Chapter 28

Erik's POV

As I sat here in the soft dying light of day, in my rose garden with Christine's head in my lap, and her azure blue eyes staring up at my unmasked face, looking upon me with love and adoration, I could not help but to reflect on my changed circumstances. Twenty four hours ago, if someone would have told me that I would be engaged to Christine and that she would kiss my hideous face I would have called them mad. I am no stranger to madness; I have been caught in its entrails more than once in my sorry life. It is hard to look in the mirror and know that no matter what you do, people will hate and shun you. I have fled from many horrible situations, performed terrible acts, longing to settle down to a normal life. But unlike the rest of humanity, I can never truly escape my fate; no matter how hard that I try to do so. Wherever I go my face is always with me reminding me that the world sees me only as a monster, not a man. Sometimes the pain of the reality of my existence would eat away at me, and my broken soul, and I would step over the lines of what was deemed acceptable.

When I beheld Christine on the roof with her fop, all those months ago, my tenuous ties to sanity grew even more brittle, and then were severed. In the vast sea of humanity, she had been one of the few islands of hope. She offered me her friendship and then her love but in one moment, it was all swept away by the cruelty of her words. I felt my spirit drowning without anyone to pull me out of my despair. Now, for the first time in my horrific existence, she restored everything that she had taken from me in the last year and more. Instead of a small island, I saw a vast promised land of love. I worried that by casting her lot with me, that she would be subjected to the same hatreds and barriers that I had fought against for all of my life.

A part of me rebelled against subjecting her to such a fate. It was the same voice that let her go, to set her free to be with her Vicomte; but he proved himself to be unworthy of her. I would have to try the impossible once again. I needed to pull myself out of the armor of darkness that served as my protection and step into the stabbing light of day. My last attempt to live in the world of light almost destroyed me completely. I had followed Nadir to Persia where he promised me both wealth and power, both were attractive but were attainable anywhere. His final promise was the one that finally lured me there. He told me that I could be accepted there and valued for my genius. He related to me how hungry the young Shah was to obtain the services of young and talented Europeans such as myself. I would have the freedom to build what I wanted, and be amply appreciated.

At first I was given the opportunity to use my genius to create amazing objects of architecture, art and mechanics; but then the Shah and his mother, the Khanum, soon discovered my knack for creating new devices for torture and murder. Their hunger for those instruments became paramount to all and soon almost all of my time and genius were employed in that enterprise. At first it did not bother me, because I held most of humanity in low esteem; but the rulers of Persia did not stop their persecutions with traitors, they were also meted out to the extended families of their enemies. I was forced to become an assassin and carry out these punishments directly. I became known as the Angel of Doom or Death depending on the person. I was feared by almost everyone with the exception of Nadir, who felt a sense of remorse for luring me there with the promise of acceptance. I retreated into my armor of darkness until finally I had enough of all of it. Murder held no allure for me any longer. My masters soon discovered my lack of enthusiasm for it and turned against me. Nadir smuggled me out of Persia back to France. Once in France I helped Charles Garnier with several of his projects, including the opera house. When I discovered the lake and the catacombs, left by the Romans far beneath the theatre I decided to make it my home and live in darkness forever; until Christine.

Now I had to emerge once again, and try to take up the mantle of my ancestors. Like Nadir once did, my cousin beckoned me in a seemingly innocent manner to assume my role. He promised that I would be accepted and my genius be recognized due to my position and heritage. Still I was cognizant of the stares of some of my servants and townspeople. They did not openly do so, unlike the fairgoers in the past who viewed my act. Most of the time they did not even look at me with suspicion; but still I was different. But there was one difference this time that made the effort worthwhile. For once I had the support of others Christine, the Girys, Nadir and Christian. That alone made the effort worthwhile. Perhaps this time I would finally achieve my dream and live like a normal man with a loving living wife by my side.

To my amazement Christine no longer showed any fear of me, she seemed content to lie in my arms and let me softly caress her and remarkably she would do the same to me. I think that we were both exhausted by the events of both the sleepless night and the emotional day that followed. I had started out the morning in complete disbelief at her apparent change of heart towards me. I had been very angry and embittered by the events of those final terrible months that took place at the opera house. I had convinced myself that Christine was incapable of changing her mind about me no matter how much I desired that she do so. It was a miscalculation that almost cost us both our chance at true happiness. I had misconstrued her actions in those final moments, and condemned her much as she had previously done to me, without giving her the benefit of an explanation for her actions on that night. I knew that she had tried to come to me, to clear the air between us; but I could not see any plausible explanation for what had happened that night.

I thanked my previously unfeeling creator for this precious and unexpected gift that he had just bestowed upon me. I wondered if, perhaps, he had finally decided to look upon me with the love and compassion that he had denied to me for my entire life. I gave him a silent prayer of gratitude; then I turned to Christine who had fallen asleep and smiled upon the innocence of her dormant form. She reminded me of the sleeping child that I first beheld, as an embittered and jaded young man who had recently returned from Persia and wanted nothing to do with humanity. Before I first beheld her, I had wanted to wall myself away from everyone and wait for death to claim me; but even then her lonely soul called out to me and I could not deny her.

It was growing cold outside, so I replaced my mask and wig, on my face and head, and gently removed my cloak to cover her. I gave her a gentle kiss and whispered my feelings of love into her ear. I gathered her light delicate form into my arms. She placed her trusting arms around my neck. She murmured something unintelligible into my ear. I carried her into the Chateau and ascended the stairs into the master suite of rooms and placed her on a bed in one of the rooms closest to my own.

I had the servants remove her possessions from the small servant's room next to the Comtesses' to this larger more elegant room. I had already informed the Comtesse that Christine would not be entering her employ after all. She seemed not to be bothered. In fact she seemed most satisfied. I attributed the emotion to her happiness on our behalf and invited her to stay for a little longer while another companion could be hired to replace Christine. She seemed happy to accept. I suppose that she must have been quite lonely for all of these years in her empty Chateau once her husband passed away. To my astonishment Christian seemed to be displeased with my decision to extend an invitation for the Comtesse to remain. He tried to convince me that too many guests all at once might overwhelm the staff. I told him that we could send for some extra help since they would no longer be catering to just the two of us, and that the Comtesse would hardly strain our resources. Perhaps I should have been more inclined to listen to him; he seemed to be very uncharacteristically agitated by this. She was only a harmless old woman.

Auguste Maries' POV

As I watched the young lovers hug in the rose garden; I was carried back more than a half century to the last time that I had visited the same place. It had not changed very much since that long ago day, although the actors involved were very different. It was several months after the event at the Comte de la Bois' estate, the night that had changed everything in both my life and the three men in it. I had, to my complete horror, discovered that I was pregnant. I was not completely sure who the father might be but I was fairly certain it was Georges. The problem was that Georges had already met his German bride and had quickly married her and moved to Konigswinter. I was shocked at the speed of the time that he had met her and left town. I suppose that he was angry at his family for not believing his avowals of innocence especially his brother, or perhaps he just fell madly in love with the German woman.

I kept my pregnancy hidden for around six months. I was able to mask it in loose fitting dresses abandoning my corset. Most thought that I had gained a little bit of weight. My mother was quite suspicious of me and started to eye me with a combination of disappointment and distress. I was sure that she did not know what to do with me. I tried to hide my pregnancy from her and she did not acknowledge it until that fateful day. In hindsight I don't think that she wanted to confront me until she had to. On the one hand, I was her last, and only, living child and relative. We were quite alone in the world with no other relatives. We did not have the money to leave Strasbourg and move, yet again, and really had nowhere left to go to. I think that she would have thrown me out but she was afraid that I would end up in the streets like a common whore and she loved me too much. Although at the time, I could not afford to grieve for causing her death, I still regret my burst of temper on that day. I lay the blame for her death on the Mulheim family as well; if Erik had only done the right thing, and married me, she would not have died in that manner and there would have been no ensuing deaths stemming from what happened in the rose garden. I wondered now if the ghosts of the past were watching the present events take place. If the long dead brothers were gloating in the fact that happiness was recurring in the confines of their Chateau. If so their happiness would be short lived because as far as I was concerned, there were too many Mulheims left in the world, although long ago I would have gladly been the matriarch of all of them.

It was a similar day to this one. Georges had just decamped to Germany, with his bride, so I decided to plead my circumstances to Erik instead. After all, before the incident at Jule's Chateau, he was very taken with me hinting at marriage in the near future. I could feel the warmth of his gaze and knew that it was just a matter of time before he proposed to me. We had spent many hours in deep discussion. He spoke of his love for music and architecture and for all objects of beauty, me included. According to him I was the most beautiful girl that he had ever seen. He kissed me passionately and spoke of the many things that he and I could share once we were married. Much of what he spoke of went over my head. At the time I had not been well traveled. We had not possessed the money to leave Auvergne before we moved to Strasbourg. Maman had to sell everything that we owned just to get the money to move here and pay for the rent and essentials for us to live upon once we arrived. It was only a matter of months before we would run out, but she hoped that I would be married by then and that my new groom would take care of her needs as well.

After that night everything changed, at first Erik felt sorry for me. He was very angry at his brother for 'raping me'. He told me that he did not understand how Georges could have done such a thing. He was convinced that his brother's jealousy had caused him to take desperate measures to possess me. He gently comforted me, and promised to defend my honor to any that would dare question it. But then his brother married and left so quickly, and he began to hear rumors about me. My past had come to haunt me. He didn't believe them at first, and came close to dueling with several of the other noblemen in the city who tried to tell him. Then one night he saw me kissing another man in a corner of a park in the center of the city. He had been away for a few days and I was lonely and the boy was so handsome and irresistible. I tried to follow Erik and tell him that the kiss meant nothing that I was just lonely and got carried away in the moment; but he gave me a frosty look of disdain and told me that it was he who had been a fool. He told me that he had been taken in by my beauty and was fooled no longer.

After that he ignored me, and he no longer called on me. After several months I knew that it was over and that he no longer had any interest in me. When I could see that I was pregnant, I decided to pay a call upon him and get him to forgive me and marry me. I came out to the estate on my own, dismissing my hired hackney. I was confident that I could persuade him to help me, he was a chivalrous man. I came to the door and was shown in by a servant only to be told that the master was not at home. When I told him that I would wait for his return, he gave me a disdainful look and told me that the master would not be returning for quite some time. He suggested that I return home and wait for Erik to call upon me. I told him that I would not do so, and that I would wait for as long as it took to see him. The servant was beside himself with anxiety. I could see that he did not know what to do, but I did not care about his feelings, I only cared about mine.

A short time later the servant returned and asked me to follow him. He brought me outside into the rose garden and left me there alone for a moment. Just then Erik strolled into the garden and I could see that his face was darkened in anger. His green eyes threw bolts of fire at me but I stood my ground. I had to, I was desperate. Then, as now, I would have been ruined if I bore the baby without a father. I felt that Erik had to marry me no matter what his feelings might have been. In my own way I loved him as much as I was capable of doing. I had loved no man since I had been abandoned by my father but I could offer him all that I could give, and be a great wife to him as well. I was well schooled in the arts of running a great household and would bring charm and graciousness to the Mulheim family. Erik just needed to listen to me.

He looked at me coldly and asked, cruelly "What brings you here Auguste? I would think that you would understand that I have no interest in you any longer."

I replied more angrily than I had planned. I wanted to seduce him. "Are you blind Erik, I am pregnant and soon the whole area will know."

He cast a quick contemptuous glance over my midsection and replied "What of it? You and I never engaged in sexual intercourse, it is of little concern to me."

I looked at him furiously "But your brother did and now I am with child, his child. Since he is now gone, and married another, I thought that you would do the right thing and marry me."

"Marry you?" He asked incredulously "Why would I marry you? You are the one who brought dishonor to yourself, and destroyed the relationship between myself and my brother why would I then want to chain myself to you?"

"Because the baby is your brother's son." I told him "He is a Mulheim."

He replied contemptuously "So you say. Tell me was it hard to prick yourself to draw the blood to convince us of your so called virginity. Did you even sleep with my brother that night, or was he too drunk to know the difference?"

I slapped him "How dare you. Your brother raped me, he took my virginity that night this is his child."

Erik looked at me and laughed taunting "Your virginity…Your so-called 'virginity' has been taken by half of Strasbourg. Do you even know the identity of the father? Perhaps it was the stable boy or the innkeeper? Whoever it was it is no concern of mine or even my brother. Your child is no concern of ours either."

"Please." I begged "I have nowhere to turn. I would make you a fine wife. You would never regret it. I come from a fine Protestant family with Royal blood. My lineage would elevate yours. You are merely provincial barons of no real status outside of this area. I would make your descendants the scions of Kings and Emperors."

He looked at me disdainfully "They would be children of a whore. Your family has not worn a crown in ten generations, and is all but extinct except for you. My family will survive and flourish without your so called Royal blood. They have been here in this 'provincial area for almost two thousand years and have done well enough."

I was really angry at his harsh words "Oh yes the legend of the Roman and Apollo. I almost fell asleep from boredom every time that you mentioned it. It is only a story that you tell yourselves to pretend to be something more than the insignificant provincial bumpkins that you really are. Your family will never amount to anything because you come from nothing, and someday soon yours will be as extinct as mine." I vowed.

He gave me a look so hostile that I thought for a moment that he would kill me but he only gave me an angry retort "I believe that this interview is now over. Good luck with your child 'your highness.' He mocked. "This peasant will find a retainer to show you out, and take you wherever you need to go. Perhaps your next lover will be more welcoming."

He turned around and left me standing there alone in the rose garden. At was at that moment that I vowed that his family would suffer the same fate as mine. A week later I approached his friend Jules, the Comte de la Bois. He had just returned from a five month visit to an estate in Martinique. A distant cousin had died and Jules was the sole heir, having no other close family remaining to claim it. I came to him and told him how Georges had left and married and Erik refused to marry me. He had left right after the incident at his estate and was not privy to the gossip about me circulating in town. He was appalled that his friend would do nothing to salvage my honor. He was already half in love with me before he left, so he was more than happy to marry me, and salvage my honor.

He was ready to challenge Erik to a duel, but I begged him not to do so. I told him that it would only draw more attention to my plight. As it was, they exchanged harsh words. Erik tried to tell him that he did not believe that my baby was Georges' child; but could have been the child of many. The two of them severed all bonds between them and never spoke to one another again. Even after Jules began to suspect that Erik was right about me, his pride and shame would not let him bridge the gap between them. When Erik died, Jules did attend his funeral and all that were there could see his honest regret for the past. He would not let me attend, telling me that I did not belong there, but our servants reported to me that Jules wept like a child over his dead ex-friend. The irony was that, to me, Aurore looked clearly like Georges. She had many of his features including his thick blond hair and vivid green eyes. She married quite well when she met the Comte de Chagny. She was his second wife and bore him both a boy and a girl.

It was the boy, Raoul, who I would call upon once more, as I did not trust Christian to complete his task, and kill this younger Erik. I knew all about Raoul's broken engagement with Christine. Aurore had told me about it right after I had heard of Erik's arrival in Alsace. Ironically I rather liked this younger Erik. He was a gentleman like his grandfather before him and seemed to have lived a very hard and unhappy life. Like me, he had been betrayed by his love, this Christine, more than once yet found it in his heart to forgive her. I was surprised that the chit was glad to see her masked tormenter. From what Raoul had told me, I expected her to fear him. This new development was not a bad circumstance. His reconciliation would distract him from my true purpose, anger Raoul and give me time to see the final completion of my plan conceived long ago. It was time to finish off the Mulheims once and for all and complete the circle of my vengeance before I go to my maker or perhaps to hell for all my sins.