Author's Note: I was finding myself increasingly displeased with the direction the first version of this story was taking, so I did some major revising, which resulted in deleting the first version of the story and re-posting. The first chapter is the same, and you might recognize parts of others, but quite a lot is different. My apologies to the fans of version #1, and I hope you enjoy version #2 as well!
Meggie Blythe hesitated before the plain wooden door. She was normally not given to shyness, but knowing she was about to meet the three girls with whom she would live for the next year made her bite her lip nervously. What if she didn't like them? Meggie liked most people—but then, everything was so different now, here at music school in Toronto. She wasn't even sure if she was the same girl she had been at Green Gables.
Even worse than the possibility of not liking her roommates was the thought that they might not like her. Again, most people who knew Meggie not only liked but loved her—but that was back on Prince Edward Island. Who knew what these girls might be like? They might be those "modern" girls Grandmamma Irving was always deploring—interested in nothing but makeup and boys and gossip. Meggie, with her wholesome Island upbringing and apple-blossom fancies of girlhood, would fit in with that sort of mentality about as well as a simple wren in a Sultan's aviary. There was nothing of the gorgeous peacock about Meggie!
The slender girl sternly told herself not to be a coward and raised her hand to the doorknob. Just as her fingers brushed it, the door flew open inward, revealing a small girl with delicate features and laughing blue eyes.
"Oh!" she exclaimed delightedly. "Someone is here! I thought I heard someone, but Merrill said it was my imagination, and then when nobody came in I thought she was right, but I had been so sure and the suspense was killing me so I finally just had to open the door and see. And here you are!"
Meggie blinked before this onslaught, all delivered in a slightly breathy, high sweet voice.
"I'm Rose," the girl continued. "Rose Greye, according to the registrar's office, but Wild Rose everywhere else. Are you Joanna Blythe?"
Meggie decided there wasn't much need to fear this girl. She curved her lips in her frank, open smile. "Yes, but nobody calls me by my full name. It's Joanna Margaret, and I'm just Meggie."
"Oh good! I didn't think you looked much like a Joanna. Meggie suits you so much better. Come in! Your trunk is already here." She pulled Meggie into the room, chattering all the while. "I claimed the bed by the window—I'm so selfish; it's one of my worst traits." She looked mournful.
"I don't mind," Meggie said honestly, peering out the window at the high brick wall facing them. "It's not much of a view."
Rose positively beamed. "Thank you! It doesn't take away my selfishness, but it's kind of you to try to make me feel better about it." She grabbed a hand of the other girl in the room: a tall, slender young woman with hair like polished wood and wide brown eyes set in an ivory-smooth face. "This is Merrill Preston. Merrill, this is Meggie Blythe. There, now we're all acquainted!"
Meggie couldn't help bursting into a hearty laugh. "How can you say that? We don't know anything about each other!"
Rose rolled her eyes expressively. "What do you mean? I've already told you about myself. I'm a wild, selfish girl who talks too much—oh yes, I do, don't try to be polite and deny it. And I can tell all about you two just by looking. Merrill is sweet and shy and good, and you're healthy and imaginative and loving and also good." She sighed dramatically. "Oh me, I hope Miss Samantha Kerr isn't as good as you two, or I will be the only bad girl in our room."
Meggie impulsively squeezed her hand. "I don't think you're bad at all. I think you're delightful."
Instead of looking pleased, Rose just appeared more doleful. "Oh dear, now you're going to be disappointed in me. I am dreadful, really I am. I break rules without even thinking about it, I stay up too late and sleep in too much in the morning, I 'sass' all the teachers just because I can …" she sighed. "Dear me, I'm getting quite depressed thinking about all my faults. Do tell me something about yourselves, girls, so I don't have to dwell on my follies."
Merrill seemed content to prove Rose's analysis of her shyness by saying nothing, so Meggie obliged by speaking up. She sat down on the unoccupied corner bed and removed her hat and gloves, smoothing the latter out and placing them neatly atop her locked trunk.
"I'm from a little town called Avonlea in Prince Edward Island. I live on a farm called Green Gables with my father and twin brother."
"A twin! Well, I call that luck," Rose sighed enviously. "I've always wanted a brother or sister, but my parents decided I was a handful enough on my own." She wrinkled up her nose drolly. "Did I mention that I also have a bad habit of interrupting? Do go on, dear."
"Matty—my twin—is going to Upper Canada College."
Rose hadn't been joking about her habit of interrupting. "So he's here, too? How lucky!" She covered her mouth with both hands. "Oops."
Meggie's brown eyes sparkled with fun. "I have an enormous extended family, with cousins, aunts, and uncles all over Canada and beyond, and I'm here to receive voice training." For what, she still wasn't sure, but Grandmamma had insisted, and Shirley—Meggie's Papa—had agreed to one year. One year, and then Meggie could go home to Green Gables.
"I'm here for voice as well," Rose informed her. "Merrill is studying piano."
"Where are you from, Merrill?" Meggie asked the quiet girl.
"Alberta," she answered. "My family has a farm there."
Somehow, this slim, polished specimen of lovely girlhood didn't seem like a farmer to Meggie. She couldn't imagine those long white fingers pulling weeds or washing dishes; nor could she envision that low, husky voice calling the cows homes at twilight. Still, appearances could be deceiving.
"How many of you are there?"
"Nine," Merrill answered. "I'm the youngest. My older four siblings are already married and have families of their own." She hesitated, then added, "I never quite fit in around the farm. With so many others to do the chores, I wasn't needed. My music teacher told my parents that my piano talent shouldn't be neglected, so they sent me here." She blushed, a lovely rose color warming the ivory pallor of her face. "Not that I think I'm talented," she hastened to assure them. "That's just what my teacher said."
Rose leaned forward and patted her hand. "I'm sure you are very talented, dear."
The door burst open, revealing a short, plump girl with bright blue eyes, cherry red lipstick, and blond hair a few shades lighter than Rose's fair curls. Her emerald green skirt and crisp white blouse showed unmistakable signs of professional dressmaking, and Meggie, who had never before worried in the slightest about clothes, suddenly felt that here was the roommate to trouble her.
"Samantha Kerr, I presume?" Rose asked calmly.
"In the flesh," the blond replied in a sleek, cultured voice. "And you girls must be …" she checked the slip of paper in her exquisitely gloved hand.
"Rose Greye, Meggie Blythe, and Merrill Preston," Rose jumped in, indicating each girl as she spoke their names. She smiled. "Now we're a quartet."
The girls spent the next hour unpacking and getting acquainted. Rose did most of the talking, though she did manage to draw information out of the other three almost as effortlessly as she offered it herself. Meggie learned that Rose was from an old Boston family (she actually knew Grandmamma and Grandfather Irving!), but had insisted on coming to Toronto for school rather than stay in Boston.
"I've lived in Boston my entire life," she announced. "I wanted to see something of the world before I get married."
"Are you going to be married so soon?" Samantha asked amusedly.
"When I'm eighteen," Rose answered placidly. "It's been arranged since before I was born. Our grandparents are grand friends, and have always wanted some of their descendents to make a match of it. So when Geoff and I were born only a year apart, they determined that we would get married just as soon as we were old enough."
"And you don't mind?" Meggie asked in wonder.
"Of course not! Geoffy is a dear boy. His family is the oldest in High Valley—that's in Colorado," she hastened to explain. "They're cattle ranchers. On his grandfather's side they came from England, so they're both well-established and wealthy. I adore the High Valley—back in Grandmamma's day there was only a few families living there, but now it has shops and a church and a doctor and everything, and it's breathtakingly beautiful. You all will have to come for our wedding and stay with us afterward."
"Do you have a picture?" Samantha asked eagerly.
"Of the High Valley?"
"No, of your fiancé!"
Rose dove into her bag and came up with a small snapshot. Samantha eagerly took it in her hand. "Say, he's cute," she said approvingly.
Rose studied it afresh. "I suppose he is," she conceded. Samantha turned to the other two.
"Do either of you have a boyfriend?"
"No," Merrill said quietly.
"I'm only fourteen!" Meggie said, appalled. "How can I even think of a boyfriend?"
Samantha giggled. "Honey, I'm only fifteen, and I've had half a dozen boyfriends already. I suppose, stuck on a farm on Prince Edward Island, you don't have much pick of boys."
Samantha was native to Toronto, and quite proud of it. She was attending the Conservatory for violin.
"My parents want me to become a concert violinist," she explained casually. "But I don't care about that. I just want to have a good time while I'm here." She stretched out on her chosen bed and rifled her fingers through her platinum waves. "There are some dashingly handsome boys here. As I was signing in I saw one—he was tall and dark, with piercing blue eyes and a dreamy face …" she sighed happily. "I hope he's a violinist."
Meggie turned away in disgust. Her cousin Polly had been silly about boys a few years ago, and Meggie had had her fill of such nonsense then. She'd hoped she would never have to deal with that kind of silliness in such close quarters again.
Samantha looked over as Meggie arranged her snapshots atop her nightstand. "Darling, if you don't have a boyfriend, who are those handsome men?"
Meggie pointed to the largest. "That's my brother Matty." The black and white photo didn't reflect his grave brown eyes and tanned skin, but it did show his sweet smile and good-natured attitude.
She went on to the rest. "That's my cousin Peter." The tall, golden-haired Peter looked very serious in his RAF uniform. "And that's his brother Bran." Bran too wore the uniform of England's Royal Air Force. Much to Auntie Di's dismay, he had joined up only a month ago, the most mischievous, troublesome recruit ever to plague a commanding officer.
"This is Uncle Bruce, Aunt Betsy, and their son Gabe," she continued. "And this is Green Gables and Papa," softly.
Samantha pointed to the final photo on the table. "And who's that?"
Meggie's brow clouded. "Johnny Meredith, another cousin."
"He's delicious," Samantha gushed. "Where does he live?"
Meggie wished she knew. Johnny had run away from home months ago, and nobody had heard anything of him since. "My aunt and uncle live in Ottawa," she answered obliquely, not wanting to discuss private family matters with this sophisticated, worldly girl.
"You do have a large family," Rose said.
Meggie laughed, pushing her worry for Johnny to the back of her mind. "That isn't even half of them.
"Well," Samantha said, her eyes sparkling. "You just let me know if any of them ever visit you. I'd be more than happy to help entertain them—at least, any of the boys." She winked.
Meggie smiled politely. "Thank you."
A bell in the hallway rang. "That's dinner," Rose said. "Come on, quartet, let's find our way to the dining hall. I'm starving. Trying to make a good impression on strangers always works up an appetite."
She slipped her arm through Merrill's and led the way out the door. Meggie trailed behind the rest, thinking that this next year was going to be interesting, to say the least. Despite missing Matty and Polly and home, with Rose around, she wouldn't have a chance to be bored!