Before she could finish her sentence, Edward growled and stood up precisely the moment that the door flew open. "Georgiana Ellwood."
"I didn't hear you knock." Georgiana remarked coldly and walked towards the intruder as if she had nothing to fear of him. Only Bella and Edward noticed how she barely noticeably pushed herself before Felicity and Renesmee. Only they heard her hissing to her daughter: "Keep the girl out of reach."
Meeting the intruder's arrogant look, Georgiana stood proudly before him, coldly watching him. "Since you've ruined my mood already, you might as well tell me why I will kick you out." Alice had to stifle a laughter at her words. They did not fit into the picture they had just gotten of Georgiana Ellwood, and the stunned look of the other vampire was priceless.
He caught himself quickly. "Normally, I would have come to avenge my men who you killed."
"You need to be more specific than that."
"Hudsonville, 2000."
"Oh, that." Georgiana smiled humorlessly. "But that would be normally. So why are you here now?"
"To give you the choice between life and death."
"I never had that choice. Why would you be able to offer it to me?" She replied in a voice like steel. Ice cold steel.
"Give up your network of recruits immediately or you will face execution."
"Why such drastic measurements? Is somebody afraid of me?" A satisfied grin crept onto Georgiana's face, and her muscles tensed unnoticeably. She was prepared to lunge for the vampire's throat any moment. "Let me guess; you're sent by the Volturi."
"Correct, Ellwood. So here's the ultimatum; help them in their war against the rebels, or you will be executed."
"As I think you are aware, I lived during the Civil War...which leads to me having certain tendencies. One of them being my hatred of mercenaries, so I will most surely not work for anybody, especially not a clan muddling with my business. Apart from that; I had always fancied the rebels." Her teeth glinted in the light of the lamps, and her smile was nothing but dangerous. "So here's your choice: Leave my premises this instant and go tell your master that I herewith accept his declaration of war, or stay and die."
"I've been warned you wouldn't be easy to persuade."
"I am not to be persuaded. Now make your choice."
"I'm afraid that matters look slightly different. It is not up to you to make any conditions." He replied with a cold smile, and two other vampires appeared at his side. "For Aro commanded that once you made your decision, you were to be killed."
"And he sent three of you to do that? How cute." Georgiana hissed, and only now the Cullen family saw the ruthless killer in her, the part of her that made her one of the most powerful vampires.. "Now here's my last warning; Get lost this instant."
They didn't move. Georgiana softly called to Renesmee: "Close your eyes, child." Then, one of them jumped forward, only to have his throat ripped open. Disgusted, Georgiana let the lifeless body fall to the ground, then called to her daughter: "Felicity, get the child away."
One second later, she was already attacked by the second vampire, him too dead within an instant. The last one was not as easy - Georgiana was thrown on her desk by the force of the collision of their bodies, and Emmet and Jasper jumped up the same instant to come to her aid. They did not even come one step closer to her when Georgiana had already pinned the vampire to the wall, ready to kill.
"You're really going to murder me before the child?" He nodded with an arrogant smile towards the watching Renesmee, who had just opened her eyes again after Georgiana had told her to close them. Bella threw a pleading, shocked look at Georgiana, and Renesmee's brown eyes softened her heart, reminding it of other times...
"Indeed, you're right..." Georgiana's voice became soft. "I will not. So let's take this outside." She whirled him around as if he weighed nothing, and together they crashed through the large window, glass and wood splinters scattering everywhere as they disappeared into the darkness.
All that was heard inside were rough fighting noises, then silence. Moments later the door opened and Georgiana reappeared, a large scratch on her arm and thigh. "Bloody mercenaries." She growled, and Jasper again got that feeling of having seen her before.
"Guess that's a no for the Volturi." Felicity grinned.
Before Georgiana could answer, a man appeared in the doorway, unmistakably her son. Auburn hair, sharp facial features. He was muscularly built, and as tall and broad as Jasper. He frowned first at the shattered window, then at his mother. "That's the third one this month, Mom."
"It's not my fault those bastards never take the door." She sighed, looking at the broken window.. "I don't even know why I'm always bothering to replace them."
Her look became fierce again. The Cullen family dared to hope now. They had seen what Georgiana was capable of, and that she stayed true to herself, no matter the consequences.
"That just proves our theory." Jasper said with a thoughtful look out of the shattered window. "They wouldn't have expected us to be here, not yet. I would guess it mixes up their plans that they found you rather uncooperative. Those men were here to recruit you."
"Not just me, I would assume." Georgiana mumbled with a side-glance at her children. "My guess would be that they had planned to bribe me with some treat, and had not expected I would stand on your side." Georgiana agreed with Jasper, and noticed how his way of thinking was strangely like her own. "Anyhow, it doesn't matter anymore." She looked at Renesmee. "Whatever their true intention is, we won't let the child get hurt."
"Finally some action." Georgiana's son Jonathan rolled his eyes. "Because our lives have passed in such boring peace and harmony so far."
Emmet grinned amused. Georgiana meanwhile looked at her son with an undefinable look in her eyes. It was gone soon, however, and she turned towards the Cullens with a smile on her lips. Bella noticed how it softened her face and revealed a different side in her other than the woman who had struggled all her life. Maybe there had once been an other Georgiana, one who knew how to laugh, who enjoyed life, who had other skills than plotting and killing....
Georgiana turned to Edward and Bella. "Your daughter must be tired. Why don't you stay? My house is at your disposal. There are several bedroom upstairs, free to be used by all of you."
Edward rose and made a slight bow before her, brushing her hand with his lips. "I thank you, Georgiana." Then he picked up his daughter, who was already half asleep.
Bella stayed seated as the Carlisle and Esme discreetly left the room, after having said their thanks. Rosalie wanted to leave, too, but did not dare leave Emmet behind alone.
Edward soon returned and took his seat beside Bella again. The silence in the house was oppressing, but it did not affect them all as much as it normally would, all due to Felicity's presence.
"If there is anything you need, do not hesitate to ask." Georgiana said. It was a sincere offer, but her face revealed no emotion, and the smile was gone again. "You will find me in the basement. I have to take care of some things now that the matters have changed." She gave a slight nod, but her noble grace made it look like a grand gesture.
When Georgiana was gone, Felicity said unusually thoughtfully for her lively self as she looked after her mother: "She wasn't always that way, you know."
Edward saw a picture of a younger Georgiana, when she was about seventeen, as she laughingly ran through golden wheat fields, the sun shining onto her auburn curls and making her look like a true goddess. A happy goddess. Just when he wondered where Felicity would have seen such a scene, she continued: "I went to visit my uncle William once, when I was about seventeen. Alcohol has left its trace on him, and he died only weeks after... For which Mom blames herself. He'd started drinking when she had her rather ill-suited marriage to Charles Lacey, only committed to hide her pregnancy with me. My uncle sought comfort about his favourite sister's disastrous developments in her life in drinking."
Bella looked up again to the portrait hanging over the fireplace. The handsome man there a drunkard? It seemed so unlikely, almost impossible.
"He told me of Mom's life before the war started..." Felicity interrupted herself. "I'm sorry. I do not mean to bore you."
"I think Georgiana's life is anything but boring." Emmet stated, and Bella agreed to him. She longed to know more of this devious woman.
So Felicity continued. "She had always been head-strong, clever and freedom-loving. In a time when ladies were supposed to be kept in the parlors , she demanded to have her own horse, refused riding side-saddle and the people in the village said she rode like the devil. Anyhow, she had always been sensible, at least, up to the point when she first met my father, whoever he was." Regret and longing mingled into Felicity's voice. Bella wondered how Renesmee would manage if she didn't know her father, how she herself would be able to bear live without Edward... It was impossible.
"Mom had torn her family apart, wrecked it, sent her ostensible husband to death so that she would be able to keep us, her children, and be with her true husband. She doesn't remember who he was, nor how he looked... but she still loves him, always had. And it's tearing her apart." Felicity's voice was sad, free of her dialect. She was grieving for all her mother had lost, and of what she herself never had. There was nothing she longed for more than knowing her father, of whom her mother seldom spoke, but when she did, her eyes lit up and her spirit became alive, even though clouded with heart-broken grief. Felicity longed to know this man, the only one who had ever managed to tame Georgiana, the man she had given up everything for, the only one to ever hold her heart. He had taken it with him when he died.
"Becoming a vampire was the worst thing that could have happened to her. She had only lived on to be sure John and I had a future and were safe, other than that she longed to die. Even that was not granted to her. She was riding out one day when she was attacked and nearly killed for good, and she only returned one week later, not knowing what she was and with nobody to guide her. She didn't remember half her life, and it was lucky for us that Mom remembered her children. Otherwise there would have been the orphanage for us...Now we grew up in wealth and were granted everything we yearned for. All because of Mom - she had to be our mother and father at the same time, in an era where feminism was yet far away and the word of a woman didn't count too much."
"I doubt anyone would dare disregard Georgiana's word." Emmet threw in thoughtfully. Jasper meanwhile felt the confusion and grief Georgiana must have experienced after her Change - to think that there was nobody she could turn to, that she had had to deal with the Change on her own... Most would have gone insane.
"Indeed." John said gloomily. "She carried that gift into immortality."
Bella listened up, and Jasper, too, tensed. A woman like Georgiana seemed unlikely to have not been blessed with a certain ability. Somebody of her character must have had a trait in her life that would be strong enough to last into the next existence. It would be of interest and importance to know what this ability was. Only now the Cullens realized that Georgiana had gotten around mentioning it.
"She ain't like talking 'bout it, since she ain't think it's a true ability - whatever it might be, it's quite effective, especially when her opponent ain't prepared." Felicity shrugged. She was falling into her Southern drawl again.
John now stepped in, and as he walked further into the room, the light of the lamp threw shadows on his pale face that diminished the likeness to Georgiana and increased his similarity to his sister... He had a presence very like his mother, though one could guess that he still knew how happiness felt. He turned to the Cullen family and said solemnly: "Mom has a certain aura. If she uses it, and you're unprepared, she could bring you to kill your best friend."
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