Beta: RandomatGedz
Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight, sadly :(
Living Royal
Chapter Thirty One
"What? James? Are you sure?" Edward asked, shocked. James had been with them for ten years. He couldn't believe that he'd betray them that way.
"Yes, I mean, I think so. I heard him talking on his mobile phone just as I was about to come in here. He was saying something about being fed up with having to do someone's dirty work. I could be reading too much into it, I just have a feeling about this."
Bella watched Edward carefully as she spoke. His expression turned from disbelief to anger and his hands turned to fists on the table. Then he got up and headed for the door.
"Where are you going?" Bella asked, frantic.
"To see my father, I need him to have the SS look into James' past."
"The SS?"
"The Secret Service. They usually do a background check on anyone who works here, but they must have missed something this time." He walked out of the room.
"Edward, wait! What if I'm wrong?" Bella ran after him.
"That's why I'm going to my father instead of directly to James. We'll find everything out, don't worry." He left Bella and headed to his father's study.
Bella was left to worry and pace for the next three hours until Edward finally came back.
"What happened? What took you so long?" She rushed to him as soon as he entered the room.
He ran his fingers through his hair before answering.
"Sorry, it took a bit of time for the secret service to figure out why James would spy on us."
"So it is him? You're sure?"
Edward nodded, "Yes, it all makes sense now."
"How? What did you find out?"
Edward looked at Bella calmly before he said, "James is Tanya's cousin." Le GASP!
"What? Her cousin? And you never knew that? I thought she was your best friend."
"She was, but apparently James is from the less fortunate branch of Tanya's family, so they don't speak of them very often." He explained.
"And she made him get a job here so he could spy on you?"
"That's what he said, yes."
"So, you've questioned him?"
"Yes, he admitted everything. She put him up to this so she could come between us. She wanted him to report back to her about my whereabouts. As if that would work."
Bella couldn't believe the lengths some people took to get what they wanted. Even if what they wanted could never belong to them.
"So what happens now? To James, I mean." Bella asked.
"He has to be punished; otherwise everyone would think that it's alright to spy on us, that they'd get away with it." Edward explained, gravelly.
"So you're firing him?"
Edward shook his head, "He's going to be tried. What he did is a capital offence, Bella."
Bella froze in shock, "But, isn't that too harsh a punishment?"
"Of course not! Can you imagine what sort of details could have been leaked to the public if we hadn't found out about him?" Edward asked, vehemently.
Bella could sense his anger rising but she couldn't keep quiet. She had to say something.
"I still think firing him is a harsh enough punishment, Edward." She insisted.
"You don't know what it's like being in a position like ours, Bella. People always try to take advantage of you and you need to make sure they know what the penalty is." Edward waved his hands angrily in the air as he spoke and Bella noticed his bruised knuckles.
"Edward! What happened to your hands?" She grabbed one of his hands frantically.
"Nothing, it's just a bruise, don't worry about it." He tried to calm her down.
"Yes, but how did you get it?"
Edward wasn't able to look her in the eye.
"You beat James, didn't you? Edward, how could you?" She dropped his hand and stepped back.
"You weren't there, Bella. You didn't hear what he said." Edward muttered angrily.
"No matter what he said, you should've controlled yourself. You're going to be King someday Edward, you can't act that way."
"Thankfully, I'm not king yet."
Bella sighed in frustration and shook her head.
"Just out of curiosity, what did he say to make you so angry?" She asked after a few seconds of tense silence.
"Just some rubbish, nothing to be concerned about." Edward dismissed it quickly, making Bella even more curious.
"If it had been rubbish, you wouldn't have hit him. He must've really struck a nerve with you, Edward. What did he say?"
Edward looked resigned.
"He said…that a commoner would never be fit to become Queen. At least that's what he meant. His words weren't very…polite."
Bella digested his words for a minute.
"Did you put your weight behind it?"
Edward's head snapped up in shock. It took him several seconds to realize that she was talking about the punch. "Um, yeah?"
"Good." Bella nodded, pleased.
They both grinned at each other before bursting into laughter, the tension of the past few hours already forgotten.
"Thank God, I didn't invite Tanya to the wedding. That would've turned into a disaster." Bella exclaimed.
Edward pulled Bella close and rested his forehead against hers.
"I'll never let anyone ruin our wedding day, Bella. I promise."
"I know. I mean, with all the preparations and security we've got, what could possibly go wrong?"
Later, a thought crossed Bella's mind that she should've known better. Several things seemed to go wrong at once with only one week left until the wedding. The florists messed up with the flower arrangements. It drove Alice so crazy that she begged Esme to have the florists thrown in jail. Thankfully, Esme was able to convince her that it wouldn't look very good for the Royal family.
In addition to that, the wedding cake toppled over when a maid accidentally bumped into it and they had to redo it all over again. The poor maid became hysterical; it took Esme herself to assure her that she wouldn't be punished, that it was an accident.
All through that, Bella tried to remain calm and hope for the best. The public's reaction to the wedding was more than positive. They seemed to be so excited and happy for them. They were even camped out already to be able to catch a glimpse of them when they made their way from the church to the Palace.
While all of this was going on, Edward was surprisingly unavailable most of the time. He would get important calls all of a sudden and leave the room to answer them. Bella barely saw him at all. When she asked what was keeping him so busy, he said that he had a few surprises for her that he needed to plan perfectly.
She missed him terribly, but she saw that it was important for him to plan those surprises. It never ceased to amaze her how much he was willing to make her happy. She always felt bad about not being able to give him back half of what he was giving her. She tried to look for a gift to give him on their wedding night; it took her a long time to find the perfect one. It was simple but it had sentimental value and that's what mattered, she decided.
Three days before the wedding, Bella found out the first of Edward's surprises when she saw her parents coming through the Palace's doors.
"Mom! Dad!" She ran over and hugged them both. She hadn't realized how much she'd missed them until that moment.
"Hey, sweetie!" Renee hugged her daughter back tightly. "That fiancé of yours is so considerate. He had us flown over here so we could spend these few days with you before you're off on your honeymoon."
"Oh, I missed you guys so much."
"We missed you too, honey." Charlie said.
Bella saw Edward coming in behind her parents, and she mouthed 'Thank you' to him. He winked back.
Bella spent the rest of the day with her parents in their rooms until it was time for bed. She said goodnight to them and headed back to her and Edward's room, but was stopped by Alice before she reached it.
"Nu-uh, no seeing the groom before the wedding." Alice admonished her.
"Doesn't that only apply to the day of the wedding? We still have three days left." Bella whined.
"Nope, see I have this theory," Alice began to explain and Bella rolled her eyes. "I believe that the more time you spend apart from your husband-to-be, the more you miss each other, therefore you'll be guaranteed to have an amazing wedding night." She explained.
"But, at least let me say bye to Edward."
"He's already gone."
"Gone where?"
"He's out with Jasper and some of their friends and won't be back till late, come on!" Alice whined.
"Okay, okay. Where are we going anyway?" She let Alice drag her along.
"Edward arranged for us to spend the next few days in a nearby five star hotel, full spa treatment and everything!" Alice was practically vibrating with excitement.
Bella, Alice, Rosalie and Esme, as well as Renee, took the Rolls Royce to the hotel. Most of the staff was waiting for them in the lobby, Bella was starting to get used to that. They were led to the suite where they would be staying.
It was beautiful of course, they couldn't have been offered anything less.
Bella took the opportunity while the ladies were changing for bed to text Edward.
I miss you –B
He replied almost immediately.
I miss you too, baby. Alice said it would be better if we spend theses days apart – E
I'm going to kill that little pixie –B
I can see the headlines now, 'Future Queen goes on rampage days before Royal wedding.' – E
Yeah, that wouldn't look good, would it? – B
Afraid not ;) – E
"Hey, Bella! Don't make me steal your phone." Alice caught Bella after she finished changing.
Damn Pixie.
"Okay, okay. Hold your horses." Bella muttered.
Gotta go. I'm caught. Love you. –B
Love you too, babe. I'll meet you at the altar – E
I'll be the one in white – B
"Okay, done." Bella put the phone away before Alice did anything drastic.
Later, all the ladies gathered and started throwing question after question at Bella.
"So, tell us honestly, how good is Edward in bed?" Alice asked.
"Alice!" Bella hissed, glancing nervously at Esme.
Esme giggled, "It's alright Bella. You can answer if you want and I'll just pretend you're not talking about my son."
Bella shook her head adamantly, refusing to say a word.
They spent the rest of the night talking and laughing. Even the Queen was so relaxed and jubilant. Bella was so happy that Esme and Renee seemed to be getting along too.
The next day they spent the morning at the Spa, which was beyond relaxing. Then Bella, Alice and Rosalie had to have a final fitting for their dresses just to be sure that everything was perfect.
The day after that was spend similarly, with all the ladies relaxing and enjoying their time. Sometime that afternoon, Bella was alone in her room when someone knocked on her door.
She looked through the peephole, but there wasn't anyone there. She opened the door slowly and looked around.
"Hello?"
No one answered.
What if it was James, coming to take revenge? Oh God, she was all alone. What would she do?
She screamed when she felt someone wrap their arms around her middle.
"Shh, it's alright baby. It's me."
She sighed in relief.
Edward.
"You asshole! You scared the crap out of me!" She punched him.
Edward laughed, "Sorry, sorry. I just wanted to surprise you."
He kissed her neck and Bella melted against him.
"I missed you." He whispered.
"Missed you too." Bella moaned as her continued to kiss her neck.
She turned around and wrapped her arms around his neck.
"You should go, though. Before Alice catches us. That would be really bad."
"Well, it's good then that I brought Jasper with me to distract her isn't it?"
Bella grinned, "You're a genius!"
"I know." Edward said before kissing her and pulling her back into the room. They spent the next couple of hours undisturbed, which led Bella to believe that Alice and jasper were doing exactly what she and Edward were doing.
Making out like there was no tomorrow.
"I really should go." Edward said between kisses. They were lying on the bed with Bella on her back and Edward leaning over her.
"Wait, just a few more minutes."
"I wish but I can't. I have to meet with my father in a few minutes."
"What for?"
"Just some last minute preparations. You want tomorrow to be perfect, don't you?"
"I want you there, that's all I need." She replied.
"Ditto. Unfortunately that's not good enough for dad."
"Okay, then. I guess you should go before we incur his Royal wrath and decides to call off the wedding."
"If he does that, then we'll elope. I'm not letting anything stop me from making you my wife tomorrow. Not even his Royal Majesty."
Bella kissed him quickly, "Good."
"I'll see you tomorrow." Edward kissed her forehead and got up to leave.
"I'll be …"
"The one in white, yes I know." He finished for her with a wink then disappeared out the door.
Bella giggled and shook her head. God, she couldn't wait to marry him.
Only a few more hours until she was officially Mrs. Cullen.
(A/N): Next Chapter = Royal Wedding!
Thanks for all of your wonderful reviews! Love ya!
My beta suggested that I write an outtake of Edward's pov when he interrogated James, what do you guys think?
Oh and I created a group for this fic on Facebook: http: / / www . facebook . com / groups/ 240227882707835/ ?ref = ts
Just remove the spaces :)