CHAPTER 19

At the beginning of the third week of February, when a sea of yellow daffodils chased away the shadows from under the trees and primroses and daisies dotted the lawns, Carlisle passed peacefully away.

He was sitting outside with Bella, enjoying the afternoon sunshine and running through the final version of his manuscript, when Bella noticed he'd looked away from the screen and was staring into the distance.

She followed the direction of his eyes and smiled, 'I've never seen so many daffodils. Spring's definitely on the way, despite the cold breeze. Are you sure you're warm enough? Can I get you another blanket?'

'You're right, it is a little cold. I think I may go back inside now, but you stay here. No don't get up, I can manage perfectly well.'

To her surprise, when Carlisle stood up he rested his hand on her shoulder for a moment, in a rare show of affection.

'Thank you my dear, you've taken such good care of me. I hope you know how grateful I am for all you've done.'

'Carlisle, you know you pay me to do that, don't you?'

They both smiled at each other, knowing full well their relationship went far beyond employer and employee.

Bella held the French windows open while Carlisle slowly made his way back inside and watched as Edward helped him to his usual seat beside the fire. Edward smiled at her before turning back to the DIY catalogue he was leafing through and Bella went back to her book.

But five minutes later she looked up to find that Edward had quietly sneaked up on her and was holding out a posy of forget-me-nots, which he'd picked knowing they were her favourites.

He sat down in the chair that Carlisle had been sitting in and amused himself by sticking the flowers into her hair, until she resembled a renaissance madonna. She squeaked when he pulled her hair too hard and tried to swat him away.

'Shhhh Bella, Carlisle's asleep.' Edward leaned across and kissed her, then tried to take her book away.

She shook her head to dislodge the flowers and pretended to be annoyed, 'Edward you know I've only got a few weeks left before the end of my course and I've got to get this finished now. Go and find something useful to do for five minutes, can't you?'

But he didn't answer and when Bella looked up, all trace of amusement had disappeared from his face and he was staring towards the far end of the garden with a stricken look in his eyes. She looked where he was looking, but there was nothing there, nothing at all, although the sun had gone in and she was suddenly freezing.

She touched Edward's arm and he started, then turned and ran indoors. When she followed him he was kneeling beside Carlisle's chair and she realised immediately that something about Carlisle's posture wasn't right. Her eyes widened in shock and her hand covered her mouth. It was so sudden that she could hardly believe it, but Carlisle had quietly passed away in his sleep.

-ooo-

The next twenty four hours had been awful. Mrs Cope, Emmett and Melanie had suddenly come rushing into the room and Melanie had immediately gone into hysterics.

And while the others tried to calm her down, Edward phoned the doctor to let him know what had happened. It was pointless for Emmett to attempt CPR this time and Bella just pulled the blanket more closely around Carlisle's motionless body, before standing still for a moment to silently say goodbye.

With bowed heads and solemn faces the others followed suit, apart from Melanie, who continued to make such a scene that Emmett and Mrs Cope had to bundle her out of the room, leaving Edward and Bella to wait for the doctor on their own.

Edward squeezed Bella's hand, 'At least it was peaceful and I think he knew this time.'

She looked at Edward enquiringly. 'How did you know though?'

'Um…Didn't you see anything? A shadow hovering under the trees?'

'No, not this time. I wonder why it was just you? I was sitting right next to you…'

Her voice trailed off. She didn't want to think about ghosts and what that meant now, or give in to the tide of grief which was waiting somewhere for her once the initial shock had worn off.

The clock on the mantelpiece ticked loudly in the silence and Bella moved closer towards Edward for support, glad that for once she didn't have to cope with everything alone.

The doctor, closely followed by the undertaker, had arrived and after copious amounts of tea and sympathy Mrs Cope and Emmett had left Edward and Bella to it There was no point sitting in the empty room now that Carlisle's body had been removed and they drew the curtains and closed the door and went back into the main part of the house, where Mrs Cope had stoked up the fire in the kitchen and the smaller sitting room and left them out some food.

They didn't feel much like eating and after sitting reminiscing sadly for a while, Edward managed to rouse himself enough to start making phonecalls, while Bella absently stared at the TV screen, struggling not to give in to the tears which threatened to overwhelm her with every small memory and reminder.

There would be a lot more calls and emails to make in the morning and after breaking the news to most of their closest friends, Edward went to get the file of information he knew Carlisle had prepared months ago.

When he came back he looked slightly puzzled, 'That's odd, the copy of the will's missing.'

He looked at his watch. 'The solicitor's office will be closed by now; I'll have to phone Jenks at home. At least I can ask him to let James know what's happened at the same time. Jenks and Jenks are the executors anyway and they might have some alternative contact details, that last phone number you gave me for James wasn't any better than the ones I already had.'

Grimacing at just the mention of James's name, but knowing it had to be done, Bella started tidying up the room a bit, while Edward went through the list looking for the solicitor's home number. She knew Jenks and Carlisle had been old friends and it was going to be another difficult call for Edward to make. But having something to do seemed to be helping him deal with the situation, which was why she'd decided to let him get on with it. She'd offer to help tomorrow, but at the moment she couldn't even say Carlisle's name without getting tears in her eyes and a lump in her throat.

She wondered how long it would be before anyone managed to get hold of James though. Could they even go ahead with the funeral arrangements without the next of kin? Her attention went back to Edward when she heard him half-swear loudly, then apologise and thank whoever he was speaking to on the phone, before ending the call.

'What is it? You look as if you're in shock.'

'Carlisle's changed his will and left the house to me.'

-ooo-

Bella stared at Edward,' But how can he do that? Mrs Cope told me that as the only son, James is legally entitled to inherit.'

'That only applies when someone dies without making a will. Carlisle was perfectly free to leave his property to anyone he wanted, but I never thought he'd disinherit James. It's definitely not what Esme would have wanted.'

'Oh, I see. I can understand that he wouldn't want to go against her wishes.'

'It's not only that. When Esme and Carlisle got married, nearly all her divorce settlement from James's father went into repairs on this place, then keeping it going. When she died everything went to Carlisle, but only in the expectation that James would eventually inherit.'

'So changing his will would have been a really big deal for Carlisle. Perhaps he realised more about James than we thought.'

'Maybe, but don't get too excited yet. There's no way James is going to take this lying down.'

'What can he do about it?'

'Threaten to appeal for a start. I'm not sure what his chances of winning would be, but that's not really the point. As a barrister myself, I'd never advise anyone to go to court unless it was absolutely necessary. These cases can easily go on for years and swallow up all the value of the original inheritance. And as he has dual nationality I've no idea if he could also pursue us through the Italian courts. Unfortunately none of this is within my area of expertise.'

'So what do we do now?'

'Well I've asked Jenks to email me a copy of the will as soon as he gets into work tomorrow and presumably he'll do the same with James if he can find him. Then, to put it crudely, we'll just have to wait until the shit hits the fan.'

-ooo-

They didn't have to wait long.

Bella woke up early the next morning after a sad and almost sleepless night and went down to the kitchen. The house already felt strangely empty as if something vital was missing and she couldn't face going anywhere near Carlisle's rooms just yet. She made herself a cup of tea, then almost started crying again when she realised she'd made one for Carlisle too.

Every time she'd woken up in the night, Edward had been awake too and he'd looked so exhausted when he'd finally fallen asleep that she'd crept out of bed and left him sleeping. When he came downstairs he kissed her and made an effort to be as cheerful as possible and spent ages getting the fires going and making them both breakfast. But the fires couldn't seem to take the chill away and after several attempts at conversation, they both relapsed into a sad silence as they stared at the uneaten food on their plates.

The copy of the will came through from the solicitor's at eight thirty and after quickly scanning through it, Edward could definitely confirm that Carlisle had left the house and general contents to him. He pressed print and the printer began to churn out the pages.

Bella felt a rush of relief. At least The Lantern House was safe for now and they wouldn't be unceremoniously kicked out as soon as James arrived. But it seemed odd that Carlisle had kept all of this so secret.

She looked at Edward, who was reading through the printed pages line by line. 'Why do you think Carlisle didn't say anything about changing his will? It would have saved us a lot of worry.'

Edward interrupted his reading. 'I assume the aim was to make sure James didn't find out in advance. I don't even recognise the names of the witnesses, they're not local, must be old friends of Carlisle's from London, and if Jenks was the only other person who knew, there was no chance of James being able to do anything about it.'

'Build a case in advance you mean?'

Edward laughed bitterly. 'No, I was thinking more along the lines of forging a later will.'

'Oh god, James really isn't going to like this, is he?'

'Don't worry about that now, come and have a look. I was wondering why the email from Jenks was addressed to both of us.'

Edward passed her the pages with the additional bequests and Bella began to read through them.

The copyright on Carlisle's books, which unfortunately were mostly out of print now, went to a favourite charity of Esme's. Several rare books in his library were going to his old college and rather strangely, Aro, who was to have his pick of the remainder. Bella raised her eyebrows at Edward in surprise when she read that bit, but continued on to the final bequests which disposed of Carlisle's savings.

If anything this was an even bigger shock, because along with Mrs Cope and Emmett and Rosalie, she'd been left twenty five thousand pounds, with any remaining cash, which was only likely to be a few thousand pounds, going to charity. All James got was his mother's jewellery, which they knew Carlisle had taken out of the bank and had re-valued a few months before Christmas.

Bella looked at Edward with her mouth open in surprise. 'I can't accept…'

'I'm sure Carlisle would have hoped there'd be a lot more to give out. I had no idea the income from his books had shrunk so much. I'm sure James would have been banking on getting his hands on some ready cash as well, but there's not exactly a lot to go round.'

Bella's mouth was still open in shock.

'Edward, how can you say that? A hundred pounds is a lot of money to me. I can't accept twenty five thousand.'

'Sorry Love, but there's no choice. You can do what you like with it once you get it, give it to charity if you have to, although obviously that isn't what Carlisle wanted. Anyway, it could be a long time before anyone gets anything once James starts making a fuss.'

Shortly afterwards Rosalie and Emmett arrived. As they'd already had to send a copy of the will to Edward, the solicitor's office must have decided they might as well contact the other beneficiaries. So once heartfelt commiserations had been shared and a suitable amount of tears had been shed, by the women and Emmett at least, the will and Edward's unexpected inheritance became the main topic of conversation and a welcome distraction from the sadness which hung over the whole house and made them feel as if they should be talking in whispers.

Rose was actually on her way to work and she had to leave, but not long afterwards Mrs Cope turned up and insisted on staying and now that the news about Carlisle was out, a steady stream of villagers began arriving to offer their condolences, so most of the morning was occupied with finishing off the remaining list of phonecalls and dealing with callers.

There was a lull in visitors at lunchtime and Edward and Emmett disappeared into the garden to see what needed doing. Bella was watching them through the kitchen window while she helped Mrs Cope with the washing up – the dishwasher had broken down several weeks before and hadn't been repaired. She knew things were going to be even tighter financially now and she was worried that Edward would let Emmett go, and wear himself out by trying to do everything on his own.

As Edward and Emmett turned and slowly began walking down the path to the kitchen, the front doorbell rang, and hastily drying her hands, Bella hurried towards the hall to let the next villager in. She was hoping they hadn't brought any more food, because the fridge and the larder were already straining with donations and she had no idea how they were going to get through everything they'd already been given.

When she got closer she realised someone was really hammering on the front door. Whoever it was must think no one could hear the bell. She ran the last few steps, ignoring the phone which was ringing nearby. Hers was definitely in her pocket, so Edward must have left his behind. Trying to be as quick as she could, she fumbled with the latch on the door then had to jump out of the way to avoid it slamming into her, as James pushed his way in.

He smiled at her as usual, but a muscle twitched in his cheek and he was having trouble looking her in the eye without betraying the anger he was struggling to conceal. Already feeling slightly alarmed, Bella took a step back, wondering if she should make an excuse and run back towards the safety of the kitchen. Her heart started to thump when she realised no one was even within calling distance. Were Edward and Emmett even back inside the house yet?

As if reading her thoughts, James suddenly grabbed hold of her arm and twisted, bringing her closer towards him. He was still trying to maintain the pretence of a smile, but the effort was suddenly too much and Bella flinched as his fingers dug into her arm.

Edward's phone start ringing again, distracting James for a second and making him loosen his grip slightly. Galvanised into action, Bella tried to twist free. This was so silly, what were they doing? But part of her knew things were deadly serious now and she tried to call out, but her throat was so dry that she couldn't make a sound. She swallowed and was about to try again, when James hit her so hard across the face that she saw stars.

His grasp tightened on her arm and he glared at her as his face contorted with fury. 'You bitch, I should fucking kill you. Playing the innocent while you conspired with your fucking boyfriend to rob me of my inheritance. And what tricks did you have to play on the old man to get him to agree, you fucking whore?'

He was shaking with rage now and his free hand tightened into a fist. Bella's mind was wildly running through options. She decided her best bet was to knee him hard in the groin then run, but she was scared of what he'd do to her if she failed to disable him on the first attempt.

And before either of them had time to move, James was suddenly carried away from her and slammed against the wall, by Edward. Almost dazed with relief, Bella staggered backwards, but if James had been furious, she quickly realised that Edward was absolutely incandescent with rage. Oh shit, he must have seen James hit her.

James's body had hit the wall with a sickening crack which appeared to have stunned him for a moment, but as he stepped away and brushed himself down, he grinned and with his eyes on Edward's face he whispered something Bella couldn't catch. But Edward had heard, and with another roar, he pinned James back against the wall with both hands around his neck.

Already James was struggling to breathe as Edward's hands tightened and if no one stopped him, it seemed quite likely that he would strangle James to death. But Edward almost appeared to be in a trance and nothing Bella shouted at him had any effect. She desperately pulled at his shoulders and his arms, but he was so much stronger than she was that it was useless and all she could do was watch in horror as James began to make a croaking sound and his face turned purple, while Edward gritted hiss teeth and steadily increased the pressure.

Just when she was beginning to give up all hope, two large hands suddenly appeared on top of Edward's and prised them away from James's neck and Bella sobbed with relief when she realised Emmett had come to the rescue. Somehow he managed to wrestle Edward away, leaving James to slide down the wall and onto the floor, gasping for air like a stranded fish.

Edward was still glassy eyed with anger. He lunged at James and almost broke free of the armlock Emmett had him in. But Emmett's voice was coaxing as if he was speaking to a child. 'Shhhh, shhh, it's ok. Calm down mate. Don't take the bait.'

Meanwhile James slowly got to his feet and stood rubbing his neck, while Emmett continued to hold Edward back. He shook himself and craned his neck from side to side testing for damage, then scowled at them all before walking over to the door.

His voice rose to a shrill whine and his Adam's apple bobbed above a livid ring of red, 'You fuckers are going to pay for this. My lawyers will be in touch and we'll be taking you for every last penny you own.'

The final look he gave Edward confirmed that he hated Edward just as much as Edward hated him and Bella's blood ran cold. The front door slammed, James's footsteps crunched across the gravel, his car door opened and banged shut, the engine started up and he drove away. The noise of the car engine got fainter and fainter and then as if they'd been under a spell, all three of them blinked and took a deep breath in unison, just as Mrs Cope appeared.

-ooo-

Mrs Cope's expression was stern when she looked in Edward and Emmett's direction, 'Emmett would you be so kind as to take Mr Edward back outside for a few minutes, he looks as if he could do with some air.'

She waited while Emmett and Edward crossed the hall and disappeared out of the front door, 'Now Miss Bella, you come back to the kitchen with me and we'll have a sit down and a nice cup of tea.' She looked at her watch, 'No one's going to disturb us for half an hour.'

Wondering how she knew that, Bella followed Mrs Cope down the corridor and sat down at the kitchen table while Mrs Cope put the kettle on. She realised she was shaking and when she touched her cheek it felt hot and sore where James had hit her. Mrs Cope came back with tea and biscuits, then ran a cloth under the cold tap and gave it to Bella to hold against her face.

She looked at Bella searchingly, 'I don't think that will look too bad. We don't want Mr Edward getting all riled up again do we?'

Bella tried not to let the tears spill out of her eyes. If she starting crying now she didn't know when she'd be able to stop. 'They both frightened me so much. Not just James, but Edward too, he didn't even seem to know what he was doing.'

'Don't think I'm making excuses, but it's been a long time coming. You can't keep things bottled up like that without them eating away at you inside. I'm sure Mr Edward will be sorry for frightening you, but it was in your defence and at least everything's all out in the open now.'

'I'm worried about what James will do next. Now that Carlisle's left the house to Edward, I feel like we owe it to him to find a way to keep it.'

Mrs Cope patted Bella's hand, 'I'm sure you'll think of something, my dear. James has always been a nasty piece of work, but he's been clever at hiding it up to now.' She stared out into the garden with a pensive look on her face. 'I've never known him let himself get so stirred up like this before. He's getting careless.'

The sun had come out and the daffodils were fluttering in the breeze and for some reason Bella remembered she had a question about the ghost from the previous day. 'I know this is a complete change of subject, but Emmett told me once that you'd seen Lady Mary's ghost. Do you know why she appears to some people and not others, or is it that you can only see her once? I think Edward saw her yesterday, but unlike before when Carlisle nearly died, I was sitting right beside him and I didn't see a thing.'

Mrs Cope turned away from the window and looked at Bella in surprise. 'I don't know exactly how it works, Dear, but although she's confined to the garden, she can only be seen by the last person who was with the deceased inside the house - some lingering connection to the death of her children perhaps?'

'Oh, ok that explains it then.' But there was something at the back of Bella's mind which wasn't satisfied with the explanation, although she couldn't think what it was. She wondered if Carlisle had seen the ghost too, or if he'd just been admiring the daffodils - the garden did look beautiful in its spring finery.

Sitting quietly with Mrs Cope and looking out at the garden, for the first time she began to feel at peace with Carlisle's passing. Although she missed him badly and she'd miss him even more as the days passed, deep down she knew it had been time and she was comforted by the knowledge that everyone who'd known him would always think fondly of him and carry him in their hearts, which was a legacy that anyone could be proud of.

In fact, by the time Edward and Emmett re-appeared she felt so much more able to cope, that she accepted Edward's apology for his behaviour with hardly any argument. Although it worried her when he said that he had no idea what had come over him, she decided that putting up with James for nearly thirty years without trying to kill him, was probably more than anyone could reasonably be expected to bear.

It didn't take long for the stream of visitors to begin again, although Mrs Cope put herself on front door duty this time. It was unlikely James would come back so soon, but they breathed a sigh of relief when Jenks rang to let them know that he was already on his way back to Italy.

Realising it was Jenks who'd been trying to get in touch earlier, Edward disappeared into Carlisle's study to have a longer conversation and he emerged looking slightly worried.

'At least we know what James's plan of attack is. He'd already been to see Jenks before he came here and caused quite a commotion. Jenks was trying to warn us he was on the warpath. Anyway he's gone back there and made a lot of empty threats. Of course Jenks gave him short shrift and threatened to call the police if he didn't calm down. We both seem to have had problems controlling out tempers today. Not so unusual for me I'm afraid, but not at all what I'd expect of James, he usually plays his cards so close to his chest and I've never ever seen him betray any kind of emotion.' Edward looked perplexed.

'Anyway, James's un-James like behaviour apart, Jenks says he's going to contest the will on several grounds – that as the only son he's now been left penniless and deprived of his original inheritance from his father's family, but more seriously, that Bella and I conspired to influence a dying man to change his will in our favour.'

Bella was incensed, 'How dare he, the slimy little bastard. Oh god, I'm so sorry if I've helped to make things even more difficult.'

Edward put his arm around her, 'Don't worry, like I said, only an idiot would take this to court, because it's going to be so expensive and the result's so uncertain. Jenks has assured me it could go either way and James must know that. So when James's solicitor gets in touch I've instructed Jenks to do his best to settle out of court, which must be what they're expecting.'

'But how can you afford that?'

'I know the prospect of having to buy James off is extremely annoying, but I'm willing to make a dent in the proceeds of my flat if necessary.'

Bella sighed, 'It's worth it to save the house of course, but it just seems so unfair that James is going to potentially walk away with several hundred thousand pounds of your money. I'm sure he must be lying about being penniless, he seems to be able to fly over here at the drop of a hat,' she ended bitterly.

Edward laughed and kissed the side of her head,' I can always depend on you for a down to earth point of view, my darling, but I agree the main object is to save the house, so I'm willing to sacrifice a bit of cash if that's the only way to do it.'

He grabbed her and kissed her properly, then held her tightly and nuzzled at her ear, before suddenly letting her go with a look of horror on his face. 'Oh god, I can see Mrs Penhallow approaching up the drive. That's an hour of our lives we're never going to get back and ten to one there's one of her inedible cheese and onion flans in that bag she's carrying…'

-ooo-

Later, when they were lying in bed together, quietly reminiscing about Carlisle and then talking about the day they'd had and James and the house, Edward apologised again for nearly strangling him.

Bella couldn't help shivering at the memory. 'You were really scary. What the hell did James say to you by the way? He spoke so softly I couldn't hear.'

'Don't get mad. His exact words were 'How's Irina?' but I couldn't have got any angrier than I already was. When I heard the way he spoke to you and then saw him hit you, everything just sort of exploded.'

His fists curled at the memory, but he shook his head as if to clear it, then very gently ran his fingers across the slight mark on Bella's cheek and kissed it.

Her heart sped up as it always did when he touched her and electricity flickered across her skin. But she was so incensed with James that she ignored it, 'So James really did have something to do with swindling your father before he died?'

'I think that definitely confirms it, but it's old news and as I said I was much more concerned about you. But I didn't mean to scare you, Sweetheart, I thought I'd got my temper under better control these days. Thank god Emmett was there, you can see why I was turfed out of school for getting into fights when I was a kid.'

'I really thought you were going to kill him.'

'I don't think I'd have gone quite that far. Although if James goes anywhere near you again, or drains every last penny out of me now, I think I might,' he joked.

She sighed, 'I still can't get over how unfair it is that you're having to pay him off.'

'Well if it gets rid of James for good it'll be worth it. He won't have any excuse to come back here once everything's settled.'

Edward's arm wound around her body to pull her closer and she laid her head on his chest. She could see him smiling down at her in the moonlight as she nestled into his arms, and minutes later they were fast asleep.

But towards dawn Bella woke up with a start. She'd been dreaming about Alice and Lady Mary and her eyes darted all round the room to get her bearings and make sure she was definitely awake. Edward's warm body and quiet breathing next to her confirmed she wasn't still asleep and she lay back down with a relieved sigh, feeling him stir as her hand accidentally brushed against his thigh.

She settled more securely against him and he murmured in his sleep and automatically wrapped both arms around her, rubbing his face against the back of her shoulder, before relaxing again.

She lay awake for a while, trying to remember what she'd been dreaming about. She remembered being up in the nursery watching the shadow of a child playing on the rocking horse. Then they'd suddenly flown out of the window and into the garden, where Lady Mary had been standing in the bright summer sunshine on the edge of the cliff, looking out across the sea. Lady Mary had turned to smile at her, but suddenly they'd heard screams from inside the house and she'd vanished, along with the shadowy Alice, leaving only a handful of seashells behind.

It was the sound of the screams which had scared Bella and made her wake up. She had no idea which one of them was screaming, although she had a horrible feeling it could have been all of them. But she knew it was quite likely that her sleeping brain was just remembering how she'd felt when she couldn't manage to drag Edward away from James.

She turned her head and looked round at Edward. He was sleeping quietly now and he looked so peaceful that her heart lurched, she wanted their future to be happy and free of the past, especially from James.

Her thoughts went back to her dream and to the conversation she'd had with Mrs Cope about the ghost earlier and suddenly she realised what had been in the back of her mind. When she'd visited Edward in London, he'd mentioned that James had seen the ghost on the night Alice died.

She'd wondered at the time why it had been James, not Edward or someone else. But now she knew the answer – James must have been the last person to see Alice inside the house.

Bella's head was spinning. If that was true, James had lied to everyone, including the police, about only arriving after Alice was dead. And that could only mean one thing – that James was implicated in her death in some way. And if she had to put a bet on it, from the other things she'd heard and seen, she was pretty sure he'd been supplying Alice with drugs.

That didn't necessarily mean he'd wanted or intended Alice to drown, but it would definitely explain why it had happened. Bella shivered when she remembered how Edward had looked when he'd had his hands around James's throat. Even if she convinced Edward this was the proof that was lacking, all she'd achieve would be to make Edward take things into his own hands again.

She couldn't tell him. There was no evidence apart from a ghost, no body, only one discredited witness, nothing that could ever be proved. No one knew for certain what had happened apart from James and there was no way he'd ever admit to anything when he'd gone to so much trouble to lead any suspicion away from himself.

No wonder she'd heard so many slightly different versions of what had happened when she'd first arrived in the village and it was no mystery now why some of them reflected so badly on Edward. After today she realised just how much James would have enjoyed spreading rumours and secretly twisting the knife and Edward had already felt so guilty about not being able to save Alice, that it had almost ruined his relationship with Carlisle.

In covering his own tracks James had cruelly and deliberately made things worse for Edward, who'd only been eighteen at the time. And as she looked at Edward's sleeping face with tears in her eyes, Bella knew that at this moment she could quite happily have strangled James herself.

Somehow I don't think Edward's going to be able to buy James off as easily as he thinks, but the good news is that there are only about 3 chapters left to go!

Thanks for reading x Sue