Chapter I
"April is the month made for springtime." Diana Blythe announced as she looked out of the window of her room, looking with bright, shining eyes at the Rainbow Valley glancing straight back at her.
It was a delightful morning, full of dew in the air and sun coming through the clouds which seemed entirely white. Diana, or rather Di, always liked to wake up early and watch how the sun appears on the horizon and she especially enjoyed waking up on this particular day in the middle of April 1922. This day was special, as it was marking the first anniversary of Shirley's marriage to Una. Di sighed in delight, remembering this magical day which always brought so many sweet memories into her mind. How radiating and angelic Una looked while wearing her mother's old wedding dress and with this timid smile crossing her thin lips. And Shirley, oh Shirley certainly wasn't shy on that day, instead he danced, he waltzed with his wife for the whole afternoon.
Di giggled, remembering how Shirley and Una laughed quietly together when they stepped on Faith's feet while dancing in the garden of the manse. Di sighed again, this time dreamily, while putting her hand on her chest. Faith and Jem were married for three years already and had two twin boys, Merry and Walt, and now Faith was expecting their third child. "When will I find a love like my brothers and sisters found?" she questioned herself.
Her own twin, Nan, was married to Jerry for three years already. They had a wee boy John, called by everyone Jake, who was now just one year old. And Nan was expecting her second baby and was simply swimming in happiness and love, the type of love Di hadn't discovered yet. Then it was her baby-sister Rilla, who certainly couldn't be called a 'baby' anymore with two boys, two and one year old, in each of her arms and a caring husband looking at her with adoration in his eyes. Even Mary Vance of the old was a happy wife of Miller Douglas for over three years, cradling her little sweet Marshall to her breast and smoothing her growing stomach.
She was the bachelor of the family, she knew it perfectly well, and she didn't mind it, not really. It was nice to still have time for having a family, for having her own home. Besides, she loved taking care of her nephews, she loved them just as if they were her own little boys. Di enjoyed her life as it was, the peaceful life, as peaceful as the life of a private teacher can be, that is. Oh, how much she adored teaching! Di never knew how much she would love it until she finished her first lesson. But as much as she loved giving private lessons, she decided on taking up another step and so she was patiently waiting for the reply from Glen school informing her whether whe will or will not be able to teach there as the teacher of the "Queen's group".
Di shook her head, ending the line of thoughts in her head and made her way towards her wardrobe. She picked out her much beloved navy-blue suit with white edges around her V-neck collar and as soon as she put it on, her eyes turned to the clock hanging on the wall. She gasped suddenly and shut the door of her wardrobe quite quickly, running downstairs, straight to the Ingleside's kitchen.
Susan Baker was preparing a plate full of her delicious pancakes as Di's parents, Gilbert and Anne, were chatting with each other while sitting around the table. They all looked at Di when she entered the room and smiles appeared on their faces. "Good morning to you, darling." Anne said to her daughter sweetly.
"Good morning everyone." Di said and grinned at her parents "Am I late for breakfast?" she asked sheepishly.
"I don't suppose there is a proper time for breakfast in this house anymore, Di dear." Susan said briskly and put down the plate with pancakes on the table in front of Di "Now sit down, and eat, you have a full day ahead of you, and young people need to get enough energy in the morning, and that you may tie to." she said and went back to the kettle again.
Di obeyed dear old Susan and ate her breakfast quickly. She kept thinking about this beautiful day and oh, and this exciting day that just awoke. She intended on waking up at seven and instead it was eleven already. "Thank God, it's Saturday." she thought as she swallowed the last piece of a pancake.
"I think that the postman just crossed our road." Dr Blythe said and put down his newspaper on the table. He looked at his daughter and winked at her knowingly "I'll get it, Di." he said and stood up from his chair.
Di clasped her hands together and looked at the ceiling. Anne chuckled quietly and put her hand on Di's shaking one "You'll be fine, darling, you'll see." she whispered to her and Di smiled, releasing a small sigh. Gilbert came back to the kitchen with a bunch of letters in his hands. Without a word he sat down in his chair again and handed over one small letter into Di's pale hands. She took it slowly from him and everyone, even Susan, looked at her with interest and excitement in their eyes.
Di tore the envelope apart slowly and unfolded the piece of paper. Her eyes quickly followed the writing on it and her cheeks flushed with red, it even seemed that her own red hair turned even redder than it was already. "I got it." Di whispered and a wide smile appeared on her face "I got a job!" she repeated again and stood up to kiss her Mother, Father and Susan on the cheek, still holding onto the letter in her hand.
"I can't say I'm surprised, Di." Anne said with pride filling up her grey eyes. Gilbert took her hand in his and looked at his daughter with the same expression in his hazel eyes.
"Now I know that this day can't be anything else but special!" Di exclaimed and ran upstairs to her room, leaving the three adults laughing together.
The little white house, called the Farm House, was filled up with all the Blythes, Merediths and Fords that evening.
Una and Shirley invited only their family (Mary Vance, or rather Mary Douglas came too of course), but this meant around twenty people coming to a dinner to the Farm House. Ever since the two of them married, exactly a year earlier, they became less shy and timid than they once were. Di supposed that it was because of the fact that they had each other, and were never on their own.
Una was a splendid housewife, the Farm House was always cleaned and shiny, all of the windows were transparent, and the shelves glistened and were filled with books. Shirley was, to nobody's surprise, a wonderful husband, always standing on the top of his head to make his sweet wife laugh. Di could look at them the whole day, they were her "favourite" couple. It was such a pleasant picture, Una looking at her husband from time to time, as if she was checking if he's really there, and Shirley doing exactly the same thing, and when they eyes met, they would smile, and oh, in such a delightful manner!
It was like a dream to Di, a hope even, so that she, one day, would also find this someone who would look at her like Shirley looked at Una. She was so happy for the two of them to find this one special kind of love with one another, and although she didn't know the whole details of their story, she would learn about them soon enough.
The dinner was delightful, a mixture of cookings from Una, Susan and Rosemary was the best combination of food that can ever be prepared for a party, especially for such an exciting occassion as this one. Everyone chatted around the table, all the children were passed from arms to arms, giggling the whole time. The oldest Gilly, with his black curls all over his head and shiny grey eyes, a complete image if his proud father, Ken, was certainly the most energetic of his boys-cousins. He was running around the table, talking in half-English and half-Gilish, making everyone laugh. His younger brother Blythe, was mostly held by his grandmother, as he was her favourite and that's because he was an exact image of Walter when he was his age. Blythe was a very quiet baby but very interested in the world around him, and so he really enjoyed when Anne was whispering into his ear some words reserved just for him to hear.
Then it was Di's other oldest nephews; her brother Jem's twin boys called Walt and Merry. It was funny, but the twins, the next "Blythe-twins", were also not alike at all. Walt looked like Faith, had brown hair and brown eyes, never cried and always stayed calm, wheras his twin Merry was a total opposite. Merry had red hair, it was the first thing his grandmother said to him: "Oh, I'm so sorry, you dear boy! My red hair will be the curse for all of my children's children!". He also had brown eyes, but brown like his father's, a bit darker than Faith's and Merry was just… 'merry', and as energetic as his cousin Gilly was.
Eventually there was a son of Di's own twin, Nan and her husband Jerry's. Jake looked like his father, "except for his broad forehead" as Nan insisted on adding. And Jake was a very calm child too, and always played with Mary Vance's boy Marshall.
Di looked around the table and sighed in delight. Her whole family sitting all together! Well, there was one person missing. Carl was missing. He was finishing his last year in Redmond, the Biology course. Di was always good chums with Carl, never a very good friend, but she hoped that they will become closer friends when he would come back from Redmond, now that the two of them were the bachelors of their families therefore not having any chores linked to having the family of their own, and also because they would work in the same Glen-school in September! Di gasped suddenly at the very thought. How splendid! And exciting! Her cheeks flushed with colour as her mood lifted high up again.
"Di, are you happy about starting teaching in our old Glen's school?" Nan touched her twin's hand.
Di turned her head towards her sister and smiled "Of course I am," she replied merrily "-it's my dream coming true, teaching but teaching professionally at school."
"But you will still be giving private lessons?" Rilla asked her older sister while bouncing her Gilly on her knee.
"Yes, I will." Di answered proudly.
"Di, you really are hard-working!" Rilla chuckled "I don't know if I could ever endure working as both a teacher at school and a private teacher."
"If you would love the profession of a teacher like I do, you definitely would endure it." Di replied with a smile, and patted Gilly's black curls on his small head "Faith, when is Carl coming back to Glen?" Di asked her sister-in-law who was sitting across the table.
"Oh, he's coming back in the first days of July, why?" she asked her with a raised funny brow.
"I wanted to talk with him about our teaching which will start in September." Di replied "I'm really glad that he will be there for me when my spirits would fall." she grinned lightly.
Jem, sitting next to his wife, smiled at her tenderly "Your spirits won't fall, Di." he said to her decidedly.
"Oh, Jem, who knows?" Di said to her brother and then chuckled when Merry fell on his bottom and started laughing as loud as a child can laugh. Everyone looked at the dear red-headed boy and couldn't help but to laugh as well.
"It was a lovely party, wasn't it, dear?" Anne asked her daughter when she, Di, Gilbert and Susan reached Ingleside again. It was already dark outside, and the sky was painted with black, unravelling the beautiful round shining moon in the very middle of it. Gilbert was gone to the patient who called on him a few minutes earlier and Susan with her "Mrs Doctor dear" and "Di dear" were all in the hallway, taking off their coats and hats.
"It was." Di answered with a sleepy smile "I would say that it was the very first day of spring. It felt so fresh, so new."
Anne smiled at her daughter and touched her cheek tenderly "Di, maybe you should become a writer?" she said so suddenly that the two of them laughed together and Susan turned her head swiftly towards them.
"A writer!" she frowned and shook her head "Mrs Doctor dear, maybe we all should go to bed, we are so tired after today."
Anne chuckled "Susan you're so polite, and I do know that by "we" you mean "you". But I guess you're right after all." she turned to Di and kissed her cheek "Have a good night's sleep darling. And may you dream the sweetest of dreams." she winked at her and Di kissed her mother's cheek back.
"There are too many for me to dream about in just one night's sleep!" she laughed and went upstairs, with the hope that the night will last long enough so that she could dream and dream and dream her sweetest of dreams after all.