Anne Shirley smiled as she locked the schoolhouse door. "It doesn't matter how many years I've been teaching, but I always look forward to summer vacation," she sighed. The moment was bittersweet, however, because she knew that this would be the last time that she closed the door of the Avonlea schoolhouse. The one room school was going to be raised in coming months and a brand-new multiple room school would be erected in its place. Three new teachers would be joining Anne at her post in the fall, and Anne would become Avonlea's first principal. The notion of that was enough to make her head spin. There were just so many changes!

Unfortunately, the changes that she really dreamed of, to be a wife and mother someday, she had long since written off as a mere dream that never would come true. Though she had never wanted for a partner at a social event when she was younger, she now found herself fulfilling the late Mrs. Rachel Lynde's prophecy of having her "beaux slip through her fingers". Oh, there had been prospects enough: she had been proposed to more times than she could count. But only two of those proposals were even worth considering at the time, and in the end, even those gentlemen were turned away. She laughed to herself when she remembered how she almost accepted Roy Gardner's proposal: she had really dodged a bullet there! She had heard through the gossip of her former Redmond classmates that Roy did marry… and he had a few girlfriends on the side as well. Anne couldn't imagine living that way, and much preferred her singleness to that. She would never be able to endure infidelity.

All of her beaux, as far as she knew, had found wives. Even the undesirable Charlie Sloane had found a match, fittingly, in that of one Josie Pye. Of course, Anne had never even considered that possibility. There was only one gentleman that she regretted turning down. If only she had not been so young and silly, she would have recognized that… that… but what was done was done. He had also married and shocked everyone when he decided to leave the island and give up his dream of being a doctor, all to please his wife. "It's true", she thought to herself. "Christine Stuart doesn't deserve him." Then again, it's not like she had proved herself worthy either.

Anne had settled into her calling as the old maid schoolmarm very well, however, and loved each and every one of her students as if they were her own children. The children of Avonlea, in turn, spoke highly of their beloved Miss Shirley, and former students always made it a point to call on Green Gables whenever they were in town. It may not have been the life she had always wanted, but it was still her life, and she was determined to live it to the fullest.

All of her old friends were settled with families of their own, and most rarely saw her anymore. Their lives were just too full. There was one friend, however, who always had time for her Anne: Mrs. Diana Wright neè Barry, now a mother of three, had always welcomed Anne warmly into her home at Lone Willow Farm. This day was no different. She looked up from the sewing on her lap, startled as Anne walked into the room. "Why Anne!" she exclaimed, "We didn't expect you to come by so early! Don't you need to check on Marilla first?"

Marilla Cuthbert, now in her eighties, was finally succumbing to the frailties of old age. Anne had hired a nurse to look after her during the school day, and was so confident of the nurse's abilities, that she knew that she needn't worry. But knowing she didn't have to worry and actually not worrying were totally different things.

"Oh, Diana, you know I worry way too much about Marilla," Anne sighed. "It is such a glorious day. Why do I have to spoil it just now? Am I not allowed to come and visit my bosom friend for a spell before I take up worrying again?"

"Well, when you put it that way, Anne, come on in! Unless, of course, you'd rather remain on the porch, drinking in the beauty of the sunset."

Anne, choosing the latter, settled nicely into the front porch swing and sipped the lemonade that Diana had brought out.

"I am amazed, Anne, with how you've managed to excite Freddy this year in school. He was always coming home with some new insight that you shared," Diana said. "And Delia's absolutely in love with you. It's always 'Miss Shirley' this and 'Miss Shirley' that. Jack says he cannot wait to enroll in school next year!"

Anne blushed. She was always embarrassed when people praised her teaching ability. She never considered herself better than any other teacher, she just loved her job. "I was just building upon the curiosity that you instilled in them at home." The two friends continued this friendly banter for about an hour, and had moved the conversation indoors where they began washing and drying dishes together when Fred, Diana's husband, came home.

"Ladies, you will not believe who I just ran into in the General Store today!" he exclaimed. "Gilbert Blythe!"

Anne turned around with a start, and actually dropped the glass she had been holding. It smashed into pieces onto the hardwood kitchen floor. "Oh, Diana, I'm so sorry! I am so clumsy sometimes! I will replace it for you!" She knelt down to carefully pick up the pieces.

"Don't worry about it Anne, we have dishes break all the time. With three children in the house, I can't worry too much about a couple of broken glasses," Diana gently replied, eyeing her husband.

Diana, unlike her oblivious husband, knew why Anne reacted so strongly to Fred's casual remark about Gilbert. Several years ago, Anne had confessed to Diana her true feelings for her old chum. That had been the night before Gilbert married Christine Stuart, when Anne begged Diana to come up with an excuse for her not to attend the ceremony. Only Diana knew how Anne had had to bury and ignore her true feelings and regret for turning down his proposal. The two friends had avoided talking about him ever since.

Trying to keep her voice steady, Anne asked, "So, what brings Gilbert out of Kingsport? Has he decided to revisit his youth?"

"He didn't really say. He said that he had needed a change of scenery and was renting the one bedroom apartment above the store. It was strange too. He had his little daughter with him, Joyce, I think her name was, but Mrs. Blythe was nowhere to be seen. Sweet little thing, though."

Diana shook her head. She had heard some very juicy but sad gossip that suggested why Gilbert might be returning to Avonlea without his wife, but she didn't want to speak of it in front of Anne. Hastily, she glanced at the clock, and suggested that it was getting late, and remarked, "Doesn't the nurse's shift end soon, Anne? You'd better be heading back to Green Gables!" Anne eagerly agreed and left. She had a queer feeling inside her, however. With Gilbert back in Avonlea, she just knew that even more unexpected changes were right around the corner.

Anne dropped by Lone Willow Farm the next day with a worried look on her face. "Marilla is getting worse, Diana," she started. "Today, she didn't even recognize me at first, and when she finally did, she asked where Matthew was. The nurse says that this kind of thing unfortunately happens often with Alzheimer's patients, and there is nothing we can do. It breaks my heart. I just can't sit there and watch her mind deteriorate like that anymore, and had to get away. So, do you have any good gossip to distract me from my troubles?"

Just then, amid squeals of laughter, Anne Cordelia Wright, Elizabeth Spurgeon, and another little girl Anne didn't know ran through the room. "Ladies, please remember to use your inside voices!" Diana scolded.

"Sorry Mrs. Wright/Mother," came the mumbled responses.

Diana smiled. "That's alright ladies. Delia, why don't you show your new friends your room?" Gleefully, and with only a few more shrieks, the girls skipped up the stairs.

Turning back to the elder Anne, she said, "Sorry for the interruption. This is the first time Delia has had friends over at our house, and she's very excited. I am very sorry to hear about Marilla. You know you can come over here any time you need to get away."

But Anne wasn't worried at the moment. She was, in fact, struck with curiosity. There was something very familiar about the third girl, even though Anne was sure that she had never met the child before. "Diana, who was that with Delia and Lizzie?" she asked.

Diana hesitated slightly before softly responding, "That is Joyce Blythe."

Anne gasped. Suddenly, it all made sense. The hazel eyes, the wavy chestnut hair, and the way her nose crinkled when she smiled: they were all Gilbert. There was no doubt who was her father.

"Diana, the other day when Fred mentioned that Gilbert was back in town, you acted like you might know something. I'd like to know. Please don't keep this a secret from me, Diana."

After a very long pause, Diana let out a very long sigh. "I hadn't wanted you to know what I've heard. It's all just speculation; no one really knows for sure. And knowing how you feel about Gilbert, well, I didn't want you to know. But, since you asked…"

Here she paused, and sighed again. Anne waited patiently.

"Christine just up and left him a couple months past. She completely abandoned him and their child. No one knows where she is. Police suspect that Gilbert had something to do with it."

Startled by this, Anne asked, "Christine's gone? But… why?" She couldn't imagine ever leaving Gilbert – except that in a way, she already had.

"Who knows? But like I said, the police suspect that something happened to her. Some even consider Gilbert to be a suspect. Maybe it is something as simple as they don't believe that any woman would just abandon her child like that, and Gilbert was just an easy target to place their suspicion on. But whatever the reason, it has completely ruined Gilbert's reputation. Local gossip labels him as guilty, even though the police do not have enough evidence against him to arrest him. In order to protect his daughter, he had no choice but to leave town. Where else could he go, but Avonlea? Unfortunately, the gossip arrived here before he did, and it shows in the way that people treat him."

"Surely Gilbert is innocent. Why, he wouldn't hurt a fly!" Anne replied, indignant. "Why people would even suspect him is beyond me."

"I agree, Anne, but you must wonder what could cause a grown woman to suddenly up and leave her husband and child without warning or with good reason."

"Poor Gilbert," Anne started. "And that poor little girl, having to go through all of this at such a young age. That poor, motherless, girl."

Suddenly, a deep sense of love; a deep, almost maternal sense of compassion swept over her for the young child that she had barely even met. She was going to need a woman in her life to look up to and to love her. Anne vowed right then and there, that she was going to be that woman. But, the question was, how to do that without running into her father?