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The Silent Wish	By : LaurieBaker Category: M through R > The Phantom of the Opera > Het Views: 14629 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own The Phantom of the Opera, nor any of the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

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“That mirror was nailed shut a long time ago, Mademoiselle...”

Katherine nearly screamed from the sound of the voice that had come out of nowhere, whirling around in fright.

She recognized the woman standing in the doorway of Christine Daae’s old dressing room, all garbed in black with her hair tightly pulled into a neat bun. She was Madame Giry, Sophia’s ballet instructor and the Ballet Mistress of the Opera Populaire. When Sophia was a young girl, Katherine would often escort her daughter to the Paris Opera House for ballet lessons. Granted, she usually used the outing as an excuse to do some shopping in some of the more elegant shops in Paris. Oh, how many stories of tyranny had she heard about this woman from Sophia, some of them not at all flattering!

“Madame Giry,” Katherine said hesitantly with a small smile, straightening her back and extending a hand to her. “It is good to see you again.”

“Likewise, Madame,” the woman nodded, not appearing quite the ogre that Sophia made her out to be. “The way that you were examining that mirror, I can only surmise you wish to meet the Opera Ghost.”

Katherine laughed nervously, hoping that Madame Giry was just making a feeble joke. Oh, she had read all about the accounts of Madame Giry arranging for the Phantom’s normal seat at Box Five for Christine’s performances. She had often wondered how Giry managed to keep her job with the Opera Populaire after all of the scandal.

“He knows that you are here,” Giry remarked.

Katherine swallowed hard when she realized that the woman was completely serious. Dear Lord!

“How could he possibly know anything about me?”

Madame Giry shrugged with a satisfied smile.

“He knows of everything that goes on in this Opera House. He always has.”

Extending an arm out, Madame Giry gestured for her to join her side.

“Come, he wishes to make your acquaintance...”

“Wait!” Katherine called out sharply, suddenly very frightened. “What if I do not care to see him?”

“You are Mademoiselle Sorelli’s mother,” Madame Giry answered. “He would not harm you.”

Katherine’s heart beat hard in her chest.

“So my daughter and the Phantom are indeed...acquainted?”

“With all due respect, Madame,” Giry smiled, “that is putting it very delicately. Yes, I will be honest with you. Your daughter has visited the Opera Ghost many times. Often, the Phantom would arrange for me to make the necessary arrangements for their secret meetings.”

“And you aided him in her defilement?” Katherine asked, incredulously.

“Unfortunately, the Phantom can be very cross if he does not get his way, Madame. I had no choice in the matter.”

“He didn’t force Aurora, did he?” All of the sudden, Katherine felt rather sick. “Was she raped or threatened by him in some way?”

“I am not privy to all of the Phantom’s secrets, Madame,” Madame Giry shrugged. “But if you want my opinion, I believe that Aurora always met with Erik on her own free will. She often appeared quite eager to see him again, in fact.”

“How did my daughter become acquainted with him?”

“I have no idea,” Madame Giry shrugged.

Katherine shook her head. How had she allowed herself to get so distant from her own daughter? How could Aurora have acted so promiscuously?

“I did not approve at first either, Madame,” Giry responded, patting at her arm with understanding. “After all, my little Meg is not that much younger than Aurora, only by a few years. I admit that I felt like I was being forced to procure a mistress for him. And I told him so at the risk of my own life. Yet, I have seen the change in both of them. I have never known Er...I have never known the Phantom to be so at peace as he was when he was meeting with her. Somehow, she seemed to have a calming effect on him. And while I do not know Mademoiselle Sorelli very well, whenever I saw her during those days, she seemed to be all aglow and quite happy. While I am the first to admit that their behavior was disreputable, the Phantom was no monster to her, Madame. He would never hurt her nor would he hurt you. Do you believe me?”

Katherine nodded, although she was still not sure if she should trust Madame Giry at all.

The Ballet Mistress led her down a series of hallways, leading to Box Five. The curtains were all drawn about the box, tightly clamped shut. Since it was still the middle of the afternoon, the theater had not truly come to life as of yet. There were merely a few dancers on stage, rehearsing and preparing for the performance ahead.

“Wait here,” Madame Giry instructed. “He shall arrive shortly.”

With trepidation, Katherine sat down in one of the opera seats and waited. So this is where the Opera Ghost had sat as he watched Christine singing on the stage below. Was this where he plotted to cut down the chandelier? Was this where he planned his abductions and murders?

Katherine trembled slightly at the thought. She should leave here at once. Yet if some harm came to Aurora, she would never forgive herself for being such a coward. After all, the Phantom had no reason to murder her. And in any case, if she was murdered, at least Aurora would realize that the man was dangerous and forget him.

“I see where Aurora has inherited her beauty, Madame Sorelli,” the softly toned voice proclaimed.

Starting slightly, Katherine turned her head towards the entrance of the box, seeing the masked man clothed in a black fedora and cape. How had he arrived without her hearing him? God, no wonder so many people thought of him as a ghost!

“So you are acquainted with my daughter?” she asked, feeling it would be foolish to do anything else but to come straight to the point with this man.

He nodded solemnly as he neared in order to sit in the seat beside her.

Katherine felt as skittish as a cat when the tall man came so close to her. As she got a better look at his face from what little light streamed into the theater box, she realized that what she could see of his face was rather handsome actually. He did not seem at all the ghoul that he was described to be in the newspapers. He was much older than she had expected, closer to her own age than Aurora’s. As the Phantom gazed upon her, his eyes was polite, respectful and shrewdly appraising at the same time. He did not appear to pose a great danger, at least not at this very moment.

And yet, she was uncomfortable all the same.

There was a quality of restrained ferocity about the way that he carried himself...as if he were a caged tiger waiting to strike. That nervewracking quality was rather exciting in a perverse sort of way. What must it be like to be desired by such a man? She was embarrassed to feel an odd stirring in her loins that she had thus far only felt with Luciano.

Quickly, she shoved such thoughts aside. It was positively shameful to think such thoughts about a man who knew her daughter so intimately.

“I know your daughter quite well, Madame Sorelli,” he confided. “Admittedly more so that I should, although my intentions are more honorable than your other daughter, Sophia, has alluded to. I have asked Aurora to marry me.”

Katherine gasped in shock.

“And she accepted my proposal.”

She blinked furiously, clutching at the arms of the theater seat.

“However,” the Phantom continued, “there appears to be some parental discord in the matter. With new information having come to light, I can only surmise that somehow Sophia took it upon herself to inform your husband about my acquaintance with Aurora. I take it that Monsieur Sorelli does not approve of our alliance as he has taken it upon himself to send one of his employees to spy upon me, perhaps even trying to arrange for my demise. Thus I instructed Madame Giry to keep a close watch on any Sorellis who might appear in the Opera House.”

Katherine’s fear hardened in anger.

“My husband is no murderer, Monsieur Phantom, unlike yourself!”

The Phantom shrugged, the matter clearly being of indifference to him.

“And if you believe him to be such a threat, it is quite foolish to meet with me, is it not? How do you know that you can trust me?”

“Let us say I have done some research, Madame Sorelli. Or should I call you Monsieur L’Amour?”

Katherine felt dizzy and thought she would faint as the Phantom revealed her secret pseudonym as if she were an open book to him.

“If you do not mind some friendly advice?” the Phantom taunted. “If I were you, I would spend a little more time observing your husband in action and perhaps a little less time writing those sordid love stories you are so fond of.”

“It seems your reputation as an all-knowing ghost is well deserved,” she gasped.

“Not such a mystery really,” the Phantom smiled slightly. “When I first began to see your daughter, I made it my business to find out as much as I could about her, her family and her suitors. I suppose I can become horribly obsessive when provoked.”

“You don’t say?” she responded sarcastically.

He chuckled softly.

“Oh, do not play the offended victim, Madame, I beg of you. For I believe I am not the only obsessive in this theater box. I have taken to even reading a few of your novels, although I confess that gothic romance is not particularly my preferred genre of literature. Which one was my favorite? Oh, yes. ‘The Ghostly Lover.’ A particularly moving story of a dark brooding hero with a scarred face who kidnaps a beautiful young woman after trapping her in a Maze of Mirrors that he had designed and built himself. But I must say, that character reminded me of someone.”

He sighed and shook his head with a mischievous look in his eye.

“What was it about that man that seems so familiar?”

Katherine blushed right down to her toes. And the Phantom was now grinning. Damn him!

“I am flattered, Madame Sorelli,” he cruelly continued. “Although I am not nearly the romantic hero that your stories suggest.”

“My novels are fictitious, Monsieur Phantom,” she snapped. “And it is quite obvious that you are no romantic hero! No character of mine would ever be as insufferable as you are being right now!”

With that, he let out a loud guffaw.

“Still I suspect you will not betray the man who has proven to be such an invaluable source of inspiration for some of your popular novels, will you?”

She did not dignify his insolence with an answer.

“You will be quite an amusing mother-in-law, Madame Sorelli,” he said with a boyish grin.

Against her better judgment, Katherine was starting to like this man. And he took shameless advantage of the situation.

“Now you are being very assumptive!”

“Admit it, Madame,” he teased precociously. “Wouldn’t you rather have me for a son-in-law than that stuffy Baron von What’s-His-Name? I admit I am not as handsome as he is, but I could prove to be quite entertaining. Why, I can just imagine having you down for tea in our underground home. Aurora would be coddling your little grandbabies while I regale you with stories of my past exploits. Maybe I should even reveal a few of my secret methods for you to use in your stories, would you like that?”

Katherine bit back a smile, wishing she were not such an easy conquest for a charming man. But he made her feel alive and attractive in a way that she hadn’t felt for years, not since her honeymoon with Luciano.

“You love Aurora?” she asked earnestly as she studied him.

“With all of my heart.”

The softening of his eyes as he thought on her daughter made Katherine feel rather ashamedly jealous. A man could not fake such emotions.

“You would never strike her or harm her?”

“I would die before seeing that girl hurt in any way.”

“And you shall always be responsible and provide for her and any children that might result?”

“Of course.”

The silence between them was deafening.

There was something about the man. Despite his past and his reputation, Katherine felt that he truly meant what he said regarding his love for Aurora. She knew that even though he was horribly conceited, she did like him much more than that boring cold Baron.

But most importantly, Aurora loved this masked man. Sophia, Madame Giry and the Phantom all seemed to confirm that. And why else would she have taken so many risks just to be by his side? Recalling the sight of her daughter in tears earlier that day, Katherine knew for a certainty that Aurora would be miserable for the rest of her days married to the Baron. She herself could not imagine what it must be like to be chained forever to a man that one did not care for. She could not wish such a fate upon her daughter, despite what her husband decreed.

Yes, Aurora’s happiness with the Phantom was a risk, but her misery with the Baron was a certainty.

Guiltily, Katherine again thought of how often she had not been there for her daughter as much as she should have. Perhaps, if she had been, Aurora would not have gotten herself in such an awkward entanglement. But there was a way to make amends. She could help her daughter find happiness.

And the fact of the matter was Katherine was a damned glutton for romance. That was why all of her stories had happy endings.

Besides, her mouth positively watered at the idea of all of the Phantom’s juicy secrets to put in her novels!

“If you want to wed Aurora, you must make haste for she is to be married to the Baron on the morrow.”

-------------------------------------

The Baron von Rothsberg studied his appearance in the mirror.

Excellent! There were no tell-tale signs of the debauchery he had partaken in the night before. Having won a large amount at the gaming tables, he immediately procured an expensive whore. Most of the night, he exhausted himself, defiling the prostitute in the most debasing ways he could think of. Funny, he had never seen a hired woman reduced to tears before, but he had been in his prime last night, cruelly using her in such painful and humiliating ways that she begged for mercy which he did not give.

If Basil had only known that his silly bitch of a fiancée would be so foolish as to get caught with her Phantom lover, he would have saved up all of his energy for the upcoming wedding night. Even so, his cock was once more standing at attention, eagerly awaiting a piece of that stuck-up lily-white ass of hers. So much so that he did not even care to wait on the morrow for the wedding.

Straightening his ascot and combing his hair, the Baron nodded with satisfaction before leaving his townhouse to head for the Sorelli Mansion.

He already had his offer prepared and ready.

Seeing as how Aurora’s situation was so scandal-ridden and shameful, perhaps it would be best not to wait until tomorrow for their marriage. Would it not be more fitting to marry as soon as possible tonight?

After all, in concern for her welfare, it was the least that he could do.

Then at last he could give her the wedding night that she deserved!
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The Silent Wish