To the Highest Bidder By RainyGirl1978.pdf

To the Highest Bidder By RainyGirl1978

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/6018429/1/

Full Summary:

Take a step back in time to 1849, the height of the Gold Rush in Northern

California. Where the chasm between the simple bucolic lifestyle and the rough

and tumble of the old west was about to be bridged and the two worlds would

collide, threatening the innocence that permeates Bella's existence and sets her

on a course that could lead to her destruction or her redemption.

The only child of widower Sheriff Charlie Swan, Bella grew up in the safety of a

small town in the Sierra foothills knowing she would one day be the wife of Jacob

Black, her childhood friend. But even though Bella didn't want a safe lukewarm

marriage to her best friend, stuck at home cooking his meals and darning his

socks, she never dared to challenge her fate as it was what was expected.

Secretly she wanted passion and she wanted to make a difference in her world.

Her passion is sparked when she meets the intelligent and charming Edward, who

harbors a tragic and broken past and a longing for his own deliverance.

When a pivotal life changing event rocks her world, Bella is forced to make a

choice, a choice that will alter her life forever and shake up her safe and untried

existence. In a desperate move to take hold of her dreams, Bella finds herself

completely and wildly out of control of her life. Will she find the strength to come

back from her anguish and grow into a courageous and self-assured woman?

Chapter 1: New in Town

Rough and Ready, California ~ September, 1849

"Get up brother!" Emmett bellowed, pounding Edward on the back and ripping his

blankets off. "You've got to go pick up the shipment or Esme's going to have our

hides."

Edward groaned, annoyed with the way his brother favored waking him in the

mornings. He was half surprised that Emmett hadn't used a basin of water as he

was so keen on doing at times. Edward always bolted out of bed swinging when

that was the chosen method, and though he was certainly a force to be reckoned

with, Emmett was stronger and it always ended with Edward pinned to the floor,

his older brother laughing at his expense.

Edward rolled out of bed, chasing Emmett out of the room so he could dress.

Then he went downstairs to grab a quick breakfast. Esme gave him something to

eat and a kiss on the cheek.

"Thank you for going into town, Edward. I don't know what I'd do without you,"

she smiled, lovingly. Her children were the light of her life and Edward in turn

would do just about anything for her.

He put on his boots and went out to saddle up his horse, Chester, and be on his

way. This was Edward's first trip into town. Emmett was usually the one to take

care of business; however, today Emmett wasn't able to make it so the task fell

to Edward.

It was a beautiful September day. The birds were chirping in the pine trees, the

sun was shining, and the air was cool. The Cullens were new in Rough and Ready,

a small town in the Sierra foothills with the bare essentials: a general store, a

post office, a sheriff's station, a doctor's office that Carlisle would soon be

running, a blacksmith and leather tanner, a saloon with a small attached inn, and

of course a church. As Edward approached the town, he noticed that there wasn't

much activity; a few people strolling down the street and a couple horses tied to

a hitching post outside the sheriff's station. He nudged Chester to continue on

when something, or rather someone, caught his eye.

She was sitting underneath an old oak tree, quietly reading a book next to the

Sheriff's Office. Something about her enthralled Edward's attention. She looked

completely absorbed in whatever she was reading, softly chewing on her bottom

lip, while the breeze blew tendrils of her chestnut hair gently around her face.

She looked at peace and Edward wondered what she was reading. She was

beautiful; but not in an ostentatious way. Nevertheless, she was captivating. A

compulsion to go to her and brush the windblown hair from her lovely face

surprised him in its intensity. He had to tear his gaze away from her and force his

attention back to the task at hand: collecting the mail. But as he continued on

towards the Post Office his thoughts kept returning to the beautiful girl under the

tree.

Arriving at the Post Office, he dismounted his horse and tied him to the hitching

post. He gave Chester a pat on his muzzle and strode in the building, hoping to

finish quickly and perhaps get a chance to see the girl again. Walking up to the

counter, he noticed the Post Master's name plate, Eric Yorkie. The man was

friendly enough. Yorkie retrieved the package and handed it to Edward with a

smile.

"Welcome to Rough and Ready, Mr. Cullen. I hope you and your family will enjoy

it here. We're full of friendly faces, I'm sure you'll find."

"Thank you Mr. Yorkie."

"Please, call me Eric," he interjected. "Everyone else does."

"Alright Eric, you can call me Edward. Have a nice day." And with that he left the

Post Office, quickly mounted his horse, and returned the way he'd come.

Not wanting to wait to find out who she was, he silently prayed that the girl

would still be sitting there. As he rode his horse back up the dirt road through

town and neared the spot where she had been, he saw the sheriff roughly exit his

office and call over to the girl, "Bella, let's go!"

"Okay, Pa." The beautiful girl jumped to her feet, pausing to brush the grass and

dust off her dress and ran to meet him. When she reached his side she looked up

and caught Edward's perusal.

He tipped his hat with a small smile and even from his view on the horse he could

see that the most alluring pink blush accented her face. And what a beautiful face

it was, containing deep brown eyes the likes of which he had never seen before.

She was stunning.

Bella. Her name was Bella. Perfect.

THB~ THB ~ THB

Over the next week he couldn't shake the images burned into his brain of Bella:

her brown eyes gazing up at him, the pink stain of her cheeks, and the wind in

her hair. Edward had never before believed in love at first sight. Love was

something that grew slowly over time, getting to know another person, learning

to trust and respect them. He still believed that and yet he was nagged by the

strange connection he felt with her. He thought he must be going crazy. He had

no idea of her situation or even if she'd been promised to another. The idea of

her with someone else was repellant to Edward. He was eager to make another

trip to town in hopes of catching another glimpse and perhaps learning a bit more

about the lovely Bella.

Unfortunately, there was no chance to go to town as Edward was needed at home

to work on the houses. There was much work to be done if they were to be

finished in time.

Carlisle had hired the local boys to help with the building to make sure it was

done before winter and it was a good thing he did. These "boys" weren't really

boys, to be honest. Each of them were mountains of men, their frames even

larger than Emmett's. Their help was invaluable; they knew all the ins and outs of

building on this rugged terrain. And with their assistance, it was estimated that

the houses would be finished by the end of October, before the heavy rains and

snows of winter arrived.

It was Saturday and the boys had the day off. Edward was spending the

afternoon burying his ax in the pieces of wood that were too small for using to

build, splitting logs to store up for the winter when Emmett boomed "Hey

Edward! What do you say we go to church tomorrow?"

"Church?"

"Yeah, well, I don't really care one way or the other, but we've been here for a

couple months already and we haven't been and Esme is insisting that we need to

go. She said something about being embarrassed and needing to socialize with

the locals. I don't know, anyway, she's been wanting to go for a while now and

she'll have a conniption if we don't go."

It suddenly occurred to Edward that his beautiful girl would probably be there.

Surely the sheriff would have to put in his appearance at the Sunday meeting and

his daughter would dutifully be by his side. "Sure Emmett, that sounds great," he

said, a smile creeping across his face.

"Really? That easy, huh? Well, Esme will be happy," he said. "Say, maybe you'll

even catch the eye of a nice girl. You seriously need to get yourself a woman!"

Edward groaned. "Emmett, don't. Just…. don't." His brother could really be

obnoxious and he didn't want all the single girls in town getting the idea that he

was on a wife hunt. Although, the prospect of attracting the attention of one girl

certainly was intriguing.

THB ~ THB ~ THB

The next morning the Cullens arrived at church just as many other families were

walking into the building. Edward grimaced when he saw many young female

heads turned in their direction, eyes alight, smiles growing, whispering and

giggling. None of these were the girl he really wanted to see.

The pastor quickly approached the new family. "Welcome to our church and to

our community. I am Pastor Webber," he said extending his hand in greeting.

Carlisle and Esme smiled. "Thank you very much, Pastor. I am Dr. Carlisle Cullen

and this is my wife, Esme. These are our two boys, Emmett and Edward. And this

is Emmett's lovely wife, Rosalie. We have one other child, a daughter, Alice. She

is still in Missouri with her husband, Jasper. They will be making the trip out in

the spring, Lord willing."

The pastor warmly greeted each person in turn and even managed a small smile

from Rosalie.

"I hope you will be very happy here. Please if you need anything, let us know. We

want to help you get settled in."

The new doctor and his lovely wife were quite the commodity; everyone wanted

to meet them and their children. Emmett was energized by meeting all the new

people; his smile contagious to those around. That is until they met his wife.

Rosalie was cool and detached, as usual. She intimidated both men and women

alike with her beauty and icy disposition. Edward found it almost comical

watching the way people exuberantly greeted Emmett and then immediately

paled upon meeting Rosalie.

Just then an enthusiastic woman stopped them. "Hello! I am Mrs. Stanley and

this is my daughter, Jessica," she said, looking pointedly at Edward. Jessica stood

next to her mother smiling up at Edward and batting her eyelashes.

He greeted them as was polite, but tried to maintain the line of disinterested

courtesy without appearing rude while his eyes scanned the crowd. Neither Bella

nor her father were anywhere to be seen.

Emmett was chatting charismatically with Mrs. Stanley, answering all her

questions about how the family with "two handsome young men such as

themselves" ended up in town. Before too long she turned her focus on Edward.

He had to fight not to roll his eyes as she not so subtly tried to get him to show

interest in her daughter. He stood in awkward silence, Emmett trying to cover for

his cool demeanor, until it was appropriate for him to get away from the

conversation. Unfortunately he wasn't able to escape before Mrs. Stanley secured

a date for him to come to dinner the following night. Fantastic. Edward thought.

I'd rather eat boiled water soup and charcoal biscuits than listen to her prattling.

Just as they were finding their seats Edward heard soft feminine laughter coming

from behind him. He glanced back and there was Bella, looking beautiful

alongside Jacob Black, one of the Cullens' hired men. Jacob had his arm slung

casually around Bella's shoulder and the two of them were laughing and chatting.

It was obvious that they cared for each other a great deal. Edward's eyes

narrowed. Was she spoken for after all? Bella looked up and seeing his glare, she

blushed and looked at the floor. Jacob didn't miss a beat; glaring right back at

Edward, possessively placing his hand on the small of her back and ushering Bella

into her seat.

"Hey man, what's your problem?" Emmett asked, pulling Edward's gaze away

from Bella and Jacob.

"Nothing," he muttered.

"Right. You were rude to Mrs. Stanley, who is nice enough to have you over for

dinner. You completely ignored her daughter, who was pretty enough. And now

you're glaring at our hired help? Brother, something's up." Edward ignored

Emmett's surprisingly keen observations as the music started up and he suffered

through the service.

He reluctantly went to the Stanleys' house for dinner the next night, enduring

Jessica's inane conversation. But he politely declined any further visits, citing too

much work back at the homestead and earning a disappointed look from Jessica.

But he didn't care, preferring to appear rude so that he could stay at home and

do anything other than have Jessica Stanley foisted upon him.

He returned home, well to Carlisle and Esme's home anyway. Their house as well

as Emmett and Rosalie's house was complete. Edward's home was well under

way and he looked forward to having it done and having his own space.

He stalked into his bedroom at Carlisle and Esme's house that night and collapsed

onto his bed. He was in an irritable disposition and slept fitfully all night long.

THB ~ THB ~ THB

Drip, drip, drip, drip. What is that? Drip, drip, drip, drip.

He heard soft sniffling and quiet sobbing. Confusion clouded Edward's brain as he

tried in vain to figure out what was going on. An unwelcome sense of familiarity

and foreboding invaded his senses.

Cold, hard ground was beneath him as he shivered under a worn and dirty coat.

A loud noise jolted Edward awake as Emmett burst into his room pounding on his

back and whipping open the curtains. "Wake up brother, the boys are here and

it's time to work! Get your lazy behind out of bed." Edward squinted against the

early morning light streaming through the window, the dream still churning in his

mind.

He fumbled out of bed, muttering to himself as he threw on his work clothes

fighting back the images that wouldn't stay gone. I thought those dreams were

finally starting to go away.

THB ~ THB ~ THB

His mood was foul that week. Between the ridiculous envy he was feeling over

Jacob's apparent relationship with Bella and the dream he had, he could barely

stand to be around himself. He couldn't even so much as look at Jacob much less

work alongside him. To make matters worse, he overheard a conversation he

would have much rather never heard. He had just been about to enter the barn

when he heard Jacob and one of the other men, Quil, inside.

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