Author's Note: I split this chapter into two parts because it was clocking in north of 8k words. I'll be posting part 2 at the same time, though, so never fear.

I also put up my first of the EPOV drabbles this week. Check out Curious Sort of Bird to get Edward's perspective on the aftermath of his first time meeting Bella. I'll be adding scenes when the inspiration strikes, not on a regular schedule, but I'll let you know here when something's live. Anything vital to the plot of Culwoode will be revealed in this story first though, so don't feel obligated to read the companion piece; it's really just an excuse to play around in Edward's head. :)

- Chapter 9: The Unraveling, Part 1 -

Uncanny beauty. Cold, pale, impenetrable skin. Hyper-attuned senses. Impossible strength and speed.

Immortals. Blood drinkers.

I couldn't breathe. The words on the page came in flashes, the superfluous sentences fading away to reveal only the truth I'd been searching for since I first arrived.

Had I known? Had some primal piece of me been sounding the alarm from the start?

Jacob's people called them the Cold Ones, but I knew them by another name.

Vampires.

A million questions flooded my mind, tangling around themselves. The family's golden eyes. Their ability to go out in the daytime. Nessie.

"Bella?"

I slammed the book shut, shoving it out of sight as Carlisle peered through the cracked door.

My heart slowed as I looked on his compassionate face, and I was relieved to realize I was not afraid. He was good, I could feel it. Even if the Cullens were…that, I knew in my bones they would not harm me.

"Oh good," he said, seeing my ice pack. "You're icing your shoulder."

I gave him a weak smile. "I was just finishing up," I said as I sat up from my comfortable position.

"I came to give it a look, actually. May I?"

I nervously tucked the book a little deeper into the crack in the cushions. "Certainly," I said.

Carlisle's examination was quick, testing my strength and range of motion without the need for me undress at all. I found myself watching him very closely, taking note of all the qualities that matched the tribe's Cold Ones—and, perhaps more fervently, that which didn't quite fit.

"Yes, I think you got quite lucky," he said. "Now that the swelling's gone down, you're right as rain." He picked up the ice bag from where he'd set it on the floor. "You still need to go easy on it, but I think you can stop wearing the sling now, if you feel comfortable."

"Oh, thank God," I muttered, making Carlisle laugh. It had been mortifying enough wearing my same black dress each night when I brought Nessie to the drawing room; topping it off with the increasingly dingy sling made me want to sink into the floor.

"I think Alice was looking for you, by the way," Carlisle said. "Something about the boxes you picked up for her."

Alice's package from the train had turned out to be three large, wood crates that had taken two men to strap on top of the Cadillac's roof. I had no notion what could be inside.

Carlisle stood and waited for me expectantly. I wavered, not wanting to leave my book in such a poor hiding spot, but I couldn't see a way to move it in front of Carlisle without arousing his curiosity.

Reluctantly, I stood as well and allowed Carlisle to escort me out of the study.

Alice turned out to be easy to find; she was waiting eagerly on the second floor landing when we came down from the attic, a slightly manic gleam in her eye.

"I have something for you," she said, grasping my hand to pull me down the hall to her room. The crates were lined up against the windows, the tops pried off to reveal their contents.

Clothes. Lots and lots of clothes.

"I'm not sitting through another evening watching you act like a sad little churchmouse in that dreary frock," Alice said, extracting an armful of the loveliest fabrics imaginable.

"That can't all be for me!" I said, horrified.

Alice let loose a laugh that might described as a cackle were her voice not so lovely. "Oh, but it can!" She began hanging the gowns on the satin hangers hooked over the doors of her wardrobe so they were all on display. "Well, everything in those two crates, anyway," she amended. "The last one is for Nessie."

I gaped. "Alice, I couldn't!"

"You could, and you will," she insisted. "It was all going to waste, anyway. I ordered it all over the summer, but by the time it arrived we'd all decided to come back west to be near Edward and Nessie. So it's just been packed away at the New York house all winter."

I'd never cared much for what I wore, beyond being clean and respectable. But after being surrounded by the beauty and elegance of this household, I longed to look a bit more like I belonged here.

I tried not to examine that impulse too closely; it would be easier to believe it was a fault in my character rather than a desire to feel I could be part of Edward's world.

"It's too much," I protested weakly.

"Bella," Alice said seriously. "Don't be ridiculous. I saw how little you brought when you arrived. I knew you were going to need more clothes sooner or later, so I had some things packed up that might suit. Now take them and say thank you."

I fingered the fine crepe of the dress nearest me, feeling my resolve crumbling. "Thank you," I whispered.

"Good girl," she said. "Now, for tonight…"

Alice pulled out a deep sapphire velvet gown, holding it up for me to see. The neckline was asymmetric, and the fabric gathered at one hip before flowing down in a cascade.

"I was thinking this color would look lovely on you," she continued. "The dress isn't too showy, but the draping is just divine. It was for Esme originally but I think you two are fairly close in size…"

We spent the next half hour preparing my outfit, with Alice dressing me like a doll. The gown was a near fit, but Alice wouldn't be satisfied with near; she whipped out a needle and thread and added invisible darts and tucks here and there, moving faster than was probably prudent. Still, I wasn't afraid of being pricked; after what I'd read in the study, I was fairly certain even this speed wasn't even a quarter of her capacity.

When she was satisfied, she stood back with her hands on her hips to consider the picture. A smirk dawned on her fairy-like features.

"Yes," she said quietly to herself, "that's perfect."

I glanced down at my figure; I could feel that the fabric lay closer to my waist and hips now, but without a mirror, I wasn't sure of the effect.

"Won't everyone notice I'm suddenly in a gown after wearing the same dress every night?" I asked, slightly self-conscious. I had always hated calling unnecessary attention to myself.

"Oh, they will notice, all right," she said smugly, and I had a sneaking suspicion she wasn't really talking about the whole group.

Alice looked up from her scrutiny of my figure to meet my eyes with a sudden earnestness. "I hope you don't mind, I told everyone the railway had lost your trunk when you arrived and that's why I sent for the clothes. I thought…well." She scrunched her nose, looking as though she might have blushed, were she able. "You seemed a bit embarrassed when I asked about your things that first night, so I thought you might prefer to have a cover of sorts."

My throat tightened and I reached for her hand automatically. "Thank you," I said again more sincerely, squeezing her cold fingers.

Alice squeezed back with a smile.

Suddenly, her face stilled and her eyes seemed to focus on something far beyond me. It lasted a mere second, and then she seemed to pull herself back into the present with a great effort.

"The others will be back in a moment," she said with a certainty I didn't understand. "I ought to do your hair before you go down to eat; you won't have time after dinner. Let's bring your things back to your room."

We gathered my discarded day clothes and all the various accessories Alice had picked out for me, then crept down the hall. Just as we turned the corner into the servants' corridor, I heard a chorus of voices from the entry, signalling the return of the hunting party. Alice had been spot-on in her timing, I realized.

Yet another mystery. Really, it was almost becoming a bore, stumbling across more and more questions every time I thought I'd figured out an answer.

- o - o - o -

Predictably, Mrs. Weber and Angela made a grand fuss over my hair when Nessie and I appeared in the servants' hall for dinner. Alice had used a hot iron to wave the front and carefully pinned the back to look like I had bobbed it, rather than my usual plain bun.

"So elegant!" Mrs. Weber sighed. "You should wear it this way more often."

The conversation quickly turned to the meal in the dining room, which Edward had told Mrs. Weber was to be the last dinner they'd have at home before the cousins departed; they would eat in Port Angeles the next night before departing for good.

"I told Mr. Cullen there were plenty of us to manage plated service, but he insisted on the buffet again," she huffed. "Just doesn't seem right for the family to serve themselves while they're in evening attire!"

"They're rich," Angela said dryly, spooning a bit of mint jelly over her lamb. "They're entitled to their eccentricities."

Ben laughed at that, nearly losing the forkful of peas he'd been lifting to his mouth.

Mrs. Weber rolled her eyes at her daughter. "It was kind of Mr. Cullen to order the same meal for us as the family," she said. "Strange he may be, but a good man all the same."

The word caught in my brain. Good, certainly, but I now knew for certain our employer was no mere man.

When we'd finished eating, I took Nessie upstairs to change. Alice had laid out new things for her as well, and I left her to dress herself while I slid into my new gown.

The soft velvet felt like battle armor as I slipped it over my skin, and when I looked at my reflection in my mirror, it was no longer Nessie's drab little tutor staring back—it was a woman.

It was the most confident I'd ever felt walking down to the drawing room.

As I led Nessie down the staircase, the large party was just emerging from the dining room. They were chattering amiably, a layered tapestry of cross-conversation that abruptly stopped when Nessie and I turned the corner of the first landing into view.

My cool wavered for a moment, but I forced myself to keep my chin high and look straight down at the group as I descended to the entry hall.

A dozen beautiful faces stared back—twelve pairs of golden eyes, following me. I gripped the bannister a little tighter, suddenly envisioning myself stumbling in the strappy silver heels Alice had chosen for me.

It was her I focused on first, her delicate features lit up in impish delight. "Don't you look positively enchanting!" she said.

Her voice seemed to break the spell, and the other women of the group stepped forward, offering their own soft compliments. I did my best to accept them graciously, with some difficulty.

"Shall we?" Carlisle said finally, offering one arm to Nessie and the other to his wife to lead them into the drawing room. The rest of the group followed suit in pairs and trios. I caught Alice elbowing Jasper, who took Tanya's arm at the last second.

And then it was only Edward and I again in the hall.

I had been too afraid to look at him before now, lest I give something away. (To the cousins, or to him? a snide part of me whispered.) But now, I was powerless; I had to meet his gaze.

The sheer magnetism of him made me feel dizzy and stole the breath from my lungs. He watched me intently with an expression I'd never seen on his face before.

The only word that came to my mind was hunger.

I blinked, and the look was gone; Edward looked perfectly poised again as he proffered his forearm to me. "Miss Swan, may I?" he said politely.

Gingerly, I took his arm, the unfamiliarity of the situation making me hesitant.

Edward looked down at me, pensive, and for a moment I could believe it was just the two of us in our own world.

"You really do look lovely," he finally murmured, and as he wrapped my bare arm into the crook of his elbow, my blood simmered hot enough under the skin he touched to dispel any chill from his cool hand.

Edward led me past my usual perch at the edge of the room to the central cluster of seating by the fireplace where Alice sat with Eleazar, Rosalie, and Kate.

He released my arm with a polite nod and turned on his heel, looking for all the world like escorting me in was nothing more than the courteous gesture of a gentleman. But my arm still burned where he'd touched me, and the rosy glow that had risen my chest under his devouring eyes had spread down, down to my belly and below.

I did my best to join in the conversation, but my attention was otherwise occupied. Though my gaze never strayed from my companions around the fire, some internal sight seemed trained on Edward. I could see him in my mind's eye as he strode across the room to where Nessie sat with Carmen, Tanya, and Esme, looking through a collection of sheet music.

"Tell me, Miss Swan, how do you find working for our friend Edward?" Eleazar asked in his purring Spanish accent.

I pulled my focus painfully away from that back corner of the room. "I feel very lucky," I said honestly. "Positions like this are difficult to come by."

"So you don't mind living and working in such a remote location?" Kate piped in.

I smiled. "No, not at all," I said. "I like the quiet. And Nessie is a most entertaining companion."

The group laughed knowingly and our collective attention turned to the child in question. She held up a songbook with a pleading look that turned to joy as Edward took it from her with a smile.

"She's a doll," Kate said, smiling. "I suppose Edward was right to take her in after all."

Rosalie's beautiful face twisted into something dark with warning. "What other option was there?" Her voice was low and hissing, and I glanced at her in surprise.

Eleazar placed a calming hand on her arm. "Peace, Rose," he said quietly. "We can all see it's been a blessing for him, despite the…challenges."

I could hear the unspoken conversation, but I felt like I was missing some key piece of context. Of course Eleazar meant more than just the obvious difficulties of taking an orphan into a childless household—after what I'd read earlier, I could see that there had to be far more considerations at play. But I longed to hear the full explanation. How did Edward and his family manage to be so close to her—for that matter, to me—with their natural impulses? What made him take the risk in the first place?

I hoped fervently I would soon find a way to extract some answers.

Author's Note: Reminder that I split this chapter into two parts. If chapter 10 isn't showing up for you yet, refresh and try again! I'm posting it at the same time as part 1 so it should be there.

I'll be posting a link to Bella's dress on my profile, if you're curious. Otherwise, no footnotes this time.