CHAPTER 5

Bella rushed into the kitchen, out of breath with hurrying up the cliff path and worrying about why Edward had been sent to find her.

'Hello Mrs Cope, is something the matter?'

Mrs Cope was looking upset and anxious and immediately reached for her coat. 'It's Jim. My daughter's rung to say he's feeling poorly. I told Master Edward not to bother you, but now you're here I think perhaps I should go home.'

'Oh, I'm sorry. Don't worry, I'll just get something quick and easy for Mr Cullen's lunch.'

'I'm afraid that's the trouble my dear. If it was only you and Mr Carlisle that would be fine. But Master Edward turned up with Lauren Trevale, the daughter of those friends they went to visit last week, and I'm halfway through cooking a Sunday roast.'

'That's ok, I can manage. Really, go on, your husband needs you more than we do at the moment. Give me a call as soon as you can to let us know how he's doing and I'll pass the news on to Mr Cullen.'

'I'll just scribble down a few instructions about timings etc. Are you sure you can manage dear?'

'Yes, seriously! Go!'

And after hugging Mrs Cope and sending her best wishes to Jim, Bella quickly ran to get changed.

-ooo-

Despite her best efforts the meal was late, but at least Bella thought she'd done it justice. When she set the roast beef on the table it looked juicy and succulent, the roast potatoes were crisp on the outside and fluffy in the middle and even the Yorkshire puddings had risen properly.

Happy with her achievement she let herself collapse into the seat next to Carlisle, who smiled affectionately at her and put his hand over hers on the table.

'Thank you Bella, for stepping in. I think that deserves a round of applause.' and to her chagrin Carlisle nodded to Edward and Lauren who were sitting across the table and they all clapped.

'I think you should have tasted it first, but thank you! Oh and I've got an update from Mrs Cope. She's just rung to say Jim's been admitted to hospital for overnight observation. But they're hopeful he'll be able to go home tomorrow and she'll let us know when there's any more news.'

When Bella had recovered from her embarrassment and everyone had piled their plates up with food, she noticed Lauren was looking completely bored with the discussion Carlisle and Edward had started about Edward's car. So taking pity on her, Bella asked what her plans were for the summer.

But it didn't take Bella long to realise that she had nothing in common with Lauren at all and although she made every effort to appear interested while Lauren rambled on about people, places and upcoming society events which Bella had barely heard of, every time she tried to introduce a topic of her own, Lauren stopped and stared at her in complete disbelief, before bringing the conversation back to herself.

In the end Bella pinned a smile on her face and just let Lauren talk, while idly wondering which designer label she was wearing and whether her tan, her smile, and her highlighted blonde hair were as fake as her nails and how many thousands of pounds the ensemble had cost - although the whole effect was certainly worth it, if tall, willowy, stuck up and brain dead appealed.

When Edward and Carlisle came to the end of their conversation they apologised and turned back to more general topics, but now, even more annoyingly, Bella had to put up with Lauren flirting with Edward for the rest of the meal. By the end of the first course she was all over him like a rash and Bella didn't even want to imagine what was going on under the table.

To add insult to injury, when Bella left the room to fetch the pudding, she overheard Lauren loudly asking why the help was eating with them and although she knew she could depend on Carlisle to politely but firmly put Lauren in her place, the comment still rankled.

When she came back into the room with the apple sponge pudding and custard she'd made, she had no idea what had been said, but Edward looked cross, Carlisle looked amused and Lauren looked sulky, and everyone more or less finished their meal in silence.

Once she'd cleared the plates, Bella quickly made an excuse and after loading the dishwasher, with a lot more muttering and clattering of crockery than was strictly necessary, she disappeared back to the beach. With a bit of luck Edward and Lauren would be gone by the time she returned to the house and she sincerely hoped that now Edward knew what an airhead Lauren was, he'd never invite her again.

-ooo-

As soon as Bella opened her bedroom door she knew someone had been in her room and as Mrs Cope was still at the hospital and she was certain that Carlisle wouldn't even think of going into her bedroom uninvited, that someone had to have been either Lauren or Edward.

She looked around, trying to pin down why the hairs on the back of her neck had risen, and the first thing she noticed was that the frock which had been hanging on the outside of the wardrobe, was now lying in a heap on the floor. It could possibly have fallen off the hanger on its own, but Bella was very tidy and there were other small telltale signs.

A slightly open drawer here and a book or ornament which was out of place there, confirmed that someone had been having a jolly good snoop and the most likely candidate was Lauren, who must have been bored out of her head after another five minutes alone with Carlisle and Edward. The clincher was the position of the frock on the floor, which looked as if someone had been disturbed while holding it up against themselves in the mirror.

Bursting with annoyance Bella marched downstairs to confront the culprit, hoping that after all Edward and Lauren wouldn't have already left. When she got to the bottom of the stairs she could see Edward's car through the hall window, so she knew they were still there, and smiling in anticipation of giving Lauren a good telling off, she headed for the large sitting room where Carlisle usually entertained guests.

But she stopped outside the door, suddenly realising that however much she wanted to, it would be very inconsiderate to make a scene in front of Carlisle. Wracking her brains for an excuse to get Lauren out of the room and unsure if she could even walk in there without everyone realising how annoyed she was, Bella was still standing outside, undecided, when Edward appeared from the direction of the kitchen.

Immediately Bella's anger, which had damped down slightly, flared up again and grabbing Edward's arm she pulled him into the adjoining dining room.

'Keep your fucking girlfriend out of my room.' she whisper-hissed at him, conscious of the need to keep her voice down if Carlisle was in the vicinity.

Edward's eyes widened in alarm, then he looked genuinely puzzled.

'Lauren had a headache and she's been lying down on my bed all afternoon.'

'Yeah, I bet she has and I bet there was more than lying down going on.'

Edward actually blushed.

'Seriously, I don't care what skanky bitches you want to hang out with, but my bedroom is off limits, is that clear?'

By now Edward had recovered and he drew himself up haughtily and hissed back, 'You're in no position to lay down the law round here.'

Bella bridled.

'Ok now we're getting there. However deeply appealing the silent and moody treatment may be, could you please finally be man enough to explain to my face why you have such a big problem with me. I promise I can take it!'

Edward looked down at her, but said nothing.

'Oh for fuck's sake Edward, come on. I'm sure it's not like you to hold back.' Bella could feel herself getting angry again and she wanted to kick him.

'I don't have to explain my actions to you. And wouldn't you be better off expending your energy on doing your job properly, instead of annoying me? I notice you've been absent for most of the day.'

The remains of Bella's patience immediately snapped. Edward knew very well Carlisle had a help button which connected to her phone and despite slaving for hours in the kitchen cooking Edward's lunch and then being polite to his snotty girlfriend; she wasn't even supposed to be working today.

Before she could stop herself, Bella slapped his stupid face.

'How dare you even suggest that I'm not taking proper care of Carlisle, when you know I'd do anything for him. I've kept close by all day even though you're here and it's actually supposed to be my day off - Mrs Cope's niece is due any minute to take over the evening shift.'

If Bella had expected any reaction from Edward she was disappointed. Apart from a slight tightening of his mouth, he remained perfectly calm and Bella began to wonder if physically assaulting her employer's nephew had been a good idea. Again she remembered that Edward was part of the family and she was an outsider, but surely being provoked into losing her temper wasn't a sackable offence.

Edward was smirking now and Bella closed her eyes and clenched her fists in an effort to get her temper under control, because the sudden thought that he might be purposely pushing her buttons made her want to hit him again.

In fact, despite taking refuge in his usual cold manner towards her, Edward wasn't at all sure what he was feeling, because even before their encounter on the beach earlier, he'd had something of a change of heart.

Without even noticing it, his distrust had slowly been seeping away over the weeks and months and after scrutinising Bella's every move for so long and employing a private detective to look into her background, Edward was finally convinced that if she was hiding anything at all, he would have discovered it by now. It had also occurred to him that if he'd been looking for clues with Irina he would have found them in abundance, he just hadn't been looking.

He'd even found himself getting angry with Lauren when she'd shown so much disrespect to Bella at lunch, which had highly amused Carlisle. And when Lauren went to lie down, he'd taken the opportunity to apologise to his uncle for doubting his judgement and for behaving so badly towards Bella. He was only thankful that he hadn't succeeded in driving her away.

Carlisle laughed and pointed out that Edward must have noticed by now that Bella was made of sterner stuff, but he accepted his apologies and after deciding he also needed to apologise to Bella before he left, Edward had been looking for Bella when she'd suddenly accosted him.

He looked down at her as she stood wrestling with her temper, with her eyes shut and her face blindly lifted towards him and his lips quirked. Now that the hostility had evaporated, all that was left was the attraction he'd felt from the beginning and the desire to finish what he'd started all those weeks ago.

She'd made a good attempt to deny that she felt the same, but she couldn't totally hide her reactions and Edward knew that with a little effort he could win her over. But he was determined to resist the impulse, not only out of respect for Carlisle, but also out of consideration for Bella. He had no intention of starting any kind of serious or long term relationship and she deserved better. For once in his life he was going to walk away.

He'd also spent so much time on this wild goose chase that he'd neglected his work and unless he got his act together soon, he was in serious danger of losing the case he'd been entrusted with and screwing up any chance he had of getting a junior partnership.

But still he was tempted and all he wanted at the moment was to kiss her. He noticed Bella's fists were still tightly clenched and he grinned again, at the thought of how she'd react if he attempted it – he'd be lucky to get out of the room alive. But rather than dissuading him, the thought only made him want to kiss her more.

He watched as she opened her eyes, then forced himself to step away. He wished that they could start again with a clean slate, but how could he tell her he'd imagined such unfounded and insulting things about her? Even his suspicions about James felt too ridiculous to admit now and he wondered when he'd become so paranoid. He knew an apology wasn't nearly enough, but it was all he had.

'Before I go, I just wanted to say I'm sorry for the way I've treated you and for being so suspicious. I sincerely apologise for my past behaviour and I hope we can do better in future.'

Then after inclining his head slightly in her direction, Edward crossed the hall and disappeared out of the front door towards his car, where Bella could now see Lauren was waiting. And completely stunned by what he had just said, all Bella could do was stand by the window and watch him drive away.

-ooo-

Bella didn't have very long to puzzle over Edward's strange behaviour, because five minutes later Mrs Cope's niece, Melanie Varcoe, arrived and she had to practically lock her in the kitchen to stop her disturbing Carlisle, who'd actually been resting in his room the whole time Bella had been with Edward.

Privately Bella thought Melanie, despite pushing seventy, had a bit of a crush on Carlisle and she noticed that her hair, which today was an eye-catching shade of luminous pink, had been tweaked into an even more elaborate construction than usual, while her décolletage seemed to dip lower and lower every time Bella saw her.

After spending half an hour listening to the local gossip - apparently Jessica and Mike had had a big row in the street yesterday evening - Bella told Melanie how much Carlisle had enjoyed the saffron cake she'd made him the week before and hinted that he'd really appreciate some more. So when Bella left the house she was fairly confident Melanie would stay put in the kitchen until she got back.

She knew she should be revising for her exams on Wednesday, but after her rather trying day she needed a break and she'd decided to go ahead with her usual Sunday evening visit to Rosalie and Emmett and just cut it short a bit.

When she arrived at Rosalie and Emmett's cottage, which was just over the hill in the next valley, she was therefore extremely annoyed to find that once again Tyler had turned up to see Emmett at exactly the same time. Ignoring Bella's grimace, Rosalie raised her eyebrows and mouthed 'What?'as she brightly ushered her into the sitting room, sat her down opposite Tyler and went to fetch her a drink.

Luckily, Tyler seemed to finally get the message that Bella wasn't interested, and after ten minutes he left, taking Emmett with him. Bella had tried to be polite, but really what was Rose thinking?

'I'm not discouraged you know.' Rose grinned at her. 'There are plenty more fish in the sea. So what if you don't like buff, blonde haired and blue eyed and you've exhausted all my other suggestions. Mike's chip shop has just gone up for sale and we'll see who that brings in.'

Bella laughed, 'After dealing with Edward all day you're never going to convince me. I swear I'm not planning to devote myself to anyone but Carlisle for the foreseeable future, Edward even managed to find me down at the beach today, where I thought I was safe.'

The smile suddenly disappeared from Rose's face, 'Which beach?'

'Um…. didn't I mention it? The beach just next to the house. I discovered it about a week and a half ago and I've been going there every day.'

Rose had a strange look on her face. 'I can't believe Edward went there after all this time.'

As Bella stared at Rose wondering what was wrong, tears began to gather in Rose's eyes and suddenly Bella knew she had to find out once and for all.

'Why do you hate Edward so much Rose?'

Rose looked at Bella with anger written all over her face.

'He killed my best friend.'

-ooo-

That definitely wasn't what Bella had expected to hear and her mouth dropped open.

'Oh, don't look so shocked Bella. Sorry I forgot you don't know anything about the circumstances. Maybe that was slightly over the top. Here have another drink, you look as if you need it.'

Rose couldn't help smiling at her and although her brain was in a total whirl, Bella relaxed slightly, while Rose grabbed their glasses and filled them up.

'Sorry again. Auntie and I were wondering if we should tell you, but it all happened ten years ago and Carlisle never mentions it, so we decided to let sleeping dogs lie.'

'For god's sake Rose, I'm imagining all sorts of things now. Just tell me the whole story.'

Rose sighed, 'Well you do know Carlisle and Esme had a daughter, Alice?'

Bella looked shocked again. Why had she never put two and two together? She knew Alice had drowned, she'd even seen her grave in the churchyard, but she'd immediately assumed it had been in Italy not here. No wonder the path to the beach had been overgrown and the boathouse was falling apart, no one had been near it in the ten years since Alice had died there.'

Rose took a big gulp of her drink, then continued, 'Edward had spent most of his holidays here as a child, but after his parents' divorce his mother, who was a manipulative bitch by the way, kept him away. It was only after his father gained custody and Edward had got into all sorts of trouble, that Carlisle agreed to take him on full time. Carlisle and Esme thought maybe a completely new start would help him settle down before it was too late and to be honest there'd never been much love lost between Edward and his father and both his parents seemed to see him more as a pawn in their battles with each other than anything else.'

'How old was he when he arrived?'

'Just seventeen and all the girls went wild for him. Hormones on fire! Alice and Edward were inseparable as kids and they quickly became inseparable again. Before they were terrors when they got together, but now there was something much darker about it and they egged each other on. I know Edward had issues and Alice was wild, but I firmly believe she would have been alive now if it wasn't for Edward.'

As Bella watched, tears started to run down Rose's face in earnest and she dragged her chair round the table to put her arms round her.

'Don't tell me if it's too upsetting.'

Pulling herself together, Rose tried to smile.

'No, you need to know.'

'Ok then, get it over with, before I slide under the table from all the wine we've managed to knock back. This bottle's just about empty.'

'Ok,' looking determined, Rose went on with the story. 'It was Alice's eighteenth birthday and Edward had turned eighteen a couple of weeks before. There was a big party going on and nobody saw them disappear. Then James came in, dripping wet and white as a sheet, saying he'd heard Edward challenging Alice to a swimming race earlier and he'd just dragged Edward out of the water.'

'Sorry, I don't know… Who's James?'

'Oh, he's Esme's son from her first marriage. When Esme and Carlisle moved to Italy for part of the year he stayed there full time. His father's Italian - Esme was part Italian too.'

'Sorry to be so dense, but I still don't really understand what you're saying. Edward and Alice had a swimming race and tragically, Alice drowned? Wasn't that just a horrible accident?'

'Oh Bella, Edward broke three cardinal rules – he should never have let her go out when it was dark, when the sea was so rough and when they'd both been drinking. Although she was a strong swimmer, Alice was tiny and she wouldn't have stood a chance. She was swept away so completely that her body was never found.'

Rose had to stop because she was overcome with tears again and feeling terrible for making her go into all this, Bella gently rubbed her back.

'Edward actually admitted that he'd panicked and pushed her away, because she was dragging him down. He also tried to claim that he'd challenged Alice to a race hours before and she'd said no and he'd only followed her out because she was acting strangely and he was trying to keep her safe. But anyway what sort of person disappears after something like that and ends up in Jessica Stanley's bed? She was engaged to Mike at the time too.'

Not knowing what to think or say, Bella kept quiet and after giving Rosalie another hug, she went to put the kettle on. They drank their coffee in silence then changed the subject, and when Emmett came back not long afterwards, Bella decided she'd better go home.

At the door they hugged again and Rose insisted she was fine and apologised for all the tears. It was so long ago now she really should have got over it. Bella was less successful in convincing Rose that she was ok. She couldn't deny that the whole thing had been a shock.

Still rather dazed, as she trudged back home through the rapidly descending darkness, for the first time she felt slightly scared of her bleak surroundings. It was drizzling and shadows seemed to be gathering in the mist and several times she almost lost her footing on the stony track. When she reached the top of the cliff she could hear the sea violently pounding onto the rocks below as the waves swept in on the high tide, whipped up by a storm somewhere out at sea.

Chilled by the damp air and buffeted by the wind, Bella wondered how many people had drowned along this treacherous stretch of coastline. The significance of the pub sign outside The Sailor's Rest, which depicted a sailing ship foundering on the rocks, was suddenly clear. Like Alice, the final resting place of so many unfortunate souls was likely to have been at the bottom of the sea.

Bella had got used to the portrait of Lady Mary in her room and even wished she knew more about her, but now she shivered at the thought that perhaps Lady Mary wasn't the only ghostly presence. And as she turned towards the Lantern House, which rose up in front of her out of the mist, she felt a little like a heroine in a gothic tale herself. Was the light which was shining so brightly in the darkness really a safe haven, or was she slowly being drawn onto the rocks?