Edward carried all of the luggage, of course, and he laughed at my victorious expression when we boarded a plane bound for New York. “We’ll see New York someday,” he promised, “But it is just a connection tonight. There are too many stray thoughts for my taste.”
We watched a movie during the flight. I wrapped myself in Edward’s stone arms, listened to the protagonist go on about a meteor that was headed straight for the Earth, and reveled in the fact that this was my new forever. Edward encouraged me to sleep. We had taken a midnight flight out of Seattle, and it would be another five hours before we arrived in New York. I tried to protest, but by the time the meteor reached Earth’s orbit on the screen in front of me, I was sleeping dreamlessly. I awoke to Edward’s gentle prompting and realized that I had even slept through the landing.
I surrendered my passport to him at the counter in JFK International Airport, eager to discover our next destination, but I was thwarted once again when he escorted me, not to another crowded gate full of waiting passengers where flight destinations were clearly marked, but to the relative isolation of the terminal reserved for private jets. The lone woman at the counter in front of our gate smiled appreciatively at Edward as she looked over our passports.
“Have a wonderful vacation, Mr. Cullen,” she sighed, and perhaps I was imagining the extra trill in her voice. I didn’t think so though. She turned to hand me back my passport, and her face wasn’t nearly as cheerful. “You too, Ms. Swan.”
A brilliant idea suddenly popped into my head. “Where are we headed?” I asked her quietly. I saw her face brighten and her mouth begin to form the answer I desired just before Edward caught my arm and dragged me toward the door.
“That’s a surprise, Bella.” He turned toward the suddenly confused woman, flashing his brilliant smile at her. She blushed. “And she’s Mrs. Cullen now. Thank you for your help.”
Mrs. Cullen. The strange pleasure of that title took away the disappointment of yet another failed attempt at foiling the surprise. And then he was pushing me through the door.
“Very clever,” he whispered with a grin.
“I do what I can,” I responded as we entered into the most luxurious plane I had ever been on in my life. My mouth dropped open.
Renee and Charlie had not been the most wealthy parents in the world, and so the arbitrary plane rides that marked the results of their shared custody of me had always been in economy class, so I was not prepared for the spacious carpeted paradise-on-wings that I was gently ushered into. It was better than any hotel I’d ever stayed in, with elegant wooden paneling and a large plasma television situated directly under a spiraling staircase that must have led to the service areas. I marveled at the impossibility that there could be another level. It was already larger than Charlie’s house!
I stared back, speechless at Edward who was watching my reaction with what appeared to be satisfaction. He pointed out the comfortable looking overstuffed sofa that lined a part of one windowed wall. The sun was already shining in through the line of rounded portholes. I sighed. It was almost nine in the morning already here and I still felt exhausted. Where had my wedding night gone?
“It’s going to be another seven hours to our destination,” he whispered. “I thought you would sleep better this time if you had space to lie down.” He wrapped his arms around my shoulders and looked down into my eyes appraisingly as I continued to search for words. His beautiful face did nothing to help my temporary mute state. “Are you angry with me? I know you don’t like extravagant gifts, but in all fairness, this is a gift for us both.”
“Whose?” I managed.
“It’s a part of Carmen and Eleazar’s gift to us,” he explained, laughing quietly. “They don’t even lend it out to their own family. They were very impressed by you.”
Still lacking the ability to respond properly, and strangely unable to feel anything more than utter gratitude for such an elaborate gift, I conformed with taking his hand and meeting his eyes with a smirk of my own.
“What, no pool?” I asked smoothly. His smile was radiant as we made our way to the couch and I curled into his welcoming arms again, pulling one of the blankets in between us and around me. We flipped through the channels for a while on the enormous television, and I tried to pry more answers out of Edward as we waited for clearance to leave New York. It seemed to take a long time, and the sofa was so comfortable with my own strange, supernatural pillow.
I was asleep again before the plane even made it off of the runway.
Edward was stroking my hair when I awoke in the darkness. I lay still for a few more moments, taking in the sweet scent of his clothes before turning my face to his patient smile.
“Good morning,” he breathed, and bent to kiss my forehead. I glanced out the windows. The plane was descending through a beautifully pure blanket of night sky, allowing for a perfect view of the thousands of lights from whatever mysterious city we were entering into.
“Don’t you mean good evening?” I corrected groggily.
Edward chuckled. “Don’t worry. You didn’t oversleep. It’s still early afternoon in Forks.”
“What time is it in…wherever we are?” I prompted, stretching.
“Quite late, actually,” he admitted. “I probably shouldn’t have allowed you to sleep as long as I did, but you looked so peaceful.”
“Are you at least going to tell me what country we’re in?” I begged. His mocking smile was his only response as the plane touched down on what I could only assume was foreign soil. I scowled out of the window in search of any signs that would give me enough of an answer to wipe the smirk off his face. I didn’t recognize the airport, of course. I had only been to one airport abroad, and I hadn’t exactly taken the time to memorize it as we had raced to save Edward. I frowned. I hated suspense!
My frustration finally came to an end when we exited the plane and we passed our two pilots. Edward suddenly turned and grinned knowingly back at me. One of the men grabbed my shoulder and held out his hand to me as I passed.
“Bienvenidos a España, Sra. Cullen,” he announced jovially.
Spain.
“Thanks…uh…gracias,” I stammered back, my mind working to understand possibly the only line that four years of high school Spanish had succeeded in teaching me. Edward broke into a quiet laughter.
“Madrid,” he clarified. “I thought that we should start in a country where we both know the language.”
I was suddenly too excited for the usual sarcastic remark that would have come in response. Spain! Of course! Why hadn’t it occurred to me earlier? Carmen and Eleazar were both from Spain. It seemed only logical that if we were using their jet, it would be headed to their home country.
I tried to remember everything I had heard about Spain from Mrs. Goff or my teacher from before in Phoenix, and I fell into only the usual stereotypes: bullfights, Flamenco, beaches…and endless sunlight. My lips curved into a secret smile as I imagined how we would kill the time between sunrise and sunset if that particular stereotype turned out to be true.
But the mystery continued, much to my chagrin, and it turned out that Madrid was not our final destination either. Edward had reserved a car…the fastest model available, of course, and I had gazed out its dark windows as the beautiful architecture and innumerable fountains of Madrid slowly faded into our taillights.
“We’re not staying?” I asked with dismay.
“We will,” he promised enigmatically as the speedometer crawled to dangerous numbers. I chanced a glance at the dash, but quickly turned my attention to the silhouetted scenery passing by instead. The numbers looked even more dangerous in kilometers. “Madrid is absolutely beautiful, but much the same as New York.” He touched his finger to his temple and his expression grew regretful. “Too many people…too many thoughts.”
We continued steadily south for a very long time. Edward called out the names of the towns as they appeared in the darkness. He pointed out fields full of olive trees that served as shade for the infamous Spanish bulls that were supposed to be grazing beneath , but their bulky black forms were all shrouded in a thick darkness that only Edward’s eyes could penetrate and he soon gave up, settling for playing with a lock of my hair as I silently contemplated the final few days of my life.
Because that was exactly what it was—there was no avoiding that fact. I had pledged Edward my life, and made that promise official in front of everyone that I knew and loved. That had been my side of the agreement, and now, the only parts left were the promises that he had made to me the night I had agreed to marry him. That cold reality hung in the air, suddenly causing a chill to creep up my spine. I would die in Spain.
“Won’t you tell me what you’re thinking?”
His voice was curious and concerned as it cut through my thoughts, turning them instantly to more pleasant possibilities. Before I breathed my last human breath, there was still another promise that Edward had yet to keep. The shiver that ran through me then as I looked over at him had nothing to do with fear. I blushed.
“I’m wondering how much longer we’re going to be driving.” This was true. My musings had created an inevitable impatience. I looked at the clock. It had been flashing 11:30 when we had pulled out into Madrid traffic. Almost three hours had passed since then, driving at Edward’s speed, and still, I saw no prominent lights in the darkness that would indicate a city, or even a resort. I frowned, trying to remember my geography. “Shouldn’t we be hitting the Mediterranean soon?”
His smile revealed teeth that reflected the dash lights. “We’re already there,” he announced. I stared out into the darkness and realized that we had been driving alongside a very high stone fence that would have block anything from view for quite some time. Edward turned into a drive that led to a very secure gate. I looked at the name that was welded in an elegant black metal above it.
El Huerto de la Niebla.
There was a guard station at the entrance, and Edward spoke to the man who appeared in a Spanish that was so fluid I could only pick out our names, and the words mujer, and bienvenidos once again. I cringed at how little I realized I had learned in high school as the guard smiled at me and the gated opened electronically. Edward looked over at me. I met his eyes expectantly.
“El Huerto de la Niebla?” I asked. He smiled.
“The other part of Carmen and Eleazar’s gift to us,” he explained. “This is their private estate. It’s been in Carmen’s possession for over four centuries.” He turned onto another well paved road and began to speed up again. “It is very expansive in modern Spanish standards, and the security is impenetrable.”
We drove for another ten minutes, and my impatience was beginning to become a factor again when we rounded a corner and a beautiful, turn of the century mansion came suddenly into view. It was placed strategically high on one of the only cliffs for as far as eye could see, and so close to the edge that I could swear a part of it was actually hanging. All of the lights were on in a welcoming gesture as we pulled down a palm lined drive and came to a stop in front. Illuminated as it was, the house seemed like a palace straight out of a modern day fairy tale.
“What do you think?” Edward asked, appearing silently behind me and sweeping me off my feet and into his arms. I let out a surprised squeak.
“I…” Struggling for words again. Great. “It’s beautiful,” I sighed finally, nuzzling into his neck as he carried me effortlessly over the threshold.
The inside of the house was even more of a surprise. We entered into a room that was as large as the Cullen’s parlor and open all the way to the back of the house, which, just like in the Edward’s home, was an entire wall of glass. I marveled at the glistening marble floors and the innumerable amount of art that decorated every wall as I made my way forward toward the muffled sound of the waves that seemed to be calling me out to the balcony. Edward had disappeared momentarily to bring in the luggage, but his hand appeared on mine as I pushed open the double doors and he accompanied me outside.
It was astonishing. I was speechless as I stared out at the glistening water that reflected calmly in the light of the moon. The balcony hung impossibly far out over the edge of the cliff, and from somewhere far below us, I could hear the rush of the waves shattering against the rocks below, turning into a calming mist that drifted on the sea breeze and brought the briny smell of the Mediterranean to us far above.
Edward’s breath was suddenly on my neck, his lips tracing a line from my shoulder to my ear and back again.
“This has always been an impressive view,” he said against my skin. I drew in a sharp breath and my pulse sped to dangerous levels. He pulled away for a moment...only far enough to look into my eyes. “Now, with you finally here to complete it, I think that it has become my favorite.”
I stared into his eyes, reflected almost as silver as his skin in the moonlight, and contemplated the infinite expanse of ocean laid out behind him. I couldn’t think of anything that could create a greater happiness than I felt at this moment. Edward had chosen well, and I too had made my choice. It would not be tonight, but this would be the place…the last view I saw with my human eyes.
