Pinned but Fluttering

Chapter 55

Merry Christmas Eve, everyone!!

 

Chapter 55  

     After I left Mrs. Jane, Esme and Rosalie escorted me upstairs to the huge bathroom adjoining my room, filling the claw-footed tub with hot water and lavender-scented bubble bath. I soaked contently while my two soon-to-be sisters-in-law and future mother-in-law ghosted in and out of my room, making decisions, laying out clothing, shoes, and jewelry “options” as Alice called it all, then racing down to lay out appropriate suits for the guys and dresses for themselves.

     Alice was bemoaning the lack of flowers at this late notice. At least with an all-vampire wedding guest list of just our immediate family plus Carmen and Eleazar, Alice could skip the food and cake. We had thought about inviting Seth, but we decided that a wedding celebration on the same day as the deaths of so many of his pack could be considered insensitive.

     I tried to ignore Alice’s plans as she kept running commentary going under her breath that every vampire in the house could easily hear, thus laying a monster guilt trip on Edward and a martyr-complex on the rest of us as she “slaved” to make our wedding “memorable.”

     To tell the truth, I really didn’t care. As long as Edward and I were married somehow after all of Alice’s machinations, I was happy.

     Lazily I trailed a sea sponge dripping with lavender body wash over my skin and washed my hair with the hand-held shower attachment, something I never would have been able to manage when I was human without soaking the entire bathroom and most likely slipping on the wet tile, giving myself yet another concussion.

     That was another cool thing about being a vampire: no more concussions or trips to the ER. Yay me.

     As I bathed, I heard Carlisle and Eleazar in the living room supervising Mrs. Jane’s reunion with the authorities after her kidnapping nearly twenty-four hours before. Carlisle spun quite a detailed story of Mrs. Jane stumbling up onto our back deck, rapping on our back door, and begging for help after she had escaped from her captors.

     Mrs. Jane, after being coached carefully by Carlisle, was suitably vague about where and how she had escaped from Paul but gave truthful details of her kidnapping and the treatment she received at the hands of the Quileute young men who apparently wanted a ready-made hostage for a robbery attempt. Mrs. Jane’s story was appropriately vague and muddled in some places, but she told it convincingly enough that, according to Edward who was tracking the authorities’ thoughts, the police believed her story without question as she was taken away in the back of an ambulance to be checked out at the hospital before being reunited with her very worried family.

     Of course, Carlisle mentioned to the police chief the important job offer from the Mayo Clinic that he had just decided to take, forcing our family to relocate immediately. And thus the Cullens’ disappearance would be explained as the news of Carlisle’s big time job offer trickled from one small-town gossip to another.

     I sighed, pleased by the way that every detail seemed to be coming together. I was marrying Edward this evening at sunset in the meadow, and we would soon be rid of most of our major problems, notably Mrs. Jane’s knowledge of us and Billy’s chance of taking vindictive revenge on us.

     The only problem still gnawing at me was Tanya’s unresolved desire for Edward as her mate. I sighed again, knowing that it would be difficult for me to relax as Tanya was so darn unpredictable right now…and was running free.

     Who knew what evil plot she could be devising at this very moment?

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