CHAPTER 6

When Bella got back to the house, after seeing Melanie out she went to check on Carlisle, and realising that if Edward and Mrs Cope had known where she was, Carlisle was also probably aware of what she'd been up to, she blurted out an apology.

'I'm so sorry if I've upset anyone by going down to the beach. I didn't know anything about Alice…'

Carlisle looked surprised. 'That's perfectly fine. I've no problem at all with you making the most of the sunny weather when you can. It's been a long time since we've had any young people in the house, but there's no question of anywhere being out of bounds.'

Bella was relieved that Carlisle didn't seem at all upset, but when he turned back to his newspaper her next thought was that she wanted to apologise to Edward. Finding her on the beach must have felt as if she'd been trampling on Alice's grave and probably explained why he'd been so abrupt with her.

She wished she could ask Edward for his version of how Alice had drowned, because although she respected Rosalie's feelings, there was obviously a whole history leading up to that night and she wasn't sure her friend's perception of events was entirely reliable.

She also wondered what the long-term effect of Alice's death had been on Edward. It was a terrible thing for an eighteen year old to have witnessed and unlike Rose, Bella wasn't surprised that he'd run away rather than face the immediate aftermath, even if it had been towards Jessica.

But after all it had happened a long time ago and it wasn't any of her business. So after saying goodnight to Carlisle, Bella tried to forget about her upsetting day and any ghosts which might be lurking and more or less succeeded in keeping her mind on her revision for the rest of the evening.

-ooo-

During the night, while Bella lay in bed still puzzling over Edward's sudden change of heart towards her and trying not to think about Alice, the storm which had already churned up the sea blew in. And as the waves crashed onto the rocks and the wind tugged at the house and rattled the slates on the roof, she keep hearing a louder noise, which sounded like a window banging somewhere nearby.

Remembering the faulty bedroom window catch they'd found on her first day and worried that the rain was getting in, after half an hour Bella decided to at least check the adjacent rooms. But outside the pool of light cast by her bedside light, it was pitch black out there and she had no idea where most of the light switches were.

She shivered at the thought of groping around in the darkness and had almost decided to drop the idea, when she remembered she'd seen a pocket torch in one of the desk drawers. Although the batteries had run down a bit it was better than nothing and surprised at how chilly the night air was, Bella grabbed her dressing gown and hurried out of the room, wanting to get back into bed as soon as possible.

After a quick peek into her bathroom, she found both of the next rooms and the second bathroom were fine, but as she approached the bedroom furthest away from hers, she could definitely hear something rattling and banging. As she stood outside the door she suddenly felt nervous, but telling herself she was being silly, she grasped the door handle firmly, opened the door and stepped inside.

Immediately the door slammed behind her, she dropped the torch and something flew into her face. Screaming in surprise and picking up the torch and protecting her face with her arm at the same time, she automatically backed towards the wall, then stood shivering and shaking, flashing the torch backwards and forwards in front of her to try to ward off whatever might be in the room with her.

Still terrified, she slowly edged along the wall towards the door, desperately feeling for the door frame or a light switch with one hand, while clutching the torch with the other. The first thing she came to was the light switch and sighing with relief she switched it on, then blinked at the sudden brightness.

To her surprise she could see the window was closed. But there was a definite draught in the room, which she realised was coming from the chimney, along with an eerie whistling sound, although the banging and knocking seemed to be coming from the attic floor above. At first she thought she was alone, but as she looked towards the window again, she caught a tiny movement and realised something small and dark was clinging to the top of the curtain.

Thinking it must be a large moth which had somehow got blown down the chimney, forgetting her nerves Bella slowly crept over to the window. But as she got closer she realised it wasn't a moth, it was a tiny bat, which had hooked itself onto the curtain fabric and curled up into a tight ball.

Enthralled, Bella trained the torchlight on it and examined what she could see of the tiny creature which was half the size of her smallest finger. But realising she was probably distressing it, when another loud thud from the floor above jolted her nerves again, she quickly left the room, shutting the door tightly behind her. However much she'd been intrigued to see a real live bat up close, she didn't fancy the thought of it flying around the house all night.

After scurrying back to her room with her heart still thumping loudly from the fright she'd had, she pulled a face at Lady Mary, who was smiling down on her as usual from the wall above the bed and climbed back under the covers. Thankfully the storm was already beginning to die down a bit and the rattling and banging with it, and after deciding she'd get Emmett to investigate the noise in the morning and deal with the bat, Bella eventually fell asleep.

-ooo-

By morning the storm had completely blown itself out and everything looked shiny and newly washed in the bright sunshine, while only the fluffiest of small clouds lingered in a perfectly blue sky. The thought of ghosts and unexplained noises in the night seemed ridiculous now and feeling slightly ashamed of the panic she'd got herself into the day before, Bella hurried to get dressed.

When she arrived downstairs Mrs Cope was bustling about in the kitchen. Chuckling at Bella's surprised face, she poured her a cup of coffee and put a couple of slices of bread in the toaster, while Bella yawned and sat down at the table.

'I've just popped in to let Mr Carlisle know that Jim's coming out of hospital later and Melanie will be coming in instead of me for the next few weeks.'

'I'm glad Jim's doing better. He's lucky to have you to look after him, you do such a good job with us.'

'Oh he's tough as old boots,' the pride was obvious in Mrs Cope's voice. 'But you're looking pale again this morning, I think you've been studying too hard for your exams.'

'Oh, not really, I just didn't sleep very well. Is Emmett here yet? There was something banging really loudly in the attic last night and there's a bat in one of the bedrooms.'

Mrs Cope was completely unfazed by this information 'I'm sorry you had a bad night. I'll find Emmett on my way out and tell him to have a good look around the attic. It was probably one of the window shutters again.'

Bella wished she had time to go up to the attic with Emmett, but after she'd watched him very gently detach the bat from the bedroom curtains and carefully carry it off to the coal shed as a temporary home for the day, she reluctantly left him to it. As Mrs Cope had suspected, the cause of Bella's disturbed night turned out to be a loose shutter and after Emmett came down to confirm it had been fixed, Bella put everything but her exams out of her head.

-ooo-

On Wednesday morning Bella set off bright and early and walked down to the village hall where her exams were being held. She hadn't been into the village for some time and she was surprised at how busy the streets and shops already were with holiday makers, despite schools not breaking up for another month.

When she was let out for lunch after the first exam, she went down to the harbour and found it was overrun - an ice cream van and a hotdog stall had appeared on the quay and a line of eager customers were waiting for a boat trip around the bay, while small children with buckets, spades and fishing nets clambered over the rocks, shouting excitedly to their parents who'd taken possession of the beach.

The ice cream Bella queued up for was delicious though and in all honesty she couldn't blame the summer visitors for enjoying what she loved so much herself. But after braving a crowd of seagulls which were eying up the remains of her cone with a nasty glint in their eyes, Bella left the tourists to it and walked back the way she'd come.

The afternoon exam session went well as far as she could tell and relieved that another year of her degree was over, Bella set off to celebrate with Emmett and Rosalie, who'd arranged to meet her in the Sailor's Rest.

When she arrived the main bar was heaving with visitors like everywhere else, but she found Emmett had commandeered the snug and she was inundated with congratulations from a large crowd of regulars as she ducked through the doorway blushing madly.

'Ok, ok that's enough! I could've failed for all you lot know!'

'Never!' Emmett's conviction was clear in his voice and he looked totally shocked at the idea.

As Bella took her seat next to him, he ruffled her hair just to annoy her. 'Anyway, now to the more important stuff – what are we having to eat?'

And under the general clamour and passing round of menus, Rosalie took the chance to whisper to Bella, 'Sorry if I scared you the other day by telling you about Alice and then sending you back to that big empty house. Were you ok afterwards?'

'Yes Rose, it's fine. I know you had to tell me. And luckily I don't believe in ghosts.'

'Good. Let's just leave it there then and change the subject….You must have been surprised to find all of Em's friends cluttering up the village.'

Emmett growled at his wife, 'That never has been and never will be funny and Bella has no idea what you're talking about.'

'Ha. Bella has no-one told you yet that round here holiday makers are known as emmets (ants) and not in a good way? For some reason Em's parents named him after an American great great grandfather and then decided to move to Cornwall, poor kid!.'

'Luckily I've always been able to hold my own,' said Emmett mildly, as his attention was completely distracted by a plate of chips.

But Bella wasn't interested in teasing Emmett just at the moment; because now that her exams were finished she had another project in mind, which she wanted to discuss with Rosalie – Carlisle's 80th birthday.

'Rose, do you think it would be too much for Carlisle if I arranged a party for his birthday? Provided it didn't go on 'til too late… say nine or ten pm?'

'I don't see why not, unless something unexpected happens in the meantime. We could always continue the party at our house or down here if anyone wanted to and leave Carlisle in peace.'

'Great! I'll start planning tomorrow. I know it's a couple of months away still, but I wanted to do something special and fun for him and I thought I'd ask his editor and publisher and some of his other old friends down from London.'

'And maybe make it a fancy dress party?' Emmett chimed in. 'I've missed Rose's maid's uniform for too long.'

'Only if you go in your budgie smugglers, big boy.'

'Well that's certainly given me something to think about. Thanks you two.' Bella exclaimed, pretending to gag.

-ooo-

Now that her exams were over Bella finally had the time to explore further afield. She went shopping in Falmouth and Truro and to the movies and all the way down to Penzance, sometimes by train, but more often by bus, enjoying the changing scenery and the winding country roads from her seat on the swaying top deck of the double decker.

Rosalie and Emmett took her out in their car to Kynance Cove further along the coast and showed her around the local tourist attractions and some of their favourite restaurants. And Friday night was darts night, which was always a good excuse to spend the evening in the Sailor's Rest, although Bella kept out of Jessica's way as much as she could.

Rosalie was still determined to find her a boyfriend, but although Bella went on a few dates, no one really took her fancy and she wished Rose would drop the whole thing. She was quite happy as she was and as well as finalising the arrangements for Carlisle's birthday party, as the new term got nearer she needed to get on with researching her final dissertation.

After discussions with her tutor, she'd already chosen the subject of 'Myth and Reality or Truth and Fiction' from the options available, with the idea of perhaps looking into the local stories about smugglers and wreckers. She'd even done some preliminary research. But the more she thought about it, the more the subject seemed a little obvious, and remembering all the stories Mrs Cope had told her, she decided to ask Carlisle if she could perhaps write about his family history instead, specifically The Grey Lady, if she could find out enough about her.

From the beginning it had puzzled Bella that Lady Mary's husband, Perceval, was supposed to have locked her up until she went mad, with the aim of getting hold of her money, because she knew that at this date everything Lady Mary owned would have transferred to her husband on marriage anyway. It would have been different if he'd locked her up & tried to force her to marry him, but as they were already married it seemed a little unnecessary to say the least.

And surely someone must have treasured Lady Mary's portrait for it to have survived for so long? Bella certainly couldn't imagine anyone who'd treated Lady Mary so badly wanting to have a reminder hanging on the wall, and the more Bella studied the picture, the more she'd become convinced that the story must be wrong. The person in the portrait just didn't look like someone who'd been so defeated by life that she'd returned as a ghost.

In fact Bella had become so comfortable with the presence of Lady Mary above her bed that more than once she'd found herself telling her about her day - at least she didn't try to boss her around like Rose did, or turn everything into a joke like Emmett and although Bella also had Mrs Cope and Carlisle to confide in, sometimes she just really missed her mother.

As far as initial research went, Bella had already tried a couple of internet searches and found it surprisingly easy to confirm the dates of Lady Mary's birth (1741) and marriage (1760), although she hadn't been able to find anything about her death. And among several other online references which she'd noted for her evidence, she'd found Lady Mary and Percy mentioned in an old newspaper article, in connection with a costume Carlisle's great grandmother had worn to one of her charity balls, which had been copied from the very same portrait.

Whether the subject was suitable for her project really depended on what other records were available though. If Carlisle was happy with her going ahead, she'd have to try to confirm the family assets and income at the time and look for letters and bills etc. But Mrs Cope had already told her there was a whole room of family papers in the attic, so with a bit of luck there would be something to find.

When she went to ask permission, Carlisle was really enthusiastic and immediately started taking down volumes of family history from the bookshelves.

'How about if I pull out everything with a reference to Lady Mary, Percy, or the Grey Lady for you? I haven't delved into some of these for quite some time and it will be interesting to try to trace how far back the stories go, especially the ghost story.'

'Thank you, that's really kind. But would it also be ok if I looked through the family archives to see if I can find any contemporary records?'

'That shouldn't be a problem, but I'm afraid you'll have to ask Edward about that not me. The archives were only moved here for safekeeping when the London property was sold at the end of last year.'

'Oh, I didn't realise the London house had been sold so recently. What a shame.'

'Yes, at one time, as well as the family estates near Falmouth, we also owned this whole village and half of Truro. Death duties in the thirties and fifties put paid to all that I'm afraid. The family has always been good at spending too much money and I'm sure Edward wouldn't mind me admitting that his father, my elder brother Alistair, was rather …umm … profligate, you might say.'

'So does Edward own the Lantern House as well?'

'No. Edward inherited the house in London and all its contents, but this property has always been held outside of the main estate and passed down through second sons mainly. It's really all that's left now.'

'Oh gosh, I've just realised how rude I've been.' Bella blushed, 'I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to question you about your family finances, I got carried away with the history.'

'Don't worry, I wish there was more than old family history to entertain you with. The truth is that Edward's been forced to sell everything and I'm not even sure where he's going to live once the flat he lives in, which originally belonged to his mother, goes as well.'

'Oh, poor Edward!'

'Yes, he has been through rather a difficult time. But after all, the past owes nothing to anyone and he's not alone in having to make a new start. At least he's got a good job and I'm confident he has the brains and determination to do well…Now where's the family bible got to? There's a family tree inside the front cover which might be useful for you.'

-ooo-

As usual Bella found out a lot more from Mrs Cope, who'd recently returned from looking after Jim and immediately started on a monumental spring clean.

Now that the subject of Alice was out in the open, it was like a dam had burst and all of Mrs Cope's stories were suddenly about Miss Alice and Master Edward and what little 'hellers' they were as children, although there was always a smile on her face when she explained that there was no stopping Miss Alice when she got an idea in her head.

Bella felt slightly awkward asking about Edward behind his back, but as she helped Mrs Cope re-hang the curtains in the drawing room, with very little prompting the whole story about what had happened with Irina came out.

'I'm sorry to say that things had got so bad between them that Mr Alistair refused to even see Master Edward during the last few years of his life. I shouldn't speak ill of the dead, so all I'm saying is that it's a wonder Master Edward turned out as well as he did.'

As Bella wasn't sure she agreed with that, she said nothing.

Mrs Cope carried on, 'So imagine Master Edward's surprise when Irina turned up at the funeral - tall, blonde, beautiful, all in black with a veil as big as you like and weeping and sobbing away like nobody's business. It turned out she'd been his father's nurse/companion for the last year and now apparently she was in dire straits, had nowhere to go and for various reasons couldn't go back to her home country.'

Mrs Cope stopped to fish in her pocket for some more curtain hooks, 'She made a beeline for Master Edward of course and she was so convincing that for a while he was taken in. But when he started going through his father's papers it quickly became clear he'd run up huge debts in the final year of his life – unwise investments here, extravagant presents and large charity donations there, and although he couldn't prove anything, the finger pointed more and more to Irina and one night she just skedaddled.'

'Was Edward heartbroken?' Bella asked.

Mrs Cope laughed, 'No, more angry I'd say and of course there wasn't a penny left. The fact that Mr Alistair and Master Edward were estranged would have worked in her favour, because there was no one to notice what was going on. But I think Irina probably misunderstood how much money there was to begin with. It's more than likely she would have been taken in by Mr Alistair's extravagant lifestyle and thought she was just skimming off the top, which would have been a lot less obvious. Anyway she disappeared and hasn't been heard of since.'

So as if her constant stories about Edward and Alice as children weren't enough, Mrs Cope had certainly given Bella a lot more to think about. It was clear now why Edward had behaved so suspiciously towards her – he was trying to protect Carlisle. But still, the things she'd been told about him by different people, as well as her own observations, didn't really add up and she was confused.

Like the small bits of old crockery and glass washed up on the beach, which she'd started collecting with the aim of making a mosaic, the pieces were intriguing partly because they were so incomplete. Some of the decorations were stunning, but although she could only guess what the original objects had looked like, she really wanted those, not the shattered fragments she was left with, however beautiful and brightly coloured they might be.

She'd been waiting for Edward to come back so that she could try to make more sense of things in the light of the new information she had, but annoyingly, since his sudden apology over two months ago, Edward seemed to have given up visiting completely. And as Bella turned over her finds and marvelled at how exquisite some of the broken pieces were, perhaps stupidly, she really wanted to see him again and she knew it was no coincidence that all Rosalie's attempts to interest her in someone else had completely failed.

And although she'd invited Edward to Carlisle's birthday party and received a polite acceptance, she was nervous about contacting him again. If he refused her access to the family records that would be the end of her project, but as she had no idea what was actually up in the attic anyway, she decided to check first.

-ooo-

She left it until one wet afternoon, when Mrs Cope had gone home early and Carlisle was busy in his study, finishing off an article he'd been writing. Thinking it would be dark and dusty in the attic and that she'd be clambering about under the eaves, Bella had changed into her oldest clothes, tied her hair up and covered it with a scarf and grabbed a couple of spare light bulbs, her trusty torch and a broom for protection against cobwebs.

As she left the kitchen she also stopped and put on one of Mrs Cope's overalls and a pair of yellow rubber gloves to be on the safe side. But as she reached the top of the staircase she realised she'd been ridiculously mistaken in her assumptions, because to all intents and purposes the attic was just another floor of the house and in front of her was an ordinary corridor with some rather worn brown lino on the floor and several rooms opening off it on either side.

To make things worse, before she could get out of her unnecessary additional clothing, she heard footsteps clumping up the stairs behind her and Emmett appeared.

'Are we playing Ghostbusters?'

'No! And giggling and pointing doesn't suit anyone of your size and age.'

'How about chasing and tickling?' Emmett lunged at her with wriggling fingers, as Bella screamed and tried to ward him off with the broom.

'Em, stop it! I haven't got time to mess around. Leave me alone a minute, while I get this stuff off.' And after pulling off the overall and the rubber gloves, Bella debated whether it was safe to put the broom down or not.

Deciding she'd better keep hold of it for a while, she opened the nearest door and found she was looking into what must have once been a servant's bedroom, complete with a metal bedstead, a sink, a wardrobe and a chair. Surprised, she opened the next two doors and found the rooms contained more or less the same – this wasn't like any attic she'd ever been in before!

Emmett, who was following her down the corridor, explained that the family still had a couple of live-in servants up until the Second World War and then the rooms had occasionally been used if there were a lot of guests in the house and everywhere else was full.

The remaining former servants' rooms were more what Bella expected, piled with old furniture and miscellaneous bits of junk, apart from the last one which contained about a dozen heavy-duty metal filing cabinets lined up around the walls.

'I presume all the family archives are in here then?' she asked Emmett.

'Yep. You should have seen us trying to get them in and out of the lift. But it's a good job Carlisle's great grandmother wanted the lift to come all the way up here from the ground floor for some reason. It's behind you by the way.'

And sure enough, when Bella turned round there was an old fashioned lift with an ornate metal cage right behind her.

'Ok, so there are plenty of records then.'

'They're not in very good order though, apart from the recent stuff. Edward and I had a quick look and a lot of it just seemed to have been shoved in there. You're going to have your work cut out going through everything.'

'It's a good job I like a challenge then.'

As they were there, Bella decided she might as well quickly have a look round the rest of the attic, so they turned right at the top of the corridor into another corridor at right angles which ran along the front of the house. There were only a couple of very large rooms here which covered the entire centre of the house, one of which was filled with more unwanted furniture, while the other was kitted out as a games room, with a large snooker table, a darts board, a TV and several comfy looking sofas.

'We had great fun hanging out up here as teenagers. It might even have been where I first kissed Rosie. Those were the days…' Emmett's eyes softened as he remembered. 'By the way I wanted to explain about Rose and Edward.'

Bella's eyes shot towards Emmett's face in surprise, as he continued,' Rose said she'd told you about Alice and I know she's got this thing about it being Edward's fault. But really it wasn't.'

'I had sort of suspected that.'

'The fact is Rose and Edward have never seen eye to eye. Really I suppose it's because they're too alike. They're both strong characters and they've always clashed. And to be honest Rose was always a little bit jealous that Edward just waltzed in and picked up with Alice from where they'd left off years before. Rose wasn't used to sharing her best friend and also Edward made it pretty clear he was immune to her charms, although practically anyone else would do, which really pissed her off!'

'So you've got no problem with Edward?'

'Far from it, he's a top bloke!' Emmett's eyes gleamed with remembered mischief. 'I can't tell you what scrapes we used to get into. I know you think he's arrogant, but if you'd met his parents, you'd see why his fuck off attitude is completely understandable. But there's never been anyone I'd rather have to watch my back'

Ok, that gave Bella more to think about. However, although she loved Emmett, he was so easygoing that she couldn't imagine him ever disliking anyone, which was a bit of a problem as far as character references went.

But she was roused from her thoughts when they turned another corner and Emmett announced, 'This is the nursery wing.'

Surprised that the children and the servants who looked after them, had actually been banished to the attic at some point, Bella realised that this suite of rooms - the schoolroom, the nursery, a sitting room and a couple of bedrooms - was above the part of the house her bedroom was in and for some reason it gave her the creeps.

She suddenly remembered the noises which had kept her awake on the night of the storm and although Emmett pointed out the shutter which had caused them, a quick glance at the old fashioned crib in the nursery and the few eerily abandoned toys, including a dilapidated rocking horse with a jewelled headband but only a few wispy remains of a mane, was enough, and Bella was soon making her way down a second staircase that she hadn't even realised existed. Which was more understandable when she saw that the door they emerged from was papered over like the walls and was therefore barely detectable in its dark corner near the kitchen.

Emmett immediately disappeared back into the garden and Bella sat down at the kitchen table with her laptop and a cup of tea before starting to prepare Carlisle's supper. After checking her emails she decided she might as well get it over with and ask Edward for permission to go through the family archives straight away.

Tentatively she typed:

'Hi Edward, I don't know if Carlisle has already mentioned it, but would you object if I went through the family archives, to find evidence for a dissertation I need to do for part of my degree?'

To her surprise he emailed back immediately.

'Yes that's fine. But could you possibly try to get everything back in order a bit at the same time & keep me up to date on how you're doing?'

Knowing that would be quite a time consuming job and take up most of her free afternoons, but grateful that Edward trusted her enough to do it, Bella suddenly felt brave enough to do what she'd wanted to do for weeks and apologise for being on the beach.

'Thank you, that's very kind. Of course I don't mind trying to put things back in order. Happy to email every week with an update. PS Sorry for going to the beach without telling anyone. I didn't know about Alice. Rosalie told me.'

She held her breath hoping she hadn't done the wrong thing, then sighed in relief when she opened his reply.

'Don't worry, several years of expensive therapy have enabled me to understand that what happened was not my fault. My many failings are entirely my own.'

Bella smiled, that reply was so Edward.

Thank you for being so patient, next chapter (in two weeks) goes straight into Carlisle's birthday party - Edward's invited!

Any suggestions for Emmett & Rosalie's fancy dress costumes?

x Sue