Gilbert was not enjoying Queens as much as he thought he would. Anne would have given him not only companionship but also someone to compete with, to make things interesting, to push him more.

But Anne was not there.

Gilbert was doing all right with the homework, though it did tend to pile up- it was quite a bit more work than even Miss Stacy had given them, and he was up late many nights working.

Besides that, he had Jane to deal with, and Jane was rivaling her mother in asking questions about Anne and the baby. All he could do was assure Jane that Anne would make contact sometime soon. He hoped.

Then there were the boys. Gilbert was kidded mercilessly by the other boys for "doing the deed" on his weekends home. They pestered him for details, which he didn't have, and would not give if he did have. They came to him for advice on how to "get" the girls they met in town, and made Gilbert angry with the way they considered them something to be used. He was thoroughly sick of the boys all around him.

Anne wasn't too happy herself at the moment, because she missed the other girls, who were all away at Queens, and while she was happy to get their letters, their letters were always full of things she could not do.

One day when she mentioned this to Emily, Emily had an idea.

She asked Marilla first, before she asked Anne. "What would you think of Anne joining my friends and I?"

"Like that day you took her to a little party someone was having?" Marilla vaguely recalled this, a time before Anne was visibly expecting.

"Yes...but back then we treated her as a little girl tagging along with the ladies. I'm talking now about her being part of my circle of friends, the same as any of us."

Marilla hesitated. "Your friends are all much older than Anne."

Emily nodded. "Some are around my age- twenty-two- and some are in their mid- and late-twenties. What brought us all together is that we all have young children. And so does Anne."

"I don't know," Marilla began. "I'm pleased you're her friend, Emily, but...I don't want her to stick out like a sore thumb. I worry she'll feel so different from you all, being young and unmarried…"

Emily nodded. "I worried about that, too. That's why I wanted to ask you what you thought about it, before I asked her."

"Let me think about it," Marilla said. "I think it's a lovely idea. I just...I just want to be sure. I must be so careful with her, now."

Emily understood.

Marilla brought it up with Matthew while Anne was busy giving Walter a bath.

"It isn't that it's a bad idea," she explained. "I want her to have a circle of friends here in town. It's just that she has...differences...from the other mothers. I don't want her to feel she's on the outside of things!"

Matthew nodded.

"She's been on the outside of things so much already!" Marilla went on. "And with Emily's friends, she won't really fit in, Matthew, she won't- some of those women are a good ten years older than her, and married."

Matthew just nodded again.

Marilla was still thinking: "She's going to be stuck between two worlds- a world of young girls who go off to Queens, and a world of married women with families. And she can't truly fit in with either."

Matthew finally spoke up, giving his input: "You're right she don't fit in with the women folk, not yet. But at least it's a world she's moving into, instead of a world she's leaving behind."

Sometimes, Marilla thought, Matthew has a way of saying one small thing that makes a muddled situation clear a day.

Anne was invited to come to Emily's.

Marilla was surprised that Anne was not immediately excited to go.

"It's embarrassing," Anne said.

"Why should it be embarrassing?" Marilla asked, surprised.

"Because I won't fit in, Marilla! I won't fit in at all and I'll stick out...like a sore thumb."

"Oh, Anne," Marilla said briskly. "What a ridiculous thing to say!"

"Don't you think I will?" Anne asked miserably.

"No, I certainly don't. It's a silly thing to think. Why that came into your mind I don't know. Now- you're going to go and make new friends and you're going to enjoy it."

Anne just stared at her.

Marilla was firm. "Go."

Before Anne arrived, Emily felt she must prepare her friends for the visit.

"No matter what the situation, she needs our support and encouragement now that she's got a child to raise." she said firmly. She looked around at her friends. "If you've heard any rumors and want to know if they're true, ask me now, so that I may clear things up and it won't be hanging over our heads when Anne comes."

Her friends looked at each other. One looked embarrassed while she broached, "I'd always been told that a man only does such a thing if a woman's put herself out as a temptation to him…"

That statement alone ignited the conversation and took them to almost the time that Anne was to arrive.

Emily looked at the clock, aware that it was getting close to when she'd invited Anne over. She looked around at her friends. "You know, I don't mean to make you all watch your speech so carefully, but I think that- at least just during this first visit- we ought to try not to mention our husbands so much, for fear she'll be left out, not having one. ...I know her family helps her...I just can't help but think how alone I'd feel if I had Clara with no Arnold and all the women around me were going on about their husbands."

One lady spoke up. "My boy said Dada yesterday. I'll tell you that now, so I won't have to mention it while Anne's here."

"I do feel sorry for her little boy, not having a father," another lady mentioned.

"He does have a father, though- does the Andrews boy have any involvement with her?"

"Not since the conception," was Emily's bitter response.

"I've heard that the Cuthberts sued the boy's family and came into a lot of money," another lady said hesitantly.

"The Andrews opened up a bank account in Anne's name to help with expenses, but they didn't do so because of a lawsuit. ...Giving Anne a bank account was perhaps the only decent thing they did in the matter."

"It doesn't seem right that he isn't involved," another friend said. "A boy ought not be allowed to leave a girl unmarried if he's made her have a baby…"

Emily was surprised. "I can't imagine she'd want him to be involved. If you'd been attacked in such a way, would you want the man to stay in contact with you?"

Once putting it to them that way- having to picture themselves in Anne's shoes- they understood.

A timid knock on the door broke their conversation and Emily went to answer it.

She returned to the parlor with Anne, who was reluctant due to embarrassment. But Emily had a kind and comforting arm around her.

Emily held Anne close to her side as she said, "Everyone, this is my dear friend and near-sister Anne. And her little boy Walter. Isn't he darling? Come around, Anne, and I'll introduce you to everyone."

Anne set Walter down on the floor and held his hand as she went to meet the ladies.

"Now, we all have a little one here, so Walter will be among friends too! Anne, this is Beatrice Archer, and her son John- he's our youngest."

Anne looked at the tiny baby, remembering when Walter was that small. "Walter's middle name is John, too," she said shyly to Beatrice.

When she was introduced to a woman who had twins, her eyes went big and she said, "Oh, I am sorry!"

They all laughed.

It was a pleasant afternoon, with Anne growing less uncomfortable every minute, and when she went home, she felt that her world had grown a little bit larger.

I have a few more chapters almost ready that I can post later tonight and tomorrow