He pretended to wipe sweat from his brow and sighed. “Glad that’s been cleared up,” he muttered back, and just as he did, Rosalie began the wedding march on the piano. I was caught in a swirl of reminiscence suddenly, as the song took me back to my own wedding day. Oh what a blushing bride I had been…

“Isn’t she beautiful?” Jake murmured in awe as his own bride, not blushing profusely as I had been, ascended the very same staircase I had some time ago. She smiled sweetly at the guests, then turned her gaze to me and raised an eyebrow. As soon as she found Jake, however, her eyes remained fixed there, as if she were under some sort of spell. She was looking at him with so much love and adoration I had to look away, and found myself looking at my own love instead.

His face held a controlled smile, but inside I knew he was bursting with pride. “She’s all yours,” he whispered to Jacob, but everyone heard his words regardless – except for Charlie, Sue, Billy, Claire, Rebecca, Rachel, Kim and Emily, the only humans in the audience.

“Thank you Edward, so much,” Jake whispered back, his voice thick and husky with emotion. He took Renesmee’s small, fragile hands in his much larger ones, smiling down at her almost triumphantly. Edward came to stand beside me and took my left hand in his right, and I sent him my thoughts through the connection. Renesmee wants me to tell her about Jake and me. I didn’t want to yet, look how happy they are. He nodded thoughtfully, but couldn’t reply, or he chanced being heard.

Sam read simple vows, which Jake and Ness each repeated in turn, and then it was time for the rings. Little Claire, now nine, stood from her seat beside Quil and strode down the aisle confidently, two small white boxes held in each of her hands.

She brought them straight to Sam, smiling up at him all the while. He bent down to her eye level and took them from her petite child’s hands. Then he patted her long black hair as he straightened, and she skipped off down the aisle grinning, stopping at Quil and scrambling onto his lap instead of sitting back down in her seat.