Alice was not a great driver.
Isabella's fingers stayed curled firmly around the side handle for the entire two hour drive to Inverness. While Alice technically could drive a manual, it was not a smooth drive.
When it was decided that Isabella and Edward would go to the ceilidh, it became quickly apparent that Isabella had nothing to wear. Edward offered to take her to go and get something but Esme volunteered Alice for the job, saying she had been wanting to head to the city for a while. Edward, while dubious of this assertion, had been away from the distillery for the better of a week and relinquished the task after a confirming glance to Isabella.
Isabella still was not sure if Alice had actually volunteered to go with her or if she had been "voluntold" as her grandmother used to say, but they were getting along fine. Neither of them were car chatters, so they settled into some music and Isabella took in the scenery; she didn't remember any part of her last trip to Inverness and had no wish to consider the circumstances that prompted the trip.
"Here we are," Alice muttered as she turned into the parking lot of a department store. With a silent breath of relief, Isabella let her fingers uncurl from the handle as Alice pulled into a parking spot.
"Right well, let's find ye a dress," she said.
Isabella got out of the car, gallantly ignoring the fact that her dubiously titled sister-in-law was uncomfortable with this excursion. It was looking more and more likely that Alice had been "voluntold" about this adventure.
They got right to work upon entering the store. Alice was easily able to navigate to the cocktail dress section. Since it was the Christmas season there was no shortage of reds, greens, and blacks that were all fit for parties.
"What will you be wearing?" Isabella asked her.
Alice made a face that could have been a grimace. "I have no decided yet. I have a bonnie black one but I've worn it the past two years. There's also a green one but I dinnae think it still fits in certain areas if ye'll know what I mean."
With a quick glance to her bust, Isabella nodded. "The joys of adulthood."
Alice's lips quirked up into an expression that remarkably resembled her brother. "Well, I dinnae mind the breasts. I did think that I would no get acne any longer but here we are."
Isabella chuckled, remembering the cleansers she'd religiously started using at that age.
"Luckily for ye, ye seem well enough endowed," she said.
Isabella glanced down at her own chest and rolled her eyes. They weren't huge but they weren't anything she was embarrassed by either.
"Right, Christmas dress," Alice said focusing. "I think red would look braw on ye."
So they only looked at red dresses.
There were hills to die on and there were not, Isabella thought to herself.
Isabella dutifully carried all of the ones Alice pulled off the rack, privately thinking she may have been going overboard with the whole endeavor. "If they're talking about yer dress, they will no be talking about yer marriage," she explained, handing her a ridiculously bejeweled, floor length dress that she knew she would never wear.
"What about this one?" Isabella said, straying away from the green and pulling an admiral blue dress.
"Bella, are ye color blind?" she asked curiously, blinking.
Again, Isabella rolled her eyes. "No, I meant for you."
Alice hesitated.
"Try it on to humor me." She insisted with a firmness that she usually reserved for her professional life. This was a hill.
Now it was Alice who rolled her eyes.
"Have ye ever had a sister in law?"
"No, I have not," Isabella replied honestly.
"So I dinnae suppose ye ken how we're suppose to do this then? Especially since yer not really a real sister in law."
Isabella was momentarily distracted. "You're a blunt woman."
"So are ye. When ye want to be."
Isabella raised her eyebrow.
"I grew up with Em and Edward - I have to be able to get my point through their thick skulls," Alice remarked, haphazardly grabbing a dress of the nearby rack.
"Fair enough."
"Since ye are an honest woman, I will trust ye not to be offended by my question?"
Isabella nodded.
"Do ye think there is any chance ye would no be a fake sister-in-law but rather a real one?"
Rarely did she find herself at a loss for words. Yet staring at her familiar eyes, she did not know what to say.
"Why?" she asked instead.
"If ye'll be sticking around, then I would like to put some time into being yer friend. If not, then I suppose I should be putting some time with Edward."
"Edward?"
"I've seen the way he looks at ye…I dinnae ken but if I had to guess, I dinnae think that he would be opposed to ye being my real sister."
They had reached the dressing room and an attendant had stepped in to help them, effectively ending the conversation before Bella could formulate a response.
One by one, Isabella put on the different Christmas cocktail dresses. She was still moving slowly, her body not completely done aching from her surgery last week, but otherwise was not traumatized by the ordeal.
Towards the end of her pile, Isabella put on a silk knee length red dress with two straps that formed a deeper-than-she-might-have-planned-V which remained tight until it flared out at the waist. It was actually quite flattering and she hoped Alice would approve as she was getting tired of the fashion show.
"Alice?" she called when she stepped out and did not see the red head.
"Just a wee moment," came a muffled reply from a nearby dressing room.
When Alice emerged, Isabella crossed her arms over her chest with a bright grin. "You look fantastic!"
Alice smoothed the blue chiffon halter. Instead of asking "Do you think so?" she looked at herself in the mirror with a small smile that indicated that she agreed with Isabella's conclusion.
"It's perfect," Isabella said, approving of her security and confidence.
"Well, let's see ye then," Alice said, gesturing Isabella in front of the mirror. As Isabella moved, she didn't miss the frown that settled onto Alice's face as she discreetly looked at the price tag on the dress.
"This will work I think," Isabella said, pleased with the fit.
After Isabella was back in her jeans, she grabbed the blue dress off the discard rack and carried it to the nearby checkout.
"What are ye doing?" Alice demanded, hotly on her heels.
"These two, please," Isabella said to the saleswoman, ignoring Alice.
Alice was waiting for a response.
"Oh," Isabella said. "This is what sisters do."
Alice opened her mouth to argue but Isabella interrupted her with a raised eyebrow. "You can't tell me it isn't when you yourself just admitted that you don't know."
"I could no do this for ye," Alice said, a light flush on her cheeks.
"Well fine then, this is what older sister's do, whatever their status may be."
"How old are ye?"
"That is beside the point," Isabella said primly as she moved to sign the receipt on the counter.
"27?"
Isabella withered her a glare.
"What? Was I close?"
Isabella turned her attention back to the saleswoman.
"31?" she asked.
"You know," Isabella said, "Your brother doesn't ask as many questions as you do."
"Aye and my brother does no ken as much as I do."
Isabella rolled her eyes and took the bagged dresses from the woman.
"32?"
Isabella turned away so that she didn't see the amused smirk on her face. It seemed she didn't mind having a sister-in-law, pretend of not.
~O~
The day of the ceilidh found anyone with any MacDonald blood in them pitching in to transform the Isles Inn into a Christmas wonderland. Edward and Jasper got assigned their usual task of moving furniture while Esme put Alice and Isabella to work putting pine garland everywhere. They worked quickly and got excused upstairs to go and get ready.
"I don't need much time," Isabella had protested when Esme tried to usher them away.
"Well then take a bottle of wine with you," Esme simply winked.
"Ye heard the woman," Alice said, grabbing one of the cheap cabernets off the bar.
Isabella opened her mouth to protest.
"Don't come down until it is finished."
With a helpless glance in Edward's direction, Isabella turned and dutifully followed Alice up to the guest room that Isabella and Edward had been given for the night. Esme had insisted that neither of them worry about having to drive home.
The more Isabella thought about it, the more she was inclined to believe that Esme wanted her intoxicated.
~O~
Esme had watched the two young women disappear with an indulgent grin, pleased that they seemed to be getting on well enough.
Jasper had disappeared on an errand for his mother and Carlisle had poured himself a hearty glass of water. He nodded at Edward from behind the bar, a silent offer.
"Please," Edward replied. Carlisle filled out the pint glass and gave it to him. Esme had glanced at her husband meaningfully and then disappeared into the kitchen.
"Right, well," Carlisle said, scratching the back of his neck, "I have something for ye."
Edward raised an eyebrow as Carlisle dug something out of his pocket. He watched as his uncle set a small velvet box on the bar between them.
"Aww, uncle, ye shouldn't have," Edward teased.
Carlisle rolled his eyes and muttered something about a "great tosser" under his breath. "Open it."
Edward lifted the lid and immediately recognized his mom's wedding ring.
"Yer maw and da wanted ye to have it," he said simply.
"To give to Bella?" he asked densely.
Carlisle shrugged before replying, "For yer wife. Should ye choose to."
Edward nodded, his fingertips brushing against the diamonds thoughtfully.
~O~
Upstairs, Isabella and Alice slipped into their dresses and crammed around the tiny mirror to do their makeup. Alice, Isabella had discovered, had a fabulously dry sense of humor. Combined with her proclivity for creative Scot curse words, Isabella found herself actually laughing as they bumped elbows in the small room.
"The last wee bit is for ye," Alice said, handing her bottle after they had managed to get properly ready.
Isabella went to grab her glass from the bathroom, "Oh come on! Just finish it!"
With a raised eyebrow, Isabella took the bottle. "I haven't done that since college."
"What? Had fun?"
Isabella let out a bark of surprised laughter.
Without further argument, she lifted the bottle to her lips and drank the sweet liquid straight from the bottle. There was more than a wee bit left, she realized as there was a knock on the door.
Edward entered the room right as she was finishing the last sip and lowering the bottle down.
Isabella looked at him sheepishly, reaching to brush the remaining drop from the side of her mouth.
It was now Edward who let out a loud, unguarded laugh, his face full of delight.
"That's a girl, Bella!"
Isabella rolled her eyes, setting the bottle on the nearby dresser.
"Esme wants ye," Edward said to Alice. "Folks are starting to arrive."
Alice nodded and after a grin in Esme's direction, exited the room. "Ye look braw, lass," he said with a smile to his sister.
"Ye look fine yerself," she said as she left.
And he did.
He had chosen not to wear a kilt and dressed simply, wearing a pair of black slacks and a white button shirt that already had the top couple of buttons undone.
"Ye look…ye look bonnie, mo chroí," he said with a shy grin.
Isabella let a slow breath out, returning his smile. "Thank you."
Edward rubbed at the back of his neck then, seeming nervous. "I wanted to see…well I wanted to ask ye if, well-"
"Knock knock!" Jasper called moments before he barged into the room with two small glasses full of liquid.
"What are ye doing, ye numpty?" Edward demanded, dropping his hand from his neck.
"Maw wants ye looking….shite, what did she say?…ah, besotted! Yes, she wants ye besotted for the guests."
"Are we aren't managing well enough on our own?" Isabella asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Bella, ye have to know by now that I am never the one who makes the rules," Jasper responded to her fondly.
"Yer mum is getting us drunk," Edward accused.
"Aye, now drink up," he replied cheerfully, handing them each a glass.
Edward sniffed suspiciously and then recoiled. "Jesus Christ, why must it be vodka?"
Jasper stared at him dumbfounded, "Did ye no just hear me? I am never the one who makes the rules."
"Bullshit, Esme would have picked something with more-"
"Cheers to another thing I haven't done since college," Isabella said, cutting him off with a clank of her glass against his. Edward allowed the interruption graciously.
"Slainte," he agreed, leveling her with a charged stare before they each tipped the contents into their mouth.
Admittedly, Isabella handled it much better than he did. Edward gulped the liquid done, made a giant grimace, and coughed loudly.
"Perhaps ye should have gone to college," Jasper laughed as Isabella primly handed him the glass back.
Edward rolled his eyes.
"Do we look substantially more besotted?" Isabella asked absurdly.
"Look, maw has more where that came from and ye ken it. So let's see some affection!"
"Dinnae gie's yer pish," Edward said with a glare.
Jasper held up the empty glasses in his hand innocently and turned to leave the room.
Edward looked at her with a twinkle in his eye. "Shall we?" he asked, holding out his hand.
Without a second thought, Isabella took his warm hand and followed him downstairs.
more to come soon.
all the love.