Chapter One

Cullen Home, Montana, 2009

As she sat on the porch and stared out into the surrounding forest, Alice could see why people fell in love with Montana. This was one place that the family had actually never been before, and with the new additions to the family, it seemed to give everyone much needed breathing space.

The warm rays of sun slipped through the trees stretching golden bars across the deck. Alice extended her foot slightly so only the tip gave away what she really was. She wiggled her toes, delighting in the warm sensation, and they glistened back at her. A shadow seemed to pass across her thoughts and she wondered what it would have been like to feel warmth under her own skin, or the sensation of not constantly hiding from the sun. These melancholy thoughts had been more frequent now things had settled down in Montana, and they upset Alice. She didn't want to feel discontented with her life, not now she had got so much in it to hold her.

As her thoughts moved to Jasper, she felt the pull of a vision and watched as her husband made another unsuccessful attempt to sneak up on her. She rolled her eyes, and with a small smile playing on her lips, began to count down.

3 ...2 ...1

A pair of warm hands wrapped themselves around her, and she breathed in deeply, comforted by Jasper's warm musky scent. She leant up to kiss him, before reclining back and admiring his slightly disgruntled face.

'Caught me again huh?' he said. Although his tone was frustrated, Alice could see the corners of his lips turning up into an amused smile. He would try again tomorrow, and, as before, she would catch him. He settled himself next to her on the bench, and, there they sat for a while, in silence. Unlike most couples who communicated by words, they seemed to communicate more in the spaces in between.

Alice knew that Jasper was feeling her mood, trying to decipher what bothered her. She tried briefly to hide her sadness from him, not wanting him to suffer for her inexplicable longing for something she cannot have. But, eventually she gave up trying to disguise her mood and simply sat with him.

'We could go back' Jasper's voice was barely a whisper, even to her vampire hearing. Alice reluctantly pulled herself up from his lap and looked into his eyes. His words had taken her aback.

'How did you know?' Alice had always appreciated Jasper's insight into her emotions, but never had she thought they were so in-tune with her thoughts. If he had ever guessed at the reasons behind her emotions before, it was either because she had made them clear or they were lucky guesses.

A rueful smile crept onto his lips. 'It's getting easier to tell. You've been thinking about your past more since we've been here, I know. I can feel the difference – you sadness has more...longing.' His face contorted slightly, in pain, when he admitted that she felt sad.

She sighed. 'I know there's no reason for it Jazz, and I don't understand.'

She felt his finger slide across her forehead, gently tracing her frown, and he tilted her head up towards him 'It's okay to think about your past, Alice. Carlisle, Esme, Edward, Emmett, even I, have had the time to forgive our pasts, to forget them, even. You haven't had that comfort. And Rosalie...'

Alice suddenly looked panicked at Jasper. What if she became like Rosalie? Trapped in her own past, constantly vengeful and unable to enjoy her future. She couldn't...wouldn't be that. How could she be so upset about a past she never knew?

But before Alice was even halfway through her malicious thoughts, Jasper was shaking his head.

'No Alice. You will never be like Rosalie, your experiences are different. You are different. And you know, I will always be in your future' He clasped her left hand in his own and turned her wedding band around on her finger.

Alice's thoughts brightened again at the thought of Jasper, her Jasper, the first time she had seen him. Dapper suit, hair glistening from the rain outside and frightened like a rabbit – it had been so simple then, everything sure and mapped out. What had changed? Nothing. Then why should it? Alice reasoned to herself that it shouldn't, and quashed any rising protests in her head.

'Alice?' Jasper was staring deeply down at her, and she realized it had been a while since she had spoken. She struggled to keep her emotions level and focused in on her precious memory of him.

'I'll drop it now, Jazz. If you're in my future, there's nothing much in my past I think I'll want.'

Jasper opened his mouth to protest, but Alice placed a finger over it and kissed him with as much love as she could muster into such a small physical action. When she pulled away though, she could still see the worry in his eyes.

'It's okay. Honestly.' She ran her hands through his hair and smiled in anticipation as another vision swept over her. Jasper looked at her curiously, feeling the waves of excitement coming from her.

'The past can wait for awhile...especially since the future looks so appealing!' Without another word, Jasper whisked Alice from the porch into the house.

How could she ever have been interested in her past, when her future was always so much brighter?

***

The old woman drew in one raspy breath after another, her veins popping out from her arms like rivers. She knew she had only got moments left before she left this world, and to leave the past in such a state mortified her. Her body lay quite still on the soft bed, a nurse sat quietly beside her – she no longer heard what she said. Her mind drifted across her cluttered room, from the collections of half-read books to discarded powders and lotions on the dressing table. But the most precious item lay out of her eye line, locked inside the wardrobe. It would only look like a dull wooden box to anyone who found it, stuffed with dusty papers, but it had always been something that had fascinated and scared her in equal measure. The mystery of her family just sitting there –

A jarring breath caught in her chest, and after a slight pause, she felt herself drift into darkness. Her thoughts of the box vanished, leaving it unclaimed.

The nurse tearfully arranged the woman so that she looked comfortable before drawing the curtains and leaving the room. Going downstairs, she picked up the phone and told the hospital that at 3am that morning, Evelyn Brandon had died.

***

Back in Montana, Alice shook with a start. Her naked body lifting itself from her husband's, she whirled towards the wardrobe – not quite aware of what she was doing and still dazed. She remembered flashes of the vision: An old woman, and the name Brandon had been brought up, so she supposed that had been her name. Then there was a box...yes! Definitely a box, with something important in it. The woman had clearly died in the vision and Alice briefly wondered whether she should feel sad for this potential relation of hers.

Turning round, she noticed Jasper standing concerned, but dressed and ready for action – one of the many perks of having an ex-soldier for a husband. He waited for her to speak, although by his expression he might have burst if she had made him wait any longer.

Unable to explain more, Alice tried to control her erratic breathing and spoke quickly,

'Something's happened...We are going to Mississippi, Jasper...now'