It was late afternoon by the time that Gilbert came out to the house of dreams to check on Kenneth West.
Anne had already been out to see the family and gone home for the day. Therefore, when Gilbert finished examining Kenneth, nobody else was around except for the nurse, Lucy Marks, and Leslie.
Leslie invited Gilbert into the sitting room and reheated for him some of the coffee that Anne had made several hours earlier.
"Mr. Ford's gone off to town," Leslie said. "I am glad."
Gilbert said, "Kenneth is going to recover. You will get through this."
Leslie said, "It's still so confusing as to what happened. I guess that he – Mr. Ford – had a fabulous idea for his next story, so he told Kenneth to clean up and go to bed. And Kenneth went out to the barn instead. And then Persis – even though I had already tucked her in for the night – heard Kenneth go outside, so she got out of bed and followed him. And Persis saw him fall."
Gilbert said, "Is there anyone from the Ford family that can come out to stay with you here?"
Gilbert knew all about Leslie's family, knew that all of Leslie's own people were long gone.
Leslie said, "Not really. Mr. Ford's mother Alice died when Mr. Ford was young. And the rest of the family – well, they always thought that Mr. Ford married beneath himself when he married me."
Gilbert said, "What about friends in Toronto? Can any of them come to be with you?"
Leslie said, "Dr. Blythe, can I speak honestly?"
Gilbert said, "Of course."
Leslie said, "Dr. Blythe, it's all well and good for a family when the husband is the man that everyone says wrote the Great Canadian novel. Everyone wants to go to a book tour and meet him. The royalties are just pouring in. But after all of the readers ALREADY OWN a copy of The Life Book of Captain Jim and they all get bored with it and move on, and the money's all gone, and your husband has a long case of writers block – that's when you find out who your real friends are."
Leslie continued, "And it looks as if maybe all of our real friends are right here on this island."
Gilbert made a mental note to ask Anne to ask Ms. Cornelia to come out to the House of Dreams to check on Leslie.
Leslie continued. "It wasn't supposed to happen this way. Oh, I shouldn't be saying anything, but – Owen – Mr. Ford – thought that the series that he just wrote about Captain Jim and the island was going to turn into a much bigger deal. The Journal only printed a few of the articles that he wrote for it. He was, frankly, hoping that they would offer him a regular column, or at least print his stories for the next year. The editor at the Journal told Owen – Mr. Ford – that he had already milked the Captain Jim thing for all that it was worth. Those were the editor's exact words – "the Captain Jim thing."
"So – and Dr. Blythe, PLEASE don't say anything – Mr. Ford thought that we were going to have much more money this summer than we actually have. So – yeah. Owen – Mr. Ford – we were both hoping that he could use this summer to hit upon his next big idea. I told Owen – Mr. Ford – that I would give him this summer to work on his next book, but that if he still couldn't get any money in, he would have to take one of the jobs that he was offered."
Gilbert said, "Oh, Mr. Ford was offered a job?"
Leslie said, "Well, several. None of them are at the level of Mr. Fords – uh – expectations. But he'll bring in a paycheck. One of his writing friends pulled some strings to get him in at the Niagara Falls Herald. And Mr. Ford's Yankee cousin can get him a job teaching school in Maine. So, not the best jobs ever, but they'll bring money into the house. I think, doctor, that we have to admit that the Captain Jim paydays are over. And maybe so are Owen's novel writing days."
Leslie said, "And maybe I'll just be relieved to see Mr. Ford give up the hustle and get a real job. I'm exhausted, Dr. Blythe."
So am I, thought Gilbert. I'm exhausted too. But now was not the time or the place for him to validate this. He was a doctor listening to his patient's family member.
Gilbert smiled at Leslie and said, "It's going to get better."
Gilbert spoke a bit more to Leslie, and then he packed up and prepared to leave. Neither he nor Leslie saw Clarissa Wilcox standing in the driveway of the House of Dreams, looking in the front picture window.
But Clarissa saw them. She saw Mrs. Owen Ford crying in the sitting room. She saw the doctor smile and speak to Mrs. Owen Ford in a gentle-looking manner. Clarissa had heard that the Ford family was in Four Winds for the summer but that they were having some sort of financial bind, and then she had heard from Susan Baker at the market about Kenneth Ford's accident. She had come to the House of Dreams to see for herself until the pretense of paying a social call. But when she saw the doctor alone in the sitting room with a crying Leslie Ford, she left without knocking on the door.
Clarissa Wilcox had gossip that she longed to tell. Oh, if only Anne Blythe knew what was really going on between Dr. Blythe and Mrs. Owen Ford.
The children had already eaten dinner and gone to bed, and Gilbert still hadn't returned home.
Anne tried to tell herself that it wasn't her fault that Gilbert wasn't home yet.
But still.
Even Dr. Parker commented that Dr. Blythe nearly worked himself to death!
Gilbert had patients in Lowbridge. Dr. Parker lived in Lowbridge and these patients should have been Dr. Parker's patients. But for whatever reason, they had chosen Gilbert as their doctor. For instance, take David Anderson, the richest man in Lowbridge. David Anderson used to be Dr. Parker's patient. Now he was Dr. Blythe's patient.
Usually, when Gilbert worked late and gave up sleep for weeks or months, Anne comforted herself that so many families chose Dr. Blythe over Dr. Parker. Her Gilbert was a better doctor and a better man. Her Gilbert didn't get into quarrels with patients the way that Dr. Parker seemed to do.
Dr. Parker had always been exceedingly polite to Anne. However, Anne had heard from Gilbert that Dr. Dick Parker could be a – well. Let's just say that Dr. Dick Parker's name was Dr. Dick Parker.
Tonight, however, Anne forgot to blame Dr. Parker for Gilbert's lack of sleep.
Instead, Anne thought, "Maybe Dr. Parker gets to take on less patients than my Gilbert does because he only has four kids and a wife to support. Gilbert has six living kids and me. And also Susan. Do the Parkers even have a housekeeper right now? Don't the Parkers get money in order to board that niece and nephew from Montreal? Doesn't Jen Parker get paid to write some sort of child rearing articles for some magazine? Jen Parker isn't even that great at child rearing! She let my Walter slip out of her house in the middle of the night!"
Then Anne thought, "But then again, Jen Parker never helped her beau cheat his way through Redmond. Maybe she did and she just didn't get caught. Roy Gardner and I were stupid enough to sort of get caught."
Anne laughed at the thought of Jen Parker helping Dick Parker cheat at Redmond. Or maybe Jen Parker had another beau before she married Dick Parker. Would Dick Parker have put up with Jen turning down a marriage proposal from him, showing off with another beau for two years, and then getting a second marriage proposal from Dick? Somehow, Anne couldn't see Dr. Parker putting up with any of the shit that Anne herself put Gilbert through.
Was Jen Parker ever frustrated that Dick Parker was just too tired to have sex? Well, Jen suffered from lumbago. Maybe she was the one in their marriage who turned down sex. Did the ringing telephone interrupt the Parkers from having sex as often as it interrupted Anne and Gilbert from having sex? Anne coughed at the mental image of Dick and Jen Parker having sex. She took a sip of water, cleared her throat.
Anne knew that most of Gilbert's clan still blamed her for "letting" Gilbert nearly die in order to win the Cooper Prize at Redmond. That explained why Aunt Mary Maria was always so nasty to her. And Anne was positive that Gilbert's mother had blamed Anne right up to her own death.
Anne was going to have to make sure that Gilbert didn't work himself to death now. She had no idea how to support herself and six kids and pay the mortgage on Ingleside and pay Susan. When you're busy helping your ex-beau cheat through college, you don't have time to pick up training on how to support yourself as a widow.
She should have taken all those extra French classes that Marilla had insisted that she take. What had Marilla said? Something to the effect of, "It's time to think about how you're going to make your way through this world, Anne."
And Anne said, "I'm going to teach of course, Marilla."
Marilla said, "Well, if you're going to spend the rest of your life teaching, then you should be as employable as possible. If you work on your French, you'll have more teaching opportunities."
And then Anne had said something stupid to the effect of, "I'm going to be the Canadian Charles Dickens, Marilla."
And Marilla had said, "Everyone wants to be the Canadian Charles Dickens, Anne. You need to be real about how you're going to make money."
Well, Anne hadn't taken those extra French classes. And then Anne had given up on the writing. So now, without Gilbert, Anne would have no idea of how to make her way through this world.
"Penny for your thoughts, Anne-girl?"
In her daydreaming, Anne missed hearing Gilbert come home. He now stood in the kitchen next to her.
Anne said, "Welcome home, love. Let me heat up the dinner that Susan packed for you."
As Gilbert ate, Anne said "So how's Kenneth? How's Leslie?"
Gilbert said, "Kenneth is on the mend. Leslie is being – well, Leslie is being Leslie. That reminds me, Anne-girl. Can you see if you can get Ms. Cornelia to go down and stay with Leslie for a little bit? They don't have any help staying at the House of Dreams with them this summer. She's on her own with the kids. Ford was her only help this summer and – well, as you can see, we can't really trust Ford."
Anne said, "I'll see that I can do. I mean, it's really up to her and Marshall, right? If she says no, do you want me to stay at the House of Dreams?"
Gilbert said, "We can't just dump our own kids off on Susan ALL of the time, Anne-girl. Besides, I don't want you sleeping under the same roof as Owen Ford."
Anne thought it wisest to completely ignore all of Gilbert's comments about Owen Ford.
"You're right, Gil. It wouldn't be fair to Susan. Or you."
Anne kissed the top of Gilbert's head. "And how are you?"
Gilbert said, "Tired."
Anne said, "Well, let me put you to bed."
Anne kneeled on the floor. She unlaced and removed Gilbert's boots. Then she stood up, grabbed Gilbert by the hand, and pulled him up. Still holding Gilbert's hand, she led him upstairs.
She tucked him into bed.
"Goodnight, Gilbert. Love you. Please get some rest."
