14It was a relatively warm spring day, and the Cullens were gathered together in the dining room to discuss their next place of residence. Renesmee had now reached full maturity and was excited to be able to enter the human world properly for the first time in whichever place they chose as their new home.
"So," said Carlisle, once all the family (including Jacob) was assembled at the polished mahogany table. "I've given one month's notice to the hospital. We need to decide on where to settle down next. Obviously we can't go anywhere near the places we've been to in the past hundred years, and there are also the requirements of a good number of sun-free days and enough large animals to sustain our diets."
"There's also another problem", said Edward. "Before now we could just move to another state and the chances of meeting someone from our past would be very small. However, since that scare last month where one of our classmates found a picture of us in Forks on Facebook, we have to be much more careful. We'd probably have to go somewhere really remote…"
"Oh great," said Rosalie in a scathing tone, "Now we're going to have to live like hermits in the middle of nowhere. I'm so excited."
"Shut up, Rosalie," said Jacob. "The only reason you care is because you won't be able to terrorise anyone with your horrible looks and personality."
Rosalie growled, but before she could respond, Carlisle stepped in.
"I actually have an idea, which doesn't involve such seclusion, and may be more attractive to everybody."
"Oh, yes, I see," said Edward quietly, after he had read Carlisle's mind. "That's not a bad idea…it would be interesting to go there."
"Carlisle, please tell everyone else this plan before I go crazy and rip Eddie-boy's mind-reading head off," said Emmett, annoyed at being left out of the loop.
"OK, Emmett. I was just thinking that perhaps we should move somewhere further afield, somewhere outside the US. You know that I grew up in England, so I was thinking that perhaps we could move to somewhere in Britain. That should be far enough for most of the links to be severed, and the chances of bumping into someone who knows us or is friends with someone who knows us are much smaller."
"That is a totally awesome idea!" said Emmett. "British people are cool!"
"Also, if we move to Scotland there should be enough cloud cover for us to be able to go about our normal lives, and the Highland animals should provide plenty of sustenance. There is also an old friend of mine who lives in Scotland whom I'd like to visit. We haven't seen each other in a long time; I just hope that he still lives there."
"So does everyone agree?" asked Edward.
Everyone seemed to think that it was a good idea, and were eager to start the next phase of their adventure.