One more chapter left!
Didn't realize this chapter would be so short as well.
Enjoy!
Chapter 54
Raoul
I escorted the Girys and Christine back to their empty apartment. It was high noon by now, and the man who'd brought them here, Jules Barnard, had gone home to his own family.
But not before he, Christine, and Madame Giry explained all that had happened. Christine told where she had actually been all this time, and how she'd come to meet the man who'd done his best to keep her hidden and safe - how that man is the person people called the Phantom. She recounted how she'd been brought to Firmin's hotel and forced to play a deadly game of cat and mouse. Madame Giry explained that she'd been captured before she could find the police; that she'd waited in a dim basement with a small lantern for light, hoping and praying that Emma Rougeax survived - then learning of her death. And finally hearing from Firmin that he knew where Christine was and would be taking her too. She explained the terror she felt at that. And then the relief at seeing Christine, and Jules, and even Buquet. At seeing the man she'd always assumed was an angel.
Finally Jules described the arrival of the police. That the policemen found them all there, a motley crew - especially the man dressed as the Red Death, that he'd met the police with his mask on and refused to take it off. Something about the man's demeanor - Erik, the Phantom - deterred them (the armed French police) from pressing the issue. Besides, it wasn't him they were there for. It was the killer on the floor. And it was to find Madame Giry.
Christine said that when she was reunited with Madame, she'd cried. Hard. And Madame Giry had said that Christine hadn't cried since her father's death.
Meg concurred that this was true. Christine took her hand, love in her eyes. Meg, sitting next to her, merely sat a bit closer. And Madame Giry stood from her seat and went to the two girls to kiss them both on the top of the head.
Though her body looked weaker than before, Madame Giry's eyes had not lost their shine.
Meg asked me to stay for lunch in their home. I did.
She smiled in real pleasure at that.
Once things settled, I decided, I would ask her to marry me.
But not now. Not only because she'd only just reunited with her family, but because I wanted to...to start over. To slow down and really court her. Properly court her. I wanted to take her to art galleries and restaurants and to the Martin family farm - with Madame Giry as a chaperone, of course. I wanted to perhaps adopt a little dog for Meg to pet (in the hopes that the dog would be hers too one day). I wanted to get to know each other again, not under the blanket of fear and loss - but with a backdrop of peace and love.
Yes, I wanted to start over.
And I would do so right now, by telling them my name. Again.
This time, I would tell Madame the correct name.
And this time, Meg would hear my name from my own lips.