"You've been smoking." Anne said as they walked away from the Wright's home.

"Not a lot only a few puffs." He admitted openly. "I hate the stuff, most of the smoke you can smell is from Fred." Gil responded taking Anne's hand and helping her onto the buggy.

Anne smiled, "I don't mind as much as Marilla might, the smell reminds me of Matthew."

Gilbert walked across the front of the buggy and levered himself up. "It should disperse once we get back to Green Gables. I did rinse my mouth, it should be desirable to kiss" He said quietly. They looked to each other where Anne kissed him gently.

"Very minty. I would never suspect the hint of tobacco on your breath." She smiled.

"I'm not sure how to take that, was it a compliment? Do you like the smell? I'll take up smoking if I must."

Anne laughed. "No." she paused. "It's nice after all these years to have something which reminds me of Matthew." She continued she snuggled into him and smelt his shirt. "With Gilbert mixed in." She smiled staying hugged in.

He smiled and held her close as the buggy started rolling along the road. "I'll choose to take it as a compliment."

"emmm." She said dreamily. She remained silent for a moment hugging into him before asking. "Was the cigar to celebrate?" she said with a knowing smile.

He chuckled "A man must celebrate the end of his stag years." He laughed. "Although I prefer our method of doing that." He whispered kissing her hair. "Much more satisfying."

She smiled and hugged a little closer to him. "I'm a lucky women." She said quietly.

He looked down concerned. "You don't sound convinced Anne?" He questioned. "Have I done something wrong already?" he asked genuinely trying to keep an eye on the road also.

"No my love, honestly no." she blushed.

He brought the buggy to the side of the road. "Then what is it?" he asked her.

She started to blush, "Are you sure the pleasure is normal?" Anne asked him.

Gilbert took a sigh. "I asked myself that a lot of times when I first started to investigate it." He said quietly taking her hands. "But you saw how the two theories contradicted each other and it came down to one belief and one belief only. Are females my equal in every single way? If they are their bodies despite their many wondrous and wonderful differences to my own can achieve the same pleasures as my own. What I knew underneath it all was, yes. I knew from my classes and these discussions was that your body is far superior then my own, you are capable of so much more…" he trailed and blushed "pleasure then my own." He took a sigh "but also its able to bear so much more pain." He said quietly and whispered "I think its God's way of making up for the pain of childbirth."

Anne looked to Gilbert and blushed. "Don't let Mrs Lynde hear you talking like that!" she said to him.

He laughed slightly "Our view on Him is hardly the same as…" he trailed as it dawned on him what was wrong. "That's where this is coming from, isn't it? What Mrs Lynde said."

"She was married for over 40 years she must know something on the…" she trailed looking at his face. "I asked Diana, she seemed relieved that…" Anne trailed. "its very confusing!" she said with a chuckle.

"I know it is." He said. "And I don't want to force my views on you Anne, of course you have every right to form your own view on it." His kissed her hand gently.

"It not that I don't share it, its just scary to be different again in something I believe in." He looked at her with a mix of admiration and confusion. "What?" she asked him.

"Its funny you should say that, growing up, I heard a lot of your opinions from afar and I admired your honesty in being different. I shared a lot of your opinions but never dared speak them out loud. You made me wish I could be like you."

"You never said." She said.

"You probably would have changed your mind if you found I shared your opinion you despised me so." He said with a smile which she returned "So I found out what they were from afar, loved you for them, agreed with most and loved your imagination for the rest, and swore if you ever forgave me, if we ever made friends, I would never try and change you. I would let you feel and think and just be you because I thought you were special." He swallowed for a moment as he saw her look at him in amazement. "Please, don't change, don't ever change, never be afraid of drumming to your own beat."

"You like it in me? That I'm different?" she asked him. He smiled and nodded. "Well if you like it." She blushed. She smiled and cuddled into him again. He started the buggy again and put one arm around her.

"You know it's part of why I'm attracted to you, you aren't like anyone else. Don't be afraid to be different." He took a sigh "but if you will be conventional in this…" he said "…remember I'll still love you." He hugged her closer "yes?"

She smiled and giggled then sighed. "Oh my sweet, I'm just tired and Mrs Lynde has got inside my head!" she grinned gently "let's just go back to Green Gables you can reassure me in bed tonight." She flirted. He looked down at her surprised. "I just can't help myself Gilbert Blythe, you're irresistible." She smiled.

"Right back at you." He smiled.


Reassured Anne lay a wake the next morning, watching her husband's chest rising and falling on a slow rhythm, she looked up at his face his eyes hidden behind his closed eyelids he looked much the same as ever.

All his early interactions with her was him asking for her forgiveness. Had she really held such an awful grudge against such an angel?

"Anne," he had said hurriedly, "look here. Can't we be good friends? I'm awfully sorry I made fun of your hair that time. I didn't mean to vex you and I only meant it for a joke. Besides, it's so long ago. I think your hair is awfully pretty now—honest I do. Let's be friends."

She really had no idea how sorry. The amount of times since they had become a couple he had asked for her hair to be left loose, he seemed to worship her and adore her hair. Had the call of Carrots really have only been a joke? Something to get her attention because he wanted to say hello?

"It wasn't particularly good of me at all, Anne. I was pleased to be able to do you some small service. Are we going to be friends after this? Have you really forgiven me my old fault?"

His old fault! He never once brought up her old fault, how she dare not forgive him that first day he asked for her forgiveness! How stubborn!

Anne, I love you. You know I do. I—I can't tell you how much. Will you promise me that some day you'll be my wife?

Anne's eyes filled with tears again. She had known! Deep down under it all she had known! She had confessed this to Gilbert when he had left she knew she had lost him, he was invaluable, incalculable value to her! She loved him, what a fool she had been and what a cost! Seven precious years lost. Gilbert had taken it upon himself that the last 5 years was lost but truth was if she hadn't refused him they never would have been lost. As Gilbert would say she couldn't regret it fully because it had led to the circumstances which had pushed them back together.

"I love you. You know I do. Always have, always will, Make it right, and marry me?"

She had been amazed. He still loved her! She finally couldn't hold back her emotions, looked at him reached up and kissed him awake. She slowly felt his responses on her mouth which made her smile into him the rest of his body quickly waking to the loving embraces of his wife.

"You can wake me like that every morning sweetheart!" he said as she pulled away for air.

"I can do more than that Gil." She fluttered reaching down her husband holding him.

He gasped at her touch still not used to being held by her.

"I was just thinking of the night you proposed. I could have sworn you would hate me. How could you love me, after I admitted I had loved you and still rejected you?" she half asked half kissed into him.

His mind whirling round with her current ministrations he felt like jelly all over, he found the strength to roll on top of his wife and start kissing round her neck. "You said you didn't know at the time." He said kissing reverently on her collarbone, "you've said since it was your biggest regret." He moved his mouth further south kissing her gently, feeling her relax beneath him. "How could I watch the women I loved, the women I had always loved since I was thirteen, live another second in those regrets and not make it better?" He said returning his mouth to her kissing her back along her collarbone before kissing her deeply. "You know what made it special? Was the fact that at the time, the women who I had spent the last six weeks with, was most definitely in love with me and not even she could deny it. Anne Shirley was in love with me, do you know what that sounded like to me? Do you have any idea? I thought you had married Royal Gardner six weeks before hand, I thought you were Mrs Gardner."

She giggled with him. "Oh my love!" she laughed "you have no idea, Roy was all wrong, ALL wrong for me!"

"I was alone and destined to be so, for you had married someone else, nothing else made me as surprised as when I looked at your administration papers And your last name still read 'Shirley'."

She giggled kissing him more. "Anne Gardner just sounds wrong, so so wrong. An…Anne Blythe! Oh it sounds blissful! I don't think I'll ever get used to it!" She exclaimed. "Mrs…" She said kissing him "Gilbert…" she trailed kissing him deeper "Blythe."

He smiled to as the kisses became more intense. "Oh pllllleeeaaasssseee Annnnne!"


"Do you think many people will know yet?" Anne asked Gilbert as they came to the edge of town together, the first time out in Avonlea as a married couple.

"News spreads fast in Avonlea, if people don't know already they soon will when I sport you on my arm." He said with a grin. "Even more so if I do this." He said collecting her in his arms and kissing her deeply

"Emmmm" she blushed as he pulled away. "Gilbert Blythe I'm a bad influence on you, its not proper to kiss like that in public!"

"That was no influence of you Anne, I've always wanted to do that." He continued their walk "Are you forgetting I'm the same Gilbert Blythe who proposed to you then not half an hour later was lying on top of you in bed trying my best to control myself, THAT that was ALL me!" he chuckled.

"You did control yourself." She said with a grin. "Mores the pity." She flirted.

He laughed lightly "For two weeks." He said, "I didn't make it so short a time just to make love to you." He assured her the quickly and quietly added "It was a good incentive though."

She smiled as they reached the convenience store. "I'm going to go in and get the things Marilla asked me to." She said letting go of his arm and going into the shop. Gilbert decided to take the time to look in the window for some farming parts his father was always looking for in the shop window for a few minutes did so in peace, relaxed his hands went into his pocket. When a voice came from behind him.

"So the prodigal son returns."

He looked for the source and saw it was Josie. "Josie." He acknowledged politely. "Hardly prodigal Josie, I was getting an education."

"Well for some of the time." She said with a hint of cruelty. "Haven't seen you regularly round here for nine less so in the past five years."

"Well I was busy at the hospital you see, saving lives." He said a little frustrated

"what's the point in saving others if you don't have one."

"Well I was set to be a senior surgeon by the end of the year." He told her "it takes time and effort to get there. That was my life."

"But I've heard on the grapevine you returned to Avonlea with a Kingsport women as a wife." She asked him curiosity. He smiled slightly at the gossip. So that is how it had come out. You could always relay on Josie to hear the false gossip. "So are you married?" he asked him directly.

"Yes I am, we married a week last Saturday." He told her just as Anne was coming out the convenience store.

"Anne!" Josie called in the cruelty of the moment, if she was hurting she would make sure Anne was.

Anne came over and acknowledged Josie. "Josie." Anne said with a sweet smile.

"How was your term teaching?" Josie emphasised the last word in a false kindness.

"Oh, very well. I really loved the last term, I'm looking forward to finding if my students pass onto the teaching training colleges. But it's different for you, you aren't teaching anymore are you?"

Josie gave a false laugh "Heavens no, you of all people know… well whats the point when I'm not going to be an old maid, not all of us could be happy with that life Anne." Anne wondered for a moment and Gilbert could see the cogs were turning realising Josie didn't know. "but Anne dear, seriously we're at an age now where if we wait much longer all our beaus will be married and another one of yours have been…" she trailed falsely as she looked at Gilbert. "well I don't suppose you've seen Gilbert since he came back. He got himself a wife." She said with a false concern.

Anne smiled and looked at Gilbert. "he did, did he?" she grinned widely at him. "Congratulations Gilbert." She almost laughed.

"Well thank you." He said with a blush playing along. "What about you Anne?" He asked her falsely.

"I must admit, I handed in my notice for my school at the end of term." She said looking back to Josie.

"What?" Josie said genuinely shocked. "but you love teaching." She said confused.

"I do you're quite right, but you see my husband might have something to say if I stayed in Kingsport teaching."

"Husband!" she exclaimed. "You got married too?!"

"Seems congratulations are in order for both of us then." Gilbert said with a lovely gaze to his wife.

"but that means…" she trailed, thinking but not saying 'I'm the only unmarried women left' "what…" she trailed bringing her thoughts together, "I mean your husband Anne, what does he do? His job?" she asked.

Anne wanted to laugh, how was Josie not getting this? "He's a doctor. He was a very prominent and upcoming doctor a surgeon actually in the hospital in Kingsport but decided he wanted to set up practice in his home providence."

Josie looked to Gilbert "well then you must know him Gil?" Josie asked confused. "Is that not awkward considering…" she trailed still so very confused. "Where?" Josie asked Anne.

"Prince Edward Island." Anne said quietly finally pulling her left arm though his right arm. Gilbert's hand finally coming out hid left pocket and reached over his body looking down and caressed the back of his wife's hand before looking up and seeing the dawning on Josie's face.

"You're together." Josie swallowed her face going red. She went quiet and blushed hotly. "Congratulations." She muttered. "You belong together." She said with a hint of bitterness in her voice.

"Thank you Josie." Anne said to her. Josie started to walk away. "give me a moment Gil." Anne whispered to him and went after Josie. "Josie." She called after her. "Can't we stop this Josie?" Anne asked her, "We could be such good friends if we tried and aren't you tired of putting a mask up everytime we talk?" Anne asked her. Josie looked at her with tears in her eyes. "Josie?" She asked her. "Why are you crying?" She asked pulling out a handkerchief.

"I'm never going to find anyone to love me, I'm going to die an old maid!" she broke. "I thought you would stay single forever, not because you couldn't get a man but because you seemed after that millionaire thing to really choose not to…" She trailed crying.

"After Roy I did choose to not have a relationship, I didn't want one, I'd messed up and broken two men's heart as well as my own." She admitted. "But then one of those men, Gilbert... the man I always loved came back into my life, I wasn't going to say no was I?"

I'll admit it Anne I'm jealous I always have been, you have red hair, I know I teased you for it but Charlie loved it Gil loved it I mean the two best boys in Avonlea were in love with you! And you had friends and everyone liked you easily, no one liked me easily!"

Anne was flabbergasted. The revelation was a lot for her to handle. "You haven't made it easy to. But I do like you Josie and you have many many good qualities any man could love."

"You don't mean that, you're being annoying kind!" Josie exclaimed.

"I do mean it." She said a bit taken aback finding them a bench to sit on. "You are very pretty Josie, I'll admit being jealous of just how pretty you are when you stop bickering." Anne added, "You're very clever when you let yourself be." Anne admitted. "I know I couldn't have got into queen's full stop if I didn't put effort into it, and you didn't and still got in."

"not into first class." She said quietly.

"No, but I bet you could have if you had tried." She took a breath, "You could always give a well formed argument you have your own mind and opinions when you let your guard down."

"No one wants a girl like that! Gil did but he wanted you and always had, all the other boys wanted…" She trailed.

"If you only try and be yourself more often Josie, you'll find everyone really does love you."

Gilbert had been watching came over wondered what was going on.

"We're going to have a party up at Green Gables in a week or so to celebrate, you will come won't you Josie?" Anne asked her genuinely.

"You… you want me there? Celebrating your wedding with you?" Josie looked between the two of them finally standing up.

"Of course." Anne assured her.

"I don't want to hate you any longer Anne." She said quietly. "Can we be friends? I don't know if I can stop being the way I am."

"Of course we can be." Anne assured her.

Gilbert picking up on mood "its never too late Josie." Gilbert said quietly.

"You're both too nice." She said quietly. "I'll look forward to the invitation." She said, she looked quickly to Anne "Mrs Blythe." quietly excusing herself.

Gilbert and Anne looked at each other feeling exasperated. "I can't believe she admitted to any of that!" Anne said quietly.

He smiled at her. "Is she going to be alright?"

"I… I think so yes." Anne said quietly. "Bit of a shock for her."

Gilbert half laughed "You don't say." he took his wife's hand again, "bit of a shock for all of us." He smiled. "I still can't believe you are mine." He said as they started to walk towards the post office.

"No, Neither can I." She said with a small smile.