Chapter 6

Almost an hour later she arrived back at her uncle's home. It did not feel comfortable like it had two weeks ago. She couldn't stay here, she decided. 'I will go to Meaux and stay.' She did not know why she chose Meaux but she had, and that's where she would stay.

She gathered anything she thought she'd need and went into Paris to get a carriage and a new wardrobe. The nice men at the carriage house told her to give them forty minutes to get a carriage and horses ready to take her to Meaux. She ventured out into the big city to find somewhere where she could buy some new shoes. Her toe shoes were close to falling apart, and she needed real shoes. She found the First Bank of Paris and asked for three hundred francs.

Almost 14 years of demanding twenty thousand francs a month from Monsieur Lefevre and the short months Firmin and André worked there certainly paid off. With over three million francs, the Phantom had enough money to last three lifetimes.

She finally found a small boutique where she bought plenty of beaded, leather soled, slippers, three pairs of fancy high-heeled shoes in black, silver, and gold, one pair of house slippers, and two pairs of toe shoes; one pink and one black. She also got a new corset, a new winter cloak, two evening gowns; one green over lay with black underneath and one blue, new underthings, one artistic dress; a pale pink, and four leisure dresses; a blue one with lighter blue stripes, a black one, a white one, and a pale green one. She bought a small trunk to put her things in and still had enough to get to Meaux to get a room until she found a boarding house and temporary work.

On the long carriage ride there, she thought about things, she went to play with a lock of her hair, a habit she had always had but remembered it was pinned. She hated when her hair was pinned. When she observed Christine and Raoul, Raoul seemed to truly love Christine; you could see it in his eyes. One glance and you'd know that he loved her. While Christine, you know she admired him and enjoyed his company but she wasn't glowing like an engaged woman should be. Meg thought may she was looking too far into the situation. She supposed she was trying to make up for hurting Christine so badly to defend the Phantom. The thought she had left her best friend was enough to bring tears to her eyes. Although Christine and herself butted heads on this, Meg still thought of Christine like a sister. She smoothed down the skirt of the lilac dress absent-mindedly.

She also wondered what the Phantom was doing. No doubt out and about doing other things instead of wasting his time pondering what could've been. Meg decided that women would rather waste away with sorrow than move on from their first loves than to move on and find another like men. She hated that she acted like this, so hung up on him that she had to leave he own family's house cause it was too painful and stifling to stay there.

She was disappointed in herself for thinking that this man was different from the ones she had been slightly interested in. He more than likely saw her as a little girl, a spec of dust upon a grand staircase. 'Well,' she thought. 'I'm not going to waste away like every other woman filled with woe. I will find a place to stay and I will teach dance.' Her glory days of being a dancer were over and she needed to find real work. She was almost twenty-two years old and she was unmarried and without a home.

A couple of hours into the trip, she noticed the carriage start to slow, she put down her book and looked out the curtain. They had stopped in a small town and was informed they were stopping for a few minutes to rest and feed the horses.

"Excuse me, where have we stopped?" She asked the driver

"Pantin, I believe, miss." She nodded in thank and walked away to see what there was in this town. It was a quaint place, a little small but it was a nice transition from the big city. She passed a library and saw a tall man in a dark cloak with dark slicked back hair, and thought for a minute that it was the Phantom, but she saw that he was next to a small boy. She kept walking, and found a bookstore.

Erik felt the eyes of someone on his back and momentarily blocked Jacob out to peer behind him, The figure was turned but she had blond hair and looked petite. He could've sworn it was Meg but, her hair was pinned -which Meg mentioned in one of their discussions that she detested when her hair was pinned back- and she was in a lilac leisure dress. He had left Meg his account number but the dress looked very fancy and expensive and he knew for a fact that even when he had over three million francs she would not spend that much on herself. She walked on, and he turned back to Jacob, telling himself his mind was playing tricks on him.

Although, why should it? He did not miss her like a lover for she was nothing close to that. She was simply his friend. He could not be with her, so why would he tell himself that he loved her and miss her so much he could barely stand it? He would forget her eventually and move on with his life.

"Good afternoon, Mademoiselle." A lovely woman in a powder blue dress greeted Meg as she walked into the book store. "Is there anything I can help you find?"

"I'm just browsing as I pass through, but thank you." Meg said politely.

"Where are you passing from if I may ask?" The woman asked, The bookstore was small but every wall was filled with books. You could not see one spec of wall if you tried, even behind the counter there were books. There was a spiral staircase that led to an upper level, and Meg guessed that it was an apartment.

"Paris, to Meaux. I'm Meg." She brought her attention back to the woman and held out her hand, the woman held it in hers.

"Lovely to meet you, I'm Rachel." Rachel smiled. "What causes you to move from a lovely city like Paris to Meaux?"

"I just needed to get away, if you know what I mean." She said hesitantly. Rachel gave her an inquisitive look. "I felt uncomfortable in my own skin. In my own home. I helped a man who had not done good things get away from a mob of people who were surely to kill him, he stayed with me for a month. And one day, he left; he never came back. So, I left in hopes that I would find someone else."

"You loved each other, yes?" She asked with sadness in her eyes.

"I loved him, yes. I do not think he loved me back." Meg stated, looking down at her hands. "I thought maybe he did but he left."

"Sometimes people leave, you don't know why. But sometimes it's for a reason, and they'll come back again. If God meant for this man to be in your life, then he will put him back there again."

"But why would God take him away in the first place?" Meg had never been religious, she had never had time working at the opera house to attend church. She had always been interested in Christianity and now that she was not working at the opera house, she decided she could attend church more often.

"God works in mysterious ways, dear, and we do our part by not asking questions and trusting in Him." Rachel stated, and Meg nodded. She didn't understand, but she would do her best to trust. She felt like Rachel was telling the truth, if the Phantom was meant to be in Meg's life, then he would be. "I wish you had been here just an hour earlier for our evening service, there's a man with wonderful intellect here who would be pleased to tell you more. If you ever pass back through and he is still here I shall introduce the two of you. His name it Matthew. He may shock you upon first meeting but we've all grown accustomed to his oddities. I've never seen anyone pick up religion and understand it as he does. He stays at our house and we sit and talk for hours. Look at me, going on as if I'm his mother trying to find a match for him."

"I shall most definitely love to meet him, but I really must go, my carriage will be leaving soon. May I write you in the future? I wish to visit again soon."

"Of course, I hope we will become good friends." She wrote something down, and handed the slip of paper to Meg, it was an address. Meg nodded and bade farewell again before making it back to her carriage. The town was very quaint filled with many lovely people. Meg couldn't help but to pass the library yet again, though when she passed, it looked to be empty. She continued on her way to the carriage, and left the small town soon after.

They traveled well into the night, and she fell asleep a little less than half way there. She couldn't keep her eyes open any longer.

They arrived just as the sun was rising. Meg's dreams were filled with visions of the Phantom. She disregarded them, set on moving on and making a life of what she has. She couldn't wallow in her own self-pity anymore, it was only holding her back. She asked the men to take her to a boarding house. They took her to the house de Meaux, a small family owned boarding house in the middle of town. The town itself was a little bigger than Pantin, and had more people. The boarding house was medium-sized, and filled halfway full of people. It was easy for Meg to rent a room for a while, and she unpacked her bag and went down stairs for breakfast. She met a young woman, no older than twenty-four that was staying at the boarding house while her husband was away for a year; she never specified what he was gone for. Her name was Claire, and she was the daughter of a clergyman. She was going to the morning service after breakfast and invited Meg to go, she accepted the offer.

"I hope you'll enjoy you're stay here. Are you here for an extended period?" Claire asked on the way to the church just down the street from the boarding house.

"I'm actually hoping to start a dance school and make a life here." Meg confessed.

"I know a woman, Madame Clause, who leases apartments, I'm sure you could rent there. I could introduce you." She offered, Meg nodded enthusiastically.

Erik came into the house to hear Rachel, Daniel's wife, talking excitedly about a customer that stopped in. It seemed every day there was a new customer that came in that positively enthralled Rachel. He brought Jacob into the room in the middle of this woman's life story.

"She brought him back from something and he stayed with her for a month! Just them two in the house. She said if she had not taken him in, there was a mob that was sure to kill him. She said that one day, he just left. So I asked her if they loved each other. And she said that she loved him but was unsure of his feelings for her." Erik was puzzled. That sounded almost exact to his story, but he did not know Meg loved him. He thought she only helped him, like her mother had; to show him compassion.

But he did not leave, she left. She left with Christine and Raoul, never to come back. She had offered no resistance. But maybe she had just been in too much shock to resist. He shook his head; it was ridiculous. What being could love him? Not even his own mother loved him. She locked him away, leaving him to his own devices. Driving him to madness. "She said she was going to write to me and plan to visit again. She went to stay in Meaux, I believe. I think she mentioned she was going to start a school of dance."

"If I may, I must inquire to whom this woman was?" Daniel asked the question Erik was begging to address.

"Her name was. . .Meg. Yes that's it, Meg." Erik's eyes widened. Surely it could not be? Every day her face occupied his mind and to think she was the one who had passed by the window! Yes he admitted he was in love with Marguerite Giry! He could not live in the denial of it any longer, Christine made her decision why did he feel like he was betraying her by admiring Meg? His heart raced at the thought that maybe they would be reunited again so that they may be together and his world of solitude would dissolve.

"Matthew, are you feeling quite alright? You're breathing so fast, dear, you'd think you'd just ran a mile." Rachel commented, that was when he realized that he was surrounded by people who thought he was just a poor man from Paris. It was time to come clean, and Erik hoped that they didn't hate him too much.

A/n: So here's my new chapter sorry it's super late and probably not that great!

Anon Reviews:

newbornphanatic: I have a very particular taste in bluegrass but I will check it out! And Christine will eventually make amends but I still like treating Christine the way she deserves it!

Good? Bad? Lemme know!