A/N: This chapter is written chiefly in letters to each other (hence the chapter name) so please let me know if you have a hard time following it.

Musical Inspiration: Rose - Titanic Soundtrack (I use several of the same songs for different chapters, so you're not going crazy... I get inspiration from a main pool of songs)

Chapter 7 – Respectfully Yours

BPOV

"Angela, I can't even begin to explain what happened to me today, so don't ask me why; I don't even know.

Remember I wrote you yesterday about my misadventure in the Masen house? Well guess who just left MY house?

Mr. Cullen! Yup, the same guy who threatened to kill me! He was like a different person entirely! I'm so confused! First he came back to give me the camera I had left, so I'll get to email you those awesome pics! Yay!

Then he proceeded to apologize for the way he acted! He said he had just come from his good friend's burial service or funeral or something. I felt bad, and said so but he felt worse.

If that's not amazing enough, hold on to your socks; he told me he was leaving and never expected to return and that I could go into the house and basically be there as often as I wanted and everything!

And then, to top it all off he told me I looked beautiful yesterday in his

Angela I'm going to have to write you back."

His what? How could it be his mother's dress it was over a hundred years old!? Maybe he meant to say his grandmother's dress. That would make more sense.

Wait, no it wouldn't; the Masen's had no grandchildren because their only son died as a teenager.

Unless he had an illegitimate child. You never know.

I closed my laptop and shoved the nearest shoes onto my feet. I glanced out the window of my room. As suspected, there was no sign of Mr. Cullen's shiny silver Volvo.

I hurried out the door and into the back door of 112. As promised the door was unlocked and waiting for me just inside was an envelope with my name written in beautiful script.

I eagerly opened it up and out fell a key. A heavy iron key, it must go to the back door, though because it did not have the fancy look of the front door.

Inside was also a small letter written in the same beautiful handwriting.

"Miss Bella,

Please keep this key as close to your heart as you keep my house. If ever you must move, I have left a forwarding address that I ask you to send the key to. Upon receiving it, the house will be donated to the historical society of Chicago. Until then, please consider it yours as long as you want it. I can see by your photographs that you do love the house and respect the things in it. I trust you fully to look after it, though I would hardly ask the lady of the house to keep it up. That is done once a month by Debra, she comes in to clean the floors, dust the shelves and the carpets… you have nothing to worry about except pleasing yourself and your own curiosities here. Please treat the house as your own and if you have any questions about anything in it, do not hesitate to write me about them; I will be more than pleased to recount the histories of this grand old house to any ears eager to hear them. Cherish it, Bella it's the only one of its kind in the country, I promise you that. I have but one request to ask in return, please keep the house to yourself. It is yours to freely roam and even live in as you like, but I ask that no one else reside there with you. Of course you must tell your father if one day you choose to take up permanent residence there, but I ask that no one else be permitted to live there besides you.

Respectfully, Edward Cullen.

138945 English Ivy Circuit

Forks, Washington 98331"

'Hmm, so the E. stands for Edward… what a coincidence.' I thought, until I remembered the reason I had come here in the first place.

I refolded the note and tucked it into my pocket. Things were changing so quickly my head felt like it was spinning. I headed upstairs to the Masen's library and study. I remembered seeing something that resembled a family photo album, perhaps there was other information on Edward Masen, Jr.

I perused the albums until dark. Thankfully the library and study were in the back of the house where a light on would not be noticed. I found photographs about little Eddie, as he was referred to and a lovely baby book as well as a wealth of other sorts of documentation.

His birth certificate was marked June 20th 1901, and there was a locket that contained what was recorded to be several locks of his hair from his first haircut; age seven. The locks of hair were the same odd shade of bronze as Mr. Cullen's.

In everything I looked into I found every single piece of documentation a body would ever need; stocks, bonds, bank accounts… absolutely everything except death certificates.

Tomorrow I would go to the city offices and obtain copies of them, if nothing else, to complete the family history I had found here tonight.

In his letter he had encouraged me to ask any questions about the house I had, and the family history was part and parcel to the whole thing. I would ask him about the slip he had had today and his exact relationship he had to the Masens. I could assure him that no soul would ever hear it from me; I would hold his secret in my heart to my grave.

I carefully locked the door before going home to prepare Charlie's dinner. I made tomorrow night's dinner in advance; I didn't plan on leaving my new house at al tomorrow except for the reason of gaining access to the family's death certificates and, if possible, burial records.

Tomorrow could not come quickly enough. I barely slept at all that night, so I decided to write to Mr. Cullen.

"Mr. Cullen,

I am sure you did not expect a letter from me so soon, but I wanted, first to thank you for such a kind gesture. I plan on staying in the house tonight, and I hope, many after. I do love the house very much and just as intriguing to me is the history of the Masen family. I mean to ask you the mystery behind your comment today about your mother's dress. I realize you could not have meant that Mrs. Masen was your mother, but I wondered at her relationship to you. I suspect that it is she who you are more closely related to as your last names are different and the fact that you seemed to be more upset at my touching her things in particular.

I promise you that my intentions as to this inquiry are pure and any misgivings or secrets the family holds will be honored and taken to my grave. Perhaps is Mrs. Masen your grandmother? Could you be her illegitimate grandchild? If I have offended you, please forgive me; my curiosity will be my death as my mother used to tell me.

Respectfully, Bella Swan."

I mailed my letter to him on my way to the city offices the next morning. At the city offices I had no trouble gaining death certificates of both Mr. and Mrs. Masen, but Edward had no recorded death or burial certificate.

This puzzled me, and I decided to visit the cemetery that contained the Masen family. I found their plot, or rather Mausoleum, quite easily. The cemetery was quite large, with winding paths and nearly forests of trees surrounding them. It was a mixture between a cemetery and a walk in the woods.

Once I had found the correct mausoleum, I looked carefully around. Certain that no one in the sparsely visited cemetery was nearby, I pulled open the heavy iron door and went inside.

The place was dusty and held three caskets, all old looking and be-webbed. Despite the cobwebs and dust, the place was hardly creepy; light filtered in through the small windows near the top of the structure and the brightly painted walls made the place almost cheerful despite its purpose.

Three coffins… three bodies. Edward Sr., Elizabeth, and Edward Jr. But with no death certificate or burial record how could Edward the younger be here?

I took a deep breath, there was only one way to find out; what if Mr. Cullen found out about my record search and wanted the certificates and burial records of all three of his relatives? How could I prove my concern for his house and family history unless I went to great lengths to preserve both?

I held my breath as I unlocked and raised the lid of the coffin nearest me. I realized my eyes were closed and I peeked out of one eye to see what was laid out before me. Actually it was not as bad as I had suspected; there was no oozing, dripping, greasy corpse. Just a rather dried out looking woman, her features still posed to look as if she were merely sleeping. This must be Elizabeth, how beautiful she was, even in death; her hair was the same shade of bronze as the locket locks and as Mr. Cullen's.

I opened the casket to her right, it, too, held a rather dry looking man with a neatly trimmed brown beard, with round gold rimmed spectacles on his face. Edward Sr.

I took a deep breath, one left… Edward Junior. I opened the green casket on the far left of the mausoleum and by now expected to find a rather dry looking young man.

I squeaked at what I saw in its place; an empty coffin. Never used at all. It was pristine on the inside; nobody had ever lain here.

In those few seconds I found myself in the middle of an honest to goodness mystery. One I was quiet determined to solve.

I left the cemetery after closing the caskets back as I had found them and ensuring the door was secure.

As I was walking back toward the street I had the oddest feeling someone was watching me, but of course there was no one there.

"Okay, pull it together, Bella. You're not being followed, watched, stalked, or anything of the sort; your imagination is just on edge because of the records anomaly and you're letting it get to you."

I arrived back at my house and left Charlie a note saying I would be at a friend from school's house that night. That I did not yet have her phone number, but I would try to remember to get it A.S.A.P – I'd have my cell phone. Dinner is in the fridge.

I gathered my bag and walked over to 112. I let myself in the back door and locked it back up securely.

I ate the dinner I had brought and settled in a comfortable chair in the library to read one of the numerous novels on the many shelves. No more mystery tonight, just letting my brain relax might shake the feeling of being watched altogether.

I woke with a start. Something had made noise. I heard it again. The large grandfather clock downstairs chimed and I began to count. Midnight… I put down the copy of Jane Eyre that I'd selected hours before and headed up the stairs to the third floor.

I changed quickly into my tank top and shorts and pulled back the covers of the Masen boy's bed. It occurred to me as I lie there trying desperately to fall asleep again that the last person to la in this bed was here ninety years ago, and that he was lost in time.

That made me slightly uncomfortable, but I decided to think of other things to help me get to sleep. I started to figure difficult algebra problems in my head and was asleep before I could finish the first one.

EPOV

"Where is she, can you talk?" she asked.

"She's asleep in a chair in the library, don't worry, I can talk." I said.

"Edward, you know that I know that you know I saw something and you know I now want to know exactly what this means. Where are you and what, exactly, are you doing?"Alice asked.

She could be quite feisty when she was confused.

"Alice, I know you saw the girl. She lives across the street from my old house and she fell in love with it so I gave it to her." I said trying to sum everything up and get Alice off my back as soon as possible.

"Yeah, that I get, Edward… what I don't understand is that I saw you coming home yesterday and today I see you are quite undecided. What happened? What's going on?! I need to know, this suspense is killing me!" Alice whined.

"I know you want to be here, Alice, but trust me, now is NOT a good time. I think she's on to me…" I said, listening intently for any sign of her to stir.

"You think she is on to you… don't you know?" Alice asked incredulously.

"Alice, listen, I can't hear her thoughts… I know it's weird, but she's a blank to me. I actually have to watch her. I slipped up yesterday before I left… I thought she hadn't caught it, but it seems she did. She hasn't gotten her hands on any information, yet. But I want to stick around to make sure she doesn't, okay?" I said at vampire speed… usually Alice was my confidant and best friend, but at times she could be positively pest-like.

"She's your singer AND you can't hear her! WOW, how interesting. I'm coming down, see you tomorrow." Alice said.

"No! Alice, listen to me. I know you're bored now that the move is over, but you have to stay there. This is hard enough with just me watching her… I don't need anything new to worry about… " my mind suddenly started reeling with the possibilities that Alice would somehow come up with should she be allowed to come help.

"And just who is going to watch her when you have to hunt? She'll be free to find you at your game, dear brother. Just let Jasper and I come down and help you keep an eye on her; we'll switch out!" She said and with that I heard only dial tone.

I let out a long loud sigh and slumped back into my chair in the living room. I heard Bella stir up stairs. I listened as she put down her book and went, to my surprise, not across the hall, but upstairs to…my room?

As soon as I heard her breathing even out I crept up stairs and stood in my old doorway. Watching her sleep was fascinating. She was beautiful, of course, but the way she moved, so fluidly beneath the covers amazed me.

She was quite jumpy and clumsy during her waking hours. A dozen times today I had to stop myself from catching her when she fell, tripped or stumbled. It only intensifies everything that she likes to walk everywhere she goes.

But in her dreams she was as graceful as an angel. I sat there for over an hour, knowing that my time alone with her was short; Alice and Jasper would make it here from Forks n record time; when Alice was on a mission, wild horses could not stop her.

"Edward…where are you?" Bella asked in her sleep. It startled me to hear my name on her lips, but once I realized she was merely dreaming I whispered back.

"I'm right here, Bella. Where should I be?"

"I'm glad you're not dead, Edward." She said and turned over away from me.

I smiled, and was content to listen to her breathing for the rest of the night. I felt that wild horses could not keep me away from her either… even without vampire strength.

A/N: OKay, sorry so short; it's getting close to finals week and my writing is slowing just a bit... worry not; I will try to post a chapter each week or two... once school is out, my writing should pick up quite a bit - I have already had a few ideas for some new stories... no I'm not telling what they are.