Part 3
Anne and Gil woke up at about the same time and both of them were thrilled to see the beautiful tree's branches swaying back and forth. A good wind storm was always exciting.
After a quick breakfast, their new phone rang and Gil arranged to meet a patient at the office. Anne was sorry to see him go, but she felt better when he promised that he would be home as soon as possible. She kissed him when he finished tying his tie and she handed him his bag. It was heavier than it looked.
As he drove off, Anne decided to get a head start on the week's laundry. "It should be done quickly, with all of this wind," she thought.
She was lonely, but she was aware that they wouldn't be able to share every moment together. Still, she could look forward to his return.
After hanging out the sheets and shirts and petticoats, she dusted the windowsills and took some rugs outside to beat the dust out of them. She had considered taking a basket down and picking some fresh flowers for the kitchen table, but she was fairly tired.
As much as she didn't want to admit it, the fatigue was not improving. The logical reason was the stress of the wedding, but that had been three days ago, and with the exception of the wedding night, she had been getting a good deal of sleep. Marilla would say that she wasn't eating enough vegetables, if she had been alive, and Anne made a promise to herself to serve lots of salads and make vegetable soup often. She didn't want to sleep through her marriage!
The rugs were put back in their places inside the house, and the clothes wouldn't be dry for another hour or so. She would iron them then, but for right now, she would take a small rest so she could enjoy every second when Gil returned from his patient.
She slept so soundly during her nap that she didn't hear the telephone, even though Gil had let it ring twenty or thirty times. He imagined that she was walking on the beach or meeting the nearest neighbor, about a mile east of them.
He had telephoned to say that his appointment was going to go long, since whatever the patient was sick with had also spread to his wife and three children, including their two month old. Gil wanted Anne to know that he was driving out to the house to treat the others, and that she could expect him to be late.
Anne was still asleep upstairs when Gil returned hours later. He had never seen her nap during the day and he was surprised she was asleep. He gently nudged her shoulder and said, "Anne-girl, sleepy head? Are you going to wake up for me?"
She had been so thoroughly asleep that she was disoriented when she looked out their window and saw that the sun was starting to set.
"I'm so, so sorry. What time is it? I just meant to take a catnap! I haven't even started dinner," she shrieked with real embarrassment.
"It's no problem, Anne. You must have been tired, or you wouldn't have slept so long," he responded. "I am a huge proponent of naps, and I have been known to take many when I need them."
Gil turned to put his bag on the slipper chair and Anne stood up quickly to start dinner, and the room seemed unsteady all of a sudden. She sat down on the bed so she could take a few breaths. Next time, she wouldn't jump out of bed so fast.
"Anne, how hungry are you tonight?" Gil inquired softly. He was taking off his tie and coat, and looking out the large window.
"I don't know. What about you, Gil?"
"I think I would be fine with just a snack. Or, if you were in the mood for a larger meal, we could drive into town. The restaurants won't close for another hour. I don't want to be accused of starving my wife!"
Anne thought she should be hungry. She had slept through lunch, after all, but she truly just wanted to make a nice hearty snack for Gil, and then gather the laundry from outdoors and put it away. She would have time to iron it tomorrow. There wasn't even a small part of her that was hungry.
She stood up more carefully this time, and enjoyed Gil's hand around her waist as they descended their staircase. Usually, she loved it because she craved the physical closeness of her husband. This time, she appreciated it, because she was coming down with something, she was almost sure of that now, but she didn't know what.
The most important thing, she told herself, was to get over it fast, without Gil knowing. He'd react too strongly; she was sure of it.
She simply had a mix of nerves combined with a cold or something that was just starting. Marilla would have her drink lots of fluids and eat soup. That's what she would do.
Anne quickly made Gilbert a large plate of cheese, bread, butter, and browned potatoes and onions. While he started on that, she cut him a thick slab of the chocolate cake and poured him a glass of milk. Gilbert looked at her and said, "Come sit down, Anne, and eat yours."
"I will in a minute, Gil, but I am going to pull down the laundry first. I don't want to forget about it all night," she announced as she picked up the wicker basket and went out the kitchen door to the backyard.
The smell of the potatoes and onions cooking had increased her nausea a hundred fold. She had to get outside and breathe some fresh air.
By now, she was struggling against the urge to empty her stomach, but as she expected, Gil had followed her outside and was already pulling shirts and pillowcases off of the line.
"Gilbert Blythe, go inside. The neighbors are going to see you pulling laundry down and they will talk about me for years," Anne tried to shout with a smile.
"Considering the closest neighbors are a mile away, I think your reputation is safe for now. And I'm not a man who will eat dinner while his wife does chores."
Between the two of them, the load of fresh smelling bedclothes and garments were folded in their basket and brought into the house in record time. Gil pulled a kitchen chair away from the table and expected her to sit, but Anne went to the whitewashed kitchen cabinets and poured herself a glass of water first.
Anne held the fork in her hand and asked Gil about his patients and his ride out to their home.
"They are certainly very nice people, even though all of them have some healing to do over the next few days. Dysentery, I think, from the way it spread so quickly. The baby girl is beautiful and had a touch of croup, but I don't think we have to worry about her getting what the rest have. The main problem is that the mom is ill, and will be for a few days. I want to make sure the baby is able to get enough nutrition when she nurses."
Anne inhaled quietly, and said, "I'll pray that all of them recover quickly. Perhaps I can make a big pot of soup and bring them some tomorrow. They certainly have a lot of their plate right now." Anne hoped that Gil didn't see her casually moving her food around without eating it.
"Your soup would be appreciated, Anne, but let me deliver it when I check on them tomorrow. If it's not dysentery, and it's something air contagious, I don't want you anywhere near it," Gilbert explained.
Just then, the telephone rang and Gil stood up to answer it. Anne prayed that it would be a talkative person calling. As soon as he left the room, Anne grabbed her napkin and fled outside. She rounded the outside corner of their house and her stomach was relieved of its contents under a hydrangea. When she thought she was finished, she casually walked into the kitchen and splashed her face with cold water and dried it with a dishtowel.
Gil was talking with another physician about a surgical case, from what Anne could deduce, and she walked upstairs to the bathroom and brushed her teeth twice while they continued to confer by telephone.
As soon as Gil hung up, she came downstairs and began clearing the kitchen table of the remains of her meal. Dr. Blythe came in and replaced his napkin in his lap, and took his first bite of the chocolate layer cake. "This is so good, Anne. It's practically decadent. Come have a bite?" he urged.
"I snuck a bite earlier," she fibbed, "and you are right. It is delicious."
After Gil was done with dessert, he flipped through the day's post and opened a journal on thoracic surgery, and read for half an hour under the bright reading lamp. Anne sat near him on the couch and read a book of Elizabeth Barrett Browning poems.
When he was finished, Gil closed the journal and placed it on the table behind them. "I think it's time that I take my beautiful bride to bed and tuck her in. What say you, beautiful bride? Is that alright with you?"
"That sounds perfect to me." And she gave him a fast kiss on his cheek as she replaced her poetry book near her others on the bookshelf near the fireplace.
She brushed her teeth and face again, and hoped that she didn't have the beginnings of a fever. She didn't think she did, but concealing her developing cold from Gil was her top priority, and a fever might be hard to hide.
When Gil came to bed, he slid in next to Anne and wrapped his arms lovingly around her waist. "You are so beautiful. I am so lucky," he whispered.
Anne couldn't help rubbing his shoulders the way he liked and she considered kissing him on the lips, but she didn't want to spread whatever it was that she had picked up. Instead she placed her cheek next to his and tentatively caressed his backside with both of her hands through his nightshirt.
He responded by pulling himself even closer to her until he could feel her body pressed tightly to his. He breathed, "Anne, I want so much to be with you, but I want to wait a day or two. I don't want you to get too sore. We can tomorrow evening, alright?"
Anne just murmured. She just wanted to feel his heart beating against hers. He could make her feel better, even if he didn't know she was feeling ill.
Gil fell asleep holding Anne, and she was tempted to open the window. Their room was growing warmer by the second. She unwound herself from Gil's grip and, instead, wandered downstairs so she could catch the cool night air without causing Gilbert to chill…or to wake.
"If I do have a fever, I should drink some water," she thought. Concealing something like that from him would be hard enough under courting circumstances, but now that we share a bed, it could be impossible," Anne worried.
She felt more comfortable twenty minutes later and tiptoed up the stairs and crawled next to her beloved Gil.
As she stretched to pull the quilt up around her, she felt the oddest little twinge on her right side. She dismissed it as an after effect of their activities the previous evening, and thanked God for giving her such a kindred spirit to marry. She then asked God to please help her get over her little illness by tomorrow.