Hello dear readers!

It feels really great to be updating this story again. Thank you one and all for your continued engagement with it.

Love

MrsVonTrapp x


Chapter Fourteen

'Let me be the place that you hide'


Interlude: Melissa Meredith

Four Winds, PEI, July 1994

The even tenor of her days in their sleepy little seaside town would once have strangled her with despair, but now they were a surprising balm, and sometimes a benediction. Melissa Meredith thought at one stage a big city hospital would have been her desired destination, after graduation, and it was for a time, up in Kingsport alongside Rob who had remained in the genteel city and at Redmond to begin Law School. After a wearying eighteen months, however, she began work in the unlikeliest of areas for the maverick girl who had blazed a trail to Redmond, burning a few bridges in her wake. Aged Care had called to her, and she headed back home and then onto the Aged Care Facility out at Four Winds. It overlooked the gulf, perched below the sweep of old farmhouses and converted holiday homes, some of which still bore their original grey, cream or clam-shell paintwork, though the defiantly green farmhouse that had once housed the equally defiant matriarch of the Elliot clan, when she was still a single woman, had long been repainted in the softer hues of the sea.

Rob's three years in Law School led to the eventual - and inevitable – undertaking of his Articles year at the Charlottetown offices of the late, loved, Judge Jerry Meredith, with occasional forays back across the straight and even up to Toronto for law conferences and the like, where he crossed paths with his mainland cousins the Fords; Alex and his sister Carina and their affable father Tom, who was always at great pains to enquire after his namesake Uncle Carl, happily ensconced these past years in the nursing home at Four Winds and quite the most popular resident there.

"Uncle Carl…" Mel now found him, as she expected, on his bench overlooking the gulf and beyond to the lighthouse, feeding the cheeky, cawing gulls small, neat cubes of his sandwich, the stiff breeze toying with his once golden-brown Meredith hair, now an elegant soft white.

"Young Nurse Meredith," he smiled widely. "I thought you weren't back from the Big Smoke till tomorrow?"

"I'm not, officially," she grinned, pecking him affectionately on the cheek before seating herself beside him, stretching out long, shapely legs, "though I thought I'd come and say hello."

"That's grand of you, love," he acknowledged. "And how was your visit with Young Mr Blythe, trainee Attorney at Law?"

Mel had spun some leave into a four day weekend, travelling up to Charlottetown for Rob's twenty-fifth birthday, both sets of parents joining them for his birthday dinner and helping to alleviate the pain of these last six weeks of his law obligations, cruelly overlapping the precious summer months. Mel had thought that the greatest birthday gift on offer would be her very presence, and was thrilled to have been most mistaken.

"He was very well indeed, Uncle Carl," she continued to grin, in a way that almost begged further questions, and then couldn't even wait for them before she began to answer, drawing out her hand that she had been hiding under her sleeve. "Infact, I may have some news…"

Carl Meredith was a quick study, even in his advancing years, but hardly needed much time to interpret the flash of a lovely, perfect diamond on a long, elegant finger, rather outclassing the modest offering Rob had made to her their first Christmas together, many moons ago. Carl now clutched that hand in his own, squeezing hard and smiling delightedly.


David and Anne were alternatively rested and hollow-eyed as they met after breakfast for a final morning's Charlottetown sightseeing before the journey back to the Glen.

"Did you sleep OK, Anne?" David looked to her in concern, taking her hand in his large own, her fingers brushing against the scar he carried and all it told about another connection to the past. "Yesterday wasn't too much, was it?"

Anne looked up to him and her heart pulsed with a pain that she would never be able to properly describe, to him, let alone herself. She read today more than ever the love, care and consideration behind the sometimes still-boyish bravado, and in his every touch and interaction. She knew Gilbert had to have been just as attendant upon that other Anne, measuring his own happiness by hers. It should have been daunting, perhaps occasionally stifling, to feel this tug of connection, this unsevered bond, unbound by the laws of time and space. Instead, something in her desperately sought to wrap herself around it, and him, more tightly, lest an unknown force attempted to rent it asunder.

Rent it asunder…. she had to smile to herself, obviously having inhaled all Anne Shirley's correspondence last night. I'm even beginning to sound like her.

To David she instead gave a smiling reassurance, squeezing his hand.

"I am absolutely fine. And ready to tackle this Queen's College you say your Dad insists we see before we leave."

"Yes, the stomping ground of many a Blythe and Meredith, I'm told."

At the beginning of the summer this prospect would hardly have held any charm for her, tied as she was to the idea of her own branch of the family at the exclusion of all others, but now her new learnings about the power of interconnection made her eager and enthused, no longer reluctant or disparaging.

"I promise to take you down to the harbour before we go," he grinned. "It's very pretty, and full of colorful buildings and some pretty bustling eateries."

"And Cows," she smiled sweetly, referring to the famous ice creamery and not regular bovines.

"You've done your homework, Miss Ford," he grinned down at her with a gleam of pride.

"Did you ever doubt it?" she laughed, kissing him impulsively.


Anne and David were able to break away to travel home independently of their respective parents and his grandparents, Rob generously gifting his car whilst he hired another to transport Tessa and his parents, whilst the assorted Merediths made their own convoy. There was a rather feisty discussion on their way back to the Glen on the merits back in the day of a Queen's Gold Medal as opposed to the Avery Scholarship, having both learned through an ancient honour board of a family tradition of Blythes – and Merediths - vying for both coveted prizes, though that other Anne seemed to have been the only one with any success in the latter. * Soon, though, both Anne and David quietened, lost to their own musings, ever aware that the day after next would see the Fords board the ferry back to the mainland and to their lives in Toronto. Meanwhile David would wait to see about his own bend in the road… would his MCAT results lead to medical school offers? Would any of them lead him, eventually, back to Anne?

Heading out of Charlottetown they noted a sign directing to Confederation Bridge, that great gleaming architectural hand across the water, and the cheeky thought occurred to him; delicious and difficult to dismiss.

"Now's our chance to make a break for it," he announced.

"Make a break for it?" Anne echoed, bemused. "From what and to where?"

"I think the most relevant question here is with whom. You could run away with me, Anne Ford," he nodded to the sign, grinning, even slowing down as they passed it.

She jerked her head around, and then turned back to him with a glowing expression on her face. "Do you mean…like the song?"

He guffawed. "Yes! Exactly like the song. Although please tell me you're not thinking Carly Rae Jepson." **

"Not this time!" she grinned. "If you're talking about the song from the musical, covered by every young male musical theatre actor of the last fifteen years and half the wannabes on YouTube, then you have just named one of my favourite songs ever!"

Obviously, the song signified another mysterious connection between them, a magical symbiosis of interests and preferences that he couldn't quantify with logic and had abandoned the attempt to. It was one of his own favourites, too; *** a little-known fact he normally kept to himself. His cousin Max had been the musical theatre nerd, not him – not prosaic, practical David Blythe – despite the fact that he already had Keats and now a more than acceptable amount of Whitman in his back pocket. But songs…. songs were personal. Max had learned it on guitar for his pub band and had subsequently played it at every gig he had ever dragged his cousin to, till it had entered David's bloodstream. A favourite song pointed to something that echoed for you, that called back to you, that vibrated within you, right down to your marrow.

And a song could say things even when you felt you couldn't.

"Let me be your ride out of town…" he quoted, softly and probably off key, eyes determinedly on the road. The obvious irony hit him hard. "Let me be – "

" – the place that you hide," # Anne chimed, sweet and wistful and smiling the words.

"Well, we are on the same page, then," he turned and smiled himself, marvelling.

"I've never doubted it," she gave rather fervent reply. "I have the song on my phone, you know."

Of course she did. "Then what are you waiting for, Anne Ford?"

He flicked her a glance as she fiddled with her phone, scrolling through her playlists before pulling up some saved clip on YouTube that made her smile in satisfaction. She placed her phone in the holder, and soon enough the car was filled with an engaging rendition from a live performance, **** Anne charmingly singing along with both skill and gusto, him trading lines with her until he felt they were in a play together and actually singing the story of their life.

Run away with me
Let me be your ride out of town
Let me be the place that you hide
We can make our lives on the go
Run away with me…

The was a character mentioned called Sam, and every time he substituted Anne it felt it was not a joke but a truth.

Sam, you're ready
Let's go
Anywhere
Get the car packed and throw me the key
Run away with me…

And surprisingly, he didn't even falter on the next verse, making her blush dramatically.

Sam, I know it's fast
I'm in love with you
Sam, it's crazy but Sam, I'm crazier for you
I have these plans
Sam, I have these plans
Of a house that we build on a bay
When we run away…

Let me be your ride out of town…
Run away with me
California dreams, here we come!
Romeo is calling for Juliet
Ready, set
Sam, you're ready
Let's go
Anywhere
Say the word and I'm already there!
Run away with me… #

After their rousing rendition, filling the car with sound and their enthusiastic vocal stylings, there was an embarrassed silence, as if they had given over too much of themselves and it was fine hiding behind the song but the leftover nakedness of their actions was difficult to process. David wondered now how on earth he could possibly broach what he had been thinking, realizing that he was making too easy - and perhaps too clumsy - a segue from the song to their circumstances.

"It's one of the choices for a performance piece this year, actually.…" Anne rescued him without even knowing. "The musical. For my Theatre class at school."

"The musical? Really? But I thought you went to a girls school?"

"I do. But we partner with a boys school for plays and, ah, dances and things."

"You know, a co-ed school like good ol' Lowbridge High could have saved everyone a lot of trouble."

"Don't I know it!" She gave him a sidelong glance. "But we only need one boy this time, and three female parts. The male lead is… the boyfriend who sings the song."

He tried to decipher her look to him. "I don't really know anything about the plot except the one song."

"It's an amazing musical, touching on some heavy themes. Growing up, choosing your future, loss and grief, guilt… The main character, Sam, is 17, a valedictorian with a successful single mother who wants her to go to Harvard or somewhere but then her best friend wants her to ease up and have fun at a local college with her. But then, um, the best friend dies."

David frowned involuntarily. "But I thought it was, you know, a love story."

"It is, sort of. But I think… the main love story, platonically at least, is more to do with her friend. Or maybe even herself."

He sighed extravagantly. "I feel so let down."

"Well, don't worry. You're my best friend. So, um, you're covered either way."

He grinned at her, catching her eye as, embarrassed, she slid hers away.

"You might just be my best friend, too, Anne Ford."

She bit down on her smile. "Wouldn't Max Meredith have something to say about that?"

"Alright. Correction. You are my best non-relative best friend."

"Except the fourth cousins thing."

"Naturally."

David let someone overtake him, slowing down as his scattered thoughts caught up with him.

"Anne, I've been thinking about something."

"Oh?"

"Well, there's the best friends thing. But I'm quite attached to the boyfriend idea as well."

"Oh?" she breathed, much more unsteadily.

He flicked a quick glance at her, and then made a snap decision to turn into an upcoming rest stop, sheltered from the road by trees and dipping away from the traffic. He pulled up at a safe distance from the road and cut the engine.

"David?" she queried, surveying him worriedly. "Are you OK?"

"Yes. Well, actually, no."

His hands gripped the steering wheel, brown knuckles whitening under the pressure.

"You leave the day after tomorrow, Anne."

"I know," she sighed, voice lowering.

"It's just that… I know I talked about all those loose plans of ours… you know, wait till you're eighteen, let's wait and see how it all goes…"

"Yes…?"

"Well, I had three days of waiting to see you again, going across to do the MCAT. And I didn't much like it."

She would have smiled to herself, perhaps a little feminine victory, only it was a hollow one, because she had felt the same.

"Me, too."

He turned to her, hazel eyes bright with his trademark intensity, gripping her hand now in one of his own.

"I've been thinking that… I don't have to stick to work on the Island, if I take a gap year. I can get work on the mainland. In Toronto, even. Or if I take an honours year at Redmond, I can just drive up and be with you. You know, see you, every few weeks. Take you out. Take you to the movies…" He gulped. "Take you, ah, to prom."

Anne tried not to hyperventilate at this change in direction.

"David, that sounds wonderful… but there would be… all these hidden expenses for you. Travel, and… rent somewhere. You'd never save enough for medical school" *****

He sighed determinedly. "I'll save enough. ***** Anyway, there's the rent I'll receive for the Lowbridge house, don't forget. And maybe…" he risked a smile, "maybe I'll get to crash on the floor of the Ford family mansion once in a while."

Anne rolled her eyes. "If we have such a mansion, I'm sure we could find you an actual bed."

He gave a twisted smile.

"Could we really do this?" she almost pleaded.

He crushed her to him, then. "We could, Anne! I know we could! I might even get an offer to the U of T. And then, in a year, I'll be in the same city as you, and we could be properly together…"

She looked up to him, grey eyes greening in hope.

"Properly together?" she echoed audaciously, pink lips curving.

He chuckled darkly, following this line of thought, too.

"Don't tempt me, Anne Ford. You keep doing that."

"Well, sorry…"

"No…" he whispered into her hair, pausing to kiss her forehead, and then sliding his lips down her cheek to her earlobe. "Keep doing that."

I love you, David… The words beat at her brain, but she didn't want to force his hand by saying them.

"I miss you already, David," she instead offered mournfully.

He gave such a bittersweet smile at that, grazing her cheek with his knuckles.

"You won't have time to miss me, Anne. I'll be round your place so often your mom will start making me take out the garbage."

She gave a little laugh-sob, nestling into his shoulder, enveloped by his security and steady warmth.

"I guess… we might have to head back now. Or they really will think I've absconded with you." She heard him sigh against her.

"Don't really want another search party out looking for me…" she offered dryly.

"Pay that. You really have had a pretty full summer, come to think it, Anne Ford. And I still need to take you to the House of Dreams tomorrow."

"We can get in there?"

"Dad checked, and the holiday renters have left. So it's all yours… which it really should be, anyway."

She gave him a blinding smile.

"And…" he muttered, a little sheepishly. "Obviously, I am. All yours, that is."

Her shining eyes took him in, serious as he had ever seen her.

"David… I don't want to hold you to any promise or… or… even an understanding that later you might regret…"

Her vulnerability and her sweetness made his throat ache.

"You are adorable, Anne Ford…" he breathed.

What he was really thinking was… I love you.

He had sung the words to her; run away with me… borrowed the line to circumvent the sentiment, but he wanted to say the words to her; real and true and his.

She moved to hug him fiercely, and the words – and his courage – began to fail him.

No matter… he breathed to himself as they again set off. He would have plenty of upcoming opportunities to say it… or he would make them. Turning up at her door in Toronto… or, even, inside the door, tomorrow at the House of Dreams.


Chapter Notes

#This chapter title is a departure – not Browning or Barrett-Browning, or Whitman – but lyrics to the song referenced in the chapter, Run Away with Me, from the musical The Mad Ones, originally known as The Unauthorized Biography of Samantha Brown by songwriters Kait Kerrigan and Brian Lowdermilk.

*As a reminder of elizasky's continuity, both Jerry Meredith and Nan Blythe followed canon Gilbert's triumph in the Gold Medal at Queen's, highlighted in the beautiful chapter 'Lucky Man' from Glen Notes. After my love of Gilbert in all his incarnations comes my love for Jerry, especially elizasky's version of him.

**With no shade intended towards great Canadian music artist and musical theatre performer Carly Rae Jepson, who did also release a song entitled Run Away with Me, and whose Call Me Maybe was of course a juggernaut on its release and remains a catchy mid-noughties classic.

***I do like to push my own favourites on my characters, which is very evident in this story! Run Away with Me is a perfect case in point. It's a beautiful song, human and heartfelt, with some sentiments that I feel really fit Anne and David here. In a perfect full-circle moment, I first heard it years ago when watching the lovely and inventive Green Gables Fables, which I'm sure many of you are familiar with, when their version of Fred sings it for Diana. That sent me on a deep dive to source it (oh the wonders of online rabbit holes!) and to discover more of Kerrigan-Lowdermilk's terrific work. I urge you to do the same!

****You may choose your own, but for me, and Anne, my favourite rendition is from the multi-talented musical theatre star and director, TV actor and singer Michael Arden (the version where he sings solo, without the choir!) I could spend a chapter writing about him alone, and rest assured he will make another appearance in this story. Jeremy Jordan and Aaron Tveit among many, many others, also do lovely, heartfelt versions. There is a beautiful female version by Emma Hunton and a typically gorgeous version by Brit vocal group Collabro. It seems that every artist tackling this much-covered song brings something new to their interpretation. You can find many different performances of the song and all their others on the Kerrigan-Lowdermilk channel.

#Truncated lyrics

*****A little of the end scene from Sullivan's Anne of Green Gables. Just because.


A little correspondence…

DrinkThemIn: Aww thank you my lovely! It was so much fun to come back to this, especially as I had the first half written for a good year or so! I really appreciate your faith in me pulling all these threads together. And yes, rather a lot to unpack! I find I set up certain characters and then they threaten to run away with the action. But it is so nice to have a play in this particular story sandbox again. Weirdly, I find that this is the story I think the most about and what I can do with it, probably because it is the one for which I am more free to push parameters. Thank you for your love of it, as always, and your generous responses x

Guest of Aug 30th: Thank you and yes a big yes to 'keep on keeping on'! I'm really delighted to be back to all my stories and thank you for your readership across all of them x

Guest of Sept 14th: Thank you so much and I am still grinning to reread your kind words! I love writing of Anne and Gilbert so please rest assured that I will continue! I have several other stories that I have begun behind the scenes that I am eager to pursue but I am so enjoying getting back into Betwixt and my others and I have a regenerated enthusiasm and drive to keep updating!

Whitewave: Hello, friend and thank you as ever. Yes, I hope that we all have a story of someone we have just clicked with. I love to think that Anne and Gilbert – and in their modern-day guises here – are a beautiful example of that, and I have had so much fun with the way that family has influenced and intersected this connection. Thank you for your note on the family dynamics I have tried to incorporate here x And yes I am absolutely sticking with this story and my others!

Guest of Oct 6th: Thank you, guest! I knew that this was a test for David, and I too think him a 'good man' for resisting! There are many other tests for Anne and David down the road, for they both have some growing up to do. Regarding modern day iterations of Roy and Christine – I'm not ruling anything out! I am delighted you are enjoying the romance here – I've tried to really explore that element x

Guest of Oct 11th (Ch 1): Thank you for that! That first chapter was very clear and visceral to me. I thought initially it might only be an atmospheric one shot, but I'm glad I was able to expand it into its own story.

Guest of Oct 11th (Ch 13): I am so delighted about that! And pleased to share another update!

yunarthur: I am thrilled to have you commenting across my stories! Thank you SO much for your lovely words – it is amazing to have this story so appreciated! I look forward to your reaction as things develop!

Guest of Oct 16th: Thank YOU for reading it! I really appreciate your comment.