Disclaimer: Hey, once again I do not own Twilight…

A/N: So, I really need at least two stories of the same couple going at the same time, just so I can switch back and forth, I have a very small undiagnosed form of ADD… umm yeah so be sure to tell me how you like the beginning... I'm finishing up "Accidentally.." as soon as I can… then I'm continuing… I just didn't want to have to wait to post this…and as far as I've planned there will be chapters present day as well… it's AU obviously details are wrong… Read. Enjoy. Review…

Love Never Fades

Chapter One – Isabella

Carlisle Cullen

England 1657

It was my seventeenth birthday and all I had gotten from my mother was a kiss on the cheek as I headed out the door towards the Church to meet with my father. They had let me sleep in, that was about all you got in these times on the day of your birth. My father was the pastor at the Anglican Church, and that meant he was in charge of the witch, werewolf, and most importantly Vampire purges. I was absolutely sure that the majority of the "vampires" my father had had killed were nothing but normal men, but I kept my mouth shut. I wasn't about to say anything, he would surely, even as my father accuse me of being a vampire or a warlock myself. I wasn't even sure these blood sucking fiends were real, they were surely just the object of old legends. Possibly a reality when father was young, but that was a while ago, they had surely died out by now, and I wasn't for killing any innocent life.

None the less, I was all set up to follow in my father's footsteps. I had been just about forced from every direction to become the pastor to take my father's place in a few years. He had groomed me since childhood, taking from me the weapons other boys played with and trained with and replacing them with great biblical teachings I'm sure would have been remotely interesting to someone other than a young boy. Now I saw the reason for it all, I didn't then, but as I aged I figured it out. I was his only son, he only wanted for me to follow in his shadow, not an uncommon request. My friend, John, had already taken his place in place of his own father as one of the village hunters, and David was working with his father to become the next blacksmith, it all made sense.

I guess I just didn't belong. I spent almost every minute that I wasn't at the church sitting in our kitchen which she used as her shop as the town medicine woman. I loved that simple fact that rubbing a certain concoction of leaves and herbs on a wound would make it heal faster, and the blood letting usually amazed me. It was so simple, yet I had seen its effects with my own eyes.

I walked down the street trying to remember how exactly to mix one of the medicines my mother had made the night before as I approached her house. I stopped immediately, my mind yanking itself from any prior thought as she walked out onto her balcony. Her beautiful brown hair that so perfectly matched her eyes blew softly in the wind, and I gazed up in awe at her. She was majestic and more beautiful than anyone could ever imagine beyond their wildest dreams. The amazing part about her was that she was kind, and gentle as well as beautiful. The few moments that I had been able to speak to her clouded my thoughts at all times. I was hopelessly in love with her, and I was convinced she could never feel the same about a future pastor. She was only fifteen and I was sure her parents were going to marry her off soon. She required a prince, surely, or at least the greatest warrior this village could provide, perhaps an artist even, not me. Someone with glory, someone who has already achieved some great meaning in society.

"Isabella!" I heard her mother call from somewhere inside the house, "Get off that Balcony, girl!"

"Yes, Mother," she said in that sweet angelic voice my ears had become so acute to.

"Oy! Boy!" I heard my father call from up the street, sticking his head out of the front door to the church, "Hurry, son, there is work to be accomplished today."

"Yes, Sir," I called as I ran to my father's side.

"Gawking at the Master Swan's girl again are you son?" He replied, not quite as angry as I'd seen him, but still quite livid at my tardiness.

"Gawking, no sir, never," I replied politely, being sure to mind my 'sir's.

"Get in, we've been waiting for you," He said with a sigh as he opened the door and I followed him into the church.

I sat in the pew nearest the altar of the church as I did for the first few hours that I was there, par father's instructions. I aught to have been praying for enlightenment and courage along with strength in my faith and a lot of other things that I honestly would never want for myself. Instead, that day I was praying desperately that I would be the one Isabella's parents chose to court and marry their daughter. I promised God that I would treat her correctly and with the respect my peers had forgotten existed towards women. I would take care of her and make sure she was never left wanting more of anything, ever. I would carry her close to my heart as long as I was on the planet. I pleaded with him to just let her belong to me.

"Carlisle," said my father as he walked over to me, "It is time you go with Severien to study."

"Yes, Father," I replied, we bowed I lowered my head to my father as I had been taught and went off to follow Severien up to roof to read through and study in detail one of the books of the bible for the remainder of the day.

This was what my life was like, and that was how I lived it. To my surprise, my father came up to the roof and told Severien to stop before the sun was even low in the sky.

"Carlisle, my boy," He said as he dismissed Severien with his hand and the elderly man left, "There is a gathering in the square tonight, hosted by Master Corinth. Why don't you run home and wash up before you attend?"

"Father?" I replied, too scared to believe him, I was never allowed to attend the town youth gatherings with my peers, father had always prohibited it.

"Well get a move on then," He answered my misbelieving look and clapped me on the shoulder to get me going.

I smiled, which was something I did rarely and ran off down the steps of the church and headed home. I walked into the house quietly, aware that my mother had one of her more serious patients in the kitchen and I walked careful not to tread on any of the patient's family. I walked through the house and into the bathroom. I bathed myself in the pail of water near our toilet chamber and changed into the most formal attire that had no ties to the church, which only left me with the suit that mom had made me not too long ago.

"Mother?" I called in a whisper as I walked into the parlor, and mother was sitting in the nearest chair, "How is Master Shiloh? Is the blood letting of any use?"

"No, not anymore, he shall perish within the hour I'm afraid, could you fetch your father to send him off?" She said sadly and my heart twisted for my mother, she was always seemed to die a little inside when she lost someone.

"Of course," I said, "I shall stop at the church and alert him on my way."

"You're looking rather dashing," she said with a smile, "Hoping to charm a certain neighbor, son of mine?"

"Quite possibly myself and every other young gentleman in town," I replied and she beamed at me, I prided myself at being the light in my mother's very dark world.

"Send your father along straight away, and be home before the sun shows up again," she said and I smiled.

"I will make haste," I said as Master Shiloh let out a long agonizing groan.

I walked speedily to the church, sure not to make a mess of my hair, as I had just combed it, and careful not to make rags of my clothing. I knocked three times as I was told to do for my father in emergency and he opened immediately.

"Master Shiloh?" He questioned as the door opened and I nodded.

"Mother said he's almost come to pass," I replied and my father nodded as he left the church and headed back the way I came.

By the time I had reached the square the sun was fading and there was a large crowd. I walked up and was greeted by David, Daniel, and John.

"I see your father has let loose your bindings," John said as the other two laughed, John was always the jokester.

"That was quite good," I replied with a smile, "I heard the Queen was in a search for a new jester, you seem fit, you should send her a letter."

They all laughed once more as I saw Isabella join the crowd accompanied by a few other girls out of the corner of my eye. My family, as the religious head of the village ran in all of the credible social circles, so it didn't matter all that much who I was seen with. Especially in our village, all were members of the church, which was all that mattered.

The dancing started, formal and scripted like a boring festival of movement, always predictable, and I sat on the side. To my joy, Isabella didn't seem to be dancing either, though many of the men had asked her, she had politely turned them down. I hadn't worked up enough nerve to go over and gamble my dignity just yet. Though, she did catch me watching her a few times, but to my surprise she blushed and smile at me. Courtesy for the pastor's boy I'm sure, no one ever wanted to offend the clergy. I didn't want her to accept my invitation purely out of some duty she felt she had, I wanted her to want to, naïve as it was.

A few minutes after she caught me staring threw the candle light for the second time I stood and left the party. I figured now was as good as any to take a stroll and think over some of the remedies mother had used trying to save Master Shiloh. I also wondered as I walked whether or not he had pulled through or not, and that was when I heard light footsteps behind me and I turned around.

There standing behind me in the middle of the street was Isabella.