III. Let me be your Shelter
Raoul de Chagny lounged in an armchair in front of the ornate fireplace, reading the newspaper. Or at least this was what he was trying to do. The truth was that he was too uneasy, too nervous to take in anything of the paper's contents. He should not have let them go on their own! How could he ever had agreed to anything like that? Yes, Christine had assured him it was totally safe, and somehow she had managed to smother his protests with throwing him one of those marvellous smouldering looks through her eyelashes. But this was the last time she did that, he assured himself, the very last time! Never again would he allow her to wander off on her own! Not with a killer on the loose somewhere.
Of course, Christine was not alone, Meg was with her, and they had taken the coach, but her childhood friend, the coachman and the footman could be scarcely considered a protection against this… man. And he was lurking somewhere out there right now, Raoul knew it. If he had any sense, he would not return to the Opera House right now. And Raoul was sure that he had sense enough for that. He might be mad, but he was also dangerously sophisticated. And forgetting this might well be the last mistake one would ever make.
He should never have let them go.
Countless times Raoul had considered to go out and look for them, but he had no idea where they were, secretive as they had been upon their departure, and Paris was a large city. They could be anywhere.
Why had Christine insisted to go without him, anyway?
With a groan of frustration, Raoul dropped the paper and slumped back into the armchair. They shouldn't have stayed here at all, he and Christine. He should have grabbed her and taken her far, far away, where nobody would find her.
Yes, they would go away. As soon as Christine returned, they would prepare to depart for the family's mason in the country. This was not exactly far away, but it would do for now.
The only difficulty would be explaining to his parents what was going on. What had happened at the Opera Populaire last night was in the papers, or at least part of it, but the rest of the story… He had not informed them of his engagement yet, for a start.
His mother would be angry.
With another agonized groan, Raoul reached for the packet of cigarettes on the table beside him. He was a rather unconvinced smoker, especially if compared to his father, who enjoyed cigars, but there were some occasions which called for it. And this was one of them. Lighting the cigarette rather unenthusiastically, he wondered if going abroad might be an option. To England, perhaps.
His mother would never let him travel anywhere together with a young woman he wasn't yet married to.
Was there any other option? Anything else they could do to escape that demon's clutches?
The smoke from the cigarette produced an unpleasant, stinging sensation in his nostrils, and he held the offending thing as far away from him as possible while trying to make his pose look nonchalant – one of the servants might be watching.
No, there was nothing he could do apart from sit and wait, and never again allow Christine to leave his eyeshot until they found a better solution.
And maybe this might be a nice explanation for his parents, that he was just being protective of his childhood playmate.
Yes, until they found out that Christine had moved into his bedroom.
His mother was going to kill him.
The cigarette smoke began to cause a faint feeling of nausea in his stomach, and he flung the wretched thing in the direction of the fireplace hard. Yet what he had forgotten was that hurling light objects over some distance and still hitting the target was a lot more difficult than it looked, and soon he found himself stamping out the smouldering patch on the carpet, cursing to himself. What a foul, horrible day! This was the last time he let Christine wander off on her own, and the last time he smoked just as well! He didn't like it anyway. And a gentleman really didn't have to smoke, for pity's sake!
Agitated as he was, he did not sit down again, but started pacing the length of the living room and back instead, his face gloomier than ever. Why did a day like this, a day meant to be lovely, have to turn out that awful? It had started so splendidly, after all, with him waking up beside Christine, and all those pleasant memories from last night coming back to him… He still couldn't quite stifle a little snicker when thinking of it. And this was what came later on, his worries, and atop that a hole in the expensive carpet.
His mother was truly going to kill him…
Maybe there was some way to blame it all on this Phantom fellow?
At the sudden sound of the key being turned in the lock, he jumped, then raced out into the hall as fast as he could. This earned him a surprised look from the butler, but he didn't care. Christine was back! Christine was safe! He felt like leaping up to the ceiling with joy.
The door opened, and he rushed to meet her before the butler could take her cloak, hugging her tight, twirling her around happily. "Finally! I was so worried about you!"
"Worried?" She frowned at him, though answering the hug. "We were only gone for two hours."
"That's time enough for something to happen to you", Raoul pointed out.
"Oh, Raoul! What should have happened?"
"Him", Raoul answered grimly. "He's still around somewhere, don't forget that."
"Yes, but he wouldn't harm me", she said confidently. "I'd rather expect him to turn up here to deal with you."
"He can try", Raoul said, scowling, hugging her even tighter. Only then he noticed that the butler, with Meg's cloak already over his arm, was giving him a very disapproving look, and quickly stepped back and took Christine's dark blue cloak himself, then handed it over to the man. The butler still didn't look convinced, though.
Meg was standing behind Christine, with a little smile playing around her lips. She was pretty enough, yet it always seemed to Raoul that she appeared dimmed beside Christine's radiance. Realizing he had not greeted her yet, he strode over to hug her, too, though this hug was much shorter and didn't involve twirling her about, only lifting her off her feet for a moment.
Behind his back, Christine giggled. "Like a puppy, isn't he?"
A puppy? He decided that he needed to have a word with her in private some time. "Anyway", he ploughed on determinedly, "does not harming you include picking you up and carrying you away to some dark place where he can paw you in peace?"
"Honestly, Raoul", Christine protested"he's hardly going to do anything of that sort in broad daylight and in the middle of a busy street. Besides, he has never yet tried to paw me."
"He wasn't reluctant to do that all on stage", Raoul pointed out. "And he pawed you alright, I've seen him do it."
"Yes, but that was something else", Christine explained in a tone which sounded suspiciously like strained patience. Strained patience? What was he doing wrong"He can't just abduct me in the middle of a crowded street, as I said. And I'd like to see how he manages to do his trapdoor trick, then. And he only touched me; pawing ought to feel different. Can we move on to the living room now?"
Biting his tongue in frustration, Raoul stood back and let the women pass. Was he just imagining things, or was the butler really giving him a smug look? Moreover, Christine and Meg were giggling with their heads together. Had Meg really just said, "Has Raoul yet pawed you?" Oh, he could have screamed!
Following them into the living room, he tried hard to regain his composure. Christine just had to see that she was endangering herself! God, if anything happened to her, he would never be able to forgive himself, never in his life.
Christine and Meg took a seat on the sofa, and at first Raoul wanted to join them, but then he remembered the blackened patch on the carpet and chose to stand by the fireplace, with one foot firmly covering the evidence of his earlier mishap. "Now listen here", he began immediately, "you're being far too reckless. I should never have let you set foot out of the house alone. There's a murderer stalking the streets somewhere, and it's you he wants, however hard you try to deny it. What were you two doing that I couldn't come, anyway?" he added. Not that he was jealous, certainly not. It was just… He did not like the idea.
"It was for our wedding, Raoul. No need to be suspicious." Suspicious? Him?"We were just looking around."
"Oh, for Heaven's sake!" Raoul cried. "Who is planning their wedding, you and me, or rather you and Meg?"
Immediately after it was uttered, he regretted his outburst. However, there was no need to apologize, for both Meg and Christine were having one of their fits of giggles again. "Oh, Raoul, you're so sweet!" Christine exclaimed. "Really! Oh, you should see the look on your face!" Bounding to her feet, she rushed over to him and threw her arms around his neck, almost knocking him out of balance. "If we weren't already engaged, I'd ask you to marry me straight away!"
"Christine…", he began, but she silenced him by gently, yet determinedly putting a hand over his mouth. "You can't possibly know how grateful I am to you", she said earnestly. Her face was very close to his, and those beautiful dark eyes gave him a tingly feeling somewhere around his stomach. "But you mustn't worry about me that much. I don't want you to worry just because of me."
"But I love you!" he protested, taking her hand away from his face and holding it tightly in his, caressing the back of her hand with his thumb. "You can't keep me from worrying, not even by telling me I mustn't." Heavens, she was just so very beautiful. And she seemed so small in his arms, so fragile… "Promise me you won't go out without me again", he whispered into her hair.
"Raoul…"
"Please", he tried.
And suddenly she giggled again. "Oh, alright, if you really want to… But you'll be expected to carry shopping bags and put up with girls' talk then."
"We'll force you to look at dresses endlessly", Meg suggested from the sofa.
"We'll talk about really girlish things." Christine was still giggling. "Embroidery and laces. Horribly romantic things."
"And what we find hot in a man", Meg grinned.
Raoul raised his eyebrows at her over Christine's curly head. "I might find that instructive, you know."
"Or maybe you might feel jealous?" Meg asked innocently.
Raoul smiled. "As long as you let me stay at her side and protect her, you'll find that I can put up with anything." Yes, anything. Just as long as he could be with her and shelter her from all those nightmares from the past.
