Right I know Gilbert said to her did she fancy a ramble in 'September' but its too little time for the purpose of my story (as we know Anne is writing to him September 12th) so for this purpose, they got together mid August.)
Gilbert drew her close to him and kissed her. Then they walked home together in the dusk, crowned king and queen in the bridal realm of love, along winding paths fringed with the sweetest flowers that ever bloomed, and over haunted meadows where winds of hope and memory blew.
She broke the silence first as they wandered the hallowed paths of old.
"Oh it shall be twilight soon." She said softly as they entered Lovers Lane. "Do you remember what I said long ago about twilight?" she asked him.
"You told me It was a pity we couldn't have caught it in the moment of transformation." He said with a smile to her "Come," he said finding an old tree stump and sitting her there. "Lets stay here and capture it this time." He told her sitting in tuck on the ground in front of her and looked up at the sky.
She sighed and looked into the sky for a moment before she said quietly "You remember what I said." He looked to her his brow knitted "You remember what I said four years ago."
"I remember all of it." He replied meaningfully.
"Why?" She asked.
"Because I was in love with you." He said plainly. "Still am." He said with a grin to her.
"I love you too." She said in a way Gilbert was sure was almost smugly.
She then reached and played with the curls in his hair feeling the softness in her fingers. "I wish..." she said then stopped and shook her head.
"What?" he asked her with a grin.
"Nothing really." She said then he looked up at her as a sign he was willing to listen. "I wish we had some time, just to process this you know. Just to acknowledge what's happened, and sort through our feelings some more before everyone else gets to know we're together and engaged."
His lip protruded and he nodded in thought "Nothing stays quiet for too long in Avonlea," he said with a grin to her "You know even the untruths spread like wildfire, imagine what happens when something is true." He said with a chuckle as she laughed with him.
She nodded thoughtfully "You're right." She admitted, "as always."
He laughed himself and teased "Now there's something I've always wanted to hear." He said as she shoved him "Anne Shirley telling me I'm always right, has Satan given up his hellfire? I thought that would happen before you admitting that."
"Oh hush, you're ruining a romantic evening." She said with a slight huff in her voice.
He held his hands up momentarily in defeat then as he put them down he said "there's no reason to tell everyone right away, if you don't want to." He offered.
She looked at his crestfallen face as she said "I know what you're thinking." She told him "You think I'm ashamed," she sighed "ashamed of my behaviour or ashamed of us, even ashamed of the circumstances surrounding my coming to a knowledge of my regard and my feelings for you."
"It's not what I'm thinking." He said quietly.
"But I am, you must know how bitterly disappointed I am in myself. Me, the women who claimed to understand 'love' who has written of it and dreamed of it..."
"Dreamed, yes Anne that's the crunch of it." He said practically. "Matthew and Marilla, yes they loved you but there were no example of romantic love, you've not had that. Anne do you not see?" he asked her "Mr Rochester, Mr Darcy, Friedrich Bhaer, these were your examples of romance," He stopped for a moment and thought "and where they all have their aspects of reality to them, they were all examples of good men, they were not the man for you." He said practically. "Roy is a decent sort of fellow," He trailed trying to be kind.
"But not the man for me." Anne said with a smile and a slow but light kiss on his lips.
"Ummmm." Gilbert sounded happily a playful glint in his eyes. "Don't be ashamed Anne," he said quietly "Not when it brought us here." He said relaxing back his head going to her lap on her dress his eyes closing.
"What were you thinking then?" Anne asked him her hand in his hair again playing with it.
His hazel eyes opened, and he looked at her for a moment before he said "I don't know your reasoning other then the ones you already shared with me and where I agree with you with your practicality." He said with a grin to her "I thought it would be terribly romantic for it to be just me and you in the know for a while and for us to adjust."
She looked at him, her eyes playing with his, he looked at her in amazement as he saw the green near her pupils shine with his glance. "You, Gilbert Blythe, are a romantic." She smiled.
He tutted shaking his head "Don't go spreading that around Miss Shirley." He said which earned him a scoff from Anne. "So?" he asked her.
"So..." she thought slowly "it won't be much time," she said to him practically "before you go to medical school. There's only a month as it is, well just short of..." she continued.
"You'll miss me?" he said with a grin knowing the answer.
"More then I did the last two years, the sting of regret will be replaced with the honey of love." She said dreamily. "And the honey is so much more enticing to be thought on."
"I'll miss you for the same reasons." He agreed.
She looked at him and sighed heavily with the thought there was no possible way he regretted his behaviour. "but a little more time..." Anne said softly. "it would be agreeable."
Gilbert thought a moment then proposed "How about I ask mother if she will throw me a going away party for medical school, she's been on my back about it since I was announced well enough for such an excursion she said I deserved a proper send off. I tell her I want the party it'll be the perfect time to announce our happiness to everyone else."
Anne smiled at him "Are you sure love?" she asked him.
He grinned his eyes now shut again as his head rested again in her lap "I'll admit there's a big part of me that wants to shout it from the rooftops, I'm simply bursting with love." He confided with a sigh "But the serenity of ignorance..." he said with his lips upturning because he knew she would be smiling "Its nice for them, its even nicer for me." He chuckled. "Our secret delight." He said his little finger coming up.
"Our secret delight." She agreed her pinky finger hooking with his as she leaned over him and gave him a surprise kiss on the lips.
"I could get used to that." He flirted his eyebrows raised.
"Then I shouldn't." She said pulling up, "If you get used to it, you may go looking elsewhere for thrills." She remarked her arms crossing.
"Never." He told her opening his eyes looking at her before they smiled to each other. "Anne," he whispered reverently.
She looked up and around with a smile on her face "Twilight is imminent." She said with a gasp. "Oh Gil!" she gasped with delight.
He smiled and shook his head slightly, amazed that the women he fell in love with was so lovely. She looked at this twilight with equal joy as a grand romantic gesture, as if he had magiced it just for her. That was true beauty.
It was a few minutes later Gilbert stood and put out his hand "We must go milady," he said to her "engaged or not we're boarder lining propriety being out at dusk together." He said with a deliberate grin on his face.
Anne smiled and took his hand allowing him to pull her up and they walked down Lover's Lane arm in arm. It wasn't until they were just about to come into view of the gate that Gilbert stopped suddenly.
"If we go any further then this arm in arm we could be spotted." He said with a satisfied grin.
"And if we want to keep this a secret..." she continued the thought before she pulled him to her and kissed him firmly. He gathered her in his arms pulling her closer. "How shall I cope love?" she asked him "not touching you?" she ended.
"We'll have to endure it well." He said with a smile as he dipped his head again and kissed her. "Anne..." He breathed as they pulled away for breath before she pulled him back for more.
Both flushed they pulled away breath heavy catching their breaths for a moment before they both burst out laughing.
"Oh only we could be like this!" Anne exclaimed blushing at her new found love.
"I can't imagine anyone being like us love." He said with a grin. He then held out his arm "We may not be able to hold hands if we are keeping this a secret however your arm in mine is just a gentleman's walk is it not?" he asked her with his secret smile.
"Indeed it is Mister Blythe." She concurred taking the offered arm. She smiled as they walked towards the gate and behaved therewith in such a orderly manner, even Mrs Lynde made no comment on their linked arms she did however find it in her to say
"Your mother let you out too soon Gilbert, you're all flushed." She said decisively. "Your mother has always been too soft."
"I am well Mrs Lynde." He said to her respectably "Anne will tell you I've not coughed, sneezed nor shivered this evening." He said turning to Anne for agreement.
"Indeed not Mister Blythe." She said with a smile "though I have to agree with Mrs Lynde you have been unusually pinked." She said with a knowing smile to him.
"It'll be back within the month, mark my words Gilbert Blythe." Mrs Lynde interjected.
"Now that is where our diagnoses differ," Anne admitted. "We have been exerting our lungs Mrs Lynde, his pinkness is easily explainable by that."
"That would account for Anne's flushness too." Marilla said practically "its is a warm evening Rachel." Marilla eyed them, Anne looked at Marilla and Anne could see by the glint in Marilla's eye Marilla knew something had changed in the couple.
"See, I am no less healthy then Anne." Gilbert concluded with a boyish grin to Mrs Lynde.
"Its starting to get chilly though Gilbert." Marilla looked at him with amusement, "Would you care to come in for a spot of tea, before you depart this evening?" she asked him "You may borrow our horse for your means home, you can return her whenever is suitable for yourself."
"Thank you Miss Cuthbert." Gilbert accepted "May I accept both offers, if its not too much trouble."
"Of course you may, I wouldn't have offered." Marilla stood, "I'll start the kettle." She offered.
"Oh, please," Gilbert asked "Please allow me ladies." He said with a smile "it's been too long since I've helped at Green Gables."
"You were only a boy then." Mrs Lynde offered "You're a man now, you shouldn't be helping in domestic duties."
"I pray I never become a man then Mrs Lynde," he said with a smile as they went inside. "I would feel belittled as a man if I couldn't brew my own tea when I come home in the middle of the night from being on call." He said with a smile as he pumped the water.
"You should find a wife for that." She claimed strictly.
"I wouldn't wish him on anyone else Mrs Lynde, you know the Blythe way." Anne said with a cheeky glint in her eyes to which he only looked to her with an amused look.
"Am I to wake her in the middle of the night for tea?" Gilbert amused suppressing a smile, putting the kettle on the oven.
"Well I suppose not, but a doctors wife should expect no less." Mrs Lynde said as she sat at the table as Gilbert put it on the stove.
"Well what if she's up with the children?" Gilbert said his eyes fixed on Anne. She looked to him her eyebrows raised.
"Children? More then one?" Anne asked him. "I pity your wife Mr Blythe you seem to have her future laid out for her." She said amusing.
"I'm assuming she'd agree to it." He told her. "It's something naturally we would need to agree upon during our early marriage, perhaps even engagement." To which Mrs Lynde tutted, the two older ladies still oblivious to the two's eye contact with each other. "What of your husband Miss Shirley? Is he to expect offspring?" He asked.
"Gilbert Blythe!" Mrs Lynde reprimanded to which he held up his hands. "That is over the line!"
"You're right of course." Gilbert said with a sly grin to Anne, he raised his eyebrow in question to her to which she nodded, his eyes lit in satisfaction and Anne blushed shyly.
"You're assuming I'll marry." Anne said quietly.
He grinned lightly saying to her "You're as likely to die an old maid as I am a bachelor."
Mrs Lynde tutted again "You two are always talking in riddles to each other."
Anne smiled with green eyes to Gilbert and he grinned back, they both knew their secret delight would be so much fun to keep secret.