Chapter 20 –

Elizabeth woke the next day and found that it was late in the morning. She had been completely exhausted from the night before. She got up and dressed quickly, then planned to head for her study again. As soon as she got into the study she sat at her desk and looked for her seating list. She found it sitting at the back of her desk completely finished. After looking it over she found Erik's selections actually quite good. "Ugh! Does he have to be good at everything!" She exclaimed to herself.

"Yes! Now can I come in?" Erik said from the other side of the door.

"How long have you been standing there?" Elizabeth asked as she opened the door. She found Erik standing there with a plate of breakfast.

"I heard you get up and I knew you'd head right for your study so I brought you breakfast and you will eat it because I know that dinner of yours last night was hardly touched."

"I ate some."

"Not enough." He replied quickly.

"You treat me like a child. I don't need to be treated like a little girl."

"I'm sorry for looking out for you."

"Thank you, Erik. It's really nice of you."

"You're welcome. Now what else can I help with? I know all the inner workings of these things, remember? I spent years watching all this happen. I can help you."

"I know you can, it's just that it's not really right."

"What's not right? I want to do it."

"Before you came, Erik, I ran everything myself. I knew exactly how everything was done and my teachers did nothing else except teach. Now, with you here, I feel like it's changing and it's not fair to you, because you are doing all this extra work. The other teachers are being paid just as much as you. After everything you have done, I don't think it's fair for me to have you help me anymore because I'd feel wrong with not paying you more. I know that if I did, it would cause so many problems for the other teachers. They would believe it unfair. I can handle it, Erik, and I don't need your help. As a friend I'd love your help but I have to look at this as a business thing also. I can't keep getting you to do more than your job asks of you."

"When I came into this school and learned how you run things here, I've always felt like we as teachers are overpaid because you do everything. I've never seen someone take on this much work. At the opera house there were different people to run every section of the business and the arts side of it. You run it all by yourself and that is one of the most amazing things I have ever seen accomplished by a single person. You deserve help, you deserve to have this lifted from your shoulders. As an employee I believe it is right for me to help. As a friend, I can't think of anything else I should be doing. I can't sit and watch you spend every second you have working on this while I sit and read a book. I care for you too much to do that."

"Erik…"

"No, don't, I'm helping you and that's that." He looked toward the papers on her desk and she sat back and ate her food. "So you liked the cast list?" he said, trying to make conversation.

"Yes, it was great. How did you manage to do it without knowing these people?"

"It's easier that way. You who know nearly everyone in the town will have a habit of thinking of little details. I won't because I really don't care all that much. If someone can't see, well that is not my fault, or your fault. They can't expect us to keep them all happy. Our main concern is the children, and as long as they are all right we shouldn't keep worrying."

"It's not that simple."

"It really is. You need to look at the big picture. Does it really matter if someone can't see very well over a taller person in front of him or her? I can think of worse things that can happen. Much worse things happened in the Populaire.

"Happened, Erik? How about, you caused much worse things at the Opera Populaire?"

"Do you find that funny, Miss Bennet?"

"Of course it's funny, Monsieur. I saw you smile."

"You are the one who hired me weren't you? And you also kept me around after finding out my secrets."

"So now I'm just encouraging you?"

"Yes." The two were staring each other, trying to keep straight faces. Elizabeth didn't have Erik's talent for looking void of emotion so she began to smile, and then almost instantly began to laugh. Erik followed soon after.

The two laughed hard for a few minutes until they were interrupted. Young Marie came into the room to see if Elizabeth needed anything. When she saw Erik and her employer sitting closely, laughing about something she immediately began to blush and began to turn, pretending she had never entered, but Elizabeth had seen her.

"Hello, Marie, what would you like?" she asked as she tried to calm herself down. Erik looked at the young maid and he easily saw her blush. He knew she was thinking about the night before.

"I was just sent up to see if you were finished with your breakfast, and if you wanted anything else, Miss."

"No, Marie. I'm fine, Erik, do you need anything?" Elizabeth looked to him and he noticed that the girl wouldn't make eye contact with him.

"No, I'm fine, Elizabeth."

"Thank you anyway, Marie."

"Just call if you need me, Miss." Marie said before hurrying out of the room.

Elizabeth was silent for a second but sighed after a few seconds. "I wonder what she has done now." Erik gave her a questioning look. "She was acting very distant and she wanted to leave the room quickly. The last time she did that she had broken a teapot my mother had given me years ago." Erik just nodded and decided not to mention what happened early that morning.

"All right. Well, why don't we get back to work? What were you planning on working on today?"

"I need to send the tickets out to families and other guests today. Last year I had them sent out by this time and people have been asking."

"Now that is something that I can easily help with. How about I do that and you take a break?" She gave him an annoyed look. "Or maybe I'll do that and you find something else to work on."

"That's a little better." She replied. "I'm going to write a few letters to a few tailors I know. Our costume designer is getting overrun, and now she is starting to get too angry about it. Another hand would move things along better."

"Also cost a lot more, remember."

"Don't worry, Erik. I can handle it."

"I know you can, I don't believe there is anything the world could conjure up that you couldn't handle." he replied seriously.

"Oh, is this a compliment I'm hearing? I should get this in writing, since it hardly ever happens." He shook his head at her but didn't respond.

She got to work writing letters to a seamstress she knew from a town nearby, asking for the help. She even offered to send the materials so that this lady would not be forced to leave her home. She also decided to write a letter to the supplier of their paint because the last thing she needed was for the men to order the wrong color again just so they could receive another week's pay.

Erik worked on the tickets. It wasn't a difficult thing to do. He had a list in front of him, and names to go with it. It was a very dull jobh but he figured that if he was able to get one more thing off Elizabeth's mind he might be able to get her to stay on a regular schedule and not overwork herself like she had been doing for the last week or so.

After about five minutes, he was done with all the families of the students, so he leaned back in the seat and took a break. He looked over to Elizabeth , who was leaning over her desk intently. He couldn't help but notice things about her he never had seen before. Firstly that she hardly wore any type of make up to cover her features. He had seen many people wearing cosmetics before, especially performers. Going without any worked very well for her. Makeup would probably make her look stunning, but without it she looked natural, and that seemed just as appealing to him. He also noticed how she bit her lip when she was slightly displeased with something that she couldn't figure out how to fix. After a minute or two of watching her, she turned her head to him and looked confused. "Are you finished already?"

"No, I've only got the families of the students done so far."

"Then what are you doing?"

"Taking a short break, am I allowed to take breaks?"

"I'll let you get away with it, but just this once." she replied, then turned back to her sheets of paper. She knew he had been looking at her, and now she felt uncomfortable. She didn't mind the positive attention from him. Up until recently most of their actions toward each other were very negative, but for some reason his looking at her made her nearly blush.

He soon turned back to his work and began to work on the lists for the members of the town who would be attending. Elizabeth had finished her letters. Before having them sent, she turned to look at Erik, much as he had done minutes ago. He, however, was not as oblivious to people as she seemed to be and noticed her looking almost immediately before she could ponder different features of him.

"Are you finished already?" He asked, jokingly.

"Yes, I am." She replied, matter-of-factly.

"And now you've what, decided that you need to oversee that I am doing it right?"

"Of course Erik, I can't have you making more work for me." She paused for a minute. "I am going to have this sent out. I'll be back up in a few minutes." She headed down the stairs and looked for someone to send the letter away. The staff seemed to all be elsewhere so she headed up for their quarters.

She hardly ever went there, not because she thought them inferior, but because she believed that they deserved their privacy and that they didn't need her skulking about all the time. It wasn't right; people deserved privacy no matter what their job.

She headed upstairs and heard voices behind the doorway into one of the rooms.

"No I'd swear on my life that it happened." Elizabeth recognized the voice as Marie's. She was about to knock when she heard the rest of the statement. "I was running late doing my rounds last night and when I went by Miss's room, I ran into Mr. Erik. He was not only in her hallway, but leaving her study."

"That doesn't mean anything." One of the older cooks said. She was married and logical enough not to believe the silly stories from the mind of a young girl.

"Of course it does! The study attaches to her bedroom. I knew from the beginning that the two were together. It is too improper for Miss Bennet. She would never invite a man who was not her husband to live with her unless it was for her own personal benefit. Besides, you have to believe me. Just go past her study and you'll understand."

"You stop talking like that, girl. It is going to get you in trouble." It was the old butler. He was a sweet older man that Elizabeth had known for years, and she had let him stay at the home after he was too old to do his job any more. "Miss Bennet is better than any other master or mistress you could have. She treats you well and you best stop spreading rumors about her."

"It's not a rumor. Mr. Erik even told me to not say anything…"

"Then you shouldn't have said anything, you silly girl. I will have nothing to do with this. Get back to the library and get cleaning. We don't want to hear any more stories of yours. Even if there is an affair going on with the two of them it is none of our business. Frankly, I'd be happy for Elizabeth, she is nearly an old maid and needs some love and excitement in her life." It was the cook again.

Elizabeth had heard enough and finally knocked. There was a brief silence, then the sound of rustling behind the door. Finally it was opened. "Good morning everyone, I need these letters sent out. Kenneth, do you have to time to ride today?"

"Yes, Miss. I'd gladly do it." he replied cheerfully, and took the papers from her.

Elizabeth looked to everyone else in the room, which, as she suspected, included nearly all the staff. "Well, I shall see you all later." She turned to leave. "Oh, Delores, could you prepare steak for Erik and me tonight? I have not had it made for such a long time."

"Of course I would." she replied happily. Before she left she gave Marie a stern look, then slipped past Elizabeth.

"Oh and Marie, the library really does need a bit of a tidy." she added, just to make it known that she had heard the conversation. She loved her staff very much, including Marie, but the girl needed to grow up and stop her immature gossiping.