The brown eyed girl
by LiltingBanshee
Author´s note: I´m going away for the weekend, so here is a good long chapter to keep you (hopefully) entertained.
Clayphan 16: You got it;)
Elizabeth: thanks, hope you enjoy this.
GoldenLyre: I think she has to bee a bit of a mix of them both, brown hair blue eyes. The Phantom´s eyes colour...well you can have a guess;)
PhantomSparker: Thank you :)
Right, here we go...
Jean Renard was sure he had hit a sore spot in his friend's heart.
Raoul kept staring into the soft flames in the fireplace as many thought seemed to play around in his head.
Sure enough it was thoughts of sadness, but not for the exact reasons Jean expected.
He was not thinking as a devastated husband who was being told his wife surely must have had a baby with someone else.
Angeline had never been his by blood, he knew that. He had never been with Christine in that way. But if he told Jean about Christine and her daughter he would have to admit the truth to himself and that was what caused his sadness.
"Jean, Christine is not my wife and Angeline is not my child", Raoul finally said.
"But Raoul, you always told me how much you loved her, and I saw you with that little girl tonight….I don't understand…", Jean was very confused.
"You're right Jean I love her, I have loved her ever since we were children, but I know that she will never love me the same way. I have come to accept that her heart will never truly belong to me, but if I can have her present in my life on her conditions I will want nothing more", Raoul told him.
"But how do you know she will not some day run off and look for Angeline´s father?", Jean was concerned for his friend.
"Her father is apparently no longer among us", Raoul said, sounding not too convincing.
"You even know the father", Jean was getting more and more puzzled by the whole story.
"Yes, I know who her father is", Raoul said.
"Who….?", Jean feared her was too curious, but he had always seen Raoul and Christine´s relationship as being perfect.
"Jean if I tell you all this, will you promise me to never tell anyone about it? Not even your wife. I wish to give Angeline a good upbringing and she doesn't deserve to have people know she is really a bastard child."
"Raoul I will never tell a living soul. To the rest of society Angeline will be your daughter".
"Thank you Jean, you are a true friend. You see Christine´s father died when she was very young and she came into the care of Madame Giry at the Paris Opera House.
She worked and lived there during her upbringing. She received singing lessons from a mysterious teacher. Over the years he developed certain affections for Christine, and I later learned that she shared his feelings".
Raoul got up to get a drink, it was a hard story to tell and he needed something to keep him strong.
Jean silently accepted the drink Raoul offered him. He could hardly believe all the things that lay behind his friend´s relationship with Christine.
Raoul took a deep breath before he continued his story.
"When I came back into Christine´s life I realized I truly loved her. She was glad to see me again, and I think she in some way misunderstood her own feelings for me. She thought she loved me the way I loved her. She didn´t have those feelings for long, but it was enough to cause great distress for her angel".
"Her angel…?", Jean was confused.
"She called her teacher her Angel of Music. It was a tale her father used to tell her. That he would send her the Angel of Music when he died.
Anyway, her angel was truly a man, who had lived under the opera house for years due to a horrible disease that had distorted one side of his face. When Christine and I started speaking again he began to do desperate things to prove his love to her".
"Christine was suddenly scared of the man she had trusted and I was of course more than happy to comfort her. It all got really messed up and in the end he threatened to kill me if Christine did not chose to live her life with him".
"But… why is she here then, if you should be dead if she didn´t choose this man", Jean was beyond confused at that point.
"Christine did choose him, she kissed him to prove her love for him, but for some reason he didn´t believe her. He changed his mind and told us to leave together", Raoul explained.
"She did not want to leave though, I had to drag her away. By that point I knew she didn´t love me, but I feared he would kill us both if we didn´t leave".
"So you took Christine with you and the man died?", Jean asked.
"We don´t know for sure if he died. I went back to the Opera house with Christine a few days later, but everything in the house he had made for himself was destroyed and there was no sign of him. Christine was miserable for months. If it wasn't for Angeline I think she would have died of a broken heart", Raoul finished.
The two men sat in silence for some time each taking in the story in their own way.
Their thoughts were interrupted by a soft knock on the door.
Christine and Mirabelle Renard entered the room.
"Darling", Mirabelle said "It is getting late, we should be going".
Jean pulled himself together and got up from his seat.
"Yes my dear you are right, I will have the carriage come to the door", he said.
Christine and Raoul was say their goodbyes to the Renard couple and Jean grabbed Raoul´s hand firmly.
"Thank you for tonight my friend", he said "You can count on me".
Raoul´s grateful look was response enough.
As Raoul bent his head to give Christine a good night kiss on her cheek before she entered her room,she caught the sad look in his eyes.
"Raoul is something wrong", she asked with concern.
"I told him Christine. I told Jean everything about the Opera house, you, me and Angeline"
"Oh Raoul I´m sorry, I know it is hard for you", Christine gently put her arms around him.
"No Christine it is fine. It was good to talk about it, I need to stop fooling myself, but I´m glad both you and Angeline are here", he said with a wee smile.
"Have you heard from Madame Giry lately", he suddenly asked.
Christine looked to the floor. "Yes, her and Meg are in England. Meg is getting a job at a theatre there", she said.
"And…?"; Raoul asked hesitantly.
"No, she has heard nothing from Erik. He must be dead Raoul, though my heart will not believe so", she almost whispered.
Raoul hugged Chrsitine gently.
"He will always be with you Christine, all you have to do is look into your daughter's eyes".
"How do you know if she has Erik's eyes", Christine asked.
"Believe me Christine, she does" Raoul smiled. "She will turn out to be a great girl, and I will do all I can to help you give her a great upbringing", he said as he let her out of his embrace.
Christine read the last few lines of the letter for the millionth time
I have still not received any word on Erik, I am sorry my dear, but never give up the hope you carry in your heart.
Yours sincerely
A. Giry.
'Oh Erik', Christine thought, 'I so wish you could meet your little girl, just once.'
She softly kissed Angeline´s cheek and blew out the candle as she got into her bed.
Her dreams were filled with lovely music and her child´s sweet laughter…..
Phew that was a long one, hope you enjoyed it.
Wish you all a great weekend:)