A/n gah I love you guys.. you feed my review habit. :) Wow I did the math about the Black death. For 34 million people to die in 4 years. That's 24,147 people every day. Egads..that's like my whole town. Anyways. Here is another chapter. We see Erik's strange home now. Sorry about all the boring description. I hate reading about it but hey, has to happen. :P

Disclaimer I don't own anything of POTO.

Chapter 5

The coughing started.

She had coughed before thought out the "rescue" but this was different. It felt as though something was coating the back of her throat. No manor of coughing would dislodge it. It felt as though her throat was slowly being clogged.

Erik didn't panic.

Christine did.

Coughs racked her thin body. Pain shot to every inch of her chest. Tears from the force of the coughs streamed down her red face. She was vaguely aware of the strong hands that held her upright as she was bent almost double from the force of the coughing. Erik held her tightly with one arm while he helped her hold his handkerchief to her mouth. Christine grew weak, all her energy was sapped by the cough. Yet it wouldn't end.

Erik watched carefully as the cough grew weaker and Christine calmed again. He took back his handkerchief, noting the black-red stain on the white cloth. She sagged against him, too weak to hold herself upright. Erik pulled her back into his lap where he rewrapped the cap around her body. The sun had set and twilight was upon them. The temperature was steadily dropping and a chill would kill Christine.

'Everything will be alright my Angel. Just hold on.'

…… . .

Christine opened her eyes and looked around. It was too dark to see much, but Christine figured she was still in the buggy. They had stopped moving, and surprisingly…she was alone. She was curled tightly under the cape and was sprawled out on the small buggy seat with her legs hanging over the side.

Voices. She could hear Erik and Daroga talking with a stranger. Christine forced her sluggish body to move and she opened the door of the buggy as she sat up. There was a bit more light outside, but not much to see by. The first thing that caught her eyes was the bright light of a lantern that the stranger was holding up to Erik and Daroga. The next thing she noticed was the dark foreboding forest of trees they seemed to have stopped in.

A large structure was nestled in these trees, surrounded by a brick and iron fence. Colored glass windows glowed from the light within. Shadows filtered past the windows, indicating that there were people inside. Christine found her legs and was able to climb slowly from the buggy.

"Ma chère." Erik slipped between the men and headed right to her. Christine tipped her head up. He placed a hand gently on her shoulder and guided her over to the small cobble stone path that lead up to the iron gate. Daroga and the Lantern man quickly stepped ahead of them and pulled on the massive gate to let them in.

Inside a large lush lawn separated the house from the fence. They paused here and Erik returned to the Lantern man. Daroga had left to lead the horses and the buggy into the yard as well. They took a sharp right turn, along the wall and headed to a smaller structure that Christine figured was the stables.

…. . .

"Delroy, no one gets past theses gates unless I allow them. Understood?" Erik watched the middle aged man nod as he held the lantern at shoulder level.

"Oui, I understand. How fares the city?"

"In shambles Delroy. The plague hit it pretty hard. People are dying faster than they can bury them." A stricken look crossed the older mans' face. "Do not worry, we are secluded here, and as long as we keep out strangers, there is little risk that the estate will catch it."

"What of the girl Monsieur?" Delroy stole a glance at Christine over the shoulder of his master. It didn't take a doctor to see that she was unwell. But he bit his tongue.

"She is my concern only. If she is ill, she will be isolated." Erik growled softly. He didn't like to think that his Angel had the plague. But the coughing fit he witnessed an hour ago proved otherwise. She was sick. But there was no reason to raise panic in the estate.

….. . .

Christine gazed up at the silhouette of the large crucifix at the top of the imposing building.

"It's a church…" She whispered softly to herself as she glanced down at the stained glass windows.

"Yes Christine, it was a church." Erik slipped up beside her and wrapped an arm around her shoulders again and walked her to the large wooden double doors.

"Why do you live in a church?"

"It had burned out years ago. Was destroyed from the inside." Erik swept his hand in front of them. "They didn't bother to rebuild, the patrons were looking for an excuse to build a better, larger one. For the congregation had grown. It was by sheer chance that I happened to have stumbled upon it. I offered to buy it for a considerable sum, and I restored it completely."

"But instead of a church, you turned it into a house?" They had reached the stone steps of the building, and the girl reached out to touch one of the stone angel statues that flanked the door.

"It worked out rather well." They reached the top and the massive wooden doors swung open.

Christine was greeted by a blast of warm air and light. The two women who had opened the doors were young, a bit older than Christine. They wore matching black and white dresses that reached the floor and hand sleeves down to the wrists. They greeted them solemnly but politely and kept their eyes cast downward as they pulled the door closed behind them. Christines' eyes swung out to the enormous room before her.

The floors were made with warm colored wood. And the walls were of light stone. In the very center of the room was an oversized fireplace made of wood and stone. Iron wall sconces created most of the warm light in the room. Christine looked behind her for the maids, but they had silently vanished. Surprised, she turned to Erik.

"They come and go my dear, out of sight most of the time. Pay them little mind."

Christine nodded silently as Erik took her deeper into the house. Past the furniture, past a rather large piano, and past a grand fireplace. It was a double sided fireplace Christine found out, she stepped past one side only to see a mirror image on the next side. It truly was a marvel. In this half of the room there was an actual wall the divided it up in half. One room held the dining table, the other had the kitchen where delicious smells where coming from. Christine was sure that she was wandering around wide eyed and opened mouthed. The house was spacious, yet it held everything that a normal house would need. The only difference was the gigantic wood beams over their heads, and the eight, six foot stained glass windows on each side of the house.

"Come, you will stay upstairs." Erik gently led a still stunned Christine up a large wide spiral staircase.

'Upstairs?'

Christine looked above her. The ceiling was at least 20 feet above them. Of course there most likely was another 20 feet or more to build a second story.

…… . .

It was a dream, it had to be. Everything seemed too surreal to her.

Christine hardly made it to the top of the stairs when she almost fell back down them. Erik caught hold of the small girl and held her tightly as her legs gave out from under her.

"Christine?" he scooped her into his arms as she fell into another fit of coughing.

'Damn'

…. .. .

Delroy, with his lantern, quickly made his way to the stables. Once there, he helped the Persian to unhitch the horses, water and feed them and brush them down. They did all of this in a respectable silence. Yet his curiosity got the better oh him and the man spoke.

"Who is the girl?" he gazed at the Persian over the back of the horse he was brushing.

Daroga looked up, removing the scarf from around his face as he did so. "She shouldn't be any of your concern Delroy." He stated simply, returning to his work.

"Yes well..." Delroy fell silent for a moment as he worked the brush across the horse. "I'm only worried for my family is all."

Daroga didn't pause in his brushing, nor did he look up from it. "What are you implying Delroy?" His voice held an edge of warning. The man was treading on thin ice.

The man licked his lips nervously.

"I'm sure the master told you that you shouldn't worry." Daroga took his horse and led her back to her stall.

"He did."

"So why are you concerned?"

"I am worried." The white man quickly finished his brushing and led his horse to her stall as well and made sure she had enough water and oats for the night. He returned to gather the brushes and tack. "She looked like she had the plague, she was pale gray, looked like walking death."

"I would forget about even seeing her if I where you Delroy."

"I don't want my family in danger." He countered as he took up his lantern again. The Persian stalked over quickly and grabbed the man by the arm, just under the elbow.

"The only person here who is putting your family in danger is you." Daroga hissed, letting the man go.

Delroy flexed his arm, the death grip the Persian had made his hand tingle. "I meant no disrespect." Daroga snorted. "Honestly."

"Go back to your family Delroy before you really get yourself and them into trouble." He watched the man stumble back slightly and hurry out of the stables.

A/n Oooooo more characters. Me thinks something is up. Anyways. Thanks for reading. Please feed my review habit!