I know long pauses and I don't like doing it either! Its been a crazy 6 months but today I had some time to myself and this doesn't really happen! But I'm doing my best I'm sorry it's so here there and everywhere
love Carrots x
here's the wedding!
Green Gables Old Orchard sang that day.
The morning had been packed with preparing the Orchard with chairs and a small stand for Jo to officiate. The only thing which had needed to be moved was an archway which had been covered with flowers stood behind Jo on the stand. The isles were decorated down one side, with the flowers and ribbons, the tables were tucked on the far side of the orchard waiting to be put up once the ceremony was complete.
Gilbert paced as midday approached. His suit was certainly less formal then he saw himself in when he married but he was no less grateful for it being so. Light grey trousers were held up brown suspenders top of the off white shirt he wore with a Ivory bow tie. He had a light grey jacket on the back of his chair but truth was it was such a warm day he didn't need it and his pacing wasn't helping.
"Gil, you have to relax." Josh smiled at his friend in a matching outfit.
"Just nervous." Gilbert told him.
"I figured as much with the pacing." Josh joked. "But mate seriously," he said stilling Gilbert putting his hands on his friend shoulders, "save some energy for the wedding night." He said with a joking smile and a wink of the eye which made Gilbert chuckle "the guests haven't started arriving yet." He reminded Gilbert. "If it gets to 1pm and she hasn't come I promise you, you can start panicking then."
This outright made Gilbert laugh "I suppose that's why you're best man."
"Ah see!" Josh nodded towards the entrance to the garden "here is Marilla." He alerted Gilbert "She will be able to inform you of your impending doom, or maybe Anne will see sense and change her mind." He muttered in Gilbert's ear with a sly grin which made Gilbert do a double take at his friend before they both burst into laughter.
Marilla looked seriously at the two before Gilbert managed to straighten his face.
"I'm glad to find you in such high spirits." Marilla smiled.
"Josh was just calming my nerves." Gilbert admitted before Marilla held up his button hole, Gilbert smiled at the pink rose as Marilla handed the one for him and Josh.
"I have to ask," Josh asked. "Pink?" he asked.
"Its the best colour rose." Gilbert smiled attaching the rose to this buttonhole.
"Gilbert!" His mother waved as they walked in the orchard.
"Arrival of your parents." Josh smiled, "And so it begins."
"Don't let Small Anne Cordelia spoil her clothes," warned Diana anxiously to Fred and Dora from the hallway before she came into Anne's bedroom again.
"You needn't be afraid to trust her with Dora," said Marilla. "That child is more sensible and careful than most of the mothers I've known. She's really a wonder in some ways. Not much like that other harum-scarum I brought up." Marilla smiled across at Anne as Anne smiled back through the mirror, It might even be suspected that she liked the harum-scarum best after all.
"Look at today Anne! You certainly have a lovely day for your wedding, Anne," said Diana, "You couldn't have had a finer one."
Anne smiled at her friend "It was always going to be a beautiful day!" Anne smiled contently "Its an echo of eternity.This is my day of days, you know. I'm so happy I want every one else to be happy, too."
"How could they not be?" Diana smiled at her again through the mirror "You're marrying Gilbert!" she whispered.
"I think people know." Anne whispered back.
"Are you ready Anne?" Asked Marilla, Anne nodded in return. "I'll go and let the minister know." She said walking out the room.
There was silence between the two for a moment before Diana asked her "I don't know everything about you do I?" she asked Anne. Anne looked at her confused for a moment before Diana continued "You don't talk about what happened before you came here, at least not to me and I wonder if it might help solve the enigma which is Anne Shirley."
"Di, you know all you need to about me, truly." Anne told her.
"And Gilbert knows more." She stated softly. "Of course its how it should be, but has he helped you get over your past?" she asked Anne.
Anne sighed and thought for a moment. "Before Avonlea, before here, everything that happened felt like another persons life." She told Diana. "There are things which Gilbert has helped with a great deal, I think my relationship with anyone else, indeed why I think it wouldn't have worked with Roy, Is because I've needed extra assurances which normally isn't relevant, and trust in another person, full trust was hard to give. I was, when I came here completely independent of the human condition of 'love'. I was more independent in a lot of ways which would hinder a life with anyone else." She sighed "Oh but Diana don't you see, its not just Gilbert who had a huge effect on me. Don't you remember how I reacted to you and Fred getting engaged?" she asked Diana "It was a huge deal, but you both showed me, you and Fred, what happiness looked like, yes for you, but it was a glimpse, and I think, as much as Marilla says Avonlea needed me, I needed Avonlea." She smiled.
"I remember the day I told you I was marrying Fred." Diana chuckled. "And look at you now."
With this Marilla came back in the room and Diana excused herself.
"Bride of Green Gables." Marilla said proudly, as Anne looked in the mirror. "Is something wrong?" Marilla asked.
"Something is missing." She said softly. Gilbert's pearl bracelet round her arm and her parents rings off her neck. She let out a soft sigh and reached into her bedside table and pulled out an old blue ribbon.
Marilla smiled at the memory, the younger sixteen year old girl walking through the door.
"Will you call me Cordelia?" Anne had asked her that first day.
"Call you Cordelia?" Marilla questioned her. "Is that your name?" she asked.
"Well no its not exactly my name but wouldn't it be lovely to be called Cordelia." Anne had answered her. "As soon as I'm able to I want to change my name to Cordelia so it makes sense for people here to call me Cordelia." She had continued "But don't worry, I'll save the money myself, I'm a hard worker I'll get a part time job." She had chattered, smoothing her hair the blue ribbon loosing but not coming out as she talked.
"Your name now?" Marilla had asked.
"Anne Shirley. Plain, old unromantic Anne Shirley."
"Anne Shirley is a fine sensible name and hardly one to be ashamed of."
"Oh I'm not ashamed of it, but if you will call me Anne can you be sure to spell it with an 'e'."
Marilla smiled as the old faded blue ribbon which was in her hair that day tied around her waist. "That isn't in the colour scheme." Marilla smiled.
"No," Anne agreed, "but a little quirk, is what makes things perfect sometimes."
Marilla smiled walking her down and through the kitchen into the garden.
"You kept a seat for him." Marilla smiled "you kept a seat for them all." Seeing the first row, with the exception of her own seat being empty but notes on each
Reserved for Joyce Blythe
Reserved for Matthew Cuthbert
Reserved for Walter Shirley
Reserved for Bertha Shirley
"You don't mind sitting on your own do you?" Anne asked her.
Marilla smiled as they got to the fence just before they were in sight from the garden. "I'll be in the finest company." She told Anne before they linked arms.
Gilbert, waiting for her, looked up at her with adoring eyes and a small gasp left his chest. She was his at last, this evasive, long-sought Anne, It was to him she was coming in the sweet surrender of the bride.
Then, before she reached the top of the aisle a fear came over him.
Was he worthy of her? Could he make her as happy as he hoped? If he failed her—if he could not measure up to her standard of manhood—
"You struck gold." He heard from Josh.
Gilbert couldn't take his eyes off her. There he heard the song from long ago, "I knew I loved you..." started. Gilbert looked up in amazement as Anne smiled at him as she walked towards him, knowing the song and all its meaning.
Her bridal wear was a sheer chiffon fabric, with a strappy knee length slip underneath. A loose boat neck top with a bell sleeve tucked in at the waist. The top was an embroidered scene of flowers and vines , the skirt was a floor length maxi skirt, reminded Gilbert of a stream, flowing to the ground. Her veil silk organza tucked into her hair and hairstyle came out trailed down her back and came round the back of her mid thigh. As she walked her strappy shoes adored in little pearls with an open front and a supported back, the heel barely there adding just an inch to Anne's already tall slender figure.
Her hair was half up and half down her curls like beach waves, twirled back on each side of the veil in her hair she'd slid some fresh lily of the valleys haloing her head. Loose curls played around her face framing it. In her hand she carried the pink roses which matched Gilbert's own button hole.
As they reached the front then, she held out her hand to him, their eyes met and all doubt was swept away in a glad certainty. They belonged to each other; and, no matter what life might hold for them, it could never alter that. Their happiness was in each other's keeping and both were unafraid.
"Wow!" he whispered to his bride.
"Do you like?" she whispered to him.
"Very much." He told her quickly. "You look like a woodland queen." He told her.
She smiled "I feel like a queen today." Gilbert she told him.
"You are." He whispered back. "My Queen Anne."
Minister Jo married them. Above the sound of the minister a bird sang sweetly from some hidden bough while Gilbert and Anne repeated their deathless vows. Anne heard it and thrilled to it; Gilbert heard it, and wondered only that all the birds in the world had not burst into jubilant song; After the words were exchange Anne and Gilbert took a seat, they looked around their intimate party of friends around them.
Gilbert's parents sat on the front row with Josh on one side of them and a disgruntled looking Aunt Mary Maria on the other, not that her sour expression wavered the young couples happiness, no indeed her consistency amused them both.
On the other side sat Marilla and the four empty chairs, (which to Aunt Mary Maria was rather peculiar, as with everything else Anne and Gilbert had decided upon in their lives, wasn't it unlucky for there to be empty seats, a 'fact' Gilbert was sure she had made up).
Behind Gilbert's parents were Phil and with her (and Jo's) first born son, the boy had a colouring crayon and it was unclear on whether or not he was chewing the crayon or using it to draw. And sitting next to them was Stephen, Lavender & Paul Irving.
Behind Marilla were Diana and Fred, along with Anne Cordelia and Fred Jr. And Miss Stacy.
Josie and Charlie, Moody with Mrs Lynde, Davy and Thea were on the next row back their Kingsport friends, Leslie and Owen, Cornelia and Marshall, Captain Jim, Katherine and Jenny.
Many in Avonlea would later say they were surprised by the small number of attendee's at the wedding, but to those who knew Gilbert and Anne, they knew that A small party, full of love, was all that was needed for them.
The turn around was fast after the ceremony, the chairs being reorganised in the orchard by Diana into the wedding meal. The photographer taking pictures of the happy couple had plenty of time to get in shot, both the formal ones and some informal while the guest talked among themselves and the tables and chair were ready in the Orchard.
Josh was the first one up to the microphone when it was all set up and the photographer was finished, when he proclaimed "Ladies and Gentlemen, Girls and boys can I take the great pleasure of welcoming for the first time Doctor and Mrs Blythe!" The small group cheered as Anne and Gilbert came back in, hand in hand and looking as loved up as ever. "Now I believe this is a wedding and there will be dancing and there will be food and booze but first, the bride has something she wishes to say, and anyone who knows the bride knows not to deny her it." Which received some chuckles in the group "Ladies and Gentlemen Mrs Anne Blythe." Again the group clapped, as much to Gilbert perplexity Anne went up to the small stage.
"Thank you everyone." Anne smiled and she stood at the mic "and thank you Joshua for that tribute." She said with a playful glare at the best man. "I'm not making a speech, don't worry, but there was something I wanted to do, first before anything else." She admitted before Diana slipped a book in Anne's hands which intrigued Gilbert more. "So lots of you know I'm a writer," she admitted "and my first book was published quite some time ago." She smiled and looked at Gilbert "well I've been busy, and not even my now husband knew this but with good reason. My second book has been published..." she said as Gilbert's mouth fell in amazement "it was actually ready a couple of months ago but working at the publishers who published it I could actually pull strings." She smiled wider before she looked directly at Gilbert "So I could give you this, as a wedding gift." She told him as the book outstretched before him, be smiled confused but still took the book and looked down at it in amazement.
There the title made him chuckle 'Averil's Atonement' before the authoress's name gleamed before him.
"Anne Blythe." He said amazed.
She smiled coming closer to him as people watched. "I wanted you, to be the first with it." She admitted.
"Averil's Atonement?" he asked her.
To which she laughed "It's not what it was." She admitted. "I'm just glad those thieves made me change the name of the title before they would take on my work." She continued.
Gilbert opened it to the dedication.
"For it has been said dearest Husband, Joy cometh in the morning. Psalms 30:5" Gilbert read, then traced the page with the dedication and his smile lighting up. "Anne that's perfect." He said to her gathering her in his arms and kissing her passionately despite the spectators to the kiss.
Josh had taken the stage again and said "and with that lets get this dancing started. Can the bride and groom take their places?" he asked them, which only stopped them from the kiss. Gilbert led her to the dancefloor where the small band started to play the familiar song, Gilbert put down the book not realising at first the song was being played for a second time that day.
Gilbert smiled at his wife as they, came together and swayed to the music. She looked up at him ever the blushing bride. "Did I tell you, you look beautiful?" he asked her.
She grinned more a pinkness at her cheek. "Thank you." She said to him.
"No, thank you!" he said with a glint in his eye. "I love it, all of this." He told her.
"Me too." She agreed.
"You walked down the aisle to me, this first dance, to your parent..." he started.
"Its our song." Anne ended for him.
"Anne..." He whispered.
"Gilbert!" she emphasised, "please believe me it belongs to us now, you were the first one I told about it, you were there to heal that and a lot of other wounds." She smiled at him. "It is my mother's song, but you know its ours too, it links them back to you, I have memory of you and my mother when I hear it, what could be more perfect?" she asked him.
"You." He smiled still holding her in his arms. "And can I just say, that dress Anne!" he said looking down at it.
"Yeah?" she asked.
"Oh yeah!" he agreed which made her chuckle. "I mean wowzer!" he exclaimed. "If there was ever a reason to get excited about our wedding night, its seeing what is under this dress!" he flirted.
Anne faked her shock "Doctor Blythe!" she reprimanded him. "You like it?" she asked him before she blushed in a nod which made him smile wider. "Then you're going to love what I have planned for tonight."
"Oh?" he whispered with a blush of his own. "I think I shall enjoy having you as a wife!"
The dancing came to a close where they sat round the table. Shaped in a rectangle it was quite easy to fit the snug group around it, with a small wedding party a huge table wasn't needed. When planning the table neither Anne nor Gilbert wanted there to be a 'head' table. Gilbert had suggested a round table, like in the legend of King Arthur before Marilla had pointed out how impractical it would be, not to mention next to impossible to find a round table that large. Mrs Blythe had chuckled at his disappointment but soon both bride to be and mother to the groom had heartily laughed with Gilbert when tongue in cheek he suggested all the old football players dress in suits of armour and give them a sword arch. Marilla had rolled her eyes bringing the attention back to the tables where the final suggestion of rectangle tables came from.
Josh stood tapping his glass with his spoon and grinned at the pair. "Any other best man would have a list of ill deeds to embarrass the groom with in front of his childhood friends, his family who actually believe his behaviour to be perfect at all times." As people chuckled and Gilbert's mother looked worried Josh took a heavy sigh "Alas, Mrs Blythe," he said addressing Gilbert's mother "it seems as though this time its actually true." He said which made his mother relax with a smiled to her son. "So then, I would turn to the bride's behaviour, and hope she would have a sense of humour about it." Again he sighed and laughed "but again, I am disappointed, for it seems any mishaps performed by the bride is already well documented here in Avonlea, so instead, its forced my hand to be serious." He glanced at the pair who were both grinning wickedly "Thanks a lot." He cleared his throat "So I'll take you back to our first year in college, I meet Gilbert in class and a bunch of us arrange to go out. He comes along, and I'm surprised he sticks mostly to soft drinks but he seems like a genuinely nice guy and I strike up this conversation with him. We're getting along just fine when a group of girls come in the bar, one of which was this girl with vividly red hair who Gil couldn't, or wouldn't stop staring at." He looks over to the pair where Anne is blushing and Gilbert is whispering something in her ear. "I find out that it was his..." and he used air quotes "'best friend' and her name was Anne, and he actually refused to go over to speak with her, despite the fact that I now realise that both their eyes kept finding the others more often then was natural." Josh grinned, "Consistently I find them, in their spare time, together, and I know there's something romantic going on despite both parties claiming they were 'just friends'." Josh took a deep breath "we all know what happened next." He said with a raised eyebrow before he continued "and honestly, I was disappointed when it looked like they wouldn't get together, Gil became more and more withdrawn with a hint of danger to him and Anne became more emotionally distant. "Then first day back at medical school. Gilbert is beaming, you literally couldn't surgically remove the smile from his face and he tells me the impossible happened, he is finally with Anne. A smile, which he is also sporting today." Josh said. "I'm not good with sentiment." He admitted "but truly if I could be with the women who made me half as happy as Anne makes Gilbert, I would be a happy man indeed." He said, the only people to notice the hint of regret in his voice were Anne and Gilbert who glanced at each other only for a moment before he continued confidently "So ladies and Gentlemen, a toast, to the bride and groom, may you..." then with a grin says "...live long and prosper."
With cheers around Gilbert then stood and cleared his throat. "I, um, I've not always had an easy time conveying my emotions." He said honestly, "Its hard for me to say how I feel or what I'm thinking." He told everyone "expect to Anne." He said honestly. He grinned for a moment "Miss Stacy had Anne and I in detention for months, and it was during the first few months where Anne hated me, most people complained about her not shutting up, where I just wanted her to talk." He chuckled "so I did, and I wouldn't shut up." He laughed "and she did something which I never thought anyone really did before, although I'm sure now they did, but she listened." He shrugged "to me, harping on, not passing judgement or pointing the finger about being different or odd or expressing an opinion which was 'wrong'." He continued "and for some reason life kept pushing us together to talk, we'd be assigned projects together even when we weren't meant to be friends," he shrugged again "we were." He acknowledged. "Somewhere between, being a loathed enemy and friend, I fell in love." He nodded and looked directly at Anne and took her hand in his "Not even when the bad times befell us love, not for a single moment did I regret it." He told her "you have made me better, a better person a better man, just better, you made me want to be my best, and I swear to you I will continue to try to be the man you deserve. You my love changed the very nature of what it was to be me, and I thank you for it, I am better now then I ever could hope to have been without you," He told her. She smiled blushing at his comments "So, a toast ladies and gentlemen to my wife..." he said with blushing ears he smiled so wide he felt as though his face was frozen in the smile forever "Anne Blythe, I may never get used to saying that." He chuckled "to my bride."
After the cheers to the bride Anne stood "Tradition isn't always equal is it?" she said with a chuckle from everyone "so be done with tradition I have something to say." She paused to hear Josh whisper to Gilbert 'that's usually the case' which made her smile. "Gilbert talks about the effect I've had on him, he must know that his presence in my life has had an equal if not greater profound influence in my life." She took a deep breath and took his hand in hers "Before Green Gables I had no hope of having a real life, my time before Green Gables was difficult and I thought no one could ever understand all the things..." she said squeezing his hand "...which happened. Not many know all of it, but the man beside me does." She said looking at him again "He never made me feel broken, he never made me feel less, he always encouraged me and loved me in ways I never believed I was worthy." She admitted. "You are the best thing to have happened in my life." She told him "and I am better because of you." She told him. "I love you." She said.
He blushed for a moment before he stood. "Can I kiss you now?" he asked her.
She chuckled and nodded before they kissed again.
It was a happy bride and groom who entered their little home that evening. It was late already when they arrived having danced away the afternoon into the evening, they were ever so thankful their little house was only 45 minutes away from Avonlea.
Anne was the first to approach the front door her key in the door she opened it, she was about to enter when Gilbert objected, she turned a little confused before he swept her up in his arms and carried her across the threshold. He placed her down gently before he closed the door behind them, he looked to Anne kissing her hungrily.
"I am so horny!" he murmured to her.
"Oh yeah?" she asked him.
"Oh my God!" he replied kissing down her neck "I have missed you so much!"
She pulled back to give him eye contact "I've missed you." She agreed.
"Yeah?" he asked kissing her on the lips again. "and your wedding dress..." he murmured getting close to her ear "...my god Anne I knew then I was marrying an angel." He said before he kissed her again. "Those 45 minutes in the car felt like an eternity."
They stumbled into the living room where he reached for her again before she stepped back playfully.
"I have a surprise for you." She whispered to him running through the house before she told him "wait here." He looked confounded after her for a moment before he chuckled taking a deep breath for relief. He sat for a few moments, just in the quiet waiting for 'his wife' to be ready. She came back through but he heard her voice before he saw her again. "You know what there are few matters in which I envy the Victorian women." She told him then appeared at the door where his jaw dropped "But this is definitely one of their finer moments, even if it is more difficult to breath."
His wife posed against the door which only gave the desired effect for Gilbert. She wore a long floral lace see through nightgown, and underneath it lay bare naked legs which travelled up to a tiny pair of lace knickers and a very tight fitting corset. Her perfectly formed breast were for certain more visible then normal, her long wavy red hair still lay in the curls from the day but were now worn loosely around the blades of her back. "what do you think?" she asked him.
Try as he might he was left dumb speechless, he just continued to stare at his wife his mouth ajar, he heard Anne giggle swearing he had in fact answered her but she would later tell him he didn't. She came to him and stood in front of him. She laced herself around him before she reached for his lips and kissed him romantically. She giggled more as she pulled away and looked him in the eyes. "Come to bed with me husband."
It wasn't until after their two month wait was over that a word, not sensible ones, but words all the same left Gilbert's mouth.
"So what did you think?" she asked him in the aftermath of lovemaking his lay next to her caressing her exposed tips with his tongue.
He looked up flushed in face his lips still moist. "You know what I think of you in corsets Anne Shirley..." he started.
"Na ah ah!" she reprimanded him. "Anne who now?" she asked him.
He chuckled "quite right Anne Blythe." He boasted.
"How should I know what you think of me in corsets?" she asked him.
"Um..." he started shuffling himself to a sitting position. "Freshman year?" he asked him while her face was blank "the Victorian dance! He exclaimed "you wore that smoking hot corset..." he teased her "by far the sexiest women in that room." He said with a smile. "and when you were getting ready do you remember?" he asked her to which she shook her head "you were so excited about looking curvy in your corset and you were fluttering around and you told me..." he blushed at the memory "You told me to look."
Anne smiled at the memory "I did! Didn't I?!" she exclaimed. "Oh my god, we were flirting!"
Gilbert laughed "Just a bit yeah." He acknowledged, laying back down beside her cupping one of her breasts in his hand. "I was all too happy to." He said laughing as she did. "You thought you weren't all women because you were small when it came to your breasts." He said quietly "I hope I've convinced you otherwise." He whispered romantically to her.
"You've convinced me in many things." She whispered to him. "Like maybe, I'm good enough to deserve this."
His hand stroked down her torso heading downwards and looked up into her eyes before he kissed her again.