Gilbert Blythe slept until his body woke up naturally. No ringing telephones, no yelling children. Gilbert opened his eyes to drawn blinds, but the sun as it slipped through the didn't look like the sun of a June morning. Gilbert decided that it was afternoon when he awoke.
Still, when Gilbert awoke, his Anne entered and announced that he would be getting breakfast in bed.
Gilbert said, "I don't think that it's morning, Anne."
Anne said, "It isn't technically morning for Prince Edward Island. However, it's morning for you. When you were trapped in the cave, I promised myself that if we got you out, I would bring you breakfast in bed every day for the rest of your life if you would let me. And today, you're going to let me."
Gilbert said, "It's awfully quiet. Where are the children?"
Anne said, "The younger ones are over at Miss Cornelia's. The older ones are over at the House of Dreams."
Gilbert said, "I thought that were going to be careful about sending the kids over to the Fords."
Anne said, "Yeah, Owen didn't take very good care of Kenneth, didn't he? It's just for today, Gilbert. I needed the house to be quiet so that you could sleep."
Gilbert said, "You're spoiling me. You give me too much opportunity to sleep and I'll grow too fond of it."
Anne said, "You're going to be sleeping a lot the next week if I have anything to do with it."
Anne left to fetch the breakfast that Susan made for him.
"Here's your coffee, nice and hot just the way that you like it. Dr. Parker said to make sure that you drank a lot of liquids."
Gilbert ate. Then Anne rubbed his back just the way that he liked it, just the way that she had rubbed his back the night before as he soaked in the tub.
Gilbert lay back on the pillows and Anne held him.
Anne said, "Oh, Gilbert, I thought that you were never coming home to me. I thought that our last memory would be of me confessing to you that I helped Roy Gardner cheat in college and you telling me that you were disappointed in me. And it's all my fault."
Gilbert said, "Anne, when I was trapped in the cave, I thought that I was never going to see YOU again. And I regretted that I let your confession upset me so much. It bothered me that you thought that I would stop loving you over that."
Gilbert said, "I just kept thinking, over and over, that I would never see you or the children ever again."
Anne said, "Well, they'll all be home tonight. I don't know how I and Susan are going to be able to keep them all quiet. They are quite excited about seeing their dad. So, you better get all of the sleep that you can right now."
Gilbert snored in Anne's arms.
