A small one-shot, a tidbit of a story that came to me after seeing an old magazine illustration about a fictional Bessie reading her correspondence in the bath as it was her one chance for privacy.

Feeling rather romantic at the moment as well so it's a touch of whimsey.

July 1919

The sun was bright within the sky as two lovers sat in the sanctuary of Rainbow Valley. Rilla Blythe and her beau Kenneth Ford making use of the time alone. Hands clasped, and a flush on their faces. His 5'clock shadow rubbing against her cheek, lips together.

"Do you have to go?" Rilla asked quietly as if the wood nymphs might hear them.

"I'll be back in October," he says against her lips. "And then with my family and then we can be married in December."

"You'll write?" She asks next, how were they still more letters to be between them?

"Haven't I always?" He says caressing the side of her face, and she moved into it. Cuddled in his arms, in-between his legs as he rested against the tree. Her skirt bunched up around her legs, showing off delicate silk stockings that had tiny fancy clocking around her ankles.

If anyone knew they were here. If anyone saw them. There would be words said most likely.

"I suppose so?" Rilla laughs lightly kissing him gently. "They meant everything to me, those letters. I just wanted those letters to show up because if they were arriving it meant you were alive and that was all that mattered to me."

"The men would rib me about your letters, apparently I would have this goofy smile on my face when I saw your handwriting," Ken admits. "It came down that I schooled myself to not react until I found a secluded corner or tree depending on where I was for that letter."

"Did I ever tell you where I read most of your letters?" Rilla asked him.

"I can only assume out here?" Ken says looking about the valley.

"One might think that yes, but no," Rilla says stealing a kiss for him. "I will say though, I much preferred when you wrote in pencil of course. Less chance of being ruined."

"The little boy?" Ken asks, thinking keeping a toddler from ruining things was common enough.

"Jims no, he was a saint of a child, no it was much riskier for ruining your letters," Rilla tells him, her face softening at the thought of her little, not so little war baby.

"Well, now my dear, you have my curiosity peaked?" Ken says humming with a smirk on his face.

"In the bath," Rilla told him. "I would wait until Jims went to bed and excuse myself for a bath and I would have this ritual of pinning up my hair in some way I hoped you may like and read your letter in the bathtub. Ever so carefully so the ink wouldn't run from the steam of course..."

"That is one delectable image my dear," Ken murmurs, his lips catching the side of her neck. "One I would really enjoy seeing for myself," his voice goes low.

"Don't be imprudent," Rilla chastises him, her face going red.

She understands why her parents made her wait and have a longer engagement than they originally have wished. In the back of her mind at the very least, she tried too, it often felt like torture every fortnight he had to be away from her. Being around him was a whirlwind of emotions. Being around him made everything feel completely right.

There had been arguments over it, Aunt Diana who was over for a visit once even reminded her that her own parents made her wait three years before they allowed her and Uncle Fred to marry. Unlike her own parents who waited for threes because her father was in medical school.

Rilla was sure that Ken and Uncle and Fred both had a look of discomfort on their face. Three years! She would be twenty-three at that point! Ken would be, twenty-nine! It seemed unlawful of them to request such a thing.

Suddenly six months wasn't too horrible of a thing to go through, and they decided to follow the tradition of his family and get married over the holidays.

Christmas Eve.

Of course, there were some underhand comments from the old matrons of Glen St Mary. Who would wish to marry on Christmas Eve? No one will see her at the Christmas Morning sermon of course. Her parents will be lucky to see her at all! It almost makes the decision to set up a home in Toronto even better in her mind.

"When do you leave?" Rilla asks him with a sigh.

"Friday evening," Ken says quietly reminding her. He breathes in the scent of her hair before placing a kiss on the top of her ruddy curls.

"You won't forget me will you?" Rilla asks him letting her own fears get the better of her. Those two weeks were still fresh in her mind when he came back from the war.

"I don't think I can ever forget you, five years too late for that," Ken says low in his throat. He grasps her left hand. Tracing over the ring that he put on her finger, a ruby with two small diamonds around it. "I can't wait to marry you."

Rilla looks up at him with her perfect smile. "Me too."

There you have it a small one-shot, that will stay a one-shot. Hope everyone enjoyed my random musing of the day!