Lost Loves of Meadow Lane

Chapter 11

Isabella March 7, 1910

Isabella sat quietly after the table had been cleared, waiting for James to speak. It could have been five minutes, or twenty, she wasn't sure, before she couldn't take the silence anymore.

"Is there anything that you need me to do today, James?" she finally asked.

"Need... or want?" James replied with a query.

"I just... I want to be a good wife..." Isabella explained trailing off in uncertainty. Other than the rights of a husband, she still didn't know what James expected from her. Was it just yesterday that she thought her life was going to take another path with another man? That she believed Edward had wanted more from her than her innocence? Deep inside she knew Edward loved her, but she also knew from the beginning that she was in America as the bride in an arranged marriage. How could she have been so careless with her heart and given it to someone she couldn't keep? She was just a nieve girl then. Now, she was face to face with a reality she didn't want or understand.

"A good wife? I like your attitude, Isabella. Come here," he spoke, motioning for her to close the gap between them. When she stood beside him he pushed his chair back from the table. Taking her hand, he led her between him and the table. Then he lifted her by the hips and set her on the table. He laughed as her eyes grew wide and she pulled her gown tight against her skin trying to keep it closed. He dismissed the fear she so openly showed in her expressive eyes. He scooted the chair closer and placed her feet to either side of him, resting them on the chair. He stroked the silken material of her nightgown along her thighs. His eyes wandered across her torso.

"Are you certain you are not cold?" he inquired again with the same matter of fact tone as before.

"No," she lied, causing James' to grin. All she desired was to be somewhere else.

"And you want to be a respectable wife, correct?" he asked in a demanding voice. Her nod in response prompted him to continue. "But you do not know what to expect?" He waited for her answer and received another nod. Oh, how he would savor his new wife, he thought, but she wasn't ready for all of that yet. "For now, all you need to be concerned with is taking care of your health. I will take care of everything else." His hands moved to her hips as he stood, pulling her closer, forcing her legs to spread and make room for him. His hands slid up her body to her face. Jerking at her chin, he forced her to look up at him. Looking down into her brown innocent eyes, he could almost consider the appeal of actually kissing her that many couples seemed to enjoy. Almost. Seeing his reflection in her eyes shook him from those thoughts. "Until you are with child, you will remain exactly as you are, dressed in soft fabric and available for me as I see fit, Isabella. That is all I expect for now. Once that has happened, we shall settle into a more normal routine." He could feel her trembling against him. How he wanted to lift her nightgown and take her right there on the table. Knowing how innocent she was, he thought perhaps he would give her a little more time before he showed her what he really liked to do with a women.

Desperately, Isabella looked for a way out. Who could she turn to? What was she supposed to do? If the door had been unlocked and she had presentable clothes, she would have run. It seemed that James had not just married her but taken her prisoner. What would it do to her family if she fled? Would it destroy everything her father was working toward? Would he care that she could not love this man, or want him?

Innocent or not, James decided to give her a small lesson in what he expected from her. He lifted her nightgown above her knees and watched as shock and fear registered on her face. Her eyes darted around the room, looking for help. His grin grew into an evil sneer as she tried to close her legs and cover her bare skin. He liked her fear more than he should, he thought, as he ran his hand over the zipper that separated them.

"I'm sorry to say that I like it when you cry, Isabella," he whispered in her ear before he pulled her closer, closing the small gap between them. His hands roughly scooped her up and held her as he moved away from the table towards the stairs. Fear fueled her reaction as she grabbed a hold of him, afraid to be dropped on the floor.

"This is just the beginning, Isabella."

2011

Alice swayed back and forth in the swing overlooking the back yard. She loved the view in the early evening, watching as the sun started to lower itself in the sky. Soon the sun would disappear behind the trees and the darkness would creep in, taking its place. The stars would come out, blinking in the heavens above. The sweet scent of pine would float in the air and fill her senses.

She reflected on her afternoon and how Amanda had acted weird when she returned with her food. She didn't know what was behind the woman's questions that seemed to come out of nowhere.

So what if she was single? A woman didn't need a man to be complete, did she? Her parents and her brother, Emmett, told her that she'd been in love before, but the last time she met the man that claimed they were in love, she had felt nothing for him. He seemed nice enough, but there wasn't a spark of recognition. Since then, she had yet to meet a man who could stir any feelings in her, deep down in her being, some place hidden. She wondered briefly if she ever would.

She was listening to the crickets chirping in the tree line when she realized she needed to stop lying to herself. She had met a man that stirred something inside of her. She just wasn't sure what that something was. She was definitely curious about him, but curiosity did not constitute attraction or love. Besides, he kept running away all the time. She also realized that a man was not what kept her feeling incomplete, but her missing memory.

It had been two years since she woke up in a strange bed, with no memory of who she was. It was possible she had been in a minor car accident, but the fresh dent in the car was barely noticeable. It was also possible that the raging infection she had when she woke up could have been the culprit, but it was treated quickly with antibiotics. It could have been a combination of both, but no one knew for sure. Simply put, her memory just wasn't there. Her physicians, parents, and friends were at a loss. There was no telling if her memory would ever return. The best advice they could give her was to rebuild your life the best you can. The decision was made for Alice to move home with her parents and try to put the pieces of her life back together.

Alice's brother, Emmett, couldn't be any more her opposite. Where Emmett had their father's dark eyes, Alice had their mother's green. Emmett was tall with wide shoulders and an intimidating physique. Alice was petite with nice curves. Emmett was a big softy while Alice could be mean as nails. But they were brother and sister, all right. They shared the same dark hair color and light colored skin. They shared the same nose, and they both had birth marks on opposite knees. If you put their knees together, you could almost imagine the shape of a heart.

Emmett was the first to realize that Alice was rapidly approaching overload from the information forced upon her from friends and other family members. He had come home for a visit and found Alice sitting in the living room, crying, photo albums covering every available surface.

He snatched her up off the sofa and dragged her outside to his car. She was sure he had a plan, but he later confessed, he didn't have a clue what he was doing. He only knew he needed to do something. He drove them to the nearest store looking for something that would help bring his sister back to him. He missed her, and he was done simply waiting for her to come back. Alice repeated that she didn't know what he wanted from her as she wiped her eyes, walking up and down the aisles of the drug store. Emmett agreed that he didn't either, but as soon as he saw it, he would know.

She remembered wanting to laugh when a wide grin spread across his face, and he declared he had found it. She was hit with hysterics when he grabbed an empty photo album from the shelf. Hadn't they just left a hundred of them back at the house?

Once they returned to the house, Emmett collected the albums, skimming through them and stacking them in no particular order. Alice was still confused, but she could see the look of determination on his face. She just wished she could remember him, something, and anything about her life before waking up that horrible morning. She hated feeling like a newborn stuck in an adult body.

Emmett laid the album on the table and opened to the first page. Of course it was blank, it was new. Then he grabbed a family album and quickly flipped the pages until he found what he was looking for.

"This is us, when you were born. I still can't believe Mom let me hold you when I was three," he said slid the picture into a clear sheet of plastic. He continued taking pictures from the family albums and adding them one by one to the new one. He added pictures of their great-grandparents, Carlisle and Esme Cullen; their grandparents, Paul and Samantha Fisher; and then finally, a few of their parents, John and Jenny Brandon. Emmett also placed her bachelor's degree in elementary education and her state issued teaching degree. When he was finished, he handed her the album and told her, "For now, that's all you need to know. It's time for you to figure out who you are, and since nobody has a magic wand, you have to figure that out yourself."

That's when Alice decided to find her own place. Why Gulfport, she couldn't tell. There was just a pull to this city, this community, and especially, to this house. For the last two years she had felt different, lost and frightened by what had happened. Here in this house, she felt a as if she had finally come home after being lost for so long.

Shaking her head and blinking rapidly, Alice pulled herself from that path of thinking and back to the present. The sun was almost gone and she had missed watching it drift behind the trees. A ruffling noise caught her attention and drew her eyes to the tree line. She couldn't see anything different but knew something was there. A cold chill ran down her back. She startled as a deer loped into view. The creature looked at her and stood still before disappearing again. The mist on the ground swirled into a ghostly figure before dissipating. Heat rushed to the surface of her skin before the temperature around her returned to normal.

"Alice, you've been reading too many ghost stories," she scoffed at herself.

I so bet ya'll though I was never going to update, didn't you? I just finished midterms for this semester. In an effort to lick my wounds I thought I should spend something NOT academic! Like, maybe, UPDATE!

Thank you Bylinda, Yummy, and Story! There is NO WAY I COULD DO THIS WITHOUT YOU THREE IN MY CORNER AND YOU EXPERT WONDERFUL ADVICE ON CHAPTERS!

I want to thank everyone for there add's to favorites, favorite authors, follows... all of it. It has kept me from getting completely lost in boring ass text books. lol. I have a couple days next week to myself, so I will try to get you another chapter before hell breaks free and I find my fat ass sitting in a classroom again. (BWAHHHHH).

And I do, so much, appreciate the reviews. They are part of what keeps me sane.

Read, Review, ReSHARE!