Ingleside was astir!
For Di had announced, over Sunday dinner, that she would marry Carl before the summer was out. She had said it very calmly and coolly – her hands had trembled the merest bit so that she had to set her silverware gently down – she had tried to smile but had stopped halfway through to set her lips together in a firm line. The little party at the table had looked at her with questions in their eyes.
"Carl Meredith?" said the doctor finally. He really looked the most shell-shocked of all – he had thought of this day so many times over the years – when he had held Di's baby hand – when he had listened to her lisping voice – stroked her burnished head – all the while he had been conscious that one day a man would come and claim her. But he had thought he would know – he had been absolutely sure he would feel a pang the moment Cupid's arrow pierced his dearest girl's heart.
And he had thought she would be happy. He had thought she would be a glowing, laughing bride-to-be – not this pale and frightened little ghost before him now. He knew some brides were full of nerves, but surely not Di – not his dear, bold, shining Diana?
"Yes, Carl Meredith!" Di gave a tinkling laugh. It sounded bright and false and fell flat. No one else around the table joined in. "Who else would it be? Do you know any other Carls?"
"We didn't – even – know you liked him – like that," said Rilla, a little helplessly, since no one else said anything. Not even Mother, who was always gracious and never at a loss for words. Not even Susan, who usually said something in situations like this. "Did we?"
It was obvious that no one had, from the silence around the table.
"Well, I do," said Di, and there was a hint of stubbornness in her voice. It was as if she were trying to convince them. She tossed her head and her ruddy curls caught the candlelight. "You'll marry us, won't you, Jerry? We couldn't have anybody else, and you did such a good job of it with Ken and Rilla. Carl and I," Carl and Di? "Carl and I want it to be in Rainbow Valley – in August. You remember how I was the goddess of August in our concert so long ago? I wore a yellow dress – my bridesmaids will wear yellow in honor of that day. Carl and I have talked it over. Rilla – Nan – you both have beat me to it so I will have no sister to stand up for me – but Una is willing. It seems strange, that Una will be my sister, too!"
Things might have gone smoothly from there if Nan had not laughed. Rilla would have squeezed Di's hand and Kenneth and Jerry would have kissed her to congratulate her – Father would have given a toast and Mother gotten on the line with Rosemary to talk and plan things. Shirley would have given his best wishes in his quiet way. But Nan did laugh – a short, barking, sarcastic little laugh. All heads swiveled toward the sound.
"Yes, Una will be your sister," Nan said hotly, Nan spit out the words. "And I hope you will be a better sister to her – I hope you will tell her things – like you haven't – told – me."
"It was so sudden," said Di. It was her turn to be shell-shocked, to sit unmoving. "Really, Nan, there wasn't really any time to tell anybody anyth – "
"I don't believe that for a second, Di Blythe!" cried Nan. No – shouted. In Ingleside, where there had never been any shouting before. "I would have known."
"I don't always tell you everything, Nan." Di was brittle. She waved her hand.
"I would have known," Nan repeated. "I always know you, just as you know me! Oh, what is wrong with you? Something is – we all know it. Won't you tell us? You aren't," Nan choked, "You aren't yourself."
"I was a bit low for a while, of course, but I am perfectly well now," said Di. Her voice was monotone, and it was as if she were a little child reciting a lesson. "I love Carl and he loves me – and that has changed everything."
"I suppose," Nan retorted, "That this has nothing to do with the fact that Jack Wright hasn't written to you in ever so long – in weeks?"
Those were the magic words that should have unlocked all. But Di sat calmly. No spots of color appeared in her cheeks. She wiped her mouth daintily before going on.
"Jack Wright is nothing to me," she said honestly – and a little dully. "Just a friend. I do love Carl, and I will marry him. In August, this August."
Her eyes were pleading with them all to hear her, to believe her. Finally, Anne Blythe broke her frozen pose.
"Of course you will, darling," she said, stretching out her small, white hand to take Di's. "We are all happy for you, aren't we, Gilbert? Oh, we must open a bottle of cider and celebrate! Shirley, call over to the manse and ask them to come up – this is a marvelous event. We should celebrate together."
Nan said, "Oh!" in a small voice and stood and fled. Jerry followed her – but only after he gave Di a quick kiss on the cheek.
"Best wishes, Di," he said earnestly. "Of course Nan will come 'round – she is happy for you – she's just taken aback by it. It was all so sudden, like you said."
"Have you gotten a ring?" asked Rilla, because Mother's eyes were upon her and she felt it was expected. Di stretched out to show her and Rilla did a weak job of exclaiming over the sapphire and the slim gold watch that Carl had put on her sister's hand.
"It was his mother's," said Di, her eyes bright, but not quite shining.
The manse folk were just as perplexed by it as the ones at Ingleside had been but they managed to make a gay party out of it, in the end. Nan's absence was not even noticed in the din. It was just like an engagement party should be – Susan even managed to dig up a cake she had been saving for the Ladies' Aid tea. Everyone kept shooting glances at Di – who hid her flushed cheeks in Carl's shoulder – how strange it was to see his arm wrapped around her! It was almost like – they were – in love!
"We have lost her," said the doctor, with his eyes, to his wife.
"Not forever," she said back, without saying a word.
"I wonder why Jack hasn't written?" thought Rilla, and then turned, with a bright smile, to welcome Carl to the family.