Typhoid & Gossip Ch 48: Gilbert - Wedding Trip, an anne of green gables series fanfic

Author's Note:

I'll be honest, that fire caused a detour on the story that wasn't planned, and with it the fight that I hadn't decided whom Gilbert fought. Most of the votes were for Charlie though and i was leaning that way, though was seriously considering Mr. Philips. Let's just say he'll be an issue later. I hope everyone had a lovely resurrection Sunday, and a great time with family and loved ones. I admit, that rather then writing in my spare time my research on the correct garments to put in the details for Anne such as in her corset inspired me when I saw some fabric in my stash that would work for a corset. So it's nearly bedtime and I'm just getting to editing and adding in the fight (thankfully the later part was already written), but I have been happily drafting, cutting and basting the fabric together to form a mockup for a corset going off a scaled pattern for a 1890s corset. And no I am not using whalebone for the boning... I'm using zip ties! Anyways, to those curious No, Anne would not have made her own corset. Corsets were made in a factory and mass produced or by a specialist whom I assume was called a corsetier, a specialist who would make them. Due to LM Montgomery's descriptions of Anne I would assume she'd wear an ill fitting corset (designed for someone shorter with more figure she'd have a little gaping) until Phil would have insisted on her getting a custom corset. Most likely made in a factory but to her measurements.

Denie1943 - Doing well! Thanks for the encouragement and yes we'll get a happy ending... eventually. I'm afraid that we should have over 30 more chapters at the current outline.

Faith-hope-and-glory - Yes, this is exploring a darker side of Avonlea, though perhaps for drama went a little farther then it should have or needed to. Though I think the drunks showing up is more likely then Frank Bell, after writing it I realized Dora is just turning 13, and Frank Bell is likely 15? Anyways not as likely he'd try that. And yes, I don't think a Sloane would enter a fight without a calculated chance of looking the better man and winning. And I'm afraid that I might go on a rabbit trail at times about the fashions of the era, because they speak so much to the details of the story. Take for example the chapter where Anne is dressing, and she and Gilbert are arguing about how they're going to handle the gossip. The details of every layer. Though I forgot her corset cover I think.

BJMccoy - :) Good answer on Charlie. See above but it was the votes that decided it :D

YodaChick: Oh don't worry Roy will be back and hear the rumors... and we'll see about the night shirts... I'm afraid the threat of Gilbert rebelling and going onto the roof to fly Anne & Mrs. Lynde's night shirts is a bit more likely sometime soon (though not planned for so don't look for it... still

— Gilbert —

Monday, July 25th, 3:00pm

Apple Bough, Avonlea, PEI

I'd been working with Dad to clean out the barn. In total, the damage was less bad once the ash and soot had been cleared out. Half of it was still standing, though it would need a new roof, and the loft was unsafe and sagging, and too dangerous to keep any of the animals in. Yet, with some work we'd have it safe once more, though open to the elements. They'd planned to reroof it in the fall at least, so it wasn't quite the blow. Thankfully several folks had stopped by all day, the men promising to come and help rebuild soon as we set a date. The drunks had been sailors, their leader a local and cousin to the Bells, something Superintendent Bell gushed on and on about him being a bad apple, not representing the rest of the family and that soon as he could he'd have some extra wood ordered to help with the rebuilding. If we would drop the charges against his cousin Elias. So with a promise of a proper apology coming, and the funds for the wood to rebuild, we all breathed a sigh of relief, and Dad talked of setting the barn raising for when I returned from my wedding trip. "Still should have one son."

It was the perfect excuse, though everything in me desired to confess all to them, I knew Aunt Mary Maria, still unwilling to leave would somehow overhear and grudgingly I had to admit to Anne's logic the less who knew the truth the easier the gossip would be to control. So, when we ran out of some supplies, I took the wagon to Carmody to pick up from the lumber yard what we'd need before swinging by the join Anne at the Wrights for tea. I'd hitched the horse, my thoughts on Anne and our future child. I'd gotten a moment that morning when we'd been finishing the morning chores and were about to sit down to eat when I'd reached out to brush Anne's stomach to stay hello to my child when she'd flinched, held her month and suddenly rushed out the kitchen door to loose her stomach in the bushes. I'd moved to follow only to be stopped by Mrs. Lynde. "Poor girl. I was just as bad with half my children though each one's different. I just purchased some fine lawn fabric to start the baby things. You'll want plenty of gowns and diapers and more. They're always spoiling their clothes and the wash you'll find will double or triple with a babe. No need to worry and see a doctor about it. I see it in your eyes young man. Women have been birthing since Eve. Why I had twelve, though two died infants. Anne's fine, just a little morning sickness."

So I was thinking of her that winter in our little rooms, now glad I had the apartment of rooms vs the single room I'd planned on until Mrs. Carol had given me no other option, graduate students stayed on the top floor and took their meals in her parlor. So thinking of Anne round with our child I'd been taken quite by surprise by Charlie.

"So that babe she's carrying, yours or that Gardiner fella she was seeing while she met you secretly? I'm appalled I was your roommate for so long."

I threw the first punch. He actually managed a few hits, due to my weakened state, though as bad as I felt after he finally surrendered and I made him swear never to speak ill of Anne or my child again, or I would find out and track him down before I knocked him out. I didn't bother with the supplies, instead wanting to escape the crowd staring at us and watching, I stuffed my handkerchief into my nose to stop the bleeding, and forced myself to focus on road, just get to the Wrights.

Fred found me nearly there, as the blood loss for the cut to my head I'd gotten at the bonfire had reopened along with several bruises on my head and gut, plus a few bite marks on my arms. Fred found me coming in from the field, barely able to drive the horse. He helped me down the last few yards, abandoning the horse and wagon in the yard limping towards the house where the shocked girls gasped on the steps. I heard their gasps before Anne rushed towards us, taking me into her arms, before leading me to the house. I wasn't aware of much then, the reserves of energy I'd used for the fight and getting there had been used up.

I woke on the the Wright's spare room bed, with Anne cleaning my wounds. "We best not make a habit of this." I joked. "You've had more experience tending the sick bed this summer then I have and I'm the one to be a doctor."

"Fred said he found you, oh Gil who could have done this to you? Not those drunks again?"

"Charlie. Thought he'd have a chance with me still recovering from everything. Still, he publicly apologized and swore to never speak bad of you or our child again. Or I will lick him good and he knows it. Knocked him out after he confessed. Shouldn't have, but I was fed up with what he was implying. That you'd been intimate with both me and Roy Gardiner."

"Of course not! Only you. Still, first the drunks and now Charlie? How could those men come attacking our homes? In our own village. We've known them for years, well not well…"

"Two of them were sailors and the third's never been known to do good. Proper Heathens as Mrs. Lynde kept repeating all day yesterday."

"Certainly proper heathens!" Anne cried. "Will we face those like them due to the gossip our whole lives? When will it die down?"

"Soon." I sighed. "I know we're supposed to go to visit that minister in a little over a week but with the fire soon as the men are in jail I think we best leave sooner. They won't bother Green Gables if everyone knows we're on our wedding trip. And Charlie at least knows to not spread any more gossip."

She leaned her head upon my shoulder. "Gil, Miss Lavender hadn't heard back yet, but said he should be there, not the best corespondent, though he wrote her a month ago. And you're not fit for anywhere but bed for a few days."

"Fine, a day. We'll head home to Green Gables..."

"I already sent the girls home. Dora is going to spend the night anyways with Minnie May, and truthfully right now Mrs. Lynde with a shot gun is far more scary then you look. Though, I doubt after your fights no one would dare try anything. Dr. Spenser was by before you woke up. Two days in bed nothing broken though.

"Just a cracked rib." I grunted. "All we can do for that is wrap it. Fine, two days and we leave. You should hear from Reverend Lewis by then. No more delays. If he's not available, then we hang the gossip and just do it the way we should have in the first place."

"He will be available. Oh Gil, our own private wedding in Hester Grays Garden, that was the memory I will always cherish, I wouldn't trade it for the perfect day with all our loved ones, for we could not have spoken such depths of devotion before an audience..."

I reached to grab her hand. "For our child, we'll build a future with no regrets."

She bit her lip glanced away, then half smiled. "But what about for us?"

"But it's not just us anymore. It's for our family."

Diana and little Fred came in next, and soon Fred joined us, and somehow Diana had us picnicking on her spare room bed making us swear to never tell their parents of such improper behavior.

"So Anne is rather poetic, and lacking in any substantial detail of your wedding. Though I must admit the wedding sounds like what you two would choose." Diana spoke suddenly between bites of chicken. "Eloping suddenly soon as Gilbert proposed with no thought to family or friends who might have wanted to be there. And Anne insisting on the sort of wedding, in a garden with everything waxing poetic and romantic sounds like the wedding that would have given Marilla and Mrs. Lynde conniptions. But I must admit, Stella was speaking with me before the announcement and your fall at the bonfire. That was one no one in Avonlea will forget, that bonfire. Still, she mentioned that Anne you'd left the wedding for Phil early with a desire to come home and surprise us all early and you showed up that afternoon married to Gilbert and checking into a hotel!"

Sick of the lies. Sick of pretending. Sick of the gossip. Thriving for the truth before Anne could spin the story I blurted. "We're still not married."

"Gil..."

"I'm sick of the lies Anne. We can trust our real friends. I was fevered, didn't know what was real and what was a dream. Dreamed of a future with Anne I never could have and thought if Anne was there, it must be that dream. We got carried away, and then the day of that bonfire, we were engaged, still are really. Well, we thought we'd have to wait three years for me to be a Doctor. Death staring you in the face makes you want to cherish. We knew it wasn't the real vows, but we'd stopped at Hester Gray's garden. That wedding Anne talks about, that was there. Our own vows, and yes I take them seriously. We showed up, oblivious to that gossip and expected to be announcing our engagement. Then to protect our child, because we'd well you know... got carried away."

"I panicked," Anne spoke softly, looking down at her lap. "I couldn't hide what we'd done. Not with Mr. Philips having walked in on us, and talking to all about what he'd seen. We did make our vows, and considered ourselves married in spirit if not in letter for three more years. I was scared we might be expecting and..."

"Mrs. Lynde confirmed it." I cut in. "And that child doesn't deserve the gossip." I glanced at Anne who had gone white. "We were going to visit Reverend Lewis but if Fred can get our own minister out here, Reverend Knightly, that seems a lot safer."

"Sure." Fred nodded. "I'll stop by, say Diana wants to have him to tea, to discuss Little Fred's Christening."

"No," Diana shook her head. "He won't do. He won't gossip, but with all eyes on Anne and Gilbert, and the Pyes living right next door? No, I've heard rumors questioning as no one's seen a marriage license. We'll use that as a backup. You'll be Little Fred's godparents, though we'll need another godfather we can trust with the secret. We'd thought of one of Fred's brothers. No, you best rest up and soon as you can go visit that Reverend Lewis. Right now all eyes near Avonlea are on the two of you as though you were the hero's in one of those dreadful dime novels. I hate reading them yet can't put them down. They remind me too much of our story club..."

And so it was decided. Oh we were chaperoned, and Anne slept on a cot in little Fred's room, but for the most part we relaxed with out the constant lying, and planned our wedding trip. The sooner we could leave the better.

We packed our two bags, again the same valice and carpet bag Anne told me we'd carried when we'd met on the train coming home. And Thursday mid morning, Davy drove us to the station in Carmody to catch the train to Charlottetown. We reached Charlottetown where we ate sandwiches for luncheon before catching the east bound train, late as usual.

We sat holding hands as we wove through the island. There isn't a train with more twists and turns then the Island train I think. It'd weave around farms, small hills, and occasionally sink into the soft red sand, where crews would have to reinforce the track with extra gravel from the main land. We'd even had to stop waiting for them to repair the tracks before continuing on to the end of the line at Souris. It was late afternoon as we climbed down. There was a boarding house there near the shore where the windows looked out to the gulf of St. Lawrence, and we'd secured a room leaving our bags there on the bed before, turning to walk the four miles across the Rollo Bay to the village of Rollo where the Reverend Lewis lived.

So arm in arm after a light tea in the boarding house we wandered across the shore towards Rollo. We'd arrived nearing supper time, and asked some of the locals to point us towards the Reverend Lewis's home, a cousin of our friends whom we promised to visit and drop off some letters, which thankfully was the truth.

It was a wonderful trip like old times, yet better. I dreamed of walks the next spring and summer along the shore in Kingsport after church with our child. I wrapped my arm close around her waist, thinking of the child growing. The one that made all the risks, and nightmares I had of loosing the scholarship worth it. Anne and I weren't innocent, but our child was.

So it was nearing supper time when we finally turned up the lane for the Manse. A woman who made me think of Mrs. Lynde in build, and Marilla in temperament met us at the door. "How can I help you?"

"Is the reverend in?"

"'Fraid not. Got an ulcer and went Charlottetown for surgery. Was in a mighty bit of pain. He'd been sneaking too many of my sweets. Tried to treat it by wearing one of my corsets. Well I never!l

I glanced at Anne, who clutched to my arm.

"When will he be back?"

"Week I'd say." She shrugged. "If you're needing a reverend there's one in Souris. His wife though has a loose tongue if you're eloping..."

"We just have some letters from his cousin Lavender. She and her husband are dear friends of ours and as we were heading this way asked us to personally deliver. We can just return..." Anne rambled.

"Best give to me. Should be back in a week, yet he'll likely as well die. Well only boarding house is in Souris, and that's over an hour walk even for you young folk, let me get you a bite and I'll tuck the letters in his study. Make sure he sees them."

"We can just bring them on the end of our journey..." I suggested.

"Nonsense, and I don't blame Mrs. Irving to prefer friends deliver important messages. I'm sure it's quite important and my son is a porter out that way, And promised to visit for the weekend in a few weeks. I'll be looking forward to that visit mind you. He hears a heap of stories at the White Sands hotel. Ever been there? Now here's some sandwiches for the journey. Those the letters?"

And then before we could answer we were pushed out the door, minus the letters and with two thick sandwiches in our hands and the mentioning of a spring in the woods on our way. "Far better then the well water..."

—*—*—*—*—*—*—

Author's Note: The reverend at this time in Avonlea who replaced the Allens after they left was unnamed as far as I can remember. If someone remembers his name I'll replace, otherwise - Knightly will do.

So... it was Charlie in the end, and Charlie will not be gossiping again about Anne and Gilbert. But what will they do now? What with Reverend Lewis having a noisy housekeeper. Love all your comments :)...