Typhoid & Gossip Ch 47: Anne - Cinders, an anne of green gables series fanfic

Author's Note:

DrinkThemin: It is thanks to your review that everyone get this chapter and all it's glory, for originally we were jumping straight to Gilbert and him focusing on them getting hitched legally as soon as possible. Now instead we get Anne and the aftermath. So thanks for asking how they'll respond to the fire because the fire wasn't in the outline so the next chapter didn't deal with it enough... So here we are. :) Please enjoy especially what Davy did the last time he was grounded. We will deal with those men more later.

Faith-hope-and-glory: Will they try to get married in secret? Yes. Will they succeed... To be determined. And here we'll go into a little more Anne's feelings about the pregnancy or lack of one.

Oz Diva: Yes those drunks are ghastly. Yes, Rachel Lynde would be a sight banishing a shotgun.

A Talking Cat: Yes poor Davy, Gilbert & Anne. Enjoy the chapter.

— Anne —

Saturday, July 23rd, 8:00pm

Green Gables, Avonlea, PEI

I clung to both Gilbert and Davy, barely noticing when Paul left, instead finding myself on the couch in the sitting room between them while Davy with much emotion told me all of the fire, the loss of his canoe, and even the fight over my honor with the three drunks. It was a good thing he'd insisted he'd thought to check on the canoe, and were it not for the shock we were all in for the fire, no doubt he'd be grounded for a month for sneaking out by Marilla. Marilla no doubt was ready to send them to bed, lecture Gilbert to make sure Davy actually slept when Rachel Lynde stuck her foot in.

"Now it's not right, Marilla! Making Gilbert sleep in that cot you keep for the half grown hired boy. Even as thin and weak as he is now, praise providence he survived the typhoid, he'd still fall off that cot if he's not talked to death by Davy in the night. Truth is you don't know anything about men folk, Matthew was never a typical specimen, and you never were married. After a man goes through all Gilbert's had to go through he wants the comfort of his wife's arms. Anne's bed is too narrow to share with a grown man decently, but Anne can take the cot tonight and tomorrow we can switch Anne's bed with the old spare room bed you moved out when I moved in."

"Davy might have nightmares and need a man to talk to..." Gilbert tried to interrupt.

"Nonsense, he should be grounded for the fright he gave us after we realized he wasn't there when the drunks all woke us up. Truth is, if more came we'd sleep better if you're where Anne. I know there's all that nonsense from the Doctor about remaining risks. A wife's place is beside her husband. You didn't see me gallivanting about and leaving Thomas at home to fight off drunks. Now I'm quite grateful for you guarding us all. but we'd all sleep easier if you were will Anne and not getting your ear talked off by Davy..."

"Somehow I doubt she'd be the one to talk it off..." Gilbert mumbled softly and I tried to not laugh. He'd helped Davy move his things and the cot into my east gable, the room so tiny between my stacked trunks, the bed in the corner, and the other furniture that one had to nearly climb over the cot to reach the bed itself. He'd nodded to me his face pale before stating stiffly that he'd check the perimeter of the home, lock up and make sure all were in bed before coming up.

I'd prepared for bed quickly, dressing in as modest of a nightgown as I had that would not suffocate me with the summer warmth. Thinking the bed was best left for him then the narrow cot, I left the lamp flickering on the desk beside the bed and climbed into the cot.

He spoke nothing when he entered, and I shut my eyes to pretend to sleep. There was rustling and I heard the bed creak in a way I knew intimately, only glancing my eyes open to smile at him. "Anne," he whispered. "You awake?"

"Yes."

"Tomorrow, we're going to confess the truth to our families and the reverend and make sure we're married properly. I'm not going a day more without you legally being my wife."

"Gil." I sat up in the cot. "We can't. You know word will somehow get out. Everyone's eyes here are on us. Whether it's Rachel, or your Aunt Mary Maria, or the twins. Someone will slip up and confess it all and we'll never hear the end of it. Sooner or later though they'll stop gossiping about us."

"Fine." He sighed, sinking into the bed. "That Reverend, the cousin of Miss Lavender, she wrote to him?"

"Oh yes, right away but she hasn't heard back yet. She did not recommend we leave to get his help until we do. He is a rather poor correspondent, nearly retired at this point, an old bachelor."

"Fine," He sighed. "Then we'll leave tomorrow, for our wedding trip. My folks gave me $10 towards it and refused to take it back, and if they learned we used it for the baby or school Mother swears she'll box my ears. It's not much but it'll do for our tickets across the island and a few nights in a boarding house or hotel. I meant to wait until the typhoid quarantine is over, but making sure you're properly my wife is more important. We can leave in the morning."

"No." I shook my head. "It's a fine idea, but not yet. Let's wait to hear back, and the twins, their birthdays when they'd looked forward so to it. And as I wasn't to be back from Ecco lodge in time I'd promised them both a picnic after church in the orchard. And Monday I'm to see Diana and little Fred, and Tuesday..."

"Fine, then lets talk discretely to the Reverend here tomorrow after church, or Monday morning and ask him to meet us at the Wrights. Fred and Diana can stand as our witnesses and we'll be married."

"We are married..."

"Not properly yet." He growled. "If we are not married this week, then I am confessing the truth to our families and those who matter to us like Fred and Diana. I'm not lying."

"No." I sat up, my braid falling down my shoulder. "Gil, somehow word will get out. And who do we include and not include? Your Aunt Mary Maria? She won't keep her mouth shut. Or Rachel, I love her dearly, but she's not one for keeping secrets. I want our loved ones there too. But I don't want them to know how we messed up. To look Marilla in the eye and admit we fornicated." I felt tears falling down my eyes. "We may not and we truly should not until again everything is finalized with our marriage, and you are truly cleared from the typhoid. It wasn't all painful."

"It was painful?" He whispered.

"Yes..." I spoke slowly. "But I've heard the first time always is. Diana told me she was in pain for a day afterwards. Perhaps men just do not know their own strength? Even sick you were quite strong. You fought quite hard the first time I had to change you. At least you had not the aim of a baby boy."

He blushed. "I... I remember part of it. You begging me to stop. I'm sorry."

I reached out, placing my hand on his on the pillow before his face. "Forgiven. But truthfully Gilbert, we should stick to the plan Miss Lavender proposed, she's written to her cousin and will send by a note the day he writes back. Most trustworthy she swears and we can quietly wed then. Well the license, we made our vows..."

"Anne," He pulled my hand close to his heart. "We made our vows, but we knew then we'd still need to make them again before God and witnesses. We made them thinking that in three years when I'd be Dr. Blythe. You'd meet me in a wedding dress, with a veil over your head and I'd stop breathing for a second at how beautiful you are and to realize you are my bride. To speak our vows again before all our loved ones as you became Anne Blythe. We didn't plan on this, expecting and trying to quietly elope to not make the gossip even worse."

He had not released my hand and half hanging off the cot, I rose, slipping from the cot to beside him on the bed. "They'll just gossip about us more if we rush off after that fight. Lets stand our ground, hold our heads high. We'll plan our trip. You're going to whisk me off on the Island and won't even tell me where, for I won't know where we'll stay. Then onto Uncle Dave, for I would love to meet him. Everything you and your parents have told me, he and his wife sound like Kindred Souls. And the month will be up and we'll redo our wedding night, after everything is fixed in that hotel."

"Fine." He sighed, then smirking he leaned close. "Whose room is on the other side of the wall? I hear someone snoring..."

"Mrs. Lynde's... That was the spare room... We have though spoken too softly for her to hear. THough you can hear through the walls of course..."

His eyes glistened with a smirk in the candle light, then with his voice raised to carry. "What do you mean, Anne-girl, of taking the Philips advice about our bed! Just because Mr. Philips likes to sleep as naked as the day he was born, doesn't mean I have to. You are not giving my night shirts to Davy! What if drunks come again and Mrs. Lynde needs me to rush out of bed again and I'm unprepared. Though I guess she did insist that my place was here, and if that's how you prefer I can't complain..."

"Gilbert!"

He threw a pillow at me laughing softly. As we heard a stream of words from the other side of the wall about setting a good example.

"I am not giving your nightshirts to Davy now or later when we've cleared everything up. In fact I would prefer you keep them and use them regularly. You know things will just be worse with Mrs. Lynde now."

He shrugged reaching over to turn out the lamp. "Well, best get us that license quickly then. I'm tired of lying."

"So am I." I whispered before falling asleep.

I woke facing him again, my eyes blinking as he slept. I left him to sleep and instead rose quietly to dress quickly, reminding myself if he woke and watched he'd seen a bit more once though in high fever, and would see even more one day no doubt. Though I had heard some old married wives who swore they'd never seen their husbands naked that it wasn't necessary. Truly it was all quite confusing.

I felt a stab of guilt as I pulled out the last plug I'd used, finding barely any blood on it. With it stuffed in my hand, the grief of what we lost still fresh, I slipped down the stairs to the kitchen, started the fire with it among the embers and began to prepare breakfast for my family. We'd have other children one day, I reminded myself. Gilbert had too much now though, I'd wait until we were properly married. Then in the privacy of our bed we could grieve together our loss. I couldn't bare though to talk of it yet. When I was secure that I truly was his wife, I could confess it then, I could let myself grieve then. It was practical to not worry about a child to feed yet, but still, my heart ached.

After the excitement of the fire, naturally all eyes were on us still, but the sentiment had changed from the horrible gossip of before, to defending us. "What right had those three drunks to attack Apple Bough and fight with Gilbert Blythe over his wife's honor. Just because they were scared of the typhoid and went up and eloped. The Lord knows we've all watched that boy pine over that girl since they were school children." I heard Mrs. Bell, the superintendent's wife speak. "No doubt the moment she said yes he ran for the reverend before she got a chance to say no. And to nurse him, worry over him, and praise Providence that any child that may have come from their wedding night, she's not far enough along for Charlie Sloane's theory that she's months along. Even a first time like her would be showing soon. Why Jenny Dark, she was Jenny Gillis you remember her? Built just like Anne. Only a few years older mind you. Why she was showing in her third month! No, if Charlie Sloane's theory is right the night he says he saw them meet in the woods. Why she'd be nearly five months along now. No, there's no reason public opinion should be what it was. They were married properly and if Anne says it, why we all know she wouldn't lie, or Gilbert. Then they were..."

I was pulled then and heard no more of it by Dora, who insisted on sitting between Gilbert and myself, smiling up at him, then at me. She then whispered just as church was about to start. "Mrs. Lynde convinced Marilla this morning that I am to have the east gable room when you leave for your wedding trip, soon as things settle down and the drunks are dealt with. Oh, I don't mind sharing with Marilla, but my own room! Minnie May used to share with Diana and said that you and Diana sent signals through your windows. Oh you will teach us them will you not? May I go with you to visit Diana tomorrow? And Minnie May? We must learn the signals! Mrs. Lynde said something about Gilbert's comfort and night clothes would be better protected at Apple Bough. Davy unless escorted by an adult isn't allowed to leave Green Gables and his room is to be locked and window nailed shut for a month. Last time he did that he escaped to the roof with Mrs. Lynde's unmentionables and made a flag out of them. Insisted he was sailing the seven seas. She's quite convinced he's got his eyes on Gilbert's night shirts for the same reason."

I tried not to laugh, yet once glance at the twinkle in Gilbert's eyes, I'd been forced to bite my lips and stare straight at the minister throughout the service.

We had a picnic with the twins that afternoon, Davy's one concession to his banishment. We even had a cake for them, and when a timid Dora asked Davy and Gilbert teach her how to defend herself, Gilbert with Davy's assistance, to the horror of Rachel Lynde when she came to find us, and Marilla's chuckles, taught both Dora and the basics of defending ourselves in a fist fight until we both could with either himself or Davy attacking us escape quickly.

Again that night he slept in my bed, and I the cot, and again I was in bed when he came in to prepare for the night having locked and checked the house, chuckling at a lecture he'd gotten from both Marilla and Rachel about propriety and night shirts were always to be worn at Green Gables, even if Mr. Philips considers them optional in his hotel among his married clientele.

We both laughed softly as he recounted it, only for his voice to become serious. "Anne, our wedding trip..."

"We've still a week left of the quarantine, Gil." I whispered. "You said yourself you want a proper wedding night that night. Well, we best wait. Anyways tomorrow I'm taking Dora and Minnie May to see Diana and little Fred for tea. And we're to teach them the signals Diana and I used. And..."

He put a hand to my lips. "Anne Shirley soon to be Blythe properly... Fine. I'll tell our folks that we'll leave in a week. And Write to Uncle Dave to expect us a few days after that."

I kissed his hand before he released him, watching as he smiled at me and turned out the lamp. "If Im' not married properly with you in my bed next week, I might call mutiny with Davy and you'll find your unmentionables waving in the wind from the wind vine."

We held hands as we slept, and he woke before me that morning, his hand dropping my own waking me. He rose, dressed as I kept my eyes averted then went down to help with the morning chores before heading over to spend the day helping his parents with the clean up more of the barn. I though laid in bed a few minutes longer before rising to dress, instead when he slipped out I slipped out of the cot into my own bed, realizing that I'd only have days, less then a week in my dear east gable before it became Dora's. That when we'd return and all future trips home we'd be in the spare room at Apple Bough.

So I clung to every memory realizing it might be the last. The deep cleaning each room got on Mondays. And the chores set for decades at Green Gables, that Marilla followed efficiently to keep one of the most well ordered and neat homes in Avonlea for decades with. I clung to the twins as we stopped by Apple Bough on our way to the Wright Farm, offering to bring Gilbert along, only worry for making sure all was secure before rain came, something that the sailors were all feeling in their bones John's Blythe said when he'd gone to Carmody that morning for some supplies. He did though promise to come later, after he'd fetched the next load of supplies for his parents to secure from the weather the animals better if a good storm did hit that night.

So I drove the two girls in the buggy, the three of us squeezed along that Dora had to cling to me to not fall off, and Minnie May on the other side barely clinging to my other arm. They'd yet to find the perfect name, Fred & Diana, and had yet to name their little farm, and I'd offered a heap of names, yet none suited Fred who was contented with it being known simply as Fred Wright's place. So we'd arrived and the three of us spent a good half an hour cooing over the baby, who had Fred's looks, but like all babies was sweet, despite his looks. We'd then settled for tea, and with tears and stories Diana and I taught the girls the signals we'd devices and made them practice with a lantern and card stock that Diana had in her kitchen. We were just about to glance out to see if Gilbert had arrived, or Fred returned from the field when I gasped and nearly fainted.

Gilbert walked up, his face more bloody and bruised then ti already had been, his arm clutched to his side, as Fred Wright helped him, leading the Blythe's horse and wagon to the yard where he left it. I rushed towards them barely registering Fred turn to unhitch the horse as Gilbert collapsed into my arms, beaten and blue, with a wad of cloth stuffed up his nose, bloody and dark.

—*—*—*—*—

Author's Note: So whom do you think Gilbert fought?