CHAPTER 20

In the morning Edward made love to her so sweetly and tenderly that the memory followed Bella through the day, helping to smooth over the continuing sadness of Carlisle's absence. She missed him so much that it was difficult to concentrate on anything else and she was constantly reminded that from now on there would be no quiet wisdom and steadying hand to guide her steps, no one to take problems to, or smile at the absurdities of life with, safe in the knowledge that somehow everything would be all right in the end.

But knowing Edward was going through the same experience helped a little and often their eyes would meet and they'd know they'd just had the exact same thought that Carlisle would have enjoyed this or been amused by that and even though the house felt so sad and empty without him, Bella managed not to let her feelings overwhelm her. It wasn't what Carlisle would have wanted, so she tried her best to keep the tears at bay, for Edward's sake as well as her own.

They'd spent the morning dealing with the last few visitors and just before lunch Rosalie arrived to take all the medical equipment away. Bella could feel the atmosphere in the house begin to bristle with discomfort, but thankfully Edward and Rosalie's truce seemed to be holding and they even managed to be slightly more than civil, which was a big relief. Any animosity felt so disrespectful towards Carlisle and the commotion caused by James had been more than enough to deal with.

Jenks rang again in the afternoon and at least Edward could report there was a bit of progress as far as the will was concerned.

'James's solicitor has made preliminary contact and Jenks has put forward our request for an out of court settlement.'

'That's good news. How long does he think it will be before he hears anything back?'

'If James agrees, they should be able to start negotiations straight away. They've asked for the house to be valued and in the meantime Jenks is going to apply for probate and start the process of winding up Carlisle's estate.'

'Is there any news about the funeral?'

'They put it more diplomatically, but the basic response was that James isn't interested in the arrangements and he's too busy to attend.'

Bella snorted with disgust, 'Well James can't possibly claim he's overcome with grief then. I'd have thought he'd at least make an effort to attend the funeral, although it would have made things really difficult for everyone.'

'I can't say it's not a huge relief that he won't be there. Anyway, I'll get things started and speak to the vicar about dates, and Jenks is going to arrange for three estate agents to come round and do the valuations over the next day or two.'

And as Edward also started his new job at the beginning of the next week, suddenly there was an awful lot to get done. The funeral was arranged for the end of the following week, they had various meetings with the vicar about the service, the announcement of Carlisle's death was put in the newspaper, funeral invitations went out and as was traditional in the village, The Sailor's Rest was booked for lunch afterwards.

At the start of the week of the funeral, there was a slight lull and after Edward had left for work, which felt very strange after more than a month of having him nearby every day, Bella was suddenly left all alone in the house without even Mrs Cope for company - Mrs Cope's husband was in increasingly bad health and they'd all decided it was probably the right time to give up her job, although there was no doubt she'd continue to pop in for a cup of tea and a chat whenever she felt like it.

Bella had decided that ahead of the funeral and more expected visitors, she'd give the whole house a bit of a spring clean. And now that she'd had time to get over the initial shock and grief a little and accept that Carlisle really had gone, she finally had the courage to venture into his rooms on her own.

Determined not to get emotional, she hurriedly opened the windows wide to air the downstairs rooms, then went upstairs to Carlisle's bedroom and hoovered the floor and dusted and polished the furniture in a whirl of activity, until the sight of his shoes, waiting forlornly beside the wardrobe, suddenly brought tears to her eyes.

She walked over to the window and took a deep breath of fresh air. From this side of the building, which also housed the observatory, there was a gloriously unobstructed view across the grass-covered cliffs to the sea, and she stood and watched the waves tumbling over the rocks and a far off ship slowly drift past on the horizon, until she felt calmer.

When she turned back to the room it smelt of furniture polish, and the sea air and sunlight streaming through the open windows had got rid of any last stale remnants of the sickroom. Nothing of Carlisle's presence remained and Bella felt a strong conviction that wherever he had gone to, he was at peace now.

On this sunny morning the idea of ghosts and premonitions seemed absurd. Over the last week she'd managed to push her dream and her conviction that James was responsible for Alice's death, to the back of her mind and she wanted it to stay there. There was more than enough to deal with in the real world at the moment, without finding additional reasons to demonise James.

Soon she wouldn't have the time for idle speculation anyway. She'd already made enquiries in the village about finding a temporary job and as soon as the funeral was over, she'd take a few shifts at the pub, or one of the tearooms or restaurants. Then once she'd handed in her essay on Lady Mary at the end of the month, she'd have to sit down and decide exactly what she was going to do next.

-ooo-

It was still very strange trying to get used to Edward being at work all day, and on the afternoon before the funeral he'd decided to stay late at the last minute, to make up for taking a day off so soon. It was already nearly supper time and Bella was in the kitchen wondering what to do with his share of the chicken stew she'd had in the slow oven all day, when suddenly the doorbell rang.

Since James had burst into the house, answering the door wasn't Bella's favourite task, especially now that it was dark outside and she was on her own. So hoping it was only Rose dropping in on her way home from work, she looked out of the hall window first, to see if there was a car parked outside.

She could see much beyond the headlights, which were dazzlingly bright, and it definitely wasn't Rose's car. But when the doorbell rang insistently for a second time, Bella took a deep breath and opened the door a crack; at least Emmett had put a security chain on it so no one could barge in again. But she could never have guessed who would be standing there – her eyes travelled up and up, until she was looking into the cold grey eyes of Felix, Aro Volturi's right hand man.

He smiled relatively kindly, 'Good evening Miss Swan, Mr Volturi would like to offer his condolences for Mr Cullen's death in person, if that would be acceptable to you?'

Bella tried to hide how much she really didn't want to have to put up with more visitors at the moment, by being extra welcoming, 'Oh, yes of course. Do tell Mr Volturi to come in, please. Although, I'm sorry, but Edward won't be home for another hour or two.'

Felix bowed slightly in acknowledgement of what she'd said, then turned and walked back to the car. Bella opened the door wider and watched as the window on the passenger side of a large black Bentley slowly descended. There was a whispered conversation, then the car door opened and Aro emerged.

He was shorter than Bella remembered, but just as expensively and immaculately dressed. His very white and even teeth gleamed at her as he shook her hand.

'Good evening, Miss Swan. I am glad to see you looking so well, despite these recent very sad events. I would like to offer you, and Mr Edward Cullen, my sincere and heartfelt commiserations.' Aro smiled sadly and his jet black eyes glistened under the porch light, with perhaps the merest hint of a tear.

'Would you like to come in for a moment? I'm sorry Edward's not home yet. I assume you've come for the funeral, are you staying in the village?' Bella could hear her voice nervously piling on the small talk and without thinking, she began to lead Aro and a totally silent Felix, towards the kitchen.

When she arrived at the kitchen door she realised it probably wasn't the best place to entertain visitors and she stopped, feeling like an idiot. The smell of the chicken stew was distracting her, but when she turned and saw that Aro and Felix looked unmistakably hungry too, she relaxed and smiled.

'You wouldn't like to stay for supper would you? There's more than enough to go round.'

Aro's face lit up,' Thank you my dear, that is very thoughtful of you. I must admit we are rather weary, there were several unexpected delays at the airport.' His eyes strayed away from her face and his expression darkened for a moment. It looked as if someone was going to pay for that. But when he turned back to Bella his voice was light and the shadow had dissipated, although his eyes were now assessing her shrewdly behind his smile.

Bella quickly invited her guests to sit down and when she returned from hanging up their coats in the hall cupboard, they'd made themselves at home. To her surprise, once her nerves had settled a bit, she found they were both actually very good company and having sent Felix down to the cellar to fetch a bottle of wine, they all tucked into Bella's stew and demolished a loaf of homemade bread.

Soon they were opening another bottle, and afterwards, while Felix disappeared to make some phone calls, Bella offered to take Aro to Carlisle's study to choose the books he'd been left in the will. They could give the solicitors a list afterwards and she'd make sure they were kept safe, until everything was settled and all the bequests could be handed out.

Aro's eyes lit up when he walked into the room, 'Ah, Carlisle had such perfect taste. It was such an honour to have made his acquaintance, and an unexpected delight to discover that we shared a common interest. '

'May I?' He walked over to one of the bookcases and scanned the shelves, before removing a volume. His hands were surprisingly small and delicate and like the rest of him, immaculately kept, and Bella watched as he ran his manicured fingers across the pages with the air of a connoisseur appraising a work of art.

He laid the book down and reached for another, 'The lesser Roman poets. A field of study overlooked by many, but not without its unexpected treasures. It will be a lasting regret that I was unfortunately unable to find the time to visit Carlisle during these last months and that our discussions and debates were of necessity confined to email.'

Aro's eyes glistened again and he dabbed at them with a very white pocket handkerchief.

'Although our friendship was short, it is many years since I have encountered someone of such intelligence and understanding and I was proud to number Carlisle amongst my friends.' He bowed his head in Bella's direction as if to thank her for Carlisle's existence and continued to select volumes from the shelves, until there was quite a large pile stacked up on the desk.

When he'd finished, he turned back to her and produced a visiting card from his wallet, 'I must mention that before his death, Carlisle asked me to take you under my protection, which I was very happy to agree to. I have a dear daughter who is of a similar age and I can understand his distress at leaving you so alone.'

He handed Bella the card, 'These are my private contact details and I would be very grateful if you would do me the honour of accepting my help should you ever need it.'

Bella didn't know what to say. This was just odd. If she needed any help she had plenty of friends to call on now, without ringing someone in Italy. But she took the card anyway and put it in her pocket.

'Thank you, that's very kind and it's also very kind of you to come to the funeral, especially as James can't make it.'

Aro's demeanour was suddenly chilly, 'Ah yes, our young friend James. At one time I had high hopes…But I'm afraid his behaviour has been rather disappointing of late, in a number of ways.'

He brushed an invisible speck of dust off his sleeve then became all smiles again. 'But let us not talk about James, when there are so many more interesting subjects to discuss. Come, Felix will be restless and I am so looking forward to trying your, what did you say, apple crumble and custard?' and he ushered Bella out of the room.

Later when her guests had left, with several over the top compliments on her cooking and many thanks for so generously welcoming them into her home, Bella decided to just pile the dirty plates in the sink and leave everything for the morning. After drinking all that wine she felt slightly tipsy. But she might as well finish off the last half a glass in the bottle, it would be a shame to let it go to waste.

As she sat back down at the table, Edward let himself in through the back door and looked at her in surprise. 'Have you been having a party all on your own?' He picked up the empty bottle and grinned, 'Well at least you chose the best vintage.'

He swiped the glass out of her hand and drank most of the contents, before Bella could grab it back and finish it off. She swallowed a hiccup and waved her hand dismissively in the direction of the cellar, 'Oh, I'm sure there's another bottle left if you want some. It is quite nice though, isn't it?'

'It should be, at over two hundred pounds a bottle.'

Bella stared at him in shock, before looking comically guilty, 'Oh, I'm really sorry. I had no idea. We sent Felix down to the cellar and that's what he came back with.'

She wondered if she should own up to having drunk two bottles, but Edward was the one looking surprised now. He looked around the room and saw all the dirty dishes in the sink. 'So you really have been having a party?'

'I'm sorry we ate all the food. You'll have to get yourself a sandwich or something. I think I might just have an early night now you're back.' She got to her feet slightly unsteadily and walked over to the sink to get herself a glass of water.

Edward laughed, 'So who have you been entertaining so thoroughly? I assume it was Aro, if Felix was in tow?'

'Oh, yes. They're here for the funeral. Aro and Carlisle apparently struck up a bit of a friendship after James brought him here last year. I let him choose the books he wanted, I didn't think you'd mind. And then he gave me his card with his private number and everything.' She pulled it out of her pocket to show him.

'You've obviously charmed him too,' Edward put his arm around her and gave her a kiss on the cheek. 'Well I'm completely knackered and it's going to be another exhausting day tomorrow with the funeral and everything. If you're really going to have an early night, I might just grab something to eat, then have a shower and join you.'

Bella pulled him closer and kissed him back, taking the opportunity to run her fingers through his hair at the same time, 'Mmm, yes please. That would be nice.'

-ooo-

The day of Carlisle's funeral could best be described as changeable. When they arrived at the church it was raining and the pallbearers had to struggle to keep their footing, as they carried the coffin up the slippery stone steps. Inside, the village church was packed to the rafters with standing room only. The whole village was there, plus friends from all over the county and many that Bella recognised from Carlisle's birthday party, including a large contingent who'd travelled down from London.

The service was a fitting mixture of solemn and affectionate and when Edward and two of Carlisle's oldest friends stepped up to the lectern to say a few words, there wasn't a dry eye in the house. As everyone filed out to the graveyard afterwards, Bella picked out Aro and Felix amongst the crowd at the back of the church, and later she noticed them again, standing slightly apart from the other mourners, under one of the straggly trees which were dotted around the graveyard.

The sun had come out by now and Bella turned her head away and stared down at the open grave as the coffin was slowly being lowered into it, feeling Edward grip her hand more tightly while another round of tears pricked at her eyes. Trying to keep the tears at bay, she pressed her lips into a tight line and looked away from the gaping hole in the ground to Esme and Alice's headstones beside it.

But that hadn't been a very good idea either. Now she was thinking about Alice's empty grave and Lady Mary's gilded but empty mausoleum, which she'd been sitting next to in the church. She tried to clear her mind and concentrate on the warm sun on her back and the feel of Edward's hand in hers. She remembered the first time she'd been in the church and explored the churchyard, on her second day in the village almost a year ago to the day. Thanks to Carlisle, she had so much to be grateful for now.

The sunshine had turned back to drizzle by the time all the mourners had filed past and they'd thanked the vicar and listened to a few last words of condolence from him. Edward opened his umbrella, then held Bella's hand again as they followed the departing crowd of mourners down the hill and through the twisting village streets to The Sailor's Rest.

As soon as they walked through the door, there was a flurry of activity and Jessica rang the bell over the bar for silence, while Edward asked everyone to join him in celebrating Carlisle's life. And as if everyone had already decided not to become too miserable, after Edward had drawn attention to the free bar and the food laid out in the snug, a chorus of 'For He's a Jolly Good Fellow' and three cheers for Carlisle went up.

Edward and Bella sat down at the largest table, where Rosalie, Emmett and Mrs Cope had been keeping a place for them. They all agreed the service had been beautiful and now a constant stream of people stopped by their table to reiterate how sorry they were for their loss. And while Bella listened to all their recollections of many kindnesses done, she was comforted by the knowledge that everyone in the room would be telling these stories about Carlisle for years to come, with affection and respect.

Gradually, as the afternoon wore on, the conversation began to turn to other topics, including Lauren's wedding at the end of the month, which they'd all been invited to. Bella was surprised to find out that Rosalie had been good friends with Lauren at college, but she was even more surprised when Mrs Cope said she had an invitation, the result of a long ago stint as a nanny to the groom, who was also a friend of Edward's.

When the pub began to empty a little and Mrs Cope had decided she'd better go home to see about her husband's tea, Jessica took the chance to properly say hello to Bella and share her latest news - that the sale of the restaurant had finally gone through.

As predicted, Aro had withdrawn his offer after James and his friends had attracted so much attention. But the very next day, a couple who'd been on their way to look at another property miles away, had ended up in the village by mistake, seen the for sale sign and immediately made enquiries.

Bella gave her friend a hug, 'That's great news Jess. You'll be living in London in no time.'

'I don't know about that. We've still got to sell the pub. Mike's dropped the asking price again, but for some reason he's convinced James is going to buy it, although I've told him that's just stupid.'

Bella was worried, 'I hope you're right. I can't stand the thought of James still hanging around the place. We were hoping that once Carlisle's will was settled there'd be no reason for him to come back.'

'He told me he couldn't wait to get away from here. Plus Maria, you know, the girl I was looking after when the police came round, she told me James has run up a lot of gambling debts and owes Aro a massive amount of money. So there's no way he could afford to buy this place now, even if he wanted to.'

'That might explain why he's so desperate to get his hands on The Lantern House though. I think I'd be pretty scared if I owed Aro money and couldn't pay it back.'

Bella scanned the room looking for Aro and Felix. She couldn't remember seeing them in the pub at all, they must have left straight after the service. She imagined the large black car gliding through the narrow country lanes back to where Aro and Felix had come from and the thought of attracting Aro's displeasure in any way was chilling.

As if he knew they were talking about James, just at that moment Jenks appeared in the doorway and Edward got up to go and speak to him. Wondering what was so important that Jenks had left his office when he'd only just gone back to it, Bella could tell by the way Edward was running his hands through his hair that he was getting agitated and when he returned to their table a few minutes later, he looked really stressed.

'What's the matter?'

'The valuations have come in and as well as half the value of the house as it stands, James is demanding nearer the value with planning permission, to compensate for lack of development income. I've no idea if I'll be able to raise anywhere near that amount of cash and if we can't reach an agreement by the end of the month, James has threatened to start legal action straight away.'

Emmett broke in, 'Why should the little shit end up with anything? Just let the fucker take it to court and see how he comes off.'

'We've already decided we can't afford to take the risk. It could take years, and even if we win, we could still end up having to sell the house just to pay the legal costs. Plus we can't ignore the fact that James might try to manufacture some sort of evidence against us. Apparently he's already been muttering to his solicitor about foul play.'

Emmett shook his head in disbelief, 'Takes one to know one. If you ask me that whole episode when Carlisle got ill before Christmas was really fishy and I wouldn't put anything past James.'

Nobody contradicted him, even Rosalie, who hadn't been able to ignore the rumours which had kept the village entertained for months.

Bella tried to concentrate on the current problem, 'So what's the plan?'

'Well, we don't seem to have any choice but to increase our offer, and short of finding the buried treasure my grandfather used to tell me stories about, it looks like I'll have to get a mortgage. We'll need to decide how far we're willing to go though. It would be ridiculous to get to the point where we had to sell the house just to pay off James.'

They all looked glum, before Emmett piped up again, 'I like the sound of the buried treasure though. Are you sure you don't want me to start digging up the garden?'

Edward laughed, 'I think it might make more sense to have another look round the house first.'

-ooo-

As soon as they got home Bella & Edward rolled up their sleeves and got to work carefully searching through the whole house, in the hope that something of value might have been overlooked.

But even as they combed through all the books in the library looking for first editions, they knew it was unlikely. Although some of the furniture and pictures were worth a few thousand between them, there were no real family heirlooms left and Carlisle had had the entire contents of the house itemised and valued the previous year, even going to the trouble of getting each piece of Esme's jewellery appraised and photographed ready to hand over to James.

They spent the whole weekend checking through the list of contents attached to the will and on Monday, after Edward had arranged an appointment with the bank manager, he also phoned the local auction house to get another valuation carried out just to make sure.

They hadn't got as far as the attic though and Emmett volunteered to help Bella try to tidy it up a bit while Edward was at work. After poking around for an hour, the previous valuer had given a combined estimate for the broken and discarded furniture and miscellaneous junk piled up in the attic, but there could be anything underneath all the jumble.

As soon as Edward left for work, Bella and Emmett started hauling furniture around and dusting it off. Then they dragged everything into the two largest attic rooms and arranged it in neat rows ready for inspection. But even they could see there were no hidden gems. Most of the furniture was either damaged well beyond repair, huge and hideously Victorian, or cheap and nasty post-war, and although some of it could be sent to auction or donated to charity once the valuer had been, a lot more was fit only for the bonfire.

Still they soldiered on amongst the dust and cobwebs, separating the furniture from the other junk, which they began depositing in two of the smaller rooms once they'd cleared enough space. And actually sifting through the smaller weird and wonderful items was much more fun and when Emmett left at the end of the day, Edward and Bella continued sorting through on their own after supper.

Among the broken lampshades, piles of old newspapers, outmoded household gadgets and trunks of mouldy clothes and bed linen, was a whole domestic history of the last two or three hundred years and although again, most of the items were Victorian or twentieth century and probably not worth very much, not to mention rusty and broken, these discarded items looked much more likely to bring in some money.

Like the furniture, they carefully dusted everything off and laid it out neatly for the valuer to look at. Some of the items were so old or interesting that they'd try to keep them if possible for future generations, but like everything else it depended on the valuations and they couldn't afford to be too sentimental, although Bella couldn't help hoping that the ugliest things would be worth the most money.

By lunchtime the next day the attic was a much more pleasant and tidy place to be in, although moving things around had uncovered several areas of dodgy floorboards and looking up they could see the sky in one or two places, which would need to be remedied as soon as possible.

With a path cleared to the far end of the largest room, they'd almost finished the sorting and tidying and there was just one final water-damaged table and sideboard to move out from under the eaves and line up with everything else and that would be it. They lifted the empty sideboard away, then the table, revealing a rotting pile of carpet off-cuts and cardboard underneath.

Bella reached out gingerly. 'Yuck, that carpet's really disgusting and those look like mice droppings all over it.'

Emmett was braver and pulled the whole lot off the top, 'That's going straight in the rubbish pile then, and so are these blackout curtains underneath.'

The cardboard they could see right at the bottom was actually a pair of squashed cardboard boxes and they carefully pulled out the slightly damp remains of the first box and looked inside.

Both their faces lit up, 'Wow, Emmett, I think we've finally hit the jackpot.'

They were looking at a very dirty but magnificent chandelier, which surely must be worth several thousand pounds. Smiling with delight at actually finding something worthwhile at last, they carefully pulled the remaining box out too.

But they were disappointed when they found it only contained more blackout curtains and at the very bottom, a pile of old bills and stationery which looked as if it had been tipped straight out of a desk drawer and forgotten about.

'Oh, well never mind Em, we've found one valuable thing anyway. I can't wait to show Edward the chandelier when he gets home.'

Emmett stood up and pulled a cobweb out of his hair, then wiped a grimy hand across his chin, leaving a big black smear behind. 'Yeah, that's really something else.'

Bella looked at her watch, 'Well, you might as well get off home now, I'm sorry I've kept you so long. If you could take the rest of the rubbish downstairs with you, I'll finish tidying up. There's only the nursery wing left and I can do that tomorrow, on my own.'

'Ok, but I'd better come back and have a quick look at the roof in the morning. If it's just a few loose slates I can manage it myself, but can you remind Edward that chimney still needs fixing?'

'Will do. See you tomorrow then. Say hi to Rose for me, and thanks again for spending all this time helping.' She gave him a big kiss on the cheek, avoiding the smear on his chin, but not realising she had a bigger one right across her nose and a spider dangling on a string off her hair.

-ooo-

When Emmett had gone, Bella had a last check round, then took the box of stationery downstairs with her. She'd chuck the old writing paper and envelopes away, but she'd noticed there were a few letters in amongst them, which should probably be added to the archives. She had about an hour before she had to start getting ready for her first shift at the pub, so once she'd made herself a cup of tea she'd have a proper look through.

She did a bit of research on chandeliers first. It looked as if the one they'd found might definitely be worth a few thousand, but the cost of getting it properly cleaned and restored was horrendous. She felt slightly deflated now; they seemed to be constantly taking one step forward and two steps back and even if they managed to save the house, the repair bills were going to be crippling and she knew Edward was already really worried about how they were going to manage.

She'd contribute the money Carlisle had left her of course and at least she'd almost finished her degree, so she might be able to get a half decent job soon, which would help a bit. The teacher training she'd been planning to start in the autumn would just have to wait, they'd need as much money coming in as possible. But it didn't really matter, as long as she had Edward, and the house was safe, she'd be perfectly happy.

She remembered the cardboard box and went to get some newspapers to spread over the kitchen table before she tipped everything out – she'd disturbed enough creepy crawlies lately to be wary of what might be lurking at the bottom.

Most of the contents seemed to date from the 1940s and were what you'd expect to find in a writing desk drawer - pens, paper and envelopes, an old address book, letters, bills, scissors, a roll of string and even a sheet of stamps with George VI's head on them.

She smoothed out one or two of the answered letters and found they contained some interesting snippets about daily life at the time. She'd read the rest later, but they should definitely go in the family archive. She looked at the signatures at the bottom and wondered who'd written them - friends, relatives and even the barest acquaintances, it had been such a different world then, without mobile phones or computers to keep in touch.

There were also one or two items which didn't belong with the others, a beautiful First World War Valentine's card, some party invitations with art deco motifs on the back, a case containing calling cards from even further back in time and a yellowing letter with an unbroken wax seal on the back. Perhaps they'd been pushed to the back of the drawer or trapped under the lining paper, which had been unceremoniously emptied into the box along with everything else.

She picked up the letter and examined the seal with interest. It looked as if it had been done in a hurry, the red wax had dripped across the back of the letter like a trail of blood and the imprint was smudged, although she thought she could make out the shape of an anchor which was part of the Cullen crest, with a letter 'P' on top.

Intrigued, she turned the letter over and was so startled by what she saw that she almost dropped it into her half-finished mug of tea. The writing was faded and barely legible, but it was unmistakably addressed to Mary Cullen.

Sorry, the next chapter won't be posted for 3 weeks, because I have family staying over the holidays. The one after that should be back to 2 weeks & will be the last or next to last.

Thanks for reading.

x Sue