Voice Of A Troubled Angel

Chapter Eight: Stolen Time

    The day of the party arrived at last, and Christiana was awakened early, by her mother.

   "Come, Christiana. You must make breakfast and finish your chores, than I shall wash your hair and curl it for tonight."

    Why her mother was allowing her to go to a social event accompanied by another person - a man no less, Christiana had no idea. Mrs. Dame always forbid her from speaking to people unless she personally had introduced them to Christiana. And that was a lesson Christiana had learned long ago, when she tried to make friends at school.

   Even if she were going to meet a female friend at the party, her mother's agreement would have been shocking, but the fact that Christiana was going with a man... it was unexplainable. Her mothrr constantly told her that men were dangerous for many reasons. Whenever she had brought up the subject of male persons, she made sure to tell her daughter that she was not permitted to accept invitations anywhere. Really, she was to avoid them at all cost. Mrs. Dame was to introduce Christiana to suitable people, she said. Though she never fulfilled that promise.

    Christiana went through her morning anxiously, and puzzled over her mother's strange actions. It was just so terribly unlike her.

    But other things quickly overshadowed Christiana's confusion. Fear for instance. She was terrified of going to an event with Erik. What if she disappointed him somehow? What if he hated her singing? What if she embarrassed herself, or worse, both of them? The town gossips would go mad, seeing the young girl who lived like a nun with her mother, out at a party with a handsome, strange, and mostly mysterious man no one knew.

   Christiana could care less what the gossips said; she was worried about what Erik would think.

   Would he think this was a date? As the thought flashed across her mind, Christiana blanched. She was scared. Was it a date? Surely her mother would not permit such a thing!

   And Erik wouls never want to date her. A man like him did not date girls like her. What if he just wanted to try to take liberties? No, she thought back to his kind eyes, he was respectful. Ray would try to kiss her, not Erik.

   Good gracious though. She was nervous. He was coming by at six. She had a lot of work to do before then. As much as she hated vanity, and as much as her mother would not allow her to participate in any vain activities, Christiana wanted to try to make herself pretty. Erik was not interested in her romantically, but she still wanted to look almost as if she could belong at his side, as a suitable... date, at least, in some sense of the word.

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     Erik paced his study. He had spent two hours staring at himself in a mirror, frowning. Damn it all, why couldn't he be born with a normal face and a normal mind like everone else? Well, now he regretted the mind part, since if he were not a genius his music would not be so easy to create, nor as enjoyable. But what he would give at that moment to be normal, to walk among the idiots who inhabited the world, with their stupidity, vanity, and pride. Well, he had pride, but he certainly was not stupid, and while fashion and hygiene wise, he was flawless, his features cursed him.

     If Christiana knew what was under his mask... she'd faint, die, scream and slap him, run away, and probably attempt to sue him, possibly for indecent exposure. Not necessarily in that order. He was a monster. He felt guilty having the poor, beautiful angel accompany him tonight. But after tonight, after this stolen time with her, he would be perfectly content to never see her again, to retreat back into his solitude and never surface except for his nighttime necessity runs once or twice a month. He merely wanted to behold his lovely angel once more, and then he could forever stay out of her life, away from her, with a beautiful memory of her imprinted in his mind, as a token of the time together that they should never have had.