Chapter 139

Jasper

I could feel Bella's excitement although I had no idea what she was excited about, leaving Volterra certainly, I knew she had spoken to her father, he'd approached me asking if I would intercede for him, but I refused.

"I'm grateful for what you did to save me Chief Swan, but your argument is with Bella, not me, she feels hurt and betrayed because you kept your wedding from her and to be quite honest I can understand that. Peter told me the full story and I'll break it to Bella, but when the time is right. Now she's anxious, nervous, upset, and unsettled and until she feels more secure I'm afraid you are right at the bottom of my to-do list, sorry."

Bella's enigmatic words going home had me thinking. Had she really found somewhere she liked enough to call home? If she had then I didn't care if it were a run-down shack in the middle of a desert I would be happy. I just wanted her to feel she had the security of a real home of her own.

She was quiet during the flight but as we approached the airport I could feel; her excitement begin to grow. Why Darius had decided to fly us to Houston I had no idea unless Bella thought I might like to return to a place I had called home once upon a time. Maybe she had even found a ranch in Texas, now that would be interesting but I decided not to try second guessing her, I would wait and see what transpired.

There was a car waiting and Bella collected the keys so obviously she was going to drive. I sat back in the passenger seat and closed my eyes much to her amusement.

"Well, if it's going to be a surprise I guess I should keep them closed until we get there."

"OK good, but I do have a quick stop to make before we head out."

"Picking up keys to look at somewhere?"

"Not exactly no, I want some flowers."

This puzzled me, I hadn't noticed Bella enjoying flowers or I would have bought her some, but again I knew it would do no good to ask for an explanation.

She stopped outside a small florist just outside Houston and when she came back to the car I noticed she was carrying a bouquet of Black Eyed Susan and another of Baby Blue Eyes. I couldn't help a smile, they had been my mother's favorite flowers and as children my brothers and sisters and I would go out into the meadows looking for them and pick a huge bunch to take home for her.

She always put them in a cream-colored tin jug and they had the place of honor in the center of the kitchen table at meal times. With my eyes closed I could see the scene, my sisters sitting one side of the table and me and my brothers the other with our father at the head and my mother at the foot, all heads bowed in prayer while the cooking smells made our mouths water and our stomachs grumble in protest at being kept waiting. Before I met Bella the memory would have made me bitter which turned slowly to sadness but now I took comfort from such memories of former happy days.

It wasn't until we were almost there that I opened my eyes again and only because I recognized the route, I'd travelled this way for so many years I knew the turns and bends, every rut in the track, and the smells of the crops and wildflowers on the breeze. Bella was driving to my old family home. Did she want to give me time to visit their graves before we went on to wherever she had picked out? As she turned up the track to the house I noticed it looked different, there were no loose shingles and all the wood had been replaced and painted, the same colors it had been when I lived there.

I leaned forward, there were flowers in the beds under the windows and curtains tied back. It was like we had driven back in time and I half expected my mother to open the door as we stopped outside.

"Someone bought the place? They must be history buffs because it looks just as it used to. Why are we here Bella? Do I know the people who live here?"

She didn't speak just got out and retrieved the flowers from the back seat then stood waiting until I joined her. Then she took my hand and led me round back where the white picket fence that had surrounded the graves some distance from the house had been mended and freshly painted. We went through the small swing gate and I stopped unable to believe my eyes.

Planted in the earth at the head of each grave bar one was the wooden cross I had made and burned the names and dates in. They looked old and authentic although the letters had been refreshed recently. The only grave without a marker from me was Samuel's and even that now sported a wooden headstone. I walked over to see what was burned into it, just his name and dates of birth and death like the others but at the bottom was a single line of words,

Brave to the End. I felt venom flood into my eyes and I knelt down to touch the words. Bella didn't speak, just handed me the bunches of flowers which I now noticed matched the number of graves and walked away.

I have no idea how long I knelt there before placing the flowers in a small enamel jug standing to the side of each of the names. Each grave had one and I spent a few minutes at each remembering the happy times cut so cruelly short by war and murder. When I finished I turned and walked back to the car expecting to find Bella waiting for me but she was nowhere to be seen. The only thing different was the front door of the house now stood open.

Unsure of myself I walked to the door and knocked but there was no answer, I stepped forward and called out and there she was, Bella standing in the door to the kitchen smiling at me.

"What's going on Bella? Thank you for the time alone in the graveyard but what are we doing here?"

"Welcome, home Jasper. I hope you like it as much as I do because it's ours."

I couldn't believe what I was hearing, ours? Bella had bought my old family home and had it restored as our home?

I held out my arms and she ran into them smiling brightly,

"I really hope you like your surprise Jasper, this is why I kept finding fault with everywhere you showed me. I couldn't say anything because it was a surprise."

"But how did you know exactly what it looked like?

Then it hit me,

"Peter! Peter told you?"

"Actually Peter and Charlotte did all the work and he's really nervous in case he got anything wrong. He found the crosses you'd made in the old barn, they'd been taken from the graves and thrown into a corner. He made one for Samuel but if you want to change it that's fine."

I shook my head, I wouldn't change a thing, Bella was right this was perfect for our home, with my family close by.

Even the furniture was close to that my family had and I could see someone had taken a great deal of trouble to make it look just right. Peters memory for detail had been excellent and when we lay in bed that first night with the cool breeze blowing through the open window and the sounds of the nocturnal animals about their business I decided I was the luckiest man in the world to have such friends and such a mate. She smiled and traced a pathway down my naked chest,

"Are you happy here Jasper? Could you see yourself raising horses?"

"Its perfect Bella, I love it, it feels like home, just what I wanted. How about you?"

"If you're happy then so am I. We'll give it a few weeks and then throw a housewarming party although I think we might have guests sooner, Peter and Charlotte are dying to know your reaction. In fact, I'm amazed they stayed away so long."

As her words died away we heard a hammering on the front door,

"Couldn't wait any longer Bella, come on let us in."

I groaned as Bella jumped out of bed, threw on a robe and went running downstairs to let Peter and Charlotte in.