Chapter 2.
The sun rose again next morning, showering the flowers in the Valley in a golden bath. The yellow daffodils fairly smiled at every passer-by, not that there where many.
The only soul that ever visited the beautiful Valley with it's gorgeous flowers, pretty little cottage hidden by trees, and sad-sweet charm was a woman, or rather a girl in her twenties, who suffered more than some do in a lifetime.
Her big, wistful-looking dark blue eyes where full of sorrow, but had a way of shining like the sun in the mornings, and her heavy braids of black hair where pinned up at her neck, like snakes coiling protectively about her.
She wasn't beautiful, not exactly, but had a charming, catching way with her, that made everyone love her that knew or saw her. She sat in front of her little home now, dreaming of her prince for a moment, but jumped up in the next, with a wave of shame. How could she think of the past, on a day like this!
Picking up a little tool left on the verandah steps yesterday, she went to work in her beloved garden. Everything must be perfect, tidy. Only one spot was left to grow wild, like the one spot in her own heart that grew wild about a boy with smokey gray eyes.
She had a simple blue shirtwaist on, but it brought out the blueness and friendliness of her eyes, and her cheeks were rosy.
Her eyes were exactly like her dead mother's, Cecilia Meredith's. In the family, besides her, only her brother, Carl had those eyes, the eyes that hadn't let John Meredith, her father, whip the scared boy owning them. Una Meredith, for that was the girls' name, recalled the affair, and smiled up at the sky. She loved her family dearly, and the children's (now quite grown-up) playfellows, the Blythes and Fords.
Somehow the three clans couldn't get separated. Faith Meredith, Una's big sister, considered a great beauty in the Glen, a dear old town, married Jem Blythe, the oldest son of Mrs. Dr. Blythe and Dr. Blythe. Jerry, Una's big brother, was engaged to Nan, the pretty daughter of the said Mrs. Blythe and Gilbert (her husband), and Rilla, the beauty of the Blythes married Ken Ford. Even Carl wasn't an exception, he told Una his secret fancy of Persis Ford, a bright, blonde-headed, blue-eyed damsel, the only daughter of Leslie and Owen Ford.
Una's prince was a Blythe too. The smokey-eyed dark-haired boy was Walter Blythe, who dreamed once, before the war, of becoming a poet. He sure would have been one, not for a minute did she doubt that.
It was the reason Anne had felt her hand buried with her son. She loved to write, and had great ambitions once herself, and the only boy who was gifted was taken to his grave.
She loved her family dearly, very, very dearly, but just couldn't let them see her wounded heart. Rilla may have had a glimpse of it, and she mayn't have. Una only suspected that she knew, and though she yearned for comfort, she didn't trust anyone.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Right at this moment, back at the cozy fire in Ingleside, Anne was dreaming a purple dream of poets and brides and babies, all born to her little gay folk. Little did she know that Rilla Blythe was expecting a baby. Rilla found that out not a week before, and decided to keep the sweet secret known only to her and Ken for just a few days more.
Also, a dear, red-haired, brown-eyed little lad was shrieking with a magnificent voice upstairs, and the young father, Jem ran up the stairs three at a time to comfort his firstborn.
Faith wasn't there, she was having a delicious chat with Nan about the future and all their hopes.
"We'll be back in Avonlea by the end of the week. I'm all ready to make a wonderful little home, and Jem will start his carreer as a doctor there."
"Oh!" said Nan, a little surprised, "I thought he'd start here, and you'd be living at Ingleside! We'll miss you so!"
" Well, you know that Green Gables has been empty since dear Marilla's death last year, and Mrs. Lynde didn't want to stay all alone. Jem always loved to be there, and we thought it a splendid idea..." Faith's voice trailed off, and she hugged Nan fiercely.
"You know we'll visit you lots! The Blythes and Merediths and Fords are just tied together. We can't help it!"
"Well, yes." Nan grinned, thinking about Jerry. Why, he was a Meredith too!
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jerry and Nan were in Rainbow Valley, planning and hoping and enjoying each other's company. Nan was busy chattering away about the trees she'd like to have, and the little flowers she wants to plant in her garden.
"Listen a bit, dear" he began, obviously wanting to say something important. "How about going to Avonlea? I heard the minister went to town with his wife, and Jem and Faith would be there. You'd like that, wouldn't you?" He looked fondly at his wife, her kind brown eyes astar, her glossy brown hair shining in the sun.
"I... I'm not so sure, Jerry. I - I don't know, really. Of course it would be nice - but... I've never really left Father and Mother. I'd miss them horribly. Isn't there something closer?" Her big eyes searched his, and she knew the answer.
"No, Nan. And we can't stay at the Glen manse forever. You know we want children, and we just won't fit in. I say we should go."
She just replied probably in a dull tone, and the spark had gone out of the conversation. Nan couldn't discuss dreams again, she went back to Ingleside and had a little cry. It was sad thinking of leaving, but then, she shall have Jerry. That will outweigh her sorrow, and she'll love Avonlea dearly.
The very next day she talked it over with Faith, and the latter was very pleased. It will feel more like home, she cried, and smiled at the thought of home-making.
Had Una been there, she'd have been sick with envy. Even as it was, Una couldn't help but feel a bit jealous, though no one would suspect Una, the sweet and good tempered, to have it in her.
She longed to be a mother, and many a time she wondered why life treated her this way. Each time she felt a pang of guilt, and ushered the thought away.
"I'll die of lonesomeness" she thought, sitting in her favourite armchair, knitting for Jem and Faith's little boy, named Matthew. Of course, they remebered Matthew of the old Green Gables days, and Jem had always been a favourite with Aunt Marilla.
Faith has decided on nicknaming him Mathy, or Matty, or Math. Una thought Math quite ridicolous, but wouldn't tell Faith so. Just not calling him Math is fine.
A/N:
blythetwin: thanks for your review! It's the first I ever got! (don't worry, I plan at least 15 chaps)