Chapter 15
"I won't bother you anymore," he said mechanically behind me and then left.
All that I wanted was to get away from him. He was dangerous in a way I couldn't put my finger on at the moment. Apparently, I was becoming the cliché of the girl who was particularly attracted to bad boys. Technically he hadn't done anything wrong… which was technically the lamest excuse ever. Was he even trying to apologize?
I went back to my room feeling exhausted and hungry but still unable to sleep because my biological clock was Sydney-synchronized.
What was I going to do until seven in the morning? Play PSP in the orangery? That sounded like an okay plan. Thank you, Emmett.
A couple of hours later, less than half of it spent playing, I decided to walk around the house. One room was asking for my attention – the library.
The words Edward said to me echoed in the back of my mind. I stumbled across the endless corridors and rooms looking for it. As I entered, I felt like I was defiling something. I was entering Henry's personal space. The library's single, enormous window, filling the nearly two storey room, allowed some light to enter from the outside. The walls were covered in wood, multiple shelves full of books, and there was a big mahogany desk in front of the window. There were some shadows dancing on the walls, as a result of the outside lights. That piqued my interest, so I moved forward to the window. I pulled open the heavy drapes that were blocking a clear view and looked outside. The winter garden that I'd seen from a distance in the daylight was even more beautiful at night, with several lamps strategically placed. There wasn't an inch of the garden that wasn't properly lit…for security reasons, I supposed.
As I turned around and away from the window, my eyes fell on a silver frame that had a privileged position on the right side of the desk. I held my breath at the sight of her. She was smiling angelically, the black and white picture giving her an ethereal beauty, and for a moment I saw myself in Rosalie's office picture.
Edward was right, the resemblance was staggering. I sat in the chair next to me for support, and for the first time I felt that maybe I shouldn't be there. I decided that I'd stay just until Monday and be gone after that. All the stares from the previous day now made sense. The people who remembered my grandmother must have seen the resemblance.
I tried to pull up memories of my grandma from when she was younger, but none came into mind. The image that I had of her, and that was forever burnt in my retinas, was of the kind and quiet lady that placed a necklace around my neck and wished me love and happiness. I don't think I had ever been confronted before with the fact that my grandma was once young and impetuous. In this photo, her eyes were alight with youth and unrequited promises. That was the only difference between us.
I fell asleep eventually on the couch with a copy of Utopia in my lap. I woke up with the sun warming my face, and for a moment I didn't know where I was. I looked around, confused, and found that a woman was looking worriedly at me.
"Good morning, Dr. Swan. I'm sorry if I woke you up," she said, diverting her eyes quickly away from mine.
"No, it's fine. I couldn't sleep last night and decided to get a book. I guess I ended up falling asleep here," I smiled apologetically at her.
"Would you like to have some breakfast?"
"I'd love to. I'll just take a shower first and get dressed, if you don't mind."
"Not at all. I'll go make the arrangements."
I showered and got dressed in less than an hour. I didn't bother to dry my hair, because by that point I thought I was about to faint from hypoglycemia if I didn't have something to eat soon.
They prepared a feast for me and I couldn't remember the last time I ate so much. By the end of the meal, around 9 a.m., Greta came into view with a smile plastered on her face.
"Good morning. You look tired."
"I didn't sleep well, I'm still jet lagged."
"Well, what do you have in mind for the day? I'm sorry if I abandoned you yesterday, but I believe Lady Alice helped you the best she could."
"She did, I liked her. Today I was hoping I could meet my uncle. I'd like to get to know him a little better while I'm still here."
"There's a service at ten, if you'd like to attend the mass."
"Sure. Let me just get my coat."
"Excuse me, Bella, but are you wearing that?" she asked me cautiously.
"What's wrong with my clothes? Is all you people think about? Appearances?"
"Well, this may sound a little shallow… but yes. The way you present yourself gives a message to people whether you like it or not."
"I understand that, but I really don't care what people think of me. It's not like I'll come here that often anyways. Besides, I highly doubt that God or even my uncle are going to notice what I'm wearing."
"Fine," she huffed, "but can you change your shoes? White sneakers in the winter aren't exactly fashionable."
"Before you continue, that's the only concession I'm willing to make, and only because it might rain later."
I quickly changed and applied a little make up to conceal the dark circles under my eyes. I thought we were going to the little chapel again on the More property, and was surprised when I realized that we were leaving the estate.
"Where are we going?"
"To town. I suppose you'd like to get to know the surrounding area a little better."
The mass was lovely. I hadn't entered a church in a long time, and in a mere weekend I had been there twice. My uncle seemed to be a good priest, eloquent in his speech without overdoing it.
Some of the faces were familiar to me from the previous day. Although I didn't know the names of most of them, they all seemed to recognize me. I was growing more and more impatient to get out of England.
I waited outside for my uncle after convincing Greta that she should go home and that I didn't need to be babysat.
"Bella, there you are, dear."
"Good morning. It was a wonderful service."
"Thank you. I didn't even ask if you're Catholic before dragging you here. We're not the dominant religion around here…" he said, looking worried for a second.
"Grandma was Catholic, so she made sure I was one too," I said, smiling at him. No need to go down that road, though. "Where are you taking me?" I asked to divert his attention somewhere else.
"To lunch and to show you around," he said, smiling at me. "So, tell me, what's your mother like? Is she just like Marie as well?"
"Physically she is a little, yes."
"And what does she do for a living?"
"She's a school teacher, she works with children."
"And your father?" he continued.
And he continued with the questions about our family, trying to refrain from commenting when I told him that my parents were divorced. He was a priest after all, but the fact that he made an effort not to be judgmental didn't go unnoticed.
We had lunch at his place - homemade hamburgers. It was easy to talk to him. I could tell he was lonely, too. He told me that he had an older sister with whom he didn't have much contact. I didn't miss the sad tone in his voice when he confessed to me why they weren't on good terms anymore.
"A few years ago," he told me, "James, my grandnephew, got involved in a scandal. My sister never forgave me that I didn't take his side."
"What sort of scandal?"
"A sexual scandal. I probably shouldn't be telling you this, I'm afraid I'll scare you with the amount of dirty secrets that you found buried inside this family you didn't even know you had, but I believe it's for the best.
"My sister Jane married one of Henry's cousins. The poor More, that's what my father used to call him," my uncle said, chuckling. "After your grandmother left, the scandal took its toll on Jane. She thought she could be accepted in higher circles if she managed to marry a More. Unfortunately, it did the exact opposite: all doors were closed for her. No one could forget that our mother was a simple maid at the Duke's summer house and because of Marie's affair with Henry, they were predisposed to think the worst of her and marked her as a social climber…which I have to admit was closer to the truth than I'd like to acknowledge. Anyway, she was always rejected and grew bitter in time even with her own daughter, Allison. Allison grew up, got married for love to a humble man and had James. I baptized that little boy in the More chapel," he smiled bitterly at the memory and drank a little bit of Port that he served while speaking.
I waited for him to continue, unsure why he was telling me this.
"He grew up under Jane's poisonous influence, and even with his parents' best efforts, he became greedy and ruthless. When he was eighteen, he went to college with a fund Henry granted him. After his first year in law school he came back and started to notice a fourteen year old girl, Victoria, that sang in my choir. She was the daughter of the woman who used to cook my meals. Even after I warned her, like every teenager who had an infatuation, she was blinded by the fact that an older boy was giving her some attention… One day, I was going home after a wake when I heard a noise coming from the back of my church. Outside in the cold night, beaten beyond recognition and half naked was Victoria. I asked what happened to her and she told me that James raped her."
"What happened to her? What happened to him?"
"It was her word against his. He said in court that she had an infatuation with him and because he refused her, she was lying to get to him."
"So he wasn't convicted?"
"No."
"But how can you be sure it was him?" I asked him.
"All you had to do was see the way he looked at her… I stood by her side in trial…"
"And your sister never forgave you…" I concluded.
"No, she never forgave me. And I could never be sorry for standing up for the weak."
"Why are you telling me about James?"
"I don't know, I thought you should know. I saw the way he looked at you at Henry's funeral and it scared me to think that he might even get near you."
I remember I felt awkward and watched since I got here, but had thought that anyone who was looking at me was doing it out of curiousity. That was it, wasn't it?
"I don't think I met him…"
"You didn't. Alice dislikes him profoundly so he wouldn't dream of trying to get near you while you were with her. You did spend most of the time with her… and Edward," he added, winking at me.
"Oh no, not you, too."
He laughed softly before saying, "You could do a lot worse… He's a noble man, and not just because of his new title. He just strayed a little… But like I was saying, be careful with James."
"I highly doubt he'd be interested in meeting me, I suspect that Aunt Jane isn't my biggest fan at the moment."
"At the moment she's not, but tomorrow things will change."
"What do you mean?"
"Henry's testament will put you under her radar, trust me. I can't tell you more than that without breaking the trust of a dear friend, but you'll see soon enough what I mean. I'm afraid you probably have strong suspicions on that matter anyway, so it won't be such a shock."
What the hell was I going to inherit? I was beginning to fear what, exactly, Henry wrote in that will. Whatever it was, I suspected it was going to be life changing for a lot of people.
We kept talking about our interests, realizing that we actually had a lot in common, about his years in the seminary and why he decided to become a priest. Around four p.m. I looked outside and found that it was completely dark.
"I hadn't realized how late it is," my uncle said. "I was supposed to visit Mrs. Rawlings, she's been suffering a lot from her joints this winter and she hasn't been able to go to church."
"Oh, that's nice of you."
"Yes, but I'm actually running late. Would you mind, my dear, if I leave your company for an hour or so? I'll be back soon, and after that I promise I'll drive you back to More Park."
"Sure, no problem."
"Make yourself at home. You can borrow my laptop if you please."
He kissed me gently on the cheek and left hurriedly with an apologetic smile on his face. I realized that I had actually became very fond of him in a very short time and I was pleasantly surprised with how things turned out that day. What also surprised me was that my uncle appeared to be fond of Edward. I had thought he would have shared Henry's opinion about him.
I checked my e-mail and found that I had a couple of new messages from Angela and Jake.
I decided to scold Jake for giving Rosalie the picture that she had hanging in her office. It was the trouble making picture. I called him a traitor and received an instant response.
"Such a beautiful picture was meant to be seen… you have to acknowledge that I captured your beauty better than anyone ever before. I'm talented like that! Besides, Rosalie blackmailed me...Trust me, I didn't want to get on Rose's bad side again.
"Miss you Bells. When are you coming back to us?
J."
It was snowing again and the wind was blowing hard outside. It was six p.m. and my uncle hadn't returned yet. I was beginning to worry when the phone rang. I hesitated as to whether I should answer it, but decided that it might be my uncle warning me that he was late.
"Hello?"
"Bella, it's Thomas! I'm sorry I'm late but there was a road block so I'll have to make a detour. I hope you don't mind, but I called Alice to come and take you home. I didn't want to leave you alone for so long."
"No, it's fine. You actually saved me the trouble of calling her. I was supposed to meet her today…" and I forgot to call her, I concluded mentally.
"Oh, good. I'll see you tomorrow then."
Fifteen minutes later the phone rang again. As I picked up, a man started talking immediately.
"Hello? Father Thomas, thank God! You need to help me. I had a bike accident just after the bridge. My bike was dragged to the river and I… oh God!" he screamed, "I think I broke my leg. Please hurry, I'm running out of battery!"
"Wait, where are you?"
And with that the call was out. What was the emergency number here? I was beginning to panic when I remembered seeing a bridge a half a mile from my uncle's house. I grabbed my jacket and my cell phone and ran outside to the quiet, cold and dark street.
I ran through the snow and fell twice on the ice before reaching the bridge. I was soaked and freezing but kept running. When I reached the bridge I yelled, asking if someone was there. At first I heard nothing, but afterwards I heard a small whimper coming from the other side of the bridge.
"I'm down here, thank God!"
I ran across the bridge and noticed that there was a car coming in my direction. I signaled for it to stop, and once I saw that it was slowing down I followed a trail that appeared to lead to the flooding river.
"Where are you?" I only had the light of my cell phone to guide me.
I felt that something was wrong. Everything became eerily silent. I heard someone call my name and then I was out.
I was freezing and there was water pulling me under and I had no intention of fighting it.
"Come on, Bella, wake up! God, let her be okay," someone said in a rough voice.
I couldn't open my eyes. My head was heavy and my body was unresponsive. I barely noticed that it was still snowing and that my arms were bare.
He kept calling my name, pleading with me to open my eyes.
I opened them with a tremendous effort, to see him exhale loudly in relief.
"Are you trying to give me a heart attack? Because if you are, you almost succeeded!" he said, trying to sound angry but failing miserably. "You made me pray… I hadn't done that in years.
"Are you alright?"
"I guess. What happened?" I asked him in a slurred voice that I hardly recognized as my own.
"You tell me! What the hell were you doing there alone? I'm going to kill that son of a bitch that calls himself your bodyguard!" he mumbled, mostly to himself.
"I think someone hit me in the head. Where's my jacket? Where are my shoes?" I asked him, realizing I didn't have any of those things.
"Somewhere in the bottom of the river."
"What?"
"You almost drowned, Bella," he said, stopping to look at me. Even in the dark his eyes shone.
I vaguely remembered falling into the water and being dragged by the current… Edward saved me?
Edward saved me!
"Thank you…" was all I managed to say.
"Come on," he said as he grabbed me and pulled me into his arms, carrying me bridal style. "We need to find some place warm or we'll both die from hypothermia".
He pulled me tightly against him. I could tell that his body was also shivering from the cold and probably from the exertion of carrying me.
"You can put me down, I'll try to walk."
"I don't think you can walk. Besides, we'll both be warmer like this." His voice was no longer firm. I could tell he was pushing the limits of his own strength.
My eyelids were heavy and I was beginning to drift to sleep when he started to shake me in his arms.
"Don't fall asleep, talk to me!" he demanded.
"Where… where are we?" I managed to say.
"We were dragged a couple of miles by the river. I couldn't fight the current… I believe there's a rural tourist cottage nearby. Let's hope there's someone there to help."
A couple of minutes later, he sat me on a porch and started banging on a door. Because there was no answer he started looking around.
"Wait here, I'll be back." The wind was freezing and I was physically in pain.
For the first time in my life I really feared for my life. There was a shatter of glass somewhere in the back and all of a sudden a window opened above me.
"I can't open the front door, you'll have to come through the window."
I tried to stand up but my body seemed to be glued to the ground. He jumped out the window and helped me up.
"Come on."
He dragged me directly to the bathroom and turned on the water before he started taking off my clothes. I weakly tried to stop him, but he continued, leaving me only in my underwear.
"Believe me, there's nothing sexual about this," his voice was rough and low.
He took off his own clothes and then held me in the shower. I knew the water was probably just tepid, but it burnt my freezing body.
We sat in the shower, in silence except for the chattering teeth, and unmoving, except for our shivering. After a solid thirty minutes, he said softly, "I heard someone running away, Bella. I was too distracted to pay attention to details other than try to save you, but I'm sure that someone was there… You said someone hit you in the back? Did you see anyone?"
"No…"
"Why would someone do something like that? Have you been threatened before?"
"No…"
"Who would want to hurt you?"
"I don't know!"
And just like that I started sobbing violently against his chest. It was too much to bear. All of a sudden I just wanted to be in my dad's arms. He always made me feel safe.
"Don't cry. You're safe here with me."
After a few minutes I was finally calm enough, and was able to find my voice.
"What were you doing out there?" I asked him.
"I was looking for you. Alice called me to pick you up at your uncle's home."
He started laughing humorlessly. "I told her at first I wasn't going, that you made it perfectly clear that you didn't want to see me… That's why I was late… I'm so sorry."
"Why are you apologizing?" I asked him, baffled, looking up at his eyes. They were filled with an emotion I couldn't name.
"If I hadn't hesitated to pick you up and left you alone for so long you wouldn't have ended up at the bottom of an ice cold river in the middle of a snow storm."
"Edward, it wasn't your fault. If it weren't for you… I wouldn't be here right now," I said instead of I'd be dead right now.
"Thank you for changing your mind and for coming to pick me up despite my best efforts to keep you away."
"Why don't you like me, Bella?" he asked me, seeming so fragile by asking that question.
"I don't… dislike you, Edward. It's just that with all that happened in Australia, we didn't start well…"
"I'm sorry," he said simply.
"What for? You don't need to apologize, for anything."
"I shouldn't have been with Tanya the other night. I just… you wounded my ego. It's an awful thing to say, but I felt like you discarded me to be with some other guy. I wanted to take you as my date to the a.m. party. And you just… seemed so unavailable and unattainable. I thought that we weren't going to see each other ever again… that we didn't have a chance, so why try? But you… you haunt me."
He closed his eyes forcefully and pushed his head back against the tiles.
"While you were unconscious in my arms in that river and I was struggling to pull us out, I didn't even feel the cold. All I could think about was, please God, don't take her. And when I finally managed to get us out of the water and realized that against all odds you were still breathing I was so thankful, I never felt such a relief in my life." He paused, catching his breath. "I wasn't supposed to feel this way, this strongly for someone I just met…" he clarified.
"Maybe the Mores are destined to be haunted by the Thomas girls."
He chuckled humorlessly and opened his eyes, staring at me, waiting for me to say something.
I had a whirlwind of emotions swelling in my chest. I decided not to dwell too much on rationalizing every single one of them. I just did what felt right at the moment, and straightened up to kiss him softly on the lips.
It took him a moment to respond, but when he did, he tightened his arms around me and put his right hand on the back of my head, forcing me to get even closer to him. We devoured each other, whimpering, fighting for dominance with what felt like the most primal need. I could feel the proof of his excitement against my leg, but that didn't move me one inch away from him.
He was the one who pulled away, panting hard and smiling.
"Come, the water is getting cold. We've probably been in here for an hour. Let's dry you off before I do something very ungentlemanly."
He help me stand up and gave me a towel. I felt a surge of vertigo while I was up, so he actually had to carry me to the bedroom.
"What am I going to do with you?" he said, amused.
He placed me under the covers of the bed.
"I'm going to try to light the fireplace. I'll be right back."
Five minutes later, the fireplace was lit and he was back to the bed.
"Can I join you? You're still trembling…"
I opened my eyes and looked at him, noticing that he was only wearing a towel that was low around his waist, letting me know that he'd probably done the same thing that I had – discarded his underwear because it was wet.
"I'm kind of naked here…" I managed to choke out while blushing severely, obviously completely mortified that he caught me staring.
"I'll stay under the clothes, but over the sheet. If it makes you feel better I'm also naked under this towel," he said, putting his hands where it was knotted around him as if threatening to take it off.
I closed my eyes and said, "Over the sheet, then."
I felt the mattress sink a little under his weight. He kept the sheet between us, just like he promised, but slid toward me.
"You know that we'll both be warmer if we were actually holding each other… and I say this as respectfully as I can."
I noticed that he was trembling. I pushed the sheet just a little above my waist and turned my back to him.
"You can hold me, if you want."
I used his left arm as a pillow and let him encircle me with his right arm. Both his hands rested tightly and possessively over my stomach.
"Thank you, now try to get some sleep."
"We're staying here for the night?"
"Yes."
"Why?"
"Why? Well, let's see… our clothes are wet, it's freezing outside and we don't have coats, my phone is dead so I can't call anyone and I have no shoes… I'd like to keep all of my toes, if you don't mind," he said sarcastically.
"Why are you being like that?"
"Why are you in such a hurry to leave me when there's someone out there trying to kill you?"
"I'm not in a hurry to leave you. Edward," I whispered, turning myself to face him, "I'm not."
He looked at me undecided, but the sincerity of my words must have appeased his fears because he pulled me into his embrace again and started drawing light patterns with his trembling fingers, over my back, up my arm, shoulder and neck.
"You still haven't told me what the hell you were doing there."
I told him everything with as many details as a human brain could retain.
"It's even more serious than I thought. Someone deliberately attracted you there, knowing that you were alone. Someone must have followed you," he said. He suddenly stopped the soothing motion of his hands and closed them tightly behind my back.
"Maybe not, maybe they weren't after me," I said weakly.
"They couldn't be after your uncle, your voice isn't mistakable for a male's voice. You're not leaving my sight until we figure out what happened today. Are you sure you didn't recognize his voice?"
"I'm sure."
"Was he an American?"
"No, his accent was definitely British, quite similar to yours, actually."
"So he's probably from this area. That narrows it down a little."
He exhaled loudly and returned to his tender caressing.
I felt ridiculously safe in his arms, and didn't even dwell on the impropriety of our lack of clothing. Quite the contrary, I seemed to find his scent as soothing as his hands…
This didn't seem like the Edward that had Tanya on her knees in front of him, the cocky bastard that played me. There was still a certain amount of stoniness in him, but there was also a tender side that I hadn't known before. It scared me to think of him that way. I had been fighting the fact that I was physically attracted to him. Believing that he was a cheating womanizer helped me to stay focused. But he saved my life, risking his own in the process. That forced me to see him from a whole new perspective. And it wasn't just gratitude.
Of course he had faults, his previous actions said a lot about his character, but hadn't the current ones done the same?
Wasn't he being a gentleman and not taking advantage of the very peculiar situation we found ourselves in? Yes.
Didn't he show himself capable of being caring, tender and capable of good deeds? Yes.
Didn't he make me feel safe and wanted in his arms? Yes.
Was he an arrogant womanizer, used to getting everything he wanted? Yes.
I scolded myself for overthinking everything. It wasn't like I was going to marry the guy the following day.
I realized that I might never see him after tomorrow, since I was returning to Australia soon after the reading of the will. I knew that either way I would regret something, and for the first time in my life I wanted to regret something I had done and not be sorry for not doing anything at all.
For the night, it was just the two of us.
So when he kissed me goodnight on the forehead, I looked in his eyes, assessing him. I bit my lip nervously, knowing what I was starting. He must have sensed my hesitation because he brushed his thumb over my lower lip and leaned in for a kiss. At first, it was just a sweet peck, but then he grew bolder. As our kiss deepened, my hands wandered over his body, tracing lower and lower on his back. He rolled onto his back and pulled me to lay over him without breaking the kiss. His hands wandered over my upper body, and while his thumbs occasionally brushed my breasts, he never fully touched me - which was literally driving me crazy.
And with that, any coherent thoughts left me… That is, until I tried to push away the thin sheet that separated our lower bodies and Edward held my hands to stop me.
I froze instantly, sensing the rejection.
"Bella, we can't do this," he said huskily.
"I'm sorry," was all I was able to say.
"Bella," he said, holding my face, unwilling to let me hide my shame, "it's not that I don't want to… you can't seriously doubt that I do…" he added, looking down at the proof of his words. The well-proportioned proof of his… interest.
"It's just that I don't think we should do this tonight. I mean, you rebuked my every effort to be with you this last week, and today… What I mean is, I'm afraid you're only being this… receptive because of what happened, and I don't want to feel like you consider yourself obligated in some way…"
"Edward," I said, trying to interrupt his rambling.
"Let me finish… You have to let me make things right. If we do this now, it just won't be right. You just suffered a very traumatic experience and trust me that I know what's on your mind."
"Edward, it's really not like that, I think. But I can see your point, so…"
I turned my back to him and faced the fireplace. I was trying hard to control my breathing and my sexual frustration. He was probably right, but that only increased the sense of loneliness I was beginning to feel. He held me again tight against chest and kissed me softly on my shoulders and whispered in my ear.
"Sleep tight, Bella. I'll be here with you, guarding you in your sleep. Let me just hold you and comfort you today. I promise I won't stop you next time," he chuckled against my neck.
"If it's any consolation, I have the worst case of blue balls, and trust me when I say that it's not just from the cold."
"Thank you," was all I was able to say before I drifted into an incredibly quiet sleep, considering the circumstances.
In the morning, Edward woke me up sweetly, and for an instant I didn't know where I was.
"Our clothes are dry. I was thinking about going to find some help. We're just two or three miles from your uncle's home, but I didn't want to leave you alone. I'm not sure what's safer…."
"I'd rather go with you. What time is it?"
"Almost 8 a.m."
"We slept for a long time."
"We needed it. Are you sure you don't want to stay here? You still have no shoes."
"Neither do you."
"I may have found some slippers," he mumbled through his teeth.
I had to make a huge effort not to laugh when I looked down and saw him wearing a pair of slippers that could have been worn by Abraham Simpson.
"They look good on you."
"You can laugh all you want, but I have a pair of fluffy pink ones that have your name on them. Do you need help getting dressed?" he smirked.
"No, thanks," I said, blushing profusely.
He quietly left the room to give me some privacy. I noticed that the fireplace was lit again, so I moved closer to it to get dressed.
We left soon after, sharing a blanket. The sky was cloudy but it wasn't raining yet. Five minutes after beginning our walk I was already freezing. My feet were wet and cold but I decided not to complain. Edward wasn't.
"How long will you stay here?"
"I'm going back to Australia tomorrow, I think. I have to confirm my flight schedule with Greta."
"And when are you going back home?"
"On the 2nd of January. I have to go to work on the following Monday."
"That's nice," he stated awkwardly.
We continued walking in silence for ten more minutes before he asked me if I had any plans for the day.
"We could do something fun," he suggested, "I could take you to dinner in London…"
"Don't talk about food right now, I'm starving!"
"And freezing… but really, do you have any plans for today? I understand if you do… but you might want to change them…" he rambled as he was trying to create some friction by rubbing his hands over my arms to keep me warm.
"Aside from going to the reading of Henry's will, I don't have any other plans."
"So you're really going?" he asked me, stopping our march.
"Yes. That's one of the reasons I'm here. If I hadn't come voluntarily, I think I would have probably been dragged here. Everyone seems to want to make sure that Henry's wishes are dutifully fulfilled." I tried to joke a little about it, but there was no hint in his expression that he found it funny. On the contrary, his eyes grew dark.
"Do you know what you're inheriting?" he asked me in a deceptively calm voice as he started walking again.
"No. Everyone seems to be walking on eggshells around me for the past couple of days. Do you know what you'll be inheriting?" I asked him quietly. I really couldn't care less, but at the time I decided to return the question, to make him understand how wrong it felt to be asked that.
"I thought I did. I'm not sure anymore," he said without looking at me.
"This conversation is probably the weirdest I've ever had," I mumbled, mostly to myself, but he must have heard it because he nodded his head in agreement.
"Bella, I really need to know: are you biologically related to Henry? Are you his granddaughter?"
"No."
"Are you absolutely sure?"
"Yes."
"Then why are you here?" he asked me, frustrated.
"I don't know. I guess we'll find that out at the same time, won't we?" I answered him curtly.
"I guess."
And just like that, there was a wall between us and His Grace was back in the form of Lord Cullen.
We got to the main road soon after that. Walking nearly a mile in the snow wasn't the easiest thing I've ever done, especially so poorly prepared. I was beginning to cough a little when Edward signaled a car to stop.
He knew the driver, a man in his fifties that apparently worked as a gardener at More Park. He was mystified to see us there and promptly asked what happened. Edward invented some story about a car malfunction and that his cell was out of battery… I wasn't really paying attention because I was too exhausted to care. I must have passed out, because next time I woke up, I was again in Edward's arms being carried up the familiar stairs that led to my room.
Again I went straight to the shower and heard something about calling an ambulance.
Recognizing my own symptoms, I managed to say that aside from the cold, I was probably hypoglycemic and would be better after eating.
"Your Grace," I heard Greta say in an accusing tone, "I believe you've done enough. I'll help Dr. Swan get to bed and I'll ask for her breakfast to be brought here to her chambers. I believe you could do the same. John, please assist His Grace in the blue room."
"Of course, Miss Masterson."
"I'm not leaving her," he said stubbornly.
"I believe you could use a warm bath as well. I'll take good care of her, I promise. Now please, you're going to get sick."
He seemed to hesitate for a moment, but then left.
"Thank you, Edward." I managed to say as he left.
Greta helped me to dress myself, to get into bed and even to eat. My stomach couldn't manage more than some tea and a couple of bites of French toast.
"The reading of the testament will be here at two p.m. I asked His Grace's lawyers and his family to come here instead of the office in London, since you and Lord Cullen weren't able to attend the meeting this morning. I can't postpone it any more than that. Everyone wants to know what's going to happen with one of the biggest economic empires in the world. The leeches will be all here. In the meantime, I called a doctor to check on you to make sure you're alright. Can I send him in?"
"Sure."
My British colleague feared that I might have a respiratory infection and was very effusive complimenting me for being able to keep all my toes. He gave general recommendations and asked me to avoid travelling before knowing the full extent of the severity of my infection, and gave me some acetaminophen for my discomfort. He also reminded me that I shouldn't be alone for the rest of the day in case I had a concussion from the head trauma.
I called Emmett and my dad to let them know that I might have to stay a little longer than expected in England because I got sick from the cold, which technically wasn't lying, and slept for the rest of the morning.
Greta came to wake me up around 1.30 p.m. and helped me get dressed for the meeting. My eyes were puffy, my nose was running and my head was throbbing. Overall it wasn't a good day to face the Mores. But I did.
She let me dress simply and comfortably, knowing that it was either that or my pajamas. She helped me with my hair and even tried to use a little make up to hide the mess I was, but with only marginal success.
As I went downstairs, I was led to the main living room where a lot of familiar faces were sitting. There were twenty people there, excluding the lawyers.
I took the place vacant, next to Mr. Greene, decidedly ignoring all the stares coming in my direction. I let my eyes wander until they met Alice's. She asked me silently if I were okay and I nodded in her direction. She gave me a small wink and a reassuring smile. Edward was sitting next to her; his face was phlegmatic, and his eyes never met mine.
"Now that Dr. Swan has joined us, I believe we're all here," a tall man said, standing up.
"Before I continue, I have to say that His Grace was observed by five different psychiatrists, all attesting that he had no alteration of any of his cognitive functions, and he was fully capable of making his own decisions. All the medical reports will be provided and stand in any court if necessary.
"That being said, I believe we may proceed. The last change in the testament was made on the 15th of December of the current year." He cleared his throat before he started reading. I felt like he was reading me a prison sentence. I coughed a little and accepted the tea Greta brought me.
It was time.
"To all my cousins, Maurice More, Sandra Somerset… and Jane More, I leave the sum of five hundred thousand pounds each," he listed 16 of the people who were in the room. Some looked happy, but most of them looked accusingly in the direction of Edward, Alice and even me. Edward and Alice both managed to stay impassive. I didn't.
A low, angry murmur could be heard in the room, and the lawyer had to ask for their attention.
"To Alice More, my dearest goddaughter, I leave the apartment on –Avenue in New York, the house on –Street in London, the cottage at Lake Como and the sum of 20 million pounds.
"To Edward More Cullen, my successor, as the next Duke of Vidal I leave you two of the three estates with the Vidal crest, with the exception of More Park, that I now leave to Isabella Marie Swan."
Then man hesitated. "His Grace asked me to read these words to Dr. Swan.
"I'm profusely sorry that you didn't get to grow up in the magic place that More Park can be. For me, it was always my prison, the living stone of my past mistakes. May you bring to it the joy and the light it hasn't seen in decades and may you fill it with the laughter of the children I wished to have. Take good care of it.
"All of my other possessions, including properties, cars, personal bank accounts, family jewels and More Enterprises, I designate as my only heir Isabella Marie Swan."
"What?" Edward and I asked at the same time. He seemed as shocked as everybody else in the room.
I heard everyone in the room gasp. I held my breath, not fully understanding what that meant.
"There is a detailed list with the description of all the properties that are now yours, Dr. Swan. Everyone can meet me in my office in order to sign the papers relating to their inheritance. I believe it's all I have to say. Good afternoon."
"Congratulations, Bella." Greta said, hugging me awkwardly, but my eyes were on Edward who stood up from his seat in front of me.
"Yes, congratulations indeed, Bella," he said in a deadly calm voice.
"It's really fascinating to see how much you can climb just by laying properly in the horizontal position. You tend to do that a lot with the Mores."
All of a sudden there was silence in the room.
"No, I believe it was that position that put you in your current one," I whispered.
He grabbed my wrist forcefully. "I've never felt more deceived than I do now. You must think I'm an idiot. Maybe the world would be a better place without…"
Without me in it? The implication of his words made my eyes sting a lot more than the physical pain I was in.
"Edward, come. You're making a scene," Alice said, low enough that only the three of us could hear.
"Let her go, Your Grace," Greta spat.
"Even so," I managed to say, "I believe I am the owner of this house now, and the only Mores I'd like to see in it are lying dead in a cemetery not far from here. I hope you show yourself out," I added, twisting my wrist out of his hand.
"Have a good day," I said to no one in particular as I turned around to go back to bed.
"Bella, I'm sorry," I think I heard Alice say before I left the room, pushing some people out of the way to do so.
I ignored her.
I didn't know what to make of any of it, so I just left.
I needed time and space to think.
Dear Lord, Henry, what have you done?
AN:
Disclaimer: I don't own Twilight… unfortunately.
Sorry about the delay, as always I can't manage a regular update schedule. I hope you forgive me, though.
I also owe a huge apology to everyone who reviewed and didn't receive a reply. I read all of your reviews and cherish them dearly. When I update I have my blackberry with me at all times so I can read them as soon as I get them. I'm that kind of an addict for them.
To my Beta reader Scooterstale a big, big thank you!
Now the big secret was unveiled (not as much of a secret but you know what I mean) so, as always, read and review and tell me what's on your mind! I'm always open to suggestions and new opinions!
See you soon!
Nofrure.