They had all pushed the horses dreadfully but by midday of the third day Raoul, the young inspector and the men from the Sûreté that accompanied them had arrived on the outskirts of Asnières-sous-Bois. Raoul knew that he should have been exhausted from such a hard ride but as they had ridden past the sign that announced their arrival at the village, he felt a rush of energy as he realised just how soon this could all be over. In a matter of hours he could be holding Christine in his arms as they safely made their way back to Paris, with that monster locked up for what he had done.

Raoul had wanted to immediately find the house where the Phantom was holding Christine but Inspector Michel had held him back. He wanted to speak with the local authorities first, explain why they were here and make any necessary arrangements for holding the Phantom. The local officer knew the couple and insisted that it could not possibly be who they were looking for. He had tried to protest against intruding on the newlyweds but had reluctantly agreed to provide them with whatever assistance they required, knowing that he wasn't able to win in an argument with the Parisian authorities.

It was late afternoon by the time Inspector Michel felt they were ready to approach the small cottage that the local inspector had identified as belonging to the couple. Inspector Michel had wanted to wait until the next morning, when the men would not be so exhausted but Raoul was insistent that they act immediately and not leave Christine in the hands of the monster for any longer than she already had been. The past three days, with nothing to focus on as they rode hour after hour, had allowed Raoul's imagination to run rampant. He started to imagine all that Christine would be forced to do being married to that creature. He tried to remember what Madame Giry had said, that the Phantom loved Christine and would not harm her, but when he was exhausted and trying to sleep at night, his mind would go into overdrive and begin to imagine terrible things that he previously wouldn't have thought he was capable of imagining.

Inspector Michel would look back and consider that he had demonstrated a severe lack of professional judgement, but they decided that Raoul should be the one to approach the cottage first. The local inspector had said that the husband would always spend the morning tending to the crops and that the wife would be alone in the house. It was decided that this was the perfect opportunity to try and take Christine from the house without interference from the Phantom. Once Raoul had safely taken Christine from the property, Inspector Michel and his men would attempt to arrest the Phantom.

Not wishing to frighten Christine any further Raoul looked behind himself to see that Inspector Michel and his men were ready, hidden away from view but ready to come out if the husband return, and knocked on the shabby door. He could hear someone moving about inside and the door was flung open to reveal a young woman holding a mixing bowl and spoon. He eyes visibly widened at the sight of Raoul and it was obvious that she had been expecting someone else. "Can..." she cleared her throat, "Can I help you Monsieur?"

Raoul was similarly taken aback at the woman who opened the door or, more specifically, the way she had opened the door. He was relieved to see that the Phantom hadn't forced Christine into a life of complete poverty and that he had at least hired a woman to help with the cooking and cleaning; however the way she had opened the door was hardly fitting of an employee. She acted as though she were mistress of the house.

"Ah, yes. Could I speak to your mistress please?" he requested politely, not wanting to cause the woman any alarm.

"My mistress?" she repeated, clearly confused.

"Yes. Is she home?" Raoul asked, discreetly trying to peer into the house.

"There must be some mistake Monsieur," she replied and seeing Raoul's attempts to look into the house, stood directly in the doorway to prevent further access. "I am the mistress of this house."

Raoul wondered whether the woman had been instructed to hide Christine's presence in the house to strangers, "It's alright Mademoiselle, I'm a friend of your mistress. I knew her in Paris."

"It's Madame." She said firmly, "And I have no mistress. I live in this house with my husband and I would ask that you please leave."

He was starting to get frustrated at the resistance of the young woman but tried to remain calm and polite, for he knew that she was only acting this way because of the Phantom. "I know that your employer has ordered you to tell this story. But I promise that we are here to help Christine. We can help you as well."

"We?" the woman gasped taking a step away from the doorway to survey the property, "Who else is there?"

Raoul winced; he hadn't intended to reveal the others until he was certain that Christine was in the house. "I am here with an inspector from Paris and members of the Sûreté. As I said we are here to help Christine."

"I don't know any Christine." She cried.

"Well perhaps he is forcing her to use another name," he suggested, wondering why the Phantom would go to such lengths to hide Christine yet allow they entire village to know of their marriage.

"Monsieur, what you are saying makes no sense. My husband and I are the only ones who live here." She pleaded.

The woman seemed to be sincere but Raoul knew that he could not simply rely on her word. The Phantom had killed before; he would think nothing of threatening or blackmailing a woman to get his way. "Allow me to search the house, so that I can be assured you are the only woman living here."

"Absolutely not," the woman seemed to regain her confidence at the thought of her home being invaded by a strange man.

"Madame," Raoul said softly, stepping closer to her, "If he is threatening you we can help, but I promise you, if Christine is hurt in any way because of your actions I will make you pay."

She didn't back down at his threat and remained firmly planted in the doorway as she replied, "The only one threatening me is you."

As he realised what he was doing he took a step back, realising just how close he was standing to the woman and how intimidating he must have seemed. He was about to open his mouth and attempt to explain why it was so important that she reveal Christine's whereabouts when the woman shouted out, "Armand!"

Raoul turned around to see the figure of a man approaching the house. From a distance he didn't appear to be a very large man and when the woman called out to him he started moving much more quickly. He could tell immediately that it wasn't the Phantom but Inspector Michel didn't want to take any chances, emerging from his hiding spot and signalling for the other men to come out. At the sight of these strange men on the property the man broke out into a run. It was clear that his intent was to get to the woman and Raoul realised that she must had been telling the truth when she had called herself Madame. But it still didn't mean that Christine wasn't here. It was not impossible that the Phantom would employ a couple to look after his household.

"Who are you? What do you want?" the man, Armand, demanded, pushing his way past Raoul to stand in front of his wife.

Raoul stood there, stunned, as he took in the sight of the middle aged farmer wearing a mask that covered half of his face. "I...um...you wear a mask," he said dumbly.

"Yes." Armand confirmed, "Now can you please leave, I don't want you or your men frightening my wife. We've got nothing that a man of your status could possibly want."

"I am Inspector Michel with the Paris Sûreté," the inspector introduced himself; "We are looking for an older man who wears a mask and recently married a young woman."

"What does the Paris Sûreté want with me?" Armand asked, bewildered.

Inspector Michel turned to look at Raoul. It was obvious from the look on the Vicomte's face that this was not the masked man they were searching for. He turned back to Armand and his wife, "I do apologise Monsieur, Madame. You are obviously not the man we were looking for. We shall leave immediately and I apologise again for any distress our presence here may have caused."

Feeling more comfortable now that the inspector had taken charge of the situation, the woman asked curiously, "Why are you looking for this man?"

"We believe that he may be involved in the disappearance of a young woman in Paris." He replied.

"Oh how dreadful!" the woman exclaimed. "But why did you think it was Armand?"

"This man," Raoul spat, "Wears a mask very similar to your husband's. He is obsessed with Christine, believes himself to be in love with her. When I heard that a masked man had recently married a younger woman, I believed that it would be them. That he had forced Christine to marry him. Obviously I was wrong."

Neither Armand nor his wife asked who Christine was. Armand was slightly less sympathetic than his wife, displeased that his marriage was considered gossip in Paris and that these men had invaded his property and frightened his wife. He could see how close the nobleman had been standing to his wife and he shuddered to think what he would have done in his attempt to find this Christine if he hadn't shown up. "Well I can assure you gentlemen that I have not forced my wife into anything. And I'll once again ask that you please leave my property."

"Of course," Inspector Michel said, "Again I apologise for any distress we may have caused."

"I'm sorry," Raoul stuttered to the couple as the inspector started to usher his men away, "I thought that...I didn't realise..." he stopped when he saw the hard look that Armand was giving him. "I'm sorry." He repeated, before following the inspector off the couple's property.

Raoul's shoulders were slumped as he dragged himself through the door. He had been away for almost a week and he had nothing to show for it, he still didn't know where Christine was or whether she was safe. A week away from Paris also meant that there would be stacks of invitations and business requests piled on his desk to attend to and he was well aware that they could not wait, lest Philippe discover that he had been neglecting his duties.

Georges greeted him as he walked into the foyer and relieved him of his bag, "Welcome home Monsieur le Vicomte."

"Thank you Georges." He replied wearily.

"It did not go as planned?" Georges asked, noticing the lack of a young woman.

"Not at all. It wasn't them." Raoul didn't particularly want to discuss the matter with his valet, although he did appreciate the sentiment. Nonetheless he attempted to change the topic, "Can you ask one of the maids to draw me a bath?"

"Of course." Georges nodded, "However there is a matter that requires your attention first."

"Ugh. Can't it wait?" he groaned.

"I don't believe so. There is a young woman in the east drawing room waiting to see you." The valet explained.

"A young woman?" Raoul repeated.

"Yes Vicomte. She was quiet insistent that she would wait for you. She seemed to be aware that you were returning home today. A Mademoiselle Giry." He sniffed.

Choosing to ignore the valet's obvious dislike of Meg for the moment, Raoul quickly made his way to the east drawing room and found Meg inspecting a vase. "Meg?" he greeted.

"Raoul," she gasped, only fumbling slightly with the vase. She quickly placed it back down before stating, "You're back."

He nodded.

"Well?" she questioned, "It wasn't them was it?" she asked sadly, peering at him more closely.

"I'm sorry. I was so sure." He said, walking over to her.

"It's not your fault," she said gently, "But I don't understand, how could it not have been them?"

"It was another man who wore a mask. Only his love was returned. They were happily married." Raoul explained.

"I can't believe it." Meg said, collapsing ungracefully on the lounge, "That there would be another man..."

"I know," he agreed, dropping himself into a chair opposite Meg. "Their situation, it was so similar. Before I saw them I never would have dreamed that it could have been anyone but Christine and him."

They both fell silent and the only noise came from a maid cleaning an adjacent room. On the ride back to Paris Raoul had had time to wrap his head around the idea of Armand and his wife but for Meg this was an outcome she had never even contemplated, despite what she had told Raoul at the theatre. Truthfully, she had foreseen two potential outcomes to this, either Christine returned home with Raoul or she freely chose to stay with the Phantom. Whichever way events turned out they would have known where Christine was. Instead their hopes had been raised, for the first time really, and they were left with nothing. Christine wasn't with them, they didn't know whether she was safe and Meg didn't know what would happen now. She desperately hoped that this wouldn't result in Raoul obsessively searching for Christine again and neglecting his own life. But she knew how the lead had reignited her need to find Christine; she could only imagine how it made Raoul feel.

"What would you have done?" she asked suddenly, "If it had been them and she had been happy. Would you have made her come back?"

"Is that what you think? That I would have forced her to come back?" He responded, the hurt evident in his voice. "I am nothing like him; I would never force Christine to do anything. All I want is for her to be safe and happy."

"Even if that was with him?" Meg pushed, needing to know the full answer.

"I..." he sighed, "I don't know if he is capable of making Christine happy, and keeping her truly safe. Not from what I saw of him. But there was so much that Christine never told anyone about him, maybe she believed that he could. If she told me that this was what she wanted I wouldn't force her away from him. I would only ever take her away if she wanted it."

"What of your engagement?" she asked, worrying at the embroidery on a cushion.

"What of it?" Raoul said, learning forward to look Meg in the eye, "Meg what do you think I would do? Do you think that I would force her back to Paris to honour our engagement? Is that why you think I'm trying to find her? I'm not like him Meg. You know me, surely you realise that I would never do anything like that."

"You're in with love her," she exclaimed, "You've shown that you are willing to give up anything and everything to find her. Of course you would still want to marry her. I'm not saying that you would force her, just that...I don't know what I'm saying."

"No I'm not." He said quietly. "I'm not in love with Christine. I don't think I ever was, not really."

"What?"

"We were friends as children, and when we met again suddenly she was in danger and I could help her. I don't know whether it was because it seemed like the natural step to take or because everyone seemed to expect it but somehow I found myself believing I was in love with her. But it was a combination of the Christine I knew as a child and the idea of her that I fell in love with, not the woman that she had become. I don't think I really know the woman she has become. It has taken Christine being absent from my life to realise that." He explained honestly, "I want her back because I want her to be safe and happy. I hate the idea of her being taken against her will. But I do not want her back simply to honour our engagement. If she still wants to marry, or heaven forbids she needs to marry, then of course I will marry her. But only for those reasons, I have no need or desire to force her to become my wife."

"But everything you've done trying to find her. The money you must have spent, the hours you've spent searching for her." Meg said, astonished at what she was hearing.

"It will all be worth it, even if I never find her. When Christine first disappeared, I did want to find her because I thought I was in love with her. But even though I have realised that that is not the case it doesn't mean that I would stop searching for her. Christine deserves to be safe and happy. She is still my friend and yes, I want her home. Just as you do. Just as your mother does. But I'm not just doing this for me." He said, looking intently at Meg.

"What happens now?" Meg asked awkwardly, increasingly aware of the Vicomte's gaze on her.

"We try and go back to the way things were and hope for news of Christine's whereabouts." Raoul said, trying to feel confident but wondering whether he could go back after such a disappointment.