Christine ignored the voice that called to her as she opened her dressing room door and slid inside, breathing heavily. The paper in her fist seemed to be on fire--she had to get rid of it, quickly. But how--and without Erik, who was probably behind the mirror watching her, finding out?
She crossed the dark room, sank into the chair and leaned back on the dressing table for support. A quick knock at the door startled her.
"Who�s there?" she asked shakily.
"It�s Meg! Let me in!"
Christine jumped from the chair and hurried to let her friend in. She locked the door after Meg had stepped in, and Meg stared at her.
"What�s wrong, Christine? You look like you�ve seen a ghost!"
"I wish I had..." Christine murmured.
"What is it?"
Christine turned to the mirror. "Erik, are you back there?"
There was no answer.
Meg�s face showed instant fright. "Erik? You mean the Phantom? Why are you talking to the mirror, Christine?"
Christine pushed at the panel that made the mirror slide back and glanced behind it. Erik was nowhere in sight--where could he be? And where was Madame Giry, and the baby?!
"Christine!" Meg exclaimed, gaping at the mirror. "What is going on?!"
Christine turned to face Meg. "The mirror is the easiest way to the lair, Meg."
"You mean you really live down there?"
"Yes," Christine murmured.
"How can you bear that awful darkness? I was only there for a minute, and it scared me half to death!"
"I love Erik, Meg," Christine said. "I don�t even notice the darkness anymore."
"I still can�t believe you married him."
"I--"
A knock at the door interrupted her. With a foreboding shiver, she glanced at Meg. She fingered the note in her palm, then quickly took Meg�s hand. "Take this," she whispered, pressing it against her friend�s fingers. "Burn it. Destroy it. Don�t read it--just get rid of it, and don�t tell anyone."
"What is it?" Meg asked.
"It doesn�t matter. Just destroy it. I never want to see it again in my life."
"Who is it from?"
"Don�t ask questions!" Christine pleaded. "Just throw it away!"
There was a second knock on the door. "Don�t answer it," Christine murmured.
"I�m sure it�s only Mother," Meg said, as she reached for the door handle. "I saw her afterward, she said she was on her way here."
"But Meg," Christine protested as Meg opened the door. She gasped as she saw who it was and she rushed to the door and tried to push it closed, but when she looked down, his foot was blocking the way.
"Let me go," she whispered. "I have nothing to say to you--please, just leave!"
"Christine," Raoul whispered earnestly, "I must speak to you! Let me come in!"
"No!" she exclaimed, louder than she meant. She quickly lowered her voice. "You can�t. Go away, please! If Erik finds out you�ve been here, he�ll--"
"I won�t leave until you talk to me. Did you get my note?"
"Raoul--"
"Did you?"
"Yes," she admitted in a desperate whisper. "Now go! If Erik finds you here--"
"Will you meet me tomorrow?"
"I can�t, Raoul! Erik doesn�t trust you--he�ll never let me."
"You don�t have to tell him!"
"He�ll know," she whispered.
"Christine, if I don�t talk to you I�ll go out of my mind. Please--"
"There is nothing for us to talk about. I�m already married--happily. You can�t take me away from that."
"I don�t intend to! I just have to tell you--"
"I�m sorry, Raoul." She turned to go inside.
He grabbed her arm. "Christine, wait."
"Raoul--"
"This has nothing to do with what happened two years ago."
"Then what is it?"
"Will you meet me?" he pleaded. "Please, Christine, for your sake, for...for Erik�s sake..."
"All right!" she hissed, not realizing what she was saying in her haste to get him away from her dressing room before Erik appeared. "I�ll meet you! Just leave! Please, Raoul--"
He let go of her arm. "At dark, tomorrow."
"Yes! Now go!"
He backed up, with a final glance of longing. "Tomorrow."
Christine nodded as she shut the door in his face, bolting it after him and leaning against it with a heaving breath.
Meg was staring at her. "Christine, what is going on?" She had unfolded the note from Raoul and apparently had read it, on top of listening to Christine�s interchange with the Vicomte. "You�re married to the Phantom, but you�re agreeing to meet Raoul in secret, and why is there a cradle in here?!"
Christine felt faint. "Did I agree to meet him tomorrow?"
"Yes! What�s going on!?" Meg demanded. "Why is the Vicomte here? I thought he was gone somewhere on an expedition or something--that was what I heard last. What does he want--and did you have a baby, Christine?!"
"Didn�t your mother tell you?" Christine murmured weakly. "I think you had a right to know about your namesake."
"My namesake?!" Meg squealed, dropping the paper and grabbing at Christine�s hand. "It�s a girl? You named her after me?! How old is she?!"
"Two months," Christine said. "I was sure everyone would notice the weight I put on."
Meg rolled her eyes. "As if you could gain weight. Is her name really Meg?"
"Margaret Aminta."
"Christine!! You should have told me right away! Where is she? Can I see her?"
"I imagine she�s with Erik by now. Your mother was watching her during the performance--"
"Mother knew?! And she didn�t tell me?"
"I don�t know why she didn�t. I never told her not to."
Meg sighed. "Mother doesn�t think I can be trusted with anything. I wouldn�t have told anyone."
"I know that." Christine squeezed Meg�s hand. "But Erik seems suspicious of everyone. He doesn�t want anyone to know that I�m married, that I have a baby... He�s afraid of the world, I think. It�s as though without his mask, he has no confidence."
"Does he want his mask back? I still have it."
"You kept it?" Christine remembered the trauma she had experienced when she saw the mask two weeks after leaving Erik.
"Yes. No one but you even knows I found it. I couldn�t seem to get rid of it, much as I was terrified of him."
"He doesn�t want it back," Christine said quickly.
"Are you sure?"
Christine sighed. "Well, in truth, he might want it, but I don�t. He would only hide behind it, and refuse to show anyone the man inside him. He�s trying to do that now, and if he had his mask, he could."
"But Christine," Meg whispered, "how can you stand to look--"
"His face is a part of him, Meg," Christine interrupted, knowing what her friend meant before she voiced it. "I wouldn�t change it for the world."
"But what if your children--oh, Christine, little Meg doesn�t have--"
"No. She looks like me."
"That�s a relief!" Meg sighed. "If she looked like...him..."
"You sound exactly like Erik," Christine mused. "He was completely relieved. She does truly look like me--everything but her eyes. They�re so like his... A person can read anything in his eyes."
"Oh, Christine! I�m so thrilled--"
"Sshhh!" Christine said suddenly, stepping closer to the still-opened mirror. Footsteps sounded from behind--Erik must be on his way. She turned to look at Meg again. "Promise you won�t say anything to him about Raoul?" she whispered.
Meg gasped. "He�s coming here? Now?! Christine, I can�t stay! I�ll...I�ll scream, I know I will! I can�t seem to control myself when I�m frightened, and I know that his face will scare me half to death! I only saw it once, at a glance, but it was just awful, Christine. I know I�ll just--"
"Hush, Meg!" Christine cried in a whisper. "Erik will hear you! Promise me, now, that you won�t mention Raoul!"
"I won�t mention anything, Christine! I�ll be too busy screaming!"
"Don�t scream, whatever you do! Just stay calm. He wouldn�t dream of hurting you. You have nothing to be afraid of!"
"Christine?" came Erik�s cautious voice from behind the mirror.
"I�m here," she replied, reaching up to take the pins from her hair, anticipating Erik�s rush to get to their house on the underground lake. Meg cowered beside Christine, beyond view of the mirror. The light from the lamp on her table seemed to set off a sudden eerie glow to the room, enveloping all but the area around the table in darkness.
Erik came from behind the mirror, cradling baby Meg in his arms. "Christine, Meg�s starting to get fussy again--we need to get home."
Meg Giry, apparently forgetting her resolve to scream, jumped up and exclaimed, "Oh, may I see her, please?"
Erik instantly stepped back into the shadows as he saw that Christine wasn�t alone. His face paled. "Christine..."
"Erik," Christine said in a low consoling tone, "you remember Meg, don�t you? Our baby�s namesake."
Erik managed a nod. "Miss Giry." His head was turned so only the right side was visible, even in the darkness of the dressing room.
Christine hurried to retrieve the baby from him. "I don�t think you two have ever been properly introduced. Meg, this is Erik, my husband."
Erik did not look at either of the women in the room as he relinquished his hold on his daughter. "We need to leave, Christine..."
"Let Meg hold her namesake," Christine said softly. "I have to change, anyway."
"I�ll wait for you at the boat," Erik said, slipping behind the mirror before Christine could protest.
She sighed. "Didn�t I tell you, Meg?"
"Ohhh, Christine," she was exclaiming. "She�s so perfect! You�re right, she does look just like you--she�s precious!"
Christine shook away her disappointment in Erik�s quick departure as she looked at Meg. "I know," she murmured, reaching out to touch baby Meg�s cheek.
"Christine," Meg suddenly said, her voice wobbly, "I don�t know how I�ve ever made it without you for these two years. It�s been so awful... I was so glad that you were coming back, but now that you�re married, and you�ve got a baby... You�ll be gone again and I�ll never get to see you except for a minute at the performances, and I just don�t know how I�ll be able to stand it!"
"Meg," Christine soothed. "Don�t worry. I�ll be around more often than that! I�ll be here for rehearsals and such, and I�ll even come for no reason except to see you sometimes. And I�ll need someone to watch little Meg during the performances and rehearsals�perhaps if you�re not busy, you can keep her for me."
"Really, Christine?!" Meg exclaimed. "That would be so wonderful!"
"The only thing is," Christine said regretfully, "you won�t be able to tell anyone whose baby she is."
"Anyone who knows you will guess, Christine. She looks so much like you."
"I know. But Erik would be so upset, and--"
"You can�t hide her identity forever, you know."
"I know."
"How long do you suppose you�ll have to wait?"
Christine sighed. "I wish I could say, Meg. Erik is so hard to figure out. I know he loves me, and I know he loves little Meg, but...he refuses to go into the world for a moment, unless he�s under the cover of darkness, just like you saw tonight. It�s not that I don�t like our little underground place, but sometimes I wish we could be a normal family... Go for a stroll in the park with our baby carriage..." She squeezed Meg�s hand. "But I wouldn�t trade Erik for anything."
Meg swallowed hard. "I...don�t really know what to say, Christine."
"That�s all right," Christine said. "I understand. But I really need to leave. Erik won�t want to wait long."
Meg handed the baby to Christine. "Thank you for letting me hold little Meg."
"Of course," Christine smiled. "I�ll see you at rehearsal tomorrow?"
Meg nodded. "Though once Mother hears how the ballet went tonight, I�m sure she�ll be the one to lead tomorrow."
Christine couldn�t help the laugh. "Oh Meg, I�ve missed you." She pulled her into a sideways hug. "I promise not to stay away that long again."
"Good!" Meg said with a giggle. She turned more serious. "You probably should go. If the Phan--Erik is waiting, he�ll be anxious."
"Thank you for understanding," Christine said. "Now, once I�ve left, will you lock my door behind you and tell anyone who shows up that I�m too worn out to talk? Except Andr� and Firmin and your mother--you can tell them that I went home."
"All right," Meg said. "Don�t worry. I won�t tell anyone anything."
"You�re a dear, Meg. Thank you." Christine stepped to the mirror. "I�ll see you tomorrow?"
Meg nodded again. "Christine?"
"Yes?"
"I�m so glad you�re back."
Christine smiled and waved before turning to the corridor behind the mirror. "Me too, Meg."
