Author's Note: My thanks to all who reviewed! Sheet music and red roses!

IceQueen1: Yes, I am still working on it. School, etc., often take time from things I would rather be working on. THANK YOU SO MUCH REGARDING MY CHARACTERS! That really made my day.

Phantom'sJediBandieGirl: Yes, he does seem a little too open, but you must remember, he's had little choice in what's happened to him since the Opera House. Right now, he's just going with the flow. Thanks so much for R&R!

As you can tell, reviews rock my little world!

Chapter 7

Madame Delphine's return home sent the staff into a flurry of activity. From the time her letter arrived announcing that she would be returning with guests to the time the first carriages rolled up the drive, it was not quiet a moment. Servants slept in shifts, which meant that there were people working all around the clock. More than once I was woken up by someone dropping something or banging a bucket orclattering aroundoutside my door. Often when Jacques came to wake me in the morning, I would throw a pillow at him and growl at him to get out.

The girls were also tired from all of the noise, and Claudia became a little savage. She didn't want to study, she didn't want to play, she didn't want to do anything except be left alone. I now knew why so many men chose not to have children.

"She's like this whenever she's tired," Jeanette explained patiently while I rubbed my knee where Claudia had kicked me. "If it weren't so cold outside, she and I could go and sleep in the playhouse, but there's no way to keep it warm in winter, so we're trapped in here."

"Is there anywhere in the house that isn't being invaded by servants?" I asked, tired enough to snarl.

Jeanette shook her head. "Nowhere but the garret and the floor below it, and that's where they have their quarters. We're trapped."

We were, unfortunately. If we found a quiet corner of the house, it wasn't long before maids would come in swinging buckets and carrying scrub brushes, usually talking at the tops of their lungs. By the time Madame Delphine arrived, Jeanette, Claudia, and I were in the foulest moods imaginable.

While guests poured into the house, the girls and I kept to ourselves. It was relatively quiet now that all of the cleaning was finished, and Claudia fell asleep on Jeanette's lap. Leaning back in her chair, she quickly followed her sister.

What a picture, I thought as I watched them both sleep. Claudia leaned against Jeanette's shoulder, her curls falling down her back, her little-girl countenance smiling at something she dreamed. Jeanette was tranquil, eyes closed, also smiling, and the two sisters had their arms wrapped around one another. I took up a pad of paper and some charcoal and began drawing them, but I soon fell asleep myself, lulled by the warm fire and the peace and quiet.

I awoke at a touch on my shoulder. I started, and stared up at Madame Delphine, who had a very odd smile on her face.

"Even with the mask on, you look so innocent asleep," she said quietly in an effort to not wake the girls. "I almost couldn't bear to wake you."

"Why did you then?" I growled, suddenly upset. I had been dreaming, and sleeping, after having been deprived of it for several nights running, had been so nice. Why had she woken me, why?

"My, aren't we cranky?" she said, the same as one would say to a petulant child. "Perhaps I should let you continue with your nap?"

I glared at her, wondering why she was suddenly treating me like a child. Being spoken to like a child was insufferable, and coming from her, who ignored her own children, was not to be borne.

For some reason, she took my annoyance as anxiety. "Oh, don't worry, little one, I'll tuck you in all nice and warm," she continued, still smiling in that odd way.

This infuriated me. I leapt from my chair, knocking it over, and advanced on her. "Madame, you come perilously close to. . ."

The sound of applause stopped me short. I turned, and saw an entire crowd of people standing just inside the door.

Madame Delphine laughed. "You see, Olympe?" she said to a rather buxom woman at the front of the group. "I told you that would make him angry! I told you that he wasn't all 'mystery and cunning!' He can be made angry like any other man, now pay up!"

I watched, dumbfounded, as Olympe handed over several hundred-franc notes, looking resigned.

"Oh, well," she said, shrugging. "At least the way he dresses gives him an air of distinction. I find himquite remarkable.Well chosen, Madeleine."

I was thankful that I was wearing a mask since I was now blushing. If they had seen my face, they would have seen a painful scarlet terror, instead of a cadaverous one. How dare they discuss me as if I were a painting or piece of furniture! I was a person, a man namedErik, and not an object to be praised or admired. I was ERIK, and they would have done well to remember it!

I felt fury flooding me. My fingers itched to tighten around their smug, snobbish little throats! Nothing would have made me happier than to choke the lot of them, watching them gasp for air, their eyes pleading--

I stopped, surprised at the intensity of what I was feeling. I hadn't been so enraged since I had wanted to kill de Chagney.

Madame Delphine turned back to me. "Ah, speechless, mon cher?" she teased. "These are all of my friends," she said, waving a hand towards the lot of them. "My friends, this is Monsieur Erik."

That was when the odor of bad wine reached me. They had been drinking the worst stuff imaginable, and now they were all drunk. That was why their behavior was so horrendous.

I gave a short bow. "Mesdames. Messieurs," I said, as politely as I could muster. After all, they didn't deserve to diefor bad manners or drunkenness (but they were close, let me tell you).

Quite a few of them found that terribly amusing, and they hid their smirks and chuckles behind their gloves, fans,or handkerchiefs. I fought down the urge to look for something to throw. Preferably, something that was large and expensive and irreplaceable.

"Well, you've introduced us to your prodigy, Madeleine," a fop said, tucking his handkerchief away. "Now, would you introduce us to those lovely young daughters of yours that he ferreted out?" He turned on her with a lascivious smile and raised one eyebrow suggestively.

The next thing I knew, I was on top of him, choking him and ramming his head into the parquet floor beneath us. The most I could remember screaming was "How dare you even think of them in such a way, you bastard! If you even lay your filthy eyes on them I'll tear you apart with my bare hands!"

"Klaus! Herve! Get in here! NOW!"

Strong arms pulled me off the foolish young peacock and held me with my arms pinioned behind my back. I looked, and saw two enormous men holding me still.

"You probably don't remember Klaus and Herve, Monsieur Erik," Madame Delphine said, advancing on me with a malicious look in her eye. "They are the ones who retrieved you for me. Now, are you finished trying to murder one of my friends?"

"As long as he leaves the mademoiselles alone," I said.

She glared at me, but she turned to the young idiot. "Jean-Paul, you won't go near my daughters, will you?" she asked sweetly.

"Not after that," the young man said, still rubbing his throat. "They'll be safe from me."

Madame Delphine turned back to me. "Satisfied? All right, then, let's get one thing straight: You do not attack my guests. Do so, and I shall call the police here and tell them that you had broken in and tried to murder us. Understood?"

I glared at her, ready to kill her for making such a threat, but I nodded. I should have expected her to try to control me. After all, she was very used to having her way.

"All right, then, I suggest you retire for the night in order to cool down," she continued. "Klaus and Herve will take you back to your room."

I glared at her, but I went with them anyway, given that they were still holding onto my arms. I knew it would be folly to try fighting them since they were so much bigger, stronger, and there were two of them. I was strong and able to protect myself, but ye gods and little fishes! Those two toughs put the Titans themselves to shame.

I was practically tossed into my room, and as I picked myself up from the carpet, I heard the door close and lock behind me. As I stood, I heard another sound: weeping.

I looked, and there on the sofa were Jeanette and Claudia, wrapped in one another's arms and crying. Both of them were white and looked as if they were frightened. How had they gotten here from that sitting room, and how come I hadn't seen them leave? More importantly, why were they crying?

"Where are they?" Jeanette choked out. "Are they still here?"

"They're in the sitting room," I said, trying to calm them down. "I won't let them near you."

Jeanette's only answer was a sob.

"I hate when Mamma has guests, I hate it!" Claudia said savagely. "They never leave us alone, and if they are men, they always try to get us to 'play'. . ."

I felt myself blush again. If that child meant what I thought she meant, then she was far from the innocent little mite I had thought her to be!

"We have not had good experiences with the guests that Mamma chooses to bring home," Jeanette said quietly, rocking her little sister back and forth.

"I won't let them near you," I heard myself promise. "I will protect you both."

Claudia looked me, and, leaving her sister's lap, came over and motioned for me to bend down. Once I had done so, she flung her little arms around my neck and sobbed, relieved that they both had a protector. I held her, unable to take my arms away from her.

"Monsieur Erik," Jeanette said, sounding very worried. "Did they. . .lock us in here with you?"

I nodded.

She smiled. "Good."

I stared at her. "Why 'good'?" I wanted to know.

"No one else will be able to get in or out, except us."

I stared at her again. "No, we won't be able to leave, either," I pointed out. "The door is locked for us, too, you know."

She smiled. "That door is, perhaps, but not our door."

I placed Claudia on the couch and went to Jeanette, intent to see if she were ill or raving, but she seemed fine.

"Could you explain, please?"

"We have our own way around the house," she explained. "The way the house is built is secret even to Mamma. It's full of tunnels, secret passages, hidden doors, spyholes,and even secret rooms. We found them one day when it was raining and too wet to go out."

I felt my breath catch. It sounded so much like the Opera!

I felt Claudia wrap her arms around my waist as she regarded her sister. "Shall we show him, Jeanette?"

Jeanette smiled and nodded as Claudia took my hand. Going to my dressing table, she turned one of the drawer knobs and waited. Silently, what seemed to be a wall slid away, revealing a passage. Picking up a lantern and lighting it, Jeanette led the way into the passage. Claudia and I followed, and we stopped only long enough for Jeanette to throw the switch to make the panel slide back to the way it had been.

"Ingenious," I said, admiring the smooth action of the mechanism. "Who built this house?"

"We have no idea, but it is over one hundred years old," Jeanette whispered. "Be as quiet as you can, as sound tends to carry."

I was quiet, suddenly understanding Jacques' story of the ghosts. It hadn't been ghosts everyone had been hearing, it had been the two girls! Hilarious!

We walked through the passages, as silent as ghosts ourselves, and in whispers the girls showed meevery inch of their secret domain. Tunnels and passageways, and secret rooms full of furniture, valuables, clothing, books, and other things were delights to examine. Apparently, someone had hidden his valuables away and had failed to retrieve them. Forts had been made out of the furniture, and valuables had been set up to mimic a village, with different casks and chests representing buildings. The rooms full of clothing had obviously seen several episodes of "dress up," and the rooms with books had been made into comfortable libraries. The other things were usually pieces of lumber or old mirrors, too tarnished or warped with age to be of any use, and all had been shoved away as if they didn't belong anywhere.

The greatest fun, to my mind, were the spyholes. You could open them up all over the house, and see into almost every room. We spied for a while on Madame Delphine and her guests while they werebeing "sociable" down in the front parlor. After a while, things began to be rather. . .heated, so we took Claudia away and headed back upstairs.

We were passing a staircase that led down when I felt a cold breeze on my face. I looked down those stairs, intrigued.

"Where do these lead?" I asked, putting my hand on the banister, ready to go down.

"Don't go down there!" Jeanette hissed, pulling me away. "That leads to the crypt!"

"Crypt?"

Claudia was now pulling me away as well.

"There's a crypt in this house?" I asked, shocked.

"Yes," Jeanette whispered. "We only made it down there once."

"It was awful," Claudia said, as Jeanette led us away from the stairs.

"Why?" I asked. "What happened?"

Jeanette refused to say until we reached my rooms again and had the panel shut firmly behind us. Now that we were out of the tunnels, Claudia seemed to lose a little of her fear and headed over to my bed to bounce. Jeanette scolded her, but she ignored the both of us, blithely bouncing away.

"I give up," Jeanette muttered, sinking into a chair with a grace that strangely attracted my attention. "Well, you wanted to hear about the crypt?"

I nodded.

"Well, as soon as we got down there, we realized that it was very cold. It was summertime, and yes, we were underground, but I had a feeling that it should have been as cold as it was. There was this feeling of walking into a crowded room, but there was no one there. That was when the whispering started. We could hear voices all around us, whispering, but we saw no one. We became frightened and headed back to the stairs, and we could hear someone running up behind us until we left the crypt stairway. That is why we do not go down there."

"I'd go down, if I had a lantern," Claudia said, bouncing from my bed to the floor.

"Absolutely not!" Jeanette and I both cried together. We looked at one another and laughed, too surprised to do any more than that.

Claudia regarded us thoughtfully. "You two behave like a married couple, you know? You really do."

I didn't have to look at Jeanette to know that she was blushing as much as I was.