Sorry for the delay! But at least the new chapter is there...

The bad news is, there won't be an update next week, and the week thereafter it might be delayed again. Sorry!

But thank you all for reading, for adding to favorites, putting on alert and, most of all, for reviewing! You guys rock! I know Raoul is despicable this time around, and I am afraid he isn't going away anytime soon...

And please Keep in mind that I don't own These characters!

Chapter 4 – Now we'll go to supper

As Erik had predicted, Christine's second performance as Elyssa went even better than her first one and the audience celebrated her success with standing ovations. Exhausted, but happy about her triumph, Christine finally returned to her dressing room, where Mme. Giry was already waiting for her. The ballet mistress had somehow found time to return the lovely dress Christine had worn earlier to the dormitory and bring a much simpler dress for her to wear on the expected outing with the Vicomte. They would not want to give him the impression that Christine was dressing up for him, oh no!

When Christine noticed the plain outfit she smiled and hugged the ballet mistress. "That was very considerate of you," she murmured.

Mme. Giry pointed towards the vanity. "There is something else for you," she said meaningfully.

Christine turned around and found the most perfect dark-red rose lying there, a black satin ribbon tied around its long stem. She blushed. "From Erik?" she asked.

Mme. Giry nodded. "He was here just a moment ago, while you were still taking your bows. He said you have exceeded his wildest expectations today, and you made the angels weep."

Christine smiled. Erik was not too easy to please. More often than not he had driven her almost insane with his demands of perfection, so coming from him, this was rare praise, indeed. But it was not just the message he had conveyed to her through Mme. Giry. There was the rose, too...

Christine picked it up and held it close to her face so she could inhale the sweet and slightly heavy scent of the beautiful flower. She loved roses, which had been her dear papa's favorite flowers. The whole summer she therefore always made sure that there were fresh roses on his grave. Of course Erik knew that and had obviously chosen a rose to please her.

But... it was not just any rose. It was a red rose. And were not red roses supposed to be symbols of love? Could it be that Erik had wanted to give her yet another message by bringing her this particular flower? Could it be...?

"If only," Christine thought. "If only he felt for me the same way I do for him. But I am such a stupid, immature child, is it possible that he.. ?"

Mme. Giry interrupted her thoughts. "Quick, Christine," she said, "you must get changed. There is already a crowd of admirers forming in front of the door. You will have to meet with them shortly and exchange a few words with every single one of them."

Christine paled. "Raoul?" she asked. "Do you think he is out there as well?"

Mme. Giry shrugged. "Probably. But do not fret. I am here with you, and if he asks you out again, I will go with you. You will be fine."

Christine nodded, not too convinced of the elder woman's words. But she knew that Mme. Giry was right and that there was no point in delaying the inevitable. She therefore quickly changed and removed the stage makeup from her face.

"I am ready," she then announced. "Let the visitors in!"

Mme. Giry went outside and announced that Mademoiselle Daaé would now be pleased to meet her admirers, but that, since there were so many of them, she would only be able to exchange a few words with each of them. Then she let them in, one by one. Christine greeted them all friendly, accepted flowers and chocolates, thanked everybody for coming to the performance and then turned to greet the next one.

After a while, she noticed Raoul standing in the corner of her dressing room, staring at her. She was not quite sure, how he had been able to enter, but guessed that as the patron he could take a few liberties. Mme. Giry had probably let him pass, since Christine was not alone with him anyway, and it might be a good idea not to make him angry right away by making him wait till Christine had dealt with her other admirers.

When the last one left, Mme. Giry was at Christine's side at once. "Are you tired, Christine?" she asked. "I know this was a rather large crowd..."

"Madame, if you please," Raoul interrupted her. "I do not advise that you try to come up with yet another excuse for Christine to decline my invitation to dinner yet again. Today I will not accept a no. Christine, we have not seen each other in years and we have a lot to catch up, get reacquainted..."

He stared at the plain dress she was wearing, and which had a very modest neckline. No chance for him to feast his eyes on her lovely, firm little breasts!

"Do you have no other dress?" he asked. "Something a little bit more elegant? You look like a nun!"

"You must understand, Monsieur," Mme. Giry chimed in, "that Christine is an orphan. Until last night she has only been in the chorus, and thus has not been paid much. So far she has not been in the position to afford extravagant robes."

Raoul harrumphed. He was not happy, but he had to accept this explanation. "Once she'll be my mistress," he thought, "she'll wear the most enticing, revealing dresses. Every man in Paris will envy me with her on my arm."

He turned back to Christine, smiling at her. He had just remembered that he had to play the part of the good friend and childhood sweetheart. "How stupid and inconsiderate of me," he said contritely. "Of course I know that your family has never had much money, and of course, as a chorus girl you have to make ends meet and cannot spend large sums on your wardrobe. Will you please be so kind and forgive me, Christine?"

Christine forced herself to smile as well. "You are forgiven, Raoul," she said politely.

"And now you will allow me to take you to dinner, so that we can talk about old times and everything that has happened in our lives since we last saw each other?" Raoul begged.

"Of course, Monsieur le Vicomte," Mme. Giry replied, giving him an overly sweet smile. "It is only understandable that you and Christine would want to reconnect a bit."

Raoul grinned. The old hag seemed to approve of his plan. Apparently it did not matter to her, who the girl was sleeping with, be it patron or ghost, as long as this meant Christine's career would continue to flourish.

At her next words, his face fell, though, and it took some effort for him to smile.

"Of course, since Christine is such a good and old friend of yours," Mme. Giry continued, "you certainly value her reputation. Now, you are probably aware of the fact that Christine is the up and coming star of the Opéra Populaire, and you are the patron. Not everybody here in Paris knows that the two of you are old friends. If you were seen together, people might therefore jump to the wrong conclusion, as in, the former chorus girl is trying to charm the patron, in order to get a starring part in the next production as well. I am sure, you would not want that to happen, Monsieur. As her friend, you will do your best to make sure, Christine's reputation remains intact."

Raoul was unsure what to say. He could not well tell that old witch that he did not care in the least about Christine's reputation, that there would not be much of a reputation left anyway, once she'd be his official mistress. But he did not really feel like agreeing with her. Surely she was not going to tell him that he could not take Christine out?

He therefore just gave an unintelligible grunt that could be interpreted any way, and Mme. Giry smiled at him approvingly. "I knew, you would share my opinion in this delicate matter," she purred at Raoul. "I am glad you care so much about Christine!"

She then turned to her surrogate daughter. "But since I am sure you want a chance to talk to the Vicomte and renew your friendship, I suggest you take me along as chaperone. I promise, I will not be in your way, you can talk about anything you want, but if you are properly chaperoned, my dear, nobody will think poorly of you for having dinner with the Vicomte."

Christine had troubles stifling a laughter at Mme. Giry's comedy. The woman was good! Maybe she should have become an actress rather than a dancer.

"Oh, would you do that for us, Mme. Giry?" Christine played along. "That would be so kind of you!"

She smiled innocently at Raoul, who looked as if he had bitten into a lemon. "Don't you agree, Raoul? That is the perfect solution for our problem."

"Uh... I guess...," Raoul mumbled. These blasted women! He had hoped to spend some time alone with Christine and to test the waters, to see how far she was willing to go with him, the patron. Since he was rather sure now that she was whoring herself out to this ghost he had learned about earlier today, she might only be too willing to exchange one lover for another. As the patron, his influence on casting decisions was even greater than the ghost's, and if it was true, what this Buquet-person had said, that the ghost was ugly as hell, did not even have a nose, … Raoul was certain that it would not be hard to make her turn away from her current lover. If he were a woman, he knew who he'd chose!

But that old wench had talked him into a corner. After her long speech about how important it was to preserve Christine's reputation (which in his opinion also confirmed that there was not much left to preserve), and how he, as Christine's old friend, would want to keep her as safe as possible, he could not well insist on inviting just Christine to dinner. It would be showing his true intentions too clearly. He once again remembered, that he was supposed to be the good, old friend.

"Of course, Madame," he therefore hurried to reassure Mme. Giry. "It would be a pleasure for us, if you could accompany us and have dinner with us."

He offered his arm to Christine. "Shall we go, then, Christine?" he asked.

Christine nodded, and the three of them left the Opéra.

Behind the mirror, Erik cringed. He had overheard the whole conversation. "Old friend!" he hissed. "Indeed. You wolf in sheep's clothing! You want only one thing, and that is Christine's body. I won't let that happen, though. I know that she is too perfect for me, too innocent, that I do not deserve her, but that does not mean that I will allow a pig like you to dishonor and debase her, to use her like an object!"

Xxxx

The dinner went quite well, at least for a while, if one did not pay too close attention to the Vicomte's wandering eyes that seemed to be almost fixated on Christine's rather well-covered breasts. Christine felt a bit uncomfortable under his stares, but tried her best to be as polite and friendly as the managers would want her to be, so as not to alienate the rich patron. The whole time, she wished she were sitting with Erik and talking with him, and she wondered what he was doing right now. He probably was sitting in his subterranean home, maybe having a lonely meal. Or was he maybe playing his organ again, like he had done the previous morning, just before she had ripped off his mask? Was he maybe thinking of her?

"Christine, I have heard that Carlotta has returned and will sing the remaining performances of this production," Raoul said at one point. "Would you like me to talk to the managers about it? It would be easy for me to make sure you could keep at least half of these performances," he added, smiling at her seductively. It could not hurt to make Christine understand how much power he held in the theater now, at least as much as this so-called "ghost".

"Oh no, Raoul, please don't!" Christine exclaimed to his horror. "I do not want anybody to interfere with my career. I want to earn what I am given, so that I can be sure I deserve the position I get. I really would not want you to speak with them on my behalf and get me preferred treatment, just because we are old friends. In fact," she continued, without thinking, "I have told Erik the same."

"Erik?" Raoul asked, curious. "And who might that be?"

Christine bit her lip. She wished she had not mentioned Erik. It had been stupid to bring him up, especially, since she now had no doubts anymore that Raoul was interested in her in ways she did not like. He would most likely consider Erik a rival, a threat, and the last thing she wanted to do was to cause Erik trouble.

"My... my teacher," she therefore mumbled.

"Your teacher?" Raoul asked. This was getting interesting. A teacher, a voice coach, did not have much influence in a theater, unless, of course...

Christine nodded. "Yes, my teacher," she confirmed.

"You told him, too, that you did not want him to promote you?" Raoul continued his inquiry. "Why? How would your teacher be able to promote you, even if he wanted to?"

Christine closed her eyes. This was not going well. How could she explain to Raoul that Erik did, indeed, have some influence at the Opéra Populaire, maybe even more so than the pompous Vicomte himself, that it had been Erik, who had made sure she could sing the part of Elyssa, by chasing away Carlotta.

"He... he is quite a knowledgeable musician," she stammered. "His opinion might carry some weight, if he talked to the managers."

"Is that so?" Raoul smiled at her coldly. He was now almost certain that her so-called teacher and the ghost were one and the same person. "If he is such a respected musician, that the managers might listen to him, surely I have heard his name before?" he asked innocently. "What did you say again, his last name was?"

Christine winced. She had no intention of telling Raoul Erik's last name, but she could not very well tell him, she did not know her teacher's name, or could she? What if she lied? She could just give Raoul the next-best name she could think of... only, she was way too nervous to come up with a plausible sounding last name. Dupont or a similarly common name certainly would not do, and the only other names she could think of right now were Swedish ones, like Johanson or Lundgren.

"Givenould," she finally whispered. "Erik's last name is Givenould."

"Never heard of him," Raoul spat at her, convinced she had come up with a false name. "He cannot be so influential, then!"

Christine shrugged. "Maybe not," she agreed.

"So, was it this Erik that was with you in your dressing room last night, when I returned to take you to dinner?" Raoul asked. "For I heard a man's voice from inside, and the door was locked. Apparently there was no concern about your virtue and reputation, then!"

Christine squirmed. How could she explain that to Raoul, whose hand had by then landed on her thigh. She quickly jumped to her feet, in order to shake off his hand. "I... I need to go to the powder room," she announced and quickly took off.

Raoul looked at Mme. Giry. "Are you still concerned about her reputation?" he asked snidely. "She obviously had a tryst with that man last night, and in return he promised her to talk to the managers on her behalf. If she is wise, she will reconsider. I can do much more for her than a little-known musician. And I could be more discreet than him, too. Everybody passing by her locked room could have overheard her talking to a man. I would make sure that such … shall we say... incidents …. would be handled in a much more tactful manner, do you understand?"

Mme. Giry's eyes threw daggers at him. "Monsieur le Vicomte," she said, stressing every single word. "Christine is an honorable girl. I am glad, she did not overhear what you just said to me. Her teacher, too, is of irreproachable conduct. I will admit that it was a mistake that they locked the door during one of their lessons. I will have to talk to both of them and make sure they will not do so again, for you are right, such behavior could cause some suspicion as to Christine's virtue or lack thereof. But I can assure you that nothing untoward has happened between these two."

Raoul shook his head. He did not know what to say. Was this woman really so naive that she did not get it what was going on between Christine and her "teacher"? There was no doubt anymore, that he was the ghost, for Mme. Giry, the ghost's supposed accomplice, had just admitted that she knew that so-called teacher. And the ghost would have some influence on the managers' decisions. It really all fit. Or was she just playing him, trying to tell him that Christine was still pure, in order to get a higher price for the girl, once he would make her his mistress?

"So, you are telling me, Madame, that Christine is a paragon of virtue, and that I should respect that?" he finally asked.

"That is exactly what I am telling you, Monsieur le Vicomte," Mme. Giry replied evenly. "Christine is like a daughter to me, and I will not allow any man, and I mean any man, be he a Vicomte or a beggar, to approach her with anything but the most honorable intentions. Is that understood?"

Raoul sighed. Marriage! These women expected him to marry Christine! They were indeed aiming high. He had hoped he could get away with putting her up in a comfortable villa, with servants and carriages and every luxury she could possibly desire, but apparently, little Christine wanted to get married. He sighed. His family expected his future bride to be of noble blood, they would not be too pleased by the idea of him marrying a singer. Especially if they knew about her past with this ghost, or Erik, or whatever. But then, he did not have to tell them that, and Christine was so desirable, that the thought of marrying her did have some appeal.

"Yes," he therefore replied. And when a rather shaken Christine returned a few minutes later, he was like a different man. He looked her into the eyes instead of staring at her breasts, he apologized for his previous behavior ("for a moment I forgot that we are not children any longer"), he tried to be as charming as possible. And he did not bring up Erik again.