Thanks for the reviews... Estelle, thanks to you - I do my best to capture the feelings, and I'm glad to hear I do well G

here is the next part, R&R if you want to... Atrice

Part 24 - the Veil

'He did not do it again!' Lucille sat up with a startle, after a dream about the fight between Erik and Artus, where Erik had been hurt. She had reached out for Erik – he had been by her side when she fell asleep – but now he was gone. Had he left her?

"Erik!" she called, a bit frightened. He promised he would never leave her alone again! Two seconds later the door flew open and she heard Eriks quick steps on the floor and calmed down.

"Lucille? Are you alright?" he said with a caring voice and sat down on the bed, taking her hands in his. She sighed when she finally felt his strong hands.

"I just… had a bad dream… and then I woke up, alone…" she explained. Erik kissed her hands.

"I am here… I was getting breakfast…" he said and left her again – he had put the tray on the floor just outside the room, when he heard Lucille call for him. Soon they had their breakfast together. "So… seal our fate by dawn?" she asked, remembering his song from the night before. Erik smiled and got up again, and placed a box in front of her.

"For you… if you want to change here. I just feel a bride should look… pretty – not that you aren't pretty already, of course…" he suddenly felt a bit foolish in this situation. Lucille opened the box in front of her, and felt the fabric below and took the dress out. She just wished she could see it.

"How does it look?" she said with a sad sigh.

"It's white – the color of purity. With blondes, many of them… I know it will suit you." Erik said and looked down; in his hand he held something Lucille didn't know about. He wanted her to wear it, but he still felt a bit weird about it. Lucille felt it, that he was keeping something from her.

"I am sure it will, Erik. But I sense you have more for me?" she said and walked around the bed to where she knew Erik was standing. She now stood in front of him, feeling that Erik had a strange look on his face, one she couldn't see – she just felt there was something changed about ihm. He felt a bit like a child, who had done something a bit wrong or shameful. Erik finally placed the veil on her head without a word, and she put a hand up to feel it. He was surprised when she removed it to feel it better, let it glide through her hands.

"You… don't like it?" he asked, feeling very uneasy. He should have left it below the Operahouse, not have brought it here! But he couldn't just leave everything behind. He had also brought a little box containing a rose with a black, velvet tie around it – holding a ring. That one, he had promised himself, Lucille would never know about. Erik felt stupid about all this, how Lucille was holding the veil and he really did feel like a child or something. Why did he feel like that?

"Oh, I like it – but who did this belong to, before me, Erik? I am almost sure… it's the one from the doll behind the curtains, right?" Lucille asked, and Erik ripped the veil out of her hands. He should have left it! When had she found the doll of Christine? Did she know everything about his past… how he had controlled the Operahouse, how he had killed people and tried to force Christine into loving him? He began to walk away. "Don't leave me, Erik!" his fiancée called for him. He stopped in the door, and turned around again with a sigh. 'Pull yourself together!' he thought to himself.

"I've just been waiting so long, for someone to listen… one day, I will tell you about it all. But not today... in fact, it's because we haven't got the time. Let's get dressed and – married!" he knew he would have to tell her about Christine really soon, but not today. He hated that he hadn't been able to leave the veil behind. Somehow it meant that he had brought Christine and that the Phantom had come with him too. 'But I am no longer just a Phantom…' he thought.

"Yes… but Erik – no matter what, you know I love you." Lucille said, and went to him where he stood near the door. She opened his fingers and took the veil. "I'll dress… come back in 10 minutes time." She said and went to the bed where the dress still lay.

Erik left the room and Lucille felt where everything was on the dress. She could feel laces on the back of it – a corset sewn into the dress. It did feel really pretty, desirable, and she finally took off the dress she had been wearing since she left her family in Paris. She put on the new weddingdress, and found a comb on the bed table. She felt her hair curl under the comb, and put the veil on her head a short moment before Erik entered.

"How do I look?" she asked and let her hands glide down to feel how the dress fitted her.

"Perfect…" he said through a whisper, as if he almost couldn't understand it. Then he pulled himself together again. "I dressed before you were awake. Come…" he took her hand, led her out of the room, locked the door and they went down on the streets, to walk to the church which he had been corresponding with.