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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

1:30 PM

As Edward stood transfixed, trying to rationalize the new suspicions that started to take up room in his mind, Bella sat enraptured by the wealth of information Carlisle was providing about Belmont Castle and its inhabitants.

"The people on the mainland actually warned me against buying this place." Carlisle sighed wistfully as he stared out of the window, his eyes milky with the strain of disease. "They told me the reason it was practically lying in ruin when I first set eyes on it was because it was cursed." He frowned, drawing his eyes away from the horizon as they settled upon Bella. "Apparently not a single owner has died of natural causes. I thought, with my bleak prospects, I might defeat the odds. I'm not so sure now, though."

"W-what do you mean?" Bella stammered. Mindful of Esme's warning, she was trying desperately not to let any of her fears about what had happened outside Carlisle's relatively peaceful haven of nescience seep into her face or her voice.

"I'm not blind, sweet girl," Carlisle chuckled, "nor am I deaf. People talk…sometimes right outside this room when they think I'm deep in my slumber. The truth is, though, that the bliss of sleep often eludes me these days." A sad sigh preceded a morbid confession as he went on, "It's hard to give into sleep when you're not quite sure whether or not you will wake up again."

"So you know?" Bella asked in an unsteady voice.

"I know Emmett was killed last night, yes," Carlisle solemnly confirmed, "and I'm pretty sure what that means." Another sigh escaped his lips. "I now wish that I never would have entertained the silly idea of bringing peace among my former troupe of actors. It was a vain quest…and look where my vanity has brought us all!" The look of loathing on his face as he stared out of the window again, broke Bella's heart.

"You didn't know," she tried. "Nobody could have known that this was going to happen." Nobody except for the killer.

"I knew about the curse, didn't I?" Carlisle countered. "Don't worry, dear, the disease hasn't gotten to my brain. It's just that I should've let sleeping dogs lie. Why did I have to go and stir up all this unfinished evil just so that I could meet my maker with a little more smugness in my pocket?"

"Your motives were pure," Bella insisted. "If I would have doubted that for even a second, I never would have come here. You, nor anyone else for that matter, couldn't have foreseen it would come to this."

"But I could have prevented it simply by living out my final days in peace and obscurity," Carlisle countered.

Before anything else could be said, Angela arrived with a lunch tray; the unease in her movements betrayed that she had little experience with that particular side of service. "I offered poor Mrs. Cope my help, with her being so understaffed at the moment," she explained, blushing as she realized she might have said too much before dashing out of the room as if afraid that one of its occupants was going to whip her.

"Mrs. Cope is understaffed?" Carlisle frowned, his face tired but determined in wanting a satisfactory answer to his question.

"Mr. Uley seems to have gone missing during the night," Bella explained. "I think I heard someone say that he might have found some mode of transportation and was going to get help from the mainland." Of course what Bella didn't know at that point, was that it was the absence of Jessica that had prompted Angela's quick offer to help. She wasn't yet aware of the sinister discovery the boys had made a couple of floors below her, either.

As Esme came in, visibly refreshed if not still a little sleepy, the look of longing that passed between the couple made Bella realize that her presence in the room was no longer required and so, with a fond goodbye to Carlisle and a slightly more strained adieu to Esme, she took her leave.

The minute she'd finished her descend, a piercing scream sounded from an open door leading to the servant's realm below.

"They killed him!" A voice she faintly recognized as belonging to the cook wailed. "I loved him…and they killed him!"

Running towards the sound into the downstairs part of the house, she breathed a sigh of relief when she heard Edward's soothing voice over her own, breathless gasps. "Please sit down, Mrs. Cope, before you hurt yourself. Is there anything I can fetch for you?"

"He's dead and I can never tell him now!" the poor heartbroken woman went on, her slumped figure slowly came into view as Bella finally reached the safety of Edward's presence. "And nobody will ever know what a truly wonderful man he was!"

Bella's hand was quick to search out Edward's open palm, the comfort soothing the worst of her panic as she placed her free hand on Mrs. Cope's shoulder. The poor woman didn't react to it; her sobs were heart wrenching as she lamented the loss of what appeared to have been her lover. "They couldn't appreciated him…nobody could. He gave everything he had; every single day of his life poor Sam worked himself into the ground for those ignorant, stuck up fools and they didn't even see it. They just took it all for granted like he was nothing!"

"There, now, Mrs. Cope." Jasper appeared from seemingly out of nowhere, his voice soothing yet commanding as he lifted the grieving woman to her feet. "You need to get out of this room and take in some fresh air. I've switched off the stove and everything else that could burn the place down for you."

Mrs. Cope nodded as she numbly clung to Jasper's arm, allowing him to guide her out of the kitchen and up towards the main part of the house.

"I don't know if I trust him," Edward whispered in Bella's ear as they followed.

Bella frowned, wordlessly asking him for an explanation which she didn't get as they had reached the grand entrance hall, where Rose and Angela had gathered in the wake of the alarming sounds coming from below.

"Mr. Uley is lying dead in the basement," Jasper announced, eliciting another round of wails from Mrs. Cope. "I'm taking Mrs. Cope out to the terrace and I'd advise all of you to follow."

"What?" Rose shrieked, though Bella was unaware whether her outburst was caused by the shock of another killing or the outrage of being ordered around by a man she had always considered beneath her. Bella imagined it was a bit of both, her conviction strengthened as the former beauty queen recomposed herself. "Why the hell should I follow you without so much as an explanation of what happened?"

"Because I'm done playing nice!" A gun was drawn before anyone could blink; Edward stepped in front of Bella almost as if on instinct as the terrifying sound of a pistol cocking made everyone think their final hour had struck.

It wasn't, however, one of the other people present that Jasper pointed his gun at, though the intensity of his gaze as he pointed his pistol upwards caused little relief. "I want to get out of this alive and if that means I'll have to keep you all under shot in the living room until that damn boat gets here, then so be it. I'm not taking any chances!"

"And if you think I'm going to bunk with a murderer for the foreseeable future then you don't know me at all!" Rosalie shrieked, taking a step towards the staircase.

The shot firing through the hall was deafening; Edward grabbed hold of Bella and tackled her to the floor as he crouched protectively over her while everyone else, too, scurried for cover.

"Are you okay?" he whispered frantically, his thumb tenderly brushing away the tears of fear that had formed in the corners of her eyes.

Bella nodded, her frightened eyes wide as she clung to him while all around them hell broke loose.

"Now will you fucking listen to me?" Jasper spat as the gun smoke slowly lifted from his revolver.

"God, you're going to kill us all!" Rose stumbled backwards, her still beautiful face stricken with fear as she backed up against the wall. "You're crazy!"

"As I said: I'm only out for my own survival," Jasper replied calmly. After all, he was the one holding the gun. "As soon as we get the hell out of dodge, I'd be quite happy to get you all out of my sight and never see you again for as long as I live."

"And will we be alive to tell the tale?" Rose snorted darkly, her continued opposition baffling most of the others present in the room.

"If you do what I say and keep your trap shut, you just might," Jasper replied. "I have no intention of killing anyone, provided everyone plays by my rules. If I find you sneaking off, I'll jump to the conclusion that you're the killer and you can bloody well rest assured that I'll kill you before I allow you to get a shot in."

"Spoken like a true killer," Rose sneered, though she did move towards the living room.

Jasper merely chuckled as his eyes followed her every move. "I knew you'd come to see sense one day."

Giving him the finger, Rose disappeared into the living room with Angela and a still distraught looking Mrs. Cope hot on her heels. Meanwhile, Edward had helped Bella get to her feet again, making sure to always keep his body between Jasper and her as he made sure she'd come to no harm.

"Are you alright?" he whispered, linking their fingers as he slowly tugged the trembling woman into the living room.

Bella nodded. "Strangely enough, Jasper's move kind of makes sense…even if he scares me right now."

"I know," Edward muttered back. "I don't know if I trust him, though."

"Why?" Bella asked as the two of them took up a spot on the sofa, far away from where Jasper was still duking it out with a perpetually petulant Rose.

"He predicted the exact way Sam was killed," Edward whispered back, trying not to let on just how much that little fact had spooked him. "It's like he knew."

Bella's eyes briefly flittered to the place where Jasper and Rose were still locked in a battle of wills. "Do you think he's the killer?"

"Anyone could be at this point." Edward sighed, feeling more frustrated than he'd ever felt in his life. At least in the war, he knew who he was fighting against. And as faceless and elusive as his enemy had been when he was struggling for survival in the Ardennes, he preferred knowing who was on his side and who wasn't.

"Thank you for protecting me." Never letting go of his hand, Bella angled her body towards him. "You could have gotten hurt when…"

"You heard Jasper: he wasn't shooting to kill," Edward spoke, shrugging away Bella's gratitude. "Besides…don't you know there's nothing I wouldn't do for you? I lost you once; I'd rather die than lose you again."

"Edward," Bella's voice was full of emotion as her heart burst with feelings that had been dormant for so long.

Before she had a chance to say anything else, though, Jasper called them all to attention. "Okay, so this is how it's going to be," he started. "Everyone's going to stay here in this room until the boat comes to pick us up. In a minute, I will escort Rosalie, Angela and Mrs. Cope downstairs to gather some provisions while Bella and Edward go up to get the others."

The others…

The mention of Carlisle and Esme made Bella gasp and look around her in shock. Because in all of the commotion, nobody had noticed that their party was lacking two of its members. It was strange that they had somehow missed both episodes of the excessive grief of Mrs. Cope's, and the shot fired into the ceiling, even with Carlisle being so ill.

And yet, somehow, they had.

Thoughts?