Some have wondered when does Erik bathe or use the rest room. Well I promise that he has not been holding it for days on end or only uses the Honey Bucket at the work site! He takes a bath when Christine is still asleep and uses the potty when needed. This is just such a long 'car ride' that if we took time to describe every rest stop we would never get to where we are going! Ha ha.

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Chapter 14

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Once back in the room Erik went straight to the balcony, leaving Christine alone in the silent room. She knew that whatever Prince Jamal had said to Erik had almost been more than he could take. Part of her guessed it had something to do with her, but she realized there was more to it than that. Christine wondered if she should try and speak to him about it or leave him alone for a while to calm down. She had never seen Erik that angry and she was not ashamed to admit that it freighted her greatly. They had just had such a wonderful moment, her singing and him playing, lost in each other's gaze and then this had to happen. Christine wanted so desperately to help him, to ease his pain somehow, but she was at a loss. This was no scratch she could bandage, no cut she could stitch up – this ran much deeper. Did she have the strength to fight his battles with him? Did she even want to?

Her thoughts were interrupted by a knock at the door and when she opened it she saw Nadir standing there nervously.

"Is it safe to come in?" He asked, stepping inside.

"Erik is on the balcony." She told him, indicating to where he had gone. "Please tell me what that was all about. Erik never said a word all the way back here."

Nadir opened his mouth to speak but no words came forth. What could he tell her…or a better question was what should he tell her?

"Christine." Erik's voice said from behind her.

She turned to see him standing in the archway of the balcony, his hands behind his back and his expression very stern.

"Yes, Erik." She answered.

"Please go into the other room, I need to speak with Nadir alone." His voice was not harsh, but there was a tone of finality that left no room for argument.

Christine looked nervously from Erik to Nadir and then without a word she went into the bedroom, closing the doors behind her.

The two men stood silently for a moment until Erik walked down to a small cabinet by his desk and took out a large crystal decanter and two glasses. Pouring some of the Arrack in each glass he held one up for Nadir.

"Erik, you know that Allah forbids me to drink spirits." He reminded him.

Erik nodded and after pouring the contents from the one glass into the other he headed back out to the balcony. Nadir followed and the two men leaned against the railing as they looked out over the city in the distance. Erik sipped at his glass carefully, not saying a word for a long time.

"How bad is it?" He asked at last, not even glancing at his friend.

"I was able to placate Prince Jamal. Explaining that it would anger the Shah to know that he had a confrontation with his architect and therefor risked the completion of his palace. He seemed to take my words to heart and left the banquet without speaking to the Shah about your altercation. I also think he was embarrassed that you got the drop on him and would rather not have that particular detail spread around." Nadir explained.

Erik was quiet for a while, his eyes staring at the glass in his hand as he slowly swirled the contents around absentmindedly. At last he spoke.

"Thank you, my friend." Erik said in a sad tone.

Nadir was shocked. Was Erik actually showing genuine gratitude and even a touch of remorse? This sudden and unexpected dynamic gave him the courage to press further.

"May I inquire what Prince Jamal said to merit your wrath?" Nadir asked.

"Christine…" Erik said, his one word explaining it all.

"Ahhh, I can guess the rest. Jamal could not keep his eyes off of her when she was singing and I was afraid something like this might happen. You have just become the most envied man in the palace, Erik. I am surprised you have not had more offers already for her. Hell, I am shocked that the Shah himself has not asked for her back."

"I almost killed tonight." Erik continued. "I could feel myself giving in, wanting to slip back into that murdering frenzy. I could have done it too, right there in front of Christine."

"But you didn't. You stopped." He reminded him.

"Only because she stopped me. If you both had not been there Jamal would be dead right now and Christine would know exactly what I am." Erik told him, his tone leaving no room for doubt. "He…he called me a masked freak." This last part Erik said so quietly that Nadir knew it had been very difficult for him to admit.

"I see…" Was all Nadir could think to say. Jamal was indeed a fortunate man to still be breathing.

"I don't want Christine to know what I was, what I am capable of." Erik lamented. "I can't lose her, Nadir! I won't!" His voice became harsh and resolute.

"I know." He agreed. "I will do all I can to help you keep her blissfully unaware of the past. But nothing can stay buried forever, Erik."

"It can if you hide the bodies properly." He answered, leaving Nadir to wonder if this was said out of humor…or experience. He shuttered either way.

"Jamal is not going to just let this go, Erik. He is a vengeful man and he will seek retribution on you regardless of your standing with the Shah. You will need to watch your back." He told him, and then with a slight hint of a smile he added. "And when you are too busy staring at Christine… I will watch it for you."

Erik turned and looked at Nadir and his eyes seemed to soften just a touch. They were still full of determination and sorrow, but at least they no longer looked ready to kill. Nadir did not wait for any more words of gratitude, he was not sure he could handle the shock of hearing more anyway. So with a reassuring pat on his friend's shoulder, he turned and left the room, closing the door quietly behind him.

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Erik finished his drink before turning off the oil lamps and knocking quietly on the bedroom door.

"Christine, may I come in?" He asked.

"Yes, I am decent." He heard her reply.

Erik entered the room and found her sitting up in bed reading the book he had given her, closing it and putting it on the nightstand as he approached.

"I wish to apologize for my behavior this evening." He began, knowing he was not sorry in the least but he did regret that she had been forced to witness it. "I hope I did not frighten you."

"I…I have to admit that it was a bit disturbing. I thought you truly intended to do that man harm." She told him quietly. "What did he say that made you so upset?"

"Nothing that concerns you at the moment, Christine." He assured her, pained over the fact that his actions had indeed upset her. "Sufficed to say, my wrath was justified…but you should not have had to see it."

"I believe you. He did not seem like a very pleasant fellow to me. Tell me, is it a prerequisite that all the men of high position in this land also come with an unsavory character?" She asked, with a shake of her head.

"It a result from years of being told how great they are and never being denied a single thing in their lives." Erik told her.

"Then perhaps it was good that you stood up to him, perhaps it took him down a peg or two." Christine smiled. "I do not doubt that he deserved it."

Erik was not quite sure, but he suddenly felt as if he had been pardoned for his transgression. Either way, he was going to assume it was true and grasp at that dangling straw with all his strength.

"Unpleasantness aside, I did not have a chance to tell you how well you sang tonight. You never told me you could sing, Christine. Your voice is extraordinary." He felt his chest swell once more as he recalled the clear and angelic notes she had sung that evening.

"Thank you." Christine was genuinely touched. "I was so afraid I was going to pass out from stage fright up there. If you had not come over to accompany me, I am certain I would have. That was the first time I had ever dared sing in front of a crowd."

"Why would you hide such talent?!" He gasped, unable to make any sense of it.

"I…I'm shy." She said, placing her hands in her lap and looking down.

Erik gave a snort as he tried to hold in a laugh at her words. Christine shy?!

"Oh yes, the shy little girl who stood up to the Shah and his wife and lied boldfaced to them? The shy little Christine who faced down an entire room of harem girls and their insistent tutoring? The very same shy little girl who challenged me in the most brutal pillow fight I have ever engaged in? That shy little child?" He asked, crossing his arms and smiling at her.

"I told you, I am not a child!" She argued, her temper rising at his perceived insult.

"Oh, yes. Now I can see that shy little flower quite clearly." Erik concluded. "You can sit there and argue with me, a man well known for his foul temper, and yet you cannot bear to stand in front of a crowd and sing?"

"That is different. I am not afraid of you… but they terrify me!" Christine explained, sounding almost panicked.

She was not afraid of him? Oh how he relished her words. No woman had ever said that to him before.

"Yes, Christine. People can be terrifying." Erik agreed with her.

"I do love to sing, but I have never felt comfortable doing so in front of anyone else before… only my father." Christine admitted.

"Then we will simply have to work on your stage presence." Erik concluded walking over to the sofa where she had already put his pillow and blanket and began to remove his shoes.

"Why?" She asked, her eyes getting large with concern.

"Because if you are going to one day be the prima donna at the new Opera House they will soon be building in Paris, you will need to get over your childish fears."

"A prima donna?! What are you talking about? I will absolutely do nothing of the sort!" She adamantly told him with a huff.

"You most certainly will, Christine! And if you give me any further grief on the matter I might be tempted to take you over my knee and spank you soundly for acting like the stubborn child you claim you are not! I will not see a talent such as yours go to waste! You have a true gift, one that should be shared with the world. I promise you that by the time the opera house is finished, you will be singing center stage." Erik told her, daring her to contradict him in any way shape or form.

"Paris…I will be going to Paris?" She asked, suddenly forgetting her stage fright and latched on to this new idea.

"Of course you will! I told you that I would do everything I could to see that you got out of this barbaric country safely. I envision great things for your future, and singing in Paris is top of the list. You will have all of France bowing at your feet." He assured her.

"Everyone but you." She corrected.

"Pardon me?" He cocked his head questioningly at her statement.

"Everyone will bow to me except you, right? You told Nadir that you bow to no one." She reminded him.

"Oh Christine…" He began, his voice becoming low and husky. "I will not only bow, but grovel at your feet as well. I shall always be your willing and humble servant."

Christine looked at him for a long moment with a mixture of shock and awe on her face. It then melted into a very pleasing smile as she slipped under the covers and laid her head down on the pillow facing him.

"Good night, Erik." She told him sweetly.

"Good night, Christine." He answered back, dousing the last lamp before laying down himself.

"Erik…" He heard her say through the darkness, her voice hardly above a whisper.

"Yes, Christine."

"Do you really think I could be a prima donna one day?"

"I have never been more sure of anything in all my life." He told her.

"Oh." Was all she said and soon he heard her drift off to sleep.

Erik lay awake for a long time that night. His mind wandered back to the song she had sung at the banquet. So many of the words had touched him deeply. It was as if she had been singing about his life, his pain and past. Christine was Erik's impossible dream, one that he so desperately longed to possess. And his life was a long list of unrightable wrongs, for he knew he could never make up for all the hurt, sorrow and death he had dealt out in his lifetime in the effort to strike back at the world that had wronged him first. As for loving pure and chaste from afar…he once thought that was all he would ever be able to do, but right now he had allowed the small flame of hope to begin to burn within him. And each time Christine touched him, smiled at him or said one kind word it fanned that flame a little more, adding to its brilliance.

He had flinched, and he knew Christine had noticed it, when she sang the lines about the man scorned and covered with scars. Had she been envisioning the hideousness that he hid beneath his clothes at that moment? Those marks were his burden to bear, not hers and it shamed him to think that she knew the humiliation he had suffered. But all of that would be forgotten, none of it would matter, if he could only possess Christine as his own. He would never truly find rest if he didn't at least try…only then could his heart be peaceful and calm, knowing he truly had strove with is last ounce of courage to reach his unreachable star.

With that one song Christine had done so much to restore hope. She had managed to march into hell and rescue him from his torment, all in the name of a heavenly cause. He knew that in her small and fragile hands she now held…him! All of him!

Oh yes, with his angel so close…he knew he was in heaven.

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Whewww…looks like they are safe for a while. We can only hope. But if you have learned anything from my story so far…I will not let them rest for long! Mwwaaahhhaaaaaaa

So what did you think?

Did you enjoy Nadir and him talking?

Did you like the line about him groveling at her feet?

Turning her over his knee?

His promise to make her a star in Paris?

Oh please tell me.