"And Emmett and Rosalie?"
"Carlisle brought Rosalie to our family next. I didn't realize 'til much later that he was hoping she would be to me was Esme was to him—a field I could till for the rest of eternity." He rolled his eyes. "But she was never more than a sister. It was only two years later that she found Emmett. She was hunting—we were in Appalachia at the time—and found a bear about to finish him off. She carried him back to Carlisle, more than a hundred miles, afraid she wouldn't be able to do it herself. I'm only beginning to guess how difficult that journey was for her." He threw an accusatory glance in my direction. God, what was his problem?
"But she made it," I encouraged, looking away from the unbearable embers of beauty and accusation that smoldered in his eye sockets.
"Yes," he murmured. "She saw something in his face that made her strong enough. And they've been together ever since she saw that face. Sometimes they live separately from us, as a married couple, doing married things. But the younger we pretend to be, the longer we can stay in any given place. Forks seemed perfect, so we all enrolled in the Forks High School." He laughed. "I suppose we'll have to go to their wedding in a few years... again!" He barked a second laugh, vibrating the windows with his enthusiasm.
"Alice and Jasper?"
Fredward's head swung towards me and locked onto mine. "No." His face was hard, stern. "No, Bella. Rosalie and Emmett. Were you listening?"
"Yes, I, I just wanted to know about them, too," I whimpered.
"Ah," he released me and relaxed. "Alice and Jasper are two very rare creatures. They both developed a 'conscience,' as we refer to it,284 with no outside guidance. Jasper belonged to another... family, a very different kind of family. He became depressed, and he
284. The Cullens aren't alone in using the word "conscience" when referring to inner moral guidance. Several billion English speakers in the world today share their preference in word choice.