31) Son of man
Meg found it very difficult to concentrate during the afternoon rehearsal. By now she was familiar with all the steps – too familiar to pay much attention to her mother´s comments or the other girl´s whispered remarks. She felt as if she didn´t belong here, to all those cheerful people. Why should she bother to improve her dancing? The only person who still wanted to watch her was Pierre, sitting in the auditorium as usual. She forced herself to smile at him.
If it had been possible, she´d have gone home and cried into her pillows. Her eyes stung with unshed tears, and her face was red from the amount of cold water she had had to use to disguise any traces of what she had been doing in her dressing room for at least half an hour. Yet she couldn´t stay away from the rehearsal again; her mother would have mercilessly dragged her back onto the stage. Of course Mme.Giry wouldn´t have done so if she had known what had happened between her daughter and Erik. But Meg didn´t want to tell her.
Over. It was over, and everything was her own fault. Why on earth had she insisted that he declared his love for her in public, even though he hadn´t worn his mask? The answer was simple: She hadn´t noticed this significant fact. Erik and she were so close that he sometimes took off the mask in her presence. But when he went into the main part of the opera he always wore it. Not once had he forgotten it. And as Meg had finally noticed that it was missing she had been too agitated to care.
Yet all this was no excuse for her behaviour in the whole situation. Even before she had been insolent. She didn´t know why she had overreacted. After all, it had only been an embrace; it was not as if she had caught Christine and him half-naked in a fiery kiss. Maybe it had to do with Raoul and what she had found out about him earlier. Had she believed that Erik could replace her just as easily as the Vicomte had done it with Christine?
Meg was spared searching for an answer by Ariane, who was running onto stage, panting and stammering an apology. Out of the corner of her eye she saw that in the same moment Raoul had entered the auditorium and settled down on the first seat he found, apparently not noticing that it happened to be next to Pierre. Meg was surprised that his hair was dishevelled and his clothes untidier than usual.
"I´m sorry, madame.", Ariane said. "M. le Vicomte and I had lunch together, and on the way back-" "Don´t you think the interruption by your arrival has already cost us enough time?", the ballet teacher asked coldly. "Although I´m certain everybody here is keen on knowing what tragic or even romantic fate you were met with, this fascinating story had to wait till later. Maybe you´ve failed to notice it, but there´s a lesson going on. So unless M. le Vicomte and you feel like continuing your encounter in your dressing room, I suggest you go to your place and start practicing."
The girl blushed scarlet and hurried to her place while the other members of the chorus watched her with pity or malicious glee. They all knew Mme.Giry´s sarcasm and were glad they were not its target this time. After just a few seconds the lesson could go on as if nothing had ever disturbed it.
Meanwhile Pierre addressed Raoul in the auditorium. Being one of the wealthiest patrons he didn´t have to worry about receiving more than an unfriendly glance from the ballet teacher. "Not too picky, are you? First you take that Swedish girl and now the new one. Well, one should always be open for new experiences. I´m pleased to see that you are at least a bit like your brother in this respect."
He clapped a hand onto the younger man´s shoulder, making him wince in pain. "I just have one useful piece of advice for you: Make sure Mlle.Daaé doesn´t find out about it, or she´ll give you a hard time. Where is she, by the way?" "She recovers from an injury she suffered yesterday. Currently she´s staying in a little pension.", Raoul replied. This was the version they had agreed on in case someone should ask about Christine´s sudden disappearance.
"And to you information: Nothing has happened between Ariane Hérder and me.", he went on, unwilling to give the other man any more possibility for silly remarks. Pierre nearly burst into laughter. "You both come here much too late, panting and with untidy clothes, and you expect me to believe that nothing happened? Come on, you can tell your old friend Pierre! I´ve had more girls in coaches than you´ll ever see in your life."
The expression ´old friend´ made Raoul shudder. He wouldn´t even have called him an acquaintance. After all, they had only met about half a dozen times before. "We didn´t do anything.", he said very slowly and clearly. It seemed that Pierre was even more stupid that he had thought. "The coach that should have brought us back to the opera broke down and we had to walk the last mile. Fortunately Ariane was wearing her ballet clothes under the dress, or it would have taken even longer."
Pierre tried to hide his grin behind an expression of pity, but failed. "Bad luck!", he commented. "But you´ll be able to make it up to her the next time you meet. There will be a next time, won´t it?" "We´re going to the theatre tonight.", Raoul admitted. He had planned to invite Christine, but for obvious reason that was impossible. He had already asked his brother for his private box, though, and he really wanted to use it. Yet as much as he was looking forward to the play itself, he wasn´t sure if he could say the same about Ariane. "Have fun then!", Pierre said before he focused his attention on Meg again. Raoul sighed slightly and did the same with Ariane.