Disclaimer; The characters belong to Stephanie Meyer, I have just borrowed them to play with for a little while.
Authors note; the verse is taken from the poem 'She walks in beauty' by Lord Byron.
Nocturne and prelude.
It was one of those soft summer nights that seduce even the least romantic soul. The sky was a deep and dusky blue, studded with stars and the moon seemed unusually close. The air was warm and scented with the deep green perfumes of wood and water. Flickering patterns of light and shadow created by the movement of stately old trees moved over the face of a strangely designed but beautiful house where a tiny, graceful figure danced and twirled at the very apex of the building's roof.
All seemed in complete harmony with nature and with the beauty of the night. The house did not intrude into the forest, rather it seemed to have grown out of it. The dancer on the roof might have been some nature spirit, incorporeal and ethereal. Some exotic being made of moonlight and pearl and ivory with accents of amber and ebony.
The only observer of this bewitching scene, amber eyed and golden haired, might himself have been a spirit. His movements were as graceful as the dancer that he watched with rapt adoration and as silent as the passage of moonlight over the grass. He watched with tireless patience as the dancer gave her tribute to the moon and to the beauty of the night.
When the dance was ended the watcher gained the roof in a series of elegant leaps that defied the notion that this was a being of flesh and blood. Joining the dancer he bowed low in greeting and in tribute. The dancer smiled and made a curtsey. "Alice." The watcher put his heart into that one word. He poured out his tenderness and all the warmth of his love for her, surrounding her with an invisible cloud of emotion. Alice took his hand. "Jasper." Her eyes spoke to him, of love and of need and of comfort.
"Watch the sky with me." Alice whispered. They lay down together on the cool tiles of the roof and looked up at the stars. Jasper would rather watch Alice but obedient to her wishes he gazed up at the sky. From time to time he would glance at her; his sun, the centre of his world and she would smile without turning as she felt his gaze on her.
She shifted, gradually moving closer to him until at last she lay in his arms with her head pillowed on his shoulder. Caresses, soft as the moonlight itself, became kisses. Each of them had pulled themselves out of horror and darkness to find in the other a soulmate and an escape from the world. Now, sheltered within Carlisle's family, they could share a place of bright joy and gentleness and love.
All the beauties and treasures of the world, Jasper thought, were pallid and empty compared to the beauty of his beloved. Her eyes, wide open and full of moonlight as she rose up beneath him were as brilliant as any jewel, her skin as pale and as fine as alabaster and her hair as dark as midnight and as soft as the summer breeze. Her spirit was most beautiful of all and he felt her soul entwined with his as he loved her beneath the radiant stars.
Later Alice lay with her eyes closed, a faint smile curving her lips. The stars were paling and the moon had begun to set, taking on a faint rosy blush as it dipped near the horizon. Leaning up on one elbow he watched the minute changes in her expression as her thoughts drifted idly. Jasper, echoing her smile, began to recite.
"She walks in beauty, like the night
of cloudless climes and starry skies
And all that's best of dark and bright
meet in her aspect and her eyes."
"Cloudless climes would be little use to us." She chuckled opening her eyes and brushing a clump of blonde curls off his forehead. Jasper smiled and kissed her. "We are enjoying a very cloudless clime tonight, and a very starry sky."
"Yes." She agreed "But tomorrow it will rain and all this (she waved a languid hand as if to encompass the whole of the night) will be a dream. "
"And we must go back to school and pretend to be children again." Jasper sighed.
"Yes, we must." Alice touched his cheek and then closed her eyes again.
"It is harder for Edward you know. At least we have each other." She told him.
"Yes." Jasper could not help but sigh again. "Poor Edward."
Suddenly Alice's expression changed and her body became rigid. Jasper, used now to the visible signs of her inner vision, took her hand and held it fast. She needed an anchor when she came back to the present.
"Oh Jasper." She sighed when she returned to him. Jasper felt a coldness touch his soul, as if he too was suddenly infected with prophecy and received a portent of doom. "What comes?" He managed to ask.
"Not what, who." Alice corrected. Her smile returned suddenly, brilliantly, dazzling him. "Her name is Isabella."