uncontrolableranter- do you think, no matter what status was involved, that 'sexy dominant' Edward would ever be beneath 'angry and sassy but overall just waiting for the right guy to tame her' Bella ;)

Yume-Amy Cullen- i love that idea, but I've technically already finished this so you'll just have to see what happens when its written my way. However, I do really really like your idea.

La tua Cantante101 - don't worry, eddie may be besotted and idilically in love right now, but his darker, meaner, dominating side cannot be squashed for long ;)

ALSO :*Tash is the demon god of the Calormens that appears in the last Narnia book, the last because Jacob says 'Talk of Tash and she doth appear" in this chapter (Yes, Jacob is finally here!) and I realised that probably a lot of people won't know what that is when my beta thougth it was a typo for trash lol. So yeahh... 'talk of Tash' is the Narnian equivalent of 'talk of the devil'.


Chapter 14.

I can't explain how I feel about you

All I know is that I can't live without you

-Jason Manns

The sun was high in the sky by the time the carriage came to a stop in the market. Edward jumped down first before offering me his hand to help me get out. It was hot and busy. All kinds of things were available for purchase: slaves, animals, food, material, jewellery, and more.

I had never been to a market and I was glad for Edward's strong hand on my hip, round my waist, guiding me, because I would have easily been swallowed up in the crowd without him.

We walked through some of the stalls, Edward greeting a few people, inclining his head at others. He seemed to be a well respected member of the community, and I felt my heart swell in pride and adoration at the fact that my Edward was so well thought of. Then I laughed at myself for the oddness of this feeling.

We walked along together, talking of various things, eating the cake Edward had bought for us at one of the stalls and everything was perfect. The sun was beating down despite the fact it was nearly winter and I smiled in contentment. I could have happily spent the rest of my life at the rest of the market with him.

"In the name of Aslan!" Edward muttered angrily under his breath, anger clouding over his face.

I frowned up at him, "What?" I asked, turning my line of sight to where he was looking, resting my hand on his arm as I did so.

"Over there! Excuse me a minute, Bella, I need to put a stop to this," he said before striding purposefully off. I took a moment to admire him as he walked, his determined stride and haughty manner was just so... Edward, before tearing my eyes away from him and looking instead at what had caused his anger.

'SINGING HORSES, JOKING BEARS AND, THIS WEEK ONLY, COME SEE THE YOUNG CENTAUR!' the sign read. There were not many of the talking animals in the Lone Islands, they were mainly in Narnia itself, and I had heard of them being captured and forced into sorts of circuses in other places. My blood boiled and I strode off after Edward.

"Bella!" called a voice and I turned to see Michael Newton.

"Not now, Michael," I snapped at him, even though he didn't deserve my anger. The crowed parted easily to let me through, I was scary when I was angry; I had inherited that from my father.

"What is the meaning of this?" Edward was thundering, towering over a slimy looking man.

"No... No... Nothing Lord... Lord Edward. Nothing at all..." the man trembled.

I felt the hatred well up inside me.

"THEN LET THESE ANIMALS GO!" I shouted, every inch of me shaking with the anger I felt.

Edward looked at me in a combination of surprise and admiration as I stood heaving, so angry that the world around me was starting to blur. I couldn't stand the mistreatment of animals, and judging by the look on his face Edward felt the same.

The man looked from Edward's angry face to my furious one.

"Of course! At once!" he said breathlessly, and set to work opening all the cages, releasing the animals.

"If I get wind of anything like this happening again, I'll have you thrown in jail!" Edward growled at the man once he was done, "Now – get out!"

"My Lord. My Lady," the man acknowledged us before turning and fleeing as fast as his feet could carry him.

"I am sorry, Bella," Edward said, breathing deeply and pinching his nose to calm himself down, "I brought you here today so that you may see that we are not all barbaric in the Lone Islands and this is the sight that meets your eyes."

"A man stopping cruelty is hardly what I call barbaric," I said softly as my anger started to subside, reaching out to ouch his arm. I couldn't stop myself. Every time I looked at him I wanted to touch him. Edward's father had been called to Narnia almost an entire week ago, it would be a week ago tomorrow, and that meant that the men would be in the Lone Islands by next Wednesday, a week away. I was guaranteed only a week to drink in everything I could of him, only a week to figure out a plan that would work.

The animals made their way out of their enclosures slowly, each bowing towards us as they left.

Edward bowed back and I smiled at each of them.

"I am going to go remove the sign," Edward said, turning to leave after all the animals seemed to have left.

I turned to follow after him, it appeared that all the animals had left, everything in the place seemed dark and still when I heard a familiar voice, "Bella?"

I recognized that voice but it couldn't be...

"Jacob?" I peered into the blackness at the back of the room and as he walked forward and my eyes began to adjust I could see that it was my Jacob, my very best friend. I ran forward and threw my arms around my centaur friend, who hugged me back just as tight. I grinned at him; I hadn't seen him in what felt like ages.

"What are you doing here and who is that?" Jacob demanded, nodding his head at the door through which Edward had just exited.

"Long story Jake..."

"Well I heard you're missing."

"Officially..."

He raised an eyebrow at me, his dark hair that fell to his shoulders and his broad chest making him seem much older than me, even though in truth I was older by a year. I had always loved Jacob, he was my nanny's son and we had grown up together. He was one of the only true friends I had, probably because we had known each other as Bella and Jacob before either of us could understand anything about what my status actually meant.

He hadn't come on the voyage with me to the Lone Islands, and I had missed him greatly. Jessica was wonderful but... Well, her feminine ways tended to irritate me slightly after as while. Even as a child I had preferred to climb trees or ride with Jake running along beside me than sew or whatever else it was Jessica thought was appropriate. And I needed Jessica, because I had to be seen to be feminine, but Jacob was my outlet for excess energy. Jacob never judged me on what I had to say, and had once told me that he thought I was actually a boy. Unfortunately for him his mother had heard him and had boxed his ears for him. I smiled at the memory. Jacob had shook his head and then looked indignantly up at her. When Edward had boxed my ears on my first night in his house I had swayed under the force of it.

"Well the thing is I went for a walk with Jessica and we kind of managed to get kidnapped and then sold as slaves and now I'm a slave in his house."

Jacob took a moment to understand what I was saying, and then reared up onto his hind legs, "I'll trample him."

"NO!"

He stopped short, his front two legs coming back on the round with a loud thud, making the room tremble.

"What's up with you?" he asked, wrinkling his nose and looking 16 again for a rare moment.

"Don't trample him, Jake, please..." I said, holding back a giggle at his face.

"But he's keeping you as a slave..."

"Yes but he doesn't really understand... things.... Just don't hurt him. Let me sort this out, please Jake?" I pleaded, using my wide eyes that I knew made men melt.

He raised his eyebrows, "There's something different about you Bella."

"I know." And I did know. I knew I had changed, and I thought it was for the better. And it was because of Edward. He brought out a side of me I didn't know I had. "Just don't hurt him Jake, please. He's... Well... I... He's... He's important."

Jacob raised his eyebrows at me, "Important," he mimicked my voice, "He's keeping you as a slave and you're calling him important. I hate to point out the obvious but his head will end up on a spike."

"No, Jake, it's not his fault, he doesn't know."

"Tell him then... Or I'll tell him."

"No!" I almost shouted, my hands reaching out and grabbing him, pulling his head down to my level.

"Why not?"

"Just because... I... I don't want him to know. Jacob, you're the only person I've ever truly had who's just been my friend. Just because. Just because you liked me. Not because you had to be," I said, locking my eyes with him, begging him, begging him for the sake of everything we had ever shared together to understand me.

"Well, in all fairness I did have to be, my mother was your nanny," he grinned at me, lightening the intensity that I had been causing between us, "But I guess you're not that bad, Swan."

"Thanks," I muttered sarcastically, releasing him from my vice grip, "But you know what I mean. And I think he could be my friend. For me. Not for the fact that I'm Isabella Swan, but just for me, for everything I am that makes me, me, not for my name."

"Looks like you want more than friendship from him, from the way you look at him. You've changed Bella; your face lights up when you talk about him. I haven't seen you look that alive in years... Since... well... But it suits you, Bells. Maybe you should go meeting Lone Island savages more often. But then again – maybe it's only him that could bring it out in you. Maybe you 'like like' him," he said making air quotes with his hands. Maybe he had understood too much. Understood more than I bloody did.

I blushed, scarlet, "Hardly, Jake! Shut up now please!"

'Like like' him. As if!

He laughed at me, "Right, come on, let's go meet your whats-his-name."

"Edward." My Edward. That sounded... right. I smiled at the thought of it. I probably looked like an idiot, smiling for no apparent reason. I laughed at that and Jacob looked at me as though I was crazy, confirming my theory.

"Yes?" Edward entered back into the tent, throwing the sign down into a far corner.

I took Jacob's arm, "This is my friend Jacob, Jacob this is my... Edward."

Jacob caught my eye and laughed at me, before holding out his fist to Edward, who looked at it. I was reminded of the first day I had come to Edward's home, Alice had held out her hand for me to shake it and I hadn't had a clue what to do with it.

But Edward had knowledge of Narnian traditions, and he bumped his fist against Jacobs, smiling as he did so. He looked rather pleased with himself that he had gotten to actually carry out one of our traditions that he loved to read about, his smile resembled that of a child who had spent months asking for something and woken up on Christmas morning to find that they had it.

"You never said you had friends who were centaurs," Edward smiled at me, his arm going round me as the three of us walked towards the entrance.

"In Narnia there are more centaurs than there are humans," I laughed up at him. Aslan as my witness, I had never laughed so much in my life as I had today. It felt as though this was how everything should be, Edward on one side, Jacob on the other. My best friend and my… I didn't really know what to call Edward.

It was true though, about the centaurs. Humans were very much the minority in mainland Narnia. The Lone Islands where were most of the humans stayed, Narnia itself was made up mainly of the original Narnians – the fauns, centaurs, dryads, druids, the animals, the birds, the trees. Besides my family and the people of court – many of whom were not actually people – Narnia had for the most part remained as Aslan had first invented it – a land of animals.

"I would love to see it one day," Edward commented wistfully.

"It is a beautiful country," Jacob entered into our conversation.

Edward and Jacob seemed slightly tense around each other, but at the same time there seemed to be a mutual respect and I liked that. Jacob had been my best friend for years, and now Edward was... well, he was Edward, and he was important, and I wanted them to get on. I had to make sure I could smuggle Edward into the Narnian Court, and getting Jacob on side with that could be useful. Jacob was good with my father, good at making my father agree to things he hadn't originally wanted to.

"Bella!"

I turned to see Michael Newton coming towards me again and Edward's grip on my waist tightened.

"Hi Michael, sorry about earlier," I smiled tightly at him.

"How are you?"

"I'm well thank you, yourself?"

"Yes I'm well. Are you in town for anything in particular?"

"Not really. You?"

"Few things. I brought my new slave with me, but I keep losing her. She doesn't seem to know how to get through markets."

Generally she wouldn't – Jessica and I had never been shopping on a busy market day – others bought our things for us. It wasn't appropriate for women of court to go out doing commonplace things. But I liked the hustle and bustle, liked it as long as Edward was there to protect me anyway, and the fact that I liked it was a sure sign that Jessica wouldn't. I bit my lip in amusement at the idea of her face.

"Maybe she's trying to escape – the slave trade is against the law you know," Jacob stated in his low, wise voice. Maybe it was his voice that made him sound older. I had always had a controlled voice but since, well, since Edward, I seemed to be losing control of everything.

Michael surveyed Jacob, entirely unsure of what to make of him.

"This is my friend Jacob," I offered, which probably didn't help the situation. Instead it seemed, if anything, to make it more awkward.

"Delighted," Michael said blankly, after a few moments of tense silence.

Jake smiled at him, obviously finding Michael's formality and tense demeanor amusing.

"We'll keep an eye out for your slave, if you'll excuse us we have things to do," Edward butted in just as Jacob opened his mouth. I was glad, Jake wasn't exactly known for making fabulous first impressions. In fact, he seemed to have a knack of making absolutely awful first impressions the majority of the time.

"Of course, good day, my Lady," Michael said reaching for my hand and kissing it before nodding to Edward and Jacob and turning on his heel, muttering something along the lines of 'how he spoke to her at that dinner table and now she's in town with him'.

"And how exactly do we know what his slave looks like?" Jacob demanded, rolling his eyes, "Since we're apparently 'keeping an eye out for her'." He made air quotes again. It wasn't until today that I had realised how irritating a habit that was. I glared at him. Edward was only being polite.

Edward wasn't irritated as I was, he smiled at Jacob and said ,"Well we don't really need to keep an eye out for her, I only said that to be polite."

I glared at Jacob for a minute before realising that possibly I should inform him of the details. "It's Jessica." I said quietly, so that Edward couldn't hear me.

For a minute Jacob looked alarmed and then he laughed, obviously finding the picture that came to his head of Jessica as a slave almost as funny as I did.

"I'm surprised she's still in one piece, how long is it you've been 'kidnapped'?"

"19 days, almost three weeks. Three weeks on Friday."

"You look at that Edward as though you've known him longer than three weeks."

"Keep your voice down," I hushed him, nodding at Edward who walked steadily on my other side, "And... inappropriate comment Jake."

"Since when have you or I paid any attention to what is or isn't appropriate?"

"Shut up."

"I mean it, Bella, you've changed. You're more like a girl for one thing, and I don't mean that feminine nonsense of women must do this and women must do that that Jessica pours down our throats, I mean you seem more delicate and..."

Vulnerable? But I couldn't afford to be vulnerable.

"Bella! Jacob!"

"Talk of Tash and she doth appear," Jacob muttered under his breath.

"Nasty, Jake," I smiled at him, talking out of the corner of my mouth as Jessica flung her arms round my neck.

"Bella! Oh, Bella! I've been so worried about you – what will we do!" She sounded hysterical, and looked as though she were about to burst into tears.

Edward looked bemused. "You're awful popular today, my Bella, if you'll excuse me I need to pick up some material for Alice," he said before heading off to a stall a few meters away.

"Who is that that's calling you 'my Bella'?" Jessica demanded, suddenly looking a lot less like she was on the verge of tears and more affronted.

Jacob shook his head at Jessica's ability to change mood, it had always irritated him, and answered her before I could "That's Edward, the person she's currently playing slave for,"

"He doesn't treat you like his slave! He's polite!" she fumed, "I tell you I've been taken into a house full of awful men, there's like, three, at most, other women there, it's awful. And this one I seem to have been saddled with – Michael - he keeps treating me like a slave and I keep telling him that I'm a lady of the court and that he'll be beheaded if he doesn't stop and release me at once, but he doesn't listen!"

"Well... can you blame him? I mean, Jess, if you were a slave – wouldn't you say that anyway if you thought it would get you back your freedom?"

She blinked at me, "But I'm not a slave."

I sighed, "Yes, but how does he know that?"

"Do I look like a slave?" Jessica snapped at me, drawing herself to her full height.

"Calm down Jess. The men will be over from Narnia soon to take us home, and Jacob will be able to tell them that you're in the Newton household." I tried not to think about what I was telling her.

"How do you know he's a Newton?"

"Edward introduced him to me the other night at his sister's party."

"YOU GET TO O TO PARTIES WHILST I'VE BEEN MADE TO CLEAN! CLEAN, BELLA. CLEAN. ME, CLEAN!" she screeched and I shoved my fingers in my ears to try and drown her out.

"Calm down Jess," I repeated again, "Remember – the men will rescue you soon."

"I suppose that's something. But Bella he's truly the most beautiful man I've ever laid eyes on! He can dance well! And he'd just be perfect if he didn't think I was a slave..."

I blinked at her, what was she talking about? "Edward?"

She wrinkled her nose at me, "What are you talking about Bella?"

"What are you talking about?"

"Michael."

"Oh right sorry, yeah, that's what I meant."

"No you didn't," Jacob said rolling his eyes at me, "Jessica – don't you notice something different about Bella. Doesn't she seem softer?"

"You do actually," she agreed, peering at me as though she was inspecting me for signs to show that I was about to grow an extra head or something.

"I think our Bella 'like likes' someone," Jacob announced in a sing song voice.

"Don't say like likes, say loves," Jessica snapped, "We're too old for like, likes."

"I do not love him."

"You do. It's rather obvious..." Jacob said, still grinning like a child who had found an extra cookie in his lunchbox. I reached out and slapped him, not enough to hurt him, I probably never could hurt him physically, even if I wanted to, but enough that it would sting. How dare he suggest things like that!

"I have to go find Michael, he needs to be home soon for dance practice, he's going to a party on Saturday and he wants to dance with some woman who he danced with at some other party last Saturday, but then someone else pulled her off the dance floor or something. I'm not sure really, but I'm the one he practices with. Oh Bella it's just.... my heart beats faster all through it."

And then Jessica turned and started off through the crowd.

"How many men will Jessica actually go through, do you think?" Jacob mused, "Just the other week there she was in love with me."

"Let's not remind her that there was talk of me marrying her Michael Newton at one point, you know, with her being in love with him," I laughed.

"Well of course, but then Jessica is also in love with half the men at court. She just likes to feel as though she's being mature."

"Jessica throws the word love around too much," I said, surprised at my own disapproving. I had always thought it was amusing before, the way she jumped from man to man.

"Unlike you."

"I have never been in love to use the word."

"Yes, you have."

"No, I haven't."

"You have and you are. Right now. It's written all over your face."

"Jacob, I am not in love!" I snapped.

"Yes, you are Bella. And he's in love with you, too," Jacob said, his eyes watching Edward who was at the stall behind me.

"Jacob – I am not!" I snapped, almost convincing myself of what I was saying.

"Bella – you are. You are in love with that Edward!" he shouted at me, attracting looks from curious passer bys.

"Jacob!" I screamed, ringing filling my ears, "I am NOT, under any circumstances, in love with Edward!"

And all at once everything went deathly quiet, and I felt him, and I knew he had heard. I opened my mouth to try and explain, but I was rooted to the spot, staring at Jacob with a look of horror on my face, realizing what I had done.

"Come, Bella," he said, quietly, his voice emotionless; "We have to return back to my home."

Okay, so I also got asked how did Jasper figure it out.

:

Jasper is the grandson of a Narnian war hero, he was rather a regualar at court before he left for the Lone Islands just over 3 years previous to this story, just saying... ;)

All shall be revealed in chapter 15 regarding Jasper, so if you want more, review!

Motivation to review:

50 reviews = Update.

Update = Bella & Jasper having a 'chat'.

Chapter 15 is called 'Beauty In The Breakdown'. Doesn't the name alone make you want to read it? :)

Tanya makes her presence felt in Beauty In The Breakdown. And we all love the angst and complications of love, right?

Seaking of love, how much longer do you think Bella can run from her emotions?