CHAPTER 3

This time she was woken by the sound of beer barrels being noisily offloaded into the small courtyard below her bedroom window. Staring at the bright sunshine which was once again streaming into the room, for a few bleary-eyed seconds Bella was confused about where she was, before the memories started to flood back in. Groaning, she pulled a pillow over her head, in an effort to block out the noise and get back to sleep.

After her run in with Edward Cullen, she'd spent an almost sleepless night alternately replaying what had happened over and over again in her head, with much snappier dialogue and a range of more satisfying endings, and worrying about whether she should even accept the job of becoming Carlisle's housekeeper if he offered it to her.

In the cold light of day her behaviour last night was incomprehensible and she was absolutely mortified. The studious and rather nerdy men she usually went for were worlds away from Edward Cullen and judging by the women who'd collected round the bar the previous night, she wasn't his type either. She disliked the stuck-up, arrogant, git and all he stood for and she had no idea how she'd managed to get herself into such an embarrassing situation.

Groaning again, she looked over at her phone. It was nearly nine o'clock - Carlisle would be contacting her in an hour or two and she needed to make a definite decision. Right on cue Edward's face, complete with an annoying smirk, flashed in front of her eyes and remembering his sneering attitude at her interview, Bella was suddenly determined not to let him influence her behaviour in any way.

He could look down on her all he liked, but he definitely wasn't going to prevent her staying in the village and accepting any job she wanted to. There would be no repeat of her momentary lapse and if she had to put up with his presence occasionally because of Carlisle, she would maintain a polite and dignified distance. In fact she wasn't going to waste any more time thinking about Edward Cullen at all and with a sudden burst of energy, she decided to get up, pack her suitcase and wait for Carlisle's phonecall outside in the sunshine.

The thought of eating any breakfast made her feel queasy, but on her way out she decided that if Jessica or Mike was around, she'd ask if there were any jobs going in the pub or the restaurant. After all the busy summer tourist season was about to start and perhaps she could find work elsewhere in the village if she was unsuccessful with Carlisle.

-ooo-

When Bella arrived downstairs she was shocked at the scene of devastation which met her eyes. It looked as if a tsunami had passed through during the night.

The shutters were only half open and in dim corners brightly coloured balloons still trailed their strings from the ceiling or bumped half deflated across the carpet, which was sticky with spilt drinks. Dirty glasses and plates, festooned with party poppers, confetti and half eaten food, covered every available surface and in sympathy with the general theme, half the furniture had somehow washed up in untidy heaps at the far end of the room.

Here and there a couple of staff were wandering around like zombies, apparently overwhelmed by the sheer scale of the task of cleaning up, while Mike harried them from the sidelines, appearing to be doing very little himself.

Nodding at Mike, who leered at her as usual, Bella gingerly picked her way through the debris to where Jessica was energetically wiping down the bar.

'Good morning. It looks as if it's going to be another lovely day… Umm, I was wondering if you might have any jobs coming up?'

The look Jessica gave her was unexpectedly hostile.

Oops, so the gossip's already going round about Edward and me then! Bella thought.

Struggling with the insults and accusations she would have liked to let fly and the necessity to be polite to a paying guest, Jessica finally managed to get out the one word 'No' before scowling and turning her back.

'Ok, thanks. I'll be back in an hour or two to pick up my suitcase then.'

Bella couldn't be bothered to care very much what Jessica thought about her and she definitely didn't have any sympathy for her misplaced jealousy. But as she left the room she was very relieved that she hadn't ordered breakfast earlier, because she had a feeling Jessica would have spat in it.

-ooo-

A few minutes later, Bella was sitting on a bench outside the post office in the middle of the village high street, trying to concentrate on reading a book. She would have preferred to wait in her favourite place, down by the sea, but she'd already found mobile reception was sketchy in some parts of the village and Carlisle's call was too important to miss.

Luckily she'd remembered to drink several glasses of water before she went to bed, so she wasn't as hungover as she probably deserved. She wondered how Edward was feeling. Judging by the number of shorts he'd consumed, pretty bad she suspected. Then shaking her head in annoyance at the direction her thoughts had gone in yet again, she went back to worrying about what she was going to do if Carlisle turned her down.

It had been a month since her mother's funeral and in that month she'd realised how difficult it was going to be to get a job. As Edward had so kindly pointed out at her interview, she had practically no qualifications because she'd missed so much school, initially due to Renee's habit of restlessly moving from town to town every time she screwed up a relationship, or got bored with a job, or imagined the grass was greener elsewhere.

Later on Renee had somehow convinced the education authorities that she was capable of home-schooling her daughter, which meant Bella had been more or less left to teach herself and although she'd done her best to keep up with the online tutorials, it had been too easy to skip over the maths and science courses she disliked and to concentrate on her favourite subjects instead. So although she'd read hundreds of classic novels, Bella's range of knowledge was vague to non-existent in some areas, which had given her a slight inferiority complex.

But the main problem with her nomadic life had been the difficulty of maintaining any relationships. Throughout her childhood she'd been repeatedly hustled onto a bus or train or into a car, with or without one of Renee's succession of boyfriends, quietly crying to herself or huddled over a book, sad with the certain knowledge that none of the friendships she'd recently made would survive her absence for more than a few months.

Finally, when Renee had fallen ill they'd found themselves marooned in a northern industrial city, in a dilapidated and overpriced furnished flat, where the only saving grace was the garden which Renee lavished all her attention on.

The faded grandeur of the flat and her beautiful garden were the only bright spots left in Renee's life and when the council had insisted the living space was unsuitable for someone who was more or less confined to a wheelchair and the rent was too expensive, Renee had fought tooth and nail to stay. But gradually, as the months wore on and her health deteriorated even further, the fight went out of her.

Thankfully she'd already moved into a hospice before she'd been forcibly evicted to the tiny modern flat with no garden and no view, which the housing office had allocated her. But when she died, the eviction date was less than a month away, so in addition to mourning her mother and dealing with the funeral arrangements, Bella had had to cope with clearing out the home they'd shared for the last six years, as well as trying to find a job and somewhere to stay.

Sorting through Renee's meagre possessions had been particularly distressing and in the end all that was left of her mother's life were a few photos and a box of cheap trinkets. Except for the gold necklace Bella always wore now, anything of value had long ago been sold and after a few trips to the charity shop, all Bella's remaining possessions fitted into one large suitcase, apart from a box of books she couldn't bear to part with, which her co-worker from the library and only real friend, Angela, had volunteered to look after.

In fact it was on the bus back from Angela's that Bella had picked up a discarded newspaper and found Carlisle's ad for a housekeeper. She'd been intrigued to find a Cornish local paper, with a photo of a beautiful sandy beach on the front page, abandoned on the seat next to her, and after idly leafing through the adverts at the back, on impulse she'd ripped out Carlisle's address and sent off an application straight away.

Luckily, because he hadn't yet found a new tenant, Bella's landlord had taken pity on her and allowed her to stay on for a few extra days. So in the week before she'd travelled down to Cornwall, Bella had been sleeping on the floor of the otherwise empty flat, on a blow-up mattress Angela had lent her.

During the daytime she'd spent hours tramping round the city, looking for work and handing out her CV to local businesses, then returned to Angela and Ben's cramped flat (soon to be even more cramped when Angela's baby arrived) to use Angela's laptop to search for jobs online and send off application forms. But even minimum wage unskilled jobs were in short supply and she'd got precisely nowhere.

So despite Emmett and Rose's repeated assurances, Bella still couldn't quite believe her luck could change so quickly and when her phone rang, she answered it with shaking hands and an already sinking heart.

'Good morning Miss Swan, it's Carlisle Cullen here and I'm extremely pleased to be able to offer you the job as my housekeeper.'

'Oh, thank you so much,' Bella was instantly so elated and relieved that she almost burst into tears.

'Emmett's been insisting you want to start straight away, which seems a little odd. Are you quite sure you have everything you need? I'm happy for you to return home for a few days first, but if you'd prefer we can arrange for anything you want to be sent on to you.'

'Oh, yes, yes, thank you,' Bella was so happy she barely knew what she was saying, but she didn't think it was the right time to admit all her worldly possessions were crammed into her one battered suitcase and she was basically homeless.

'Good. Well in that case I'll see you later. Emmett will pick you up straight after lunch and please come and find me in my study as soon as you arrive, so that I can welcome you properly.'

'Yes of course. Thank you again, Mr Cullen. I can't tell you how much I appreciate this.'

There was an answering smile in Carlisle's voice, 'Goodbye Miss Swan. I'm sure we'll get on very well together.'

When the line disconnected Bella jumped to her feet and hugged herself in glee, hardly able to believe her good fortune. All her problems were solved for the moment and she rang Angela immediately to tell her the good news.

Then not wanting to go back to the pub in case Jessica was still around and feeling so full of energy that she couldn't sit still, Bella decided to fill in some time by familiarising herself with the small part of the village she hadn't already explored the day before.

-ooo-

Unable to keep the wide grin off her face and feeling as if she'd just won the lottery, at first Bella was so dazed with happiness that she walked along without really noticing where she was going, but after a few minutes she found herself outside the church on the very outskirts of the village and on a sudden impulse she went inside.

She had expected the church to be solemn and dark, but to her surprise it was a peaceful, but light and welcoming space. Sunlight was streaming in through the stained glass windows, throwing vibrant splashes of colour across the whitewashed walls, while elsewhere the otherwise plain interior was brightened by vases of spring flowers and the hand embroidered hassocks which decorated the pews.

High above her head a vaulted timber ceiling made Bella's steps echo as she walked down the aisle reading the plaques on the wall, which commemorated the great and the good of the village, and as she approached the altar she stopped to admire the beautifully carved stone font with its plain wooden cover.

Opposite the choir stall was an elaborate crypt belonging to a Cullen ancestor and as Bella stared at the carved effigy of a female figure draped in a marble shroud, she traced the Latin inscription, feeling how smooth and cold the marble was underneath her fingers.

When she stepped back out into the sunny churchyard, she wandered along the grass paths between the gravestones, spotting numerous Cullens and Copes among the more typical Cornish names. Higher up the hill were the more recent graves and here Bella found Esme, Carlisle's wife, who had died two years previously and next to her, their only daughter Alice.

From Carlisle's Wikipedia page, Bella knew that Alice had drowned when she was only eighteen and now that she'd met Carlisle, seeing the dates of Alice's birth and death written so starkly on her gravestone really brought home the tragedy. Judging by the timeline, the family was living in Italy when it happened and Bella could imagine how much additional difficulty and stress would have been caused by having to bring the body back home.

Feeling sad for Carlisle and suddenly missing her mother badly, after a few minutes Bella decided she'd seen enough graves for one day and she walked back down the hill and away from the church, towards the centre of the village. If she stopped for some chips on the way, she should arrive back at the Sailor's Rest just in time to meet up with Emmett.

-ooo-

Edward was not in a good mood.

After waking up with a terrible hangover, he'd spent the morning helping his uncle to interview three more totally unsuitable candidates for the position of housekeeper – one was so old she looked as if she needed looking after herself, another would have driven Carlisle mad with her incessant chatter and the last one was even younger than Isabella and had spent the whole interview chewing gum.

Knowing this sorry turnout meant there was no hope of changing Carlisle's mind about employing Bella, Edward had made a last ditch attempt to convince him to accept his offer of paying for a proper nurse from a reputable company, which inevitably led to another argument and a rather strained lunch, during which they'd both tried too hard to keep the conversation going.

The feeling of failure stayed with Edward on the long drive back to London. He loved and respected his uncle more than anyone, but somehow his visits never turned out as he intended and despite the efforts they both made and the support he so desperately wanted to provide, their relationship remained frustratingly awkward and difficult, and Edward had no idea how to put things right.

And now there was the additional problem of what to do about Miss Isabella Swan. Scowling at the memory of how she'd haunted his dreams the previous night, Edward still had no idea how he was going to handle the situation. Before he'd left, he'd tried to bribe Emmett into spying on her, but his normally easy going and loyal friend had surprised him by absolutely refusing to do any such thing.

As with all the candidates on the short list, Edward had had her background checked, but unlike the other applicants there was very little to find. Bella Swan had no credit cards or debts, no driving license or passport, almost no history at all, which had immediately raised his suspicions. And after his recent experiences with Irina and the damage she'd wrought on his father's already shaky finances in the last year of his life, Edward had every reason to be on his guard, especially as he suspected she'd somehow been in league with James.

Despite all his efforts, he'd failed to establish any connection between James and Irina, but the gut feeling remained and if James needed money so badly that he'd already targeted one family member, it was unlikely he would be any more squeamish where his stepfather was concerned.

Edward was determined not to be fooled again and he'd been sure that if he had the chance to get Bella alone, the mask would slip, but his attempt to seduce her into giving herself away had back-fired. Somehow she'd managed to completely beguile him and he'd almost ended up throwing caution to the winds.

When he'd leaned in to kiss her, instead of grabbing him and greedily offering him her lips and her body as he'd expected, she'd appeared to be almost shy. And when she'd stood still and stared up at him so solemnly with those big brown eyes, he'd had a strange feeling that she'd barely even been kissed.

He shook his head in irritation when he remembered how disappointed he'd been when Emmett and that hellcat Rosalie had interrupted them. He'd been so intoxicated by the effect Bella had had on him, that he'd found it incredibly difficult to damp down his desire, regain his self control, and walk away. All he'd wanted to do was spirit her away somewhere and kiss her until she smiled that secret smile and gave herself up to him completely.

Even now he was undeniably stirred by the thought, but no one could possibly be as innocent as Bella seemed and although Carlisle had refused to take any notice of his warnings, Edward was still intent on making further enquiries. Meanwhile she was already ensconced in his uncle's house, where he couldn't sufficiently keep tabs on what she was up to and until he managed to find some proof of his suspicions, there was very little he could do about it.

And annoyed all over again by his uncle's stubbornness and the tantalising memories of the night before, when Edward hit the motorway he put his foot down hard, in an effort to put as much distance between himself and the deliciously tempting Miss Swan as possible.

-ooo-

After an initially rather nervous half hour getting to know each other a little better, Bella left Carlisle's study with her heart brimming over with gratitude, clutching the set of keys, the new phone and the laptop he'd given her.

Mrs Cope was waiting to see her next and already feeling quite at home in the large old house, Bella made her way down the passageway to the kitchen, noticing her suitcase had disappeared from the hall, presumably spirited away to whichever bedroom she'd been allocated.

As she got closer to the kitchen she could smell baking and suddenly she felt ravenously hungry. So she was pleased to see that Mrs Cope was just removing a tray of cakes from the oven, which she added to some home-made pasties that were already cooling on the worktop nearby. But before Bella could do more than enjoy the delicious smell, Mrs Cope had whisked her out of the door and back down the corridor towards the stairs.

'I'm sure you're anxious to see your room, so I'll take you straight up. Then when you've settled in a bit, we'll have a chat and a cup of tea.'

When they reached the upstairs landing she stopped at the last door on the left.

'We thought this room would be cosier than one of the large guest rooms, but please don't worry if you don't like it. There are plenty of others to choose from.'

'I'm sure I'll love it. I'll just have a quick look around and come straight back downstairs, shall I?'

'Oh, bless you, there's no rush to do anything today,' Mrs Cope reassured her. 'Take your time and freshen up a bit if you need to - there's a shared bathroom with the room next door. And I'll be in the kitchen whenever you're ready.'

And with that, she opened the bedroom door, ushered Bella in and disappeared.

-ooo-

To be honest, Bella did feel as if she needed a few minutes on her own to quietly get settled in a bit and after depositing the items Carlisle had given her on the bed, she walked over to the windows and opened the curtains, which had been closed to keep out the sun, then knelt on the window seat to properly take in the view.

This room was right on the front corner of the house, so that to her left nothing was visible but sea and sky, while to the right, the garden, the tennis courts and the line of trees at the side of the house were laid out in front of her. Staring out over the sea, which today was a bright blue reflection of the cloudless sky, Bella felt her heart soar. How could she not be happy here?

And to make things even better, the room she'd been given was exactly to her taste and she couldn't imagine wanting to swap it for another one.

Although simply furnished with a bed, a chest of drawers, a wardrobe and a desk, which would be really useful for her studies, here and there someone had added a few individual touches which brought the whole room to life. On the floor was a beautiful Persian rug in dark reds and blues and above the bed, with its pristine white bed linen, was a portrait of a young woman dressed in a blue riding habit, which exactly matched the brightest blue in the carpet and formed a focal point in the room.

The walls were papered in faded grey and white striped paper and the rest of the room was vaguely arts and crafts in style, with a large mirror with a beaten copper frame hanging on the wall above the chest of drawers and William Morris print curtains which matched the padded cover of the window seat. And in pride of place in the middle of the wide windowsill, was a hand thrown pottery vase with blue decorations under a shiny blue, green and grey glaze, which currently held a huge bunch of daffodils.

Beside the desk Bella was pleased to see a bookcase with a selection of 1950s style paperbacks and more pens and notebooks than she could ever possibly use, which she knew were a gift from Carlisle – he'd been delighted to hear that she was studying for an English degree and had already offered her the use of his library and whatever extra time she needed to revise for her end of year exams in a couple of months time.

Smiling as she unpacked her few possessions and thinking how overjoyed Renee would have been at her good fortune. Bella was determined that whatever happened and however long or short her time here was, she would do everything in her power to pay Carlisle back for his kindness towards her, even if that meant putting up with his horrible nephew.

As she took a final look around the room before going back downstairs, the painting above the bed caught her eye again and she stopped to examine it more closely. She wondered who the woman was - some distant relative of the Cullens she assumed, who wasn't important enough to hang with the other family portraits downstairs.

But the painting really was very well done. The artist had perfectly caught the laughter in his subject's dark brown eyes and the hint of wilfulness around her mouth. It was difficult to tell how old the woman was but she looked young, possibly around Bella's age, and intrigued, Bella made a mental note to ask Carlisle if he knew who she was.

-ooo-

By the time Bella returned to the kitchen her stomach was rumbling and she was wishing she'd eaten breakfast and more than a small portion of chips for lunch. And as if guessing her thoughts, Mrs Cope immediately sat her down at the table and put a large pasty in front of her.

'There, that will fill you up a bit until supper time. I'll just fetch you a cup of tea and when you've finished we'll do a proper tour of the house next. How did you like your room?'

'Oh it's beautiful. I really like it!'

'Good. But you will let me know if there's anything you're unhappy about, won't you? We don't want you running off now we've got you.'

Mrs Cope smiled at her kindly and feeling thoroughly pleased with herself, Bella tucked into her pasty, finding that as soon as she'd finished, a slice of sponge cake filled with a large dollop of jam and cream, appeared in its place.

While Bella was eating, Mrs Cope bustled around the kitchen, cleaning, tidying and putting things away and keeping up a very one-sided conversation. Slightly bemused, amongst other things Bella learnt that the groceries were delivered on Tuesdays, the fires smoked when the wind was in the east, Carlisle preferred Earl Grey tea and Rosalie was due to make her weekly visit at around three.

As Bella put the last piece of cake in her mouth, she looked up and saw Emmett pass the window and a second later he unceremoniously erupted through the doorway, stamping mud off his boots as he did so.

His smile was as big as always, 'Hey beautiful Bella, is that my cake you're eating?'

Mrs Cope slapped him as she handed him the most enormous slice of cake Bella had ever seen, 'Get on with you and hurry up. We need to get started, or Rosalie will be here before we're halfway finished.'

Obligingly Emmett shovelled up the cake and washed it down with a large mug of tea, before rifling around in a drawer for a notebook and pen. 'Ok then, let's be off.'

And with Mrs Cope in the lead, they headed out of the room.

Oops, sorry I've managed to kill Alice off again before I even started. Don't worry, I promise this is a different story (& also far less extreme lol!)

Also sorry I promised Emmett & he only just got in at the end. I ran out of space. More next time.

x Sue