"Esme said she would contact you here at ten, and that's all?" Edward asked.

"The letter said visit Bucky O'Neill and she'd contact me there. Since the man's been dead for almost a century, this statue was the closet I could come."

They were sitting on a bench a few feet from the statue in question. It was five minutes to ten.

"I still don't get it, Bella. Can you tell me now what the hell is going on?"

She looked at him levelly. "Edward, I really don't know."

It was the truth when she came right down to it. She had no idea what was driving Esme. As for her own actions, it was as if another, totally different woman had come alive inside hr. and the old Bella often had no inkling what the new Bella would do next.

"It's something to do with that group you two belong to, isn't it? They're manipulating you both and you've taken a vow of secrecy."

"Edward, for a solid citizen, you certainly have a vivid imagination."

"I'm concerned about my mother." he captured her glance. "And heaven help me, I'm starting to feel the same way about you."

"Concerned, you mean?"

"Yes."

She assumed a pose of bad-girl bravado. "Don't be. I can take care of myself."

He just shook his head. "Your life's a mess. Look at you. It's obvious you don't even know day to day where you'll lay your head at night. What about your job-do you have a job?"

"Yes."

"Is your boss holding it for you until you decide to come to work again?"

"I'm on vacation, Edward. And I own my own business, anyway."

"What kind of business?"

she thought of her bookstore, of the neat rows of shelves labeled fiction and nonfiction, history and psychology and gardening and art. He'd never for a moment believe her if she told him that Bella Swan owned a bookstore in Westwood, usually wore her hair in a bun, and preferred PBS to commercial television.

"I'm in communications,"

"Bella-"

she didn't let him continue. "Look. You wanted to talk to Esme. That's what we're here for. If you want to be concerned about something, why don't you worry if this is the right place at all, and if she'll even show her face once she sees that you're here?"

"All right, Bella. If that's how you want it." he sounded so infinitely patient and sympathetic that she once again felt the wild Bella taking over.

If it was Edward Mason's mission to save bed Bella Swan, she thought, then maybe it was naughty Bella's calling to let the air out of his stuffed shirt.

She nimbly scrambled to her knees on the bench and put her mouth against his ear. "If I told you how I really wanted it, would you give it to me just that way?"

she heard his sharp intake of breath as he turned his head toward her, pulling back at the same time, like a man scenting danger, facing it, but claiming distance.

And then he smiled. "You are bad." wisely, he didn't answer her question. "And, all right, we'll change the subject."

She resumed a more decorous position on the bench. "Thank you."

They waited in the silence as the minutes crawled past.

"It's ten after ten," he said.

Bella shrugged, wondering wistfully how her Mercedes was holding up. "As I said before, I'm not even sure this is the right place."

Just the, the phone in one of the kiosk across the lawn by the sidewalk rang. For a split second, their gazes locked. And then Edward was up and sprinting across the grass

Since she was too late to get there before he did anyway, Bella followed at a more sedate pace.

"Just what the hell is going on?" she heard Edward demanding into the mouthpiece in an intense, low voice as she came u beside him of the sidewalk. "Tell me where you are."

Bella stepped back, turning away, to let Edward have some privacy as he spoke with his mother.

His voice rose. "Esme, be reasonable. I'm concerned about you. Listen, whatever it is, tell me. Let me help you-" suddenly, he stopped arguing. For a moment, he said nothing. Then, "If you'll just-all right. Don't hang up. All right." His tone held total resignation.

"She wants to talk to you," he said.

Bella took the receiver.

"Hello, sister," a low throaty voice said in her ear. "Better let me do the talking, okay?"

Bella made a small noise of agreement.

"my goodness, darlin'" Esme went on, "I'm sorry about this. Believe me, I would have told you my own situation if I'd thought Edward would have any way to track me down. I'm just a little stunned, to tell the truth. I need some time to rethink this thing-your Mercedes is fine by the way. Is the Cady holding up okay?"

"It died in the desert," Bella said flatly.

"Oh, no. but you managed anyway."

"Edward was there."

"Well." an airy sigh came from the other end of the line. "Whatever works"

Bella cupped her had over the receiver and whispered, so the nearby and glowering Edward couldn't make out what she said. "What now, Esme?" her low tone was as grim as the words.

"I need to think."

"Would you mind thinking fast?"

"Okay. Look. I'll be in touch again tomorrow morning, say seven o'clock. The Boca Grande Cafe in Winslow. I know you could probably strangle me by now, but if you would just..."

Esme's voice trailed off, as if she couldn't quite bring herself to ask so much. Bella realized that it was Esme's turn to need reassurance.

"Anything," Bella said firmly. "Just tell me."

"Keep Edward with you until I decide what I should do, but don't let him come with you to the cafe in the morning. Bella was silent. "I know, he's persistent," Esme went on.

"That's putting it mildly," Bella remarked.

"Do you think you can handle it?"

A few feet away, Edward was eying her suspiciously. "Mission accepted," she said.

"Thanks, pal," said the husky voice in her ear. "Tomorrow, then." The line went dead.

"Where is she" Edward asked the question in a monotone, as if he felt obliged to do so, though he knew he'd get no satisfactory answer.

"She didn't say." Bella almost hated herself for having no more to tell him than hwat he expected. She added after a wordless moment, "I have to go."

"Where?"

"I-"

"I know. You can't tell me."

She let her answer be found I her silence.

"I'll have to rent a car," she said, as if talking to herself.

"No you won't," he said, as she'd known he would. "I'll take you."

She shook her head, knowing she mustn't go along that easily. She thought, deception upon deception, and wondered where and how it would end. She was going to have to ditch him briefly in the morning, and it was important that he have no clue of when or where she might do that. Keeping him totally in the dark as to what she was up to seemed the only way she'd have a chance of getting him to let down his guard at the appropriate time.

Unfortunately, everything she didn't say was bound to make him sure that she and his mother were being manipulated by some mysterious cult of man-hating women.

"It's late to try and get a car," he argued reasonably.

She pretended too consider. "I really couldn't tell you anything, Edward. You'd just have to go where I asked you to take me."

"Fine," he said.

"Does that mean you'll stop the unending questions?"

"That means I'll take you wherever you want to go. I'm not going to give up trying to find out what the hell's going on. Promising I will would be a lie." he gave her a chiding frown and added, "I've always detested lies."

His dig hit her where it hurt. The real Bella Swan prided herself on her scrupulous honesty. But somehow the naughty Bella seemed to spend all her time rearranging the truth to suit her own needs.

Across the street, the bands played on. Bella tapped her foot to a drumbeat that pounded louder than the rest.

"You detest lies," she tossed at him, her hostility a product of her guilt. "So you're saying you detest me, right? Because you think I'm lying."

"I know you lying. But no, I don't detest you, Bella."

His tone of extreme forbearance set her teeth on edge. Not even for Esme's sake, she thought, could she put up with this.

"Forget it." she spun on her heel." I'll get my own transportation."

he was besides her within three steps, catching her arm and whirling her around to face him. "All right. I promise I'll try to stop asking questions."

She pulled her arm from his grip. "It won't work. You know it, I know it. You're not going to give up until I lead you to Esme."

He grunted. And then he smiled. "You still need a ride tonight. And I'm still available."

Enchanted once again by the charm and humor that lurked beneath his facade of puritanical self-control, she replied, "Let me get my things."

###

There were two road that would take them to the Interstate 40 and eventually to Winslow. Bella chose Highway 89, which seemed the most direct. The road wove through the mountains and down into the desert again.

As they left the trees behind and the land opened up before them, Bella stared silently out the window, mesmerized by the austere beauty of the desert world that fled by on either side. By the silvering light of the waning moon, the dry earth seemed to toll on forever, dotted here and there with clumps of sagebrush, proud saguaros and the tortured shadows of the Joshua tress. She did her best to simply appreciate the stark scenery and not even try to figure out how she was going to evade the man beside her when morning came.

They began climbing again, up into the gray-green stands of Ponderosa pines. By midnight, they reached the interstate and sped off to Flagstaff.. there, she made Edward stop at a phone booth where she pretended to place a call.

"I have to be in New Mexico by noon tomorrow," she said when she rejoined Edward at the car. It was a total fabrication, meant to throw him off guard.

"Where in New Mexico?" he asked, taken in.

She shook her head. "You know I can't say."

He took the map from the floor of the car and spread it on the good. "It's less than two hundred miles to the New Mexico border," he said. "Why don't we call it a night here in Flagstaff and try for a few hours sleep? We can get an early start and-"

She shook her head again. "Let's go a little father, okay? We're still to far away for me to feel comfortable to stop."

he shrugged. "You know where you're going." she pretended not to notice the irony in his words as she settled back into the passenger seat.

They drove on through the deepening night, past towns named Winona and Two guns, right by the turnoff that could have taken them to Meteor Crater. In spite of the lateness of the hour, Bella felt her imagination stirring.

On the road ahead, there would be hundreds of turnoffs to choose from. And each one would bring its own special kind of adventure. And that, in the end, was what she was after. Adventure. A change in her perspective, a new way of looking at the world. And if she thought of recent events in the light, well, she was getting just what she wanted. Just because Edward insisted too often on being a harbinger of gloom didn't mean she had to be gloomy right along with him.

She was flushed with a new resolve to keep things light and upbeat when they reached Winslow.

Bella stretched, elaborately, and said, "All right. Let's find someplace to sleep."

Winslow's two main streets, called Second and Third, were each one-way streets, so Edward ended up navigating a circle while Bella pretended to look for a suitable place. In actuality, she was watching out for the Boca Grande Cafe, which they passed not to far from the freeway on Second Street.

She waited until they were parallel with the cafe on Third Street, before settling on the Super Duper Motel. One block over and two blocks up and she'd be at the cafe in the morning. It would be nominal distance, even on foot.

Though the Super Duper Motel itself was distinctively distinctive, boasting forty rooms on two floors, each opening on the parking lot, Bella found its upbeat nature appealing.

When they pulled up to the office, Edward turned to her. "One room all right?"

No way, she thought. One room would be to dangerously intimate, let alone making it all the harder to get away in the morning.

But then she reconsidered. The naughty Bella would never quibble about anything so trivial as sharing a room with a man she was attracted to. Saying no would be out of the question. He's become doubly suspicious. His guard would be up and she'd never escape him in the morning.

She smiled at him-tauntingly, she hoped. "Hm. One room. S that a proposition?"

"Don't worry." his voice was flat. "I'll get separate beds."

She tried a teasing smile, wishing vainly for one in return. "But do you snore?"

"NO,: he said. His face remained impassive.

Sighing, Bella put her hand on his arm. "Edward. Let's lighten it up a little, okay? I mean, we're in this situation together and we might as well make the best of it."

"Right," he said, and went in to the motel office to register for their room.

The room had two double beds with worn red chenille bedspreads. The television was bolted to its stand and water could be heard dripping in the bathroom sink.

"Charming," Bella said. "I especially like the drapes. They look like modern art from the brush of a crazed orangutan."

"You chose it," Edward muttered.

"All right if I use the bathroom first?" She asked, insolently cheerful.

"Go ahead."

Bella closed the door behind her, engaging the privacy lock.