The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes: The Angel of the Opera by Sam Siciliano

Author:Sam Siciliano [Siciliano, Sam]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Titan
Published: 2011-03-15T04:00:00+00:00

Eight

Our afternoon at the Louvre and an evening concert of French music by Saint-Saëns and Gounod provided a pleasant interlude, but the next morning we were back at the Opera. We were soon treated to the spectacle of the Viscount de Chagny and Christine Daaé billing and cooing at one another like two love doves. The Viscount wore a blue velvet frock coat and gray trousers, his usually pale face flushed a healthy pink, the ends of his airy red-brown mustache neatly waxed, and his fine white teeth showing more often than usual. Without his customary petulant scowl or the love-sick droop of his mouth, he was not unattractive. Christine Daaé wore a beautiful green dress and hung about his arm as if she drew sustenance from it. Between the two were all manner of smiles, laughs, and secret glances.

Sherlock gave me a look heavy with ironic disgust. “It has, I fear, begun.”

“Whatever could have happened?” I asked.

Later that morning we had our answer directly from the Viscount. Christine was to be fitted for a costume. After giving her tiny white hand a final squeeze and flashing his teeth in a fierce smile, the Viscount parted from her. Even his voice had altered, the whiny tone gone.

“Ah, Monsieur Holmes, things are going splendidly. Erik is forgotten for the moment, and we are playing at being engaged.”

“Playing?” I asked.

Something of his usual haughtiness returned. “It was her idea. There can, of course, be no question of real marriage. Some mysterious promise of hers and my position forbid it, but what is the harm in pretending to be engaged? It is a most delightful amusement.”

I turned away, feeling the need to conceal my face. “It seems to agree with you both,” Holmes said.

“It does. Yes, things have taken a turn for the better. You were right, Monsieur Holmes, and I regret my harsh words of yesterday.”

“You are too kind, Monsieur le Vicomte.”

“No, no–everything they say about your genius is true. You said she would reappear, and so she has.”

“In that case, might I be so presumptuous as to remind you that I have not yet been paid?”

“Of course, Monsieur Holmes. You will have a check for 25,000 francs by the end of the day.”

I jerked my head about. Holmes’s smile was filled with irony. “You are most generous, Monsieur le Vicomte.”

“You will discover that my gratitude is stronger even than my anger. You will have another check for the same amount when this Erik has been eliminated as a threat to me and my beloved Christine.”

“I have high hopes that some such outcome will soon take place.”

“Good, good.” I had never seen the Viscount smile so much; it had begun to grate upon me. “I have told Christine that she will soon have her freedom.”

“She seems free enough now,” I said.

“No.” For a moment the old scowl returned. “She has promised not to wander from the Opera House. She even has a cot in her dressing room. I like it not, but I cannot stay angry at her for long.

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