Disclaimer: Some characters belong to L M Montgomery. The others belong to me.

Prologue

June,1891.

Dearest of Anne's!

Envision me seated at the window of my hall bedroom, at the boarding house presided over by Miss Ada Harvey and Miss Hannah Harvey, who send their love(Count yourself thankful that they send only that, and not another cushion!) ,as I pen this epistle to you. I avow, Anne, my worst nightmare these days is that I will wake up to find I can't move an inch – because of all those cushions filling up all the space above and around me! If I didn't believe in the essential goodness of your character, I'd have thought you had recommended this place as revenge for all the times I've slighted you in the past. You haven't, have you, Anne? But I didn't write to complain about my cushiony woes – Anne dear, I've got a job!

You may wonder, and rightly so, what it is about this job which makes me sound as giddy as – as Myra Pringle, perhaps. As the outcome of today's interview, I am to be the private secretary of Sir Arthur Giles, MP, who is a man of a seemingly-large culinary appetite, on the wrong side of fifty (Did we ever decide satisfactorily what the right side of an age is?) and as first impressions go, seems to be a rather pompous, though kind, personality. His wife (who conducted the interview for him) belongs to that breed of well-meaning busybodies, who consider the entire world's business to be theirs, and whom no snubs can deter (I foresee all my sarcastic endeavours going right over her head.) I was given to understand that, my secretarial duties aside, I am to be an informal companion to her, as, in her words, "Sir Giles is under the habit of roaming off to different parts of the globe every few months, and if it were not for me, who would care about his food and health? But, I, for one, am not at all convinced that Africa and India and all those Oriental countries are truly civilized – I would not want to be stuck in some heathenish place with no English-speaking people for company, as I am sure you will understand, Miss Brooke. Surely you have no objection to travelling?" Objection to travelling? It was all I could do to keep from dancing a jig, out of joy, right there! I asked Lady Giles (who goes by the alliterative first name of Gwendolyn) if she had an objection to dogs, for I couldn't possibly leave Argos behind, you know, not for all the sights around the world. She doesn't, and I find myself in the state of having the phrase "my cup of happiness overflowing" to be true in my case, for the first time in my history.

I know I'd said that I was going to wrest my due of joy from life, after all the troubles I've undergone, but truly, Anne, when life has so handed out happiness on a platter, by itself, it seems so much easier to hope. As,

"For some were sorry when they saw how slow

The stream of heavenly love on earth must flow;

And some were glad because their eyes had seen,

Along its banks, fresh flowers and living green."

, it seems as though I have been delivered from the ranks of the former group, to the latter – and it strengthens my belief in all that is good and pure and ideal, which I had lost, somehow, somewhere, in all my cynicism. Oh, how wonderful life seems just now! I may as well go out and hug the beech tree outside the window – so thoroughly have I been converted to the true Anne-ish philosophy of living life.

I wish I could tell you what you've brought into my life, Anne. Despite my "impervement", as Mrs. Bryce would say, I would still feel embarrassed and full of maudlin sentimentality if I spoke this out aloud, but it must be said. You have given me a gift greater than any – the hope that there is yet hope for me, that I do not have to be a slave of circumstances any longer. You have taught me how to make friends (though your Rebecca Dew would say that I could do with a lot more practice in that) , and you don't know how grateful I am to find that I am capable of building friendships with those kind of people whom I admire. A fear that had begun to haunt me, before my "redemption", was that I would find people who were interesting and funny and witty, all those things I revered as qualities of "the highest intellect", and then, because of my very conduct, repulse them and drive them away. I have only you to thank for my changed outlook, my prospects now and for any joy I may find from now onwards; and I thank the Lord for the day Anne Shirley – soon-to-be-a-'Missus' – decided that she would not believe I was a lost cause, and set about to reclaim me.

I had a letter from Green Gables last week. Mrs Lynde was full of advice about living in the city; Marilla sent me the recipe of the raspberry pudding I'd asked for ,and Davy was full of news about the pig that broke into the village green and the horrendous (or hilarious, depending on the point of view) chase that ensued. Who knew that I would find so much pleasure in happenings at a small, drab village, which was what I'd have thought of any place, before I realised the value which relationships brought to even the smallest atom of life?

According to Lady Giles, the next trip to "roam off to different parts of the globe" is due in two months. By then, hopefully, I will have gotten used to my position in the world as an independent, globe-trotting woman (Ah, how those words thrill my heart!), and you will not have to be alarmed by any "excessive high spirits" on my part, which, as an efficient, steady secretary to an MP, I will have to eschew. Oh, Anne, life seems even too good for sarcasm!

Yours in gratitude and giddy contentment,

Katherine Brooke.

A/N: Well, how'd you like it? Please do review in your opinions,praises and criticizms! If you think you'd be interested to know Katherine's story - please subscribe and motivate me to write more!

P.S:The lines are from the poem 'A Legend Of Service', by Henry van Dyke. It was published ten years after Katherine wrote this letter(for I firmly believe that my story is true) , but I'm sure Katherine would've mentioned it if she'd known it at this point. The title of this series is a phrase taken from the poem 'The Indigo Bird' by John Burroughs.

wb - Thanks for reviewing! Anne's rubbing off her alright, but after this initial letter, Katherine does "settle down" a bit. ;) Yeah, even I'd initially thought that she would fall in love with her boss, but I thought it would be improper to have her roaming around the world with him alone(single woman and all). Don't worry, it's a romance alright! ^_^ Keep reading to find out![Arthur and Gwendolyn are my own characters - but LMM's characters will keep making appearances :) ]