Chapter 25 – Rosalie – Revelations.

"Everything changes, whether you want it to or not. But people…they can change the most, right when you're not expecting it."

Like Royce, I thought silently, who had gone from being my Prince Charming to being the monster of all my nightmares. Like me, who had gone from being the princess in the castle to the little girl alone in the woods.

But the warm arm slung casually across my shoulders told me different, because I wasn't alone. I had Emmett and in all the changing world his strength and kindness was the one thing that had never faltered.

So maybe not everything had to change.

The dance was being held in a community hall, and I could hear the music and see the light spilling out of the open doors as we approached. There were groups of people standing around outside, laughing and talking, and I felt my spirits lift. I loved parties and I loved to dance, and even if it wasn't exactly the thing to do in my condition I made up my mind to have a good time.

It was hard to relax though, with so many people staring at me. There were whispers and the occasional giggle, and many sly comments made to Emmett, but I ignored as much as I could and subdued several of them with my most imperious stare.

"You look so pretty tonight," Emmett said, giving me a dimpled grin and offering a cup of punch.

"Thank you." I took a sip and made a face. "What's wrong with it?"

"Jeb probably doctored it up a bit," Emmett shrugged and threw back his punch in one swallow.

I drank the rest of mine but shook my head when Emmett offered more. It wasn't that I never drank alcohol, I liked champagne and pretty coloured cocktails and had drunk plenty of them, but the taste of the whisky was too strong and the smell of it was bringing up uncomfortable memories.

…acting like a whore…mine, bought and paid for…

I jumped violently as a hand on my back alerted me to Emmett's return.

"Whoa," he said softly. "Are you okay?"

"Do you have to drink that?" I said abruptly.

"What, the punch?" Emmett sounded confused.

"The whisky that's in it."

Emmett shrugged. "No harm in it. Jeb made it, so it's not going to kill me, unlike some of the other poison I've drunk in my day."

"I don't like it," I said tightly.

"Like I said, no harm in it," Emmett said, drinking the last dregs in his glass. "Just fun for a night out…"

"Well, you stay and have fun," I said tersely. "I'm going home."

I turned and made my way as quickly as I could through the crowd to the door. I knew I was overreacting, but I couldn't help it. Everything about the night was wrong, and as the memories of Royce and what he had done to me, usually under the influence of alcohol although not always, rose up in my mind I knew I had to escape.

…acting like a whore…mine, bought and paid for…

"Rosalie!"

I heard Emmett behind me, but I didn't stop. I kept walking as fast as I could along the paved street, heading towards the dirt road and Emmett's home, pretending that it wasn't tears that were making my cheeks wet.

"Rosalie! Wait!"

Jogging, Emmett reached me and then effortlessly fell into step beside me. He didn't touch me, and in fact for a little while he just kept pace silently. It wasn't until we were heading down the long, dark road towards home that he spoke.

"Do you want to tell me about it?"

I swallowed hard. "I'm sorry," I said stiffly. "I shouldn't have come…I should have let you go on your own and have a good time."

"Rosa girl, why? I wanted you to come. I wanted to go out and have fun with you. I thought you'd like it." Emmett sounded bewildered.

How can I explain this to you? How can I talk about the ghosts that are haunting me when you've done everything in your power to chase them away?

"I appreciate that you wanted to take me out," I said slowly. "I thought I would like it; you're right that I like dances and parties. And it means a lot that you're not embarrassed to be seen with me."

"Embarrassed? Because of…this?" Emmett's big hand spread across the curve of my belly. "Oh Rosalie, never. Do you know how beautiful you are? I know you need time, and I'm going to give it to you, but I've loved you for a long time. Right from the very first moment I saw you…I thought you were like the most beautiful angel in heaven, and I still think that. I want to be with you, baby and all, and I mean that."

"Oh Emmett." Impulsively I turned and hugged him, feeling the hard bump of the baby in between us and the way my heart felt so much lighter just for talking with him. "I'm sorry. I didn't like you drinking, that's all. You didn't do anything, but just the way it smelled made me…remember things. He was always worse when he'd been drinking."

A spasm of pain crossed Emmett's face. "I hate him so much for what he did to you…and I'm so damn sorry that I never stepped in sooner! I didn't know everything, I never knew he hurt you, but I knew enough that I should have done something. Do you forgive me for not stopping him, or not giving you a way out sooner?"

Oh, my heart… "That was never up to you," I whispered. "What could you have done?"

"Beat the shit out of him," Emmett suggested with a lopsided smile. "I'm not bad with my fists you know…not all dances were as peaceful as that one tonight and I've had my fair share of fights!"

I couldn't help laughing. I'd seen the scars on Emmett's knuckles, and I'd guessed as much. "But if you'd done that, he would have had you thrown in prison," I pointed out. "Even if all you'd done was look at him the wrong way you'd have lost the job and you wouldn't have been able to help your family. And I wouldn't have had you at all, if that had been the way it happened. So please, don't ever think that I blame you at all. There was never anything you could have done."

Emmett held me closer, and I felt him lower his face and kiss the top of my head, before he held my hands and the two of us turned towards home.

I woke in the morning to find Elizabeth snuggled in beside me, talking quietly with her Rosie doll. Despite having her own bed she liked to sneak into other beds in the middle of the night and sleep cuddled up against various members of her family. I was oddly flattered to wake up and realise that I was now considered part of that for her.

Feeling me stir she wriggled around and flung her arms around me. "Good morning Rosalie!" she chirped.

"Good morning to you too," I answered, yawning and stretching. The empty beds and abandoned blankets showed that Maggie and Hannah were already up, and I wondered again how lazy they must all think I was. I was always the last one awake in the morning.

"Your belly was poking me," Elizabeth said in disapproval.

"What?" I said, startled.

"Like this." Elizabeth gave me a very gentle poke in my belly, and almost immediately I felt a strong kick from the little passenger inside. "See, it did it again!"

"I can't believe you can feel that!" I was absurdly pleased. "That's my baby!"

"There's a baby in you?" Elizabeth said in surprise. "I thought you just had a fat tummy."

I laughed. "No, it's a baby."

Elizabeth was wriggling again, with excitement this time. "A real baby? Can I hold it? And play with it? I'll be very, very careful!"

I hugged her until she was still. "Yes, you can hold the baby when it comes," I told her. "I'm sure it will love having someone to give it cuddles."

"But who will be the baby's daddy?" Elizabeth asked a moment later, anxiety clear in her voice. "Is Emmett going to be the daddy? Or my daddy? He's got lots of kids already so he knows what to do and Emmett doesn't know anything. Or maybe you could choose Mr Shepherd the schoolteacher to be the baby's daddy? He's nice and hardly ever yells and only uses the strap on the really bad kids like Will."

I giggled, even though tears prickled at my eyes at the thought of my fatherless little baby. It should have been born into the endless wealth and privilege of the King family, and yet I'd taken it away to…what?

"Don't worry," I said, talking as much to myself as to Elizabeth. "We'll work something out for this baby. Now come on little Miss Trouble, let's get up. What's happening today?"

"Emmett and Will went hunting already," she told me, jumping from the bed and swinging Rosie doll by her feet. "They want to get a deer and if they do Daddy said he would use the skin and make me some new slippers. Hannah is going to make blackberry pancakes for breakfast…"

Still chattering, Elizabeth disappeared out the bedroom door, and after I took off my nightgown and pulled on one of my increasingly ill-fitting dresses I went out after her.

Hannah indeed made blackberry pancakes for breakfast and they were delicious. Despite being two years younger than me, Hannah McCarty made me feel as foolish and incompetent as a child sometimes. My mother had taught me to cook, but not on a wood burning stove like the McCarty's had and certainly not with ingredients like rabbit. As for cleaning, I'd never had to do that in my life, unlike Hannah who was probably born holding a broom. She was lovely and never tried to make me feel awkward, but her skills played on insecurities I hadn't even realised I had until I came to Tennessee.

When I was finishing the last of my pancakes, Miss Adeline came into the room with a cardboard box. "Patterns," she told me, placing the box beside me. "You said you can sew? Can you follow a pattern?"

"Yes," I said cautiously. "I think so." Mother had seen to it that I had lessons in fancy needlework and knitting and lace crochet, but I had also learned plain sewing from Vera's mother and was fairly sure I could follow a basic pattern. "What do you want to make?"

"I thought it was about time we made a start on sewing for that baby of yours," Miss Adeline said cheerfully. "I have patterns here for a basic baby nightdress, as well as knitting patterns for cardigans and bootees and hats and diaper covers. We can go through the bureau and see what materials and yarn we can find, and then we'll know what we have to buy." She eyed me carefully. "It's probably not what you thought you'd do for your baby," she said finally.

"Not exactly," I said truthfully, remembering with a sudden stab the silver teething ring I'd bought the day my pregnancy had been confirmed. "But it will do fine. I can sew, and I can make these things nicely."

"Good girl." That was all Miss Adeline said, but I felt warm with her approval. She was always encouraging, but she didn't praise unless she really meant it.

We went through to the living room after the breakfast dishes were done. Unsurprisingly, Hannah, Maggie and Elizabeth all came along too. It was one of the hardest things for me about living with Emmett's family, that nothing was every private. Every single activity or chore was undertaken with an audience of curious and opinionated McCartys, and I almost never had a moment to myself.

"I keep all my fabric in the bureau in here," Miss Adeline told me, pulling out the bottom drawer and beginning to sort through the contents with her usual brisk efficiency. "The pieces we'll need for some newborn clothes won't be very big so we should find plenty."

Whatever visions I still cherished of my little baby dressed in fine white lawn and linen vanished with a quiet sigh. The fabric Miss Adeline was piling up on the floor varied widely, but none of it was what I had been dreaming of. There were offcuts from dresses and skirts and blouses, some of which I recognised, and then there were outgrown clothes that could be repurposed. None of it was the pretty pastel shades that I had always imagined my baby wearing. But I swallowed my disappointment and made a small pile of pieces that were suitable. An old navy dress of Elizabeth's could be cut down, some flowered offcuts from when they'd made Hannah a blouse, a checked shirt from Emmett or his father that had been torn right across the front, but that would give more than enough fabric for a baby nightgown from the back and sleeves.

Miss Adeline had just opened a drawer full of yarn when we suddenly heard shouts from the yard. "That's Will," she said abruptly. "Something's happened."

Emmett.

My heart went cold. Emmett had been out hunting with Will…if Will was back, where was Emmett? Scrambling to my feet I followed Miss Adeline out in to the yard.

"Ma!" Will, covered in blood, threw himself at his mother. "It's Emmett, he got hurt…there was a bear and there's so much blood Ma, and Emmett told me to come home and get Pa because he can't walk and I need, I need…"

It was as though the world fell away from under my feet. Emmett was hurt and bleeding, alone in the forest…a wordless cry forced itself from my lips.

Miss Adeline's face was white. "Maggie. Run to the Allison's and get your daddy and Mr Allison and Jeb. Fast as you can! Will? Where's Emmett? Will? Where were you hunting?"

Will's gasped out a garbled explanation in between sobs. "There was that bear I've been seeing Ma. Emmett got between her and her baby…it was an accident, honest! We weren't doing anything wrong, but the bear attacked Emmett and clawed him all up. I threw a stick and then Emmett got off a shot and the bears ran away, but oh Ma, Emmett was all bloody and ripped open!"

"Can you tell me where you were? Where is Emmett?"

"I don't know, we went a fair way…I'll be able to find it but I don't know if I can tell you." Will looked terrified. "We've got to go and get Emmett!"

"We'll wait for your daddy," Miss Adeline said, smoothing his hair with a steady hand. "He can bring Emmett home."

I didn't know how she could be so calm, while I could barely breathe. Will's account, as brief and lacking in detail as it was, had terrified me. Surely there had to be some kind of mistake? It couldn't be true that Emmett, bright and indomitable Emmett, had been hurt so badly!

I could feel myself shaking and, clutching a post, I sank down onto the porch with a small whimper. Miss Adeline looked over and said sharply, "Rosalie, get a hold of yourself. We don't know anything yet. Hannah, get Rosalie a drink of water."

Silently Hannah obeyed, and I clutched the jar of water like it could stop me from drowning as I watched Mr McCarty return with the Allison men and the three of them disappear into the forest, following Will. They were carrying a door with them, in case they needed to carry Emmett back.

It will only be because he's too injured to walk! It won't be worse than that, it won't!

For a long moment, those of us left behind were silent in our shared fear. Stephen and Elizabeth clung to their mother, and Hannah and Maggie held hands as I sat on the porch. Deep inside my baby was moving, rolling and kicking, and I thought how peculiar that I was sitting here feeling such elemental life, when Emmett lay out in the forest maybe dying.

"We need to be ready," Miss Adeline announced at last, stirring us all back into action. "Will said Emmett's hurt bad and he's going to need tending. Hannah, fill the big pot and put it on to boil, and Maggie, you can scrub the kitchen table. I'll find an old sheet to have ready for bandages. Elizabeth and Stephen, you wait out here with Rosalie and call us as soon as you see them."

I would have lived every moment of my marriage to Royce over again rather than relive the agony of waiting for Emmett's return. To not know what was happening, to have no idea how badly he was hurt, or whether he was even alive or dead was nothing less than torturous. To realise how deeply I loved him and how empty the world would seem without him, right when losing him was a very real possibility, was like having my heart ripped out.

Emmett please, please come back…I need you. I love you. Loving you has been the very best, and rightest thing I've ever done…please come home and let me tell you.

A/N – Thought we needed some more canon tie-in, and what's more canon than Emmett and a bear? This chapter was also about showing how Rosalie is still heavily influenced by what happened in her life with Royce even though now she's safe and learning to trust Emmett.

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