A/N: Thank you all so much for the continued good reviews. This chapter proved rather difficult for me to write, and although it meant moving in a direction I had no initially anticipated, I believe in the end it will make for a better overall story. I apologize in advance for the cliffhanger. Please read and review.
Adrienne went back to her room to ready herself for her engagement that evening. Her current paramour was the second son of a duke, very rich, and quite handsome. Naturally, he had a fiancée and as she was of noble birth as well, he had to have someone to slake his desires on. He paid her well for her attentions, and he was certainly not the worst lover she'd ever had. He took his time, and he seemed to actually be concerned that she receive pleasure from their encounters. Adrienne was hopeful that he might make her his official mistress once he married the girl because she feared her tenure at the Metropolitan would soon be coming to an end.
Ever since the arrival of the new ballet mistress Madame Giry and the new director, Monsieur Reyer, she had felt her position becoming more tenuous, the main reason being that she had slept with the previous director regularly to insure her supremacy over Gianna Burnside. When she had initially joined the company a little over a year ago as a member of the chorus, the position of lead mezzo soprano had recently become vacant and the assumption had been that since Gia had been there for years, it was hers for the taking. Although Adrienne was a newcomer to the opera house, she had boldly suggested to the director that he hold open auditions and he had agreed with her. Gia had sung well, but not her best, perhaps because of the recent death of her mother, and Adrienne had taken advantage of that. To be certain that she would get the designation as a principle she had offered herself to the director. The ploy had worked and Gia had been relegated to the position of understudy, although she acted like it didn't bother her in the least.
But Monsieur Reyer could not be manipulated with sex. His only concern was what was best for the opera house and the production being mounted. She could tell that he preferred Gianna's interpretation of The Magic Flute to hers. It was only a matter of time before he would inform Dupoix that Adrienne would have to be demoted. Adrienne saw a demotion as a public humiliation she could not stand for. She had clawed her way out of the gutter, and she was not going back.
Her mother had been a dancer in a small touring company who had this misfortune of getting herself pregnant by another dancer who abandoned her and the company in short order. Adrienne had started performing almost from the time she could walk, and her mother had encouraged her to work hard to continually improve herself. She had loved singing and dancing equally, but her mother had said there was a more secure, prestigious future in singing. Dancers were often seen as little more than whores, but singers, particularly opera singers were often revered and quite fashionable in Paris.
At sixteen she stopped dancing regularly and focused completely on singing. She had a good voice and a good ear for music, but she had struggled with learning the words to many of the arias and choruses. She had never had much formal schooling, and she could barely read French as it was. To her consternation operas were often written in Italian, and that meant learning her parts phonetically most of the time. The one thing she had envied Gia for was her education. She had been amazed when she first arrived at the Metropolitan how well Gia could speak in more than one language, and it was then when the first seeds of resentment had been sown.
Adrienne's vocal range had kept her from becoming a diva, but with her dark grey eyes and raven black hair, her looks had gotten her noticed. At fourteen she was approached for the first time about being paid for sex, and it had shocked her. She told her mother whose only response was to ask how much the gentleman had offered for her. She coldly informed Adrienne that this was the way of the world, but she should be careful not to let herself go cheaply, particularly since there were men who would pay a fortune for a virgin. Less than a month after that her mother arranged for her first lover, and since that time she had never been without a patron for longer than a week. In addition, she had occasionally taken lovers among the people with she worked.
Sex had made Adrienne a woman before her time. For her it was a commodity to get what she needed, and had little to do with love. She rarely enjoyed it, and saw it as a hassle most of the time. Getting undressed wrinkled her clothes and mussed her hair, and the touching and sweat that went along with fucking ruined her carefully applied makeup. But men could not do without it, and the money was excellent for something that often did not last long. At least as a part of the arrangements, the gentlemen usually took her to dinner or perhaps a play which was much more interesting to her than what came afterward. Over the years however, she had learned to play along, moaning and crying out appropriately to satisfy her customers.
Most women in her position did the same. The salary paid by the Metropolitan was not enough to meet all of her expenses. The men paid for the fine clothes and scent that she could not otherwise begin to afford. It had never been a consideration that it was only optional. But then there was Gianna Burnside, a woman with no lovers, who seemed content to live simply and behaved as though she had no ambition. Women like that could never be trusted. It would only be a matter of time before she would succumb to a man, and Adrienne was determined that she would not get the best of her.
She lived for the day when she would have the wherewithal to cease performing both on stage and in men's beds. If anyone was going to land a wealthy man to take her away from this cursed place, it would be her! Not the old dried up former dancer! She had to get rid of her in some way, and she knew it would not be easy. Gia was popular with the staff and Monsieur Dupoix had always protected her. It would take a scandal for her to be dismissed. Having a lover would not be enough. There had been something about the man she had glimpsed with Gia that had reminded her of something, but at the moment she could not place it.
She went into her wardrobe and began selecting clothes for the evening. She chose a deep blue gown that was heavily embellished with embroidery on the bodice and the skirts. Setting it aside on her bed, she sat down at her vanity to arrange her hair and apply what she often thought of as her war paint. It was as she sat before the mirror she remembered the tales she had once heard about a spirit that came for young girls through mirrors and whisked them off to ravish them. She had thought it was just a story until the business with the Phantom of the Opera had made it onto the front pages of all the Parisian papers.
At the time, Adrienne had been singing in a small light opera company, and although she had heard some of the stories that strange, mysterious things often happened at the Opera Populaire she had paid them no mind. But then the opera house was destroyed, and she could vividly recall asking her lover at the time, whose name or face she could not recall, to tell her about what happened. It seemed the Phantom was not a specter at all, but a lunatic man who kidnapped the newest opera diva onstage and when he was unmasked, he cut down the chandelier and escaped with her. She had been rescued by the Viscomte de Chagny who married her shortly thereafter.
The pieces began to fall in place in her mind, and Adrienne came to the conclusion that Gia's lover must be the mysterious Phantom. The man she had seen had worn a mask, and that hidden passage no doubt led to where he lived beneath the opera house. No wonder Gia had been given such a large part in Giselle! The besotted Phantom must have insisted on it and threatened the manager in some way. It was almost too good to be true. This was the perfect way to finally rid herself of Gianna Burnside.
Dupoix would be incredulous when he learned that his dearest Gia had been dallying with the notorious Phantom of the Opera. He would have to discharge her. Adrienne's eyes darkened with her triumph. If that was not enough for Dupoix she could simply report Gia to the gendarmes. The Phantom was still a wanted man, and for Gia to be keeping his existence a secret must be some sort of crime. Why, there might even be some sort of financial reward in it for her! Perhaps she would finally be able to retire.
Adrienne finished dressing, and met her gentleman for an evening of dinner and dancing. She found herself quite distracted most of night, and she was most anxious for the night to be finished with. She found it difficult to feign pleasure as Henri had labored over her that night, and he had noticed. For once she did not care if her partner was dissatisfied. Tomorrow there would be no opportunity to meet with Dupoix, but come Monday after rehearsal she would expose Gia and her erstwhile lover. That was more important to her than losing a paying customer. He was easily replaced, there was no replacement for revenge on her rival.
Erik and Gia spent the rest of Saturday and all of Sunday together. To be sure, a good deal of it was spent making love, but they also ate together, and Gia insisted on helping Erik with the food even though she knew nothing about cooking. After she managed to ruin a saucepan by blackening the contents beyond recognition, he insisted that she would best be of help by staying out of the kitchen. She had apologized, and later that evening asked him to show her how to wash dishes. They had ended up soaking wet, covered in bubbles, and so hot for each other that they barely made it to the bedroom.
Laughter and happiness was the one constant that weekend. In his lair, it was as if they were the only two people alive, and neither seemed to want anything beyond that. On Sunday morning, he sat down at the organ and began to play for her Mozart's great Requiem, but she had stopped him, saying that despite its beauty, it was far too gloomy for him to play. He had humored her, and instead he began to play something she had not heard before. The music was wondrously passionate, and then he began to sing to her of complete submission and she realized this music could only be from his ill starred opera.
She would not ruminate on the fact it had been written for Christine, she could love the music in its own right. He motioned for her to sit down next to him while he played, and she closed her eyes and simply savored the music. When the duet ended, he stopped playing and asked her what she thought of it.
"You know how good it is Erik. You do not need my approbation. I have heard nothing quite like it," she commented honestly.
The compliment pleased him, and she continued, "Such a shame the premiere was a disaster. You really should submit it to another opera house and see if they will mount the production. Perhaps in Germany—"
"You wish me to leave you?" he said, surprised she would advocate him relocating.
"No, but your work is too good to remain unperformed. I was merely suggesting that in Germany they might be more receptive to your music. You would not need to be the Phantom there to have it played," she reasoned aloud.
She was probably right. His type of music just might find its audience there. It might allow him to put the Phantom completely in the past. He could not imagine setting that part of his life aside so easily. One of the reasons he had come back to Paris was that he was comfortable here. He knew the city like he knew every imperfection of his face. Intimately. He had enjoyed his travels abroad to some extent, but no place had ever felt like home. Increasingly though, home was wherever Gia was.
"Would you come with me? If I wanted you to come with me, would you leave this place for me?"
Gia had never been anywhere else. The Metropolitan and Paris were the only places she had ever known. All of her traveling had come through the books she had read over the years. His question implied that they would make a life together, perhaps even holding themselves out as man and wife. It was a most tantalizing offer, and one her heart longed to accept.
"Erik, are you saying that you would be willing to leave here, with me, and live as a normal couple out in the world?" she asked him, wanting to ascertain his true sentiments.
That was what he was suggesting, wasn't it? How utterly ridiculous! One little stroll around Paris and he was ready to take on the world with her at his side. If he didn't know himself better, he might have thought he had been drinking. "Well, I, yes, I suppose that's what I meant, but you are correct, it would not be wise," he amended.
"I never said that. I just wanted to know if you were serious. If I am going to leave everything I know behind, I need to know if you mean it."
"Assuming I am serious, would you come with me if I asked you?" he asked again.
"Hypothetically speaking, yes I would," she answered him, looking at him directly in the eyes. He blinked back her as though he was surprised she would say such a thing, but he said nothing further on the subject. The matter was closed for the moment, and it would not be brought up by either of them for the rest of the weekend.
On Monday morning, they both rose early, and prepared for the day. For the first time they dressed in front of each other, and despite the awkwardness, Gia allowed him to help her fasten the buttons on her practice outfit. Rehearsals were set to begin on the main stage, and Erik was quite excited about attending them. Gia had refused to dance for him in his chamber, claiming that the uneven terrain was impossible to work on. She had however done some stretching exercises which had been most enjoyable to watch.
Although they traveled to the surface together, they separated as Erik was going to the theater to find a safe spot to observe from and Gia needed to report to the practice rooms for warm up. Erik ensconced himself in a plush luxury box and listened to the orchestra run through its scales with the ever capable Reyer leading them. The dancers filed in about a half hour later with Madame Giry in complete command. As Act II featured the most dancers and had the most difficult dancing, save for Giselle's solo that ended Act I, that was where they would begin this morning.
The Act opened with Hilarion and his hunting party coming across Giselle's grave in a forest, then when the church bells tolled midnight, they all fled, save the foolish young man. It was at this point the Wilis made their entrance, led by Gia as their Queen. She glided across the stage holding in her right hand an old conductor's baton that Madame Giry had impressed in service from Monsieur Reyer. The corps de ballet trailed after her, and Gia circled the grave, beaconing the ghost of Giselle to join them. Meg emerged from a trapdoor beneath the stage and took her place as the newest of the Wilis.
The choreography that Madame Giry had devised looked much simpler than it was. The steps were not overly difficult from what he could see, but in the corps, if one person made a mistake it would stand out amongst the precision. Giry stopped and started the girls several times pointing out errors that even he did not notice. As he expected, Gia was doing some struggling, evidently the more public nature of this rehearsal was bringing on an attack of nerves. It was not that she was getting the steps wrong, she just seemed tentative, which was something a queen should never be.
Had the rehearsal continued in that fashion, Erik might have found himself losing interest. However, after Madame Giry had them return to the entrance of the Wilis, he observed Adrienne Leveau pouting, frustrated that she was not the center of attention. As they went through the movements, he saw the girl shift her weight subtly when Gia danced past her, the effect of which threw the entire group off balance. A few moments later, she delayed bringing up her arms over her head, and Gia ran into them, which caused her to take a nasty spill.
"You need to watch where you are going!" she said as the music stopped. The young mezzo soprano stood over Gia's sprawled form with a look of superiority on her face. "Madame Giry, I would never propose to tell you how to do your job, but don't you think Mademoiselle Burnside should have an understudy? One of these days, she's going to hurt herself with all her clumsiness, and where will the ballet be then?"
Gia picked herself up off the stage, her face red, but said nothing in response to her. She merely walked into the wings, chalked up her toe shoes, returned to the stage and begged Madame Giry's indulgence for upsetting her rehearsal. From his position, Erik thought, "Well played my dear." Nearly everyone present had to have seen that Gia was not the cause of the collision. By refusing to comment on it, she immediately showed more class and breeding than Adrienne. The young woman was already fuming that Gia had resisted the temptation to employ her occasionally caustic tongue.
Following that, Madame Giry asked the corps to step aside so she could work with Gia and Jean-Paul on Hilarion's dance to death. Erik would have liked to have watched the proceedings, but he noticed that Adrienne was chatting rather animatedly with a couple of the chorus girls whose faces were rapt. Whatever was she telling them? Thankful no one should be in the flies at this stage of the rehearsal, he made his way there so he could discover the content of the conversation.
"Do you think Madame Giry will make you Gia's understudy?" one of the girls asked.
"I don't see why not. I have experience, and I'm certainly as good as she is. If that old bitch Giry passes me over, it will only be because Gia and her daughter have become rather close of late. And speaking of dear Meg, is it just me, or am I the only person disappointed in her? I heard she was a great dancer, but from what I've seen she's nothing out of the ordinary," she sneered loudly.
If there had been a backdrop handy, Erik would have sent it crashing down on her. How dare she insult Gia, Meg, and Antoinette? On second thought, there were plenty of sandbags available. He grabbed one, and dangled it over the edge, positioning it so it would strike Adrienne squarely on the head. He was about to allow it to slip through his hands, and then he thought of how much it would displease Gia if he hurt Adrienne deliberately. He set the weight back down, but he must keep a better eye on Mademoiselle Leveau. The stupid chit would never know how close she had come to feeling the full measure of his wrath.
"Listen to me well girls, do not be taken aback if Gianna Burnside is no longer a member of this company much longer," she said, her voice full of mystery and malice.
The statement jarred Erik, and he was determined that he would he would find out what she was up to. He and Gia were not planning on meeting until rehearsals ended for the day, which meant he could monitor Adrienne during the break for lunch. Madame Giry called for the corps de ballet once again, and this time she allowed them to run through as much of the ballet as possible without stopping them for criticism in order to see if any of the steps needed to be reworked. Once they came to the point where Hilarion was getting swept away by Myrta and her Wilis, she called for the orchestra to stop playing, and she banged her cane hard, indicating her frustration. Antoinette was going to have one of her headaches later. She was already rubbing her temples. Unable to stand it any longer, she adjourned the practice until after lunch.
Adrienne practically bolted, her feet scurrying across the floorboards, as she made a bee line for the manager's office. Erik watched as she knocked politely on the door and waited to be admitted. Dupoix came to the door himself, and after a moment asked her in. Once she had entered the office, Erik used one of the passages he had created to gain entrance to the room, and secret himself behind a bookcase. He had not missed much of their conversation, only the pleasantries of introductions, and Dupoix inquiring why Mademoiselle Leveau was in such need to speak with him.
"Adrienne, it is none of my business if Gianna Burnside has taken a lover. She has conducted herself in a manner above reproach at all times. Furthermore, she is a grown woman and she is fully capable of making her own decisions. If that is all, I suggest you leave and get back to rehearsal," the manager intoned as nicely as possible, but it was obvious he wanted her out of his office.
"But her lover is a criminal! How can you defend that!" she cried out.
"You have no proof, Mlle. Leveau. You told me you spied them in a hallway and that the light was low. Perhaps you imagined seeing the mask," said Dupoix icily, not even making eye contact with her. He was more interested in the financial records he was going over than the ranting of a jealous diva.
Enraged the manager would not see matters her way, Adrienne raged at him, "Fine! If you will not do your duty, than I will! I shall inform the gendarmes that you and Mademoiselle Burnside are harboring a wanted man, and then you shall have to deal with them!"
That remark got Dupoix's attention, and he rose from behind the desk, calling out to her, pleading with her not to leave, that they could discuss the matter further, but Adrienne was having none of it. She yanked the door back sharply and slammed it hard into the manager's face.
Shaken, Dupoix ran his hands through his hair, and began to pace around the room speaking to himself. "My God, what am I going to do? I can either face the ire of the Phantom or the authorities. What kind of choice is that? In either case I shall end up dead and ruined!" he exclaimed as he collapsed against the heavy desk. As his head lay among the sheaves of papers, he thought he heard a sound come from inside the room. When he raised his head, the Phantom loomed ominously in front of him. The man's eyes were filled with hate.
"Do not worry, monsieur," thefigure said, "I will take care of this problem for you."
Somehow his words were not much comfort.