Gilbert woke with a start. "Anne!" He called waking.
They hadn't spoken in the following four weeks, mostly because Gilbert had felt the folly of him asking Anne Shirley to marry him AGAIN and although she hadn't said no she had ran away, not exactly the reaction you look for when proposing to a girl. In fact other than her refusing again it was the next worse thing that could have happened and it did. He returned to Avonlea, knowing Anne had plenty of previous engagements to attend to… ironically weddings and being down at Echo Lodge. As the first week past he didn't feel his previous spirits return in fact he felt sicker and sicker as each day past. His body was failing him left right and centre in week two, he had no appetite for anything, food, walking, helping round the farm, nothing.
"Shhh now Gil. You've been asleep for almost 24 hours. The doctor says it's typhoid, you have a really bad case of it, been run down from school, that's what. Well no more young man!" his mother warned "you are staying put."
Gilbert knew the diagnoses of typhoid his chances of survival weren't exactly great. "ma?" he questioned "I need to ask you to do something for me?" he asked.
"shhh Gil rest your voice." She said irritated by the husk in his voice.
"no please ma, this is important, please promise me something." He pleaded with her.
"what is it son?" she asked him after a marked silence.
"If I don't make it..."
" Gil..," she started.
" no listen ma. If I don't make it I want you to promise me, you'll take care of Anne." He started.
"Anne?" his mother questioned.
"Everything she did…" He said hearing the reservation in her voice "…she did because she was trying to protect me, ma please if I don't make it treat her as if she had been my wife."
His mother stared in disbelief "you must be at the delusional stage already..."
"no, ma no I'm not this is me, this might be my last moments of clarity ma, and I want that promise made, ma please take care of her. She needs to be loved." His mother remained silent "mamma please? When have I ever asked you for anything! Please?"
Mrs Blythe stroke into her sons curls. He'd never asked for anything. Not even a dime. He'd paid for his education himself refusing them give up the farm, it had only been at his father's insistence that they sold parts of the farm to help him. But he'd never ASKED. No not once, for anything. People often had 'only child' down as the selfish kind. 'he won't learn to share' 'he'll only ever think of himself' they used to tell her. But he never had a spoilt nature and right now, even in what he thought would be his dying moments he wasn't asking for himself, he was asking for Anne. Gilbert didn't have a selfish bone in his body. "Gilbert she broke your heart." Her mother said with a tear.
"No ma she was trying to protect me I swear it. Please?" he begged with big hazel eyes looking earnestly at his mother.
His mother was silent for a moment, looking at her only child. He meant it. After all he'd been through he meant it she couldn't doubt. "Alright Gil, if you have found it in you to love her, so can I."
She heard the sigh of relief from her son as he turned back over as he was losing consciousness Anne's name played on his lips.
A week later Mrs Blythe looked out the kitchen window at the stormy night. The wind howling through the trees the rain pelting hard on the roof only reflected the tempest with her four walls. She was sure of it. Gilbert, her only child, her little boy would die that night. His last week in a delusional state begging for his childhood sweetheart in his dreams. She was sure his dying words would be 'Anne' spoken in a loving reverence. If she really loved him she would be here, taking care of him. If she loved him she never would have rejected his marriage proposal two years ago and certainly would have never broke up with him after Matthew had died. But then something broke her concentration. A tiny figure running quickly by their fence opening their gate coming in and knocking. She wondered who it could be.
She opened the door to find a very wet very cold Anne on the other side.
"Anne Shirley!" Mrs Blythe said in shock. "What do you hope to achieve coming in so late and in this sort of weather?"
"I'm sorry to bother you Mrs Blythe, truly I am." She could see it wasn't just rain water which was flowing down Anne's face but her own tears mixed in her eyes bloodshot. "Especially at this trying time for you but I've came to enquire about Gilbert."
"I don't see how it's your business; if you cared you would have been here before now." Mrs Blythe said stubbornly.
"But I do care, Mrs Blythe please, I only just found out about Gilbert' condition, I didn't know I would have come if I'd known. Please… please Mrs Blythe I just want to see him."
"What right have you to him?" Mrs Blythe said angrily, she didn't care what promises she had made to Gilbert this LITTLE girl needed to know what she had done to her son. "You have none."
"Yes I do." Anne said helplessly. Alright so she was going to tell a little white lie, it would be true in a few moments when she told Gilbert what did it matter in the grand scheme of things? "I'm his fiancée." She told her.
Mrs Blythe's arm dropped from the door and she looked to Anne in amazement but before she could say anything Anne slipped by the door and ran as fast as she could for Gilbert's bedroom. She stopped suddenly when she came to his bedside for a few moments looking at the sleeping Gilbert. His face pale and thin every bit of him seemed a shadow of the boy she had fell in love with. She felt her heart shatter into a million pieces for this was a million times worse than even the most vivid of her nightmares of losing him, because this was real. Her knees collapsed beneath her now kneeling by his bed her head buried itself next to him as she sobbed.
