Adult-FanFiction.org : Books

No Easy Way	By : secretlysecretly Category: M through R > The Phantom of the Opera > Het Views: 7568 -:- 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
- 48
- 49
- 50
Chapter 49

Erik watched Marianne as she drifted off into sleep, cradled in his arms, spent from the day’s excitement. He ran his fingertips over her beloved features, reverently touching the delicate skin of her cheeks and rosy lips, bewildered at her beauty. He still couldn’t bring himself to believe he wasn’t dreaming. A mere twenty-four hours ago, he had been on the verge of a nervous breakdown, unable to accept the fact that the woman he loved more than life itself was marrying another. And now, a day later he was cradling that said woman in his arms, tenderly brushing his fingers through her hair, trying to convince himself that she was truly his.

He sighed contentedly and made to rise from Marianne’s bed, trying not to disturb the lovely maiden from her slumber, but the brunette stirred in her sleep and brought her arms around his torso, hugging his form tightly to her, seemingly unwilling to let go of him.

Erik tried to move again, not wanting to let go of her either, but knowing that it was imperative for him to return to Raoul’s side now that Marianne had finally calmed down. He wanted to check on the Viscount, knowing very well how important his safety was to Marianne.

As he finally disentangled himself from his beloved, Erik smiled bitterly to himself. If a week ago, anyone had even insinuated to him that he would be tending to Raoul De Chagny’s wounds and trying to keep his old adversary safe, he would have laughed in their face. As it was, not only was Erik willing to do anything in his power to diminish the younger man’s suffering as much as possible, he was actually feeling indebted to Marianne’s cousin for the rest of his life, after everything the blonde man had done to bring the two of them together again.

He stood by Marianne’s sleeping form for a few seconds as all of these disconcerting thoughts ran through his head and for a brief moment forgot all about his circumstances. He allowed his gaze to linger upon his lover’s angelic face as she slept and gave into his urge to brush his lips against hers for a brief second. Marianne stirred momentarily and then settled back into sleep.

“Rest my sweet” he whispered before he rose to his full height again and soundlessly made his way to the door that led out of the bedchamber. As soon as he was out in the corridor, he quickened his pace and purposefully marched over to Raoul’s room.

He entered the bedroom quietly, frowning when he noticed Louise sleeping in the chair next to the Viscount’s immobile form. He would have started shouting at the young maid then and there, but under the circumstances he knew it wasn’t the girl’s fault. The night’s events had taken their toll on her as well as everybody in the house and Erik couldn’t help but feel sympathy wash over him at the sight of her exhausted form sprawled out on the chair.

It would seem he was growing soft and, although less than a year ago the thought would have filled him with dread, he felt a strange sense of comfort knowing how far along he had come ever since that fateful night at the Opera House when he had almost lost his mind, threatening to kill the Viscount De Chagny in a vain effort to win Christine’s heart. A girl who had no heart to begin with and had in turn almost killed her own husband to avoid facing the harsh reality that was sure to dawn upon her following to the revelations that had been made regarding her person.

Unwilling to let his thoughts dwell on Christine De Chagny a moment longer, he walked to Louise and leaned over the girl, placing his hand on her forearm and gently shaking her out of her slumber. The maid blinked dazedly for a few passing moments and, realizing where she was, practically jumped in her seat as soon as she laid her eyes on the masked man hovering above her.

“I am s-s-sorry Master!” she stuttered, trying to find a way to appease the anger he surely was feeling towards her. The dark man before her had delegated a simple task her way and instead of following his curt orders, she had fallen asleep, demonstrating unforgivable disobedience. She had witnessed the way her mistress was pining after him ever since the two had first met, but couldn’t help feeling a strange sense of alarm every time he was around.

She swiftly stood from her seat and bowed before him, mumbling a string of incoherent apologies as she waited for what would inevitably follow.

However, she was amazed to find that his voice was perfectly level as he spoke, save for an imperceptible gruffness that testified to his fatigue. “Do not worry. I can understand you are tired from the day’s events. You are free to go rest for the remainder of the night; I will stay by the Viscount’s side to make sure he doesn’t need anything until the Doctor’s arrival.”

Amazed at the easy way he had dismissed her, Louise hurriedly bowed once more and scurried out of the room before the intimidating masked man would change his mind and punish her for her disobedience.

Once alone, Erik made quick work of checking Raoul’s wound, satisfied when he found that the stitches and bandages had served well in stopping the oozing of blood from the broken skin. He cleaned the injury once more and wrapped some fresh gauze over it, making sure the young man’s leg was tightly bound to help him with the pain. He then checked on the man’s vital sings and, satisfied by the Viscount’s condition sat in the chair next to his bed, alert to any change in his breathing or else wise.

As time went by, Erik settled back into the chair, managing to remain alert by sheer force of will. As he noticed the twilight of dawn ever so slowly creep into the room, he stood from his seat and walked over to the window that let the light in, leaning onto the ledge tiredly. In the far distance he could make out a dark spot that appeared to be moving in the horizon. He squinted his eyes to see better and realized it was a carriage traveling on the road that separated his estate from Marianne’s.

His spirit rose at the notion that it could only be Doctor Renault at this hour, and paced over to pull the cord and summon Gerard the butler to the room. In a few minutes the butler entered the room with a worrisome look on his face, obviously expecting to hear that the patient had taken a turn for the worse but stopped dead in his tracks when he noticed the smile that curved the masked man’s lips.

“Gerard, I believe the Doctor will be arriving in any minute. Make sure to see him to this room as soon as he gets here.” he instructed the slightly shorter man to receive a curt nod from him.

Indeed, a few minutes later he heard the rapper ring out in the stillness of the house and shortly thereafter heard commotion as the butler led the elderly Doctor into the bedchamber.

As soon as Doctor Renault entered the room, his eyes drifted to Erik who was waiting impatiently for him, his hands crossed on his chest. “I am sorry it took so long for me to get here but I was assisting with a birth when the Duchess sent out for me.” the elderly man murmured apologetically.

“I understand.” Erik stated simply. “I have already stitched the wound to avoid infections and administered some laudanum for the pain, but I would feel much better if you examined the Viscount yourself to give me your professional opinion.”

“I was not aware of the fact that you are a colleague Monsieur….” Doctor Renault drifted off.

“Destler” Erik informed the Doctor sternly. “And no Doctor, I am not a colleague as you so kindly put it, I merely happen to have some knowledge on such matters and, seeing that you were unable to come to the Viscount’s aid soon enough, tried to do my best to help the situation.”

“I see…” the Doctor muttered begrudgingly. He had spent an extremely hard night trying to deliver a baby and it turned out that the woman had twins which had made matters ten times worse. All he wanted to do at the moment was crawl back to his house and rest for a couple of days to regain his strength. On the other hand, the last thing he needed right now was this intimidating stranger interfering with his work.

He shuffled over to the bed where a blonde man was sleeping soundly, his breath level instead of shallow and tortured as Renault had been expecting. Opening his bag at the foot of the bed and taking a stethoscope into his hands to check the man’s pulse, he found everything to be in order. He next brought his fingers to the patient’s face, softly opening one of his eyes to examine the green pupil. Finding no fault there either, he then pulled back the covers to examine the wound in question.

He discovered that Monsieur Destler had indeed cared for the blonde man’s injury quite efficiently. As a matter of fact, if he was going to be honest, he couldn’t have done more for the man himself as it was. He shook his head in awe at the sight before his eyes and straightened his back painfully, taking a few steps back to give the patient some air.

Turning his attention back to Erik, he smiled graciously and reached out to shake the masked man’s hand. “Monsieur Destler, I have to admit I underestimated you at first. When you told me that you had done your best to aid the Viscount, I never would have expected a thorough job such as the one you’ve done. In truth, I am quite amazed to hear that you are not a doctor yourself!” he murmured in bewilderment and reached into his bag once more to retrieve a pair of vials he then handed to Erik.

“The laudanum was the best choice to alleviate the pain at such a time, but I wouldn’t want him to get too used to the substance. The Viscount seems to be a strong man and I’m sure he will be up and about in a few days time. I am confident that he will manage to bear the pain easily, once you administer a few drops of this substance” he explained, indicating the smaller of the vials “with his tea, three times a day.”

Erik nodded in response, carefully placing the small vial containing the painkiller on the nightstand next to Raoul’s bed.

“This liquid here” the Doctor continued, reaching out to hand Erik the larger bottle “has to be used for the cleaning of his wound. You will need to change his gauze periodically to avoid any form of infection and make sure the area is wiped clean every time. I would recommend bandage changes every four hours to be safe, for the next couple of days.”

To this again, Erik only nodded, taking the bottle from the Doctor’s hands and placing it next to the former one on Raoul’s nightstand.

“Of course, I will come back tomorrow to check on the patient’s recovery, but I am sure he will be fine. He is in good hands!” he offered smiling genuinely.

Erik smiled in return at the compliment and proceeded to lead the Doctor out of the bedchamber, offering him some tea. The elder man happily accepted the treat and together the two men walked to the verandah to enjoy the sun which had dawned the new day. They conversed easily for some time, Erik explaining to the kind Doctor that he was familiar to such injuries from his past as a swordsman, but the Doctor was shaken to say the least when he was informed of Olivier Dervaux’ death.

He appeared to be quite worried for Marianne’s state and insisted on staying to offer a consoling word as soon as the Duchess would wake up. When he inquired as to the circumstances leading to the Viscount’s wound, Erik had informed him that he was unaware of the facts as the man had already lost his senses when he had come to his aid.

Upset by this strange turn of events, Doctor Renault stopped asking any more questions, reflecting on how Marianne Pinon would be able to cope with all this.

No more than an hour later, Gerard appeared, informing Erik that his mistress had woken up and was asking for him. Erik instructed the butler to go and inform Marianne that Doctor Renault had arrived a short while earlier and that she should join them for her morning tea if she wished to speak to the latter.

Indeed, a few minutes later, Marianne emerged through the balcony walls, looking pale as a ghost and more radiant than ever to Erik’s eyes. He quickly stood from his seat and pulled back a chair for her next to Doctor Renault, stepping back into the house despite Marianne’s protests to give them some privacy.

About a half an hour later, Marianne walked into Raoul’s chamber to find Erik by his old enemy’s side, calmly reading a book. She was followed by Doctor Renault who cordially greeted Erik and left after repeating his instructions to the masked man upon how to use the vials.

As soon as the door closed behind him, Marianne flew into Erik’s waiting arms, shedding tears of joy and murmuring how lucky she was for finding a man such as him to spend the rest of her life with. Erik, alarmed by her tears tried to calm her but the young maiden pulled back to look into his eyes and repeated again how lucky she was to have him. She recounted everything that Doctor Renault had explained to her, leaving nothing unsaid, not even the kind Doctor’s explanations on how Raoul could have lost his leg if Erik had not come to his aid as efficiently as he had.

Erik smiled modestly and wordlessly led her out of Raoul’s room before pulling the cord to summon Gerard again.

Indeed, the butler came into view shortly, ready to follow his Mistress’ instructions but finding that it had been this strange masked man who had called for him yet again.

He carefully listened to Erik’s instructions to make sure a servant was always in the room with the Viscount in case the latter would need anything. He made mental notes to administer the drug the Doctor had brought himself and also to make sure the bandages would be regularly changed over the injured man’s wound.

Soon thereafter he watched the couple walk away towards the stairs that led to the ground level and, without asking any questions, set out to follow Erik Destler’s instructions involving Raoul and also his wife who had been locked away in the boudoir adjoining to the patient’s room.

****************************************************************************************************************

A/N: Please R&R!
- 48
- 49
- 50
You need to be logged in to leave a review for this story.You need to be logged in to leave a review for this story.
Report Story

No Easy Way