wondered how Carlotta could have obtained it, and why she did not sell it if she had. Erik speculated that she was not aware of the value. Perhaps she thought that it was colored glass but still it was a mystery and apparently destined to remain so.

After dinner was over Erik and Christine handed Julien a gift wrapped box and urged him to open it. Inside he found a key when he looked at his benefactors he asked them the meaning of it. Erik revealed that it was a key to the Chateau of the property in Bordeaux. Meg gasped at the generosity of the gift. Julien's dream had always been to regain his family estate and now Erik and Christine was giving it to them.

To Meg's surprise, Julien returned the key to Erik and told him "I am sorry but we cannot accept this gift. It is too much for us. I appreciate the gesture but I will regain it in my own way."

Erik turned to him "If you do not accept our gift then you do not understand the relationship between us and the Giry's. Meg is our sister. Antoinette was like a mother both to me and to Christine. I owe her everything even, most probably, my life. At one time, she was the only person in this world who cared whether I lived or died. She also took in Christine when she was orphaned, who knows what would have become of her. We would do anything for both Antoinette and Meg, they are our family. You are our family as well since you are marrying our sister. I am a man of substantial means and it is my pleasure to share my good fortune with the people that I care about. Please let us do this for you."

Meg looked at Julien and urged, "Julien, you have wanted to regain your patrimony ever since you were a child. Erik and Christine are offering to give it to you because they love us. Don't let your pride get in the way of your dreams."

Erik continued "If you think that I am doing you a favor, you are wrong. Your old estate is in terrible shape. The Chateau is falling apart from lack of repairs. It will take a small fortune just to make it habitable for you. The vineyards are in poor shape as well. You will probably curse us for giving this to you in the end. I have always wanted to invest in a vineyard and I was hoping that we could become partners in restoring the property to its previous condition."

Julien looked at his fiancé and her friends and could not refuse. He turned to Erik. "I would be honored to go into the wine business with you. I am afraid that I will not be much help because I have never run an estate before but being a vintner is in my blood. Before the revolution my ancestors all were involved in producing wine. At one time the estate was one of the finest in Bordeaux."

Erik pulled out his hand and grasped Julien's, "Good, then it is settled." He said "I will advance the funds and provide the engineering and architectural knowledge to restore the Chateau and vineyards, and after the repairs have been done, you may retire from the army if you want, and run the vineyard and estate. Is that acceptable to you?"

Julien beamed "Of course it is. I cannot believe that you would do this for me. I have only known you for a short time. I had despaired of ever regaining our property."

"I know you well enough Julien. I have known Meg for many years and if she loves you then that is enough for me. Meg reminds me of her mother in many ways and Antoinette has always been a fine judge of character, with the exception of one lonely boy who she took under her wing, that was destined to haunt the opera as the Phantom." Erik smiled at his old friend "For many years I brought you little but grief but still you never gave up on me, except perhaps for one time, and one night but I forgave you for betraying me a long time ago."

He took Christine's hand and held it up to his cheek and kissed it. "There was no long term harm done that time either. The Opera Populaire needed some 'remodeling' and I needed to be brought to task for what I was doing."

Julien smiled and promised "I do have some conditions; the first is that when the estate becomes profitable that I can repay you for your investment in the repairs. The second is that once the investment has been repaid that we will split the profits equally for the rest of our lives. My investment will be in the management of the property and you have provided the capital. Is that acceptable to you?"

Erik nodded his head "Of course. I would do all of this for you without any expectation of repayment because of our gratitude to both Giry's."

Julien looked at him and reiterated firmly "Again, I must insist for my own sense of pride and that of my family. It may seem silly to you and even Meg but I did not propose to Meg due to her wealth. I would have done so if she had been the meanest pauper. I proposed to her because she is the sweetest, kindest and most loving of women. I have spent half of my lifetime searching for someone like her."

Erik gave him a serious glance "No one is suggesting that you had any sort of malevolent motivations. In fact we believe the opposite to be true. From what little we know of you we can see that you are an honorable man which is why we made this gesture to begin with. We have no doubt in your abilities to attend to this matter and we are confident that you will be able to return your patrimony to a profitable state. I understand that you will be in Buenos Aires for a while, and perhaps you can learn some of the business there. I have researched the issue and I know that there are good wine growing areas there. Perhaps you will be able to both learn the business and find new investment opportunities in the area."

Julien looked at Erik hopefully, "You have yourself a deal. Thank you both for your kindness towards us. From here on out I will think of you as my family."

Erik had a servant bring up one of his finest bottles of Bordeaux and each one of them took a glass. He told them "I would like to propose a toast to this family. Although some of us are not bound to one another by blood, we are tied to one another by our love, commonalities and gratitude towards one another. When I was in Normandy Raoul, Severine and I agreed that as long as we stood together that we would remain strong."

They all drank to Erik's words. Erik smiled to himself and wondered what he had finally done to make fate shine upon him so glowingly. For so long he was a man without any connections or people who loved and cared about him. His heart was full of gratitude for the special gift that he had been given. He thought about how many people had enriched his life and nourished his once broken soul, and he was sublimely happy.