Pinned but Fluttering

Chapter 48

     Edward reached into his pocket again and pulled out something that flashed in the pale moonlight. Dangling it in front of me for a moment, he pressed it into my palm. “It’s yours,” he whispered, his eyes bright with emotion.

     “Mine? How?” I gasped.

     “While you were…changing,” Edward’s voice choked a little over the last word, the memory of my suffering still difficult for him, “Esme, Alice, Rose, Emmett, Jasper, and even Carlisle from time to time, worked on this abandoned cottage for you…for us, really,” he finished shyly.

     Edward stepped to the side, motioning me down the path toward the front door. “Would you like to explore, my love?” he invited.

     With Edward on my heels, I slowly moved down the stone walkway, stepping up the three low stairs onto the narrow stone-flagged porch. Carefully I inserted the old-fashioned brass key into the lock of the dark red wooden door, noting the graceful arched top set with a half-moon of lacy glass.

     Before I turned the lock, I smiled mischievously at the beautiful man by my side, his eyes alight with anticipation. “It looks like a hobbit-house,” I whispered with a smirk.

     Throwing back his head, Edward laughed, and I joined in the joyous sound that echoed through the garden and around the little cottage. “Emmett said that you’d say that,” he managed to gasp as our laughter subsided.

     Turning the lock and hearing the satisfying “click” that meant we could enter, I pushed gently against the antiqued brass door handle which seemed Victorian in design. As the door swung open almost silently, I was glad that, as a vampire, I needed no light to view every detail of the lovely little cottage.

     A quick movement at my side surprised me as Edward scooped me into his arms before stepping over the threshold. “We’re not married yet,” I giggled at him, and his joyful eyes met mine.

     “But we will be. Soon.”

     “Soon?” I asked quietly, perfectly serious for the moment.

     He nodded. “Soon,” he assured me as he set me down on the polished oak floors of the cottage.

     Our cottage. 

     Although the great room wasn’t large, it possessed a homey, cozy feel that I recognized as Esme’s esthetic in décor. A padded leather chair and a faded red-and-white flowered chintz armchair sat at angles to each other in front of the river rock fireplace; the rough-hewn mantel above was scattered with hurricane lamps, pale candles in a three-tiered iron candelabra, china teapots, and in the center, an antique Seth Thomas mantel clock that chimed the hour as we entered the room. Above the mantel on the natural pine walls hung an assortment of mismatched antique china plates in various shades of green, blue, and red.

     Small tables stacked with books and candles were tucked into various nooks, two tall oak bookcases filled with lovely old volumes that Alice and Jasper had apparently sneaked from Edward’s room when we were away hunting. An antique freestanding globe on a brass pedestal stood in the corner, and the three windows of old-fashioned mullioned glass graced the far wall.