On the way home from the play, Walter fell asleep. Anne held him snugly in the cold air, having missed him even though they'd only been apart for an hour.

The play, though much of it was disastrous- baby Jesus, played by a sack of flour, had split midway through, causing a puff of flour dust to come up on Mary's face making her sneeze and then begin crying, saying 'Jesus broke!' -it had finally ended well, and the parents understood that the mistakes were just children being children, and weren't a fault of Anne's teaching.

"I'm proud of you," Gilbert murmured in her ear once they were home and alone. Matthew and Marilla had both gone to bed, and Walter was down for the night. Anne and Gilbert were supposed to be in their separate rooms upstairs, going to bed. But they had not gone to bed yet and were instead stuck in the hallway, because the hallway was the middle ground between Anne's room and the spare room, and they did not want to go their separate ways. He smiled at her. "You're the teacher I always knew you could be."

"Gilbert," Anne said, returning the smile. "I'm a teacher for an hour once a week."

"I know," Gilbert said.

"And it isn't even for school subjects," Anne pointed out. "It's the Bible, not math or grammar or science."

"I know," Gilbert said again.

"Actually," she went on, "A few parents complained about me putting science into my lessons. They told the reverend, this is church, they're supposed to be learning about God, not having science class!"

"What did the reverend say?" Gilbert wanted to know.

"He told them, Why shouldn't she? If God created the world, then isn't science simply the study of God's work?"

Gilbert responded, "I like this new reverend."

"Me too," Anne said. "And it's nice...to have more in life than I had before."

Gilbert smiled. "The children love you- and to prove it, you have all those little bundles wrapped up in tissue paper and tied with ribbon. I can't wait to see all the little things they gave you."

"I promised them I wouldn't open their gifts until Christmas morning," Anne reminded him. A smile came to her face: "I wasn't expecting them to give me presents."

They somehow got lost in each other's eyes for a moment and could not speak, until finally Anne shook her head, pulling herself out of it.

"I...forgot what I was going to say," she told him with a little bit of a laugh.

"Guess we'd better say goodnight," he told her regretfully.

"Yeah…"

Neither of them moved.

"I'll walk you home," Anne joked. She walked with him about three or four steps, until they were at the doorway of the spare room.

"Um...Gilbert?" she asked after a moment, still unwilling to leave him.

"Yeah?" he asked softly.

"When you came home from school...did it upset you that I kissed you then?"

He looked concerned. "No...why would it?"

"Because of what we had talked about last time we were together...don't you remember? When you said that us kissing was making it difficult...that it was hard to just have kissing with nothing more..."

"Oh," Gilbert nodded.

Anne waited.

"It is difficult," he said carefully. "But...it's all right."

"Then...can I kiss you now?"

Gilbert's eyes changed. "Yeah," he said, reaching out, his hand stroking her cheek. He leaned in to kiss her.

She kissed him back- but after a moment Gilbert pulled away from her.

Anne looked worried at him pulling away, but he smiled, trying to assure her everything was fine between them.

But things didn't feel fine between them.

She could tell he wanted more. And that made her feel bad.

"Gilbert, do you think...I could come in there for a little while?"

He looked very caught off guard. "Uh- Anne- I don't know- that might not be a good idea…"

Anne dismissed that. "I know we'd be in terrible trouble if Marilla woke up and came in here for some reason, but…please?"

Gilbert bit his lip, thinking.

Anne grabbed his hand and squeezed it.

He moved aside to let her into the room.

"Uh...do you wanna talk-"

But the words weren't even out of his mouth before she was pressed against him again.

As they kissed, more passionately than ever, she ran her hands lightly down his chest, electrifying him. She stopped at his waist- but then he felt her fingers suddenly at the button of his pants, and she began to slip her hand under the waistband.

Before she could touch anything important, he pulled away from her, stunned. "Anne, what are you doing?"

Anne pulled away. "Nothing. I just thought…"

There was a silence.

"I thought if...if I could…" Shaking her head, upset, she sputtered, "I just thought if I could make myself get it over with, then-"

"Get it over with? What are you talking about?"

"Kissing without being able to do anything more is hard for you," Anne began, "But I want to kiss...and so I just thought- if- if I could...give you more..."

He was just staring at her.

Anne tried to explain: "Well, I don't mean intimate relations, not really, but I thought if I could bring myself to...to touch you, or something, then it would be more fair."

"Fair?" Gilbert echoed, creasing his brow. "Anne, it's not...a game or a match...fair doesn't-"

"Yes it does! Fair does matter. I need to just-"

"So you were going to make yourself do something you don't want to do."

Anne was quiet.

Gilbert sighed. He sat down, pulling her close beside him. "Darling...our relationship can't work that way."

Anne wiped her eyes. "But I don't know what else to do."

"Don't do anything."

"Don't you want more?"

Gilbert felt he could not answer her until his heart rate to return to normal. "Yes, I do," he said truthfully.

He took a deep breath, trying to get rid of that feeling Anne had left with him.

He finally said, "We aren't even married. Just slow down." He hugged her to his side. "Do you really think we ought to be doing...things...when we aren't married?"

Anne shrugged. "Maybe it doesn't really matter that much; we've been together so long already."

"That's true…"

"And it's not like I...have...you know, anything to guard..."

"Oh, Anne…" Gilbert stroked her hair. "Stop letting what happened make you feel as if you're somehow less than you were before."

He took a deep breath. "Now. As much as I want you to stay, Matthew and Marilla trust me. And I don't want to betray their trust." He stood up. "Come on." He held his hand out, and she took it, following him from the room.

Once at her bedroom door, he pulled her close- but not too close, because he could not bear to have her body pressed against him- and he breathed in the scent of her, and kissed her lightly on the forehead. They stood a moment in that fragile embrace until finally Gilbert pulled away and kissed her again, this time on the cheek, saying, "Good night, love. Sweet dreams."

Anne watched him go, then shut her door. She sighed, leaning against it. She had mixed feelings.

"Most gracious heavenly father," she whispered in the dark, "I suppose you probably aren't very happy with me for what I just tried to do. ...But I was only trying to make things easier for Gilbert, that's all. I didn't really want to do anything."

Then she had a thought: "There's one more thing...if intimate relations is only supposed to be for marriage, then...once we are married, could you help me to be able to do it? It's very awkward to ask you this, God, but you're the one who designed us this way, aren't you? So you ought to be able to figure it out for me."

Anne went to bed soon after, but it took Gilbert a long time to go to sleep.