Seriously, you guys are too, too kind! Thank you so much for the encouragement.
I know how we all love long, in depth chapters, but sometimes short ones are much more important...
Sorry, no Erik in this chapter!
Just so you all know, I plan to keep this pace of 1 to 2 chaps a day. I'll usually post them both in the evening hours (new york time) but every once in a while, you guys motivate me to post at work...let's hope the boss doesn't find out!
-Nico
"I will not rest until he is found…he means to do Miss Daee serious harm!" Raoul winced as Madame Giry pulled a threaded needle through the wound on his face a bit more roughly than necessary.
"Pardon, Monsieur," she said softly.
"Oh, Firmin," Andre wailed in his typical melodramatic voice. "Everything was going so well…and now this…now him!"
"I want police at every door of the Opera; I want them every five feet for a ten mile radius!" Continued Raoul.
Firmin regarded his patron. The young man's face would be badly scarred. The jagged, deep gash ran from just above his eyebrow down his cheek.
He had been lucky he had not lost his eye.
His eyes.
Firmin noticed how they darted, how they were streaked with red lines that were surely not a new feature to the otherwise crystalline blue iris.
Something about the story the Viscount had relayed to himself, Andre, and the three police officers present seemed off.
"Excuse me, Monsieur De Changy," the stoutest police officer said, his voice all but quivering. "After this man…Erik you called him…after he pulled Mademoiselle Daee from your grasp, you say he attacked you?"
Raoul nodded, his eyes looking everywhere but at the officer.
"She was screaming for me…screaming for me to save her…and I could do nothing…" he said, manufactured tears springing to his eyes.
"We do apologize for having to make you relive this, Monsieur," another officer interjected. "But the more you can tell us, the faster we can capture this man and see that he pays dearly for his crimes."
"Indeed," the first officer piped up. "He is still wanted for the murder of Joseph Buquet…and he must be held responsible for the deaths that occurred when…" he looked to the two managers, both pale as ghosts. "When the chandelier fell," the officer quickly finished.
"He is evil, and will stop at nothing to destroy both myself and Miss Daee," Raoul said, wincing again under the needle.
"And what, exactly, does he want with Christine Daee?" The officer pressed.
"What do all immoral men want from pretty young women, Monsieur?" Raoul countered, causing the officer to blush.
"Christine was once your fiancée, was she not?" The third officer, who had been quietly observing the entire scene since he arrived, asked.
Raoul looked sharply over to the officer, causing Madame Giry to scratch his already injured face with the needle. "Dammit woman!" Raoul barked.
Six pairs of eyes fell on him.
"Yes," Raoul breathed harshly.
"And you were not married?" The third officer pressed.
This man was beginning to get on Raoul's nerves.
Why can I not escape those memories? Raoul's mind raced.
Then he became thoughtful.
Devious even.
"We are not married," he said, his voice smoother. "Yet." He added.
Madame Giry, who had bowed her head after further injuring the Viscount, snapped to attention.
"You see, we had intended on making the announcement…at a later time," Raoul continued, now having everyone's attention. "Christine and I wanted to wait until the manuscripts were returned and all of the ghastly business was done away with."
"What are you saying, Monsieur?" Mme Giry asked, despite her rank in the room.
Raoul glared at her.
"I am saying, Madame Giry, that Christine has come to her senses, and decided that we will be married after all."