Sorry, sorry, sorry! I thought I would be able to update two weeks ago, but I didn't get around to it,... and last week, well, same situation. Sigh! But I am confident about next week...

Anyway, thank you all for sticking with me despite my irregular updates, thank you for reading, for adding to favorites, for putting on alert, and most of all, for your reviews. Those really show me that you care! Ha, ha, FantomFriend, how did you know what is about to happen? LOL! You pretty much nailed it!

So, on to the next chapter, and eep in mind that those characters do not belong to me...

Chapter 26 – We Are Mystified, We Suspect Foul Play

A few more months passed. Christine was slowly beginning to enjoy life again. Being free of Raoul was like having a heavy burden lifted off her shoulders. True, the rules of society still somewhat restricted her, she could not do everything she would have liked to do, like returning to the stage, but at least she could make her own decisions now, organize her days the way she wanted to, and, most importantly, her body once again belonged to her.

There were even days now that she allowed herself to think of Erik. Wasn't it strange that they both were now widowed? Was there some meaning to this, had fate maybe meant to repair a bad situation, did she dare hope? She now clearly remembered what Mme. Giry had told her after her first visit to London, that Erik had maybe only married Amanda-Ann out of pity, because he felt some kinship with the sick girl, because he knew what it meant to live with a handicap, and that he had known it would only be a short-lived marriage anyway and he would soon be free again to marry Christine. Could there have been some truth to that interpretation of the situation? Was it possible that in his heart he had never betrayed her?

But if that were the case, what would he think of her now? Wouldn't he feel betrayed, since she had married the Vicomte? Especially since he did not know about Meg's injury around the time of her wedding, and the fact that Raoul had threatened to fire Meg, as well as inform the authorities about Erik's whereabouts if she did not marry him. There was no way Erik could know about Raoul's ultimatum. Of course he would have figured out by now that Raoul had known where he had gone and that he might have used this knowledge to force her into submission. But was there a guarantee that Erik did not think Raoul had gleaned that knowledge from her? What if he thought she had abandoned him for a handsome, rich man? What if he thought she had betrayed his whereabouts to his rival?

If she were honest, she would have admitted to herself that around the first anniversary of Amanda-Ann's death she had expected to receive a letter from Erik. To be asked by him to come to London, so that they could talk. But maybe that had been too much to hope for. Maybe his love for her had died long ago, when he had learned about her marriage to Raoul. Maybe he did think she had enjoyed this marriage and therefore had lost all respect for her. Or maybe... her stupid heart could not help hoping for a sign that Erik still cared for her. Maybe it was still too soon, maybe he was waiting till her own year of mourning was over?

Christine shook her head. She should not lose herself that much in dreaming. So much had happened those past few years, even if Erik still loved her, was it really possible for them to start again? She shuddered at the thought of Erik having noticed several times how Raoul had touched her inappropriately in public. What if Erik had thought she had enjoyed such treatment, maybe even encouraged it? He surely would not want her in that case. And in a way she could even understand if he did not want her anymore. If she thought about some of the things Raoul had made her do, she felt like a dirty whore herself. She could blame no honorable man for not wanting anything to do with her. No, it was best to forget about this dream. Even though they were both free now, Erik was as lost to her as he had been before. There was no hope for love in her life anymore. She would have to remain a widow. The sooner she accepted that truth, the better.

And she should finally stop daydreaming and start working. She had promised Messieurs Firmin and André to look up a document that Raoul had supposedly been safekeeping for them, some notes about negotiations with a new soprano, who had still been under contract for several months at a theater in Italy when they first contacted her, but would soon be free to come to Paris and take over as prima donna from Carlotta, whose voice was now finally decaying. Of course the managers had hoped for Christine herself to step in now that she was widowed, but since she had had to decline this offer due to her position in society, it was of utter importance to finalize negotiations with this other soprano. In order to do so and to make this lady a binding offer, Firmin and André needed to have access to those notes from several months ago.

Christine had no idea where Raoul might keep such things. She had gone through his desk after his death and had looked through all the papers there, but she was sure that she had not seen anything about this singer. There had been some correspondence with Erik and Mr. Stanton regarding the production exchange, a few bills, including one from the freight company that had moved the sets from Paris to London, Raoul's business cards, his address book and similar stuff, but nothing about a soprano.

Where else could he keep such things? Or had she maybe simply overlooked this document? Maybe it had somehow slipped into one of the envelopes or folders together with some other papers and she had not noticed it? She had been so excited about finally being free that maybe she had not been too attentive and something had escaped her.

Christine decided to give the huge desk another try. After all, Raoul had been rather negligent the past few months of his life. It was not completely inconceivable that he had put such an important document into a folder where it did not belong. She would have to go through everything again, taking a look at every single piece of paper.

This was a tedious task. Christine decided it would be best to take out all the drawers and empty their contents on the table and then to sort the papers, and put them back in order. One drawer would be used for documents pertaining to the Opéra Populaire, one drawer for household bills and documents, one for what she called "Society", addresses, invitations etc.

She quickly took out the first two drawers and emptied them, putting the empty drawers aside. Then she pulled out the third one. When she put it next to the other two, her eyes widened. The third drawer was considerably shorter than the others. How could that be? From the outside the desk appeared equally deep. Then why was one drawer shorter? Was there maybe some hidden compartment behind it? Her curiosity was piqued.

Christine lit a candle, knelt down in front of the desk and held the candle into the empty space where the third drawer had been. She immediately noticed an unusual knob protruding from the wood at one side of the back of the hole. When she touched it, the back fell open, thus revealing a small compartment behind the drawer. It was full with all sorts of papers!

Christine quickly reached in and grabbed a handful, thinking that maybe the missing document would be somewhere in this hiding place. When she looked at the envelopes she had pulled free, she almost fainted. She recognized her own handwriting, and the address was to Erik Givenould, London. How could one of her letters to Erik be in here? What kind of a nightmare was this? Was she going mad? She reached into the hole again, and found more and more letters there, some written by herself, some by Mme. Giry, all addressed to Erik. Then she also found some that were addressed to them, in Nadir's neat handwriting. Some, obviously the older ones, had been opened.

Christine had to sit down. She felt dizzy. Everything was swimming before her eyes. Was this the explanation? Was this why she had never received a letter from Erik again? Neither she herself, nor Mme. Giry? Had those letters somehow been intercepted by Raoul, withheld from them to drive a wedge between her and Erik? She looked at those letters addressed to her and Antoinette by Nadir. The post stamp was not clearly legible in all cases, but it was obvious that those were the missing letters that Erik had sent them and that they had never received. They had both felt abandoned by him, and he had been writing regularly! Even though apparently he had not received any letters from them. Just like they had continued to write even though they never received a reply.

Christine broke down sobbing as she finally understood the immensity of Raoul's crime. He had somehow gotten access to those letters and made sure that neither party ever received them. It was obvious that he must have had help from the managers, for even as a patron he had had no access to the employees' private mail. But of course all outgoing and incoming mail went through the hands of Firmin and André. They must have been in it as well.

Christine bit her lip. Was there anybody she could still trust? She had been surrounded by falsehood and betrayal and had not noticed it. She had practically been driven into marrying Raoul by lies and withheld truths. Erik had never stopped writing her, Erik had never abandoned her, without Raoul's intervention, she and Erik would by now be married. They would be happy, and maybe... she blushed at the thought of a baby. Never before had she wished for one, on the contrary, the thought of bearing Raoul's child had somewhat disgusted and frightened her. But with Erik... if they had not been forced to believe that the other one had forgotten them, if things had gone as they once had hoped... oh yes, in that case, Christine would have very much wanted a child.

She did not know how long she had been sitting there, unable to move, unable to think, her thoughts and emotions in turmoil, when she finally remembered that there had been some more documents in that compartment. Maybe there was something else of importance?

She knelt down in front of the desk again and gingerly reached for a huge parcel of sorts, a wrapped bundle of papers. When she opened it, she almost screamed. She knew that flyer only too well. Of course she had only ever seen one copy of it, not hundreds, neatly packed. And there was a bill as well...

"God gracious!" she whispered, for the suspicion forming in her head was simply too vile, too abject, too enormous to be true. Could it really be,... Had Raoul had those flyers printed to make her believe that Erik...? Was it possible that Erik had not been engaged to Amanda-Ann when Raoul showed her that apparent proof of Erik's betrayal, that Erik might not even have considered proposing to Amanda-Ann ever? Was it possible that Erik had been faithful after all, and that only her own betrayal, her marriage with Raoul had driven him into Amanda-Ann's arms?

Surely not even Raoul could have acted in such a criminal, heartless way? But if not, what else could be the explanation for all the things she had found today? She felt a headache coming. Raoul had manipulated her in the worst possible way, and she had fallen for it. Raoul had obviously read most of her letters, Raoul had known where Erik was and had systematically driven them apart. Raoul had taken the happiness out of her life, had forced her to marry him so that he could turn her into his whore, and had obviously also made Erik believe that she had forgotten and abandoned him.

Christine felt like somebody had pulled the floor away underneath her feet. She felt like falling into an abyss. How could one man be so mean? How could one single person cause so much suffering?

After a while, she calmed down. She had just made an important discovery. But this did not concern her alone, there were other people involved. Erik, for one, and Antoinette Giry. Her letters had been intercepted as well. She, too, had the right to learn the truth. And Erik...

Christine was not sure if the truth could change anything between her and Erik now, but she felt that he had the right to know what had happened. She just was not sure how to tell him. She did not want to use Raoul's betrayal as an excuse for herself. After all, she had lost faith in Erik, she had believed Raoul's lies. Because of the flyer, true, but shouldn't she have known Erik better? And Raoul? She had not trusted him too much, when he had approached her again after her debut. She had somehow sensed that he had changed, that he was not the boy anymore she had befriended all those years ago. Why then had she trusted him when he showed her that announcement? Why had she not realized that something was not quite right? Why hadn't she known deep down that Erik would never get engaged to another woman without telling her first?

Oh yes, she was guilty as well, almost as guilty as Raoul. And she knew that Erik had all the reasons in the world to feel betrayed by her, even if he knew the truth. During her two visits in London he had made it clear that he despised her. The truth would not really change that. For it was her own, Christine's fault, that they had lost each other. Until now she had believed that he somehow had felt compelled to make Amanda-Ann's last months or years happy ones, that it had been him to abandon her, if only for a short period, and that for some reason she had not received the letter in which he told her so. But the reality was different. It had been her who had given up on Erik, who had married Raoul.

Christine felt depressed. Somehow she felt as if only now everything was truly over. Only now she had lost all hope. "He can never forgive me," she whispered. "I showed no trust in him."

Xxxx

The next day, Christine visited Mme. Giry. The ballet mistress was surprised to see her foster daughter arrive with a huge bag.

Christine slumped into the offered chair, put her bag on the table and whispered. "Open it!"

Mme. Giry was worried about Christine. The young woman seemed deeply shaken, her eyes were shining in a strange way. Almost, as if the girl were about to go mad.

"Are you alright?" Mme. Giry asked, concerned.

Christine laughed shrilly. "Alright? Who? Me? Open the bag and have a look at its contents, and then ask me again. If by then you still think it possible for me to ever be alright again..."

Mme. Giry approached the bag now, one eye still on Christine, so that she could react, should the younger woman show any more signs of distress. She was sure now that the bag contained the explanation for Christine's strange behavior. Whatever was in there must have brought upon Christine's condition, for it was clear to her now that the girl was close to a nervous breakdown.

Mme. Giry quickly opened the bag and pulled out the letters, the flyers, the bill for the leaflets. "Oh my God!" she whispered, then looked at Christine. "How? Where?" she asked.

"Raoul!" Christine spat. "He forged the announcement of Erik's engagement, he intercepted our letters! He wanted me and he got me!"

Mme. Giry quickly put her arms around the shaking girl. "At least we know the truth now," she told Christine. "It was not your fault, nor was it Erik's that the two of you were driven apart."

"I should have trusted him!" Christine wailed. "I believed Raoul, even though I sensed that he was not a decent person. I should have known that Erik would never betray me and that Raoul should never have been trusted! I knew them both, their characters, and still walked into the trap!"

"You were young and inexperienced," Mme. Giry tried to calm her. "And we had not heard from Erik in a long time. It is only natural that you were beginning to doubt, that you became easy prey for the Vicomte."

Mme. Giry smiled. "Thank God, he is dead," she added. "I normally do not even think that about dead people, but he got his due. And you are free of him now. And Erik... "

"He can never forgive me!" Christine cried. "I accused him of infidelity, when it was me..."

Mme. Giry shook her head. "Since he loves you, he will forgive you," she said. "Once he learns the truth."

She put everything back into the bag and handed it to Christine. "You must show him," she said. "He must see all this with his own eyes. He will understand then."

Christine stared at her. "Show him? Show Erik?" she asked. "How can I?"

Mme. Giry laughed. "It's simple. You board a train to Calais, take the ferry to Dover and then a train to London. You take residence at a hotel and then you go either to Erik's home or his theater and ask to speak to him in an urgent, important matter. If you think he may not want to see you, you can say that it has something to do with the production exchange, that you are there in a professional capacity."

Christine shook her head. "I cannot travel without a chaperone," she objected. "And how can I face Erik knowing that it was me who betrayed him?"

Mme. Giry thought about it for a moment, then she announced, "I will go with you as your chaperone. Since Firmin and André obviously had a hand in Raoul's plot as well, I have some leverage to force them to give me special leave. And as to Erik... just show him the proof of Raoul's misdeeds and I am confident the two of you will soon be a happy couple..."