CHAPTER 4
Wondering why Emmett was coming with them on the house tour and why he'd had a pair of trainers ready to change into instead of the muddy boots he'd left by the back door, Bella couldn't hide her curiosity any longer and when Mrs Cope stopped at a door just outside the kitchen and began searching through her pockets for the key, she whispered to Emmett.
'Why are you here and what's the notebook for?'
Emmett chuckled, 'We're taking the opportunity to check no more urgent repairs need doing. The taxi's only a sideline, mainly evenings and weekends, and one of my other jobs is generally helping out and doing a bit of gardening for Mr Cullen.'
'Oh, no wonder you're always here then. I thought you just had nothing better to do than sit around eating.'
'I'll have you know I work really hard. I spent hours this morning digging out the vegetable patch and marking out the tennis court and I've just mowed all the lawns. Mrs C's a tyrant, there's no slacking allowed round here.'
'Well I'm glad someone keeps you in line, I'm sure you need it.' Bella teased.
'Yep, totally henpecked that's me. Between Mrs C and Rosalie, my life's not my own.' Emmett shook his head and tried to look glum, but as usual he couldn't hide a smile.
'Mmm…Why am I not convinced by that?' Bella grinned back at Emmett as Mrs Cope finally got the door open, revealing a steep flight of stairs leading downwards, lit by a bare lightbulb.
'This is the cellar. We'll just have a quick look down here, because it's where Mr Carlisle's wine is stored.'
Swatting a giant cobweb out of the way, Bella followed Emmett, and they all descended into the depths.
-ooo-
Bella had been expecting some sort of designer space, but what she was met with was a small, dank and musty room, with flagstones on the floor, stone walls and a ceiling so low that even she could barely stand upright.
Apart from the racks of wine which filled a large alcove, the room was empty, but it wasn't an inviting space and Bella only grudgingly followed Emmett into a larger adjoining room, while Mrs Cope began counting off bottles of wine against a list.
'Bella, come and see this,' Emmett's voice echoed from the far side of the room, which was as damp, dingy and empty as the other one and Bella blinked when he pulled out a pocket torch and shone it in her direction.
Trying to ignore the cobwebs and the dust, she made her way over to where Emmett was focusing the torch on a large iron grill set into the wall. But as Bella got nearer, she realised that what Emmett was showing her was actually a gate and behind it was the entrance to a narrow passageway cut into the rock.
'Smugglers?' Bella's eyes gleamed with excitement as she turned towards Emmett.
'Yep. Not unusual round here. In a couple of places the roof's caved in a bit, so the gate's kept locked, but the passageway leads up from the beach and if you look behind you, you can see the marks in the floor where there used to be a false wall in front of it.'
Next Emmett trained the torch on the ceiling. 'Up there you can still see a hatch where the casks of ale were delivered (it's under the floor of the coal house now) and the barrels would have been kept stacked up against the wall as an extra concealment. There'd have been plenty of space in the secret room in between to store any contraband until it was safe to move it on.'
'Wow, Emmett, that's so cool!'
'Yeah, but the smugglers would have been a pretty scary bunch to run into on a dark night. See those iron rings in the walls over there? Depending on which story you want to believe, they either kept prisoners here when the local jail was full, or the smugglers took their own prisoners, or this was where Perceval Cullen kept his wife locked up until she went mad. Take your pick.'
Bella's eyes went wide and she thought of the gothic novels she'd been reading for her course earlier in the year. She jumped when a door upstairs banged loudly and a sudden draught swept past her, disturbing the cobwebs and scattering a pile of dust across the floor.
Emmett laughed, 'Don't get spooked now! Although we do have our own ghost – the Grey Lady.'
'You have to be kidding me!'
'Well it would be more sensible to believe she was just a story, put around by the smugglers to keep people away on the nights they were busy breaking the law, but according to local legend she's none other than Percy's demented wife, Lady Mary.'
'Yikes, why didn't you at least warn me? Have you ever seen her?'
'Nah. She only appears once every few years apparently. I've never seen her, but Mrs C's got the gift. And she knows all the old family history if you're interested.'
'Ok…well thanks for that. I've definitely got a few questions!'
And not knowing what to make of this information, or how seriously to take it, Bella hurried back to Mrs Cope so that they could continue their tour of the house.
-ooo-
Mrs Cope had already started on a very involved story about why the rundown inn had been converted into a family residence, explaining that it had mainly been lived in by second sons or elderly female relatives, while the main business of the family was conducted from their large estates near Falmouth and the London townhouse in Grosvenor Square – both unfortunately now sold to pay off debts.
When Mrs Cope finally came to the end of her explanation and before she could launch into another story, Bella asked about Lady Mary's ghost.
'Oh, has Emmett already been trying to scare you with that one? She was supposed to have been locked up and driven mad by her husband, Perceval Cullen, so that he could get his hands on her money. But sometimes these family stories get embroidered over time and this one's a couple of hundred years old, so I can't promise that's the truth.'
'But is there really a ghost?' Bella couldn't believe she was seriously asking this question.
'Oh don't worry dear, she's not in any way a scary or threatening presence and I've only seen her once, the night before Mr Carlisle's mother died. The picture in your bedroom's supposed to be a portrait painted just after her marriage. Carlisle's wife Esme rescued it from the study where it used to hang over the fireplace and had it cleaned and restored. It was one of her favourites.'
Emmett chuckled at the expression on Bella's face at the thought that she was sharing her bedroom with a portrait of a ghost, but Mrs Cope was already disappearing back up the cellar steps.
Bella felt slightly at a loss. Her companions both seemed to take the idea of ghosts quite for granted and although she didn't believe in the supernatural at all, in this ancient old house, with its quiet rooms, dark corners and creaking floorboards, the thought was slightly unnerving and she was already wondering how she'd feel in the middle of the night, with the picture of Lady Mary looming over her. Maybe she could cover it with a sheet or ask for it to be moved to another room?
But Bella didn't have time to stop and worry about it at the moment, because Mrs Cope and Emmett were waiting for her at the top of the stairs and she had to run to catch up.
-ooo-
Because of its age and size, the layout of The Lantern House turned out to be more confusing than Bella expected. Since the early fifteenth century when the original house had been built, parts of it had fallen into disrepair and been demolished or remodelled as the family's fortunes waxed and waned, so it was an odd mix of small and old and imposing and new, or rather newer, because the main renovations had taken place in the mid nineteenth century when tin and copper mining had been at its height and at the turn of the twentieth century, when Carlisle's great grandmother had been famous for her lavish parties.
Bella was particularly interested to see inside the observatory, which had been built onto the side of the house by Charles Cullen, a dedicated amateur astrologer and member of the Royal Astronomical Society. So she was slightly disappointed to find that the large telescope had long ago been removed and the room, which was octagonal in shape, had been altered into something which was closer to a look-out post.
The huge cast iron framed picture windows, added to the original glass dome in the roof, give an uninterrupted view of the sea and the sky and when Emmett sat down on one of the faded dark red leather seats which lined the sides of the room and invited Bella to sit down too, she felt as if she was floating in mid air. There was nothing but sea all around her and she could make out every incoming wave as it rushed in, then crashed against the rocks, sending a shower of spray curling high into the air.
Above her head she also had a clear view of the sky and with all this glass she imagined how brightly the observatory would be lit up at night. No wonder the house was known as The Lantern House, from its lonely position on the edge of the cliff, any light would be visible for miles.
But Mrs Cope shook her head and explained the name went back much further than the observatory, to the time of the smugglers and wreckers. It was true that a light here would have been very visible and possibly ships could have been lured onto the rocks, perhaps by fooling them into thinking they were approaching the harbour in the next bay, but it was more likely that lanterns or bonfires were used as pre-arranged signals and to indicate the movements of smuggled goods.
Feeling slightly overwhelmed again at the weight of history attached to the house, Bella followed Mrs Cope out of the room and further down the corridor towards Carlisle's study, and after looking in on Carlisle, who was dozing in his chair by the fire with an open book on his lap, they made their way round to the back stairs, which led to a first floor sewing room and sitting room and then on up to the attic, where the servants had once been accommodated.
Deciding to leave the attic floor for later, Mrs Cope took them along another corridor which came out onto the half-landing on the main staircase. From here the stairs branched out in opposite directions and swept up onto the first floor, where doors opened off the wide landings which overlooked the staircase on all three sides and a large chandelier hung directly over the hall below.
On the ground floor the formal rooms, which were filled with beautiful antiques and pictures, and the massive Victorian conservatory looking out onto the garden, had been really stunning, but upstairs the most striking feature was the views. Every door Mrs Cope opened here revealed a sweeping panorama of the sea, the garden, or the heath which stretched away into the distance taking Bella's breath away.
As with the downstairs, the grandest rooms were at the front and back of the house and had been built to impress visitors with their size and the extravagance of their furnishings. But these had always been intended mainly for show and the family occupied the less sumptuous bedrooms located on either side of the house, which were more domestic in scale and easier to keep warm in winter.
Carlisle had a suite of rooms directly above his study, which had the added benefit of being accessible by a lift - installed for his great grandmother after she suffered a serious riding accident in the 1920s. There were two other bedrooms on this side of the house, which Mrs Cope explained were used by other family members when they came to stay and after a cursory glance she was satisfied they were in good order and they moved on.
Bella's bedroom was on the opposite side of the house, in the very oldest part of the building and they spent quite a while in the three other bedrooms and two bathrooms next to it. Because of its age this wing had the most problems as far as repairs were concerned and sure enough in one room there was a debate about whether a sash window should be repaired or just left closed for now and in another room a window latch was found to be faulty and there was a patch of damp on the ceiling which needed to be investigated.
This had all taken up so much time that Mrs Cope decided to postpone the rest of the tour, of the attic floor and the gardens, for another day, because Rosalie was due at any minute. So they all trooped back downstairs to the kitchen.
-ooo-
Sure enough Rosalie arrived promptly at three to give Carlisle his weekly check-up and when she dropped into the kitchen afterwards, Emmett had already disappeared back outside and Mrs Cope was busy going through all the cupboards and drawers, writing down instructions as she thought of them and showing Bella where everything was.
'How's he doing?' Mrs Cope seemed anxious for news.
'He's fine, don't be too alarmed about the doctor's verdict last week. As long as he continues to take things fairly quietly and gets enough rest, he should be able to carry on more or less as normal for months. As far as pain control goes, we can start him on oral opiates when he needs them, but later on he may need a drip. We'll just have to play it by ear.'
Mrs Cope looked unutterably sad for a second before pulling herself together, 'Well I'd better take Mr Carlisle his tea before it gets cold. Would you mind letting yourself out Rosie dear?'
'Of course not Auntie, let me open that door for you…and I'll see you next week as usual.'
After watching her great aunt disappear down the corridor with the tea tray and shutting the door behind her, Rosalie hurried back to Bella and sat down at the table.
'That's convenient, I was hoping I'd be able to get a quick word with you in private before I left. I just wanted to check you were clear about what's expected of you.'
'Well I am feeling a little bit anxious now, I must admit.'
'Don't be Bella, you'll be fine. Carlisle's life isn't in imminent danger and he didn't move all the way back from Italy after his wife died just to give up his independence. As you can see he's quite happy pottering around on his own in his study and in the garden. He doesn't want much in the way of company, or need to be looked after just yet, and when he does we'll make additional arrangements. We were just a bit worried about him living here all on his own that's all.'
'Thanks for making that clear, Rosalie. Although that's exactly what Carlisle told me at my interview, you've really put my mind at rest.'
'Actually there's another motive.' Rosalie looked over her shoulder and lowered her voice as she stood up and got ready to go. 'We're hoping that now you're here, we can convince Auntie to spend more time at home where she's supposed to be. The old girl's well over eighty and she was pensioned off about twenty five years ago for chrissakes!'
Bella giggled, 'She's insisting on still coming in for a few hours every day in the afternoon. To give me some time off she says and apparently she's roped in one of her nieces to cover two evenings a week as well.'
'Well don't think you can hide away up here either. We'll be expecting you for supper next week, on one of your evenings off. I'll let you know when and send Emmett over to show you the way.'
And with a look which said don't even bother arguing about it, Rosalie was gone.
-ooo-
As it turned out, Bella never finished her tour of the house and the attic floor remained unvisited for some time. She was worn out after all the excitement of the last two days and once Mrs Cope had hurried home to her husband and Carlisle was settled for the night, she'd gone straight up to bed.
Suddenly aware of how still and empty the house was, her skin prickled slightly as she walked up the stairs, then turned off the last light on the landing. When she opened the door to her bedroom, she found there was a full moon sitting high and bright above the sea and her room was bathed in silver moonlight, which reflected off the mirror on the wall and fell across the portrait over her bed, partially highlighting the pale oval of Lady Mary's face, so that it floated eerily out of the surrounding shadows, as if submerged in water or obscured by a veil.
And to test Bella's nerves further, when she crossed the room to draw the curtains, a bat swooped past the window and somewhere in the line of trees, a screech owl hooted loudly, making her jump. But refusing to be scared, she drew the curtains, switched on her laptop and the electric light (already a big improvement) and fell asleep to the familiar sounds of her itunes playlist, almost as soon as she'd crawled into bed.
She slept surprisingly well, but towards dawn she woke from a jumbled dream in which Edward was trying to lure her into the cellar, while Emmett handed her balloons and fed her plates of birthday cake covered in confetti, and as she lay listening to the waves swishing and slapping onto the rocks below the house, she wondered why she'd never noticed how loud the sound of the sea was before.
But she was too tired to stay awake for long and soon only the occasional sharp cry of an animal, hunter or hunted, continued to disturb her sleep. And although it took several weeks for her ears to become deaf to the constant noise of the sea in the background, in other ways Bella was surprised at how easily she slipped into her new routine.
Mrs Cope was unfailingly cheerful and kind and Bella soon felt as if she'd been accepted as a kind of honorary great niece. And although Mrs Cope's whole excuse for being there was to give Bella some free time, the gossip she brought from the village and her stories about the history of the area and the Cullen family were so enthralling that Bella couldn't drag herself away and she often spent her afternoons in Mrs Cope's company, contentedly sipping tea at the kitchen table or helping with chores around the house.
Carlisle was also a joy to be with, in an entirely different but just as delightful way. As Rosalie had already confirmed, he was quite happy with his own company and spent most of the day in his study, reading books from his library, or working on the articles he still occasionally contributed to scholarly magazines.
But gradually, as they got more used to one another, when Bella needed a break from her coursework she began to help Carlisle with research and with his correspondence and they often spent the evenings together chatting over supper, then quietly reading or working in the same room - either Carlisle's study or the adjoining sitting room.
But Bella's favourite times were when Carlisle was in the mood to talk and he entertained her with stories about the years he'd spent living and travelling all over Europe. Best of all Bella loved to hear about the celebrities and the famous authors he'd known in the fifties and sixties, when London had been at the height of fashion and Carlisle was young and successful. Her eyes shone as he described a vanished world of parties and openings and evenings spent in Mayfair clubs rubbing shoulders with pop stars and royalty, or relaxing with friends in smoky pubs and bars putting the world to rights.
Sometimes Bella almost felt as if she'd stepped into her own fairytale. For the first time that she could remember, she was free of the worry which life with her mother had often brought with it, as well as the constant struggle to make ends meet. And if she could just get through to the end of her degree next year, there would also be opportunities for the future, which she had never taken for granted and barely ever dared to hope for.
She was sad that Carlisle was so ill, but she knew he'd come to terms with his diagnosis and was content to quietly live out the time he had left, in the family home that he loved and in the company of his books and his memories, and Bella was determined to do whatever she could to make sure the last few months of his life were as tranquil and undisturbed as possible.
The only problem was Edward, who despite the important court case he was supposed to be preparing, suddenly developed a habit of arriving uninvited and unannounced, ruining Bella's quiet weekends and disturbing the peaceful routine of the household.
To Bella's relief there was never the slightest suggestion that their strange drunken encounter in the pub had ever happened, or was likely to be repeated. Edward treated her as if she was a stranger and a stranger that he wasn't at all interested in getting to know any better, which suited her fine. But still his visits were an unwelcome disruption and at first Bella was concerned about the detrimental effect they might have on Carlisle's health.
The first time Edward had turned up he'd only stayed for half an hour before Bella heard angry voices. Then the front door slammed and he'd driven off in a whirl of screeching tyres and a hail of gravel. If this behaviour had been repeated Bella would have been alarmed. But after closely watching them together, she was relieved to see that apart from that one occasion, Edward treated Carlisle with the utmost consideration and was very careful not to overtax his strength or keep him up too late.
In fact, Edward made such a good job of taking over her role when he was there, that Bella felt surplus to requirements and when Mrs Cope fussed over him and made all his favourite meals and Carlisle sat reminiscing with him until late into the evening, she had to make a conscious effort not to feel jealous and to remember that after all, however much she disliked him, Edward was family and she was the interloper.
When she was sure that Edward could be trusted with Carlisle, Bella therefore left him to it, glad to escape the constant unnerving suspicion that he was only there to keep an eye on her. Whenever they had to be in the same place she tried to keep as far away from him as possible, but she could feel him watching her from across the room and several times when she was alone in Carlisle's study, opening his post or dealing with his emails, she'd looked up to find Edward silently staring at her from the doorway. But he rarely spoke to her and he turned on his heel before she was able to ask him what he wanted.
But Edward never stayed for more than one night and Bella soon realised it was easier to just keep out of his way. So she retreated to her room, or her favourite sunny spot in the garden, or curled up on one of worn but comfortable seats in the observatory, happy with nothing but her textbooks and the sea and the sky for company.
-ooo-
Two weeks before her end of year exams, after days of rain and blustery winds which had kept her indoors, the sun re-appeared and Bella ventured out into the garden again. Stretching her legs one afternoon, she walked as far as the line of trees at the side of the property and came across a path she'd never noticed before, which disappeared into the trees.
Stepping over a sign marked 'Private' in faded red paint, which was lying half submerged in the grass, Bella followed the overgrown pathway to the edge of the cliff and to her surprise she found she was looking down onto a beautiful sandy beach, which she hadn't even known was there.
Already imagining the feel of the refreshingly cold water and the soft sand under the soles of her feet, Bella carefully made her way down the steep cliff path, avoiding the brambles along the way, and before long she was standing on the secluded beach, which was sheltered by cliffs and a long outcrop of rocks on either side and as she drank in the peaceful scene she immediately decided this was her new favourite place.
The sand was even softer than she'd imagined and the beach sloped gently down to meet the sea, which today was as calm and blue and inviting, as it could possibly be. And instead of the ugly brown seaweed and assorted flotsam and jetsam which marked the tideline at the harbour in the neighbouring bay, here there was only a scattered trail of shells, driftwood and small bits of pottery and broken glass which had been frosted and rounded by the sea.
Standing back from the beach on one side was a dilapidated wooden boathouse, with layers of blue paint peeling off it, while on the other side of the beach, towards the direction of the house, the entrances to several caves were visible, immediately reminding Bella of the tunnel which led up to the cellar. Excitedly she returned to the house for her books, her swimming things and a torch and after exploring the caves and enjoying a swim, she spent the rest of the day sunbathing, revising and dozing in the sunshine.
She was so delighted with her discovery that she could hardly bear to leave, but after staying out until nearly supper time, when she reluctantly walked back into the house she found it was completely deserted. For a second she panicked, then after racking her brains, she remembered that Edward was taking Carlisle to visit some old friends in Penzance.
The next day for some reason she felt nervous about explaining where she'd been - after all she'd been working for Carlisle for more than two months and no one had ever mentioned the beach - and without really meaning to, she'd let everyone assume she'd been in the garden all afternoon and fallen asleep in the sun.
But while the June weather remained fine and the temperature climbed into the high twenties, Bella returned to the secret cove every day, anxious to fit in as much revision as she could and knowing that she'd be undisturbed there by anything except the odd seagull and the sudden breeze which ruffled the pages of her books and scattered them with sand.
After staying up well into the early hours the night before to finish some notes, she'd almost fallen asleep over her books late on Sunday morning the following week, when she was disturbed by a loud bang and she looked up to see that someone had wrenched the boathouse door onto it's hinges and slammed it back into place. It was pointless, because the door immediately sagged again, but Bella was alarmed because she'd never seen anyone anywhere near the beach before and from the overgrown state of the path, she'd assumed no one had been here for years.
She shielded her eyes with her arm in an effort to get a better look, but the sun was too bright to see much more than a silhouette and all she could tell was that the intruder was a man in sunglasses, a white shirt and dark trousers. But while Bella continued to squint in his direction, he turned and started to walk towards her.
It was only when he got halfway across the sand that Bella realised who it was and she sighed in relief, then giggled at the thought that she was actually glad to see Edward Cullen for once. She watched him walk slowly across the beach then come to a stop a few feet away from her. He looked irritated.
'Mrs Cope said this was where you'd be. You do know that without permission to be here, you're actually trespassing, don't you?'
'Oh Edward, is that why you've come all the way down here? To give me a lecture and try to chase me away?'
He looked away towards the rocks.
Bella sighed, 'I wish you'd tell me why you dislike me so much.'
His only response was to remove his sunglasses and put them in his shirt pocket. Then he turned as if to leave.
'Edward, please! For Carlisle's sake can't we at least try to be civil and pretend to get along? I don't want any unpleasantness between us to risk upsetting him. Any stress at all is bad for his health now.'
'I wish it was that simple.'
Frustrated, Bella stared at Edward's face. No longer jade, but under the influence of the bright blue sea and the sky, today his eyes were the most beautiful aquamarine. But they displayed very little emotion beyond the annoyance which seemed to be the default setting in her presence and Bella had no idea what he was thinking.
Dazzled by the sun behind him, Bella had to look away. But that wasn't the only reason. She was afraid that if she looked at him for too long he'd discover her secret - that she wasn't as immune to him as she pretended.
It disturbed her that he continued to have such a strong effect on her, especially when she'd realised that she was the only person he seemed to have a problem with. In fact he was perfectly charming towards everyone else - Mrs Cope obviously adored him for goodness sake! But no matter how pathetically stupid it made her feel and how much she hated to admit it, her heart always beat a little faster in his presence, as if her body remembered they had unfinished business.
She tried not to think about how he'd looked at her on the night they'd kissed and how his touch had set her skin on fire, and suddenly aware of how much naked flesh was exposed by the bikini she was wearing, she hastily turned onto her stomach.
Oops, not such a good move. When she looked up she found that Edward's gaze was fixed on her ass, which was decorated with the remains of the mid morning snack she'd accidentally been lying on.
Flustered, she reached back and tried to brush off the offending debris and the damp sand which was sticking to her skin, wriggling as she looked over her shoulder to where she was blindly rubbing her hand.
Oh no, an even worse move!
When she glanced back at Edward his eyes were slightly glazed and he was holding himself stiffly. And looking down she realised that twisting round had caused her bikini top to slip and she was perilously close to giving him an even bigger eyeful of both her breasts. In fact the left nipple was definitely already peeking out.
Bright red now, Bella grabbed her towel and held it up to her front, desperately trying not to look as if she was staring at Edward's crotch, which was directly in her line of sight.
Staring at the sand seemed to be the only safe option and after a few seconds she heard Edward clear his throat.
'You're needed in the kitchen.'
And with that he quickly walked off, leaving Bella to collect up her belongings and try to get over her blushes. Why did he always have to make her feel so awkward and insignificant? She'd been doing so well in keeping out of his way, and now, as if it wasn't humiliating enough that he'd flatly refused her offer of a truce, she felt even more like a silly schoolgirl with an inappropriate crush.
Hi, first of all a big thank you to Random Rita at Rob Attack & to The Lemonade Stand for their recs. I can't believe anyone doesn't already know how totally awesome these sites are, but if you need fic recs they are the best, so get over there.
I would also like to thank SunflowerFran, sophdrea, 2muchtrouble & gabby1017 for their enthusiasm!
Next chapter Bella gets a surprise (or two) - sorry that doesn't mean Edward grabs her or anything lol!
x Sue
