I don't know why it feels like ages since I last updated this one?
Gilbert had started to get comfortable with the revelations if the previous week and had started to forgive himself for pushing the matter. He and Anne were laying on a picnic blanket Gilbert reading his medical journal and Anne reading Chaucer the day was warm Anne loved being in Gilbert's arms in their little haven ' Pixie's Orchard' no one else knew it was there, it was funny you would think this would allow the pair to become more liberal with their affections. They could, and they knew it. They were in a way, if they had been found in each other's arms as they were lying in each other they would be reprimanded, but they both believed it harmless to be lying as such, particularly because they were reading, what mischief could they possibly encounter when they were reading?
Anne dropped her book and hugged into her fiancé.
His free arm wrapped around her and he kissed into her hair.
" are you alright?" he asked her.
"3 weeks left Gil. I don't want to leave you now. This summer spent as your fiancée has been so blissful."
He smiled into her, "I know dearest Anne, I can barely think about being away from you again. It's almost painful to think of. Do you remember this time last year?" he asked her.
Anne bit back a smile. " you were just getting better and were coming to green gables, listening to my endless babble. I was sure you didn't love me anymore, that you were engaged..." she trailed.
Gilbert laughed " why would I be running to green gables every day if I were engaged to someone else? How could you have doubted my love for you?"
" we hadn't really been together in two years. I had sabotaged any inkling of romance between us and finally I broke your beautiful heart, how could I have told you I could never love you, YOU! "
He smiled at her. " yes that did turn the knife in the heart." He chucked. " when I saw you with Gardner, it was as if you took your shoe and was grinding it in ' look at what I deserve...'..." He hugged her closer. " can I ask you something about Roy?" Gilbert asked her pulling her back to look at her
" of course anything." Anne confirmed.
" well, I had thought I had known you, but you seemed bored with him?" Gilbert asked.
" that seems accurate." Anne mused.
Gilbert scoffed " then why did you stay with him?"
"I have no idea!" she said laughing.
Gilbert despite himself laughed "Anne! Poor Roy!"
"poor Roy? If I said yes I wouldn't be with..." she trailed turning serious she hugged into him. " my love." She whispered.
" alright enough of that, just as long as I was right and you were bored." He hugged her back.
She started to laugh again. " did do ever tell you he wrote a sonnet to my eyebrows?"
Gilbert looked back his own eyebrows knitted. " sorry did you say eyebrows?" he asked.
She giggled and nodded. " Oh every word was sincere I shouldn't laugh." She said. Unable to help the laugh rising
" well they are equal, and they match your hair..." He trailed as they laughed. " very admiral qualities."
" Oh! Oh Gil!" she said the pair now in much laughter they couldn't stop " Oh! This is something I couldn't exchange for all the melancholy in the world he never made me laugh, he never got my jokes. You always understood."
" never once made you laugh? Never?" Gilbert came down quite seriously.
Anne shook her head. " he hadn't your humour. I fell in love with your humour almost as soon as we had made friends."
Gilbert smiled. " so you acknowledge you like me better?" he teased.
Anne laughed sweetly. " every time. Over everything which was important."
Gilbert smiled and kissed her "I love hearing it! It'll never grow old!" He said, now his beaming face looking back at her the playful sparkle in his eyes.
" this is something else, he always had to be talking we could never silently and comfortably sit together and just read. Although his vocabulary was quite extensive he could describe in such detail his emotions, there was nothing left to imagine."
"oh?" Gilbert said with a flirting glint in his eyes.
" no! Not like THAT Gil!" she laughed. " what I mean is I was never comfortable. I think we have always been comfortable."
" not always." Gilbert reminded her. " don't you remember carrots?"
She laughed "I meant since we were friends."
" Oh since we were friends!" He mocked. " could you not tell from the beginning? I was besotted?"
Anne blushed. "I often felt it in your gaze. But then the next day everything would be back to chummy chum."
"I tried my best. To keep my feelings at bay." He laughed. " Oh! What a beautiful year it had been!"
"a few days off a year." Anne reminded him.
"luckiest man alive!" He continued.
" luckiest women alive." She said shyly.
"I love you." Gilbert whispered.
"I love you more." Anne said back.
" not possible." He told her quietly. " but if you love me equally, I shall be a very happy man."
" then I love you all, every bit of you, all the versions of Gilbert you have ever been, I love them, even the 13 year old who pulled on my hair calling me carrots, I love him too."
This did it, he grasped her lips in his. They put their books aside as Gilbert lay on her bringing his hands through her hair. They squeezed into each other as close as they could Anne rolled them onto their side.
"2 years 3 weeks." Anne breathed when they pulled back.
" too long!" Gilbert exclaimed. " what were we thinking?" he said laughing at himself.
"I don't know, medical school?" Anne pointed out. She looked to their entangled bodies. " we can't do this here Gil." She said looking around.
He laughed " quite right." He confirmed. " the pixie queen would be disappointed with such behaviour." They resumed their original position and hugged in. " do you want to come to Charlottetown with me a week tomorrow? I'm going to get my books for school?"
" alright." Anne agreed. " I'm going to see Diana and Fred tomorrow do you want to come?" she asked.
" sounds fun." Gilbert agreed.
Diana looked out at amazement at Gilbert sitting reading to Freddie jr in a way which had totally enraptured to Gilbert reading to him. The young boy sat on his knee happily listening to the older man.
" who knew Gilbert was a natural with children?" Diana marveled.
Anne smiled " why shouldn't he be?"
" well he has no brothers or sisters, his family isn't large..." Diana trailed.
" he's been volunteering at a orphanage back in Kingsport. He spent time there reading to the kids and teaching them, he seems to have learnt a lot." Anne smiled. " plus, he's Gil, isn't just him?" Anne wondered on Diana, she had known Gilbert her whole life, how could she think this was anything other than natural? It was very Gilbert. " how do you not know that?" she questioned Diana.
Diana smiled. " have you forgotten I'm not the one engaged to him you know him better than any of us now."
"I could hardly forget that." Anne smiled. " he's wonderful." She sighed.
Diana laughed. "I shall never forgive Gilbert Blythe." She mocked.
" Oh Diana! Don't! Oh what an awful thing to say about my sweet man! How could I? That isn't my Gilbert! I mean I misunderstood!" she sighed.
"I think you've made up for it if it's any consolation." Diana laughed. " I've never seen him or you for that matter so happy. Just as you should be. He's going to be a wonderful father." Diana said studying her best friend for a response. " you don't seem surprised or phased idea of children Anne." Diana asked.
" why should I be?" Anne asked.
" have you two discussed... children?" Diana asked.
" did you and Fred not?" Anne asked.
" it wasn't, isn't... it sounds like I'm insulting Gil and you if I say it."
" say what?" Anne asked.
" it's not proper." Diana said. " or at least we thought it wasn't. It sounds horrible." Diana shook her head. " but Gil and you had so much more history, and you were real friends for so long..." Diana tried to justify.
" we don't have a traditional relationship do we?" Anne asked Diana.
" everyone told us it was a bad idea to know each other too well before the wedding, to keep topics at a safe distance." Diana sighed. "I envy your closeness with Gil, not because it's Gil although it is GILBERT, but because, sometimes I wish I knew Fred as you know Gil. You two have an openness with each other, you're not afraid to share all of each other with the other." They stood in silence a moment. "I need to get dinner on Fred will be home soon." Diana went into the kitchen as Gilbert came over to Anne with Freddie.
" is everything okay?" Anne asked him.
"I think he needs his diaper changing." Gilbert told her.
Anne took the child." Ah yes quite right." Anne said.
" can..." He started. Anne looked to him. " will you show me how to?" he asked her.
" you want to know how to change a diaper?" Anne asked him amazed.
" of course I do, good practice." He whispered with a wide grin his eyes sparkling.
" come on then, I'll show you." Without another thought.
Diana wanted d to know if they preferred mashed or roast potatoes, she stopped at the door as she found them and watched the pair from afar, she saw Anne teach Gilbert how to change a diaper, she wondered why, Fred had never... she shook her head again. The more she watched Anne and Gilbert the more she was convinced they were of a different species entirely to Fred and her. They were so much freer she wouldn't change her Fred she loved him of course but they had a closeness to be admired, the line was so blurred to them maybe the line could be a bit more smudged in their life?, they laughed and smiled, Gilbert seemed to be picking it up fast enough.
" natural " she heard Anne say to him.
He smiled widely. " thank you." He whispered looking at Anne. As she looked at Gilbert, Diana felt the jolt of affection the couple had for each other, it wasn't just love. It was friendship too. She didn't want to disturb them. It didn't matter if the potatoes were mashed or roasted really.
She walked away and went to the kitchen where she greeted Fred.
" darling, you're home early." She said to him kissing his cheek.
" it was quiet, but a lot to do so they sent me home early." He said smiling. "I thought Anne and Gil were coming today?" he asked.
" they have just changed Freddie's diaper." Diana smiled " don't you mean to learn how to change his diaper?" Diana asked him.
" why would i need to?" Fred asked.
" Oh it's nothing dearest." She smiled. "Dinner will be ready in an hour."
" I'll go keep Anne and Gil company then." He told his wife heading through to the parlour.