Authors Note

To my lovely readers. I am so sorry that it took this long to publish a new chapter but real life caught up with me Bella and the rest of the crew just kept giving me ideas and I was having trouble making them all work. This chapter is the first one I completed so I hope you love it.

Romance is a slow burn for a lot of people it happens over years as they become friends. Bella and Edward haven't had as much time together as implied in parts of this story. But the romance will start to build up with in the next couple of chapters. This one is a short one and Bella nor Edward appear. But they will in the next one.

TPOV

"Mum, I'm going shopping center to meet up with Emily and her sisters."

"Please return before it gets to late." Mum replied.

"Nineteen and I still have to be home before midnight. Unless I am out with my parents."

"You are the youngest unmarried daughter of an Earl, even if he refuses to use the dam title."

"That's because an Earl is only a step or two above a Barron. Being an Earl is nothing to shout home about."

"It is something to be proud of. It got us invited to the Princes wedding." Mum replied. "And there where be another when Prince Harry decides to settle down and marry."

I watched as my mother accepted another drink from one of our many maids.

"I will expect you to be on your best behavior so you don't ruin our chance to attended that wedding also."

"What makes you think that I would want to go?" I asked her even though I really did need to get going.

"Because my dear child it is you that is far more fame obsessed than I am."

"Whatever, I will text to let you know if I am going to be late or not." I replied.

I turned on my heal and walked out of the room and away from my Mum.

"No later than twelve thirty." My mum called after me.

I rolled my eyes and continued on my way out. I had just one more item to get and that one item would make my outfit for the ball just perfect. I knew this last ball would be my last chance to reel Edward in once and for all. Hooking up with Edward would also get me out of my mothers clutches.

Ten minuets after my conversation with my mum was walking into my favorite store to shop in for jewelry I had a necklace, a dress, and a great pare of shoes. They had a few items sitting out in the open for customers to try on and look at. What I was after was more expensive and locked up in glass cases.

"Excuse me ma'am is there a less expensive version of this ring here?" I said pointing to an emerald ring.

"The emerald or ruby? I can hardly tell which one you are pointing to."

"The emerald one please, Ruby's just do not work with my skin tone."

"Well Ruby's do match natural skin tones better. The orange tint to your skin makes the Ruby's color washout and seem unappealing." She said. "Go natural, and then come see me for a ruby."

"You know what I think I will take my money elsewhere."

"You are more than welcome to spend your money some where else we give advice of all kinds here." She replied.

"I will not be recommending this store to anyone I know." I snapped on my way out of the store.

It took me a few minutes but I finally found another store that seemed to sell what I was looking for. It was an antique jewelry store. Nothing new all item were old and one of a kind that would make it harder to switch it.

"Hello I am Debbie how May I help you with anything today?" A short blond haired woman said.

"I am just browsing at the moment Debbie. I have a party to attend and I just need something extra special to pull the outfit all together."

"We only sell one of a kind antique pieces here so I'm sure we can find that something special that you are looking for." She replied. "Is there a particular metal or stone you would prefer?"

"I like Emeralds, diamonds and sapphires for stones and white gold or silver for the metal so they match the rest of my jewelry for the night."

"Okay just give me a few minutes and I will pull together a few pieces for you to look at." She said. "But feel free to look around at the cases to see if something catches your eye."

I found a few items that looked like they would fetch a decent amount of pounds. But each piece that I liked was locked up nice and tight in a glass case. I watched as Debbie moved from case to case picking out items for me to look at.

"Ma'am I'm ready for you." Debbie said.

I followed her to the back of the store where they had several tables set up. There was another salesman (or woman) at each table either working on a costume piece or talking with another customer.

"This is Rosalie, she will be helping you with the selection process"

Rosalie was already arranging the few items Debbie picked out on black velvet pads. Each piece was expensive and cost more than the budget that my Dad has placed on my dad and me. I looked closer at the pieces that was Rosalie was sitting out. She had thirty pieces laying out on the table.

"Are you okay here Rosalie?"

"Yes Ma'am, you can go to lunch now. I hand hold down the fort." Rosalie said.

Debbie left the room for an office on the other side from the sales floor.

"Where would you like to start?" Rosalie asked.

"I can tell you now all four pieces in the back row are way out of my price range. I do like that sapphire one so if you have something similar but cheaper I would like to take a look at it." I replied.

Rosalie quickly took the four pieces I was talking about off the table and places them in lock boxes so they were secure until they were places back in the display cases.

"How much was that sapphire ring?"

"It was five thousand pounds." Rosalie said.

"Cheaper than I thought but still not in my wheel house." I replied back. "Is there anything similar but cheaper?"

"We have one but the stones are not real. The metal they are set in are the same." Rosalie said. "They are also newer pieces they are not antique pieces like the main part of our store."

"Then why sell them?" I asked. "They are replicas."

"Replicas sell just as good as the originals all time." Rosalie replied. "Look at the ring prince William gave to Kate when he proposed. We have been commissioned to make several rings for the common man to give to their girls because of that one single ring."

"Just show me the replica of the ring that I want." I snapped.

I could see the ring that she was talking about from where I was standing. It was a good one and would also fetch a good chunk of cash like the previous one.

"This one here." Rosalie said pointing to the ring.

"They look exactly the same." I replied with fake enthusiasm.

"They were based off the same design from a family of jewelry designers." Rosalie said.

"Okay what is the price?"

"Five hundred pounds." Rosalie replied.

"I'll take it." I replied. "I can always replace the stone at a later date if I want to."

"Rosalie Parker and Bo are here for their rings and I cant seem to find them."

"Well Tanya give me a moment to help and I will check you out and get you on your way."

Once Rosalie was gone the room was empty as all the others had left while she was talking to me. I looked around for cameras and spotted none. I picked up the expensive ring and switched it with the cheaper one and waited for Rosalie to come back.

"Are you sure that is the one you want?" Rosalie asked coming back into the room.

"Yes. I want the five thousand pound one but I just don't have the money." I replied.

Rosalie led me back on to the sales floor after picking up the ring that I wanted. Once at the register she packed it up and swiped my card and told me I was good to go.

JPOV

I walked into the little café that Alice had told em about a couple of weeks ago. Alice was already seated in our booth. She did not look at all happy.

"Did I do something?" I asked sitting down.

"You did nothing. I am trying to help your friend Bella but because she is only verbally abused it is hard to prove anything is going on."

"Alice," I said. "Everything will be okay. Calm down. We will get her out of there and verbal maybe harder to prove but we can still do it. We just have to be careful not to cause more harm to come to Bella."

"I know, I just…"

"Alice shut up, eat a cinnamon roll and drink a coffee and calm down." I replied.

Alice and I ended up staying at the café for a few more hours eating more than cinnamon rolls and drinking more than coffee. Our time only ended when she had a class to get to. I thought I heard her mumble something about stripes and polka dots but I couldn't be sure. I finished the last of my drink paid for the tab and made my way back home.

Mr. and Mrs. Boscastle had left for a vacation in France while Peter and Charlotte went to visit her mother and step father. It was weird to be by myself but the quite time that I got was a nice surprise