Now, in the dead of night, the downtown streets were empty and his driver navigated without concern of traffic or stoplights. The streetlamps threw dashes of light across Christine's face at paced intervals. But to Erik it seemed her skin glowed with light of its own. She was fascinating to him. If he'd had Christine in Mazanderan, he doubted he would have had need for that milky white substance with which he'd filled his veins and muted his memory. Ah -- ah, but the thought of Christine in the center of that blood-drenched country shook his spirit violently. No. No. She did not belong there, not among the countless executions he orchestrated, not among the conniving political intrigue, the victims of the little sultana, the paranoid twitches of the Shah-in-shah...
Her hand came down over his knuckles and his frame stiffened. She shouldn't be touching him. She, so filled with light and song, had no business contaminating herself with the likes of him. But that selfish side of him, the side that craved any fond human touch, kept him still when he should have pulled away.
"The night was for the two of you," he said. "Any man with half an ounce of sense can manage a production, but only the players can heighten a score with the meaning it deserves." And she had, hadn't she... Her Violetta was beautifully rendered this night. The culmination of their private practices and her work with the cast had produced a magnificent triumph for his Christine. Were there insignificant areas for improvement? Of course. Always. But she had more than met his expectations.
"You did well," he said, as they turned east on the road that would lead them to the bridge. "Both on the stage and off." He needed to speak with her about her earnestness -- or perhaps he didn't. The answer she'd given to Ms. Lane had ached with it, but as he checked on her throughout the night, her answers had drifted away from earnestness and more toward the aloof, polite response he preferred to see her give. It was late. And he did not feel like being a tutor tonight.