So fast, I know! I just was on a writing craze and I had to finish this chapter and get it out to you guys! Do I love you or do I love you! Enjoy! (P.S. not Stephenie Meyer, just love her characters!)

She was washed, she was dried, she was dressed, and she was left to herself. Derek, the boy who had brought her inside the castle, had been very kind – though Bella had been expected Edward. But by the time she had reached the castle, Princess Bella had not the strength to protest. She let herself be taken inside by Derek the stranger and had promptly been left in the hands of the three stranger women.

They were, she had been told, servants of the Hales. They had exclaimed over the state she was in and, thankfully, did their best to dress her wounds and make them less noticeable – but there was nothing to be done…the damage was done.

She had been told, once they had brought her into a small side room that already had a roaring fire and a comfy chaise lounge. They gave her blankets and a warm meal to nibble on.

"Yes, but where is Edward?" she questioned.

"The ball," was all she got from them…and it broke her heart – here she was, she had come miles, in pain, in distress, all to keep Edward's promise and he wasn't here!

"P-please – let me see him," she demanded, "I must see him!"

"We cannot let you, miss! Our orders were to take you here and make you comfortable. The Prince Edward will come when he comes…" and then they left. Bella shivered, it hurt her to be alone, here in this unfamiliar place – and yet she could not begrudge him. Edward was far superior to her in every way – his beauty, his kindness…and he was innocent…He must have finally realized just how unclean she was – and he came to his senses about her. She was tainted and he now he saw her for what she really was – undesirable.

And suddenly the pain was too much anymore – Princess Bella threw herself down upon the chaise lounge and sobbed. She was here in a place she'd never known, among strangers, and if she did not get back to Castle Black Jacob would kill her. But more than anything else, she sobbed because Edward no longer wanted her. Oh how this fact now know was worse than knowing nothing of his whereabouts…at least then she could dream about the times when he still wanted her, still loved her.

Her sobs echoed around the room and so hindered her from hearing the quickened footsteps of her love. His gasp of sorrow hit her ears as he threw himself down on his knees before her.

"Bella, my love, what pains you!" he all but sobbed, taking her hands in his. Her head snapped up at his voice and she gazed with longing at his perfect face. He stroked her tear-stained cheeks. She jerked her head away, but not before Edward gasped and suddenly his hands were gripping her temples and his piercing emerald eyes were examining her face.

"Where – what…" he lost his voice and Bella grew frightened as she saw the change she feared…his eyes grew dark as storm clouds. Suddenly the air grew tense.

"Edward, I –"

"Did he do this to you," he hissed, gripping her face tighter than he meant.

"Ed – ward," she sobbed, trying to rip away from him but she couldn't, he was too strong – and it hurt. He looked at her with horror and tore himself from her. He was at the opposite end of the room before Bella had the chance to blink. Her heart ached at the space he had created. A whole ocean could have separated them…

"Please, my love, come back to me," Bella pleaded, her arms outstretched. He turned, but when he faced her, his face was frozen, his eyes a monstrous red, his mouth a thin, tight line. He gripped the bridge of his nose and stared at the space above her head. Bella tried to get up to close the distance between them, but pain stabbed through her leg and she cried out, falling back onto the lounge. Edward's face broke as he watched her.

"Oh, Bella!" he gasped, prostrating himself before her. He held his head in his hands, his breathing ragged, and he shook with silent tears. "Oh my love – I am so sorry – no, I cannot express how wretched I am for treating you so abominably…I am a monster!" he sobbed.

Bella tried to protest, but he was heaving himself up, his eyes black to that violent red as he cursed to the heavens –

"Oh God in heaven! I swear on all that's holy, Jacob Black will rue this day, he will rue the day he touched my Bella and he shall pay! Not even the devil can save him from my wrath, though he shall burn in the fiery pits of hell for what he has done! Blasphemy and the darkest of sins! No one violates the purity and grace of an angel, especially mine! Oh what a rogue am I to leave you unprotected! I deserve as much punishment as he for I am no better – oh to not keep protected what I hold most dear! I am unforgivable!"

"No!" Bella cried, "No, Edward, please do not – Ah!" Pain again, oh cursed pain! Every time she tried to move towards her love she was held back and there was nothing she could do but lie limply while her love tormented and tortured himself to utter agony!

"My love, be still," Edward gasped. "I – please, no more!"

"Edward," she spoke clearly, trying desperately to keep her head, "Please, no more of this self-torment – with every word you say against you I feel more pain! You are not to blame for what Jacob has done – It was my fault – he, I – I did not follow his orders and so I laid the consequence upon mine own head…It has not been the first time –"

"You mean to say he has beaten you before!!" Edward's voice bellowed and Bella cringed.

"Please, my love, let go of this anger and hurt – there was noting in the world that could have saved me from my fate – you were banished and so could be in no position to know what happened between me and my – and my –"

"Do not speak the word!"

"Edward, you must stop this madness! It is hurting us both! What happened has happened and there is nothing that can be done – all I care about is here, right before mine eyes – this moment should be special, should be full of happiness and renewal – not pain and suffering! Don't you see? You are letting that monster in where he should not be! Oh let him go and everything else – just, just let me look at you while I can!" She was in tears, and that was another pain for her – Edward's perfect face was becoming bleary and unfocused and that she could not take. Who knows how long he would allow her to stay here, in his presence, before sending her back to where she belonged – sending her back to the monster that kept her.

"My love – I – am loathe to give you pain – I," he stuttered over his words, and Bella breathed steadier breaths as she watched the red fade and the emerald to return in his eyes. "And here you are – all the better – reeling me in, so calm, so demure in your distress, in your pain – I feel the fool!" He stroked her cheek, "And yet there is something that has my heart racing and my brain puzzled to its meaning, for your words to me have fallen hard upon my ears in one respect – what is it that you mean when you say, 'while you still can'?" His piercing eyes took hold of hers and would not let go – Bella could only shake under the intensity of their gaze. She did not want it to come to this so quickly…

"I – when I arrived – when you were not there, when I was alone I realized…that you had finally come to your senses…and…changed your mind about us…that I…that you did not want me any more – and rightly so! That you finally realized just how undesirable I am – I in my impurity, I in my filth! But I shall leave you, if that is what you wish – do not bring my troubles upon yourself – it is more than I can bear to bring down your beauty and your perfect person – you are too good for me." Bella could barely finish on account of the uncontrollable pain inside her chest – it felt like a hole was being bored into her and it was growing larger be the second – Edward looked so disgusted…he cannot help it – it is too much for him to bare – too much uncleanliness – I am too much for him!

"I – Bella – how is this possible!" Edward was looking at her with such shock and suddenly Bella felt a lurch in her stomach. His hands were upon her then – on her face, stroking and fingering her features, he ran his fingers over her round lips again and again as his eyes scorched her with their intensity.

"You have no idea what you do to me," he whispered, so soft it was barely audible, so grief-stricken that it brought tears to Bella's eyes. "You – you cannot possibly think those things about yourself…about me! How –" His left hand flew to clutch the bridge of his nose as he spoke with difficulty, the words barely making it past his perfect lips – "How could you possibly think that I would not want you!? After all of my assurances, after everything that we spoke of in that garden – after I held you so close to me and kissed you clean? After all that you still doubt my love for you?"

Bella was speechless – all she could do was open and close her mouth, her body locking itself against the impact of his words as they rushed upon her, smoothing over the skin of her face. "I – I –"

"How and what for? No, Bella, never – my love for you is as undying as the Lord above and nothing could stop its flow – You. Are. My. Life. And you are not unclean – never, not ever in my sight – how could you ever think of yourself as filthy?" He spat the word, stroking her cheekbones. "You could never be filthy, never to me, never to me – you are – you are an immaculate sea – and I am one among the luckiest of men to have ever known you – all I could ever want is you, that is all to make my life complete –"

"Edward –"

"Hush, love," he whispered. "I know that there can be no doubt within you now, and if there ever remained a shred of it, well, I have the cure." His gaze fell upon her mouth and as he leaned in, Bella inhaled sharply, his scent flooding her senses – his lips grazed hers and she knew that he would speak the truth forever, that there was not a hateful bone in his body towards her and all they had to worry over was left outside, in the cold – and here, in the warmth radiating between too lovers as their worlds collided around them, there was only love, unconditional and ever lasting, unstoppable, impenetrable love.

"Mmmm," Bella hummed as Edward's lips left hers to ghost across her cheeks. "I love you –"

"You have my heart, Bella, always," he hushed against her skin, "Your love is the thread that sews my life together, I live to hear your heart beat against mine." Tears spilt down Princess Bella's face – Edward caught them with his lips, taking them in as if they were the water he sustained his life on.

"You speak so beautifully, you make me feel so…special."

"Word, my love, they are only words – I do all I can to make meaning from them, and there is only so much I can do to them – you are beyond words, my love for you is beyond words…but I do my best through them to venerate you as far as I am able," he confessed against her skin, making his way back to her lips.

Bella closed the gap between them, taking his lips in hers and she had no fears and no pain. Edward took away her pain. And the rest was silence in the background.

Well, there you go! Let me know what you think! Cheers and review!