ballerina in the music box

Chapter Four - hidden talents

Elizbeth's POV

The rest of the evening we just sat there and talked about ourselves and when I told Erik that I loved to read he went and got me a book, (it was one of his favorites he said) to read so that I would have something to do. It wasThe Count of Monte Cristo, an interesting book about Edmond Dantès, a man who has everything he could ever wish for; he’s a young and successful merchant sailor and is going to marry the beautiful Mercédès but gets locked up in prison for something he hadn’t done. He escapes and goes to take revenge, only to then find out that Mercédés has gotten married to the man who locked him up. The book soon became one of my favorites too. Erik got us some pasta to eat and then we went to bed, Erik gave me an old nightgown to sleep in, it was much too big for me and he giggled when he saw me in it. But when I found out that I was lying in his bed I offered myself to sleep on the floor “don’t be silly, you’re hurt, and I’m okay I have an extra bed down stairs.” He said and pointed at the door. “Good night, Elizabeth.” He said and left me alone in the room. I thought about my sister, where was she now, was she okay? She and Juliette where probably worried about me… but I got interrupted in my thoughts from a lovely sound from downstairs, Erik was playing the piano, the sound of him gently pressing down to keys made me shiver. I stood up and tried to go to the door without putting any weight on my right leg, I basically jumped on one leg and if someone would see me right they probably would have found this very entertaining, but I don’t care. I want to see him play, it sounded so lovely. I came to the door and opened it, but when I locked around I froze in amassment, I was standing on the stairs and looked down on a big cellar with a lake in the middle filled with lit candles and all over the walls hang beautiful paintings and all kinds of other strange things, and against a wall stood all kinds of instruments many of which I’ve never seen, it was a beautiful room.  And there in the middle stood a big piano, played by Erik himself. I carefully walked down to him and watched, it seemed like he didn’t even notice me. The first song had come to an end and without thinking I started to clap, he jumped and turned around looking at me “oh, it’s just you… I’m sorry if I woke you up, I can stop playing if you want…” he said “oh no… I actually came down to see you play…” I said and looked at him, a long time we just looked at each other and then he moved to the side so that I could fit on the bench. I smiled and sat down. He looked through his Sheet Music for a song to play. And when he found one he started playing, I knew this song; it was ave maria, one of my favorites. I sat there and listened When I caught sight of a violin not far away from where I sat, it was then that I decided to do something crazy, I slipped off the bench and went and picked up the violin, when Erik saw what I was doing, he stopped playing and stared at me “ehm… what are you doing…?” he asked, I held up the bow “I’m going to play of course.” I said he went pale and looked at me in horror “ehh… t- that’s my favorite violin. Can you p-please just lay it down again?...” he said, I just ignored him. “Can you play the song again, but a little faster this time?” I asked and put the violin in position, at first he didn’t react but when I glared at him he slowly turned away and started pressing the right keys, I waited till my part began and started playing, it been so long since I played the last time, many years, but I remembered it all as if it’s been yesterday. There had been a time where I loved playing the violin (I was pretty good and even played on a few concerts back in Italy) but when I came to Paris my songs just became sadder and more depressed and at the end I stopped playing. But it felt good to play again, I’ve really missed it. I smiled and started to play faster, I could tell that Erik was staring at me, I giggled. He wasn’t expecting this from a simple ballet rat.

on the side i posted the song they are playing, hope you like the chapter