Chapter 1 –

" Elizabeth!" called one of the other staff members to their employer as she rushed down the hall.

"Yes?" she asked as she turned. "If it can wait, I really need to get down to classroom six, because they have a problem with the fireplace and they are all freezing!"

"Oh, well. I'll explain while you go down there," he said as he caught up to her. "Anyway, today they broke another one of the violins. We need to send them to be repaired soon, because we are down to only three instruments for a group of five string instrument players, and we have the performance coming up soon as you know…"

"Okay, I'll have them sent there tonight, Mr. Jacobs, I promise. Just leave them on my desk," Elizabeth replied as she rushed down to classroom six. When she opened the door, she found the ballet instructor as well as her group of ballerinas stretching in the corner in their winter clothes and Elizabeth began to laugh. "Well! How would you guys like to have a fire?" she asked.

"Oh, yes! Please, I can't seem to get it lit." The teacher replied.

Elizabeth made her way over to the fireplace and found that it was somehow blocked. She sighed and looked to her friend and co-worker, "I think I may need to get someone in here tomorrow to fix it, but for now you guys can do your class in the lunch room. I'll help you move the tables." She gave her friend an apologetic smile, but it was waved off.

She headed to the lunch area, where they moved around tables for the students to do their dancing. Elizabeth left. "Miss Bennet?" She turned around and saw one of the music students.

"Hello, Fredrick. How are you today?"

"Good, but I was just wondering if you had found a new Music teacher for us."

"Oh, well, I've been trying but right now it seems that every other thing that could go wrong at this place has, but I promise that soon I will have a teacher for you. I know it is hard for the class to have Mr. Colvin as your teacher, but I promise it will be soon." He smiled and ran off. Elizabeth did feel bad. These students were supposed to be having instruction by a great vocalist and accompanist, but she only had the second instrument teacher to help, and his voice was not great at all.

Now she headed back for her small office. When she got inside, it was to find three string instruments on her table. She sighed and sat down in the comfortable chair across from her desk. Her first order of business was to get a note to the chimney sweep so the ballerinas were not in the cold for another day. She wrote it quickly, then sent it to her running boy who went quickly to the sweep. Next, she wrote another note to the instrument technician, asking if he could repair the violins as soon as possible.

After she was done writing notes, she realized that it was nearing lunch, and she had promised the ballet class that she would help them move the tables back for lunch. She headed down there and then helped the lunch staff get the food ready. She helped to supervise at lunch. Then she was finally able to sit down again. As soon as she did, she had the music instructor applications sitting in front of her. As she went through them, again she found no one suitable for the position, just as she suspected. After putting those aside, she got her letters back from both the chimney sweep, who was able to come in the next morning at seven, and the technician, who would happily have the violins done for the next afternoon if Elizabeth brought them to him that night.

She decided she would sit in and watch some of the classes this afternoon, particularly the vocal class. She passed the front foyer, and her face saddened as she viewed the sign reading "Christopher Bennet School of Fine Arts." She, Elizabeth, had opened the school four years ago. Her father had died a year before and had left the family business to her and her brother David, but she had no desire to run it.

Instead, she sold her half of it to David and planned to open the school. She did not want it to be in London though; the city was not a good place for kids to learn. So she had opened it in the country and provided lodgings for the children during the year. Unfortunately, weeks before the opening of the school, her young nephew Christopher died in a drowning accident and it devastated the family. Elizabeth had always loved her nephew. He had been very interested in going to his aunt's school, so she named the school after her beloved Christopher and finally, three months after the original date, opened the school. It had been a great success and she now had more of a fortune than her brother, but that was no matter to her.

The school was mainly for the young richer kids in England, but she sometimes had students from much farther than that. She also felt that kids who were not rich should also have the chance to go to her school so she offered up to three scholarships a year to talented kids. The school had only fifty students but they were some of the most talented in the country. They had fifteen ballerinas, twenty-five instrumental students, and ten vocal students. Forty of the students lived on the second and third floors, as only ten lived near enough to go home each day. The school put on three concerts a year, a Christmas one, which was followed by a party, a spring one in late May, and a fall one in October. The students were given a month off in July and were at the school from eight in the morning until four in the afternoon. As well as studying the fine arts, they also studied normal studies such as reading, writing, geography, and such. The school was run very well and it was Elizabeth's life. She was nearing thirty and had no desire to marry; she was happy with her school and her students were the only family she needed.

She continued her walk to the vocal classroom. She was greeted nicely, and the students then performed a choral piece for her. She happily listened. After about a half an hour, she could not stand the voice of Mr. Colvin for another minute so she smiled and went to visit other students.

At the end of the day, Elizabeth met with some of her co-workers for a minute and they discussed the progress of some students and the behavior of others. Soon after, though, the others decided to leave for the night and Elizabeth went around making sure everything was in order. She also took a walk down to the bank to retrieve the money needed to pay both the repairman and the chimney sweepers the next day. She then returned to the school and went around one final time to turn the lights out for the night. She thought she was done for the night, so she headed home.

She had bought a large home just down the road from the school. It used to be a home owned by a very large rich family, but Elizabeth fell in love with it. It was much too big for just her, and she had spent so much money repairing it, but it was, in her opinion, well worth it. The Summerside mansion was the nicest in the town and she was proud to own it.

As she made her way along the road, she soon remembered that she had left the three string instruments in her office. Her first instinct was to turn around, but she was most of the way home and it would be much easier and faster for her to hurry home, then take her horse back to the school. So, that was what she did; she saddled up Dallas as soon as she reached the house, told her housekeeper to start her dinner and that she would be home within the hour.

Elizabeth rode very quickly back to the Academy, jumped off her horse and tied him up. She was quiet when she went inside, it was only five-thirty and the students would be finishing their dinner. She knew that she would not be able to get away from the school within the hour if she were to be seen by some of her students. She was much loved by all the students, and they often kept her busy for hours if she was to see them after dinner.

She crept into her office and ducked down in order not to be seen while the students were escorted back to their bedrooms. She quickly grabbed the instruments and then it dawned on her that she would have to carry them over to the repairman because she could not ride with them. As she was about to leave she heard an odd sound: the organ in the practice room for vocalists. There was no one at the school at this hour that played the organ that she knew of, since both Mr. Colvin and Mr. Jacobs had gone home hours ago. She worried that a student had snuck off and she knew she must deal with that. Elizabeth set the three instruments down on a bench and headed to the vocal practice room. She opened the door quietly and instead of finding a student out of bed, she saw a man sitting there playing. She had never seen that man before and it worried her that he had gotten into the school.

The thoughts soon left her head when she heard what he was playing. It was a powerful piece that spoke to her as he played. It had much sorrow in it, and it made her sad to listen to it, wondering what would make this man so sad. Soon he began to hum along with it. She could not make out words, but the voice was beyond alluring. She could not help think that he would be much better to listen to than the dreadful voice of Mr. Colvin. This man's voice was best described as that of an angel, more than that of a man, and Elizabeth could not help but listen intently to it. She listened for a brief period longer and soon cleared her throat. The music stopped instantly, the last note still ringing, and the man looked at her with a venomous glare. It was only then that she had noticed that the man had a pale-as-death white mask on the other side of his face.

"May I inquire as to what you are doing in my school? At this hour? Unannounced?" Elizabeth finally got the courage to say.

So for any of you keen people who might notice that the name I chose is a character from Pride and Prejudice, I would like for you to know that after re-reading that story I actually decided to write this story. I wanted to leave a special regard to Gevaisa from Aria who referred to Pride and Prejudice in my last story (which I deleted) and I thought that for that fact I wanted to use the name sort of as an inspiration. In addition, I want to say that this story will be my Erik version of Pride and Prejudice. My Elizabeth is proud of what she is, what she has done for herself, and Erik, we all know, is a proud man… and he is in a way the Mr. Darcy of my story. However, do not worry I will not make an exact copy… because it is hard to rival the work of Jane Austen! Oh and the area the story will take place is a lot like the setting of Jane Austen's.