Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight or any of its characters; they are all property of Stephenie Meyer.

Thank you Cullenfest for being the pre-reader for this story and for getting these chapters read/beta'd so quickly.

Please forgive any mistakes…

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Chapter 21

Bella's POV

My eyes widened at the name that came from his Grace, Emmett's lips. I could not prevent myself from repeating it out loud.

"Rose!" I said…my voice must have portrayed my shock for his Grace turned on me at once.

"Do you know of her?" He asked, his eyes became dark and his voice turned raspy in its timbre.

"Your Grace…" I began slowly, only to have Edward's brother interrupt me.

"Emmett, Isabella. My name is Emmett. You are family and should address me as such. I am just a man, and it is as a man I ask you…Do you know Rose?" He requested in a rush of words.

"I know of a Rose." I replied softly. "I am unsure if the person of whom we speak in one in the same." I explained.

"Is she as lovely as the flower that bears her name?" Emmett whispered softly, and yet I heard him.

"She is…as fair and bright. With hair the color of golden wheat….." I responded to the question I was not sure he meant me to hear. His eyes rose to mine and I saw the lines of worry there. He looked haggard.

"I believe our Rose in indeed one in the same….why is she coming…Did she decide to leave…to run?" I asked, almost giddy at the idea of Rose escaping the horrors of Welshford. I watched Emmett as I waited for his response, but I did not expect what happened next. The large powerful man slumped his head down on the table and covered his face with his large hands.

"She cannot run…she can barely stand!" He said in a voice that shook with many emotions…anger, worry, fear.

"I do not understand…?" I said softly, feeling Edward's arms wrap around me. Without even realizing it I was leaning against him for support. Emmett took a deep breath and lifted his head, squaring his shoulders as he ran a hand through his hair, reminding me very much of his brother in that moment.

"When we arrived back at the Manor last evening, we were met by Lady Victoria. She was irritating as always complaining about the way we had run off, but as the hostess of the house we had to be polite and so we sat and partook of victuals. Sir James was supposed to appear, but he never showed his face. Shortly afterwards we bid the Lady of the house goodnight and retired to our chambers." Emmett explained.

"I had only just lit my table side lamp when Jasper arrived at my door knocking on it firmly. He looked very angry and he requested my assistance, explaining that Alice was stricken with grief….I did not understand what he meant at the time, though I knew she mustn't be hurt as Jasper would be beside himself as well with no one but he or I to save face to." He continued.

"When we arrived at their chambers, they ushered me into the dressing room and there was a woman…Rose on the floor…." He stopped for a moment, breathing deeply a few times before he started speaking once more.

"She lay on the floor…unmoving…her body hardly covered…but what you could see was covered in bruises…and drying…blood…I have never seen someone so thoroughly abused….I…We…thought she was dead….but when we went to move her she must have regained some consciousness…she began to hit me!" He said his eyes widening as he retold it…it was as if he was reliving the very moment again and I could see the surprise on his face, and perhaps even a little bit of admiration.

"She hit and tried to kick, though she was really too injured to do much it did not stop her from trying. Alice came to aid me, and when she did the girl stopped her thrashing long enough to look at me and she spoke." Emmett said.

"What did she say to you?" I asked my hand now pressed to my heart as I picture the brave Rose, bloodied and injured. I wanted to cry for her.

"She said…'You're not him!" Then she passed out on the floor. Jasper and I carried her to the bed and we took shifts tending to her throughout the night. Occasionally she woke, sometimes saying nothing…other times crying out for help until she saw her surroundings and calmed. We did not learn much save for the fact that her name was Rose, and that she was attacked…and even those facts she did not give willingly. The attack was obvious from her ripped garments and markings, but her name we learned from the fact that she seemed to mumble to herself as she slept." He explained with irritation and anger clear in his voice.

"Poor Rose!" I gasped as I realized what she must have been through. Surely Sir James had harmed her. Had he done so due to rage he felt for me? I turned towards Edward and tucked my face into his neck as he stroked my back, and in the safety of his embrace I allowed my tears to flow freely.

We waited for another hour or so until finally we heard the jingling of harness buckles in the distance. I raced out of the small church to watch as Jasper carefully steered the team of horses that pulled the wooden frame into the small field by the church. I noted that his mount was tied to the rear of the wagon, but I did not see Alice. Somehow I knew that she would be by Rose's side in the carriage. The moment it slowed enough to permit me to approach I seized the door and opened it climbing inside.

There was Alice hovering over the prone form of Rose. The young girl who had saved me…who had grown into the same fate as my mother due to her beauty and the desire she wrought from men just by existing. I met Alice's worried gaze and then turned to study Rose.

Her face was marred with angry purple swellings causing her cheek on one side to be distended and her bottom lip to be engorged. Her perfect features covered in various shades of bruising. I could see the scratches on her skin that had begun the early stages of healing. Her golden locks were smoothed back from her face and she would cringe every now and then as the carriage shifted beneath her.

I looked over at Alice and softly thanked her for saving Rose, the protector of my childhood. Alice tried to smile at my gratitude, but she couldn't, telling me not to thank her yet as she was not sure that Rose would survive. A sound at the door made me aware that the men had also convened at the wagon and I stepped out to allow them to carry her inside the church.

The Friar stood watching us sadly as we unloaded Rose from the wagon. I could hear his softly whispered prayers as he asked God to watch over the injured young woman who now resided under his roof. Emmett carried her form as if she weighed little more than a down pillow, and he settled her on bed that the friar offered.

I followed them immediately setting about getting water in order to ensure Rose had water to drink as well as so I could clean her wounds and tend to them so I could help her. If it hadn't been for her I probably would have been no better off…perhaps I would have even been dead already, killed by the merciless hands of a man who seemed to have no respect for life.

The men were anxious to head out to ensure that we were safe. We would stay only long enough for Rose to gain enough strength to travel. For now they were going to go and scout the area ensuring that James was indeed hunting with his men. They did not plan to be gone long but that did not prevent my heart from clenching in fear at the idea of Edward leaving my side while we were not yet far from Welshford.

We kissed our husbands goodbye, embracing them as tightly as we were able without actually embedding ourselves in their skin. I saw a flash of an unfamiliar emotion in Emmett's face as he watched his siblings and their loved ones prepare for their departure. He excused himself for a moment while we walked the men to their mounts and they saddled up. It was only a few moments before Emmett returned with a very determined look on his face, and quickly mounted his own horse, Phineas, who seemed much more staid than usual.

Alice stayed at my side. She was quiet and very unlike her usual self and awaited my every request to help Rose. Occasionally Rose would murmur aloud, and I quickly understood how Emmett had discovered her name as she would say small things such as 'Run, Rose, Run!', and don't let him touch you again, Rose.'

Every time she spoke her voice shook and her body trembled, but I knew from the way she squirmed away from the cool compress I used to wipe her face, and the way she fought me when I held a flagon of water to her lips that inside the battered shell was still the little spitfire that had scolded me as a child for putting myself in harm's way. I was determined to see her through this though and forced water and broth and an ifusion made from willow bark to ease her pain into her mouth in small sips and swallows.

A few hours later she stirred enough to look at me and when she did she studied me silently. Her eyes narrowing in on me as I bathed her wounds to keep them from festering.

"B…Bel-la?" She asked haltingly. I nodded my head smiling with her recognition. She paused and asked for help to relieve herself, which Alice and I set to doing. The fact that she was now lucid enough to talk boded well for her recovery.

We helped her back to bed and brought her water to wash with. She argued against our help, but we pressed on bathing her wounds again. We relented when she asked for us to give her cloths to cleanse all traces of the monster from her skin, and so we turned so she could tend to her areas of injury that lay beneath her clothes.

As midday passed into afternoon we were able to convince Rose to eat some bread and some sort of soup that the Friar had made. He apologized for the poor fare he had to offer, but we thanked him profusely for it. Rose managed to eat almost half of the offered sustenance, and with that we knew she was well on her way to recovering though the journey would be a long one.

**Here is a challenge for all of my readers. I will challenge myself to give you four chapters this week…if as many of the three hundred of you who have this story on alert attempt t review each one….Sound fair?

This is one….I am already preparing chapter 2 for this week….

Jen