Disclaimer: The darn SM already owns it, so why do I try to get the rights to Twilight?

A/N: I won't keep you from the chapter. Read on!

Troubled Love

Chapter 19

BPOV

Of course, being me, I fell.

I let out a surprised—though I shouldn't have been—yelp.

I tried not to yelp so loud, but apparently my body decided not to listen to my mind. I didn't think it had been that loud, but my hope deceived me.

I had been so shocked that the latch door had slammed shut, I stumbled and had fallen. Thereby enacting my yelp, this in turn, almost gave me a heart attack at what happened next.

All movement ceased from upstairs. No whispered voices, harsh retorts, no frantic swishing of fabric.

Then suddenly, the creaking open, like that of an ancient door, filled the room. My mind gave into the panic it felt creeping in.

Oh, crap. Oh, crap, oh, crap, oh, crap.

This was not good.

Quickly, putting little thought into it, I tried to get up and run simultaneously. I ended up smacking into the floor again, thankfully, not making as much noise as last time.

I tried wiggling into any space I could without being able to be seen by others in the room.

It ended up being under the desk.

"What was that?" I heard the scared voice from earlier ask.

I was trying t keep my shaking to a minimum, but it was becoming harder and harder. I was deathly terrified of these voices.

"I don't know. Do you think someone was in here?" The voice was cold and harsh.

"It would be a bad thing if this room was discovered."

"No, it would only be a bad thing if they knew what this place was. But the only way to know that is to read his journals." The voice scoffed, a gloating tone to it. "The stupid fool didn't know what he was getting himself into when he took his father's place in this kingdom. Neither did Charlie Swan. The Swan's are all fools if you ask me," the owner of the voice was starting to get annoyed.

I closed my eyes.

"That's a dangerous thing to say. It would be counted as treason against the king—"

"Only if I was in any other company but… theirs, would it be counted as treason, you imbecile. I wonder sometimes why I keep you around."

Since I was down on the floor, the dust motes in the air were floating around my face. I tried waving it away, but it always came back. The man walking around helped circulate it back to me. Wonderful.

I was trying very hard not to sneeze.

I heard a grumbled reply from the second man, and then he continued to say, "Let's just get out of here, I believe someone will be walking by here soon."

They left in a swirl of their long tail coats around their legs.

I could finally sneeze.

But I didn't.

I crawled out from where I was curled up under the desk. A grimace was firmly in place on my face.

What had they meant when they said this room would be bad for someone to discover if that someone knew what this room was? What is this room? Obviously a study of some sort, but who's room was it? That seemed like the most important clue I needed right now.

I remembered the journal on the desk.

I picked it up, conscious of that fact of how old it was.

E. C. M.

Who was this person? A guy? A girl? An important figure?

The funny thing about questions: there's too many, and never enough.

I wish there was a clock of some sort, to tell me the time. I guess in the mean time I might have well of read the journal until I miraculously found my way out, but I decided to save that for later. There had to be some way out of this place from the inside.

***~~~…~~~***

It seemed like hours later that I found it. The God-send.

I mean, sure it was so small that I could barely fit in it, dusty, looked like it hadn't seen the light since the palace was built, but hey, it did the job… I hoped.

I had stumbled upon it by complete accident—I had tripped over one of the books I threw when I grew frustrated at my lack of escaping—and my head bumped the broom in the corner of the room away from a little hole in the wall: otherwise called a vent.

At least my clumsiness came in handy for something, right?

It had taken a while to get the vent covering off the wall—I had to use scissors to get the screws out, but I eventually got it. Then there was the dilemma of the dust and cobwebs all over the place… This was going to be taking a while.

But apparently fate had something else planned.

By the time I had started to shimmy my way into the small shaft, my mind had decided to wig out on me, squeaking at everything that touched me. So I was basically a squeaking mess of a girl trying to shimmy her way to freedom through a small, dusty vent shaft. But then my hand found it.

I hadn't been consciously looking for it, but I guess my hands had been, because when I touched it, I was instantly flooded with relief. I shimmied my way back out and held up the oddly shaped object in my hand: a key. There was a piece of paper attached to the end.

For the one brave enough to find it. – E. C. M.

The key itself was shaped oddly. It started out as any other key with the regular shaped handle, but the actual key part of it was attached at the center point of the heart. It was the most peculiar key I had ever seen.

I grabbed the journal off the desk, wanting to take it with me now that I could afford to carry it on me, and walked over towards the trapped door in the ceiling and climbed the latter to it. I stopped for only a second to consider my appearance, but shrugged it off quickly—what was I going to do about it now?—and proceeded to stick the key into the key slot.

The lock clicked open.

I let out a sigh of relief and carefully pushed the swinging flap up and over, mindful not to let it slam shut. I poked my head up, and was instantly met by the bottom of the rug that had been the covering.

When I got the rug off my head and out of my way, I was half expecting to be met with a menacing grin of the men in the study from before. I wasn't.

The corridor was dark when I eventually got out of the whole, shut the hidden door and hid it again, after fighting with trying to figure out how to turn the light off—that was an anomaly for another day—and walked down the corridor I had originally come from.

Thankfully no one noticed me for there was no one out to actually notice me.

My stomach growled with hunger.

What time was it?

I eventually stumbled my way back to my room, dust and all, and stripped to take a quick shower, when I noticed the time.

12: 43.

I contemplated that while I got in the shower.

Had I really taken that long to figure the way out? I must be a worse detective than I originally thought I was. My stomach gave another roll, but I ignored it; there was nothing I could do to stop it.

I got dressed and fell into bed, the journal and key safely tucked into special place for safe keeping.

I shut my eyes.

***~~~…~~~***

"Where were you last night?"

I stopped mid-bite and set it back down on my plate.

"I was reading a really good book and I forgot about the time. Completely escaped my notice."

For some reason, I didn't want Charlie to know about the study and my discoveries the other night. It felt like I made a silent pact once I stepped into the study to keep it a secret from anyone and everyone.

That miraculous discovery could wait until later told.

"Oh," was Charlie's reply. Then, a minute later: "What was the book?"

I took an extra long sip of my drink, my eyes on my plate.

"What?" I asked politely

"What was the book you were reading last night?"

Times up. I thought of a book off the top of my head.

"Of the Origins of Species by Charles Darwin." I tried to hide my laugh at my own answer as all chatter in the room ceased. The only thing that could be heard was my dad's choking of the egg down his throat.

I bet he didn't expect that answer.

I bet no one did.

"I think I miss heard you," he said.

"You probably didn't."

"I'm sure I did."

"It's just so fascinating how Darwin was able to come up with evolution when he was once a Christian." I was going to have to defend the book without knowing anything of the book other than it was on the topic of evolution and how it explains it.

"Really? Which chapter was your favorite?"

"Chapter…the chapter on…" I cleared my throat. "On how species were able reproduce similar species but not the same kind."

I hoped there was a chapter on that topic.

There probably wasn't, but it sounded like evolution.

Charlie nodded, looking thoughtful, then looked up at me and said, "Well, I hoped you enjoyed the book."

"I did."

***~~~…~~~***

It seemed as if my little act fooled everyone except one person.

"I know you weren't really reading Origin last night."

I turned to face the aging man.

"I don't know what you're talking about," I said—and just maybe a bit too sharply.

I almost winced, but controlled the urge in exchange for closing my eyes and taking a deep breath instead.

"Don't worry," Aro said, "your secrets safe with me, just be careful where you step." He winked and walked away.

Questions whirled around in my brain-did he know? How? Had he been following me? Who else knows? Surely he wouldn't of kept this kind of inform—

"Princess!"

There never is a break.

I turned and faced Emmett.

At least it was a friendly face.

Not one of the dang princes.

Although I wouldn't mind—

"Yeah, Emmett?" I cut the thought off before it could take root in my brain.

I could feel a blush light up on my cheeks.

Emmett gave me a dubious suspicious look when he saw it, but thankfully didn't comment.

"Jacob—"

My startled gasp had Emmett stopping.

"Oh, no! I completely forgot about him! How is he?" I started moving in the direction of the place where I thought he would likeliest be: his trainers place.

"Bella." Emmett's short laugh—oddly similar to a snort—had me stopping.

"What?" I asked resuming my walking.

I had an odd urge to run, sprint, jog off every worry I had—reminiscent of running away from my worries and pains.

"Calm down. Dominick said he would watch him until you had time to take him back." I breathed a relieved sigh out. "But he said it was good that you forgot about him the way you did, otherwise they wouldn't have been able to notice and stop the tumor in his paw from growing. He would have died if it wasn't taken out sooner."

A/N: Please don't hate! I really have no excuses for not updating sooner. Other than I sort of fell out of my "Tw-only" mindset. But I'm back and determined to finish this story!

Now, I wouldn't blame you if you're not into the story anymore and am giving up on it. It's been a while. Like three months? Four? :( But if you are determined to finish reading this story, you should know there won't be many chapters until this is finished. I'm estimating about three or four left. I might do an epilogue, but it's not likely.

I probably wouldn't have finished this chapter this summer if it hadn't of been for a special friend of mine on here: Sonia Roziella. She gave me the determination and kick in the butt I needed. For that, I would like to thank her. Thank you! And to further that, you should totally check out her story that encouraged me to update! It's called: Alone by Sonia Roziella . It's amazing and you should look into it if you hadn't already found it.

Now I want to know to know what you think of the chapter if you're still tagging along for the ride. Review!

~Cynthia~

P.S. I just put up a one-shot for those of you who are interested. It's called A Little Bit of Magic and EXTREMELY fluffy... if you like fluff. :)

P.S.S. A shout out to anyone who can guess what the C. stands for in E.C.M.!