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LadySharkey1 rocks my world by being the most amazing, kick-ass beta I could ever imagine.
Belmont Island, Maine
Saturday, March 17, 1951
2 AM
Bella's heart was hammering in her throat as she sped up the stairs at a pace that could almost qualify as a run.
"You're crazy!" she muttered to herself. "What on earth are you doing…leading him on like that?"
Shaking her head, she closed her bedroom door behind her, leaning het back against the cool, steady wood.
What on earth was she doing?
Of course, deep down inside she knew exactly what was going on: Edward Masen was working his weird voodoo mumbo jumbo on her again, just like he had ten years before. He'd spoken so nicely to her—the first guy who'd ever taken an interest in her like that—that he'd almost made her forget herself. She'd been such an idiot, dreaming about a future for the two of them together. She'd had it all pictured in her mind: a nice house somewhere in the country, a couple of kids, and a happy, carefree life. Of course, all of that ended when she'd found him locked in an intimate embrace with none other than Alice Brandon.
That had never been part of her dream!
It was in that moment that Bella had realized just how he had contributed to their plans. True, whenever they had been together, he'd dreamed along with her, but there had never been any promises made or vows pledged. There wasn't even anything to reproach him with. After all, had they ever truly been together? After days and weeks reading about Edward and Alice's whirlwind romance in the newspapers, Bella had begun to question her own sanity and her memories of the stolen moments she and Edward had spent together. They had been real for her, but for him she wasn't so sure.
Had he gone back to Alice and laughed about her behind her back? The thought even that he—the Edward she had come to know and fall in love with—could feel something for such a woman as Alice Brandon, was humiliating.
Alice, who thought only of herself and her own advancement…a woman who had left no opportunity unused to degrade Bella.
She should have known better than to fall in love with a man like him. After all, her poor, brokenhearted mother herself had been the living, walking and talking proof of just how foolish it was to get close to an actor. Still, Bella had always thought herself too sensible to fall into a trap like that. And there she'd been, naively falling for the first pretty boy who'd smiled her way.
At least she hadn't gotten herself in trouble. Well, more than a broken heart and severely damaged self-esteem issues.
She'd gone back home to lick her wounds, utterly ashamed of herself and determined never to fall for a man's tricks again. Which was why her marriage to Jacob had been such a happy one. Well, for as long—or short, being a better word—as it had lasted before he'd gone off to war. This time around, her heart had been her own when she had tied her fate to that of a man's. It had been a marriage of convenience, as they called it: she gave him an heir to his fortune and a warm, steady home base for when he returned from his long hours and many business travels, and he, in return, provided her with a safe place to call home and a respectable life.
She had been happy, in her own way.
Safe.
But had she really been alive?
After what had happened downstairs just then, she was beginning to doubt it. Even after all those years and all the heartbreak that lay between them, Edward Masen still made her heart beat faster and louder than she ever thought it could.
She sighed, the face in the mirror looked worn with worry and fatigue. What was she supposed to do? In all foolishness, she had opened the door for Edward to pursue her again and she knew him well enough to know that he was going to be relentless.
She knew he would be an ardent suitor. And his words…
She sighed, her lips curling upwards involuntarily as she thought about the good times they'd shared. She'd been constantly on guard, sensing that she wasn't the first woman he'd tried to conquer and, no doubt, that some of those women had most willingly let him. At barely seventeen, she had been both so unknowledgeable about the ways of the world and so scared of everything she encountered within it that it shouldn't come as a surprise to her that Edward had been in the dark about her feelings for him.
And yet, she'd had so, so many feelings.
And they had been so strong.
Her heart had been ripped out of her chest that day, when everything had fallen apart, but she'd be lying if she didn't admit that part of those feelings were still very much alive within her heart. And that in part, she not only rejoiced in the opportunity she'd just given to Edward, it welcomed it, too.
With open arms.
Just then, a knock to her door reminded her of the fact that she'd promised a distraught Angela she could sleep in her room that night. Even though she claimed Alice hadn't said five nice words to her in all the time she'd been her maid, Angela had been completely devastated to learn of her boss' death. Apparently even someone as unlovable as Alice Brandon was able to inspire some affection or loyalty in her fellow human being.
Though Bella still found it hard to believe.
The poor girl was still sniffing when Bella let her into the room. "I just packed all of Alice's things," she managed to breathe out in between sobs. "I never thought I'd have to do that ever again. I thought that working for a younger person after my former boss died of old age, that I would never going to have to go through all that heartbreak again." Wailing, she allowed Bella to lead her to the chaise that rested against the foot of the bed. "I feel so bad for all the terrible things I thought about her!"
"I know." Bella sighed, taking one of Angela's clammy hands in hers. "But I don't think anyone would blame you for thinking bad things about Alice Brandon. I think every single soul under this roof has wished ill upon her at some point in their lives!"
"But she couldn't help being herself!" Angela sniffled. "She didn't have an easy life, you know! She was under so much pressure and…and she took all of that out on the people around her. It was her way of coping."
"That doesn't mean it's right," Bella insisted, fighting a war inside herself as all of her old resentments towards Alice resurfaced.
"I feel so guilty right now." Angela sighed as fresh tears dripped on the skirt of her uniform. "Especially because I should be grieving the death of my boss but instead I can't help being selfish." She paused, looking up at Bella with so much inner conflict in her eyes that the older woman's heart broke for the young girl. "But, then again, I can't help worrying about what I'm going to do now. I mean…I don't even know how I'm going to get home!"
"We'll all help you," Bella promised her. "How about you come with me on Sunday, when we get out of here, and I'll sort out how to get you home again? But for now, how about we try to get some sleep?" Patting Angela's hand, she rose to undress and prepare herself for the night. "I know it's going to be hard to sleep with everything that's happened, but I have a feeling tomorrow is going to be a busy day. We'll need our wits about us if we're going to want to keep on top of things."
Angela nodded, waving all of Bella's remonstrations away as she started to help the other woman out of her clothes and makeup and into her nightgown. Accustomed as she was to helping others before herself, she needed the distraction of doing her job at that moment more than she ever had.
Downstairs, Edward had rejoined Emmett and Jasper out on the patio. Together, the three men were trying to put a dent into Carlisle's selection of fine whiskey while philosophizing about past and current events.
"So, Edward, have you ever been tempted to put a ring on pretty Ms. Brandon's finger?" Emmett teased. "Hell, she might have been a bit of a bitch at the best of times, but I definitely would have!"
"You did, remember?" Jasper put him in place. "Or do you want to tell us you wasted time in dragging Rosalie down the aisle?"
"I saw an opportunity and I grabbed it!" Emmet shrugged, tipping the contents of his glass back. "Worst damn mistake of my life!"
"Any one of us could have told you that!" Edward shook his head, his mind wandering back to the days when he was still young, foolish and arrogant, to when Rosalie Hale did her very best to evade Emmett McCarty. "For a marriage to be a success, it's pretty much a given that both spouses must actually like each other and it was clear even then that Rose despised you."
"Her father thought it would all turn out okay," Emmett muttered. "I should have known the bastard was only after my damn money." His father in law hadn't been the most trustworthy of men, or so Emmett had found out pretty soon after his nuptials. Not only had Richard Hale lied about his daughter's character, and the consent he claimed she'd given to their marriage; acting as their accountant, he'd made off with pretty much every penny in Emmett's hefty trust fund. "And after he'd stolen my granddad's money, things went from bad to worse as we had to move into this small, box house and were in each other's faces all the damn time!"
"So you hate each other but you stay together purely out of spite?" Jasper surmised, whistling at Emmett's affirmative nod. "That's no way to live, man!"
"It's the only way I know, my man!" Emmett chuckled bitterly. "That's why it's such a crying shame Alice went and chocked herself to death—apart, of course, from the fact that we lost a friend. The girl was going to offer me a spot next to her in Hollywood. I was finally going to escape!"
"Come on! Do you really think she would have gone through with it in the end?" Jasper remarked skeptically. "It would have been the first time she ever did something for someone other than herself."
"Screw you!" Emmett barked, his drink sloshing around in his glass. "You're just jealous because you never even went out and tried! You know you can't hack it in Hollywood, so you hide behind your damn 'cinema drain's the soul' snobbishness."
"I have to say I agree with Jasper on this one," Edward chimed in, coming to the aid of his former friend. "The only way I could have ever seen Alice coming through for you is if she stood to gain something from it." He shrugged, feeling a little uncomfortable speaking so ill of a woman who was lying dead only a few feet away from them. "She liked to toy with people by making them promises she knew she was never going to keep, and stick around to watch as people's lives went up in smoke. I should know…I was one of those people."
"She wouldn't have done that to me," Emmett insisted, all but falling from the lawn chair he was sitting in as he tried to pour himself another drink. "She was a lot better than either of you bastards give her credit for."
Gently prying the bottle from Emmett's hands, Jasper was the one to speak up and put an end to their little get together. "How about we all turn in before one of us drowns himself in alcohol? We're in for a tough day tomorrow and I, for one, would like to get through it without a splitting headache."
"Too late, I'm afraid," Emmett, all chagrin forgotten, drawled as his huge frame swayed unsteadily into a standing position. "But you're right; it's time to go up and find someone to fuck." He chuckled drunkenly as started to walk towards the door, calling out over his shoulder. "I think Alice's maid might be willing. I mean, she could do with a little comforting, right?"
Jasper and Edward shook their heads as they went to pick up the nearly empty bottle and close the terrace doors behind them, before heading up the stairs themselves.
"Do you think he'll ever learn?" Jasper wondered as somewhere on the upper floor, a door slammed shut.
"I think it's too late for that." Edward smirked, remembering how much he'd hated Emmett McCarty and his bloated ego back in the day. "Besides, I think that guy was born a bastard."
Leaning against his bedroom door, Jasper nodded. "You might be right about that."
Finding his own room at the end of the corridor, Edward turned in for the night. The door closing behind him as he shrugged out of his fancy clothes before sliding in between the sheets. It wasn't long before a heavy, drunken night pulled him into unconsciousness. Therefore he was one of the last to wake when suddenly, right at the point where night starts to meet day, a shrill cry in the dark awoke the residents of Belmont Castle.
Bella and Angela, unhindered by the effects of copious amounts of whiskey, were one of the first people to follow the noise. Rushing into their robes, they shot out of their room to find that two doors next to theirs opened as well. And what they found in one of those rooms, brought an even darker shade over a weekend already spoiled by the death of one of their group.
People who knew the McCartys, and the sorry state their marriage, would not have been surprised by the sight that horrified the women's eyes. They would have said that, as shocking as the whole thing was, it was a long time coming. To Bella and Angela, however, the sight of Rosalie McCarty covered in the blood of her husband as she stood over his lifeless, bloody body was enough to make the younger woman faint to the floor as the older held on to the nearest inanimate object that could steady her as her mind started to come to a gruesome and terrifying conclusion.
There had been a murder!
Or had it been two?
Which also meant there was a murderer amongst them.
Thoughts?