"Love Comes To Those Who Wait"
By Nabira
Disclaimer: I do not own Phantom of the Opera (unfortunately), that belongs to Gaston Leroux. There's a teeny bit of Kay in this chapter (see if you can spot it!) and I don't own that either. I do own Philippe, Isabella, Father Guierre, Claude, Olivier, Isabella's mother (I can't remember what her name is!) and any other original character. Oh, and I own the plot too.
CHAPTER 5
THE NEXT FEW weeks passed by in a flurry of activity. Isabella hardly saw Philippe as he was busy with the few finishing touches on his arrangements for the final few showcase players and Isabella was busy with putting together the details for her trip to England during the month break in November.
If there was one time where she didn't want to go back to England, it was now. She would have much preferred to spend a month with Philippe travelling around France, getting to know the country, than getting on the Eurostar to travel back to the boring old Manor in London.
But unfortunately, her father had requested her presence in London and Isabella could not disobey.
The evening before Isabella left for London, she and Philippe walked through the streets of Paris, enjoying the sights. The entire staff of the Opera Populaire would be leaving in the morning for the month break and while Isabella knew she should probably be using this time to pack, she would much prefer to spend it with Philippe.
Hand in hand they once again walked down the Boulevard des Capucines, neither of them talking, just enjoying each others company. It wasn't long before they got to the Madeline and they stopped on the other side of the road, admiring the beautiful Greek architecture.
"I can't believe it's a church," Isabella whispered to Philippe, the feeling that radiated from the place making her feel it was wrong to talk in more than a murmur.
"Have you ever been inside?" Philippe asked, his voice also low and soft.
Isabella shook her head. Philippe smiled. Giving Isabella's hand a squeeze, he led her across the street and up the stairs to the front door of the building.
The front doors were beautiful and Isabella admired the bas reliefs that signified the Ten Commandments. The interior was just as beautiful and behind the altar was a large statue that showed the ascension of Mary Magdalene. What really caught Isabella's attention, however, was the magnificent pipe organ.
Philippe saw what she was staring at and whispered in her ear, "They still use that for concerts, you know."
Philippe left Isabella staring at it and moved off into another part of the church. It wasn't long before he returned with the priest, the pair talking as though they were old friends. Philippe looked at Isabella and asked, "Do you want to hear the organ?"
Isabella nodded excitedly and Philippe sat down in front of it, launching almost instantly into Bach's Fantasia and Fugue in G minor.
The organ's huge sound surrounded her and she watched Philippe's hands effortlessly move across the keys. The priest stood there smiling and Isabella got the feeling that he somehow knew Philippe. As Philippe finished the Fantasia and launched into the Fugue, the priest closed his eyes, letting the music surround him.
As he finished the piece, both Isabella and the priest jumped into applause and Philippe grinned self consciously.
"It is nice to hear you play again, my boy," the priest said to Philippe, walking over to shake his hand. "I did not know you were in Paris again."
Philippe smiled. "I'm currently working at the Opera House, which is where I met Isabella de Chagny," he said, gesturing for Isabella to move forward. "Isabella, this is Father Guierre, who runs the Madeline."
Isabella smiled and shook the priest's hand. "It is nice to meet you, Monsieur."
The priest smiled. "And you, Mademoiselle," he replied, his face jolly and round. He was a short, slightly chubby man with short grey hair that lay flat on his scalp. Isabella guessed him to be perhaps sixty years old.
Philippe took Isabella's hand and looked at Father Guierre. "We must be off, Father, I apologise."
The priest nodded his head. "I understand," he replied. Looking at Philippe sternly, he said, "I expect to see you in mass, young man, very shortly."
Philippe nodded sheepishly and he and Isabella left, Isabella giggling slightly at the way Philippe had simply obeyed the priest. She had never known him to act like that with anyone.
As they walked back to the Garnier, Isabella asked, "How do you know Father Guierre?"
"The Madeline was my family's church when we lived in Paris," he replied. "My mother is stoutly religious, so we went to mass every Sunday, much to my father's chagrin. I'm not very religious either, so I've stayed away from the Madeline for as long as I can, but my determination to play the organ again has ended that and I'll be expected now to attend mass for as long as I'm in Paris."
Isabella giggled, knowing that Philippe would not be happy having a couple of hours taken from his Sunday to attend mass. "How long ago was it that you lived in Paris?" she asked.
"I was born in Paris," Philippe said. "We moved to the countryside when I was 17, so that was seven years ago. I must say, it was strange leaving the city, but the countryside is much more pleasant."
Isabella smiled in understanding. They walked along silently for a while again and it was not long before they got back to the Garnier.
"I probably won't see you tomorrow as you're leaving early," Philippe said to Isabella, "So I'll say this now. Have a good, safe trip; have fun visiting with your family, and I'll see you soon."
Isabella smiled and hugged Philippe tightly. In return, he placed a light kiss on her head and they stood like that for a few minutes, in the foyer of the Opera. Finally, they parted company, and with a final look at Philippe, Isabella walked up the stairs to her dormitory.
-♥-
ISABELLA'S BROTHER, CLAUDE, met her at the Waterloo station at ten o'clock the next morning. After spending three hours on the train, she was glad to get off.
In the car on their way back to the family home, Isabella chatted constantly about her time in Paris. Claude laughed with her about the funny stories that had happened and was very interested in the pieces she had played, but seemed the most interested when Isabella told him about Philippe.
When they got to the Manor, Isabella grabbed her luggage and quickly carried it up to her bedroom, dumping it on the floor. She then returned to the living room where she found Claude talking to her father.
She kissed her father hello and as she moved to the other side of the room to sit on the adjacent couch, her father looked at her curiously.
"What is this I hear about a boyfriend?" he asked.
Isabella glared at Claude. She had wanted to tell her father herself. Sighing, she said, "His name is Philippe Cuvier. He's a composer working on the Showcase and he also plays piano." Isabella stopped. She had been about to talk of his family's connection to their own, but decided at the last minute that that wouldn't have been a good idea.
"Is he from a good family?" Olivier de Chagny asked, making Isabella feel as though she was eleven years old again.
"Yes, Papa," she replied. "They are a good Christian family and his father owns his own business which Philippe will one day inherit. He has good morals and is a nice person on top of it all."
Olivier sighed. "All right then, Bella," he replied. "Tell me how Paris is."
-♥-
IT WAS NOT long before Isabella was wishing to go back to Paris. Her father had stopped asking questions about Philippe altogether and while her mother asked the usual ones such as 'What does he look like?' and 'How old is he?', she too didn't annoy Isabella too much. However, Claude would not let up. Every day he seemed to ask more and more questions about Philippe and Isabella knew that he was trying to catch her off guard. He believed she was lying about everything she had told them about Philippe and tried at every opportunity to get the 'truth'.
Isabella spent a lot of time, therefore, in the attic, escaping Claude. He would not come up there because he said he was 'allergic to the dust' (Isabella preferred to say that he was a wimp) so Isabella had a lot of time to herself. Most of that time she spent searching through boxes, trying to find things that had belonged to Christine Daae and hoping that she might come across something that had belonged to Erik.
It was two weeks after she had first arrived that Isabella found something worthwhile. In one of the oldest boxes, Isabella found exactly what she had been looking for. It was a double picture frame with two portraits inside it. One was a man who looked extremely like Philippe, the other a woman, who looked like Isabella. However, Isabella knew that this could not be Erik. He wore no mask and he had no blemish on his face. The piece of paper that fell out of the frame explained the two identities, however.
His parents. His mother looks extremely like me, perhaps the reason he turned to me in the first place. His father is what he would have looked like, I believe, if he had not been deformed.
Rescued from the underground lair during one of his tempers. I didn't want to see it ruined.
Isabella picked up the frame and put it in the bag she had brought up with her. She would return it to Philippe; it rightfully belonged in his hands.
She spent the rest of the day still searching but didn't find another thing that was a part of the mystery surrounding Erik and Christine. The diary and photo frame were enough and would return to Paris with her in two weeks time.
-♥-
WHILE PHILIPPE MISSED Isabella dreadfully, he was glad that she wasn't there because it meant he could organise his surprise quite easily without prying eyes.
No one was supposed to be in the Opera House during the month break, but Philippe had learnt of an alternative entrance to the building through Rue Scribe. It led straight into the underground lair, the place where Philippe would be spending most of his time in the next month. He intended to restore the place to its former glory as a surprise for Isabella.
He had a lot of work ahead of him, however. Everything in the house had to go – wood rotted in such a damp climate – and the house itself also needed to be restored thanks to the moisture. So, the first few days were spent clearing the house of all remaining possessions. While some went straight to the dump, Philippe knew that some could be salvaged. There was a lot of sheet music that had been left in the lair and while it had become damaged by water, it was still readable. Philippe decided to take this back to the apartment he was renting, along with a few other trinkets that he had found.
A few weeks later, the lair was just about ready to refurnish, but Philippe knew that it would have to wait. Isabella was to get back the next day and he did not want her to find out about the surprise until it was completely finished.
With one final look around the now sparkling lair, Philippe left through the Rue Scribe entrance and walked through Paris back to his apartment.
Author's note:
I'm sorry! But at the moment, school has to come first.
I graduated on Wednesday (today is Saturday), I had my first exam last Tuesday (music solo performance, I played the first movement of Bach's Sonata No. 2 in Eb, Faure's Sicilienne and the fifth movement of Cinq Pieces Breves by Mouquet and didn't do too badly, but didn't play as well as I normally do) and the written exams start on Monday. My first one isn't until Thursday (Maths Studies), then I have Biology on Monday, Chemistry on Wednesday, Specialist Maths on Friday and finally Music the following Wednesday. So, only three weeks to go!
I took some time out from revision this morning (it's only chem, I'm good at chem!) to write this chapter, so be proud of me. Please review – reviews are good for me at the moment. I need all the encouragement I can get.
Anyway, the next chapter might be a while, but we'll see.
Caitlin.