Author´s note: Thanks for all the nice reviews. I´m glad you seem to enjoy my story. Elflover 47: You´re absolutely right. I can assure you they will talk before long. Olivia: I´m sure you had a great time watching Hugh´s last time as Phantom. But it´s also good to see that you´re back here. And about Christine not deserving Erik´s love: Everybody deserves to be loved. I don´t think one can blame her for not being able to decide until the very end. She´s still very young, and there are so many people trying to drag her into different directions.
25) Let fate decide
When Raoul re-appeared in Christine´s dressing room his heart was as heavy as a stone. His journey to Erik´s world, short as it had been, had managed to rip any delusion he might have had out of his head. The girl he had loved since their childhood wouldn´t just wake up one day and notice that she loved him. She loved Erik, and even if she´d never end up being with him, this wasn´t likely to change. Raoul knew he had told Meg he´d talk to Christine, but it hadn´t been the right moment. Perhaps the right moment wouldn´t ever come.
He felt like slamming the mirror shut, yet hearing voices just outside the door he decided it would be wiser not to do so. He closed the entrance with as little sound as possible and approached the door. It wasn´t like him to eavesdrop on conversations. But in this case it was different; he had to find out who was there before he could leave.
Fortunately the people were talking loudly enough. "You cannot go in there, Ariane.", a soft female voice said. Raoul immediately recognised it as Meg´s. After all, he had spoken to her only a short while ago. "I have no idea what you hope to find anyway; it´s only an ordinary dressing room." "I want to see the mirror.", the other girl replied firmly. "Jacqueline and Marie told me it´s most beautiful. It was a present from an English count, wasn´t it?"
Meg tried hard not to flinch. She should have expected something like that to happen sooner or later. Every new chorus girl was exposed to this story; only the English count was sometimes changed into a sultan from India or a French duke. It was an easy way of checking how naïve a new ballet rat was. Most of them fell for it and could be seen sneaking into Christine´s room not too long afterwards and being thrown out at once by a furious Mme.Giry. No member of the chorus except Christine and Meg knew the reason for the ballet teacher´s anger at such occasions; they just enjoyed laughing. According to another rumour the mirror had in fact been given to her by an old flame, which made her fiercely protective of it. Of course Meg hadn´t corrected this assumption.
Today, however, this usually harmless prank could have serious consequences. What if they entered the room in the exact moment Raoul came out of the secret passageway? But before Meg made another attempt to get Ariane away from the door it opened and Raoul emerged. "Good day, mesdemoiselles.", he greeted them with a friendly smile. "Good day.", they echoed.
Sensing that it was better if she asked the question Meg said: "I´m a little surprised to see you here, M. le Vicomte. What have you done in Mlle.Daaé´s dressing room?". Raoul´s smile widened. He had expected this question. "Actually this is none of your business, Mlle.Giry. But since you insist on knowing everything: I donated quite a large sum of money last month, and today the managers informed me that they used it to purchase new wardrobes for some rooms. Of course I wanted to have a look at one of them."
Raoul hoped the story had he hastily thought up was credible enough to convince Ariane. He also hoped Meg didn´t mind that he had been a bit harsh to her. The other girl didn´t have to know how closely they were acquainted. "Then I guess Mlle.Daaé is not in there at the moment.", Meg said, wondering why he hadn´t brought her back with him. "I met her and she told me she was on the way to her singing teacher.", Raoul replied. Surely Meg would understand the meaning of his sentence.
Hopefully the girl didn´t look as puzzled as she was. Christine had stayed with Erik, that much was certain. Yet somehow she couldn´t imagine that her friend was really taking a singing lesson. She hadn´t done so in months, so why should she start it again all of a sudden? And come to think of it: Why wasn´t Erik here? Wasn´t he upset about Meg´s disappearance and wanted to find out if she was well?
The young man could almost read the unasked questions in her eyes and threw Ariane a quick glance. But she didn´t seem to notice the other girl´s distress at all. Instead she was looking at him. "I don´t think we´ve been introduced to each other properly yet, M le Vicomte.", she said. "My name is Ariane Hérder." Raoul took her hand and kissed it. She giggled softly and batted her long eyelashes.
It was in this moment that he chose an option that would have been unthinkable two hours ago: He´d do what Christine had done with him. She had decided that she no longer needed him, so he´d make sure he didn´t need her either. Ariane was quite pretty and she seemed to like him. His brother had more than once told him these were the only things necessary for a mistress. He let his gaze travel down her body and up again. Then he had decided that she´d be perfectly capable of caring for his physical needs. And for the emotional ones… well, he´d better not think about this aspect now.
"I´ve already heard of you, Mlle.Hérder.", he said, recalling everything Meg had told him. "Your reputation exceeds the city limits of Marseille by far. You were the prima ballerina there, weren´t you?" "Oh yes.", she replied. "But here I´m just one of many talented dancers." "Well, you´re certainly the most beautiful.", Raoul lied, feeling a tiny twinge of guilt. The girl´s cheeks flushed, and she muttered a "Thank you!". "I believe there´s still a little time till the afternoon rehearsals begin. Wouldn´t you like to spend it with me? You could tell me more about Marseille.", he suggested, and she nodded eagerly. They made their way down the corridor without as much as a backward glance at Meg, who stood rooted to the spot, asking herself what on earth was going on.