Rilla Makes a Discover
3.6 Aunt Mary Maria
"And that," concluded Gilbert "is how we brought Shirley home without any anything to wear. It took your mother and Susan two days to get all the clothes we had here washed and ready for him. Until they were, he wore Di's chemise. Or perhaps it was Nan's."
"Di's," said Anne with all the certainty of a mother, "it was her nightgown, not chemise."
Rilla sipped her tea taking in the news. Things that had been confusing before now made sense. The way Mary Vance would laughingly refer to them as The Ingleside clan, plus Shirley. The way Cousin George would randomly send gifts for Shirley, but no one else. One thing still confused her.
"You said May 1889, but that's the year I was born, Shirley is a year older than me."
"No, "corrected Anne. "He's four months older. That's why Susan looked after him at first. I was too heavily pregnant to carry an infant, so she did all the 'mothering' for Shirley.
For the second time that night, Rilla was gobsmacked. How did she not know her brother's age? "But he's a year ahead of me at school!" she reasoned.
"He was bored at home and wanted to be with his brothers," Anne explained. "You were happy at home so we sent him to school at five, and waited until you were six."
Rilla nodded, that seemed to make sense.
"But birthdays, you never mentioned his age, if it's not a secret, why?"
"That would be Aunt Mary Maria's fault," said Anne. "No use looking like that Gilbert, you know it was."
Gilbert smirked he couldn't deny it.
"The year after you were born, she came to visit. She was most terribly ashamed of George and so told everyone Shirley been born a year earlier. Convinced Susan that any other explanation would bring shame and humiliation on the family, and make Shirley's life difficult," Anne explained.
"But people would have known, a baby just doesn't appear," Rilla was by now very confused.
"True," said Gilbert, "but if you tell people one thing long enough they believe it, at least publicly. Our friends knew the truth, and that was all that mattered."
"And Shirley knows? I mean, he's okay with this?" asked Rilla tentatively.
"We've never made a secret of it, darling," said Anne. "Ask him yourself. He knows we love him as much as Jem and Walter and Nan and Di and you. And we wouldn't be without him."
"Neither would I," said Rilla, "I can't believe he's not my brother."
"He is your brother," said Anne firmly. "Just as Marilla is my mother. I can't imagine what my life would have become if she hadn't adopted me."
"YOU'RE ADOPTED?" Poor Rilla, after a sleepless night, this was a lot of information to process.
Gilbert looked at Anne, wondering how Rilla had never realised that 'Aunt Marilla' wasn't her blood grandmother.
"Better make another pot of tea," he said with a bemused smile, we have another tale to tell!
