Page 21 of Angel’s Flight (The Phantom Saga #4)

Lucca

C hristine had never kidnapped anyone, so she was unsure if what she was doing to Pauline counted. It was rather thrilling to have someone under her control, but it was also terrifying. What was she supposed to do with the person who had chased them down to the ends of the earth?

“This seems rather excessive,” Jack whispered nervously, glancing at Pauline’s restrained form in a chair from the corner where he and Christine were conferring. “My family will have questions if they walk into the kitchen and see a woman tied to a chair.”

“Then keep them out,” Christine snapped.

“For how long?”

“Until Erik returns,” Christine declared.

“What can Erik do that you can’t?” Jack asked uneasily.

Christine gulped. The old Erik would not have paused in hurting this woman for information, but Christine had to believe he was different now.

Though he had not been different when fighting with those men in Florence.

He had been brutal, and Christine hated to think that they needed that brutality.

“He’s more versed in these things,” she answered tightly.

“In tying up strange women and extracting confessions from them?” Jack looked extremely worried. Christine was, again, left to wonder how much he regretted making their acquaintance.

“What do you think I should do instead? Call the police?”

“The police here only care about what they are paid to care about, and you can’t afford the debt it would entail to put her in jail, even for a night,” Jack said with a grimace. “I don’t even know what you’d tell them—”

“That wouldn’t get me arrested first,” Christine finished with a sigh.

“You could just talk to me.”

They turned to look at where Pauline waited, bound to a kitchen chair with Howard glowering behind her. She looked distressingly pleased to have their attention.

“I may have some insights for you. You seem overwhelmed by all this, my friend,” Pauline went on.

“You’re not my friend,” Christine replied, stalking towards the smaller woman.

“No, I wasn’t.” Pauline shrugged. “But you were so easy to turn into mine.”

Christine squinted at Pauline. All her softness and warmth were gone, so different now than when Christine had first encountered her. “You helped me when that man was harassing me.”

“I paid him, yes,” Pauline replied proudly, “And then became all a lonely, gullible girl who once believed in fairy tales and ghosts could want in a friend.”

“Ghosts?” Jack echoed. Howard also looked perplexed.

“Oh. They don’t know your whole story, do they?” Pauline said with a wicked grin that made Christine queasy. “Gentlemen, are you aware you’re harboring the wife of a dangerous criminal?”

“He is not dangerous,” Christine snapped, more to Howard and Jack than to Pauline. She couldn’t risk losing the only allies she had left.

“Such a na?ve fool, sweet Christine,” Pauline sighed. “When I began to study you, I almost admired you. Such an independent woman, so talented, able to bewitch such an unparalleled beast. Then you tossed it all away.”

“I made my own choice,” Christine protested. She hated this. Hated how it felt like all her mistakes had suddenly turned into a thing of flesh made only to mock her.

“Have you heard her sing, gentlemen?” Pauline went on, ignoring Christine in a way that made her feel utterly powerless.

“I saw her in Paris, at her last performance, no less. She was brilliant. Truly brought the house down. To think such a voice will never be heard again except by a murdering monster.”

“You know nothing about my husband or me,” Christine seethed, her cheeks burning as she avoided Howard and Jack’s eyes.

“I know everything about him. And you,” Pauline smirked. “I have made myself an authority on all the secrets you tried to leave behind at the Palais Garnier – where your dear Erik spent years terrorizing people.”

“What is she talking about?” Howard asked. Christine stared at the man who had been so quick to help her, unable to explain why she and Erik were being hunted.

“We simply want to live our lives in peace,” Christine whispered, panic rising along with her memories.

“Peace? After he brought down that chandelier?” Pauline scoffed.

“The chandelier that fell during the performance in Paris?” Jack asked, face paling in horror. Christine couldn’t meet his eyes.

“That’s enough,” Christine ordered, but it sounded like begging.

Pauline continued to smile. “You don’t want them to know about the monster you married and all the awful things you’ve done?

” she asked, nodding towards the men who had foolishly helped Christine.

“Have you seen the creature yet, young sirs? I’ve only heard stories, but I’m amazed she can keep her stomach when he takes her. ”

“Careful, Signora,” Howard warned. “You’re talking about our friends.”

“They are killers,” Pauline whispered, holding Christine’s gaze as she did. “They ran from France to escape their crimes. I am only on their trail to exact justice.”

“You have been misinformed,” Christine hissed. “I have made mistakes, but I'm not—"

“Don’t waste your excuses,” Pauline sneered.

“Who told you all this?” Christine asked, trying to keep calm as her heart pounded. She couldn’t look at Howard or Jack. She didn’t want to see them judge her. Is this what Erik felt like when he was unmasked? “Tell me why you’ve done all this.”

“Our services have been procured on behalf of the estate of one Antoine de Martiniac,” Pauline replied lightly. “You do recall your husband’s last victim?”

Christine did recall – vividly. She heard the shot that ended Antoine’s life over and over in her nightmares. But it hadn’t been Erik that killed him, and Antoine, rapist and killer himself, had deserved his fate. Of that, Christine was certain, and that certainty gave her strength.

“Then you have been lied to,” Christine exhaled. “It’s you who serves a monster. Or the ghost of one.”

“Keep telling yourself that."

“You said our and we . You work with whoever it was harassing the baroness,” Christine went on, trying to steady herself. “That was months ago.”

“We did lose you for a while after that,” Pauline sighed.

“But a recent uptick in correspondence from Paris changed our fortunes. The delay allowed us to learn about you and Monsieur Gilbride. Such an interesting choice – his mother’s name.

Rare in France, but so common in Ireland.

Especially around – what was her backwater village called? Coolaney - that’s right.”

“You will not involve any more innocent people in this,” Christine growled, and Pauline laughed.

“Like the sweet family of dear Jack here? Or whoever this useless lout is?” Pauline nodded backward towards Howard.

“Mark my words, gentlemen, this strumpet and her phantom aren’t your friends.

They are using you like they’ve used all the others they’ve hurt and discarded.

I wonder, Christine, did Erik offer you to them as payment for their help?

I’m sure you’re quite the obliging whore since you can’t—”

Christine’s slap echoed through the room, leaving a red welt on Pauline’s pale cheek. “How dare you?” she breathed, shaking in anger and shame at what she had done. What she was. What Jack and Howard would see her and Erik as now.

“So, the angel has a spine,” Pauline muttered. “I still don’t know what your Erik sees in you. What sort of caring wife doesn’t even ask after her husband when he’s in danger?”

Christine launched herself at Pauline, only to be caught by Howard.

“Madame Gilbride, a word,” Howard admonished. He was strong for his size, and Christine couldn’t resist as he guided her away from the woman she very much wanted to strangle. “Jack, guardala .”

“ Felicemente ,” Jack replied, stepping in front of Pauline with a frown. “See. Not useless.”

Howard hauled her out of the kitchen, letting her go once the door was shut.

They were in the bright summer sun in the courtyard now, and Christine had never felt so exposed.

Everything she had tried to hide and run from for months had found her.

Jack and Howard were going to believe Pauline because half of what she had said was true, and the rest was so easy to believe after all she had done. ..

“I’m sorry,” Christine whispered to Howard and the sky. She was sorry for everything, but it didn’t matter.

“Take a breath. She’s upsetting you on purpose, Christine,” Howard said, calm and soothing in a way that shocked her. “She wants you off guard so you’ll let her go.”

“She wants you to turn on me,” Christine argued, shaking her head. “What she said about Erik and me... I’m not...”

“I know,” Howard said simply, and the storm in Christine’s heart suddenly subsided.

“What?”

“I said I know,” Howard repeated with a lopsided smile. “You’re not the monster she says.”

Christine stared into his pale eyes, her panic receding. “You barely know me. You’ve never even met Erik.”

“Christine, the first night I met you, I knew I could trust you with a confession I’ve made to very few friends,” Howard said, taking her hand.

It was remarkable how much the simple contact grounded her, as did the sincerity in Howard’s eyes.

“Men like me must be careful, as I’m sure you know.

I have a sense of who I can trust – who I can tell is kind.

I trusted you because my heart said to, and I was right to do so.

I can only assume a man like your husband who has charmed you and Jack, is just as remarkable.

I don’t see why the ravings of an obsessed lunatic who has been hired by some other villain to pursue you should change that. ”

Christine sniffled, noticing the tears on her cheeks for the first time. “I’ve been so afraid to be found out.”

“I can understand that too,” Howard replied with a shrug. “But you must ask yourself: who are you? Are you the version of Christine that she wants you to be? The one she can hurt and manipulate? Or are you more?”