Tears of Hate

by Filhound

After the final lair, everyone walks away with feelings of betrayal; due to misunderstandings stemming from that night. Both Christine and Erik have given up music because of its association with the other. They live away from one another bitter towards the past and uncertain of their future. The only constant is that they do not want one another. I don't own the characters.

36. Chapter 36

I got lots of feedback about the last chapter. I really appreciate it

Chapter 36 while Christine slept.

Christian's POV

I was glad that my cousin spared my life, but I still fully expected to taste his wrath later on. Meg was right that his reputation for violence was clearly overstated. I am not sure that I would have been so understanding, if it had been Erik who had betrayed me. I was so close to confessing before he had a chance to find out. I should have done so on the day that I met him, and knew that he was not the sort of monster that I had envisioned him to be. In the end it was I who was the monster, not my cousin. I would do what I could to repair the damage. I wanted his trust returned to me more than anything. I did not feel that Meg and I could have a good start to our life together if my betrayals were to remain hanging over my head like a Damocles sword ready to fall and destroy everything. I wanted to find a way to restore Erik's faith in me, even if I have to risk my own life to do so. If Erik could forgive me then Meg would follow, the situation with Christine proved that to me. Even if she were still a little mistrustful of Christine, she was gradually dropping her hostility towards her. If she felt any towards me I wanted her to do the same.

Erik came from speaking with Christine when I ran into him. I had been wandering outside tending the grapes in the vineyards. I often went there to think. Manual labor tended to clear my mind. I could put things in perspective. My cousin turned to me and asked me. "I remembered that you told me about a small church in the village where our servants live. Does the minister officiate at weddings?"

I smiled I had told him with such in mind. I knew that Erik might want to be afforded privacy.

"Of course he does cousin, his name is Ernst Kratz he is a nice man. Our family has always been generous with gifts for the village church. Your grandfather is buried there."

"Do you think that he would officiate for us even though I was raised Catholic and Christine was born Lutheran but has more recently prayed in the Catholic chapel at the Palais Garnier?"

"I do not think that he would protest." I told him. "Particularly if you continued our family's patronage of his church."

"I have little use for religion, but I would be more than happy to do so. I know that many of the servants are religious and I wish to be a good master to them. Would you be able to go and bring him to me once you are done cleaning yourself up. I hope that you are not still in pain from what Meg did to you? You might have been better off with my Punjab lasso around your neck. " he added with a smirk.

"Would you have killed me if she had not acted?" I asked.

"Eventually, but I needed to interrogate you first, Meg acted prematurely." He replied.

"A Punjab lasso is enough to instill fear in almost anyone. I have reduced the most hardened men to tears. Of course if I installed my maze of mirrors you would have welcomed such a merciful death. Luckily for you Meg has never betrayed me and I hold her regard in high esteem. She wanted me to show you mercy and so I have. I hope that you will give me no cause to regret my decision."

"On the contrary Erik, I want to regain your trust and your friendship. To start with I will bring the minister by before dinner and introduce you to him. He has been eager to meet you. He will be pleased that you have chosen to marry here in your own small ancestral church rather than in the big Munster in Strassburg. I know that he was disappointed when he heard that you had spoken to the minister there." I told him.

"Thank you for your help." Erik thanked me curtly his voice held little of the usual friendliness that he normally used with me. He made no mention of his past desire to share his wedding day with us. I guessed that that was no longer to be. Perhaps it was for the best, Meg and I needed time to digest what I had revealed to her. I did as he suggested and then changed. I went to the village and found the minister. He accompanied me back to the Schloss. He was pleased that Erik would choose his church to marry in, but could not do it that day.

"We have rules which we must follow that we cannot bend not even for a Baron." He told me.

I warned him that Erik might be displeased. My cousin was waiting for us when we returned. I introduced them to one another. The minister already knew that my cousin wore a mask, and was very discrete about it. I had seen many sorts of reactions to Erik's mask some terrified and some dismissive. The minister had no reaction at all. I think that it was a good sign because the two men relaxed around one another immediately. He invited him to stay to dinner with us, and we were all stimulated by the discussion with Erik and Herr Kratz. To my surprise, Erik asked him many questions about his church and promised to come by and take a look, to see what repairs could be made to the old structure. The Church was almost as old as the castle and had not been remodeled in centuries. There were still bullet holes in the walls from the Thirty Years War of the Seventeenth Century.

By the time that Herr Kratz left he turned to me and told me. "He sounds just like his grandfather. Does he resemble him?"

With that comment I remembered that the old minister was almost blind, a perfect choice for someone as self -conscious as my cousin. I had known him for so long that I had almost forgotten that fact. He knew all of the villagers by the sound of their voice and had long since adapted to his disability. We barely noticed it any more. After a friendly after dinner brandy, I called for Yves to return him home.

As he watched him go Erik told me "That man is almost as old as the Comtesse and my grandfather. Perhaps he knows something of the past. Did you know that he officiated at your grandparent's wedding?"

I did not. Meg was right Erik somehow always knew everything.

Raoul's POV

I crossed over the border into Germany. I did not care for the Germans. They had the nerve to take part of France from us, after occupying Paris in the recent war. There was something barbaric about a country that preferred beer to wine. Beer was clearly the drink of peasants, where wine was the nectar of kings. Similarly their opera was full of the Old Norse gods and their follies, ours was more Roman and classical. Our music was more beautiful like our language. Theirs was all storm and fury. They were trying to build an Empire when they had only unified a few years ago. France had been a great power for centuries, and had been led by such great kings as Louis XIV and Charlemagne. Unfortunately Germany might be in my future. My half -brother Philippe, the Comte de Chagny would inherit our family estate in Normandy. I was only a second son and therefore not of importance to my late father. He wanted to keep the bulk of the family intact and therefore gave most of it to Philippe. After I learned of this arrangement, I joined the navy with the intent on rising up in the service of France; Great soldiers and naval officers were in our blood. But then several years ago, after my beloved grandmere's death the Comtesse de la Bois paid us a visit, and told my mother the truth, which was that she was her real mother.

Maman was loath to accept her claim and almost sent the old woman away, until she mentioned that she had no heir. Maman immediately reassessed the situation and invited her into our lives. We were all dependent on Philippe's charity and he had a tendency not to share. Maman wondered if I could inherit the now defunct title of Comte de la Bois. A Comte possessed a higher status than a Vicomte; therefore it had more prestige than my current title. The only problem was that I was officially a 'distant cousin' and titles were no longer bestowed by the French government, since we were currently a republic. Liberte, Egalite et Fraternite had its drawbacks. Germany, on the other hand was an Empire and the Kaiser did bestow titles on his subjects. Perhaps he could be persuaded to give Auguste Marie's late husband's title to me. She promised that she would use her influence to make it so, although until this point she had been staunchly in favor of Alsace being absorbed back into France.

For the first time, I was heading into Alsace. I would free Christine from the clutches of the beast and she would bow down to me in gratitude, at last for rescuing her from a lifetime of looking at that face. I could appraise my inheritance and see if it would be worthy of the de Chagny blood and line. We would, as a family control two great seats one in Normandy and the other in Alsace. My brother would finally treat me as an equal. The only question that remained was how to kill the Phantom, and then return to France as a hero for ridding the world of such a creature? I was sure that my grandmere would know since she had guided me in the past. Her plan to use Christine as bait to lure him out of his hole came tantalizingly close to working the last time. Perhaps we could bait him again in some way. They referred to the beast as a genius but the only sign of extraordinary intelligence that I saw were his diabolical plots to debase Christine and until he followed her to Germany, he had failed.

It was late afternoon when I pulled into the station at Haguenau. Grandmama, insisted that I stay clear of Alsace, she claimed that the beast could have spies about and she did not want to tip him off on the fact that I was coming. It made sense to me, it would be far easier to surprise the monster and kill him, than to face him man to man, or I guess I would call it, man to beast. Like any animal, he would no doubt fight fiercely to retain his worthless life.

Grandmama sent a surly servant to pick me up at the station. I would need to speak with her about the quality of her help. My pere would have fired any servant that acted in such an insolent way, but I could just glower at him. It would seem that he took offense when I left him to grab a drink and a cigar at a decent looking inn. I told him to wait outside for me. I did not want his muddy boots scuffing up my carriage while he was waiting for me. It was raining heavily and I needed his umbrella as well, it wasn't like he was wearing an expensive silk ascot in the newish Paris style. His uniform looked like he had been wearing it since well into the last century, with his breeches and white wig. He was foolish enough not to carry a second umbrella; therefore it was not my problem that he got wet waiting for me. I did not want him to venture far from the carriage because I did not expect to be at the inn for more than a half hour. It would have wasted a lot of time waiting for the man to reattach the horses to the carriage. He said something to another man in his unintelligible Alsatian dialect. My grandmother clearly lacked a man in the house to teach them proper respect for one's title and station.

I arrived at the old estate where she lived. It was certainly no Chateau de Chagny. Our Palais was a Baroque gem, which was very comfortable. It was designed by the same architect who designed the Royal Palais at Versailles. My great grandfather lured him to Normandy to create a gem that epitomized the greatness of my family. This old Chateau looked like it had not been touched since the eleventh century. It had a Germanic look not at all a French one. If I were to become the new Comte de la Bois, I would probably tear the whole place down and start over again. Many great families had done so during the past half century. My grandmother clearly was of a more old fashioned frame of mind, which was not unexpected given her very advanced age.

By the time that we had arrived at her Chateau, grandmere had rudely not waited to dine with me. She had gone off to bed without even waiting to greet me. Clearly, her isolation in the old drafty castle in the middle of nowhere did not induce her to remember her manners. Ten o'clock at night was considered de rigeur for dining among my set. We would go to the Opera, the ballet or other venues of les Beaux Arts and wait for a civilized hour to dine. There was nothing worse than sitting in the opera house with a full belly. There was one old man in box eight who would burp during an entire performance. If you do not eat until after the performance you do not have to worry as much about burping, flatulence or any other uncomfortable movement which comes from dining and then sitting for hours at a time. Grandmere knew of this ritual when she would visit us in Paris but still chose to eat early. I would have assumed that she would have the proper manners to wait for me; she claimed to be a descendant of the royal house of Valois.

I was forced to wait until the next morning to have my audience with her. She received me like a Queen receiving a supplicant, a stance that did nothing to endear the woman to me. I wondered again if she had spoken the truth when she convinced my mother that she was indeed her real birth mother. I could not see any man having an interest in such an old crone, but as if she could read my thoughts she pointed to a large picture of a beautiful woman that was hanging prominently in what I could best describe as her 'throne room'. I looked back at her in shock, the picture looked almost exactly like my mother.

She could see my discomfiture and smiled almost mockingly "That is a portrait of me painted by Jacques-Louis David in 1823 when I was a young bride. My husband Jules was so in love with me he wanted to immortalize me. Monsieur David was quite old by then, but he was one of the most acclaimed artists of his day. In my opinion he was a horrible person, he become a supporter of Robespierre and a Jacobin. He voted to murder poor unfortunate King Louis and his wife Marie Antoinette, but later joined with Napoleon. We traveled to Brussels on our honeymoon, and Jules insisted on me posing for Monsieur David. I wanted to spit on him, for what he had done to the old King, and many of our family and friends. Jules was always a pragmatist and convinced me to leave him be. The portrait is quite exquisite. Don't you think? The resemblance is quite remarkable isn't it? I know that you, your mother and your sister still have your doubts about me. What do you think now?" she cackled. She resembled an old witch in one of Grimm's fairy tales.

I could not help but to admit "Um, the resemblance is uncanny."

She looked at me triumphantly "My family was always considered to be uncommonly handsome to gaze upon. Your mother and I look almost exactly like my papa. I was his favorite before he marched off to war. He perished in Russia like so many of Napoleon's men, who marched as far as Moscow. What a waste of young lives for the glory of an Empire that he was too greedy to keep. We would have controlled all of Europe if he did not attack Russia. We had Wellington's back against the wall."

I looked around the room in boredom. I was not keen to listen to a history lesson of the early events of this century. I did not feel that it pertained either to me or to my goal of reclaiming Christine from the beast. The old lady had many good ideas and had been very helpful to me with giving me advice about how to deal with the Phantom but I really did not care about her long dead father.

She looked at me and saw my impatience. "You really are a rather dull young man aren't you? You care little for anything beyond your own social circle and place in society. You clearly do not possess the genius so inherent in your grandfather's family."

"Must you insult me cousin or grandmother whatever you choose to call yourself? I have a good grasp of modern French politics. I simply do not see the relevance of Napoleon's failed invasion of Russia to our personal situation today. You do not even live in France anymore, Alsace is now German." I told her. I glared at her. The old woman really was quite opinionated. If she did not have so much money, I would have walked away from her no matter how closely Maman resembled her, but she was crafty and on my side. I kept my thoughts of leaving mostly to myself.

"We are in Germany only due to the incompetence of the late emperor Napoleon III. The man did not possess the genius of his uncle the Corsican, Napoleon I. I might have thought that the first Napoleon was a usurper but at least he was a good general for a time. His nephew was a fool. He left France in shambles so those Communards could cause trouble for a time and lost good lands to Germany, including my home. Since you are to be the heir of all that I can give to you, you should be concerned as well. Someday you might have to swear your allegiance to the Kaiser of Germany."

I could feel the contempt for my position in her voice and suddenly felt foolish. She had lectured me like a school teacher lectured a child and in truth I behaved like one just a little bit. She is offering me so much and as a gentleman and noble of Royal blood I really should respect her.

I turned to her apologetically "I am sorry Grandmere, you are right, I am behaving most boyishly. It is only that I am impatient to get rid of the beast, I mean the Phantom. You have not yet told me any of the details. How do you know that it is he and where did you see him? How did he get Christine?"

She looked at me slyly. Her shrewd eyes reminded me of a fox. "It is that driver of mine's fault really. He is a lazy oaf, and he did not check my carriage very well. We were on our way to Strasbourg to pick up your Swedish girl, when we went over a rut in the road and the wheel came off. Jacques was one of my husband's old retainers, Jules always was overly loyal to his servants but they did not always reciprocate. Because I have a caring heart, I let Jacques stay on after Jules died so suddenly. He is constantly forgetting to bring important items such as tools and umbrellas with him. I had to send him on to find a farm house to help repair the tire but he was gone for hours on end."

I remarked to her "I meant to tell you that that man is a really poor servant. I would fire him if I were you. He was very insolent towards me when he picked me up at the station."

She sighed "I would, but the other servants are so fond of him. His father and grandfather and even great grandfather have all served the de la Bois household for over one hundred years. You must know the value of retaining your servants."

I did know that, my Maman was very fond of my old nursemaid. She had brought her to our household when she married pere. I told her "Why don't you retire him, and give him a nice pension. I am sure that he would be pleased with your generosity."

"He will not retire until his son is of age to replace him. His son is only ten years old. He is afraid that I will hire someone from a different family." She told me.

I shrugged my shoulders in defeat "Fine then, keep him on, when I am in control I will retire him, even if his son is not yet of age."

"I am so pleased that you are placing me in a grave already. Thank you." she told me sarcastically.

"I didn't mean that." I replied impatiently "I just do not like that man. Anyhow we have gotten off the story. You were stranded in your carriage."

Well, a young man, who appeared a few years older than you was riding by and approached my stricken carriage. He offered to give me a ride to his estate and even send someone pick up your girl, Christine. At first I was a little bit afraid of him because he wore a half mask, like your Phantom but he was so kind, and reminded me of his grandfather, who I had known quite well. I accepted his offer."

"You would accept a ride from a masked man, because he looked like his grandfather? How could you tell who he was?" I asked her.

"We knew most of the families around here. His family is old, one of the oldest ones around here. He is a Baron. I did not see the harm in it. What would he do with a little old lady like me?" She told me.

"If he is the Phantom your age would not stop him; the beast would feed off of any woman who would glance his way, even someone who is your age. You took your life in your own hands by letting that madman handle you." I told her.

"He did not harm me, and he did pick up Christine. I do not think that he would have done anything until he saw who the girl was. After that everything changed and he forced me to leave her with him. I stayed there for several weeks. I wanted to make sure that your Christine was safe, but after a while I overstayed my welcome. I had to go back home and that is when I wrote to your mother and you. The poor girl was terrified, she told me how he kidnapped her and wanted to force himself upon her back in Paris. I wish that I had realized who he was sooner." She told me.

"Why didn't you call the Police? Surely they would help you." I asked. It was the logical thing for her to do.

She sighed "The von Mulheims are a very old family around here. They would not believe me when I told them that the new Baron was the infamous Phantom of the Opera. They claimed that I had no evidence to assert that claim. You do not know the politics around here. The Germans will not go after one of their own. Your Phantom has offered thousands of marks and advice to help Germanize the city. He has presented the government with gratis architectural plans to do so. He speaks both Alsatian and High German without an accent. He has convinced them that he is a wounded officer who grew up in Eastern Prussia a thousand kilometers to the east of here. They have no reason to doubt his story, and little motive to look into him. His cousin Christian has substantiated his story. Christian had agreed to help us, but I think that he has switched sides. He is in love with a friend of the Phantom's from their days at the Opera house, a Mademoiselle Giry. Do you know her?"

"Yes of course, she was Christine's best friend until recently when they had a falling out over the Phantom. Her mother is the Phantom's accomplice. We were all suspicious of her even before the beast started murdering and blackmailing people in the theatre." I told her.

It did not surprise me to find that the Giry's had come with him. I would guess that his Persian friend was also with them. Although he had helped me find Erik on that night, he made it clear that his loyalties were with his 'old friend.' I let him stay in the maze after the Phantom released us. I did not want him to go to the gendarmes and report my attempt to kill the beast. Even if it were in self- defense, I did not need the word to spread of what I had done. I was not a peace officer and therefore could have been under suspicion of the murder. I did not want to take a chance. I felt a little bit guilty, but he had after all aided and abetted the beast for many years, even calling him a friend, as if you could befriend a monster such as him."

"What happened when the Phantom saw Christine?"

"I could hear them screaming at one another and then he carried her off. He told everyone that he would make the girl marry him. The entire staff of the Chateau is in fear of him, even his cousin; no one would dare disobey him." She told me.

I was anxious to come to Christine's aid immediately "How do you propose that we liberate her?" I asked.

"Well his grandfather killed Christian's grandfather, and Christian's father killed the Phantom's father. Christian himself killed the Phantom's grandfather, and I have a spy in their house who witnessed everything. I made sure that he leaked everything to your Phantom to set them at one another's throat. I studied the household's movements and I noticed that your Phantom likes to bring Christine into the garden for exercise. She is forced to stay indoors most of the time, but he does not want to appear like a complete beast so he takes her out in the mid afternoon sun every day. He sings to her and hands her roses for the benefit of anyone who might be watching, but the truth is that he is keeping her his prisoner and he will soon marry her." She told me. "I have taken several articles of clothing that belong to Christian, you can shoot the Phantom and we can leave evidence around implicating his cousin in the crime. My spy will attest to the bad blood between the cousins. No one will suspect you at all in his death. The fact that the Phantom has claimed to be a German will work to our benefit because no one will suspect that you ever knew him, therefore you will have no motive for the crime. Once the Phantom is dead you can come for your Christine and return to France with her, or stay here for a while if you would like to."

I had to admit that it was a plausible plan. I was an excellent marksman so shooting my prey should not be a problem as long as Christine is far enough away to avoid injury. It might take several attempts before he puts himself into a position to be shot and killed but with a little bit of patience I could remove the beast from the world for good. I was very pleased with the old lady's plotting. She was truly good at it. With luck Christine would be back in my arms within the next few days as either my wife or mistress.