(Sequel to A Full Moon)
~
Erik sat on his throne, his elbows resting on the arms, his fingers steepled in concentration. He was deep in thought when he heard the bathroom door open and presently the beautiful and unusual young woman he had rescued from an uncertain fate stood before him, fresh from her bath and smiling sweetly. He looked up and his eyes went to her and held hers, almost as in a mirror; they were a golden amber color. They were warm as honey.
He studied the clothes he had left for her. A mint green dress with ruffled petticoats. It was a bit long on her, but so charming! The boots were laced and seemed also to fit. Erik had a good sense of size after all the years he had bestowed gifts on Christine. His heart suddenly ached within his chest. No, don’t think of her, he sternly thought to himself. He shook his head while Lisette regarded him with a puzzled expression.
“Please, Lisette, be seated. I have prepared a simple meal for you. You must be, uh, famished…” he said, remembering how she had mentioned hunting a rabbit when she had caught her paw, um, her hand, in a snare.
“Yes, please! I am quite starving!” She nestled into his velvet settee, and as he rose from his throne, he glanced at her and felt a stirring of emotions. She looked so at home, here in his lair.
Shortly, he brought a tray carrying bread, cheese, some grapes, some dried sausage, a decanter of wine and two glasses. He set it on a small table and then lifted the whole thing and set it before her. He removed two napkins from his pocket and handed her one. Then he seated himself beside her. She pounced on the food immediately, much to his amusement, and he silently watched her enjoy her meal.
Once she had finished, she looked at Erik and said, “Thank you!”
He reached for the decanter and poured the wine into the two goblets. He handed her one, which she took with delicate fingers, though he tried to remind himself that just last night he was treating the right hand when it was a wolf’s paw.
“To a new start, Lisette.” He raised his goblet to her and she lifted hers to clink against it.
“Yes, Monsieur Erik, to a new start!”
“Just Erik, please. You will be living here for the foreseeable future. This will be your home. You need no longer fear what might happen to you. You are under my protection.”
“Erik, you are too kind. Perhaps the kindest man of any I have ever known. But you know what I am. Many think me a monster. I would never want to harm you, uh, unintentionally, in any way.” She looked sadly up at him, seated next to her, then down into her glass.
“You think yourself a monster?” Erik asked.
“Yes. As you saw last night. I was not born so, as I have told you. Even my own mother wished me dead.”
“I, too have been called a monster, and like you, my own mother wished I had never been born,“ he spoke softly.
Lisette looked up at him. “You, Erik? A monster? I see nothing but a very handsome and mysterious gentleman when I gaze at you. The mask, I mean. But a monster? Surely not.” Her face was serious.
“This mask, though some find it intriguing and women have even been attracted to me because of it, hides the face that I was born with. These same women shrieked and some fainted away at the sight of it. As a child I was taken in and then exploited by a band of Gypsies who ran a traveling fair. The man who was my…“ he paused before continuing, “who was my master, he locked me in a cage and made me show my face to paying customers. He billed me as the Devil’s Child. He often beat me. When I finally escaped, I killed him. Does that shock you?”
She placed a hand on his. “It makes my heart sad for you and what you went through, Erik. No one deserves to be treated as you were. I understand completely why you killed him. I would have, too. I wish I could have killed the man who “caged” me and turned me into a beast before he did so. I was only a girl, small and weak. Children have little power over what befalls them.”
“Yes,” he agreed. “A child has little power. Some might have wished they’d never been born.” His voice was quiet, but Lisette picked up on the bitterness beneath his statement.
“I, for one, am very glad you were born,“ she laughed, a voice like tinkling bells, “or I would not be seated here in such a lovely home with the most gracious and kindest host and…and friend anyone could ask for.”
Erik smiled sadly back at her. “I will show you what few have seen since I left my internment with the gypsies, then you can decide if you wish to remain here, knowing what you will know.” He reached behind and undid the string that kept his half-mask in place, and then turned back to her.
Lisette gazed curiously at Erik. The left half of his face was so handsome she almost couldn’t look at him without blushing. The right half was badly deformed, but not as bad as he seemed to think. His eye was slightly sunken, his cheek sunken in, almost skeletally defining the cheekbone. His nose receded sharply on this side, as well. His lips, so perfect on the left side, were somewhat larger on the right. His hair was thinner on this side, and she realized he had removed a hairpiece that gave the illusion of perfect hair so that both sides matched above the mask.
She reached out a hand and very gently ran her fingers over this side. Her eyes did not hold the pity he had despised in Christine’s. They held an understanding.
“You need never wear that mask in your own home because of me,” she said. “Again, what I see before me is no monster, but a very handsome man, made more so by being so distinctive. You are one of a kind, Erik. Be proud of who and what you are. Despite society’s fears, you have made a beautiful home filled with fine things, and from what I have seen, you are a scholar.“ She motioned to the overflowing bookshelves. She had also seen drawings and sketches, some of Christine, who was unknown to Lisette, and some architectural drawings lining the hallway from the bath to the sitting room. “And an artist, and…” She looked about her at the organ that covered an entire wall, and a violin case upon the organ bench. “And a musician, it seems.”
“True.” He laughed deeply, and she delighted that she had been the cause of it. “What you say is all true. Some even think me a genius. I speak many languages. I have traveled widely. I can throw my voice, and cure ailments, thanks to my time among the gypsies. But I have also been an assassin for hire. I built a palace and a torture chamber for the Shah of Mazandaran in Persia. He put a price on my head, as he never wanted me to
duplicate my designs for some other ruler. Thanks to the chief of police, I am here, beside you. He saved my life. He had faith in me. You may meet him at some point, as then there was a price on his head, too.”
Lisette stared at him in wonder. “You are a true genius then, Erik. That is no lie.”
“Well, genius or not, the woman I loved declined my advances in favor of a handsome viscount. Who can blame her? Surely not I.” He stood and offered his hand. Lisette took his and stood, and then when he released it, followed him to a door he opened with a small key he had on a chain. “This was to be her room. She stayed here as my guest more than once. Now, consider it yours.” He took her hand and placed the key and chain into her palm.
She gazed at it a moment and then at the room before her. It was the most beautiful space she had ever seen. It was wallpapered in pale lavender-striped paper. The bed was white wood and highlighted with carved roses touched with gold leaf, and the comforter and pillow cases echoed the lavender in a pretty floral pattern. There was a desk and chair, also white and gilded here and there. A magnificent wardrobe completed the white and gilt rose theme.
“Open it,” Erik said.
She obeyed and opened the doors of the wardrobe and then gasped at the beautiful gowns and wraps and petticoats it contained. She glanced into the row of drawers on one side of the bureau and exclaimed, “Oh! How pretty,” at the layers of silken underthings and stockings they contained. Beneath the gowns was a row of lovely leather boots in a variety of pastel colors to match the gowns.
“Do you sew?” Erik asked her.
“Yes, of course,” she replied. “Do you need a seamstress? I am actually very good.”
“No, I have other plans for you,” he said, somewhat mysteriously. “I just meant if you need to refit or alter any of these articles of clothing. They are yours now. I feel much better about you wearing them than having them fade away, hidden behind closed doors.” He smiled at her, his mask back in place.
“Thank you, oh, Erik! It is like I have gone to sleep and woken up as a princess…rather than…the way you found me.” She turned to him and flung her arms around him.
He stood very still before tentatively returning her embrace. “There, there, my girl,” he said soothingly. “You are safe with me. Have no worries. Together we will work to contain your…your wolf counterpart. I have been thinking about it. You will not need to feel the pull of the hunt so strongly, as you will be well-fed as long as you reside here. That key will allow you to lock yourself in for the night, should you wish it. We will discuss this further as the time approaches. But your life is your own to choose whatever path you decide.”
With those words, Lisette let go of Erik and slid to the floor in a puddle of gown and petticoats, and wept into her hands.
Erik was startled by her reaction. “Did I say something wrong?” He crouched beside her.
She lifted her beautiful face to regard his worried expression. “No, no, Erik! What you said made me feel human again!” And at this, she laughed.
He found himself laughing, as well. Then she looked at him seriously for a moment.
“Now, about that mask,” she said.