September 16th 1892: Christine
The children and I were still waving after Raoul when a coach appeared at the end of the street, where he had vanished one or two minutes ago. At first I thought he had turned around because he had forgotten something, but when it came closer, I realised it was not the same coach that had just left with my husband. This could only mean one thing: Erik was here.
I swallowed hard, sensing a problem approaching us: I hadn't told the children he'd come. With Raoul about to leave and a carpenter replacing the broken windows, everything had been so hectic that I hadn't found a quiet minute to talk to them about it. And now it seemed that a minute would indeed be all the time I'd get, for that was about as much as the coach would take to arrive here. My husband had told me Erik would come when he'd leave, but I'd have never thought he had meant it literally.
"Why is Papa coming back?" Philippe asked me, tugging at my sleeve. Apparently he was thinking along the same lines as I had.
"Don't you see that it's a different coach?" Antoinette interjected. "The horse pulling Papa's coach was black, and this one is brown." She gave us a triumphant smile. "Everyone could notice that."
Knowing we were heading for an argument, I interrupted them at once.
"That doesn't matter now," I said quickly, stepping between the two children and placing my hands on their shoulders. "Yes, it's a different coach, and the man in it is Uncle Erik. He'll live with us until Papa's return because they don't want us to be alone." I took a deep breath. That hadn't sounded too bad.
My son's face was lit up by a broad smile.
"He'll live with us?" he repeated. "Oh, thank you, Maman!" He flung his little arms around me. I couldn't help smiling as well. He acted as if I had invited Erik as a personal favour to him. But then, I had never doubted he'd be pleased. Antoinette, on the other hand, was a completely different matter. It was hard to tell whether she'd like it. After all, she hardly knew her brother's teacher.
"What do you think about it?" I hastily asked her, since I didn't want her to feel left out.
"Well…" she muttered. "When he comes here, does it mean that we won't go to the opera again to see him? Does it mean I won't meet the dancers again?"
"Of course not," I assured her, barely able to hide my relief. I should have known her thoughts would go into that direction. "I'm sure Uncle Erik will still go to the opera every now and then, and if you ask him nicely, he'll maybe take you with him… Oh, there he is."
During the last part of my explanations the coach had stopped at the gate, and Erik had emerged from it, carrying a suitcase. By the time I was finished speaking he had almost reached the house. Only a few steps separated him from us.
"Uncle Erik!" Philippe called. He let go of me and ran to his teacher.
"Good day, Philippe," Erik greeted him, putting down the suitcase and brushing over the boy's hair in a simple, loving gesture.
Antoinette was the next one to go to him, much more slowly than her brother. It was strange to see my little daughter, who usually was so self-assured, this hesitant. I could only guess that the things Erik had let happen at the opera when we had been there intimidated her a bit. Yet he smiled at her, encouraging her to come to him with a wave of the hand Philippe wasn't holding.
She stopped one or two steps away from them.
"Good day," she muttered quickly before blurting out: "Is it true that you'll sometimes take us to the opera?". So this was why she had been so silent before. She had been searching for the right words. Apparently she had come to the conclusion that the direct approach, which was her favourite one anyway, was the best.
I threw a brief glance at Erik to find out what he thought about it, but he was still smiling at her, his eyes sparkling in amusement.
"Good day, Mademoiselle Antoinette," he said with a polite little bow. This peculiar way of greeting her made the girl giggle, and the tension in the air vanished. "Yes, we will go to the opera, perhaps already tomorrow." Now Antoinette was smiling as well and seized his outstretched hand.
As I was still standing at the top of the stairs, I had a good view on a truly touching picture: Erik was approaching me, each of his hands held by one of the children. In this moment I knew how cruel it would have been to deny him the wish of living with us. It would be so good for him, and it would also be good for us. He needed a family, and in our family a position was vacant. Admittedly it would only be for a while, but that was better than nothing, wasn't it ?
When we were on the same level, Erik let go of the children gently and stepped forwards.
"Good day, Christine," he said softly. He seized my hand and brought it to his lips to kiss it. They lingered there a moment longer than necessary, while he was gazing into my eyes. I felt as if he were looking at my very soul, examining it from all sides. My heart was pounding wildly as I waited for him to say something special.
Yet nothing like that happened. He let my fingers slip out of his grasp, thus breaking the connection between us. Still I was slightly uneasy. If such a simple gesture that only lasted a moment could upset me like this, what would spending all night with him do with me? I forced the thought out of my mind, knowing this was not the right time for that kind of pondering.
"Good day, Erik," I gave back. "Thank you for coming."
"Thank you for taking me in," he said. "I'd have hated to know you were alone while your husband is gone."
We were both good actors. My uneasiness had vanished behind the mask of the perfect hostess, and if he was affected by the moment we had just shared, he didn't show it. Instead of making a personal comment he merely asked:
"What will we do this afternoon? Do you already have plans?".
I shook my head.
"The appointment at the seamstress' was this morning, and Antoinette doesn't have to go to her teacher either. So I thought we'd just spend the afternoon at home… unless you've scheduled a lesson for Philippe."
"Not this afternoon," he told me. "All this came as quite the surprise, and I haven't planned any lessons that can take place here yet. But the weather is so beautiful that we shouldn't stay indoors. What about going to the park? Would you like that?" he addressed the children, who nodded.
"When will we go?" my daughter asked eagerly. Her eyes were shining with excitement. In her opinion, everything was better than staying at home.
"Let me unpack my suitcase first," he answered. "I should be ready in about half an hour. In the meantime you two could go and tell Jacqueline about it."
The children nodded again and went inside, leaving Erik and me alone. I wondered whether that had been his intention.
"I'm sorry." were his first words after Antoinette and Philippe were gone. "I didn't even ask you what you think about my idea. Of course I should have done so first. I –"
"Oh, it doesn't matter," I assured him. "It's good that you have ideas what to do with the children. That's worth a lot, you know. They'll soon like you very much. Well, Philippe already does…"
"I hope they'll like me," he muttered pensively, the expression on his face very serious. "I also hope your servants will."
I gave him a smile.
"Why shouldn't they?" I asked softly. "You've more or less hand-picked them yourself. You know they are friendly people who don't like gossip, and if you're friendly to them as well, you'll surely get along."
In this moment Jacques emerged from the house.
"Good day, Monsieur," he greeted Erik stiffly. Then he nodded in my direction. "Madame." He walked past us, took the suitcase and carried it inside without another word.
I couldn't hold back a little giggle about the surprised expression on Erik's face.
"Well, it'll be harder with Jacques," I explained. "He knows Raoul since his birth, and he's very loyal to him. So you can't expect him to like you. You've probably noticed that he doesn't even like me, just because I've taken his master away from him."
"You've got to tell me more about him… and the others… and everything," he demanded.
"I thought you already know everything about everyone," I couldn't help remarking.
"Not everything," he stressed. "I need to know more. When we're in the park, we'll sit down at a nice, quiet spot, and you'll tell me." I smiled about his eagerness, which reminded me of my daughter. I only knew him like that when it came to his music. I'd have never thought he'd be this interested in other people.
"Yes, I'll do that," I replied. "But is a park really the right place for you at this time of day? What if someone sees you?"
"Thank you for your concern," he answered. "But I'll be fine. The park we'll go to isn't very crowded. Besides…" He straightened up. "I have to do such things. I've taken over the role of your husband, and he'd take you to the park in daylight. I'll do whatever is best for my family."
I heard his words… my family… but I didn't say anything about it. They came out so naturally that I hardly noticed they were out of place.