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A New Beginning	By : Lum Category: M through R > The Phantom of the Opera > Het Views: 5797 -:- 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.

Chapter List
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Disclaimer: Please see the prologue.

A New Beginning

Chapter 22

Rooms

Not Censored

He met her gaze as hope filled his chest until he thought that his heart would burst.

“You are still my Erik,” she told him, and silenced his sob of relief with a tender kiss against his complacent mouth.

The mask slipped from her hand and fell with a soft thump to the ground, and was forgotten as he wrapped his arms around her waist and deepened the kiss.

Madison gripped the sides of his face, one hand’s fingers splayed against the beginnings of the red, raised tissue, as their mouths pressed against each others to convey the depths of their emotions. It was worse than she had imagined, but not so terrible as some of the wounds that the young men had returned with from the war.

She was glad now that she had steeled herself not to flinch, for after the first moment of shock it really was not such a bad sight, merely different than she had expected. She knew instinctively that he would not welcome pity, so she did not offer any.

And if the way that he was now kissing her was any measure of her success, then she had reacted in the best way possible.

Her foot knocked against the forgotten mask as he drew her closer, hands moving to tangle in her hair, until they were forced to part for breath.

She leaned her head against his chest for a moment, breathing in the scent of him and sighing in contentment before he broke the embrace and wordlessly picked up the mask, pressing it to his flesh and clipping the wire in place.

“Now what?” she asked quietly, her hands capturing his shirt playfully. Erik smiled before capturing her hands in his and leading her to the door, “now I show you your new home, mademoiselle.” As they walked down the hallway to the front entryway Madison wondered at the word he had chosen, home instead of house. Could this be her new home, with him? Her lips curved into a smile.

At the front corridor he showed her the sitting parlor, decorated in pale peach and white with little settees and mahogany tables, lush carpets, and one of her watercolor landscapes of a spring meadow hanging on the far wall, opposite the large double paned windows.

Next was the den, which was set conveniently near the parlor. The walls were dark panels of wood, and the chairs leather wingbacks. The only other furniture a cabinet filled with cut crystal decanters and stoppered bottles for brandy and other spirits. Although elegant and beautiful it, like the parlor, was not very unique. Madison’s brow creased slightly.

Erik led her from that room and across the hallway, into the dining room, which was dominated by the large wooden twelve seater table and chairs and the brilliant chandelier that hung above it, and through the serving doors into the kitchen.

A scullery maid who had been scrubbing the last of that dinner’s pots quickly finished her task, dried her hands, and scurried from the room. While large it too was not spectacular. Madison’s brow creased slightly more.
While she had not made extravagant plans for these mundane but necessary rooms the complete normality of them worried her that perhaps he had not understood her ideas as well as he had let on.

She gazed up at him questioningly only to receive a knowing look in return. “Do you wish your guests to know the wonders of your house?”

She shook her head, some of the tension easing from her and allowed him to grab her hand and pull her to inside the cupboard.

The close confines pushed them together, and while Madison loved to kiss and caress him, and be kissed and caressed in return, she was not in that sort of mood while her house’s uniqueness was in question.

He merely smiled, irritatingly and knowingly, and raised her hand, held in his, to one of the shelves. Her brow knitted in confusion as he pressed her index finger against a knot in the grain of the wood and the column of shelves swung open slowly to reveals a dark stone corridor.

She gasped in surprise and looked at him over her shoulder and said, “clever man,” playfully.

His hands gripped her hips and for a moment she thought that perhaps she was not as out of that mood as she had thought she was, and then he urged her into the dark corridor, following quickly behind her.

Madison turned, in the sudden pitch black dark, and reached out for him as he shut the hidden pantry door behind them. “You should have brought a lantern,” she scolded.

He shook his head, then realized that she would not be able to see it in the dark and voiced his response, “no, you need to learn where to press without any light, so that if you ever need to use it in a hurry you can find it without one.”

His reasoning made sense so she allowed him to once again grasp her hand and lead her fingers to the hidden lever. Once she had learned the spots to press he led her up the narrow stone stairs to the top of the passageway.

After showing her the spy hole to make sure that the room was unoccupied he again led her fingers blindly to the hidden lever that opened the passageway into her bathing room through the towel cabinet.

She smiled widely as he demonstrated how to activate the latch that held the cabinet against the wall, swinging it open, then shutting it. He led her from her bathing room into her bed chamber and to her door that let out into the upstairs hallway.

She blushed, he had never been in her bed chamber before, then chided herself because he had built it and had surely been in the room a hundred times. It felt different this time, however, and she let him lead her from the room without a sound.

Once in the hallway she let him show her the other rooms that she had been too tired to explore. They were the rooms that they had planned together, the oval sitting room with the curved doorways, the solarium that was somehow more window than wall, the small hallway that emptied out in closets, which actually turned out to be more hidden passageways, and the small, unfurnished room that could be turned into a nursery.

He showed her the guest bed chambers, the master suite with its own separate bathing chamber, and stopped her at the alcove in the main upper level hallway. She noticed the large, lovely landscape in its gilded frame and the gas lamps on the wall beside and cast a questioning glance to Erik.

He smiled devilishly at her quirked brow, “there is another hidden passageway here, in the alcove, can you find it?” and chuckled to himself as she explored the walls, twisting the gas lamps and pressing the carved flowers on the picture’s frame to no avail.

Her mouth pursed in playful anger as his grin widened and he placed a hand against the edge of the actual painting, and pushed inwards.

Soundlessly it moved, revolving in the middle of the frame, and revealed the way behind it. Scanning the hallway
to ensure that no maids were nearby he helped her climb up through the painting and followed, closing it behind them.

This time he did pull the matchbook from his pants pocket and struck one match to light the gas lantern that lay on a small table by the entry way, for just that purpose. Light filled the room as he turned the knob on the lantern and set it on the table.

Madison studied the small room that held a small bookcase next to a chair and end table, an easel and stool for her to paint on, and a small cabinet for her supplies. There was a large round window that in the day would bathe the room in light, but now allowed only a small glimpse at the night sky’s stars.

She turned, tears misting her eyes as she clasped her hands in front of her mouth.

“Do you like it?” he asked nervously, “I built this so that you would have a place to retreat, undisturbed. No more hiding in barn lofts…”

She dropped her hands to reveal a smile and threw her hands around his neck, burying her face into his chest. “I love it,” she said into his shirt, “I love everything about the house. Thank you Erik, it is everything and more than I wanted it to be.”

He smoothed one hand down her back, marveling in the fact that she was here with him, willingly, even after seeing him unmasked. Life with Madison, he surmised, would be full of surprises.

“I am glad then, but the tour is not done for I have saved the best for last.”

Checking that the hallway was clear through a removable panel in the painting’s frame he pushed against the back of the landscape and stepped through into the hallway.

Quietly they made their way down the hallway and staircase, past a maid who looked at them curiously, and down the other end of the first floor hallway to the end. “The ballroom, the heart of the house” he announced as his hand pushed the latch on the double French doors and opened one.

Madison gasped, it was unbelievable, so much more, better, than the mirrored hall of Versailles which she had wanted replicated. The entire room was mirrored, all six sides, and the floor, an endless reflection of the ceiling mural. Bright blue sky with puffy clouds of white and every color and sweet cherubs made it look like you walked in heaven rather than on mirrors.

She twirled, watching her reflection in the walls and smiled broadly. “Oh Erik, it’s perfect!”

A hundred Eriks embraced a hundred Madisons as he drew her into his arms and dipped his head towards hers. “I am glad that you are pleased.”

She nodded and closed the distance between their mouths, showing him the extent of her pleasure by wrapping her arms around his torso and darting her small, pink tongue into his mouth.

Their tongues intertwined, exploring each other’s mouth, tasting. His hands dropped from the small of her back to her buttocks, grabbing one globe of flesh in each hand and pressing her wriggling frame against his own taut one.

They stayed like that a moment longer before Madison eased back from him and he released his inappropriate hold on her.

“I see that you have been reading my book,” he teased her, grinning at her deep blush.

“So it was you who left it,” she accused. His grin widened, “unless you have some other lover leaving you indecent reading material?”

Her blush faded to an attractive pink as she was suddenly serious, “only you.”

He nodded at her sentiment and repeated it, “only you, Madison, always you.”

Author’s Note: Thanks to everyone who is reviewing on ff . net and aff . net, I really appreciate it! Many chapters ago I asked for help coming up with crazy rooms, but didn’t get any replies. So if the rooms seem a little bland let me know and give me suggestions and I will not only add them, but also give you credit in the edited chapter. Yay! And things will get steamier between Erik and Madison in the next few chapters.
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A New Beginning