I hope that everyone had a nice holiday. I was planning on posting this yesterday but the site was down.

Chapter 36

The Comte de Chagny was a happy man. The gendarme captain had sent word that he had surrounded the ship and had taken the Phantom into custody. Philippe thought triumphantly "No doubt they were already on the train to Paris and the Phantom should be well on his way to the Guillotine." Philippe marveled at the effectiveness of his well-executed plan. The so-called Phantom of the Opera would never be a menace to him again. He had expected more from an alleged genius, but perhaps that moniker was as false as the rest. Philippe was in Monte Carlo for a well-earned respite from the dreary winter days in Paris, and of course his inane step-mother. He and his most recent lover, Reynaud, patronized the casino in Monte Carlo. In only a day, Philippe had lost quite a bit of money and even lost Reynaud's services to an effeminate British Earl; but he had tired of Reynaud anyhow. Fortunately, it was Raoul's money that he lost, not his own. Thankfully his brother had surprised him with his financial abilities and brought Philippe a much needed influx of cash to maintain his lifestyle. Now that the Phantom was gone, he no longer had to worry about paying it back to that boy whom Raoul had dared name as his heir.

Philippe began sorting through accumulated piles of various publications that had been relayed to him from Paris. He wanted to keep up with the current gossip, especially regarding the de Chagny murders. To his pleasure there were quite a few articles on the subject. Most of the publications contained articles skewering the horrific deeds of the former Phantom of the Opera. If Philippe did not know that most of it was a fabrication, he might have been outraged at the Phantom himself. The deeds attributed to him were completely depraved and monstrous. One journalist in L'Epoch had even claimed to have an accurate picture of him drawn from several first hand close up encounters with him. If true, the Phantom would even have been more hideous than Raoul had described him to be. Of course since Raoul had been one of the unfortunate few to who had seen the Phantom unmasked from a close distance, Philippe knew that Raoul's description was most likely the true one. His brother had claimed that the Phantom's deformity only covered the right side of his face, not the whole face. Raoul had mentioned that the Phantom looked fairly distinguished when masked. Philippe had only seen him from a distance but had admired his form. He was very fit and graceful, he moved like a panther. His favorite L'Epoch described him as a living skeleton that smelled like death. Philippe smiled brightly at the success of his propaganda campaign. He was sure that there was not a person left in France who would have sympathy for such a monster.

He was about to finish catching up on the current gossip when his eye fell on a copy of L'Aurore dated only two days before. It contained an article by the renowned author Emile Zola, which claimed that the whole campaign against the Phantom was dedicated to placing the blame on a universally reviled creature for someone's else's nefarious deeds. Zola wrote that he had discovered uncontroverted evidence that the former Phantom lived far from France, and had no current quarrel with the late Vicomte and Vicomtesse de Chagny. It also stated that the Phantom had not done even a fraction of the nefarious deeds of which he had been accused. Zola hinted that the real perpetrators, who had yet to be revealed, were members of high society, who had supported General Boulanger's attempted coup the year before. It is widely known that the late Vicomte was strongly opposed to the movement and might have been assassinated for his beliefs.

Philippe was outraged that the article was so close to the truth. Philippe was not terribly worried about the article since it was but one newspaper. Perhaps Clemenceau's paper wanted to stand out from the others. Still the article was uncomfortably close to the true facts. If Zola, and Clemenceau (who was the publisher) had not been such public figures he would be dispatching his contacts to get the truth out of them. He would have loved to make sure that the article was based on only lucky speculation and not fact.

As if on cue, a servant came in and handed him a telegram. It was from the gendarme in Cherbourg.

'Destler released to Thevenet. Evidence has been found to clear him. Thank you for your past help. We will find your brother's real killer but at this time we have little evidence.'

Philippe crumbled up the telegram and threw it into the fire. He seethed at the news, and then worried about the consequences. Perhaps it was time that he fled the country before the evidence started to point to him. After a time, he calmed down and decided that if he could kill both the Nanny and the boy, he would leave no witnesses other than the two surviving men from the attack. He would need to dispose of them as well. No one could be made to tie Philippe directly to his own brother's death. Even if he did flee the country he did not want that to stain his reputation. Perhaps it was time to implicate his stepmother. She was there only hours before the incident and was seen to argue with Raoul. He could contact the gendarmes and 'reluctantly' turn her in. He could claim that she made a last minute confession to him. That day, when he sent Cecile to Christine, he had wanted to place Cecile at the scene, just in case, to add another potential suspect to the list.

Until he could regain control of the situation he would have to retain his bodyguards. At this point, he wished that he could have just made a deal where the Phantom could take his son with him and return to America. He knew that Destler had a fortune already, so why would he care about gaining more for his son? Perhaps he would even have let the boy keep the title if it would dissuade the Phantom from killing him. The problem was that the Phantom loved the singer, and had killed for her. He would be unlikely to forgive Philippe that. Also, he had no guarantee that the Phantom would leave him alone knowing all that he had done more recently, especially hiring Lamar. He rued his mistake in attempting to implicate Destler. Perhaps if he had contacted him a few years before, and told him of the boy's parentage, there might have been no need for violence on anyone's part. If his sister-in-law had voluntarily slept with the Phantom and he truly had sired her child, then maybe she would have been persuaded to accept a deal to go to America and live with her monster. Perhaps Philippe might have even talked the Phantom into taking care of Raoul for him by convincing him that the Swedish slut was in danger from Raoul. In hindsight, that might have been the better plan. He could have helped the Phantom escape France with his new found family and everyone would have been happy, except poor Raoul and his mother. Ironically, Philippe believed that Raoul had been right about Boulanger, he was a charlatan, but it was too late for second thoughts.

In the meantime Christine had settled into the Chateau. She thought about everyone who she had met and decided that she liked Eulalie. Eulalie had made her feel at home, even though Christine could sense her ambiguity about Erik. Eulalie was not at all like the other snobbish aristocrats that she knew. She was definitely not the Victorian model of the meek and deferential wife. She was more of a partner to Henri because she was clearly his intellectual equal. Christine had been far meeker towards Raoul in her own marriage. She had never liked to make waves. She had been through enough stress during the whole so-called 'strange affair' years ago to last a life time.

Christine was not really a confrontational sort of person. She looked at Henri's impatience with both his friend and mother and knew that Henri matched Erik in his explosive temperament and mercurial disposition. Yet, like Erik, he could be calm and gentle and loving. She liked to think that Erik would have been even more similar to Henri had he not been graced with the misfortune of his face. They both conveyed an unparalleled aura of elegance and grace, yet in a very sensual and masculine way. Unlike Philippe, or even Raoul, they were in no way foppish. Henri did lack Erik's passion for music, architecture and the other arts. He also lacked Erik's aura of infallibility. Still they had enough in common to make Christine miss her Angel of Music even more. He was a reminder of her loss. She hoped that Erik would be back in her life soon. He would make her feel both safe and loved as he once did. Perhaps she would regain that feeling of euphoria that she once had when they had completed one another in song. She had a firm memory of how their spirits and voices would entwine together and soar, as they never had either before or since those long ago days at the opera house.

In the meantime Tristan returned once again. He wandered into the solarium and asked "Where is your charming guest. I was hoping to get to know her better."

Henri looked at his friend impatiently "She does not need to know you better. Don't you have anything better to do than come sniffing around here? I have not seen you so eager to share your presence since we were children."

Tristan replied "I swear that I have no dishonorable intentions towards the lady. I can see that she is not one of those frivolous women of loose morals that seem to crop up every time that they see an eligible man, of title. While, at first I found it to be flattering to be the subject of so much interest after Therese's death. I have more recently longed be around someone quieter and more gentle. Your houseguest emits an aura of ethereal beauty and vulnerability that is refreshing to me. She has aroused a feeling of protectiveness in me. She seems so fragile and beautiful, like a perfect red rose."

"She belongs to my brother. She is his intended. He would not take too kindly to your advances." Henri told him.

"Your brother? What brother? I have known you since you were a child and I have never heard you speak of a brother." He told him. "All of a sudden this person cropped up out of nowhere to claim your fraternal affections and loyalty at my expense."

"Yet, I have been only a Vicomte since my father's death ten years ago. Have you forgotten?" Henri replied angrily.

A look of understanding crossed Tristan's handsome face. The Marquis raised a perfectly sculpted eyebrow "I had almost forgotten. You are referring to the freakish creature that ran away? I thought that you finally let that matter go. Surely he died years ago. If not, from what I was told, one could hardly call that thing human. As I recall, even you told me that he had the face of a demon.

Henri growled and grabbed him "Take that back before I call you out."

Tristan looked at his friend in astonishment "You are awfully touchy these days, even more so than your usual mercurial mood swings. Are you really going to duel with me over something so trivial? I suppose that you will run me through like you did to poor Guy de la Bois. At least you had good cause then. He tried to cuckold you with my sister. What have I done? Don't tell me that a new imposter has cropped up again, and claimed the lovely Vicomtesse as his bride, if so where are you hiding him?"

Henri continued to glower at him "You still haven't taken your statement back, and yes I have at last found my missing brother. This time it is truly him, and Christine is his intended. If you value your precious hide in any way, you will leave Christine alone. Erik is a very dangerous man, not the sort of person that you trifle with."

Tristan gave him a slight bow and smiled "Ah the freak has a name, Erik. Well I am sorry then if I offended you my friend. Please tell me about this mysterious brother, and most importantly, when do I get to meet him? Where is he that he has given you such a delectable peach like the incomparable Vicomtesse Christine…ugh what did you say that her last name…?"

Henri interrupted "It is not necessary for you to know because you are not staying and you have absolutely no business to be here and come sniffing around at matters that do not concern you."

Just then Eulalie walked in and gave them both a curious look "What are you two arguing about? Of course Tris has reason to come and go from here as he pleases anytime. You must cool your temper Henri before either of you say or do something that you will both regret."

Henri looked at Eulalie "It is nothing that should concern you my love. Tris was just leaving."

Eulalie looked at him furiously "Is it over Christine? I swear if it is Henri, I shall be very upset. The girl has not even been here for more than a day and you are already calling my brother out. Is this what we have to look forward to now that he will be in our lives? If so, perhaps your mother is right he is a Nain."

Henri glanced at his wife in anger "Don't you dare speak about him in such a way Lalie. It is not fair to blame him. He is not even here, nor does he know that she is. It is wrong to blame Erik for any of this."

She replied "Yet you forced me and the children to get out of Paris quickly and hide out here in Brittany from God knows what. Then Christine is here and has upset your mother after we have had several months of peace from her; and now you are at odds with your closest and dearest friend."

Henri replied "You blame Erik and yet he is not even here. Do you know how ridiculous you sound my dear?"

"My worry is that if this… uh man is affecting us now, in such a bad way, when he is not even here, how will it be when he is here? Worse? Even if it is not his fault, he has already made waves. I can only imagine, given who and what he was, that he may destroy this Chateau just as he did the opera house back in Paris years ago." She observed nervously.

Tristan interrupted "Who is this man that you are referring to? Why is Lalie so worried?"

Henri shot a quick warning glance at Eulalie. She gave him an apologetic glance "Sorry, Henri, I was angry at you that's all. It was just a slip of the tongue. I did not mean to say what I did." She looked at her brother and lied glibly "Erik is no one special. He was a tenor at the Paris opera house and he had terrible reviews."

Tristan looked at his sister "I don't believe either of you. There is something going on here. Who is this brother of yours and what does he really have to do with the opera h…oh… I can see it in your eyes Lalie you are afraid of him, he is the Phantom of the Opera isn't he? Somehow I knew it, even at dinner. That man was reputed to be deformed. He kidnapped and raped that that poor soprano who married Raoul de Chagny. What was the soprano's name ah yes Christine Daae? No wonder you are afraid he almost killed you and our parents that night."

Henri told him "But he didn't. They all walked away unscathed."

"But he murdered de Chagny in cold blood and kidnapped their son, and killed that policeman last year." Tris averred. "You would subject Lalie to that man? Your children as well? Are you insane?"

Henri replied tepidly "I am not at all insane, although you are right my brother was the Phantom of the Opera. But I have discovered much about him since finding out that he was my brother. He is not guilty of most of the so called crimes that have been attributed to him. My own man found the evidence that incontrovertibly clears him."

He turned to Eulalie "Yet you and our parents barely escaped with your lives and you saw him cut the cord to the chandelier. It is only by the grace of God that no one was killed that day except for that actor."

Henri replied "You are not being fair Tris. You have only heard one side of the story. At first, I felt the same as you. I certainly did not want to believe that such a monster could be my brother. But then I was shown his wonders that he created and spoke to others who know him. Once I uncovered the truth I became convinced that he has been more victim than victimizer. If you are my friend then you should consider that, and give him a chance."

"You ask me to give this man a chance out of deference to our friendship, yet not five minutes ago, you were ready to challenge me to a duel, and you kicked me out of your house. Perhaps you were right Henri. Perhaps I should go." He told him, his voice was laced with hurt. He turned to leave.

Eulalie could see that she had made matters worse with her outburst. She put a hand on her brother's arm and pleaded softly "No wait Tris. Please let's not argue about this subject. Please Henri and Tris shake hands and forget about this."

Tris turned to his sister and told her "He dishonored me. It is hard to forgive such a slight. He is lucky that I did not accept his challenge. I decided not to do so for you. This is not the first time that Henri has called our friendship into question. He is supposed to be my best friend, and now he is endangering you by bringing Christine here."

Eulalie looked at her brother and beseeched him "Tris, Henri is satisfied both that the Phantom of the Opera is his long lost brother, and that he innocent of the most recent charges against him. According to what he has told me, Erik was framed. Henri would not allow that man into our lives thoughtlessly. He is a cautious man and would not do so lightly. He assured me that he does not believe Erik to be a threat to us in any way. Despite what I said out of anger, we must use our sense of compassion and give Erik a chance to prove himself to us."

Tristan smiled at his sister "You are the best Lalie. You are always taking care of the less fortunate, just like our parents taught us." He turned to Henri and told him more mildly "Lalie is right as always. I do not want this to get in the way of our friendship Henri. We are not all just friends, but family as well. You stepped in and took care of Eugene when Therese died, and I am grateful for it. I will overlook your slight this time."

Eulalie turned to Henri "You must ask Tristan to stay to lunch. You know that he is an honorable man. He will leave Christine alone if you ask him to, won't you dear brother."

Tris smiled "You always have known how to manipulate me baby sister with your deadly combination of both sweetness and steel. I have never met a woman who was more indomitable than you."

She replied teasingly "Someone has to keep you boys in line. Did you forget how you both broke a window and tried to blame the other?"

Henri replied "How could I forget? You were five years old and blackmailed me into proposing marriage to you by offering to take the blame for both of us. At the time I was certain that you were kidding, but in hindsight I am not so sure. My parents found out anyhow that it was me who broke the window, and yet I kept my promise, I still married you." He turned to Tris "I guess that you can stay and have lunch with us, but I expect you to behave yourself around Christine."

"Now that I know the identity of her fiancé I will definitely keep things platonic. I do not want to end up in a duel with the Phantom of the Opera. You wouldn't mind if I asked her whether or not she has a sister? She is a beautiful woman." He asked.

Henri laughed "I don't mind at all, as long as you give me your word that you will behave like a gentleman with her."

Tristan replied lightly "Of course, my friend. When have I ever broken my word to you?"

Henri replied softly "Never." But in his heart he did not readily accept his old friend's assurances. He had changed a great deal after what had happened to Therese. There were times that he no longer recognized his old friend.

In the meantime a shadow overheard every word of the conversation. It was Maela. Henri had told her little about the creature, only that it had lived out of the country and that the singer was his old girlfriend. So it is the Phantom of the Opera, she thought to herself. She remembered following all of that creature's misdeeds in L'Epoch. She had been right about it from the start; it did turn out to be a murderer. She should have let Charles strangle it at the start, before it was baptized. It would have been like her two previous miscarriages, unnamed and buried in a small plot in the ground. Now she found out that Charles had truly been wrong when he had wanted to atone. He killed himself when he found out the truth of what she had done to the Nain. She had done it out of love for him, and for the family, to banish it from their lives forever. She wanted forgiveness about the sins that had caused the abomination to be born, and to purify her family so that they might all find their place in heaven. Yet clearly still it was not to be, she blamed it for Charles' death. If it had not clung to life so strongly, it would have been dead, and Henri would now be the undisputed Comte de Rennes. Instead, Charles had been condemned to hel forl his unforgivable sin of taking his own life. Perhaps now Henri would go there as well. Her son was as softhearted as Charles, maybe worse. Charles had been weakened by his short brush with the creature. He tried to bring it back into their lives she remembered his misguided attempt vividly.

Charles came to her and told her "Have you ever thought that we have treated the boy too harshly? Even today I hurt him fairly badly when I pushed him down. I thought that he had hurt Henri. I had expected that. After I got the servants to nail the door shut, I spoke to Henri, who told me how kindly that Erik had treated him. He told me that Erik sat there patiently with him teaching him chess. Apparantly Erik had made his own chessboard out of some wood that he found. The boy had no education and yet he taught himself chess. Mabrelle told me that he also taught himself how to read and write using a picture book that Mabrelle had given him. It was the same book that our other children used. I saw an example of his writing and it is perfectly sculpted. He also has been writing musical compositions like my grandfather did. He doesn't even have an instrument so he sings them. Mabrelle says that his voice sounds like that of an angel. From what I have seen we were wrong he is no imbicile and if he is bright there is no reason to keep him from us."

She turned back to him, she had to be the strong one "It may be bright but that makes it all the more dangerous. All that you have to do is look at that face to know who and what it is. It is clearly a nain, an evil sprite sent to punish us. I pray for the day that it is gone from our lives completely. It is cold and damp down there and I keep hoping that it will get sick and die. I have cut way back on its food and yet still it thrives. Why won't it just die?"

Charles looked at her as if seeing his wife for the first time "How can you be so cruel and believe all the superstitions that you hear? Please let's consider the idea of slowly getting the children to get used to him. He will be the Comte someday and inherit everything. We cannot change that fact. I am no longer sure that I want to. I will give you a few weeks to get used to the idea and then we will bring him up and begin to educate him more and perhaps we will discover that he has even more gifts that God as endowed him with. Perhaps he is no nain at all but simply an ugly boy."

Maela thought to herself "Over my dead body and she plotted her course. Since killing it herself would be a mortal sin, she would try to find a different way to remove it from their midst. Without it as a distraction she was sure that she could cleanse the sin from the other members of her family.

Her mind returned to the present time. She had a thought. She walked away from the door and got a pen and some paper and wrote a letter to the Comte de Chagny. She knew that he would be interested in knowing what happened to his brother's murderer. Perhaps he would repay the creature's action in kind and do away with it. She sealed the letter and called for a servant.

"Please take this to the post office in Rohan and mail it for me. Don't tell anyone else about it, especially not the Vicomte. Is that clear?"

The servant nodded faithfully "Of course Madame la Comtesse."

When the servant left she thought proudly 'Now I have protected Henri and his family from him from his own folly. Everyone will thank me in the end for doing the right thing."

In the meantime, Erik had finished cleaning himself up. He dressed himself in the clean clothing that the gendarme had brought. To his amusement it was a uniform, brought from the local gendarmerie. The police officer also brought him a gendarme cap which both covered his head and cast a shadow over his face. He worked with the soft piece of leather and quickly fashioned it into a passable half mask. It was not the porcelain mask that he used to wear, but it was serviceable. He almost looked like a real gendarme. He was able to coil his Punjab and hide it in the confines of the uniform's cloak. A more than quick perusal would reveal it to anyone, but he had no intention of being unarmed.

For all he knew, de Chagny and his brother could be in league even now. Perhaps Henri was plotting to take over his inheritance. Otherwise, he was surprised that Henri would have any motivation to help him at all. He must have been taught to despise him by her. He looked one last time in the in the mirror satisfied with his appearance. He appreciated the irony of what they had given him to wear. Only an hour before, the gendarmes had arrested him, and intended to bring him back to Paris to face execution. Now he was dressed like one of them, in the company of the Justice Minister of France. They had insisted on calling him by his title; a title that he had renounced almost forty years before. He wondered how his 'dear' old mother would feel if her prodigal son were ever to return. 'Perhaps she would ask for her money back from the gypsies.' He thought to himself darkly. She did pay them good money to be assured that he would never return home. Why would he? He had no desire to go back to that place and face her. If his brother had honestly come to his aid he would be very grateful but it still left him with no desire to see her again.