Margaret Allie Brandon (Jasper's Mate Story)

Chapter 35

Chapter 35 (Nov 25th)
Margaret's POV:

I heard his whispered declaration of love to me last night, but I couldn't bring myself to repeat the words. I had been left to my own thoughts for the last few hours of the morning, his words seeming to have run on repeat as I slept and even now as I sat in the greenhouse. My sketch pad sat open in front of me but wasn't being useful in distracting my mind from reality. The house was quiet, but even that didn't allow my mind to rest as it ran quickly through his words again and again.

Emmett and Rosalie were out for the day shopping, as were Esme and Alice. Alice had begged and pleaded with me to go "Black Friday" shopping with them as well but I was happier staying home and drawing and sleeping in compared to how they left the house at 3 am to get to the mall in time. At that was after they had come back from a midnight sale an hour or two before leaving again. Esme had fought for me in the battle with Alice, as she could be very persistent at times but not when it came to Esme.

I was extremely grateful for her right now. I wasn't the only one to have stayed home from the shopping trip though. All the guys except Emmett stayed, and honestly I think Emmett only went to get the newest gaming system that was being released at 5 am today.

For now though, Jasper was speaking with Carlisle and Elliot about something in Carlisle's office as I still tried to work on a sketch of the view from their back porch. I had been forced inside the greenhouse from the porch only moments ago due to rain, but Jasper promised me we could do whatever I wanted after he was done speaking with Carlisle. I wasn't sure what I wanted to do, but I knew I should probably try and explain some a bit about.....about the day that he saw the bruises and scars covering my body.

I felt my nerves increase ten-fold before fear started to creep up through me again. I just didn't want him to finally realize that I was as broken as I once tried to warn him. I.....I wasn't ready to lose him yet and I fear that as soon as he finds out more about my home life he will do just that. I put my sketch pad up along with the pencils as my nerves continued to grow as I walked back into the house. It wasn't until I heard the soft sounds of a piano being played that my nerves seemed to still some.

I walked through the living room and followed the sound before I stood outside the music room, seeing Edward seated at the piano and playing it like a master. I wanted to go in and sit on the small divan on the other side of the music room so that I could listen better but I was afraid that he wouldn't appreciate my company. He was more civil than Rosalie but otherwise we had interacted with one another very little.

I turned around to leave him alone as he played even as the sound soothed me before I found myself face to chest with Jasper. I looked up to see a small smile on his face as I tried to return it before he glanced at the music room and back to me his smile remaining. He gently wrapped an arm around me and gently pulled me next to him as we both stared into the music room before he looked back down at me.

"It's not often we get a free piano concert, why don't we go in and listen to old Eddy play?" (Jas)

"Oh no, let's not disturb him. Besides we can still hear some of it from the living room." (M)

"Nonsense, it won't disturb him. I promise. Come on darlin." (Jas)

I didn't try to argue with him more as I saw he had the determined gleam in his eyes I had learned to recognize. I tried to follow him into the music room as quietly as I could as we walked across the room to the small divan on the other side of the room. The music seemed to swim around us and I saw that Edward's eyes were closed as he played and for once I wasn't as scared of him as I normally was. He seemed friendly when he wasn't staring me down as if I was a puzzle to be solved.

Though it often puzzled me why he still seemed to put me on edge when I had only know Elliot for a few weeks in comparison, and I felt fine around him. It was like Elliot and I had something in common, though I wasn't exactly sure what or how I even could know that. Perhaps one day I would work up the courage to actually ask him.

I sat next to Jasper on the divan before I pulled my feet up under me and laid my head on his shoulder as he wrapped his arm around me. I closed my eyes as the music soothed my fears about the conversation that I needed to have with Jasper sooner rather than later. I could barely remember my mother playing the piano some while my grandmother was still alive.

She stopped playing after Granny Cynthia died, but her music in my memory sounded just as pure as Edward's did now and I was even more thankful to him for that. I felt Jasper lean his head down close to my ear before he whispered to me, I suppose to avoid Edward hearing our conversation or perhaps out of respect for his concentration while he played.

"Margaret darlin?" (Jas)

"Yes?" (M)

"Just wanted to see if you had fallen asleep darlin." (Jas)

"No, just thinking. My mother used to play the piano before my grandmother died. The music style that Edward plays sounds very similar." (M)

"If you want we can leave then?" (Jas)

I sat up with my eyes open in confusion before a moment before I met Jasper's own eyes full of concern and I realized he was worried the music would upset me. I smiled some as I shook my head and relaxed into his side again as I continued to meet his golden eyes full of concern and the emotion I had yet been able to put a name to in his eyes.

"No, I'm fine. I like it, it's soothing." (M)

"In that case then, I'll try and remember to ask Edward for more private concerts for us in the future." (Jas)

I smiled as I nodded in agreement and listened to another two songs that sounded familiar before Edward began one that Jasper whispered was his own composition. It was light and airy, almost playful and immediately made me think of Alice. I smiled as I realized it was probably written for her. The next song that was played made me think immediately of Elliot as it was upbeat with undertones of what rock music on the piano sounded like. A light laugh left my mouth as I thought of him dancing to it, before my smile started to fade some.

I looked back to see Jasper smiling at me and I struggled to return the smile as I looked at him, knowing that I needed to be more honest with him about my life. I had already fallen irreversibly in love with the man before me, as I knew I could never think of him as a boy as mature he acted. He deserved more answers and more truth than I had been giving him, even if I knew it could scare him off as he finally realized how damaged I truly was.

"What's the matter darlin?" (J)

"Jasper.....what you saw the other day, you never asked me about it and for that I'm thankful because I wasn't ready but now.....forgive me it's difficult to discuss." (M)

"We don't have to Margaret, I'd rather we didn't if it would upset you."

"You deserve to know though why....I mean where......I must have your promise to me on my life that you will not do anything in any form of retaliation, please?" (M)

"If it's that serious then love I swear I won't do anything."

"My.....my guardian is very....he's a very strict man with a lot of rules. Rules that I sometimes forget and break or bend enough to earn his anger."

"He gave you those bruises and scars that weren't from the crash didn't he?" (J)

I looked away from the floor and back to Jasper and saw his eyes were pitch black rather than their usual liquid gold and though I wasn't sure how I knew, I knew he was mad. I saw his jaw tense as he shut his eyes and I felt tears grow in my own. I knew that he could leave me after I showed him the rest, but I wouldn't be angry at him for it. I felt a few tears start to fall as my mind drifted to the other night when I was beaten by Randy for his fight with Carly earlier in the night.

I heard the music come to a harsh screech before Edward apologized to both of us, saying something about remembering he had an assignment due he had to work on before he left the room. I heard the door shut quietly behind him before I stood up and walked away from Jasper's still form on the divan. I couldn't bear to see the look of disgust in his eyes, the look that was somehow absent the other night would surely be present when he saw them again today.

"Jasper, say something?" (M)

He stayed silent behind me as tears fell from my eyes, and if the door wasn't closed in front of me I would felt certain he had left the room with Edward. But the harsh breathing that was now coming from behind me told me he was still very much in the room, even if he wasn't saying a word.

I started to unbutton my shirt as tears grew heavier and faster, while Jasper still sat unmoving with his eyes closed on the couch. I took my shirt off before I turned towards the wall instead of the door, feeling my knees shake as I stood in front of him showing him my newest set of bruises from just the other day as well as the numerous scars that I had gotten from Randy over the years.

"Jasper, please look."

I heard another harsh intake of breath from him that sounded like a hiss before I felt his cold hand gently trace each and every scar and then the bruises, soothing them if only for a moment with his ice cold touch. I felt my shame and fear that he would realize he could find someone that wasn't scarred or damaged that would be better fitted for him than me increase as my knees continued to shake.

I felt his hand disappear from my back as he walked around to stand in front of me, but it seemed my strength and courage failed me in that moment as my knees finally gave out and I fell to the floor, being caught in his arms only a second before I would have hit the floor. My tears fell faster and my entire body tensed in his arms as he lowered both of us gently to the floor, all while I prepared myself for his words of disgust or anger toward me for allowing this to happen to me but I only had to make it until it was my birthday.

"I'm sorry Jasper. So sorry."

"Sorry? Darlin you have nothing to be sorry for. The bastard that did this to you, now he has a lot to feel sorry about and one day if you ever let me I'll teach him just sorry he should be."

"I just.....you deserve someone with less baggage Jasper, someone beautiful." (M)

"If that was the case Margaret then I wouldn't deserve you. Because you aren't just beautiful. You are the most enchanting, most caring, most pure soul I could ever hope to find. I don't deserve you Margaret, but damn if I don't still want to deserve you all the more." (J)

I went to say something else to him, to argue with him as he was wrong. Our roles were the reversed of what he was saying, as they were how I felt about him. But I never got the chance to argue as he gently pulled me towards him and captured my lips in a kiss that had I not been on the ground already would have made my knees weak.

His hand found it's way to the scars on my face and neck while my own found their way into his golden curls. I still did not believe him but for now I let my mind repeat his words in my head over and over again as his lips continued to capture my own. Perhaps one day, his words might be accepted as truth by my mind just as they were by my heart.