Sorry, no update over the weekend...things were...ahem...busy...
A couple of things...It seems Madeline now has a full time babysitter...I don't envy your task!
I don't know if they had insurance back in the days of the Opera Populaire, but let's pretend they did, ok?
This is a short chap, but there will be another today. Don't worry:)
Enjoy...
-Nico
"It's a miracle we managed to fit ourselves back into this carriage!" Meg exclaimed, her knees brought up to her chest to make room for a particularly odd shaped package resting on the carriage floor.
Christine pulled her bonnet from her head, wincing as it caught on several pieces of hair that had come undone during the long day spent shopping. "Do you think Xavier minded having to hail his own carriage back home?" She asked, feeling terrible that the elderly man could not fit in the carriage after their last stop at the music shop.
Meg shook her head. "No, I don't believe he did," she replied, leaning back onto the cushion of the carriage seat. "He seemed pleased to call it a day."
Christine smiled, briefly closing her eyes. Xavier had been an incredible help, leading Christine and Meg into and out of some of the finest shops lying on the outskirts of Paris. He involved the women in the decision-making processes, and quickly signed his name to bill after bill.
Christine had never worried about money, knowing that Erik was already a rich man before she met him. She had also come to learn that he had taken out insurance on destroyed mansion…insurance, which had thankfully covered fire damage.
The carriage, driven by one of the more quiet employees of the Opera Populaire, bounced soothingly along the back roads leading to the Opera House. They maneuvered through alleyway after alleyway; so deep within the streets of Paris that Christine no longer recognized her surroundings.
Suddenly, the carriage stopped.
"Meg?" Christine said after some time.
Meg shifted, her sleeping eyes fluttering open. "Yes? Are we back?" She asked, rubbing her eyes.
Christine shook her head. "I don't believe so. " She peered out of the small curtained carriage window. "I don't know where we are."
Meg looked out of her window. "It looks like we're in an alley," she said. "Perhaps the driver is lost."
The women sat in silence for a moment, straining to hear a conversation or the presence of another person.
Silence.
"Well, we can't sit here all night," Christine said, frustrated and tired. She placed a hand on the lever to open the carriage door.
"Wait," Meg said suddenly. "Perhaps we should stay inside."
Christine paused. Maybe she was right.
There were dangerous people about.
As she pulled her hand away, the door flung open.
A grisly looking man stood before her, his mouth brown from the effect of raw tobacco.
Christine and Meg shrieked in unison, moving as far back into the carriage as the overstuffed enclosure allowed.
"Ladies, ladies," the man drooled, his lips curving into a strange sort of smile. " 'ave no fear," he added in a crude accent. Then, looking from Meg to Christine, he added, "Well, you can 'ave some fear," he said to Christine, grasping her wrist and pulling her towards him with a greasy hand.
Christine winced and pulled away, finding that her strength was no match for this stranger before her.
"Who are you?" She demanded.
"Let go of her!" Meg shouted at the same time.
"If you wait a minute, all will be revealed, my lovely," he said to Christine, yanking her roughly from the carriage. Meg started to follow, grasping the first weapon within her reach, which happened to be a violin bow.
She held in menacingly as she moved to the carriage door, only to have it slammed and locked in her face, separating her from her friend.
"Driver!" The dirty man yelled, pinning Christine's small form against his own, covering her protesting mouth with his hand. "Bring Mademoiselle Giry back to the Opera Populaire…and send her with this message…"
Christine looked up to the nervous driver, who was sitting beside another even dirtier man, who was holding a rusty-looking pistol to the driver's head.
The grizzled man holding Christine turned to face Meg, who was watching the scene nervously from inside of the carriage. "Tell the man who calls himself husband to this woman that if he ever wants to see her alive again, he will come to the cemetery at midnight," the man said, sounding very much like he had memorized the directions. "If he does not show, we will kill her."
Christine's eyes went wide and she struggled again, watching as the man holding her directed the carriage onward, leaving Meg to bang on the carriage windows in vain, hoping Christine could hear her promises that she would be all right.
She watched as the man holding Christine disappeared into an alley, dragging Christine with him.
