Look for one or two chapter 1s of my potential next stories to show up soon. I am deciding between two and may ask my readers to decide which one that I should prioritize. I am going to do so before this story is over so that, if I write any of the other ones I will work on the one that the readers pick. If there is a tie I might write both at the same time but it will make it slower to do so.

Chapter 52.

The clothes were ready on time and fit the ladies quite well. Meg was very pleased with her new clothing. True to what Aaron had come to believe to be her nature, Antoinette spent much energy rolling her eyes at the 'poor quality' of their design, sewing and material. She embarrassed Aaron by insisting on a partial refund because the stitching was not fine enough and the material too crude. Aaron himself looked at her ragged clothing and then back at the beautiful dresses and wondered what sort of gall the woman possessed to even begin to complain about the dresses. Aaron was pleased with the results and could not see a single thing wrong with them; and told the highly insulted dressmaker so. He ended up paying her extra just to mollify her wounded feelings. Aaron was ready to send the older woman back across the ocean. He knew many well-heeled women from Montreal, who wore nothing better than the dresses that he had purchased for the two snobby Frenchwomen. Already, due to the dresses, the ladies were met with far more respect than they had been prior to their purchase. It was amazing what a few articles of decent clothing could do to transform most people's outlook towards them. Suddenly they appeared to respectable looking ladies and were treated as such; with the exception of more than a few admiring stares directed towards Meg. But that was to be expected; in her new dresses Meg looked even more beautiful than before. Still, he could not wait to leave both Halifax, and his two charges, behind.

To his relief he knew that Erik would soon be in route to Campbelltown, in New Brunswick, which was merely a stone's throw across a narrow arm of the Gulf of St. Lawrence from the Province of Quebec. On the three hundred mile long train ride to Levis, from Campbelltown, Aaron was confident that he would have time to notify Erik of any new discoveries that he might make about Erik's old friends, in addition to the beatings that they had endured. Once they crossed into Quebec Aaron hoped that his companions would feel more at home than in Nova Scotia and modify their attitude. The predominant language would change from English into French which would suit them better than the predominantly Anglophone Maritime part of Canada. Hopefully hearing their native tongue predominate would make their moods match their new attire, although he was beginning to wonder in particular about Antoinette. She appeared to be so mirthless and severe, he wondered if she had ever laughed about anything in her life. He could hardly believe that Erik claimed that he and she had once shared laughs frequently.

He did not see anything light hearted about the crone.

He himself could slip in and out of speaking French or English easily, since he mainly resided in bilingual Montreal. Aaron had always had a gift for learning languages, due to his youth in Russia, where he had grown up speaking fluent Yiddish, German, Russian and Ukrainian, and even some Polish, Romanian, and Tatar to communicate with his polyglot neighbors. It had not been that difficult to add English and French to the mix. His native Yiddish, which was akin to German, had come in handy when interacting with the vast melting pot of immigrants in Montreal. Still, despite his wide knowledge of various languages, he found that he could read neither of his two traveling companion's minds. They were as inscrutable and as difficult to read as Chinese was and he wasn't even sure that he wanted to do so.

He wondered if it was just part of the French national character to be somewhat taciturn and suspicious of everyone. He distinctly remembered that when he first met Erik and Christine they too had seemed to act somewhat the same way towards each other; like two feral cats ready to strike; of course Christine was Swedish not French so maybe it had something to do with being in show business. Perhaps being artistic and living in France made people moody and critical. But in Erik and Christine's case they had at least been nice to him, these two were not nice to anyone. Also once Erik and Christine had made peace with one another; their spats became rarer, to the point now that he had never met a couple who were more compatible and clearly in love with one another. As the strife between them lessened, the couple had become more agreeable to everyone around them as well. The dark haunted look that they had both once worn had long since faded away and been replaced by affection and tolerance. Erik had been a kind and supportive mentor to him ever since they had met. Now these two women wore that same haunted look which was accentuated even more by bitterness and hatred. He would have thought that they would have some interest in Canada since they had never been there before but neither woman seemed to care a whit about any of the information that he had to offer them. Furthermore, they had even interest in him, which was surprising since he was greatly admired by many women in Montreal.

Aaron had grown into a tall and handsome man, and many a girl had swooned over him, but not them. Of course he was old fashioned in regard to romance; his aunt, who was a strict traditionalist, had employed a matchmaker who surprisingly had picked a most pleasing bride for him. He was due to be married in several months and, despite his initial skepticism, was looking forward to the marriage. He was comforted by the fact that, in his fiancé's case, he knew that she had not thrown herself at him due to his ever-increasing wealth. Erik would tease him incessantly about using a matchmaker but he would shrug it off because in his case the old ways seemed to have worked; Rivka, his fiancé was a very pretty and sweet girl. But he had to leave her behind in Montreal to come to the aid of his old friends; and now he was stuck with the job of shepherding these two hateful women around and listening to them gripe. When he looked at Antoinette he saw nothing at all to recommend her, no sign of the woman that Erik had always spoken so highly of.

In fact, Aaron wondered why Erik was so attached to the older lady. He had never met someone so seemingly quick to take offense and remain suspicious of everyone, even her own daughter. She would remark to her daughter over and over again just how uncouth the Canadians were without any sort of real provocation. He found himself having to curve his own impulses, and not to feel highly offended at her blatantly misguided and prejudicial remarks. He may not have been born in Canada but he was very proud of his adopted homeland. It had offered him a sanctuary when he had to flee his own homeland and could not think of another people on earth more unpretentious and welcoming than the Canadians. He could not see how the woman could find them uncouth when they retained the very refined manners of their British forebears. He marked her attitude as yet one more way that she could feel superior to those around her, despite having arrived in rags. One would think that her last name was Bourbon or Saxe- Coburg, with all of the criticisms that she freely gave but she was merely a mirthless old woman.

He could tell that even the daughter was irritated with her mother's attitude. She took few pains to hide it. She was constantly reminding her mother not to be so severe and judgmental of everything. She repeatedly exclaimed to her mother that she half wished that she had left her behind in Paris, and Antoinette would glower at her in return. Meg was repeatedly apologizing to him for her mother's outbursts, yet those attempted explanations made him just as uncomfortable as the mother's snobbery. The daughter would try to convince him that her mother had had a lot of bad turns in her life in recent years; but that down deep she was still a decent person. Aaron tried to believe her; but he was starting to wonder whether or not Erik's judgment of both women had been off back then.

By Erik's own admission, at the time of his relationship with Antoinette, he had not thought highly of humanity as a whole and had little concept of what constituted a true friendship since he had never truly felt that he had experienced it. He had rejected his Persian friend's offer of such. So perhaps someone like Antoinette Giry was all that he knew and in comparison to everyone else she was a decent woman. Worse yet, perhaps the old bag had used his very isolation against him as a ploy to gain his trust and friendship. He would not put it past the Antoinette Giry that he had observed. He did not see how a supposedly nice person could be so critical of absolutely everyone and everything. Erik had also described the daughter as very even-tempered and sweet, and yet all that he saw there was a harridan, only slightly more palatable than the mother. It was hard to believe that she and Christine had ever been best friends but perhaps Christine, as well, had little experience of true friendship to compare her friend with another. She had been so young when she had left France and perhaps a little bit naïve. After all she had once believed Erik to be her 'Angel of Music', a non-corporeal being. Perhaps having a real live friend was better than nothing.

Listening to them, Aaron wondered if whether or not Erik might have been wiser to forget his old friends; but Aaron of course remembered him saying that he had brought them over mostly for Christine. Since the older woman had been her foster mom and the daughter her best friend, and foster sister, he understood why Christine might wish to see them again; but, in this case, Erik might have been more wise to stick to his long term plan of having no contact with anyone that they had known in France. He did not see where, in this case, the couple would benefit from renewing their friendship with the Girys. As with Aaron's memories of own family, wasn't it better to think of the good times than be reminded of the bad? He did not like to think of his last view of his family as lifeless corpses; but loved to remember his mother's smiling green eyes and red hair; or his father's twinkling blue ones and the stories that they told him, and the singing and family meals.

Whatever Christine had once meant to the ladies, it was apparent now that it was no longer the case. Whenever either woman mentioned Christine, it was usually accompanied with a sneer of contempt. In fact both women seemed to dislike Christine even more than they did Erik. For those reasons Aaron did not have a good feeling about their upcoming reunion. As he rode with the two woman and got to know their dispositions better, he wished that he would have warned Erik to stay away, far away, but it was too late for that. He would have to find a place to be alone with Erik on the train after Campbelltown. Thankfully it should not be too difficult, as he knew that Erik had a compartment reserved just for himself just outside of their private car. He would have to speak frankly to him about the two women, hiding nothing that he had learned. Perhaps Erik would have a plan of how to deal with them by the time they reached Quebec City. Hopefully Christine and the children had not anticipated a happy reunion and rushed there to greet them. Surely Erik would have planned for Christine to meet them with more subterfuge than that, which was why he had sent Aaron to meet the ladies in the first place.

He hoped that Erik disguised himself, as planned. Prior to Aaron setting out for Halifax, Erik had proudly shown him his new mask that he had perfected just for this occasion and had never before donned.

Erik had smiled as he watched Aaron's astonishment, "Do you realize what this new mask means to me? For the first time ever in my life I can face the world appearing to be a whole and normal looking man, and not either as a monster or a wounded war hero. I can attend operas, ballets and even my children's recitals. Of course I will not wear this ridiculous blond wig, which I made specifically for the train ride. I much prefer the smooth dark wigs that I am used to wearing," he explained proudly.

The disguise certainly did not look anything like the Erik that he knew. It looked amazingly lifelike, and also made Erik look far younger than his years. He looked no older than in his late thirties, forty at the most, which again was a change since he was closer to around fifty years old. With this new disguise, Erik and Christine looked much more like contemporaries. Erik had stated that, on the train journey, he was going to profess having no knowledge of French at all; merely Canadian accented English. He was going to claim to be from Toronto in the heart of the English speaking part of Canada. Aaron could not believe how well Erik could hide his French origins. While Erik had been fluent in English before their crossing, like most Frenchmen, he had a British accent. Yet now he sounded almost exactly like the nabobs in Montreal that Aaron dealt with on a regular basis. A hounds-tooth jacket, instead of Erik's usual black attire, and a bowler, completed the picture. He appeared to be a perfect well-heeled Canadian gentleman from Ontario, not too fashionable but not terribly stodgy either. Other than his imposing height Erik looked absolutely nothing like the descriptions of Phantom who had once haunted the opera house in Paris.

Aaron had chuckled, "You look about as Anglophone as you could get. Looking at you it is hard to believe that you have ever left North America let alone haunted an opera house in France."

Erik replied in his perfect English, "Sir, I have no use for those dissolute popinjay Frenchmen."

Christine and Aaron had both laughed, as Erik spent the next hour entertaining them.

After the train pulled into the Campbelltown station for an extended stop, Aaron and the ladies decided to disembark for a few minutes to walk about the town. While in the station he looked around and observed many of the incoming passengers, but did not see Erik. It was not a surprise as Erik was usually a fairly stealthy man. Once they were done and the train was ready to leave, they re-boarded and returned to their private car. It was not long before they were off and crossing over the narrow arm of the Gulf of St. Lawrence into Quebec. An hour or so out Aaron excused himself from the ladies explaining that he wanted to go to the smoking car and smoke his pipe with the gentlemen there. Luckily both ladies looked at him in disinterest; the smoking car was a male domain.

Still, Aaron made sure that he wasn't followed and then preceded to the smoking car. He sat there for a time conversing some of the other gentlemen. It was not long before Erik entered in his disguise and was barely acknowledged by the other gentlemen. He sat down next to Aaron but made no sign of recognition of him. A short time later Aaron got up and 'accidently' spilled his glass of brandy all over Erik. Using the distraction and employing his sleight of hand technique Erik slipped Aaron a key to his own compartment. Aaron repeated wiped Erik's lapel and then offered to pay to have Erik's jacket cleaned but Erik declined, stating irritably that he had done enough damage. Erik left purportedly to exchange his now soaked jacket for a new one. Aaron followed a short time later. Once he saw that the coast was clear he placed the key in the lock and entered Erik's room where his friend greeted him.

"I found your telegram to be somewhat cryptic. What is wrong with the Girys?" Erik demanded.

"Well, to begin with they disembarked practically dressed in rags. I do not know how much money that you left for them but they apparently ran through it long ago and seem to be resentful of both you and Christine." Aaron explained.

"Ran through more than a million francs? I would have thought it impossible. It was a princely sum of money, amounting to almost all that I owned at the time. It should have sufficed to support both of them for the rest of their lives." Erik averred, in disbelief.

Aaron noted, "Well it didn't. In fact I don't think that they have had any money for a long time, judging by the condition of their clothing. When Antoinette spoke of you she implied that you betrayed her; at least I think that she was speaking about you. She did not mention your name explicitly but I could imply it from the context. I suggest that you and Christine do not show yourselves to your 'old friends'. If you do I would not put it past Antoinette Giry to betray you."

Erik shook his head in denial, "Antoinette would never betray me. I saved her and her daughter's life, shared my fortune with her and even brought a titled suitor to her daughter. Did they tell you why Meg and the Baron never married? I rescued the Baron from a bevy of brigands who attacked him, six on one. I intervened and more than evened the odds and the Baron was grateful for my intervention. He promised me that he would do whatever I asked of him, and seemed more than willing to take Meg as his bride. I hosted him in my private box and let him watch Meg perform. He exclaimed her to be beautiful and told me that it would involve no sacrifice to have a wife who was as beautiful as she was. How then did it fall apart? Did she tell you? Was the Baron that much of an ingrate?"

Aaron replied, "She sort of told me. She said that it was her fault and then abruptly ended the discussion. In truth Erik I am not sure what you and Christine ever saw in the Girys they are very dour and bitter again I beseech you not to make yourself known to them. You cannot trust them. Let them teach and pay for their return to France."

Erik replied, "I don't trust them, which is why I sent you to greet them instead of doing it myself. But we have a history together. I still find it difficult to reconcile your impression of my old friends with my own and Christine's."

Aaron mused, "Well there is something more that might have changed them for the worse. Both ladies are covered in scars."

Erik raised an eyebrow in disbelief, "That cannot be. Antoinette has always been able to take care of both herself and her daughter. Why would she let herself be subjected to such a thing? How do you even know? Did you secretly steal a glance at their bodies?"

Aaron replied in indignation, "No of course not the dressmaker told me about them. She had fitted both of them for some new gowns so that they would not stand out on the train or in Quebec City."

Erik replied stiffly, "I of course shall reimburse you every penny of your expenses. Still that seems impossible to me, knowing what I do about Antoinette. The Antoinette that I knew would have never suffered such treatment."

"I did not doubt that you will reimburse me but the point is that at some point both ladies were subjected to some sort of beating or beatings," Aaron explained.

"Perhaps they are injuries from dancing. I have never seen Antoinette naked, but dancing is a very physical profession. Perhaps they have endured some accidents over the years. I just cannot picture my old friend not fighting back if she had been beaten. She is a strong woman both physically and mentally. She could endure a lot and still prevail," Erik told him.

Aaron looked at his friend and reminded him, "I do not picture you as someone who would submit to torture yet you yourself have been a victim of such. I have seen the scars on your body, my friend."

Erik reminded him, "But those scars mostly were made when I was a young boy and was both too starved and too weak to fight back. A hungry child cannot fight a fit adult. Still, eventually I did kill my gypsy captor and then later I escaped the Shah's terror without a scratch. After I did so I was never subjected to any sort of physical torture again. I taught Antoinette to fight back after her husband was murdered right in front of her and her daughter. Why would she submit again?"

Aaron explained, "Well according to the dressmaker she was whipped like a prisoner might be. Perhaps she was in jail for a time. If you are in chains it is hard to resist."

Erik replied in disbelief, "I doubt that. She was an honest person with few enemies. Besides I would have read about it somewhere, or received a report from my agents."

"Like the one where Meg Giry was married to the Baron? I am afraid that your reports that you received were largely inaccurate," Aaron reminded him.

Erik replied angrily, "I paid the real Raoul de Chagny's retainer well for the information. He was supposed to contact me if there were any discrepancies."

"Which he obviously didn't, either because he was lazy, or because it was willful. It was not as if you were going to be in Paris anytime soon. Sometimes people who are most eager to take money can be the most corrupt. It is not always easy to find an honest man, you yourself taught me that. Do you forget your own lessons? Or do they not apply to you?" Aaron queried.

Erik nodded his agreement, "You are of course right. That is true. If so I will make them pay for their failure to inform me of what was going on. All that they had to do was monitor the periodicals for any story of interest to me. I guess that I should have known that the Vicomte would not employ the most competent people. Look at how he failed to capture or kill me when he sent half of Paris into my labyrinths do so. Unfortunately I had no choice but to use his people. Nadir Khan had been my outlet to the world back then, along with Antoinette, and he wound up dead. The Persian did so much for me and I, in return, did so little for him," Erik added mournfully, "I was so terrible to him that I did not even acknowledge him as a friend. Then I built that contraption and let him die in it. I miss my old Persian friend more than you will ever know. I will not let the Girys suffer for their friendship with me either. What sort of man am I, if I turn my back on my old friends and let them suffer without my aid? It would seem that I am not a good one, since the Girys have suffered as well. I have not helped any of my old friends. I have made their lives worse by their misfortune of knowing me."

Aaron could see his friend going into one of his dour dark moods and admonished him for it, "You are a very good man Erik, and a great friend. You helped me in my time of need and I am much better off for it: and what about Christine? She is crazy about you, my friend. You are not omnipotent. You had no really good way of knowing what became of them. You did what you could do given your limited options at the time. You gave them a lot of money to help them manage whatever straights they might fall into; you even arranged a very good marriage for Mademoiselle Giry. What happened to them was not your fault. They were then, and are still are adults. You yourself used to tell me often that I must manage my own destiny and not blame others if I fail. You are not the villain here Erik, they are. Clearly they went down a dark path after you left. I do not see your connection to that path. You were far away across an ocean."

Erik replied softly, "But still I might have stopped them from heading down that path to begin with if I had not abandoned them to their fate. I went insane and turned my back on my old friends and allies. I left them to fend for themselves and clearly they were ill prepared to do so. They were only two women left on their own with no man to guide them through a harsh world."

Aaron interrupted, "Wasn't it you that told me that women are the equal of men? Yet right now you sound like every other man. You are right about one thing the Girys do not strike me as being helpless little lambs like some women might be. They are as hard as nails, just as you said earlier. That is exactly why I am telling you that they made their own fate, even after you gave them all of the tools to succeed. You just told me that Madame Giry was a strong and self-reliant woman, who would not suffer ill treatment, yet now you are retracting that statement so as to make yourself be the one take the blame. You omitted the reason that you left them, to protect Christine. Do you regret hiding Christine from that terrible man who killed her fiancé and would have killed her because she would make a credible witness to his crimes? You did what you had to do."

Erik mused darkly, "Did I? Perhaps I should have remained in France and advised her go to the authorities and explain what happened. Perhaps I should have killed Baudouin de Chagny before I fled France. But no, I was selfish. I wanted to have Christine for myself. I did not want flee from France without her. I would have sooner killed myself, to save me from humiliation of being arrested. I definitely did not want to be taken alive so that they could show me off with my hideous face and then execute me. I feared that, even after death, they exhibit my body as a freak of nature. I might have ended up in some natural history museum as an oddity or worse my body sold off to a band of miscreants to be used for their profit, like some trophy stag's head hanging over a fireplace. But now I wonder whether or not my death might have been the best route. Perhaps then I could have helped them all. Was I really acting even in Christine's best interest or merely my own?"

"But then you would have left them all equally vulnerable, including Christine. You yourself have said that the police in Paris were corrupt and in the pocket of the wealthy. You recognized some of the men in the mob that attacked you that night as gendarmes. They watched and even helped just as the Russian police watched and even helped as my own family was killed in front of me. What if they had not believed Christine and instead thought that she had a hand in the murders? No you had to take Christine away from all of it to keep her safe. You could hardly guarantee her safety from a prison cell or worse, after your execution," Aaron reminded him.

Erik shook his head in agreement, "No, I could not have been everywhere at once. Most likely I would have been caught if I had remained behind. Not even a Phantom could elude capture forever."

"You did the right thing Erik never doubt that for a moment. You have protected Christine for all of these years, and in return was rewarded with everything that you ever wanted, a real loving family to call your own," Aaron reassured him.

Erik smiled more brightly, "Thank you for reminding me Aaron. I hope that you too will have a loving family. Rivka seems to be a very nice girl, a perfect match for you."

Aaron laughed, "Yes, among my people matchmakers are very common and many times choose the wrong girl for a man to marry. But in my case the matchmaker picked a perfect bride for me. I hardly know her, but I love Rivka already. She will make me a fine wife and bear me many children."

Erik teased, "You sound like you are buying a blooded mare not gaining a wife."

Aaron smiled, "Isn't it the same thing?"

Erik replied with amusement, "No not at all. A horse might snicker at you but if you stroke their muzzle gently, and give them a carrot or a cube of sugar while talking to them gently, they will usually come to both like you and to trust you. A woman is much harder to tame than any horse even a mustang. Rivka will need much more coaxing than a mare. Many times you will feel like it is you who is being broken in, not your wife. She will try to mold you into the perfect husband and then lead you around like a pony."

Aaron replied with a laugh, "Yes I can see that. Although normally you are as loving as a couple can be, Christine and you occasionally have had those disagreements in front of me. I will never forget that first one that I witnessed on the ship. I thought that you were going to kill each other, especially since I did not speak French. You were madder than heck at one another."

Erik smiled, "We were weren't we? You must have wondered what a priest and a nun could get so angry with one another about."

"Well I had never met either a priest or a nun before so I had no idea. But then later you explained the whole thing and it began to make sense to me. My parents used to argue just like you did there, maybe even worse," Aaron admitted. "They used to tell me that a good fight kept a marriage fresh and lively and they hoped that I would have a similar relationship."

Erik replied lightly, "They were right. It is not such a bad thing to argue with your wife and then give in if the stakes are not too high to bear." He thought of one of their more recent arguments and just exactly how much fun it had been to make up and grinned, "Making up is not so bad especially if you let her win, in fact it could be quite enjoyable. When you and Rivka fight, which you are bound to do, I strongly suggest that you eventually give in to whatever she wants, especially if it does not cost you anything. Pride is not an essential element in a marital relationship; in fact it does more harm than good. You must learn get past it to assure yourself domestic tranquility. Of course, when all else fails, buying her an expensive bauble never hurts either."

Aaron smiled, "Thank you for the advice Erik. You know how much that I respect you. You are like a father figure to me, in fact, even more than my own uncle has been. You have always watched out for me ever since the first time that we met."

Erik groaned, "You are not so young anymore boy. Couldn't you worship me as an older brother instead of a father? It makes me feel younger when you do so, even if I am old enough to be your father."

"Christine keeps you young my friend. You could still take care of anyone that tries to hurt those that you care about even when you are twice their age. You are a formidable opponent," Aaron told him, "Antoinette did tried to warn me against trusting you too much."

Erik sighed, "I am going to have to find something to do to win back her trust but I don't suppose that either a cube of sugar or a carrot would work for either her or Meg."

Aaron laughed, "I suppose not Erik, but if all else fails you could always buy them both an expensive bauble," he teased.