September 18th 1892: Christine
I couldn't keep my spirits from soaring high into the air like birds. There were only two people who could wish to speak to me (three, if Mme.Giry had been informed as well), and since Meg clearly didn't belong into the category ´men´, only one other person remained: Erik. Instintively, my hands moved up to smoothe my hair.
Yet even though I was glad that he was here, I couldn't help feeling a little worried as well. I began to wonder why he had come alone. There had to be a reason why he wasn't accompanied by Meg, for if he were, the butler would have surely said so. Perhaps Erik wanted to talk to me without anyone listening, like we had done in the garden. I wouldn't mind that… except if he'd use the chance to bring up the subject of… well, of us. Was there even an ´us´ anymore, now that Raoul was back?
Without thinking about it, I had taken over the role of Raoul's wife again when the Inspector had asked me who I was. I had referred to Raoul as my husband, and not once had I considered that Erik had been my husband as well. Had it merely been a matter of what I was used to, given the fact that I was married to Raoul for more than a decade, or had it been an instinctive decision? Decision… I didn't like the sound of the word.
And what if Erik found out how easily he had been replaced? He'd be furious… or else very sad. None of it had been my intention, but would he believe me if I told him? He did love me, yes, but he wasn't a very trusting man. He didn't believe others readily, and given his personal history, I couldn't blame him.
"Mme. de Chagny?" the butler addressed me politely. Startled, I realised that I had been staring into space, lost in the world of my own thoughts, for at least a minute, while he waited for an instruction what to do with the man at the door.
"He may come in," I replied, only to take it back a moment later. "No, I'll… I'll come with you and meet him at the door."
It had only just occurred to me that maybe Erik would like to discuss the situation with Raoul present, which was something I wanted to avoid as long as possible. Both men had already had one fight today. A second one – this time against each other – really wasn't necessary. How should we have explained the fresh wounds to the doctor when he came to examine us tomorrow?
I got up from the sofa, muttering "Excuse me for a moment, Ginevra". Crossing the room, I tried to ignore the way Raoul's gaze followed me. It was rather unsettling. I had the suspicion that his idea of who was at the door was very similar to mine, yet unlike me, he didn't think that meeting Erik alone was a good idea. But then, he couldn't do anything to prevent it. The children were still keeping him busy with questions, so that he could only look after me as I left the room.
It wasn't a very long way to the entrance door, but it was long enough for a thousand new worries to flutter through my head like a flock of excited butterflies. What would Erik say? And what would I say to him? Would he be in a good mood or a bad mood? And, as if I didn't have enough on my mind already, I also had to worry about what the butler would do. Would he leave us alone or report everything back to his mistress?
The butterflies came to a halt when we reached the open entrance door. My mind needed a few moments to take in what I was seeing. This just couldn't be right. It was supposed to be Erik standing outside. The butler had said so… No, actually he hadn't. The butler had said that it was a man, and my mind had drawn the logical conclusion. Apparently it hadn't been that logical after all.
"Jean," I muttered, shaking my head. The butterflies vanished.
Meg's husband gave me a warm smile.
"Christine," he said in a voice filled with compassion, pulling me into a brief embrace. "How are you? And how is everyone else?"
"We're… it's difficult to describe," I replied honestly. One never had to pretend anything with Jean. He was a very understanding man. "We've lost all we had. We don't even know where we'll spend the night."
"In our house," Jean said simply. "You can stay till your home will be redecorated or till you've found a new place, depending on how serious the damage is. It doesn't matter how long it'll take – a week, a month, a year. We have more than enough space, even if you wish to move in with all your servants."
"I'm not sure about them," I told him as we walked back to the sitting room slowly. "Larisse has a family of her own, so maybe she'll rather stay with them. Jacqueline and Jacques are both in hospital, and I have no idea what will become of Marielle and Pierre, now that their home will be searched by the police. And Gabriel… I don't even know where he is."
I stopped dead. This was something I had only just noticed. Where was Gabriel? He had still been with us when Raoul had told the Inspector his story, but he had not entered the house with the rest of us. Under normal circumstances, I wouldn't have been that anxious about a grown-up man wandering off by himself, but these weren't normal circumstances.
"Excuse me?" I addressed the butler, who was walking two steps ahead of us, trying not to appear as if he were listening to out conversation. "I know I have no right to give you orders, but could you fetch the three guests from upstairs, please?"
"Of course, Madame," he replied with a brief nod, turning around and walking away in the direction we had just come from.
"Why should we wonder what they'll do when we can as well ask them?" I muttered, half to myself. "And I'll be able to see whether they know where Gabriel has gone."
Jean threw me a sideways glance.
"I don't mean to sound rude, but I don't understand half of what you're saying," he remarked cautiously. "I know that Larisse is your cook, but who are Marielle and Pierre? And why are Jacqueline and Jacques in hospital? The Opera Ghost only gave me a few very basic pieces of information before I left, I'm afraid."
Now I was the one who didn't understand.
"Why did Erik come to you at all?" I asked. "He wanted to go and see Meg at the opera…"
"And that was what he did," Jean assured me. "You see, I was sitting in the audience, watching the performance. When I went to talk to Meg in the interval, he was already there, telling her about everything that had happened to you. Of course she wanted to come here right away, but her mother made her stay. She herself couldn't come either, because the chorus girls don't know when they have to be on stage if she's not there. But they'll both leave as quickly as possible after the performance. They've sent me, since I was the only one who could go without problems. Besides, I couldn't have enjoyed the performance after such news anyway. I had to see for myself whether you're all right."
"And Erik?" I asked. "What kept him from accompanying you?"
Jean shrugged.
"He said there were things he had to do first, whatever that means. He gave me that look, you know, that look which tells one not to ask questions unless one wants to die a slow, painful death."
For a moment, the mask of compassion slipped, and I could see the excitement in his eyes. He seemed positively delighted about having been given that look by the Opera Ghost. Knowing how much Jean adored that man and all the tales about him, I smiled. Still I couldn't help thinking about what it could be that Erik had to do. Was it something… illegal?
Throwing any such thoughts out of my mind, I told Jean all about this day, starting with the morning. He was a very good listener, making surprised or sympathetic sounds at exactly the right points. I only stopped talking when I heard voices behind me in the corridor. Some moments later, we were joined by Marielle, Larisse, Pierre and the butler and made our way to the sitting room together after I had introduced Jean to them quickly.
We entered the room in the middle of what sounded like an argument between Raoul and the children. The moment Antoinette spotted me, she ran towards me.
"Maman!" she called, oblivious to the other people who had come in as well. "Papa is unfriendly to us! He won't tell us who made our house burn and why they did it! But you'll tell us, won't you?"