Thank you for all the wonderful reviews.
Thank you for following me and I apologise for the long delay in chapters, my mojo is only just getting back on track.
I wish to publicly thank IPenna/Starwatcher 2018 for her kind and gentle words and thoughts over this last year. Getting used to not having my mum around anymore has been difficult.
Please stay safe in these crazy times
I do not own anything by Gaston Leroux, Susan Kay or Andrew Lloyd Webber, everything else is my own work.
Penance and Pomeranians,.Nadir became even more concerned, when Erik's little jaunt took them both to the opera house kitchens.
"What on earth?" Nadir demanded as Erik handed his friend the little wiggling ball of golden fluff and vanished into the vast cavernous area dodging the busy staff, coming out of the pastry room, and heading back to his peeved Persian pal, clutching a bag which caused even more wiggling from the little dog.
"The final part of my master plan!" Erik smarmily replied taking one item from the bag, "Here you go Peaches for a good little dog!" Erik stated as the Pomeranian scoffed the treat from Erik's hand.
Nadir had to blink, then he shook his head… He would swear blind that Erik had just fed the Pomeranian a profiterole.
Erik eyed the puzzled Persian wearily, "Yes that was a profiterole and I have a whole bag of them here, filled with the freshest cream, alas no chocolate as it can make dogs very sick!" he answered Nadir's unspoken question before striding off, the bag of pastries in his hand; leaving Nadir still holding Peaches to jog behind him; once more.
"No one would ever believe me!" Nadir huffed when he caught up with Erik backstage.
"Huh!" Erik responded as he surveyed the area just outside Carlotta's dressing room.
"I said… Oh do not worry!" Nadir grumbled noting that Erik was not paying him any attention anyway.
Erik walked over to one of the walls of the corridor and pushed on it, watching as it opened to reveal yet another secret passage. "Quickly in here we only have a few moments before our client is due to start her next session!" Erik hastily instructed shoving Nadir in the passageway, before taking peaches out of Nadir's arms and placing her on a shadowed part of the floor, commanding her to sit still and shutting the door to the passageway, before fading into the shadows beside the little dog.
"Erik let me out you bastard!" Nadir demanded, rattling the panel Erik had shut him behind.
"Quiet You Great Booby, or you will ruin my exercise programme before it starts!" Erik hissed back.
A fuming and now silent Nadir then noticed that there was a peephole in the panel and looked through it as Erik smartly came out of the shadows knocked on Carlotta's door and faded back into them again.
ooo
During this Carlotta had changed into her exercise clothing and was mulishly glowering at her husband as he searched her dressing room and located three secret stashes of chocolates hidden there and threw them into the bin.
"You are meant to be transforming back into my fiery Spanish rose, not my extra-large box of Spanish chocolates!" Ettore grumbled as he located a further small stash under her dressing table.
Carlotta changed her glower into a glare and was about to retort back when a loud knock derailed her train of thought. And still glaring she opened the door to her dressing room and stepped out to be met at first with an empty corridor, then with a woosh, the empty space was taken up with an unidentified flying object, that when it made contact with Carlotta's ample decollate became a now squashed profiterole.
"Ugh!" Carlotta yelped as she looked down at the mess, but her day was about to get worse; when suddenly a bright yapping informed the once Diva that she was not the only one who was aware of the pestilent pastry.
ooo
"Aaaggghh!" Carlotta yelped as she noticed the bright golden ball of fluff running towards her, and without thinking she took off down the corridor with Peaches chasing her.
ooo
Opening the door to the passageway, a sniggering Erik was met with a glowering and ill-tempered Nadir, who opened his mouth to say something when Erik grabbed his arm and dragging the now very peeved Persian behind him took off at a smart trot into another secret passageway.
ooo
Erik and a now out of breath and truly angry Nadir exited the passageway a little further backstage and if the noise approaching them was anything to go by, they were ahead of Carlotta and her tiny tormentor.
"What the devil are you up to?" Nadir snapped as Erik started to climb up one of the ladders that led to the fly loft.
"Shush, I need to concentrate to take this shot!" Erik hissed back as he secured his position halfway up the ladder and then procured from his pocket the catapult and from some hidden location a profiterole, which he then loaded into the catapult before aiming the pastry treat into the corridor.
Nadir did not need to wait long as the excited yapping of a small Pomeranian grew closer along with some very choice words in Spanish as well as the pounding of leather sandals on a wooden floor announcing the reason for Erik's bizarre location. Taking aim, Erik waited until Carlotta and Peaches had gone passed his ladder perch and fired the profiterole ammunition at Carlotta's ample bustle area.
Carlotta jumped when the profiterole hit her and then continued to run, as Erik climbed down the ladder and joined a now recovered but still annoyed Nadir.
"Two Profiteroles should be enough for the first day!" Erik sagely declared as he turned to head back towards Carlotta's dressing room.
"Huh!" Nadir replied before realising that he was talking to an empty space, "Oh good grief!" he grumbled before yet again chasing after his masked friend.
ooo
Erik was waiting patiently as Nadir caught up with him back by Carlotta's dressing room door. "I said two profiteroles should be enough for the first day!" Erik repeated as Nadir joined him.
"I know what you said, I wanted to know why you said it?" Nadir grumbled.
"The exercise programme, starts gently and builds intensity." Erik replied glibly as if this explained everything.
Then with his usual manners Erik shushed his annoyed friend, opened the passageway door once more, handed Nadir the bag containing the profiteroles and the catapult before shoving him into the passageway and shutting the door again..
"Eri! … I give up!" Nadir grumbled his ire rising again, then the scent of fresh profiteroles assailed his nose. So, with nothing better to do Nadir set about occupying himself with whatever he had in his hands.
Erik was standing, this time where he could clearly be seen, as a few minutes later a rather red faced and panting Carlotta arrived back at her dressing room door.
"I was about to say are you ready for your calisthenics Senora, but by your appearance I see you have already partaken." Erik declared as Carlotta went to open her dressing room door.
Turning to face him, Carlotta was a shade of red not far from matching her outfit. "I hate little doggies!" she wheezed, before turning her back on Erik; and on entering her dressing room she slammed the door shut behind her.
ooo
Jean had caught Peaches as Carlotta had rounded the rear of the stage and was making a frantic dash back to her dressing room as per Erik's earlier instructions. He had headed off to work with the Pomeranian tucked under his arm, all the time praying Madame Giry did not see him.
ooo
Erik was sniggering as he opened the door to the passageway to see Nadir wearing an oddly satisfied smirk on his face.
"Right that is enough for today!" Erik brightly declared, a smile of satisfaction lifting the bottom of his mask.
"BURP!" came the response from a now blushing Nadir.
Erik was less than impressed, "Fine I get it, it is passed your breakfast time!" he grumbled, as he held his hand out patiently for the bag Nadir was still clutching.
Nadir stifled a second belch and handed his friend the bag. Erik took the bag, looked puzzled, shook the bag, looked even more puzzled and then opened it.
Staring into the bag for a moment, Erik then slowly scowled before staring at Nadir. "I had twenty six profiteroles in this bag, I used two, where are the other twenty four?" he asked dangerously.
"As you were so quick to point out, it is past my breakfast time!" Nadir replied, "you shoved a hungry man in a cupboard with a bag of fresh profiteroles, where did you think the profiteroles would go? He added taking his handkerchief out of his pocket and wiping his mouth.
"You Great Booby!" Erik hissed, his eyes almost looking like the fires of hell. "The kitchens only make profiteroles once a week, I was planning to store the rest of these in the ice box." He added.
"Use something else!" Nadir responded, as he put his handkerchief back in his jacket, before looking at a now incredibly angry Erik. "Err I meant I will locate something else?" Nadir then offered just to appease the fuming former phantom standing in front of him.
ooo
The next morning, Nadir met his friend and Peaches promptly at eight o'clock, outside Carlotta's Dressing room carrying a bag from the local Pâtissier, which he handed to Erik.
"Eclairs?" Erik questioned as he stared into the bag in his hand. "These are too big to fit in the catapult, idiot!"
"They were all the baker had ready this morning!" Nadir mumbled through a mouthful of the éclair he had purchased for himself.
Erik glared at his munching friend and thought…
Waited until Nadir had finished his breakfast, then reached into the bag and removed one of the éclairs…
Nadir felt a sharp pain as Erik promptly stamped on his foot; But his scream of agony was drowned out when Erik then shoved the éclair in his mouth.
"Bite!" Erik ordered removing his size 13 boot from Nadir's foot. "Thank you!" Erik added as he removed the small remnant of the partially eaten Éclair and loaded the catapult with it.
"Ou arstad, ou cud ave assed me ot ust amped on I oot!" Nadir grumbled through a mouthful of éclair.
Erik translated his friend's protestation with ease, "You bastard, you could have asked me not just stamped on my foot!" he parroted, "Desperate times call for desperate measures Oh pouting Persian, and you need to be out of sight as I am about to start todays exercises."
ooo
Four further partial eclairs and several fast dashes around backstage later saw Nadir throwing up into one of the fire buckets that graced the wings of the stage.
Erik finished congratulating Carlotta on her diligent approach to the exercises by doing them all herself yet again, before having the decency to fetch his ailing friend a glass of water and waiting as Nadir tidied himself up. After which the two of them retired back to the lake house.
ooo
"I never want to see another éclair in my lifetime!" Nadir declared as Erik handed him a cup of antiemetic and placing a cup of tea on the table beside him.
"Then I suggest you order the profiteroles for tomorrow before you head home." Erik advised sagely as Nadir swigged the antiemetic down.
Nadir then drank his tea, wiped his mouth, and fixed a glare at Erik. "You are all heart!" he declared, as Erik grinned.
"I was not the one who ate six eclairs then went for a jog!" Erik glibly replied.
Nadir sighed, then rubbed his temples he was going to be glad when this was all over.
ooo
The following morning saw Nadir armed with fresh profiteroles and the pattern was set.
By week three, Carlotta started to wise up and would only open her dressing room door armed with an umbrella to avoid the pastry projectiles, so Erik got crafty and though a series of handwritten notes had Carlotta heading to various locations to start her morning calisthenics each time being surprise attacked enroute.
So, despite her best efforts each morning cast and crew got used to seeing Carlotta running around backstage covered in unexplainable pastries and cream, chased by a yapping Pomeranian for a further eight weeks.
The final week of the weight loss programme arrived, and Nadir was getting concerned.
"Erik, do you not think that despite how well the programme is working that this is going to leave Carlotta with a complex?" Nadir asked as they took their latest positions outside the wardrobe department.
"I was only tasked with getting Carlotta to lose weight, not improve her mental wellbeing." Erik stiffly replied, as he loaded the catapult in readiness.
"She is starting to jump and almost run every time she sees a small dog now!" Nadir plaintively pointed out, "I am starting feel bad about this." He added.
Erik thought for a moment, "It has been hard for her yes, but now she is happy, Ettore is happy, Madame Giry is happy, Bernadette is happy and therefore Christine is happy, I cannot see the issue." Erik responded.
However, in his heart after all he had been through himself, Erik was starting to feel sorry for her… Almost!