by LiltingBanshee
Author´s note: Thank you all so much for the support to this story. I was very nervous when I started, about whether the idea was good at all and if I would get ideas enough to actually get a story out of it. With all your support it seems to be writing itself:)
Clayphan16: Yeah I know she's younger than Christine in the movie, but I came to think of my own "older sister" whom I seem to be always looking out for, and I think Christine could feel the same protectiveness for Meg as I do for my sis. Thanks for reading:)
Shdwcat27: Thank you, here's the next, hope you like:)
Pinkichigomewmew: Thanks;)
Here's chapter 6…
Angeline pressed down the ivory key on the piano to end her tune.
Her mother ended her song beautifully on the same note.
Raoul who had watched the mother/daughter performance gave an enthusiastically applause.
He stood up and kissed Christine's cheek and squeezed Angeline´s shoulder.
"You are an amazing pair", he said proudly.
At that moment one of their young servants entered the room.
"Monsieur, there is a messenger boy at the door for you", she said.
Raoul left the room and Christine turned to her daughter. She ruffled her dark curls and smiled at her.
"You are becoming an amazing pianist my darling", she said with love in her voice.
"Thank you Mamma", Angeline blushed slightly.
"It was a wonderful song Mamma, all the opera songs you know are so beautiful".
"Would you like to learn the song sweetheart?" Christine asked her.
"Oh, that would be great Mamma, but you know I can't carry a tone", Angeline chuckled.
Christine sighed, it was in fact true. Angeline was fantastic at the piano. She could play anything, but she was hopeless at singing. Not that Christine hadn't tried to teach her, but the young girl simply didn't seem to have the talent.
"Well, you should probably get dressed for tonight anyway. Remember the Renard couple is coming for dinner", Christine said.
Angeline got up from the piano bench and hugged her mother.
"Don't worry about the singing Mamma, not everyone can have your talent", Angeline said with a smile.
Raoul came back into the room holding a letter. He didn't look too pleased.
"Raoul is everything all right?", Christine asked.
"It's a note from Mirabelle Renard. Jean has fallen ill, so they can't make it to dinner tonight", he answered.
"Oh, I'm sorry. Is it something serious?", Christine asked with concern.
"She doesn't say, but Jean is rarely ill, so I'm a bit worried", he said
"Do you think you should go see him?", Christine said.
"Maybe I should", Raoul´s voice indicated that he was slightly more concerned than he wanted to show.
"Look, there is no reason for you two beautiful girls to spend the evening alone here in the house. Why don't you head off to the party Meg and Matthew are having tonight and I will go see Jean", Raoul offered.
Judging from the sparkle in Angeline´s brown eyes, Raoul knew he had said the right thing.
"Oh please Mamma, can we go? Meg will be so happy!", Angeline exclaimed.
Christine eyes Raoul to make sure he meant what he said. He nodded with a smile
Christine turned to her daughter. "Yes angel we can go", she said.
"Great, I'll go pick out a dress" Angeline made it upstairs quickly.
Christine touched Raoul´s arm softly.
"Are you sure this is all right" she asked him.
"Yes of course Christine. Meg will be delighted. Just want to check on Jean, I'm sure it's no big deal", he said.
"Thank you", Christine said and hugged him. "Give my best to Jean and Mirabelle".
"Christine, Angeline! What are you doing here?" Meg asked with delighted surprise as she saw them enter the front door.
Christine hugged her friend tightly.
"Jean Renard is ill, so we they cancelled dinner, Raoul has gone to see him, so we thought we'd come here", she said.
"Oh, I'm sorry for Jean, but I'm so glad you could come. We are just about to start dinner", Meg said as she let them through the house to the dining room.
The party was great and Christine was happy they had come. Angeline seemed to enjoy herself too.
She took time to play with her cousins, though they were younger than her.
Meg's five children definitely held a special place in Angeline´s heart.
Christine always wished she could have given her siblings, but there had never been any man she would have wanted children with.
There was only one man for her, and if she couldn't have him she would have no one.
'Erik,', she thought. 'If only you could see your daughter now. How wonderful she has turned out to be. You would have loved her so dearly, and she would have worshipped you'.
She was brought back from her thoughts by Meg who sat down next to her.
"Christine, I´, so glad you came", she said and squeezed her friend's hand.
"I'm glad to be here Meg. It's been so long since I've seen you", Christine said.
"Well, those five little monkeys do keep me busy", Meg laughed. "And soon there will be another one in the litter", she said and put a hand on her stomach.
"Oh Meg are you serious?"; Christine said with delight. "That's wonderful!".
"Yes I'm very excited. Though Andrew says he'll rather have a dog", Meg grinned.
Andrew was her oldest child and he wasn't always too happy with his four younger sisters.
"Just tell him he could be getting a little brother to help him control the girls", Christine laughed.
"Yes he would like that", Meg said. "I will just go and ask my mother if she will make sure the children gets to bed soon. We'll talk some more when I get back", Meg said and got up.
Shortly after Meg left Angeline came and sat down next to her mother.
"Are you enjoying yourself my sweet?", Christine asked and tucked a piece of hair behind her daughter's ear.
"Yes very much", Angeline said. "The children are great fun".
"That's good", Christine said. "The music will probably begin soon and the small ones are being put to bed. You should go to the ballroom, I'm sure your uncle Matthew would love to have a waltz with you".
"Argh", Angeline pulled a funny face. "He always wants to dance. It's embarrassing", she whined tough with a smile.
Christine laughed. "Go on angel, it's an uncle's right to embarrass his niece once in a while. I'll be here talking to Meg", she said and gave Angeline a soft nudge to get up from the seat.
Angeline went into the ballroom where all the other guests were already dancing and talking. She knew most of the people there, friends of Meg and Matthew's.
She was quickly spotted by her uncle who came over to her.
"My dear niece, would you please join me in the next waltz", he asked.
"Sure uncle Matthew, I'd be happy to", Angeline did like to dance and Matthew wasn't too bad.
As the music changed into a waltz he grabbed her hand and let her to the dance floor.
"It was great you could come tonight", Matthew said while they danced. "It's so lovely to see how you play with the children".
"Thank you uncle, I enjoy their company", Angeline said. " I taught Katherine to play a simple tune on the piano".
"How sweet of you Angeline. Speaking of piano, would you do me the honor of playing something for our guests?", Matthew asked.
"I would love to", Angeline said delighted.
When Matthew had brought the guests´attention to their young performer, Angeline sat down on the piano bench and put her fingers on the ivory keys.
After playing three beautiful pieces she bowed to the applauding audience and stepped back on the dance floor.
Matthew came to hug her.
"Thank you my dear. It was absolutely wonderful", he said. "Now you deserve a glass of mild cider. Go sit on the divan and I'll fetch you one".
Moments later Angeline was sitting on the divan slowly swinging with her legs and enjoying the party and her cider.
She felt a shadow fall upon her and looked up to see a man standing in front of her.
"Excuse me young mademoiselle, were you the one playing the piano before?", he asked her.
"Oui monsieur that was me", she said
"I have to say I'm very impressed", he said with a voice that for some reason made Angeline feel very safe.
"May I have a seat?" he asked.
"Oh yes, please sit down" Angeline moved over to give him more space.
He looked at her. She was beautiful, sitting there in her green dress and with a green hair band to hold her dark curls back from her face.
He would recognize those dark curls anywhere, but her eyes puzzled him. He didn't recall seeing such dark brown eyes before.
Her eyes had been sparkling blue he remembered.
"So tell me", he said "you must have had great piano teachers".
"Angeline shook her head. "No not really. My mother taught me a few things, but she didn't know too many tunes. My Papa has a friend whose wife can play and she helped me. But I quickly learned to listen to melodies and the find the right keys on the piano".
He was actually a bit surprised, that she had been allowed to be a musical child. He had thought that all music would have been banned in that house.
"So your father encouraged you to play?", he asked.
"Yes, he really enjoys music. Especially when I play and mamma sings", Angeline said.
"Your mother sings? Do you sing as well?", he asked
"Oh, no. I am very bad at singing. I can't really hit the right notes, and not at all hold them", Angeline grinned slightly.
That surprised him, he had expected her to be an excellent singer.
"May I be so frank to ask your name mademoiselle?", he asked.
"Certainly, my name is Angeline. Mamma named me that because she says I was like an angel when I was born", Angeline smiled.
"That's beautiful, I'm Erik", he said and stuck his hand out to her.
She grabbed it firmly "Pleased to meet you Erik. You seem very interested in music".
"Yes I love music, I used to play a lot, but I haven't done so for some time now", he said.
"Why did you stop?", Angeline asked with interest.
"Something bad happened in my life and I guess I lost some of the motivation", the look in his eyes turned sad, Angeline noticed.
She liked his eyes. The dark brown irises seemed familiar to her, but she couldn't recall ever meeting him. And she sure would have remembered meeting a man who whore a black half mask.
"It's the same with my mother", she told him.
"She used to sing a lot, but then she had her heart broken and didn´t want to sing for a long time. She only just started again when she decided to try and teach me when I was about 6 years old".
"And how old are you now?", he asked.
"I´m 16, nearly 17 though", she smiled.
"That´s good age", he said. "I knew a girl your age one who sang beautifully, but she disappeared". He looked very sad and Angeline felt her heart ache for him.
"I´m sorry", she said and put her hand on his.
""My father disappeared too and made my Mamma very sad".
"Your father is gone?", he sounded quite surprised.
"Yes, he disappeared some time before I was born. There was a great fire in his house and he and my mother got separated. When she went back a few days later he was nowhere to be found", Angeline said.
He felt dizzy, he couldn´t believe it – she had come back to look for him!
He pulled himself together to ask the next question
"So did your mother ever find love again?".
"No never. She had a great childhood friend in the Vicomte de Chagny and he let her stay in his house and took good care of us both. I have always treated him as my Papa, but my real father have had a special place in my heart through all the years, though I´ve never met him", Angeline finished and looked at him.
He saw the tears in her eyes and it took all his willpower not to throw his arms around her and tell her it would all be fine, her Papa was here now.
After finding his voice again her asked her "Do you think your mother would care to sing a song for me?".
"I don´t know, she doesn´t really sing in front of anyone but Papa and me, and with all the guests here….", Angeline trailed off.
"There is a piano in one of the other rooms, You could maybe play along?", he couldn´t let go of this.
"Let´s go ask her", Angeline said as she stood up and stretched her hand out to him.
Meg and Christine´s conversation was interrupted by a knock on the door soon followed by Angeline and someone else.
"Mamma this is….."
"Erik?", Christine gasped.
"Hello Christine", he said.
It´s getting very late, so this is all for now;)