Persis and Carl were married in June, in Toronto. Rilla and Ken left Gilly with the Blythes and Susan and hopped a train, boat, and another train to stand up with them in the great stone church on Eglington Avenue. Toronto was the biggest city Rilla had ever seen, and she might have had a chance to enjoy the hustle and bustle – if there had not been something in Kenneth's face that put her off of it. He was silent and pensive for much of the time they were there, and once he pointed at a house that was for sale as they walked to the theatre with Uncle Owen and Aunt Leslie.
"Look at that jewel of a house, Rilla," he said. "With a great, big front yard – you've always wanted a big yard."
Rilla felt insulted. The house was darling, of course, but it was no where near as dear as their House of Dreams. "I hate big front yards!" she cried, and Uncle Owen and Aunt Leslie exchanged knowing looks behind her back.
On their last day in town, Kenneth left Rilla in the milliner's for a moment while he ducked into the nearby newspaper office. Rilla felt so sick to see him walk out of the building, whistling, that she could not buy the little, ruby-red velvet cloche that she had had her heart set on a minute before.
"He wants to take me away from the Island!" she thought furiously. "When he knows perfectly well that I'd die if I had to live here! I'd hate it forever!" Then, with a sinking heart, Rilla realized that after a while she might come to love this place if she had to live here – perhaps just as much as she loved Four Winds now. That thought hurt more, somehow, than simply thinking of being away from home.
"I wish – he would just tell me – if he does want to go," she sighed, but Kenneth said nothing, and Rilla, feeling tired and peevish, stayed silent herself, even during the long trip back to the Glen.
The silence grew between them – frosty on Rilla's part and absent-minded on Kenneth's. Until one night, after supper – Kenneth smoothed the letter that he had been reading so that Rilla could see it, and spoke.
"Mother and Father are selling their house and moving to Montreal to be closer to Persis," he said with no preamble. "I think we'd better buy it, Rilla."
We are going to talk about it now, Rilla thought, her heart sinking, and wished that the silence could go on and on. Anything was better than having the truth set in front of her this way.
"Do – you – really want to leave here, Kenneth?" she asked in a small voice.
"No – no – of course not."
"One 'no' too many," said Rilla, feeling waspish.
"But we must face facts." Kenneth went on as if Rilla had not spoken. "There's no work here for me, Rilla."
"There must be something you can do!"
"Would you have me work in Miller Douglas's store – to be a shop-boy my whole life? To be a farmer?"
"No – no – Kenneth! Not when writing is your dream!"
"One 'no' too many yourself, this time," he said, with sympathy, and Rilla could not feel angry with him any longer.
"I just – never expected we would leave," she said, her voice still small, and weary. She spread her hands wide, as if to hold on to everything around her – to hold on to the little house, and life, she loved. "Mother said – it almost killed her – to have to leave this house."
"But she grew to love Ingleside even more," Kenneth said wisely. "My own mother loves Toronto as her home, now – though she 'wept buckets,' she says, when she left the Glen. And she's an Island girl like you, Rilla. But I can get work at the paper in Toronto – I heard from them yesterday. It's always been a home to me – like this Island is – and I think, in time, you could be happy there."
There was a question in his voice, and Rilla sighed.
"I could be happy wherever you are," she said. "Wherever you go, I go. Only – it does seem so sudden. And – and so sad, when I think of what we will miss. Jem and Faith are coming home soon – and Nan will have her baby next year – and all of our friends are here. And I wanted – for Gilly – to grow up as an Island boy…"
"We will come back to visit – whenever we can."
"I know," said Rilla querulously. "Oh, let me be for a while, Kenneth. Of course I'll go – I just need to digest it all now."
Kenneth wisely left her there, at the broad pine table that had always stood in the House of Dreams kitchen. Rilla laid her hands flat on the table and felt its warmth and smoothness.
"Wherever you go, I will go," Rilla repeated the words that had been her wedding vow and took a little heart from them. But then she sighed, "But oh – I didn't expect that we would go so far away!"
