[Disclaimer] Everything Twilight belongs to Mrs. Stephenie Meyer

[A/N] Welcome back my lovely readers. Thanks and hugs to those of you who keep reading and reviewing. It means so much to me.

**Chapter 10**

Close your eyes and see the beauty

(Author unknown)

Tortured, that's how he looked like. The deep purple bruises underneath his eyes were visible through the pale skin and the line around his jaw was sharp as if he had lost a huge amount of weight in the last months.

He briefly hugged his father who made a comment about his son looking too thin. Then he took his mother's hand to blow a kiss over its back.

"Mother…,"

She pulled a tissue out of her sleeve and wiped some tears from her cheeks before she cleared her throat nervously.

"It's so good to have you back home, my poor boy. You look famished. Why didn't you eat properly over there?"

"I didn't really feel like eating," he murmured, running his fingers through his hair in order to tame a single curl of his reddish hair that equaled Esme's so much.

Then he turned to me and his lips twitched into the tiniest attempt of a polite smile.

"You must be Isabella, Royce's wife. My name is Edward Cullen and it's a pleasure to meet you."

I curtsied and when he took my hand in his to kiss it I noticed that his hands were cold as ice, almost lifeless. He really seemed to heart the loss of his wife deeply and that instantly sent a wave of compassion to me. I bet Royce wouldn't be half as sad if I would die unexpectedly.

"Where is Flower?" he asked his father and for the first time since Edward had entered the hall I had the impression that he really cared about something.

"You're home for like two minutes and the first thing you are asking about is this cocky, barefaced nigger girl." Esme stated reproachfully, crossing her arms in front of her chest.

He chuckled lowly and cleared his throat before he spoke up.

"I'll talk to her about that kind of inappropriate behavior but I have a certain feeling that you're terribly overreacting again, dear mother."

"Just ask, Isabella here. She didn't want to have her as her maid."

"Really? What did Flower do to upset you? Was she rude or something like that?"

I blushed and started playing with the ribbons on the hem of my dress before I whispered.

"That was just my first impression. We get along now and she's training the girl I have chosen as my personal maid quite fine."

Flower rushed down the stairs carrying a huge tray with cake and a carafe with lemonade in her hands. She smiled all over her face when she saw Edward and for a split second he smiled back at her, his green eyes framed by some laugh lines before he managed to get his facial expression under control.

"Welcome home, E…, I mean welcome home, Mr. Edward. You look horribly thin. I 'll have to do something about that. Do you want to have some cake? I made the cook bake all your favorites for your coming home."

XXXX

I was surprised to hear music coming from the library. There was a piano standing in front of the window but no one had ever played on it since I had come here. It was such a beautiful melody that it almost managed to bring tears to my eyes. For a moment I just remained standing at the doorframe, listening to the sound of it before I finally walked in. Flower was sitting next to Edward on the piano bench, her head resting against his shoulder.

"I missed you so much; this place sucks when you're not around."

"You know that I hate it when you talk like that. It's not really lady like."

She stuck her tongue out at him like a four year out and he burst out into laughter. When he realized what he was doing he pressed his hands in front of his mouth as if he had done something completely forbidden.

"It's okay, you know, Edward. She wouldn't mind it if you started to live again, to laugh again. Miss Angela wouldn't want you to suffer and mourn the rest of your life."

He sighed and wrapped his arm around her shoulder. Then he leaned forward and planted a kiss on her cheek.

"You're such a dear girl, if you manage to calm that temper of yours."

I dropped the book I had been holding in my hands on the ground and that noise made both of them turn around.

Instantly I blushed and kneeled down to pick it up again. It was so embarrassing that I had caught them here together.

Flower was next to me before I could even blink. She handed me the book and cleared her voice nervously.

"Here, Miss Isabella. I have to check on some of your clothes now before Pixie burns all of them with the irons."

With that she was gone and I remained alone with my husband's cousin, who continued playing the piano as if nothing had happened.

"Do you know how to play?" he asked me suddenly looking up from the ebony and ivory colored keys.

"Not well," I confessed.

"Too bad, it would have been good to have someone here to play it for me when I'm gone. It gets terribly off-resonance when it's not used. I tried to teach Flower some songs but she's not really patient enough to learn it."

"You and Flower are pretty close, aren't you?" I asked him, already regretting the words as soon as they had left my lips. It was so stupid and inappropriate to talk about that kind of stuff.

For some reason I couldn't tell he didn't seem to be offended by it though. He gestured for me to sit down on a chair next to the piano and sighed deeply.

"I assume that Royce has already told you about me and Flower. And I've also seen the way he looks at her and I didn't like it one tiny bit."

I was a hundred percent sure he wouldn't like it the slightest bit more if he knew about what had happened between my husband and Flower behind the last shelf of the library.

"Is Flower the reason why you and Royce don't get along with each other, because you both want her?" The two of them fighting over the same woman was something that reminded me of one of the novels I had read. As far as I remembered they had killed each other over defending the girl's honor. It was unlikely that something like that would happen here. Flower was just some slave girl after all, a pretty one that fact wasn't deniable but a slave girl nether the less.

"Isabella," he started hesitantly, running his fingers though his hair that was already damp in the neck. It was awfully warm today and I wished it wouldn't have been necessary to wear so many layers of clothes.

"I shouldn't be the one telling you this but your husband isn't exactly what I would refer to as a gentleman. If you want to remain happy in your marriage I'd suggest closing your eyes from his escapades…,"

"So, the two of you are sharing the same girl?" I stumbled out, my voice raising two octaves.

The edge of his mouth twitched and his green eyes narrowed into tiny slits before he spoke up again.

"Are you assuming that…how should I say it appropriately enough for a lady…that there is some sort of romantic relationship between me and Flower?"

My face blushed again and I quickly bowed my head in order to hide it behind my long hair.

He chuckled again and I had to suppress the urge to tell him that it was not acceptable for a gentleman to laugh about a lady's bashfulness.

"Not if she and I were the last two people left on this earth. I love her with all my heart but certainly not in a way that I would make me commit a grave sin with her."

"Grave sin, you mean because the two or you aren't married or something like that?"

He shook his head and pulled a pocket watch out of his vest. When he flipped it open a wrinkled black and white picture fell down on the piano keys. The picture should a little boy with terribly messy hair who had his arm wrapped around a tiny girl in a ruffle covered silk dress. Her skin was almost as light as his and only the dark curls of her hair and the almost black eyes made it obvious that she wasn't completely white.

"Is that you and Flower? I don't think I understand."

He stuffed the picture back into the watch and closed it again. Then he sighed deeply before he spoke up.

"Promise me not to mention it to my parents that I've told you. It would upset my mother if she knew you knew. My father probably wouldn't mind it although he never really understood it why Flower and I are so close. He never got it, not even when we were still kids. That's weird somehow because I'm sure he cares for her too. He must, for he wouldn't have signed her over to me to make sure that my mother couldn't sell her behind his back like she did it with Flower's mother Malvina a few years ago. Maybe he wanted to at least keep Flower close. After all, she is his flesh and blood as much as she was hers."

XXXX

I sighed deeply while Pixie carefully combed through the length of my hair before she braided it for the night. Slowly she leaned forward to plant a kiss on the now exposed skin of my neck and the soft touch of her lips against my overheated flesh felt amazingly pleasant. The tip of her tongue darted out to lick off a tiny sweat pearl and a shiver went down my spine.

"You taste salty," she murmured when she pulled back. "Salty is good,"

I turned around and cupped her face between my hands to pull her closer to me. I kissed her tenderly while she wrapped her dainty arms around my waist. I could feel them though the fabric of my night gown and my heartbeat quickened almost painfully.

"I love kissing you so very much," I whispered against her trembling lips when we lay down on the cool blankets on the bed.

"It makes me feel all…I don't really know how it makes me feel like. I don't think I have words for it."

She smiled and caressed the bare skin above my cleavage with her fingertips.

"Your skin is so soft,"

I reached out my hand and opened the first two buttons of her cotton blouse, somehow feeling the unbearable urge to touch her as well.

Pixie kissed me again and the tip of her tongue swirled over my lower lip until I gasped for air and she used the opportunity to slip it into my mouth to massage my tongue with it. I heard her moan against my lips when my fingers inside her blouse reached the small roundness of her left breasts. When I circled the tip of my finger over its tip it hardened a bit under my touch. Was it normal that it would react like that?

"I'm not hurting you, am I?" I asked her worriedly, pulling back from the kiss. Instead of answering me she planted several open mouthed kisses down my collarbone.

"No, you didn't, my Miss. It felt so…good when you touched me there. Is it wrong that I enjoyed it?"

I shook my head and caressed her face with my fingertips, moving them gently over her eyebrows and her cheekbones until I finally reached her full lips.

"You are so incredibly beautiful." I whispered, stroking down her chin so lightly that my fingers were barely touching her skin.

Somehow she seemed to be embarrassed by my comment because suddenly she turned her head to the side and buried it against one of the fluffy pillows.

To my immense horror a low sobbing filled the air a few moments later. Seeing her so miserable cut into my heart, like a sharp knife and I hugged her tightly from behind in order to comfort her somehow.

"What's wrong with you? Are you upset about something?"

She sniffed and wiped her face on the fabric of her sleeve before she spoke up.

"You…you told me I'm beautiful and I know I'm not. I'm ugly!"

I shook my head and pulled her closer against me, planting a kiss right underneath her earlobe.

"You're not ugly. Why in heaven's name are you thinking you are?"

She turned her head and I put one finger underneath her chin to make her look up to me again. There were still tears glittering in her brown eyes but at least they had stopped falling down her face.

"Before they brought me here, my mistress told me that. You are ugly and worthless. No one will ever pay an acceptable prize for you, Pixie. You are too small and too thin to sell you off rentable."

I kissed the tip of her nose and sighed deeply.

"I won't let anyone say something as awful as that to you ever again. You belong to me now and to me…," I whispered hoarsely. "…to me you are beautiful."

XOXXOXXOXXO

[A/N] Lots of confessions in this chapter… Now did anyone of you assume that Flower was Edward's half-sister or did I manage to surprise you with that?

I have a certain feeling that we might get a lemon in the next chapter. How do you feel about that?

I've started another Bellice story that you could check out if you're enjoying to read my work.

It's called Underneath Heavenly Wings.

Until next time,

Take care ;-)