Chapter 5
Her declaration left him speechless for a full minute. He then started pacing around the room.
"Who?" his voice sounded drained even to himself.
"My fiancé," she smiled for once.
Edward's brows furrowed again.
"Who is this man? I don't understand, your parents did not mention any engagement…"
"He works for our family. As I said, I am too young to be formally engaged. But we discussed it since we were children," Bella's voice starter to waiver.
"And he took your… innocence? When?"
"It was consensual, and it happened a couple of months ago."
Edward resumed his pacing. He suddenly turned to her and started talking matter-of-factly, "Well, first things first. If it happened a couple of months ago, then you are not with child. We can take it from there."
"What… what do you mean?" She thought that the admission would be the end of it and would be left alone with Jacob.
"Bella, if what you have told me is true, then your options are even more limited than you have thought. I may have been known in the company of women, respectful or not, but that reputation diminishes in the face of my status. For a woman, it is quite different, and you will not be forgiven so easily by our society."
Her eyes started to grow wider with comprehension.
"Do you mean, you are still to marry me? What about Jacob?"
"If what you are saying is true, it is not ideal, and I am far from pleased… And this Jacob boy will feel the brunt of my displeasure. As I see it, you are not to blame for what happened. Please make plans as if nothing happened, I will deal with this on our wedding night."
Bella was so outraged she stormed away from the meeting. This man was relentless – no matter what she threw his way, it seemed to relish the obstacles. She could only think of one place she could run to – Jacob.
She found him near the stables and almost toppled him over with the force of her embrace.
"Easy, what happened, Bella?"
"Jacob… We need to elope, you need to take me away from here."
His smile turned down as he pondered her words, "Tell me what happened, from the beginning."
"That is not important now. You need to trust me this is bigger than us. If we want to be together, we need to run now."
"Bella, I think you need to calm down first," Jacob was holding her trying to do just that.
"What happened to the little rich girl?" a snarky voice interrupted them from around the corner. "Did you break a nail and came looking for my fiancé to kiss it for you?"
Bella looked up and through the curtain of tears she recognized one of the servants, Leah. But she was yet to comprehend her words. What was she talking about, a fiancé?
"Jacob, what is the meaning of this?" Bella looked up with her doe eyes while he put some distance between them.
"Bella, I kept meaning to tell you…"
"What, that you have a fiancé? When you have already promised we would be together?"
Leah laughed next to them, "Wake up, little girl! These are the dreams of an unexperienced bored tich girl! Jacob had never intended to marry you! Why, what do you know about raising horses?"
"Leah, stay out of it. We said I would break it to her…"
"So it is true? What is this about raising horses?"
Leah scoffed again, "You have no ideas of his dreams, do you? Of course, Little Miss Sunshine only cares about herself. Why do you think he is slaving around this house and saving every penny he gets?"
Bella was looking from one to the other, but then her sad eyes focused on Jacob, "I don't understand. You told me we would run together." Her voice was mere a whisper now and she could barely repeat the words.
"We were children! I apologise, Bella, but you were the one taking this too far, always pushing yourself to me, assuming we could have a happy ending, probably just so you can escape your obligations," Jacob had found his voice now.
"My obligations?" Bella flinched as if slapped.
"Yes, you have rebelled since you were little, not even knowing for what! Instead of being happy you were born into commodities, you would always run to me! I was your distraction, your secret, your lowly friend you could raise by marrying me! Well, Bella, I guess now you understand, I don't want you!" The last words were harsher than he intended, as even Leah put a hand on his shoulder to keep him back. But he now believed the message was clear for even headstrong Bella to grasp.
She indeed gasped while hearing it, said nothing, just ran around to the house in tears. That night she avoided Alice and didn't say more three words to anyone.
However, just before going to bed, she knocked on the door to the study Edward was using. He looked up surprised, but not angrily.
"May I help you?"
"I will go along with this charade, but on one condition."
Edward said nothing, just waving his hand encouraging her to continue.
"We leave tomorrow."
A/N: I know Edward may seem too open-minded for his times, but I wanted to portray these characters with their qualities and imperfections, and this is one of his redeeming qualities (we will see the shortcomings too don't worry). Jacob won't be playing a major role in the plot, and as I have written quite a bit ahead, I think I can start posting twice a week ;) Enjoy!