Page 26 of Angel's Kiss
“We should go,” he declared as collected his hat and cloak.
Christine kept her eyes down as she gathered her own things, her face burning. He hadn’t even offered to help her warm up before rehearsal or go over her part. Perhaps he didn’t want to remind her that she would be a chorus girl again today, not even an understudy. At least she would be allowed to sing.
Erik led her to the boat and kept quiet as he poled them across the lake. Lake Avernus, he called it, a private joke Christine had not understood until Erik had told her that it was the Roman name of a lake that led the way to the underworld. Now he seemed a strange Chiron, ferrying her soul over Styx. Did this make her Eurydice, as they followed Erik’s dark road back up to the land of the living? Her guide was certainly doing as Orpheus had been ordered and refusing to look back at her. Maybe Erik didn’t want to damn her to the underworld. Maybe he wanted to return to his solitude without her there to pester and distract him. As if to answer her, Erik looked back as they turned a corner, but she could read no emotion in his glowing eyes.
They came all too quickly to the opposite side of the mirror where Erik deftly opened the portal to let her through. Once again it felt like walking out of the sea to step back into the world she knew and out of Erik’s realm of shadows. Christine ignited the gaslight by the door, her hands shaking. It was she who was afraid to turn around now.
“Christine.” She froze, her skin coming alive with goosebumps at just the sound of her name in his voice. “It has been five nights.”
“It has,” she said, turning to him. He looked like a dark god indeed, framed by the black of the hidden corridor as the golden light from her dressing room illuminated his mask. “I guess I shall go home after rehearsal.”
He said nothing, but he held his breath, frozen, as Christine approached, daring to get close one more time.
“Though I don’t know if Adèle will take me. I may be on her bad side after that business with theComiqueand Cravalho. And I’m rather sure I forgot to pay rent for the month. And...”And I wish you would ask me to stay.The pathetic entreaty continued in her heart as she swallowed and met Erik’s hopeful eyes.
“Perhaps, if you wish it...” he began with uncharacteristic hesitance. Christine looked down at where his hand was clasped in front of him in an echo of her position. He had but to reach a few inches and he could touch her. It would be so easy. He had forgotten his gloves and she wondered if that pale skin was as cold as she remembered. His fingers twitched towards hers. “Perhaps—”
“Mademoiselle Daaé! Are you in there?” The voice came accompanied by a pounding on Christine’s dressing room door. In the heartbeat Christine looked away, Erik sprang back and triggered the mirror, so that when she turned again, she saw only her reflection. Left with no choice, Christine rushed to open her door to find none other than Carlotta’s obsequious little secretary LeDoux standing outside with his hand raised to knock again.
“Monsieur?” Christine asked, trying to calm her pounding heart.
“Ah, you are here. I’ve been looking for a while. The managers would like to see you in their office.” Christine’s heart defied her and began to beat even harder, so much so she felt it in her fingers and toes.
“Why would they send you to find me?” She could still feel Erik watching and, maybe she imagined it, but she sensed his alarm and suspicion too.
“My dear mistress was with them, and I volunteered. She’s quite worried by this nasty business,” LeDoux explained with a simpering grin.
“Lead on then. I’ll follow,” she said with a final glance to the mirror. Whatever ordeal she was to face with the managers, she wanted Erik there. Like the fool she was, she wished she could hold his hand.
She had never been to the managers’ office before, nor any of the administration areas. It wasn’t for people like her – grubby costumers and insignificant choristers. It was the world of the patrons and divas. Such as the one she saw immediately when stepping through Richard and Moncharmin’s door.
“Ah, Mademoiselle, we thought we’d never find you,” Carlotta purred. Christine could hardly bear to look at her, she was so smug and delighted with whatever was about to happen.
“Messieurs, how may I be of service?” Christine asked, hoping they did not hear the tremor in her voice.
“The Signora has brought a little controversy to our attention,” Moncharmin began, placating and pitying. Not a good sign.
“I’m sure you’re aware of some of the theories as to your origin that have surfaced in the press,” Richard cut in.
Christine nodded. “They say all sorts of foolish things, I’m told. I haven’t read them myself.” She swallowed. “And of course, none of it is true.”
“Really? Because a friend of mine fromLe Gauloishas quite a story and a reliable source,” Carlotta interjected.
The floor was becoming unstable beneath Christine’s feet. “What sort of story?”
“That you are a bastard, sired by a gypsy bastard, and roamed all of France before swindling your way into the Conservatoire,” Carlotta recited with glee. “From which you were expelled for failing to pay your fees.”
“Is that true?” Richard demanded before Christine could protest.
“No, not entirely,” Christine stammered. How on earth had someone learned that? “Why does it matter if it is?” Christine turned to Moncharmin, the one sympathetic face in the room. He looked hopelessly at her, then Richard.
“It’s justLe Gaulois,” Moncharmin attempted. “No one reads it.”
“FirstLe Gaulois, tomorrowLe MondeandL’Époque!” Carlotta squawked, fanning herself in a mockery of indignation that made Christine want to scream. But she was too paralyzed to speak.
“This is the National Academy of Music,” Richard said with a sigh. “We have appearances to maintain and many patrons to appease. If your origins are truly so scandalous, it would be unclean to keep you in the company.”
“In the company?” Christine echoed numbly. She hadn’t even touched the stage in nearly a week and somehow that had not been enough for Carlotta to take away from her. “Am I – am I being dismissed?”
