Sorry it's taken me so long......... but hey, IT'S SUMMERTIME(:
It starts out slow, but no worries -- our prince will come!
Enjoy :D
1810 Chapter 21
BPOV
After I had collected myself, I pushed myself off the staircase and headed down to the dining hall for some breakfast. The cooks always set baskets of fromage on the table in the morning, and I decided that the easiest way for me to face my family would be to act natural.
Well, maybe that was not the best plan I could have come up with, but some fromage sounded really appealing at the moment.
I walked into the familiar dining hall and looked at the massive wooden table. It seemed as though no time had passed at all – everything was precisely the same as it had been when I had left. Except one thing was different.
The curtains over the large window were drawn. They were never drawn before I left. I walked over to the window and threw the heavy red curtains apart, pushing them to the side. Sunlight rained into the room, reflecting off of the glossy oak table and the glimmering white china.
"Much better," I mused to myself, smiling. I turned my focus to the table, where there was a basket placed in the center. I reached in and grabbed the fromage, sitting down in my usual seat next to Father's chair at the head of the table. I was Father's girl through and through, and that would never change.
I took this silent time to ponder over how I was going to ease into the subject of my escape. Mother, no doubt, would completely "flip her lid," as some put it, and I was not looking forward to when that moment came.
The swinging door entrance from the kitchen swung open, and a cook by the name of Madame Francis bustled in, sporting a tray of eggs and toast. Her eyes were trained to her tray, so she would not drop it, but when she lifted her eyes and saw me, the effort was futile. With a gasp, she dropped the tray and ran back through the door.
I shrugged in response to this display. I told myself not to worry about it, since I rarely worried much about anything at all. I knew I should be a bit shaken by this, but I knew that what was to come from my immediate family would be much more dramatic than this. Madame Francis was merely a practice for what was ahead.
A few minutes later, Madame Francis returned.
"…I could have sworn it was the princess," she was saying to someone behind her.
She moved to the side of the doorframe to allow the other person entrance, and bent to pick up the fallen tray. A familiar man in a red suit entered and stared at me, blinking a few times.
"Princess Isabella?" he asked, cocking his handsome face to the side.
I grinned at the sight of him again. "Perenelle!" I exclaimed elatedly, rushing out of my chair to greet him.
He had his hand held out for the standard handshake, though he should know by this point that I was way past the standards. Throwing my arms around the servant, I thought of my relationship with him. I was not particularly close to Perenelle, but I was just so ecstatic to see familiar faces once again that I did not mind. There had been something brewing between Sam and Perenelle for a while now, and I wondered if they had finally talked it out during my absence.
Sam would have told me, though, would she not have? Or was she so caught up in my story about Edward that it slipped her mind? I decided to push the thought from my mind for the moment. I didn't want to think about Edward again just yet, I merely wanted to enjoy being home as of now.
I let go of Perenelle and stepped back to find him smiling down at me.
"What have you been getting up to, Princess?" he asked me.
"Oh, the usual," I replied, beaming innocently.
He laughed. "If that means getting into trouble, then I do not doubt it."
Madame Francis straightened up, the tray resting lightly on her hip. Her mousy brown curls framed her slightly wrinkled face, and she gazed at me in awe.
"Princess Isabella," she said, "you have returned."
Thank you, Madame Francis, for stating a fact I did not know.
"This calls for a feast," she continued excitedly. Before I could protest, Madame Francis was out the door and back into the kitchens, no doubt preparing for one of the largest meals I had ever witnessed.
Perenelle eyed me before asking, "Does Samantha know you have returned?"
I tried to hide my suspicion of his question before answering. "Yes," I said warily. "She was one of the first to know. Why do you ask?"
If he was uncomfortable by my probing, he did not show it. "She has been worried sick about you, you know. Mary Alice, as well."
"Yes," I said. "I know. And – forgive my asking – but, have you and Samantha talked any while I was gone?"
I did not fail to notice the pink tinge of his cheeks as he replied positively. I smiled, keeping in mind that I would have to press Sam for the story later on in the day.
"Where have you been all this time?" Perenelle asked. "After the wedding, and so on?"
I sighed. "It is a long story, Perenelle, and I hope you will be patient with me until another time." I planned to tell all the servants all at once what had happened to me, to save their troubles and curiosity. But that was for later. Facing Mother, Father and Emmett would be the difficult part for me.
Emmett was still gone for that hunting excursion in Canterbury, so I would tell him when he returned. But did my brother even know that I had been gone? Did the men hunting with him have access to the outside world? I supposed I would find out later.
After Perenelle left, I continued to eat at the table. Madame Francis had brought in more eggs and toast, so I busied myself with those while waiting for my parents.
As I waited, I tried to imagine how they would react. Would they be mad, or more relieved? And as I thought, they entered the kitchen together.
My heart lurched when I saw them, especially Father, whom I had not seen in over a month. I felt my throat clog up and I coughed to clear it.
Mother and Father were already dressed, like I was. We never came out of our bedrooms in our night coats. Mother was dressed in a silken soft pink dress while Father sported his usual blue overcoat; they were clearly expecting just another day of worrying.
By the look on their faces when they walked in, I could tell they had been worrying quite a bit. Both of them had deep purple insets under their eyes, their skin was stretched smartly over their cheekbones. They looked absolutely terrible, and it pained me to know it was my fault.
When they saw me, they both stopped their walk into the room, still as stone. Upon one glace at me, Mother's bright blue eyes glistened for a moment before she rushed over, dropping onto her knees in front of my chair.
"Oh, Isabella," Mother moaned, immediately sprinkling kisses on my face. Normally, I would shove her off for kissing me – even though I was a princess, I was still a teenager – but I was so happy to see her face again that I did not care. Tears rolled down her face and onto her dress, and it was not until I felt the moisture rolling down my cheek did I realize I was crying as well.
"Mother," I choked out.
"Oh, I have missed you so," she said, keeping me enveloped in a hug. I breathed in the scent of her so close – she smelled just as she always had, like cinnamon, and the smell comforted me. Maybe telling them would not be as difficult as I thought it would be.
"Me, too, Mother," I said, my voice coming out in a whisper due to the fact that I had little air supply. "Me, too."
Over Mother's shoulder, I could see Father, still standing in the exact same spot with a look of shock plastered on his face. One would assume that, as the king, my father would react quickly, but no. King Charlie was never a man of many words. I knew not to expect much fretting from him – he was a very awkward person. Despite that, I knew Father was an excellent ruler for that reason. He always took time to think ahead instead of reacting immediately, and I could only imagine what was running through his head at that moment.
I attempted to stand, a difficult feat with Mother hanging on to my neck. When she hesitantly let go, I walked over to Father and enveloped him in a hug. He uncomfortably wrapped his arms around me in return, and I was thankful for this move. We remained embraced for several moments while Mother's sniffles and sobs played out beside us.
"I am so glad," Charlie began to say, but then he cut himself off. "You have no idea how delighted I am to have you home again." He smiled down at me, the crinkles fanning out around his eyes. I grinned. It felt so good to be home again, with my family. All that was missing was Emmett, and Edward…
Stop. Bad. I would enough time to think about Edward soon, probably sooner than I wanted.
"I'm glad to be back in France," I said to my parents. I disengaged myself from Father and meandered back to my chair. I sat down, and Mother and Father did the same in their respective chairs. My appetite was gone, so I picked up a roll and began picking it apart to occupy myself.
"Four days ago," Father said, buttering his own roll, "Your Mother received a letter from King Black of Belgium."
I felt a shiver run down my spine at the name. Black. Eurrgh.
"The letter expressed how disappointed the Blacks were after your departure, and –"
"Disappointed?" I interrupted. "Rebecca and Rachel were probably having a ball –"
"That is not my point, Isabella," Father said sternly. "My point is that you –"
"The point is what the hell were you thinking and where the hell have you been?" Mother shrieked.
I was taken aback by Renee's outburst. I had never heard her swear at me before, though I had heard her profanities aimed at Emmett. It was highly disconcerting to hear it directed at me.
"Now Renee," Father said soothingly, "Let us consider this rationally –"
"Rationally?" Mother repeated angrily. "Isabella certainly did not consider things rationally when she ran away from her dream –"
Dream? Excuse me? "What dream, Mother?" I demanded.
"You do wish to be queen, do you not?"
"Yes, but not queen of Belgium, I –"
"What is the issue with Belgium?"
"I do not think I can –"
"Prince Jacob graciously offered you his hand in marriage and you denied him! You should be quite ashamed of how you –"
"I didn't handle anything the wrong way, I did what I –"
"Now, let us all just settle down and talk about –" Father tried to say, but Mother and I ignored him.
"Isabella, it has been your dream to be married to a prince and rule along beside him!"
"No Mother," I said, "that is your dream."
"Why, should you ever talk to me like –"
"I want to marry someone I love, Mother!"
"There is no such thing as love!" she yelled.
I was taken aback by this comment. No such thing as love? "What is that supposed to mean?" I asked, my voice hard.
"No," Mother tried to backtrack, "That is not what I meant, Isabella, you know I –"
"Are you saying you haven't loved Father this whole time? You haven't loved me, or Emmett?"
Mother looked pleadingly at Charlie. "I love your father very much –"
"But not really?"
"That is not what I am trying to say, Isabella!"
"Then what are you trying to say?"
"This isn't about me!" Mother shouted. "This is about your future, and how –"
"Jacob hit me, Mother!" I screamed, cutting off whatever she was going to say. Mother immediately stopped speaking, and Father made a chocking sound in the back of this throat.
"What did you just say?" he asked me.
"Jacob punched me, the day we were to be married."
"Well," Mother said, sinking back down into her chair. I had not realized how intense our row had been – we were both on our feet, and I could have sworn I saw Madame Francis and Perenelle's heads sticking though the kitchen door. I assumed our volume had attracted many curious inhabitants, as I was sure the castle had been nearly silent throughout my absence.
"Well," she said again, "this changes things."
I nodded curtly. I knew the time was drawing nearer to explain what happened. I mentally prepared myself as Father asked the dreaded question.
"Bella," he said. He was one of the few in this castle who would actually call me by my preferred name. "Would you like to elucidate to us what happened after you ran away?"
And so I explained myself for the second time that day. I preferred telling it to Sam and Alice – they had given me more positive feedback than my parents. Mother and Father did not interrupt me, they merely listened with stoic expressions.
Before I was even halfway done, I was in tears. Discussing Edward Masen with my parents made me miss him so much more. I decided to edit a bit for Mother and Father, leaving out the romance. I made it sound like Edward and I were just very close friends.
It pained me how I had to change the story for them, though. Did that mean I was ashamed of my relationship with Edward? I told myself the answer to that question was no. I would only get myself into more trouble if I told them. Besides, Edward had told me not to tell anyone.
I was quite sure Mother was still supporting me with Jacob, even after I told her what had happened, but I would never go back to him. I loved Edward. I really loved him.
And I would do anything to have him with me again.
"…And now, here I am," I finished lamely. I could not tell if Renee was angry or saddened.
"And you survived all that?" Father said in a somewhat awestruck tone. He whistled slowly, and then smiled. "That's my girl." He stood from his chair at the table and hugged me, walking out of the dining hall.
I was happy Father accepted all this with little effort. I was confident that Father, at least, was on my side. He clearly was not angry at me; however, he was livid with Jacob. I could tell after I finished that part of my tale by the stony set of his jaw.
"I will admit that I am impressed. However, I do still wish you would apologise to Prince Jacob."
"Apologise? He should be apologizing to me." I snorted in an unladylike fashion.
Mother shot me a disapproving look. "What did I tell you about snorting, young lady?"
"Sorry," I mumbled.
She rose from her chair and kissed my hair lightly. "I am glad you are home safely, Isabella," she said. "However, I am disappointed that you did not behave yourself while in Brussels."
"Ah," I said. I knew there was a catch.
"Please retreat to your room until I send for you."
"Yes, Mother."
As I left the dining hall to my bedroom, I thought about how well that went. I was in a small spot of trouble, I knew, but no where near as bad as I had expected.
When I reached my room, I closed the door and flung myself face down onto my newly-made bed. What to do now? I could think of nothing except think of Edward. With a groan, I rolled onto my back and stared at my ceiling, closing my eyes and wishing all the problems away.
I woke when I felt a cool breeze play into my room through the open balcony doors. Chilled, I donned a thin white sweater and stepped outside onto the tile, barefoot, as always.
I wandered to the railing and rested my forearms against it, feeling the wind fan tendrils of hair across my face.
I stared out into the setting sun, thinking of how beautiful the castle really was. My balcony faced out to the front part of the castle, just over the large main entrance. The long pebble drive stretched out so far that the end of it blended with the pinks and oranges of the sunset. In the distance, black dots flew around the sky, and the tall green trees swayed lightly in the breeze. A white shape was slowly materializing along the center of the drive, a horse.
Maybe it's Edward, I joked to myself. Rolling my eyes with a sigh, I wandered back into the bedroom. What did I want to do now?
After wandering around doing nothing for a while, I settled on writing a letter to Edward, thanking him and his mother for allowing me to stay. I pulled out the parchment and dipped my quill in the ink, writing Edward neatly at the top.
I would like to say that I – I paused there to dip my quill in the ink again. When I lifted my quill out of the pot, there was barely any ink on it at all.
"Stupid ink," I grumbled to myself. I lifted the pot up to my eye, trying to see how much of the thick liquid remained inside.
Smack! A sound from outside nearly made me drop the ink all over myself. Dismissing it as nothing, I continued my inspection of the ink pot.
Smack! The sound came again, louder, and my hand jolted. The small amount of ink inside the pot spilled over onto Edward's half-written letter.
"Damn," I cursed, attempting to clean it up with the ink rag. The spilled ink just smeared on the letter even more, and the Smack! sound came onto my balcony once again.
"WHAT?" I yelled, billowing over to my open balcony.
The first thing I noticed was three pebbles on the tile. I walked to the railing and nearly fell over the top from what I saw. A white horse was placed right below my balcony, and beside it was –
"Edward!" I exclaimed. Edward was here! Throwing rocks at my balcony! Edward Masen! Prince Edward Masen! Throwing rocks! Edward! My stomach felt like it was waltzing around with my heart inside of me.
All coherent thought was caught in the breeze and flew off into the setting sun. Edward's smile was brighter than the sun was, anyway.
He ran to the base of the castle and used the cracks in the white center blocks to climb up to my balcony. Next thing I knew, he had his legs swung around the railing and I was wrapped up in his arms, breathing in his scent.
"Edward," I said again, relaxing in the perfect way I fit into his embrace. "What are you doing here?"
"I had to see you," he said, his warm breath fanning out my hair. "I love you, Bella." I smiled into his shoulder.
I liked how he said "I love you." It was so simple, so solidly factual as though no force in the world could change that. We stood in our embrace for a moment, merely enjoying one another's company, before I spoke.
"Edward, you have to help me," I said after a pause. "They're trying to tell what I'm supposed to do, how I'm supposed to feel. And I'm scared."
He sighed and squeezed his arms that were around my waist, binding me to him tightly, as if he were afraid I would run away as soon as possible. The thought made me laugh a little – as if I could ever leave him.
"This love is difficult," Edward said slowly, as though he was choosing his words carefully.
"But it's real."
"Yes," he agreed. "Don't be afraid, we'll make it out of this mess."
"Promise?"
Though I could not see his face, I knew that he was grinning. "I promise."
"I've missed you," I told him, burying my face into his neck. "I've been feeling so alone this whole time without you here."
"Me, too," he said. And, so quietly I almost didn't hear him, he said, "You have no idea."
I reluctantly pulled away from him then. "But you'll have to go sometime," I said sadly. "No one knows about… us." I hesitated on the last word. Would he get mad that I mentioned it?
He ran his hand though his copper hair. "I am sorry. I realized on my way here that I was a fool for telling you not to tell anyone. We needed things to settle down, but I'm not sure if I'm that strong anymore."
I looked at him quizzically, but he just laughed. "Don't you see, Bella? I'm in love with you! Completely, wholly, irretrievably in love with you. Before you came, I was so… boring. I never bothered to, well, 'color outside the lines,' as some say. And now, it's like a burst of colors. Reds and greens and blues and oranges… a whole new spectrum of colors. As I watched Eric lead you away yesterday, I felt as though half of my heart was being taken away. I love you. So much."
When I opened my mouth to speak, I found nothing could come out. So instead of speaking, I bit my lip and watched as Edward knelt down on one knee and rummaged around in his pocket. He pulled out a blue velvet box and opened it, revealing a sparkling silver ring.
I gasped – the light of the sunset sparkled off the diamond ring, but that was nothing compared to the emerald that was Edward's eyes. He took a deep breath. "Isabella Marie Swan, Princess of France – will you marry me?"
I couldn't speak. All I could do was nod my head, again and again. Edward got to his feet and slid the ring on my finger, and I threw my arms around his neck.
"I love you!" I nearly shouted at him. "I love you, I love you, I love you! So much!" And, without any hesitation whatsoever, I smashed my lips against his.
When we broke apart, Edward picked me up and swung me around. I threw my head back and laughed, caught in a moment of pure bliss. He set me down on me feet, and leaned his forehead against mine.
"Marry me, Bella, and you'll never have to be alone. I promise. I love you, and that's really all I know anymore." Edward kissed my forehead tenderly, and I felt my eyelids slide shut. "Oh, and I spoke with King Charlie."
My eyes snapped open. "You what?"
"It was a long, complicated conversation. Your father can be very intimidating."
I would have laughed, but I was still in shock over the fact that Father and Edward had actually met. "What did he say?" I demanded to know.
Edward beamed, a smile that stretched all the way across his face. "Go pick out a white dress. It's a love story, Bella, just say yes."
I didn't bother saying yes. Instead, I backed Edward against the railing of the balcony and kissed him until the sun went down.
Beta'd by BubblyAmericanWriter1
A/N: Notice all the Love Story (Taylor Swift) lyrics? Ha.
This is NOT the end. I may do a wedding scene, but I'm actually thinking next chapter will be the epilogue. As much as I love fanfiction, I think I'm a bit over my head, and I'm just ready to be done with this story. I might write another chapter about the Charlie/Edward convo... I dunno.
So, I hope you all have an excellent summer... maybe review me about your plans?
Or, you know, reviewing about the story works too..... Questions? Comments? Concerns?
Songs: Aerial Pomenade - Seagull Orchestra; An Enchanted Evening - Port Blue; Madeline - The Right Coast
B/N: As much as I despise Edward/RPattz with EVERY fiber of my being... this was so cute! :)
Love, love, love it! I have two more school days before I'm out for the summer! I got an Outstanding award at my choir concert :D
Um... I learned how to do the bridge thing when you shuffle cards?
I loved this so much! While I was reading it, I was listening to "I'll Be There" by the Jackson 5. :)
Claire, you are talented and I love you, and I REALLY want a wedding scene. Purty please with a big fat cherry on top and Taylor Lautner?
I have a feeling your readers will aim nerf guns at your head if you don't. xD
Love you sooo much!
A/N: I HEART LEAH!(:
Four days for me, but I'm not going the last day sooo.... Three more days of being a freshman! I'm so depressed, I've LOVED freshman year!
HAVE A GOOD SUMMER YALL!
And if yall review, I may make it better with a wedding scene?