Ghost Dance: A Sequel to Gaston Leroux’s The Phantom of the Opera by Christine Pope

Author:Christine Pope [Pope, Christine]
Language: eng
Format: epub

Chapter 12

Home and Heart

* * *

“I am very sorry, m’sieur,” the footman said, “but you are not on the list, and I do not recognize you as a friend of the baron.”

Of course he didn’t, because Antoine Saint Denis had never met Honoré de Castelo-Barbezac in his life, and only knew the man’s name because he had become a prominent collector of art, especially modern pieces by men such as Claude Monet and Edgar Degas.

And also because he had gained some notoriety as the fiancé of Meg Giry, erstwhile opera dancer.

For a moment, Saint Denis considered telling the footman that he was with the Paris Presse and it was imperative that he see the baron, but almost at once he abandoned that plan. The man who confronted him, an angular individual with forbidding brows, did not seem the type who would be impressed by such information. If anything, he might regard such credentials as a good excuse to call a gendarme to have the troublesome intruder removed from his master’s property.

“I am a friend of his fiancée,” Saint Denis said, knowing even as he spoke that this latest gambit probably would also be a futile one. “Or rather, I am a friend of Mademoiselle Giry’s mother. Surely you would not turn away someone who is intimately acquainted with Madame Giry?”

For just a second, the footman hesitated, uncertainty clear on his hard features. But then he shook his head. “I am afraid that you are not on the list, m’sieur. If Mademoiselle Giry — or the baron — had desired that you attend their gathering, you would have been sent an invitation. You must understand that I am not at liberty to permit entry to just anyone claiming a relationship with his lordship…or his lordship’s fiancée.”

Damn. Saint Denis had known coming here was a long shot, but since he’d often been quite successful in talking his way past more formidable guards than the one who now blocked him from entering the Baron de Castelo-Barbezac’s town house, he had hoped he might also prevail in this instance.

Well, no matter. There was certainly nothing to be gained by causing a scene, and he would simply have to come up with another plan. After all, Mademoiselle Giry was not in her fiancé’s company every hour of the day, and it seemed a simple enough task to determine her movements and decide when would be the best time to approach her. He’d gathered from Madame Giry that her daughter did not live with her in the flat on the Rue de Rivoli, but neither would she have taken up residence at the baron’s town house. That would have to wait until they were safely married. Most likely, she was renting a flat of her own somewhere close by, with a modest household to keep up appearances. It should not be too difficult to determine her direction.

This battle was not one worth choosing. Saint Denis smiled and tipped his hat, and said, “I understand. It was an off-hand invitation from Mademoiselle Giry, given at another salon where we met.

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