Chapter Twelve

Alice

I waited impatiently at home for Jazz to get back from the airport. I knew he thought I would pick him up when he rang to give me the details, a very short and not so sweet call, but I decided I was angry with him. Three weeks and not a single call or text, not even an email. Admittedly I'd only sent him one hoping he and his horses were having fun but even so, I never even got a reply to that little missive. Well, he was going to find out that was not the way to treat your "wife". I know we'd never got married like Rose and Emmett, well no one got married like those two did, every ten years or so. But I was still his significant other and it wouldn't hurt to remind him of that as he seemed to have let it slip from his mind. Emmett of course, always the bleeding heart, went to pick Jazz up so he would also fill him in on all the details, like how annoyed his dear "wife" was.

When he arrived home he looked, as always, more relaxed as if a few weeks on the back of a horse was the most wonderful thing in the world. What he saw in the great smelly beasts I really couldn't see. He gave me a hug which I shrugged off tapping my foot and crossing my arms to show I wasn't going to be placated so easily and then handed me a small but beautifully packaged present,

"You thought I'd forgotten you didn't you?"

I glared at him,

"I know you had or have all forms of communication between that God forsaken hole and civilization finally been cut?"

I waited, but he just smiled at me,

"I hope you like it."

I ripped the packaging off, still annoyed and then saw the present inside. The latest perfume from Chanel! Jazz never bought me perfume so why start now? And then it hit me, of course, he hadn't, he'd gotten Charlotte to get me something or he'd forgotten altogether and she had handed it to him as they waved him off.

Putting it down with a dismissive sniff I turned away,

"I already tried it, if Charlotte had bothered to ring me I'd have told her so but I suppose it's better than nothing. Did you have fun?"

He knew better than to launch into a long explanation of what he'd been doing. I wasn't interested, I didn't care. Instead, he just shrugged,

"We did some traveling, worked the horses, the usual kind of thing. How about you?"

Although I knew he didn't really care I decided to torture him anyway with a blow by blow account of our shopping trip, casually mentioning we'd bumped into Angelo, an old friend of mine, and a couple of his friends who accompanied us most of the time.

"It was nice not to be on my own all the time. A lot of husbands attend these shows you know, it's not exclusively female."

He didn't take the bait, but then I hadn't really expected him to, Jazz was all for a quiet life.

I had one more little surprise for him, one I knew would ruin his good mood,

"We're going to London with Carlisle and Esme for six months."

He stared at me in shock,

"London for six months? Why? You know I hate cities, Alice. Besides I promised Peter I would be back in time for the Horse Fair in three months. You always go to Milan then."

"Not this year Jazz. This year you and I are joining Carlisle and Esme for a grand tour of historical London, we are going to let him tell his story, take us to all the places he knew as a boy. We'll meet up with some of his oldest and dearest friends from his time as a vampire in his home country, including trips to Canterbury, Winchester, Lincoln, and York. We owe him this Jazz, he doesn't ask much from us and I accepted his invitation on your behalf as you didn't bother to contact me so we could discuss it. You owe me too, I'm sick of playing a poor second to your good old country boy and his hillbilly wife, I'm making the sacrifice too, no fashion shows and no great shopping sprees for six whole months. Or is there something more important and interesting than spending some quality time with your "wife"? Have you got some barefoot, ragged country girl you'd rather spend time with?"

Jasper

She had me, what could I say? I agreed that I owed Carlisle this trip if it was what he wanted, after everything he had done for me over the years but six months? It was a huge part of Bella's life, she would be walking, everything would be changed, she might even have spoken her first words and I would miss it all, but there was no way out of it.

"When do we leave?"

She smiled in satisfaction knowing she had won,

"Six weeks from now so you have plenty of time to ring Peter and tell him he'll have to find someone else to hold his hand at the Horse Fair."

Six weeks? Then I couldn't possibly get back to Colorado before we left, I had no excuse, it meant almost eight months before I could see Bella and her family again, eight whole miserable months!

"Fine, I guess I better give him the good news then go see Carlisle and Esme."

She smiled broadly,

"I knew you'd agree, it'll be fun and we don't spend enough quality time together Jazz."

I wondered why Emmett hadn't mentioned this trip to England on the way back and caught up with him on the stairs. Of course he'd heard the conversation and was grinning broadly,

"So she got you. I knew she would."

"What about you and Rose? Aren't you coming?"

"Us? No way man, we went the last time. Mind you're a history buff so you'll enjoy it more than I did. All that old stuff? Ruins and underground buried cellars, that kind of crap. I tell you, man, you've seen one ruined castle you've seen them all. Carlisle didn't think you'd agree, but Alice insisted you and her were going. You better watch her man, if she thinks you've got yourself some girl in Boulder she'll kill you."

"She'd have seen or Edward heard, that's just plain stupid Emmett."

I know I snapped at him way too sharply and saw the shock on his face, but he was just too close to the truth for comfort.

Running up the stairs to our room I slammed the door and sat in my leather recliner cursing my luck and Alice for doing this to me. It didn't take long to realize I was acting unwisely and possibly putting Bella and the others in danger so I pulled myself together and siphoned a little of Esme's calm from her as she worked in her sewing room just down the hall. I could do this, it was only eight months and I had an eternity to spend with Bella once she grew up, that's the way I had to look at it.

I took a few deep breaths and went down the hall to Carlisle's study tapping on the door and waiting to be invited in. It was the only room in the house that had a lock on it and we all respected his privacy.

"Come in, the door's not locked."

Locked no, but it was sound proofed, so he hadn't heard the words I exchanged with Emmett or my reluctance when Alice had told me of the trip which was a relief.

He smiled and beckoned me to a seat,

"Jasper, it's good to see you back. Has Alice told you about the trip? I wasn't sure you'd want to come, but then she pointed out how much you enjoyed history. I'd like you to meet Alistair and my other old friends, I told them all about you and they are keen to finally see you in person. How did your trip go? Buy any new horses? I tried to ring you and check the trip was OK, but there was no one at the house whenever I rang."

He didn't sound suspicious or anything, but I thought I'd better cover myself anyway,

"We went on a few camping trips with the horses and checked out a few that were for sale. I guess you just hit it wrong."

"Well never mind, I'm just glad you had a good time, you've been looking a little...absent recently, is everything OK son?"

"Yeah fine and I look forward to the trip, I've never been to England."

"Oh you'll like it and I promise you we won't be kept in much, it rains a lot in my native land!"