Disclaimer: All characters belong to Stephenie Meyer.
In Six Months I Lost My Mind But Found My Heart
Chapter Twenty-One: Proper Etiquette
April 14th
2 Months 2 Weeks & 3 Days Left
Bella's POV
I was woken up early by Alice so that Edward could start these silly etiquette lessons. I know they're only trying to help me fit in more but it really is ridiculous. After breakfast I joined Edward in the ballroom where I had previously seen him play the piano.
The room had changed since the last time I had seen it. The grand piano had been pushed to the side away from the middle of the floor. There was a table set up with the entire cutlery laid out; obviously he was going to teach me dinner manners. There was also another table with a few random things on it and Edward leaning against said table.
"Glad you could make it." He smiled.
"Did I have a choice?" He smirked but shook his head.
"No not really. It'll help if you do this willingly though."
"What exactly is this?" I asked, taking a seat. Edward pulled one out next to me and joined me at the table with the place settings.
"This is like an introduction into the years of etiquette lessons Alice and I had to go through. Obviously you won't be tested on everything we had to do since floral arranging and how to make a perfect baked Alaska isn't something you'll be doing tomorrow evening."
"What will you be teaching me then?"
"We will start with the basics, walking."
"I already know how to walk." I told him pointedly. If this was some joke about my clumsiness then he had another thing coming. Instead Edward smiled brightly and rolled his eyes.
"I know you know how to walk but this is different. You'll be wearing high heels and a floor length ball gown. Do you think you'll be able to walk in them without falling?" Okay so he had a point.
"Continue." I folded my arms over my chest, not impressed that I would have to wear heels tomorrow night. They're death traps and frankly I don't need the hassle.
"Once you've learnt to walk properly we'll attempt dancing-"
"Dancing! Are you kidding me Edward? How am I meant to dance in heels and a ball gown that'll no doubt get wrapped round my ankles?" I whined. This was just not going to work.
"That's why we're practicing today."
"But I don't have a dress yet." I pointed out. Maybe I could get out of dancing completely.
"Yes well I have something just as good." With that Edward stood up and went to the table to grab a white sheet. I raised my eyebrows at him as he came back over smirking.
"I'm not wearing that." He rolled his eyes and pulled me up so I was standing next to him.
"Don't be so stubborn. The length on this thing will be the same on the dress you'll wear so this is the perfect practicing tool. Now put it on." He thrust it into my arms.
"I'm not just wearing a sheet." He smirked and circled round me, resting his head on my shoulder and ever so slowly kissing my neck.
"I'm not asking you just to wear a sheet. But if you wanted to I certainly wouldn't object. In fact I could even help you get out of these silly clothes." His hand had started to wander so I stepped away from him quickly blushing. No doubt if we continued the etiquette lessons would be out the window and we would be partaking in other, more fun, activities.
I quickly wrapped the sheet round me and tied the top in a knot to stop it sliding down my front. Edward stood smirking as he took in my opinion. Silently he walked over and grabbed a pair of heels from behind one of the chairs and handed them to me. I used his to help me balance as I put on the death traps that were surely going to break my neck.
"Let's fix your sheet." Edward suggested before untying it.
"Why? What's wrong with it?" I asked confused.
"Well you've got it the wrong way to its exceedingly long and you have about a meter of sheet pooling at your feet. We're trying to keep you on them today, not make you fall with every step you take." After the sheet was fixed Edward held out his arm for me to wrap mine through it.
"I'll lead you for now then we can practice doing it on your own."
Now I honestly thought this was pointless but soon was proved wrong. It turned out that the sheet would get caught on my heels and send me flailing forward. We spent about an hour trying to get me to walk properly before Edward even thought of letting me do it by myself. Such tedious work but as I found out it was necessary unless I wanted to spend all of tomorrow night on my face or ass.
Once I mastered that to a certain degree, I was still a bit wobbly but Edward said he wouldn't leave my side all night so I could use him for help, we moved onto the dancing. He insisted it was all in the leading but I assured him that no matter how good a dancer he was I would never get better.
Edward tried to teach me two dances, the foxtrot and the waltz, but gave up on the foxtrot since it was taking so long to learn the waltz. The sheet just proved impossible and kept getting caught under my feet or Edward's. He was being as patient as possible with me but I could see he was getting slightly agitated.
We spent two hours doing that and I seriously thought my feet were going to fall off from the heels. Edward decided to be nice and let me change back into some normal shoes so I didn't cause myself more injuries when we went on to do more things.
"Right, I guess we'll move onto the place settings for the dinner." Edward led me over to the table, allowing me to remove the sheet, and sat me down in one of the chairs.
Taking a look at the layout of the cutlery before me had me very worried. There were four forks, two spoons, one unknown skewer object next to the two knives, five glasses, a napkin and two plates. If he expects me to know what to use each of these for then he is certainly mistaken. Why in heavens name do I need five drinks?
"Have you seen a place setting like this before?" He asked gently. I shook my head, still astounded about the way it was laid out. "Okay then that means we're starting from scratch. To make it simple we'll start with your cutlery." Which one there are loads?
"As you can see there are five forks on the table, normal table etiquette says that you can only have three of one implement on the table at once, with the exception of the oyster fork."
"What's that?" He leant forward and pointed to the skewer thing next to my knives. "But all the forks are on the left so why isn't over there?" I asked. Why don't they just keep it simple and have all the forks on one side and all the knives on the other?
"Because they don't, it doesn't work that way. So you have your three forks here, they will be on the table since the beginning of the dinner. You work from the outside in. The same applies for your knifes. This spoon and fork up here at the top of the plate are for dessert and won't be brought out until dessert is being served. Understood?" I nodded though I was a little lost.
"On the right side of the plate you have the oyster fork then your soup spoon and your knifes. The menu will be something like an appetizer which you will use the oyster fork for, the first course which will be soup, then the fish course so you'll use the fish knife and fork, then the main course so you'll use the service knife and the dinner fork, the salad might be served at the same time or just after the main course and that will require you to use your salad fork. After all that they will bring out the desserts and give you a dessert spoon and a cake fork, you can use whatever one you see fit. Okay so far?" I nodded again, just to keep him going.
"Now your glasses, obviously you won't need five drinks but you get them anyway. All the glasses will be on the table at the start of the meal and as we progress they will gradually fill up. The glasses will be right above the knives and once you've taken a drink please for the love of god put it back there. You'll see when we get there that you won't have any elbow room. There are usually a certain number of inches between you and the next guest so you can't move any of the implements." He paused to catch his breath then continued.
"The drinks, well you'll have a water tumbler, a white wine glass, a red wine glass, a sherry glass and a champagne flute may be on the table aswell. You will drink from the different glasses during different courses. The white wine with the fish and the red with the main course etc. I advise you not to finish your glasses of wine unless you want more. The waiters won't leave them empty and you will end up with countless refills."
"Great so not only am I going to make a fool of myself when I use the wrong fork but I'll also be drunk whilst doing so." I rolled my eyes and slumped back in the chair. Edward didn't say anything so I turned to see him grinning sweetly at me.
"Look I know this is hard." I scoffed and let him carry on. "But you'll be fine."
"You don't know that. What if I knock over one of my glasses?" I asked panicked because that does sound like something I would do.
"Then I'll knock the candle in the centre piece over and start a mini bonfire." I wanted to scold him for teasing at a time like this but he was being deadly serious.
"You would set fire to the table for me?"
"Every time." He pulled me into a hug. "But I would really prefer if I didn't have to do that. So if you can help it don't knock over a glass." I pulled back and kissed him softly.
"I'll try." He nodded and looked back at the table.
"I know it's confusing. I've been learning this for years and you'll only a few hours to master it but I will be with you throughout the whole meal and if you are confused just look at me. I'll have my hands at the ready to point to the one you'll use next. With your hands please don't put your elbows on the table, I don't expect you to but it's just another reminder. "I nodded, now I could follow that rule.
"So far there are only two dinners where you will need to remember this, the one tomorrow and another in a couple of weeks, we'll practice it more later. Shall we have a run through?" I nodded hesitantly.
We spent god only knows how long going through what to use for what meal. Edward would tell me what I was having and I had to select the correct cutlery or drink. Eventually he decided that I was familiar enough with it and that we should do something fun since the day had been rather boring. Even though it was boring learning all that stuff I did have fun learning it with him, which was my plus to the torture I just ensued.
"Do you want to go swimming?" He asked as we walked back upstairs to his room.
"Where?"
"Well there is the pool or the river?" I forgot they had a pool and I certainly didn't know that there was a river running through their estate.
"Either." I don't mind.
"Okay let's do it this way. The cold river or the warm pool?"
"The warm pool." The river was outside and knowing me I'd get sick or something. Best just to stay indoors.
"Good. Do you want to go get changed up here or down there?" He asked as he rooted through his drawers for his trunks.
"I don't have anything to wear." He turned and smirked.
"That's not a problem." I glared at him until he shook his head and continued. "Alice bought you a few things." I groaned inwardly, who knows what monstrosity she wants to put me in? "They're in your room on the fourth drawer down I think." He shrugged and started changing so I dashed out the room and shut the door behind me.
Looking in the drawer he said I found three bikinis, all a little more revealing than I would have liked. The only difference between them was their colours. Deciding just to go with the plainest I settled for the dark blue one. I changed in my room and I'm glad I did since I practically felt naked with so little material covering me. I will get Alice back for this.
Deciding that I was not walking through the house like this I threw on a rugby shirt that was like a dress on me which I found in my closet. I padded through the house after checking Edward's room; he must have gone down to the pool. When I entered he was sitting at the edge of the pool opposite me, smiling at my appearance.
"Please tell me you're not swimming in that, it'll drown you." I looked over what he was wearing, or not wearing, and blushed. His chest better looking now than it was without all those bruises on it. He really looked amazing.
"No...it's just I'm not so sure on...I feel uncomfortable with how little material I'm wearing under it."I admitted sitting down on the other side of the pool and slipping my legs up to my shins in the nice warm water. Of course they had a heated pool.
"I'm sure it's not as bad as your making it out to be. Take off the rugby shirt?" He requested, setting the full force of his eyes on me which broke down my defence and I hesitantly slipped it off and placed it behind me, finally turning to see Edward.
He was sitting there frozen, hands in lap, mouth partly opened, legs stationary in the water, and his topaz eyes looking at my body. I blushed feeling even more self-conscious than before. Quickly I folded my arms over my chest, to give myself some reassurance that I wasn't flashing in this nonexistent bikini.
Edward remained frozen for what felt like forever though it was probably only a few seconds. He had licked his lips several times and swallowed rather obviously more times than I could count. It was as though a trance was suddenly broken when he shot his head down into his lap.
"Sorry, I didn't mean to stare." He mumbled, clearly embarrassed, before sliding into the pool. I noticed he was standing and the water level went up to just below his shoulders. I slid in aswell; the water lever was just above my shoulders and made my way towards him.
"You looked...I mean you look...breathtaking." He whispered when I was standing within inches of him. "You completely floored me there and I'm sure if I had been standing I would have hit the floor." I blushed again and shook my head. He's probably just trying to make up for the fact me was staring for so long.
Edward wrapped my arms round his neck and then manoeuvred my legs so that they wrapped round his waist under the water. I felt slightly uncomfortable but all was forgotten when he kissed me. His lips were just to die for. We would have remained like that but were once again interrupted by Emmett who decided to cannon ball into the pool, completely soaking us.
I disentangled myself from Edward, blushing furiously at the position I had been caught in, and took in the scene before me. Alice was standing smirking an all knowing look at us, Jasper looked surprised but just shook his head laughing, Emmett was running out the pool in his boxers to dive bomb in again and Rose's look was hard to decipher.
She didn't look mad but she didn't seem pleased with something either. After the four of them got changed and joined us Rose indicated for me to come over. I apprehensively swam away from the others who were setting up a volleyball net across the pool.
"Have you told him?" She asked, inspecting her nails with her legs in the water.
"Told who what?" I had a slight idea what she was talking about but didn't want to bring it up here.
"Told Edward about James." I shook my head and she sighed loudly.
"Look Bella I'm telling you as a friend stop being an idiot and tell him already. I told Emmett-" I cut her off.
"Why?!" I said a bit too loudly, catching the others attention for a few seconds. The look Edward held told me I was going to inform him of what we had been talking about.
"Emmett can look out for you. Bella I don't think you know what you're dealing with here."
"I don't care, it was nothing. Nothing happened. I don't need Emmett looking out for me Rose. I don't need protecting." She stood up and started to walk away before turning round once more.
"I said the same thing." She walked over to Emmett and wrapped herself in his arms. I didn't understand what she was getting at but didn't have time to think about it as Edward walked over concerned.
"What was that about?" He was worried about me.
"Nothing." I lied. He didn't need to know. He would just worry more and that's not what I need right now. He didn't seem to buy it but let it drop anyway.
This was certainly a complication I didn't need at this moment, lying to Edward. I'm only doing it to help him. I don't want him getting hurt. I don't want any of them getting hurt that's why I'm trying to keep this to myself. But I really shouldn't be thinking about this at the moment. My nerves should be round tomorrow night's ball and the pressure of remembering everything Edward taught me.
I kissed him quickly, looking for a distraction, but couldn't help the gnawing feeling at the back of my mind telling me I'd made a mistake somewhere along the way and it was going to come back and bite me.