Disclaimer: These characters are the sole
property of Stephenie Meyer. I am just messing around with them.
A/N I don’t have a pre-reader or a Beta or
anything of the sort. All mistakes are mine and mine alone.
-x-X-x-
A Love So Beautiful
Hertfordshire, England 1889.
I stay in bed while I feel people moving around me, my mother giving
orders in a clipped tone. For the usually soft-spoken and polite Renee, this is
not normal behaviour.
It all seems a blur to me. I have no strength left. So I stare out the
window across my bed and let my own despair consume me.
Edward’s words haunt me.
Maybe you never knew me.
Maybe I don’t know him. All the time we spent together when we were small
children does not compensate for the time we have been apart ever since he
started on Eton.
Those days we spent together had been careless, happy times riding horses,
fishing by a pond or reading in our meadow. Until yesterday, I never suspected
my feelings for Edward could ever be requited. Maybe I have been mistaken.
Maybe I assumed too much from Edward’s kisses and words. Maybe he never felt as
strongly about me as I felt about him. He never even mentioned the word love.
It would explain why at the first obstacle he decided to give up without
a fight. I am not sure which idea hurts most, the idea that he might not love
me enough or the idea that he does love me but is not brave enough to confront
his father. In both cases Edward is not willing to fight, and I’m too broken to
fight alone.
“Sweetheart,” my mother whispers next to my ear. I turn to look at her
and see a worried expression marring her lovely features. I want to reassure
her, tell her I’ll feel better in time. I can’t. I don’t know if I’ll ever feel
better.
“Bella, my sweet child, everything is ready for our departure. However,
there’s a visitor outside that insists in speaking with you before we leave. I
told her that I would ask you if you were in any condition to receive her. Are you
well enough to meet her?”
“Who is it?” I ask. If it’s Victoria again, coming to gloat about her triumph,
I’m not sure I’ll be able to restrain myself from attacking her.
“It’s Lady Alice, sweetheart. She wishes to speak with you.”
I nod, giving my mother a silent permission to let Alice into my room.
-x-X-x-
“Oh, Bella,” Alice says in broken voice. She looks as bad as I’m feeling.
I just stare as she sits herself next to me in bed. She gathers me in her
arms as if I was a small child and moves my matted hair away from my face.
“Edward just informed me about this horrible situation. I feel as if history
is repeating itself. My family is doomed to loveless marriages it seems.
“I advised Edward time and time again to fully disclose the extent of his
feelings towards you before father started to work on his schemes. I always
knew father had great hopes that Edward would marry for a title as I did. It’s
just that there are so few ladies with titles as part of their dowry that I
hoped father would be unsuccessful in Edward’s case. I was regrettably
mistaken.”
“I gave Edward a choice,” I murmur.
“What? I’m sorry I didn’t hear you, Bella.”
I sit up straight in bed and face Alice before I repeat myself.
“I said that I gave Edward a choice. My father is willing to support us
fully. The only condition would be to marry immediately to avoid being the talk
of the gossipmongers. Also, we would have to leave England to avoid the scorn
of the peerage. I tried to explain, Alice; I tried to tell him that we would be
okay, that we would be happy in New York. He argued that it would destroy your
family, break your mother’s heart.”
Alice looks at me as if I’ve just stabbed her in the chest with a dagger.
“My father,” she says in a voice that’s full of barely contained rage. “He’s
the cruellest creature I’ve ever met. I can’t understand how a man such as he
could have sired a lovely boy like Edward.”
My eyes widen at Alice’s words. If there was a Cullen that always seemed
blindly obedient to Lord Carlisle to me that was Alice. If her father gave her a
command she always carried it out with not even the smallest argument. Edward
was a hellion in comparison to Alice in my opinion. Where has that statement
come from?
Alice rises from my bed and walks in circles around my room. I can see
she is wringing her hands nervously. She looks wild, like a caged animal in a menagerie.
Then as if coming to a decision she stops.
“I’m going to speak with Edward. I have to fix whatever damage my father
has caused. I can’t sit idly while my father plays the part of puppeteer in
Edward’s life like he did in mine.”
“Alice, I want to go with you,” I declare as I stand. “I feel as if there
were a lot of unsaid words between Edward and me. We were both in shock and I
was very distraught when we last spoke. If he’s not going to change his
decision then I need to speak my mind one last time.”
“Are you certain, Bella?” Alice questions. “Like you just stated Edward
may prove more stubborn and gullible than either of us thought him to be. My father
is a cunning man. I have no doubts that whatever arguments he used to convince
Edward to agree to the arrangement were extremely convincing.”
“I need to do this for myself,
Alice. Wouldn't you have wished for a chance to say goodbye to James? To
express every single word you had in your heart for him before you were so
cruelly separated by your father?”
I see a flash of hurt cross Alice’s face and I feel guilty for mentioning
such sore subject. But I need her to understand the importance of a reunion
between Edward and me.
I notice Alice wiping a couple of traitorous tears from her face before
she returns her attention to me.
“Since it’s almost nightfall you will not leave the county tonight, only
Masen House. I heard your mother and your father talking while I was waiting to
be received. They decided to spend the night at Lady Beachcombe’s manor. She’s very
fond of your parents, as you know, so they agreed that is the most sensible
choice for the time being. Lady Beachcombe’s manor is only a few minutes ride
from here. This evening, before the ball I’ll invent an excuse to go to you and
take Edward with me. Make sure to stay in the blue room. I’ve stayed a few
times in that house, when father and mother were away, and the blue room is
easily accessible from the gardens. It was how James and I met for a while,”
Alice finishes relaying her plan with a longing sigh that I’m sure is reserved
to the memory of her lost love.
“Thank you, Alice,” I say hugging my friend. “I’ll never be able to repay
you for your kindness.”
“No need for any thanks,” Alice says, returning my hug. “Only thank me if
I’m able to persuade my brother that one Cullen in a loveless marriage is more
than enough.”
I hope with all my heart that the next time I meet Edward it’s not to say
a last goodbye.
-x-X-x-
Sorry I
updated so late today :( I had to do some thesis stuff…the boring kind, and I
was out most of the day.
Next up,
Edward and Bella have a little chat. It could be their last for a while…js.
Thanks so
much for reading my little story <3
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