“Tanya, if you can’t be more gracious, shut up!”

Taken by surprise, and in the face of Rosalie’s directness and her beauty, something Tanya had no hope of besting, she had no recourse. She rolled her eyes and sat back down next to Irina.

Edward looked at Rosalie with a look of affection, and smiled triumphantly back at Tanya. I was still unable to speak or take my eyes from Tanya, who despite her vegetarian amber eyes, looked as though she would be very willing to change her persuasion just for me. Rosalie took my hand from Edward’s and said

“May I borrow my new sister brother?”

“Of course” Edward said.

“Bella” Rosalie said, indicating she wanted me to follow her, but I still had my eyes on Tanya. Without saying another word, Rosalie pulled me along, outside the tent, and we walked a few yards away.

     I looked at Rosalie, and said “thank you for the rescue.”

“Tanya always has been a bit of twit” she said smiling.

“I don’t think she likes me very much” I said.

“She’s jealous,” Rosalie said with an air of understanding. “She has always preferred Edward, and thought eventually he would come around to her attentions.”

Rosalie looked amused and said, “Like me, she is very vain. And she was angry that Edward did not return her regard.”

I began to understand Tanya’s dislike of me.

“Bella” she continued, “I wanted to talk to you about something else if it’s alright.

“Of course” I said.

She nodded in thanks and said, “What I really wanted was to apologize to you.”

“For what?” I asked.

She looked at me with just a bit of sadness in her eyes.

“As you may have guessed, I have been avoiding you because of your decision Bella. I am sorry, but you know my feelings about what you’re going to do. What you don’t know however, is how much I have come to admire you. Of course, I am grateful for your saving Edward in Volterra. Especially when it was partly my mistake that put him there. But I am also grateful for you loving him, and making his life complete and giving him back himself. I have never told anyone this Bella, but I have always grieved for Edward’s being alone. I’ll repeat myself, I am vain, and yes, I can be shallow, but I’m also honest. I knew I was not right for Edward from the start. I knew he was looking for something, or someone; and I knew it was not me. It didn’t take very much time for me to know it wasn’t Tanya either.”