Chapter Two- Diana

Anne was already up and brushing her long hair before the mirror when Aunt Julia came up to check on her that morning. She seemed greatly surprised and relieved as she went down again after telling her that she was going down to the garden to water her daisies. The fact that Anne had woken up early and wasn't tired was indeed an improvement, for she had rarely been up at dawn in the past one year due to weakness and more than that, because of Doctor Brown.

"The more you sleep, the faster you recover." he had advised her long ago, when her vivacious nature had made it difficult for her to lie in bed all day long and she had started to get increasingly restless. She would have flown to Avonlea the day she had regained consciousness, had Doctor Brown not warned her that he would fetch her back from the station tied up if he had to if she tried to leave without his permission. Not that she actually believed she could go- her broken leg and what Doctor Brown called a "hair crack" in her collarbone wouldn't have let her, not to mention a bleeding wound in her abdomen. It had taken her an entire year to achieve complete recovery and yet she had to practice moving around as her limbs had become stiff due lying down for an extended period. She had been more patient through this agony than she had imagined she could ever be, but now that she knew her bosom friend was coming to get her, her impulsive nature was taking over. She had given up trying to sleep in vain and had started getting ready at five o clock in the morning.

She finished putting her hair in a long braid and eyed herself satisfactorily in the mirror. Her face had gained a little colour and she was quite sure that the hollows in her cheeks were filling up as time went. Even her hair had gained some of the old shine back. She had decided to don one of the nicest dresses Aunt Julia had gotten for her that day and it made her look even better. It certainly wasn't a very fancy affair to begin with, but it complimented her hair and form perfectly. It was a plain olive green dress with clinched waist and elbow length sleeves. It reminded her strongly of the dress that Gilbert had admired back in Redmond.

Her heart skipped a beat as she thought about him. She had given up guessing why he had not bothered to travel to Bolingbroke for such a long time, now she had started getting worried. She had sent him a bunch of letters through Aunt Julia and he had chosen not to reply to a single one. She had also written multiple times to Green Gables as well as to Gilbert's parents, but they had decided not to respond as well.

Sometimes having an imagination felt like a curse to her. She could think of a thousand possibilities of why none of them had replied, all of which contained horrible accidents, violent deaths or chronic illnesses. As happy as she was that Diana was coming to meet her, she was getting increasingly fearful as well. What news would Diana bring to her?

She shook her head absently, as if to discard all the inauspicious thoughts from her brain and put the hair brush down. She moved away from the mirror and descended the stairs in slow controlled movements. She guessed Aunt Julia was busy in the kitchen, she could hear her shuffling around in there. When Anne went in, she was standing by the stove, making tea.

"Good morning, Anne." she greeted as she did every morning, but her tone seemed colder than usual.

Anne wished her a lovely morning in return and went on to stand by her side.

"Where is Linda? Didn't she bring you your tea this morning?" Julia asked.

Anne bit her lip. Linda really hadn't made her usual trip upstairs that day, but she knew that Aunt Julia would scold the poor girl endless if she told and she did not want to trouble her at all.

"She must think I am still asleep, Aunt Julia. I woke up earlier today." She protested.

Surprisingly she looked convinced.

"Fair enough. Now, let me make some more for you."

"Thank you." Anne muttered and settled at the kitchen table, eyeing her silently.

Even though Aunt Julia looked pretty much like she usually did, there was something different that day. During the past one year, Anne had seen many shades of Aunt Julia. There were days when she would be a happy, caring lady who liked to tend to her house and felt genuine love and concern for her niece, but at certain times she had seen another side of her. occasionally, Julia would abruptly become cold and distant as if she had crawled into a shell. It was natural to be fair- she had recently lost her husband to a chronic illness that stretched for three long years and her son lived somewhere in Halifax, her life was lonely for the caring housewife she was. As far as Anne knew, her son rarely wrote any letters to her. But they did come once in a while- spanning from ten to fifteen pages, they were long and possibly descriptive. One letter contained enough news and affection to keep Aunt Julia in good spirits for months ahead. She had never told Anne anything about him; except that his name was John and that he was a musician.

Today was one of Aunt Julia's gloomy days. John had not sent her any letter for almost six months now and Anne could feel her getting worried as each day passed. She merely sat at the table observing her Aunt and said nothing. After a few minutes, Aunt Julia herself broke the silence.

"I have asked Doctor Brown to come down today." She said in a steady voice. "I just want to make sure you are fit to travel, if that friend of yours wants you to go back with her."

"Oh, that's splendid." Said Anne cautiously. "I believe she would expect me to go with her. She has two little children of her own; she cannot leave them alone for long."

Aunt Julia nodded as she finished making tea. She pulled two cups and saucers from the cabinet, still looking outside the window.

"His letter finally came." she murmured. "I made a trip to the post office last evening."

"Oh." That was all Anne could manage to utter. She wondered why Aunt Julia was in such a mood even though the letter had finally come. What news did it carry?

"Did you- did you read it?" she asked slowly.

"Yes." She answered absently. "He says he is coming home."

"Why Aunt Julia, that is great news!" Anne cried. "Isn't this what you always wanted?"

There was a sad smile tugging at Aunt Julia's mouth.

"Now I wish I hadn't asked God to send him home, Anne." She said shakily. "He's coming home because he is sick. Very sick." She added scornfully.

"What is it?" Anne gasped, fearing the answer.

"Tuberculosis." She murmured, her voice getting heavy. "At least that is what the doctors at Halifax think. I wouldn't believe it until Doctor Brown would tell me so. But- it's eating me out. What is tuberculosis Anne? You must know about it- your husband is a Doctor."

Anne hesitated for a minute. She could remember one patient from White Sands that Gilbert had treated for tuberculosis. He had done quite a research on that matter for him and had told Anne that there were a few types of the disease which do get cured with time, but there are some which cannot be healed at all. Nonetheless, she was absolutely sure that it was not an easy disease to treat. How she wished Gilbert was there!

"I-don't know for sure," she said finally.

Aunt Julia sighed as she poured tea for both of them.

"I believe we'll find out when he'll come home." She looked at Anne before taking a sip from her cup. "Have you packed your things already?"

Anne shrugged, picking up her own cup and swirling the tea nervously.

"I haven't. No yet." Anne shook her head. "I was so busy worrying exactly what she will tell me about my family that I forgot to."

"Everything will be alright." Aunt Julia patted her hand affectionately across the table. "I'll miss having you here though… It gets quite lonely here without David. We used to travel a lot before he got sick. I am not used to living in one place for longer than a year."

"I'll miss you too. And Linda and Doctor Brown too." Said Anne."But I cannot wait to go home- I just cannot!"

It was strange though. She had waited for an entire year with patience, yet only a few hours that stretched before her seemed like an eternity to her. She went up to her room after breakfast and tried taking a nap, but ended up tossing and turning, sleepless. Giving up, she decided to read a new book that Aunt Julia had gotten from the village library, which turned out to be so romantic that it kept reminding her of Gilbert. Aunt Julia understood her state of mind and asked her to come down and help her prepare supper, much to Anne's relief.

Though cooking did distract her for a while, she immediately discarded the ladle spoon she was holding and almost ran out when she heard the sound of a horse coming up the lane.

Anne stood in the doorway as a plump, rosy cheeked lady in a dusty pink dress descended from the buggy, her hair as dark as ever and her smile as sweet as it was years ago. Her eyes immediately shot towards the little white house and her pupils widened as she saw her childhood friend standing there with tears in her eyes. Forgetting that she was now a dignified woman of twenty eight, Diana Wright ran up the steps leading to the house, holding her skirts up and pulled Anne into a tight embrace, sobbing heavily.

"Anne, oh, Anne!" she kept repeating, crying into her shoulder. Anne was in tears herself, yet she stroked Diana's hair, trying to help her gain control. Diana held Anne firmly and let all the happiness flow like a river through her eyes. Anne closed her eyes and inhaled the comfortable smell of her friend's hair. The embrace felt familiar, as if she was coming home. It comforted her more deeply than anything else could have.

Eventually Diana wiped her eyes and released Anne long enough to look at her.

"I- I cannot believe you are really here Anne." She sniffed. "I- we all thought we lost you. You- are you really alive?"

Anne could not believe her ears.

"What-"

"Oh, Anne- we all thought you were dead! We all did!"

"But- but I wasn't. I –"

She turned around as she felt a hand on her shoulder. Aunt Julia had stepped out of the house.

"Let's just go inside first, Anne dear." She suggested calmly. She signaled Linda who was working in the garden to get Diana's luggage and welcomed her guest into the house.

"A letter came to the Avonlea post office looking for a Miss Anne Shirley two days after the accident." Diana narrated after they had settled down into the house. "It was from the police- it said there was fire in the train and that they found you dead and had cremated you as the body was badly burned. They had found your luggage in the compartment that caught fire and your name was engraved on the suitcase. Gilbert even came all the way here to get some of your things that were intact."

Anne could hear her heart thumping as she heard Gilbert's name.

"Diana, where is he? Where is Gilbert?"

Diana's expressions were unreadable as she heard the question. Was it sadness? Sympathy? Much to Anne's surprise, it looked as if Diana had feared the question.

"Anne, he is in Four Winds."


Flashback

The sun shone brightly over the small blue house that stood by the river, perched alone on the greenish lawns, away from any other. It was a breezy summer morning, the kind which makes you want to get up, pack some snacks and march off to have a delightful picnic up the hill. But that was not the case with the ever energetic Anne Blythe that day.

She lay in her bed, still half asleep, even though the dawn had passed long ago. She had been up till two the night before, waiting for her husband to come home, who had went up to Charlottetown for a complicated delivery. She had managed to keep herself for a long time, but sleep had taken over the tired wife late at night and Gilbert had not arrived till then. She opened her eyes slowly, trying to adjust her vision to the brightness of the sunlight and turned her head to glance at her husband's side of the bed.

Much to her pleasure, Gilbert Blythe was curled up beside her, still in his clothes, looking rather tired in his slumber. She could see the dark circles forming under his eyes and noticed how thin he had become. He still looked boyish and innocent nonetheless, his chestnut locks curling on his forehead and eyes fluttering at the sunlight that had managed to enter from the gap between the closed curtains. She turned to her side, facing him and stroked his cheek affectionately.

He had not slept properly for nearly a week now, for he always arrived home late into the night. She felt a pang of guilt at this thought- it was partly her fault that he had to put such efforts into establishing his practice in Avonlea. She was the one who had insisted on staying near Marilla and Gilbert's parents after their wedding. Gilbert had obliged to what she had said, and she couldn't help but feel guilty at her decision as she saw him struggling to cope with the competition that he faced from several other doctors peppered across the region, much more experienced and senior than him.

The trust that other doctors had built throughout Avonlea and the towns around it had made Gilbert's newly set practice suffer tremendously. Due to the lack of number of patients close by, he often travelled to White Sands, Charlottetown or sometimes even further to keep up with their economic needs. Anne had thought about resuming her post as the teacher in the Avonlea school, but Joy's birth and death and later the conception of James had lead her to drop it eventually.

She suddenly recalled how he had mentioned about month ago that his great-uncle who lived somewhere sixty miles away from them had offered him to take over his practice once he retired in June next year. Though he had not brought up the subject after that, Anne decided to consider moving there seriously. They could take Marilla with them if her health issue got even worse, she knew Gilbert wouldn't refuse to that. John and Laura were still in pretty good health and they would always be welcome wherever the couple would decide to set up their new home.

"I don't want you to tire yourself like this." She whispered softly into his ear and kissed his stubbly cheek tenderly.


Author's Note

First of all, I would like to thank all the lovely people who read and reviewed the first chapter. The interest that you showed in my story inspired me to work harder on the plot as well as my writing.

Each chapter will be divided into two sections from now on- present day situation and flashback to give a peek into what the situation was before the train accident took place. My current plan is that I would put up a new chapter every Tuesday and I would try my best to stick to that.

Lastly, please leave a review and tell me what you think of the story. :)

Thank you for reading!

Love,

Ashwini