Part XI

BPOV (Bella)

"You're right." I agreed. "We should stop talking about that."

He smiled. "Thought so. Tell me about you, I want to know you the way you know me. You have to admit that you know intrusive things about me. I don't know much about you, almost nothing at all."

"I assure you, I'm nowhere near as interesting."

"You mean you're normal." He said with a chuckle.

I habitually bit my lip. "I guess so."

"Why don't you sit?" He gestured to the head of the bed. I sat and leaned on the headboard. He sat next to me on the other side. One would think that this was disorderly. A woman in another man's bedroom at this time of day was frowned upon. I didn't care what people thought.

"What do you want to know?" I asked. I didn't know what to tell him, my life was pretty uneventful.

"Do you have any siblings?"

"Not anymore." He waited. "I had an older brother but when I was eight he died, I don't remember him much but I know my father misses him. Now all their hopes are upon me. After his death we moved to Havenport." It was hard to be upset over his death when my memory of his is less and less sharper.

"I'm sorry."

I shrugged. "It's been a long time."

"Where did you live before here?"

"The next town over in Hayrick," Hayrick was a town outside of this one, it was one of the hour towns that was governed by the Duke of Havenport. This town could be considered a city quite like London only smaller. Among the towns the duke governed, this was the largest and at the center of his duchy. "My dad had run into some bad business and we lost everything. We used to live decently, nothing that I recall but my mother said we did. I remember being happy, Rosalie and I always had disagreements but we were very good friends and we spent a lot of time together."

"I don't mean to be abrupt but the man you were speaking to, who was he? He looked Spanish."

"Jacob, I met him in London. He came to visit Alice and her family."

He nodded. "He seemed…friendly." Now that wasn't genuine, if I didn't know better I'd think he was jealous.

I hid a smile. "He is but we met under an interesting circumstance. His horse attacked me in the streets on London. I should know better, don't pet things that aren't yours to pet."

"Are you okay?"

"Yes, I am. He has good reflexes…pulled me out of the way before his horse stepped all over me."

He looked at me concerned. "Clumsy much."

I gasped. "It was an accident, it could've happened to anybody."

He chuckled. "Of course the horse attacks go up every year, its madness."

I scowled. "It's not funny at all, I liked it better when you cared for my well being than when you are criticizing my stability on my own to feet."

"Both."

"What?" I asked. I didn't get but it wasn't much of a surprise, I don't think very logically at times.

"I always care for your well being and being critical is a flaw of mine."

I rolled my eyes. "Says Mr. Perfect, I'd bet you're good at everything, you don't miss a step."

"Not without effort."

"You are so arrogant."

He seemed unaffected by my insult. In my books arrogance was an insult but apparently our books differed. "Perhaps, though I don't see it as arrogance I see it as confidence."

"Overconfidence is you ask me."

"You may be right."

"How about you, what's behind those green eyes?" I asked. His eyes were simply mesmerizing. I didn't want to look away.

"Not much." He said with a shrug. "I've always lived here. I have only one brother, you know him, he calls himself Duke of Havenport." I giggled. "He's my only brother though not really my brother, I suppose. Charlotte is probably my closest friend that I'm not related too, she was always meant to marry Robert through the years we became friends. You know George and William and Emmett, my cousins. They came to spend the rest of the season with us, here."

"Are you going to stay herein Havenport?" I asked.

"Probably, I don't think I can go back anytime soon."

"Why?"

He shrugged and poured himself a glass of wine. "London has treated me well but I don't want the same things anymore. I don't want to go around embarrassing myself any longer. I've done enough of that."

"At least your family doesn't pressure you to be something that is impossible."

He laughed bitterly. "You'd be surprised. My family wants me to marry and to have kids, to be an honorable man. It's not in my blood, my birth mother was obviously a whore and my father was not much better."

"Edward, don't say that."

"I'm being real, that's the way things are. Robert was raised well and his mother's blood is naturally pure and good. I didn't have such luck." He took another sip from his glass and refilled it. I didn't pay much mind to it but the he ended up drinking so much that his words began to slur together.

It was until the wee hours of the morning that I realized how late it was. The halls were silent, everyone was in bed. I got off the bed and hurried to the door, the movement stirred him in his sleep. Drunk as he was, he was beautiful.

I reached the door and his voice halted me. "Where are you going?"

"It's late, I must go home. My mother knows I have returned."

"She could assume you are with Miss Cullen."

"Edward, I can't stay. You are drunk out of your mind, I have to go."

He followed me out the door, through the hall and down stairs. "How do you suppose you're going to get home? It's late."

"I'll walk."

"It's a long walk, let me wake a driver."

"No!" I said loudly. "This was an innocent time we spent but people won't believe that nothing has occurred and my father will disown me. You don't understand."

"Can you ride a horse?" My heart jumped at the new voice. I turned to find Emmett Wilfred at the base of the staircase. He awaited an answer.

"Yes."

"Sir, may I be of service?" One of the maids appeared in the hall and I knew that was the end of it, there was no way we could keep her mouth shut. She would tell the whole town.

"No." Emmett hissed. "Off you go."

"Yes sir."

He proceeded out to the stables and we followed him.

"Let her take Argo, let her take my horse." Edward managed to say.

"Cousin you are positively useless, go upstairs. I'll saddle the horse for her."

"I'll pick the horse up in the morning. I trust you with her, please –"

"Quiet down, lets not wake any more servants."

He finished saddling the horse and sent me on my way. I was anxious, I had been seen and I was sure that everyone would now by dawn.

I woke up late that morning, my parents had not been awake when I returned. Edward's horse was secured out back. There would be questions and I cringed at the sound of them. I got dressed and I went out the kitchen where my mother was escorting one of her friends out.

"Where were you last night?"

"I was –"

"I thought you had gone home with Alice and this morning I wake up and Mrs. Landry tells me your name is on everyone's tongue. You were seen emerge from Mr. Mason's bedroom and you rode away on his horse."

"Who?"

"No matter who saw you, you were there and that's what incriminates you."

"Mother, it was nothing."

"Retta, who does this horse belong to?" My father came in and was surprised to see me. My mother told him everything and he was filled with anger.

"How dare you be so insolent?"

"Father, it was not my intent. He asked me to join him –"

"In bed, that does not surprise me its your actions that are unbelievable."

"The Duke called for me, he wanted me to accompany his brother –"

"It was your choice to lie in his bed." He hissed.

"Father, I beg you please."

"Silence! I will return this horse and I will make it clear to the Duke himself that Mr. Mason will not tarnish our name, I'm sure he does not approve of his brother's doings. You are never to see him again, you will return to Hayrick with your aunt."

"Charles." My mother interjected.

"Mr. Mason will return to London soon enough and he will forget you and then you may return. My decision is final, you leave as soon as it can be arranged."