Chapter 21

The following morning Erik woke up to bright sunlight shining in to his room. He noticed that Gabrielle wasn't in bed and he was surprised that he didn't wake up when she got up. Usually her constant struggling to get up woke him everyday. He sat up and rubbed his eyes when he realized how tired he was from the previous night. Glancing at the clock he saw that it was only 7:00 on a Sunday and he sluggishly got out of bed, walked over to the windows and pulled all the curtains closed blocking out every possible source of light. Climbing back into bed, he stretched out for the first time in two months and fell back asleep.

"Well Bruno, I guess you might as well start preparing lunch since it seems as if my husband is not going to be getting out of bed this morning." Gabrielle said waddling back into the dining room seeing that Erik's plate was still untouched. Gabrielle had been waddling around the house all morning, her mother was coming for the arrival of their child and Gabrielle was very excited to finally be seeing her since Christmas.

After continuously walking the hallway and foyer she finally became weary and hot as the summer sun grew stronger in the early afternoon. She finally looked in on the library and chose to read to pass the time. After selecting one of Erik's gothic books of Edgar Allan Poe's short stories, she laid down on the couch trying to get comfortable in the afternoon heat.

She read through "The Black Cat" and felt her heart pounding as the man in the story killed his wife and hid her body without any remorse. Would Erik do that to her in order for him to be with Christine? She shook her head at the thought and remembered what he told her, that she was the one and only one for him. Christine didn't seem as much of a bother either, since she's been seeing Jacques and they have grown quite serious over the past six months. She then began thinking about the author of the story and how Erik admired him and told her about him the night he proposed to her.

"Who is Edgar Allan Poe?" Gabrielle said looking thumbing through some of the books on Erik's bookshelf in his townhouse office.

"He was one of the greatest American authors who died about umm… forty something years ago." Erik answered sitting at his desk not looking up from the papers he had been studying intensely.

"What kind of stories did he write?" Gabrielle asked skimming through the thick book reading the titles of the poems and short stories.

"Gothic." Erik answered again without looking up. He took in a sigh and looked up at her standing by the bookshelf looking at him..

"Why don't you read some of the things in that book while I finish up here? Then we will go out." Gabrielle let out an annoyed sigh and sat down harshly in the leather chair. She read through one poem, 'Annabel Lee' and began crying taking in quiet sobs. Erik made an annoyed groan and looked up,

"Now what's wrong?" He asked as she looked at him with tearstained eyes.

"Oh nothing, it's just that this poem is so sad, his poor lover dies in the kingdom by the sea and he lays by her grave every night. It's just so sad."

"Yes, well Poe was a very sad person. I believe that poem was written for his wife. She was his cousin and he married her when she was merely thirteen and he was in his late twenties, but it didn't matter because they were in love. He loved her with his entire existence and when she died about ten years into their marriage, he was devastated and became extremely depressed until he died two years later. Could you imagine loving someone so much that when they die you basically die too?" Gabrielle kept her emotions under control and said,

"I hope that whomever I marry will never die and that I can go first so I won't have to deal with the pain."

"And I hope the same for myself." Erik said standing up. He walked over to her and knelt at her feet so that he was looking up at her. He took her hand in his and looked directly into her shining bright eyes and said,

"So Gabrielle, will you do me the honor of letting me die first?" She continued to stare at him not understanding the question until it finally hit her. She gasped out loud and continued to look at him not knowing what to say until she got a hold of herself and smiled with a reply,

"No, I get to die first." Erik smiled at her and pulled her into an embrace until she fell on the floor with him. He pushed her back keeping his hands on her arms and looked at her,

"Does this mean that you will marry me?" Gabrielle smiled again and said,

"You had my heart the day I met you."

Gabrielle smiled to herself at the memory and closed the book going back to her thoughts about Edgar Allan Poe, how he could write something so dreadful about a wife if he was so much in love with his own. She pushed the thoughts aside, put the book down and slowly got out of the couch. She glanced at the clock and realized it was almost noon. Why isn't Erik out of bed yet? She thought to herself and decided to go wake him.

Erik laid awake with his head under the sheets trying to block out all sunlight, he felt so depressed about his horrible dream. He was confused by it and was mad at himself for having such a dream while his wife was in love with him having his child and when he heard the bedroom door open he stopped all movement.

Gabrielle gave out a little laugh at the mound of sheets and the comforter pulled over her husband's head and walked over to the bed.

"Erik darling." She said lightly tugging on the sheets. He closed his eyes not giving away that he had been up for a little while and let her pull the sheets off of his head. She stared at his closed eyes and said,

"I know you're awake, so come on and get up, it's almost lunchtime." Erik rubbed his eyes and sat up pulling the sheets over his bare chest,

"All right I'm up." He said gruffly. Gabrielle walked to the other side of the room and headed into the bathroom to relieve herself for the millionth time that day while Erik got out of bed and got dressed into his robe, slippers and mask, he was just about to walk out of the room when Gabrielle came out of the bathroom,

"Oh no, sir, today is not a lazy day. My mother is coming and you are going to look your best."

"But I just got up and you know how I like to drink my morning tea and relax in my pajamas for a little bit until I am fully awake." Erik protested at Gabrielle's demands.

"Well it isn't my fault you slept right through breakfast and almost past lunch, so get into the bathtub and clean up." Erik scowled at her and she lowered her eyes at him as he walked past her into the bathroom.

"And don't forget to shave!" She said loudly when he slammed the door.

"Yes Madame!" He said sarcastically through the door. In a moment's time she heard the water start running and walked back downstairs.

An hour later Erik was still in the bathroom shaving the left side of his face since the right side never really grew any hair and he didn't really have much, when he heard Gabrielle yell from the bottom of the stairs,

"Erik! Hurry up! Lunch is getting cold!" He rolled his eyes and quickly left the bathroom to the bedroom and threw on a suit. He put his mask in place and smoothed back his hair before leaving the bedroom.

Gabrielle was already in the dining room hungrily eating by the time he arrived.

"Calm down, the food isn't going anywhere." Erik said humorously as he entered the dining room. She shot him an annoyed look and he knew better than to say anything else, her moods were up and down lately and she was in one of those moods. He sat down quietly and began to slowly eat the food upon him.

"You should have been awake for breakfast this morning." Gabrielle said from across the table with a mouthful of food.

"I was up really late last night, that dream really disturbed me, it was like a never ending nightmare that I thought was real, it was horrible, I don't think I will ever forget it as long as I live."

"Well why don't you tell me about it?" Gabrielle suggested but Erik shook his head,

"I prefer not to talk about it and hopefully I will soon forget about it." Gabrielle shrugged her shoulders and went back to eagerly eating her food.

"I wonder when your mother is going to be here."

"She said that her train was to arrive in the early afternoon, so I would think that she should be getting in at anytime."

"I thought Sunday was a day of rest." Erik said with a hint of sarcasm that really threw Gabrielle's mood through the roof.

"Well I apologize if my mother is coming at an inconvenient time for you, I mean after all I did forget how on Sundays all you like to do is walk around the house in your robe and slippers and lay all over the furniture reading books!" She said getting up and shoving her plate away from her place sailing food everywhere.

"Gabrielle I didn't mean it like that." Erik said still sitting trying to reason with her but she cut him off quick,

"Oh just shut up!" She said walking out of the room and slamming the door to the library. Erik sat stunned, he knew Gabrielle had a bad temper through the last part of her pregnancy, but he just couldn't take this much longer. He crossed his fingers in hope that the child would be born really soon to relieve him of this misery. One minute she was nice and sweet, the next she was a raging lunatic and he couldn't keep up with her hormone imbalance.

Two hours later, Erik sat in his study tinkering with some of his drawings when he heard the knock at the front door. He heard footsteps rush down the hall past his door towards the front of the house and then his door was opened as Gabrielle stepped in and said sweetly,

"Erik you need to get up and visit with my mother." Not wanting to cause anymore friction, he got up from the desk and followed her down the hall.

"Oh my dear you are so big!" Catherine said hugging her youngest daughter. Erik stood behind Gabrielle and waited for Catherine to approach him.

"It's good to see you again Erik." She said politely.

"It's good to see you too." He said bowing stiffly, "Christophe why don't you take Madame DuBois things up to her room." He ordered his butler and then Christophe picked up the luggage and took it upstairs.

"Mother come sit down." Gabrielle said gesturing her into the main room with Erik slowly following behind. The two women took their seat on the couch while Erik sunk into his favorite chair.

"So, how much longer do you think you have?" Catherine asked anxiously.

"Oh, I think it will be any day now. I am getting more and more anxious as the days pass, but everyday is more and more painful and that's why I think it will be any day now, plus I have horrible mood swings, poor Erik doesn't know what to do!" Gabrielle said laughing.

"That is definitely true!" Erik said adding in his bit. Catherine let out a light laugh as Gabrielle shot him a knowing look from across the room. He knew with that look she was already mad at him.

"Well I agree with you that it should be anytime, tonight, tomorrow, this week." Catherine said and the two continued their conversation about pregnancy and Catherine's own three while Erik just sat in silence bored to tears, but too afraid to move from his seat because of Gabrielle's temperament. Oh please make it tomorrow. He silently prayed to a God he didn't believe in as they continued their indepth discussion.