1
The sweet summer breeze blew through the Glen, rustling poplar boughs and sending golden daffodils and poppies nodding cheerfully in its wake. The sunset painted the sky with its glorious hues of gold and red, with hints of the pale purple twilight deepening into night.
Anne sat at the porch, setting down her sewing to watch the panorama of night unfolding with a little ache in her heart. The mellow Indian sunlight was failing- summer was passing by and with the falling of the leaves from the branch, two of her sons, Jem and Shirley, would be leaving once again for Redmond.
Mingled laughter floated down to her from the upper gable- the voices of her twin daughters, Nan and Di. Anne was glad to hear those girlish giggles once more- laughter had been so rare these past years. Since the onset of the Great War, laughter had been a rare commodity but the cause had been won and the boys were home. She sincerely hoped that it was the beginning of good times again.
Anne was so caught up in her thoughts that she failed to hear the door swing open, to admit Susan Baker and her youngest daughter, Rilla.
Anne smiled as the two took their seats beside her. It was hard to believe that this tall, red-haired beauty had once been the chubby, roly-poly Ingleside baby. Rilla was nineteen now and engaged to Kenneth Ford- that happy fact was helping her regain that youthful sparkle that she had lost in the years before. To be sure, Rilla had grown in leaps and bounds, her character challenged and tried by grief and loss, and patient waiting but she had emerged from the test, not a girl but a strong woman.
"We're to be married next summer- so the whole clan could be in attendance," Rilla was saying as she they sat down. "Faith won't be back until October and Ken has decided that he wants to us to wait until he can put his business in order and be stable before we are wed."
Susan nodded approvingly, "Sound sense. The boy has a good head on his shoulders. And that will give us enough time to prepare Ingleside for the wedding- there are a lot of details to be taken care of, aren't there, Mrs. Doctor Dear?"
"I can hardly believe that my Rilla would be the first of my girls to get married," said Anne, with a teasing sparkle in her eye. "Why I remember hearing you talk of nothing but beaux and the round of parties you were to attend once you were out."
"Oh Mother, I was such a silly girl, wasn't I?" Rilla threw her arms around Anne affectionately. "I can imagine now how it wouldn't have been very pleasant- I did feel so badly after refusing Fred Arnold. But there's no other boy for me than Kenneth and I'm quite willing to be his Rilla, forever and ever."
"Oh we'll just have a regular round of weddings, aren't we, Mrs. Doctor Dear?" Susan smiled in satisfaction. "Ken and Rilla… Jem and Faith and Jerry and Nan…"
"Oh that won't be for a few years yet, Susan," objected Anne. "Jem will have to finish his course in medicine- and even with the accelerated program, it will be awhile before he and Faith can get married. And I hear that Jerry is planning to become a minister so he and Nan will have to wait until he graduates from Redmond."
"Fancy the boy becoming a minister!" ejaculated Susan in surprise. "There never was a gang who got in more scrapes than the Merediths."
"Jerry has changed quite a bit from that time," put in Rilla.
"As have all of us, I'm sure," Susan replied a little shortly but Anne could see worry in her eyes.
Shirley Blythe had only been home for a month- he would be leaving for Redmond tomorrow. Outwardly, he was still Susan's "little brown boy"- with his brown hair, brown eyes and clear brown skin. To Anne, he seemed little changed by the war except to grow even quieter. Anne sometimes wondered and worried over Shirley's retiring nature- he was not in the least bit adventurous Jem or dreamy, eloquent Walter. It was often so hard to know what Shirley might be thinking or feeling.
It must be doubly hard for Susan, Anne thought sympathetically. She had been like a mother to Shirley. It was she who had nursed Shirley after Anne's long illness, who kissed him goodnight and soothed away his childish fears. Anne had talked long about the war with Jem- she knew some part of the terror, the cruelty and the pain that he had endured at the front. But with Shirley she had only brief and tattered glimpses of his experience through his letters- he was reluctant to speak of it, and Anne had not the heart to force him. She could only hope that books and classrooms might heal him where Ingleside could not.
"And what are the twins up to?" Susan asked, changing the subject abruptly.
"Oh, they're upstairs packing," responded Rilla. "They leave tomorrow with the boys."
"I wonder at Di taking that job at the Ashton's," Susan said in a reproving tone. "I heard that there was an opening at the Mowbray-Narrows school."
"You needn't worry about Di, Susan. The Ashton's are a very respectable family. They're old family friends of my chum, Philippa," said Anne.
"I think Di took the job to please Nan," said Rilla soothingly. "The Ashton place is at Redmond's backyard and Nan will want to stay close to Jerry."
Rilla had spoken the truth, but not all of it, thought Anne. The war had ended but it left its scars on everyone. Di had been very intimate with Walter in her youth. She could imagine how difficult it was for her daughter to live day after day in Ingleside, to be confronted by so many memories of the dear brother who gave up his life in Courcelette. Anne suspected that it more to escape these memories than to be near Nan that had influenced Di's decision to accept the offer of nursery governess at the Ashton's. Sometimes Anne felt that way herself but she had had more time to confront her grief and make her peace with it. The twins, busy with their studies at Redmond and later, their Red Cross work, may only be facing the crisis now.
Anne turned her face towards Rainbow Valley, that green dimple of a land now haunted by ghostly memories of childhood scrapes, banquets and grand adventures of a merry band. Now there was only silence, the trackless passing of innocence past. How one wished to turn back time and bring back unblemished yesterday!
Rilla took her mother's pale hands between her browned ones, giving them a sympathetic squeeze. Her eyes had followed her mother's into a Rainbow Valley in shadow. It was too easy to close her eyes and hear their childish laughter ringing in her ears, too easy to see a handsome boy with dark hair, splendid gray eyes and a vision grande.
Rilla was not surprised by this familiar pain, the grief that at times, still seemed too new. Will the wound ever heal? For any of us? wondered Rilla.
2
Diana Blythe took an armful of carefully folded dresses and neatly tucked them in the open suitcase of her bed. She surveyed her room- it was usually as neat as a pin, but now it looked dismally bare- looking to see if she had forgotten anything.
Oh well, Di shrugged philosophically as she snapped her suitcase shut. She was rooming with Nan anyway, anything she forgot, Nan would have brought. She looked affectionately at her twin's luggage- the heavy trunk in addition to a mountain of bulging suitcases. One would have thought she was planning to leave for years…
Di's smile faded. She loved Jerry like a brother, but to lose her twin on top of…
She shook her head. Don't think about it. Think about tomorrow, working for the Ashton's.
Di felt a pang of guilt. She could have taken the teaching job at the Mowbray-Narrows school- dad had offered her the car and that would have made it possible to stay with him, Mother, Rilla and Susan. She knew Mother wanted to have them near her- they'd had so little time together and since Walter's death, every moment now was doubly precious to her. She should have taken the Mowbray-Narrows job and stayed at Ingleside.
But her staying couldn't halt time. It couldn't make everything what it was before. Even the golden sunlight streaming in from the windows couldn't dispel the gloom that had descended on Ingleside. It had been easy when she was at Redmond- she had books, classes and friends to keep her busy, to keep her from thinking about it.
But now it felt as if Walter confronted her at every turn and corner of Ingleside. They had been such great chums- she told him all her secrets and kept his, even from Nan. It seemed that she could hardly enter a room without a memory of the two of them, whispering and laughing together, meeting her there.
It was easier for the others, thought Di wistfully, without a trace of bitterness. Jem had Faith, Rilla had Ken, Nan had Jerry. Even Mother had Father to lean on. But she was alone.
Stop it, Diana Blythe! she said firmly. She was not going to feel sorry for herself.
But she couldn't help the desolate feeling deep in her heart when she thought of all the changes happening to those that she loved. That was why she had to go away- she needed a little time away from Ingleside, a little distance from familiar things that caused pain each time they were recalled. She needed time to get her bearings, pursue her own interests. She needed time to heal- when the wounds were no longer raw, then she could return to Ingleside.
Her eyes fell on her neatly made bed and realized that a packet of letters lay there, looking forlorn and forgotten. They were Walter's letters.
Di gathered the sheaf of papers, her eyes running over the familiar, well-read lines. Should she?
No… no matter how painful it was, she couldn't do it. She could not leave Walter's letters behind.
The door creaked open- it was Nan. She looked at Di wordlessly, recognizing the papers Di held, her brown eyes soft and tender.
Nan had suffered also, Di remembered. She could never forget the stricken look on Nan's face, or the way she had sobbed into her pillow so that Di wouldn't hear her, the day she heard that Jerry had enlisted and again, when Jerry had been injured at the front.
As usual, Nan seemed to have read her thoughts. Twins understood.
"I know. I miss him too," Nan said simply, her arms unfolding and enveloping Diana.
Diana was surprised to feel the sting of tears and wondered when her heart would ever find peace again.