When Dawn Breaks 43

“I think we should set the doctor up in the ballroom.” Rosalie was looking at the security tablet going over the property. The last time they had been at the estate they barely saw a few rooms and now that she was seeing everything the Shurlong estate contained she was a little overwhelmed. Knowing that it was up to her to make sure everyone kept to where they were supposed to be and also have rooms to stay in was going to be a large job. Rosalie was happy Bella had Alice and Jasper helping her. Charlotte had taken a couple of the shifters to the kitchen to help plan dinner and go over the supplies Bella had the housekeeper stock. The first priority was to get the shifters looked at by the doctor that Bella had arranged. He was a nice man and had treated Bella as though he was in the presence of royalty. The respect he showed her mate made Rosalie trust the man enough that she knew he would treat the shifters well. “The ballroom has the most empty room that we can use if we need to set anything up.”

“That would be nice, as of now I am not certain exactly what is or if there is anything wrong with them.” Dr. Medford said.

“Good, Alice can you show Dr. Medford to the ballroom.” Rosalie thought that would be something Alice could do without getting into trouble.

“On it.” Alice was excited to check out the ballroom. If it was big enough maybe she could convince Bella to actually throw a ball. It would be amazing. She would have Jasper dress up in his officer’s uniform and she would wear a large ballgown and they would dance across the floor while a live band played. Alice shook her head. She was getting ahead of herself. They needed to make sure the shifters were ok before Alice could start planning a party.

“What would you like us to do Rosalie?” One of the mothers of the shifters asked. The woman’s name was Cassie and two of her sons had been rescued. Out of all the shifters she seemed to have the most courage as none of the others had talked to her. She could tell they were overwhelmed with what was going on. It was the fact that she was the White Tiger’s imprint that caused them to be leery around her. They were probably trying not to insult or upset her Rosalie thought.She just hoped they would relax a little.

“I want you to all unload your bags and put them in the main hall. Then we will move to the ballroom so the doctor can examine the children. We had some rooms prepared for each of you. Unfortunately some of you will have to share.” They actually had plenty of rooms to accommodate all of the shifters as some of them were couples but Rosalie wanted to contain everyone to the guest wing of the house. That still gave them twelve rooms so it wouldn’t be a big hardship for the 28 shifters to share. Her family were going to be given rooms in the family wing. Rosalie had been planning on asking Bella to move into her grandparent’s room as it was the largest in the house. She wasn’t sure how her mate would feel about it but Rosalie figured if they were going to continue to stay there for an extended period of time they would want their own space and her grandparent’s room was more of an apartment than a bedroom. It had a bedroom, a private bath, two walk-in closets, a sitting room and even a small kitchen with stove and refrigerator.

“We can do that.” Cassie moved back to the group organizing them into groups to move the luggage and escort the children.

Rosalie led the group into the house smiling as she heard the gasps of surprise and the excited whispers. She knew just how the shifters felt because she felt it just as much this time as she had when she visited it the first time. The house was awe inspiring. “Let’s get you to the ballroom. Charolette is preparing some food for everyone and I will have her bring it to the ballroom when it’s done.”

“Rosalie this space is amazing!!!” Alice exclaimed excitedly when they entered the ballroom. Instead of helping the doctor Alice was twirling around the floor of the ballroom. “Can you imagine what kind of parties we could throw here?”

Rosalie rolled her eyes at her sister. Of course Alice would be planning parties. “Dr. Medford how do you want to do this?

“I only have one bed and a nurse to help so I can only see one patient at a time. Is there a way to set up something so we have some kind of privacy?” Dr.Medford asked.

“You can put them on the stage and we can draw the curtains.” Rosalie motioned to the small stage that was probably used for live bands that played for celebrations. “Jasper could you help him set up.”

“No problem.” Jasper gave one last glance back at Alice who had somehow convinced some of the children to dance with her. Although the parents had been watching closely Jasper could tell it more had to do with the situation than the fact Alice was a vampire. Satisfied that his mate was alright he moved to help the doctor.

Rosalie looked over the group in her care and tried to decide what to do with them once they were done with the doctor. She went back through her tablet and tried to pick out rooms to give them access to what would be appropriate. The arcade was definitely on the list as the group was mostly children, as was the movie theatre but it was the others that she wasn’t sure about. They probably would be ok with the outdoor pool and wouldn’t need the indoor one. That would cut back on the possible mess they would have to clean up. Although they would be perfectly trustworthy to use the Roman baths in the basement Rosalie selfishly wanted to keep that area for just her and Bella. She was already planning a romantic date involving her mate, the baths, a massage and no clothing.

Sighing Rosalie went over the outside grounds of the estate. There was plenty of area for the shifters to be in their animal forms and game for them to hunt, plus there was the lake and Bella’s treehouse they could check out. Rosalie wanted to see the treehouse herself so maybe she would take a trip out there before telling the shifters about it. The big problem Rosalie could see was if the shifters wanted to leave the estate. She would have to discuss with Bella if it was safe. Rosalie didn’t believe they would get into any trouble but they still didn’t know who was behind the attacks. If Bella’s theory that the shifters were meant to be sent somewhere else was right that meant they hadn’t dealt with the actual threat. Rosalie wished she could help Bella go through all the data but someone had to be in charge while Bella was busy and it fell to Rosalie.

“Rosalie is there any way to get some tables to set all the food on?” Peter asked. He had been reluctant to leave Charlotte alone with the shifters but she had assured him she was fine. The fact that some of the shifters were the ones that had been back at Gil’s village who had helped Charlotte before put him more at ease to leave her alone with them. If they had been complete strangers or they hadn’t been in Bella’s home he would have stayed by her side.

Rosalie looked at her tablet trying to see where storage was. She noticed a room labeled ballroom storage and clicked on the list of inventory. Of course it contained more stuff than she could actually go through and a few things she noticed she would like to see for herself but the most important thing on the list was the line that mentioned banquet tables. “I think there are some in the storage room behind the stage. Let’s grab a few people and go get them.”

Rosalie gathered some volunteers and made her way behind the stage where there were two double doors that had a keypad lock. Rosalie put in her access code and smiled brightly when the light flashed from red to green. Bella had said that she had full run of the estate after they had set up her pin for the keypads,scanned her thumb for finger print scanners, her hand for hand scanners and her eye for retina scanners. Rosalie hadn’t gotten a chance to try any of the locks out and now that she had she felt even more connected to the estate. She was the only one besides Bella who could go anywhere she wanted. Rosalie even had access to the bunker. Not that she ever wanted to actually have the need to use it other than to visit Bella while she worked but it was nice to know she could help protect people if it came down to it.

Walking into the room and turning on the light switch Rosalie gasped in surprise. The room was filled with decades worth of decorations and furnishings. She recognized some from her own human years and more that went back to the 1800’s. They looked like the were protected but Rosalie wondered if they should have been stored better. From what she could tell the Shurlongs cared about their things but most of their preservation went to personal items. She would have to talk to Bella about bringing in some professionals to archive these things. Bella wanted to do that with her office. The books in there were not protected from anything and were only dusted every so often. The priceless antiques in that room were enough to make Rosalie’s eye twitch when she thought about them not being protected properly.

“I know you said there were tables but I was expecting folding tables not these.” Peter pulled a sheet covering off one of the tables. It was an elaborate table made with what he thought was maple wood covered with different silver inlays of tigers in the forest and in the middle was the Shurlong crest adorned with jewels in many parts of the symbol. The legs of the table had intricately carved tigers playing in trees. He had no idea how the legs were made but the thickness of them was enough to assure him they would hold any weight they put on it.

Rosalie sighed. Of course her love would have priceless antiques marked as banquet tables. “Well I don’t think we are going to find any thing else so we might as well grab three of them. I’m thinking this was the table the family sat at.”

“Nope.” One of the shifters called out as he uncovered another table. “This one is the same. The leg carvings are the only thing different.”

“Let’s just grab the three. I will have to look into buying less valuable tables and chairs later.” Rosalie had a feeling they would need them. If they continued to stay at the estate she didn’t want to worry about damaging things like this. Especially with young shifters and Emmett around. Following the group out of the room she realized she was going to have go through each room to see exactly what was in there. If the only thing protecting the tables, chairs and decorations in the ballroom storage room were cloth sheets and some type of plastic then it was obvious they weren’t properly stored. That meant Rosalie was going to have to hire different professionals she could trust to not only be inside the home but to handle the items.

Bella had once mentioned that she received requests from people to borrow some of her things to show in museums and that the Smithsonian had wanted to do an entire exhibit on the Shurlong family. They had some items related to the family in their collection already but had wanted Bella to let them borrow some of her things. Bella had said they originally wanted her to donate things but she declined. She was wary of the place because she thought they were trying to take advantage of her youth to part with her family history but after talking to Gene he had told her that they had hounded her family throughout the generations. Maybe when things calmed down they could put something together. Rosalie knew Bella would be proud to have others share in the history of her family.

That would come later though. First was the shifters. They needed to feed them and then continue to examine them. Rosalie held back a smirk as she thought about what would happen when they were done. Bella had promised her a night to themselves and there was nothing that was going to stop it from happening. Thoughts of starting her night caused Rosalie to move a little faster. The sooner they got this done the sooner she would have Bella naked below her or maybe on top of her.Why if she was lucky Bella might even let her feed from her thigh again.