Most characters belong to S. Meyer. The rest belong to me.


DUST

Bella

I held the pole in a firm grip and moved with it in controlled steps, part of a routine that worked each muscle group, increasing in intensity and difficulty. I didn't know how long I'd been at it, only that the sky had lightened and day had come somewhere along the way. I was breathing hard and my shift was sticking to my skin when I became aware of his scent. I completed the last movement and only then lowered the stick and turned to face him.

He wasn't bare chested, I noted with relief, in a thin morning robe, his hair tousled but his eyes very far from sleepy as they took in my appearance. I was glad to be already flushed from the exercise, because I could feel my cheeks beginning to warm at his very thorough appraisal.

He didn't say anything, just watched as I put the pole down and drank from a bottle of water. His gaze was raising goosebumps and I decided it was time for a shower, so I went to move past him at the balcony doors back into the room. He made no effort to step aside and I ended up having to try to squeeze past him, bumping his chest with mine.

The effect was instant.

My goosebumps multiplied, tightening my skin in other places that had to be obvious to him, with our chests touching. His eyes went black a second later as he looked down and then slowly looked back up.

"And good morning to you too." He said huskily.

My jaw clenched and I pushed roughly into the room, heading straight for the bathroom and shutting the door, leaning against it.

Damn this. The fucking mate hormones at work again. I hated reacting like this.

Fuck it.

I stripped off my shift and didn't wait for the water to warm, plunging myself under the cold shower and hoping it would cool me off in more ways than one.

OOOOOOOOOO

When I emerged - robed, because I wasn't about to have a repeat of last night - he was gone and there was a tray of breakfast food on the table, fruits, cheeses, broth and bread. As usual, I had no appetite, but I tried to swallow the broth, grabbed some of the apples and bread for later and tried to make it look as if I'd eaten something.

I'd just finished when there was a knock on the door. When I opened it, a young female housestaff was standing outside.

"Cai Isabella, if you are ready, I am to escort you to the Clanholding Service quarters." She said. I nodded, shut the door and followed her through the house to the Service area, inhabited by the Clan who served Clanholding and the Clan leadership.

"Cai Isabella." I was greeted by two older males, both neatly robed in the colours of the senior housestaff.

"I am Dylan." One said solemnly.

"I am Ward." The other said, smiling faintly. "We are the Clanholding Keepers. You will be completing your service in our care."

I inclined my head in assent.

"You will be in service during your morning hours, until noon meal. We are placing you with the gardening staff, given your background." Ward continued. "We think you'd be more comfortable there."

"You are very considerate, Mehan." I said quietly. "But this is seclusion. I will serve wherever you need me to, without special consideration for rank." They exchanged glances at that.

"If that is your wish..." Dylan said slowly. "The kitchens are short staffed at the moment."

"Then I will serve as needed there."

"Very well. This way." Ward beckoned me to follow and took me to the kitchens. He introduced me to the Head Chef and left the latter to explain to me my duties, washing pots and dishes and cleaning the kitchen after noon meal preparations had been completed. I nodded and got down to it immediately, taking up position behind a sink in the corner, not bothering with gloves as I poured soapweed onto a sponge and got scrubbing. There were curious eyes on me and I could hear the whispering that had begun the minute I'd been brought in, but I focused on the task at hand.

The kitchen was noisy, hot, pungent and busy.

But at least it wasn't a garden.

OOOOOOOOOO

The morning went by quickly. I spoke to no-one, kept my eyes and hands on my task and kept scrubbing until the pre-meal bell struck and the housestaff came to collect the food. Once they had left, I set to work cleaning the counters and table tops, the stoves and fires, and sweeping the debris up, while the kitchen staff ate their noon meal in the adjacent break room. I'd just finished up when they began to trickle back in. The Head Chef glanced around the room.

"Your service hours are done for today. I will see you tomorrow." He gave me a brief nod before turning away to talk to some of the staff. I took that as a dismissal, returned my apron to its spot and slipped quietly out of the kitchen doors into the yard.

It was meal time so the yard was empty, the service staff taking their break. I pulled an apple from my robes, saved from this morning, looking at it in distaste before biting into it and trying to swallow as I ambled aimlessly. There was a whickering from my left. I glanced that way and saw a sleek brown head poking out from a stall, looking at me. I smiled and padded over to the stables as the horse watched me approach warily.

"I think you'd better have this, sarsa. You want it more than I do." I said softly, holding the apple out to him. He stared at me for a good long while and then took it gently, crunching at it, and when he was done, lowered his head to nuzzle at my robe. I laughed. "Greedy boy." I took out the second apple and that went the same way as the first. "I don't have any more, I'm afraid." I stroked his forehead, scratching his cheeks and under his chin. He bumped at me with his muzzle and snorted softly. "You like that?" I continued scratching his face as he adjusted it to show me where he wanted my hands. I laughed as he stretched his neck out. "Demanding child. I need to get in there with you if I'm to give you what you want." I glanced around. The stable was empty and there was no one in the yard, so I unlatched his gate and slipped inside.

He was a stallion, a beautiful glossy dark mahogany, sleek and in perfect physical shape.

"You are a beauty." I crooned softly, looking up at him towering over me. I reached up to scratch his throat latch and then moved to his crest. He stilled for a moment and then relaxed, allowing me to move around him. There was a brush hanging on the inside of his pen, so I used it to give him a proper brush and rub down. I kept my ears open for the sounds of activity and when the bell rang I slipped out as unobtrusively as I'd entered, ignoring his whinnied protest.

I half expected to find a message from Edward in our chambers when I returned but there was nothing so I changed robes before heading to the library.

The Clanholding library was manned by a team of three Clan Archivists lead by an elderly female, who looked me up and down suspiciously and kept a firm eye on me as I sat in a corner and buried myself in a tome on rock formations and geology. I lost track of time, until I heard the pre-meal bell chime and realised I was going to be late.

Dinner had already started when I arrived at the Dining room and made for the seat assigned to me, ignoring the hard stare Edward was giving me.

"Where were you?" Tia murmured as I sat down. "No one could find you."

"Then they didn't look." I said as I looked down at the soup in front of me. Would I ever be hungry again, I wondered idly. "I'm easy to find these days. I was in the library." I swallowed one and then two mouthfuls, then tried for a third and a fourth, and if I was lucky, a fifth and a sixth.

"We will go for our walk after dinner." Edward said from his seat on my left. I looked over at him and after a second, I inclined my head.

Whatever appetite I had was gone now.

OOOOOOOOOO

The garden was dark, with an occasional lamp at intervals lighting the path. We had been walking in silence beside each other for a while now. It wasn't exactly a comfortable silence but it wasn't a tense one either. Just when I had begun to think he wouldn't speak at all, he did.

"How was your day?" That low voice made my stomach clench hard.

"My day?" I looked at him quizzically. "Is that what you're opening with?"

"Yes." He answered simply. I looked at him for a moment longer and then shrugged.

"Fine." I said, equally simply.

"What did you do?"

"Exercise, my service hours in the kitchens, some reading." I kept it brief.

"I didn't think to look for you in the library." He mused. "Do you like reading?"

Where was he going with this, I wondered impatiently.

"Yes."

"What did you read today?"

"Excuse me?"

"What did you read?"

"Look-"

"Humour me." He said calmly. I exhaled.

"A tome on geology and rock formations."

"Interesting choice." He said, the hint of amusement in his voice. I stopped walking and turned to face him.

"Let's skip to the point, shall we? Stop wasting your time and mine."

"Wasting time?" He asked mildly, eyes on my face.

"Asking how my day was and whether I like reading." I shook my head. "When you don't really care and I don't really care."

"Ah, but I do care." He said, voice still mild. "I don't think it's a waste of time to know my mate."

That word.

I clenched my hands. He glanced down at them and then back up.

"And we have lots of time." He continued quietly. "Our whole lives. So we can take our time. Neither of us is going anywhere."

No.

I looked away then, the despair flooding through me at his words. I took a deep breath.

"We have things to talk about, Edward." I said in a low voice. "I'm angry. You're angry. Delaying this won't do anything."

"We will talk." He said calmly. "Once the dust has settled."

I made an exasperated noise.

"How do you think that will help? Nothing will change."

"One thing might." He said turning on the path and looking back at Clanholding.

"What?" I stared at his back.

"I might not feel as compelled to fuck you senseless for hiding from me."

He turned then and the fury in his eyes made me take a step back.

"I told you, Isabella." His voice was tight and low, the calm facade was gone. "No one runs from me." His eyes were pools of black in his carved features. "You hid. And then you ran."

He turned around and stalked back to the house.

I was rooted to the spot.

Apparently Edward was good at hiding too.

OOOOOOOOOO

When I got back to the room, it was empty. I took the opportunity to change into my night robes and head behind the curtain to the bed. I hadn't forgotten his words, that we'd be sharing a bed from tonight onwards. I propped some cushions in the middle of the bed as a divider. Not that it would stop him but I didn't think he'd stoop to force.

I snuffed out the lights by my side and slid under the covers, turning on my side facing away from the divider. I closed my eyes and tried to sleep, but my senses were alert, listening for him.

I'd been tossing and turning for a while when I heard the door. I stilled immediately and kept my eyes closed. I heard him in the outer room, heard the lights being snuffed out and then the gentle hush as the gossamer curtain was shifted and his scent grew stronger.

There was silence for a moment and I tensed slightly. Then, I heard him pad away from me and the bed dipped, sheets rustling. The minutes ticked by.

I let my body relax then, opening my eyes to stare at the wall opposite me.

And then I heard a soft thud, thud, thud, thud, of something hitting the ground. And stiffened as the bed shifted.

"No barriers between us ever again, my little mate." His low voice murmured from just behind me.


A/N: Thoughts?