This is my spin on a scene in the book while they are pretending to be engaged , see if you catch it.

The lover of trapdoors and the fear of the dark

Le amoureux des trappe et la peur de l'obscurité

—

Scene IV

Focus: le gardien galant et la Suédoise

Charlotte had felt better since he had bullied her into singing. Ralph was more thoughtful than he immediately appeared. Why should she be so surprised at this sudden lift she felt? Although things went unsaid between them, very little went unnoticed. As they trailed through the edifice she held these thoughts of his kindness to her like talismans against the impending darkness.

Darkness.

"There's an unnatural darkness down there," the wiry, nearly toothless stagehand whispered. As they both stared down into the trapdoor, that sinister gaping black hole, she wanted to move away. Yet, she couldn't, as though something, down in there, was looking back. Holding her captive with its unseen gaze.

"Enough of this nonsense!" Ralph growled at the groundskeeper. Anger flared unexpectedly at the unwholesome man for frightening her. Ralph placed his arm around Charlotte's shoulder to draw her away.

In the moment it took for him to do this, the door was shut.

Wholly spooked now, she gave a wild cry and darted for the stairs. With a shout to recall Max, he followed her, taking the steps two at a time. She had stopped three flights up, confused, breathing harshly, her back against a door, one of many.

"Hey," he called. Winded and panicked, she shook her head.

"We should never have come back here. Never," she gasped.

"We have to, the committee expects—we—they—it's a bunch of crap. There's nothing there! Just a whole shit load of superstition."

She raised her eyebrows at his turn of phrase, as well as at his statement.

"Don't tell me there's nothing there! Don't tell me we didn't hear what we did. We should not be here." At a loss for words for a moment, she simply shook her head.

Her eyes were glazed and stared through everything into the horror of her memory. Pained shock parted her lips slightly.

"Fuck all, I'm going home," Charlotte whispered fiercely.

"Fine," he replied, wrapping her in a hug. She was trembling faintly. He knew she had to be terrified to swear. "Take an extra torch with you then, and the spare blueprints. Will you be alright?"

"Yeah," she said a little too forcefully. Nodding and swallowing, "it's just two flights down to the premier étage and down the grand escalier, right?"

"I'll walk you back down."

She smiled wanly.

—

Scene V

Focus: la Suédoise

Immaterial, she should have been struggling, but that was how she felt. Fighting wasn't worth it. She could have done it. The hands that held hers were trembling. Getting away would have been tantamount to walking away from this unarmed shadow. Yet her fear, and a silent unrecognized guilt, held her passive. In her heart of hearts, she didn't want to be brave; to be forever insisting that there was more going on than the three of them knew. She had a stronger urge to deny it than Ralph had, but between principle and instinct she was bound. Charlotte's own indecision made her more a prisoner of herself than this shade.

Charlotte's heart palpitated loudly and her feet stumbled in the swift wake behind him as he towed her upwards.

Up, up, up so many stairs! Dizzying her as they wound around and around. Despite the grace she observed, she felt, she thought, the figure and the gloved hand were masculine. When had, he, first taken her hand? She had been leaving, leaving Ralph and Max to finish their work. Leaving the opera house for good, and been paralyzed nearly in her terror.

Between the crisp yellow sheets in their flat, she had found no peace. There was no forgetting those screams. What kept her awake, once those tenebrous tendrils had released her from the night of her mind, was that someone had been hurt. Someone had been dying, and they had turned and ran. Like frightened children.

She hated that they had run from someone instead of helping them.

She hated it.

—

What do you think has happened and what do think is going to happen? Tell me! Tell me! Tell me!