Title: Aftermath
Disclaimer: This story is based on L.M. Montgomery's Anne of Green Gables and all of the accompanying sequels. It is something I'm writing for enjoyment, and I'm not making any money off it. In other words, I don't own anything but the plot and any original characters, okay? So don't sue me.
Distribution: Ask if you want to post this anywhere. I'll say yes, but I do like to know.
Summary: This is my take on what happened after Rilla of Ingleside.
a/n: Please review! I'm not sure if I should continue this. And let me know if you have any title ideas, I couldn't think of anything else.
Chapter One
Summer's Fading Days
The moon's ethereal silver rays covered the village of Glen St. Mary one cool August night. Anne Blythe paused in her dressing to stare out her bedroom window as the sounds of gay laughter floated up through the house. Oh, how things had changed! Sometimes she still couldn't quite grasp it. At times it seemed to her that her children were just that- children. But they weren't, not any longer. Even little Rilla was hopelessly grown up. Why, right at this moment she was downstairs in the parlor entertaining Kenneth Ford, much to Susan's disapproval. "Kenneth Ford is a strapping young man, and that you may tie to, Mrs. Dr. dear, but he is still a man, and it's hardly proper for Little Rilla to be with him like that without any supervision," she had told Anne just the other day.
At the time Anne had laughed and said that Rilla was old enough to sit and talk with her own fiancée. But on a deeper level, she understood why Susan had suddenly become so protective of Rilla. Rilla was their baby, their last baby, and somehow it didn't seem right that she was a tall, beautiful young woman, ready to begin a family of her own. Anne heaved a little sigh. How the time had passed! It didn't seem so long ago that she had been in the midst of her own engagement, happily awaiting the day when Gilbert would finish medical school. Now it was Jem- her dimpled baby of the House of Dreams! - who was finishing medical school, and beautiful Faith who waited for him.
The air of Ingleside was filled with happy laughter and light hearts once more, but things weren't the same as they had been. The war had changed all of them in so many ways, but things were getting better; Shirley had returned home in July. Ingleside fairly exuded a constant sense of happy chaos as people planned and dreamed and loved and lived and laughed. How wonderful it was to hear laughter filling the halls of Ingleside once more. And best of all, it was real laughter, none of the forced, polite titters of those who weren't "of the race that knows Joseph". Ninety-nine percent of the time Anne was undeniably happy, but just now she felt blue.
True, it was only a delicate, pale blue. Really, she felt more azure then anything else. But it was so hard not to sink into a momentary bout of mourning for the little children who were gone. Soon she and Gilbert would be all alone in this big house. And how big Ingleside suddenly seemed! For a moment, Anne was acutely aware of all of the many rooms that would soon be empty and hollow. Why, soon her nest would be "empty as the old maid's heart". Anne gave herself a little shake.
"You silly goose!" she thought reproachfully. "There's years to go before our happy little brood is completely gone."
With that thought the Lady of Ingleside resolved not to think any more on the subject. This resolution would have been promptly broken had not Diana Blythe stopped by the open door to pass on the latest news.
"Mother, Faith is at the manse! She just arrived on the eleven o' clock," the redhead informed her equally red-haired mother, eyes sparkling.
"I thought she wasn't due back until September!" Anne exclaimed.
"She wasn't, but the VAD let her home early," Di explained, already running down to visit her old chum.
Anne finished dressing quickly and hurried down to the manse. There were other people, however, who did not quite have that presence of mind.
Jem Blythe had been dosing peacefully when Diana had run upstairs with the news, fresh from the telephone, to tell the one person to whom it mattered the most. It was on her way there that she had stopped to tell their mother. As soon as his sister's frenzied shout had awoken him he had thought of one thing. Faith. Without a thought to his current state of undress he raced to through Rainbow Valley to the manse as fast as his rather long legs would take him.
Every light was blazing at that jolly little parsonage, and they gleamed out into the dark night. To Jem it seemed as if they were miniature suns, each celebrating Faith's return. He rounded the bend until the front of the manse had come into view. The door was thrown wide open, something the usually fastidious Rosemary Meredith would normally have remedied quickly. Through it, Jem just glimpsed Faith's silhouette against the warm golden light.
She looked beautiful as ever, still dressed in her hunter green velvet traveling suit that just brought out the golden highlights in her chocolate brown hair. The whole Meredith family was gathered around her, from Carl, with his bright blue eyes (although one was unseeing), to dreamy Mr. Meredith, who wasn't acting remotely dreamy at the moment. The sight spurred Jem to run even faster, though many people would have deemed that impossible.
Within seconds he had crossed the familiar threshold and found that Faith had catapulted herself into his arms, laughing happily as he swung her around.
"Good Heavens," Rosemary said amusedly, "Jem, your mother will have both your hide and mine if I let you catch your death of cold dressed like that. What were you thinking?"
We can only assume that Mrs. Meredith meant this as a rhetorical question, since it was obvious to all that Jem had only been thinking of Faith.
It was almost painfully funny to think of all of the work the Ingleside women had put into Jem's wardrobe after he came home. Jem, who had never cared overly much about his apparel, had automatically protested to the fuss. But no one had wanted to be deprived of the chance to spoil Jem after all of the worry of his capture, and so they had waved his protests away, saying, "But think of how well you'll look when Faith comes home." Every member of the Meredith family, bar Faith, had heard someone or the other tell Jem that. And now, here he was, with Faith, in nothing but his nightshirt.
Needless to say, Jerry and Carl didn't even bother to hide their smirks, and there could be suspicions about their father's own mouth, had Mr. Meredith not been a minister.
"I hope Susan doesn't catch you out like that," Rev. Meredith said sternly. However, the effect of the severe tone was completely lost because said minister's blue eyes would not stop twinkling merrily.
"I hope no one from the Glen saw you, Jem," Una shuddered, "Can you imagine what Mrs. Alec Davis would say?"
Jerry's own set of dark blue eyes got a twinkle of their own, yet this one was decidedly mischievous.
"Yeah, can you imagine how poor Mrs. Alec would feel if she didn't know?" he asked, turning to his younger brother.
Carl's face lit up.
"You know, maybe we should enlighten her. After all, it would only be the Christian thing to do," he said.
Susan, who was just coming up the walk (fully clothed, to be sure), caught the tail end of this.
"I am sure you two little scamps would not know what the Christian thing to do was if it came up and danced in front of you wearing Cousin Sophia's ridiculous new Sunday hat," she sniffed, all the while thinking, "And Jerry Meredith studying to be a minister!"
Then that estimable lady caught sight of Jem, who was still half clothed and still holding on to Faith's hand.
"James Matthew Blythe! What on earth do you think you are wearing!"
Thankfully, the Dr. and Mrs. Blythe came up in time to save Jem from responding. Just behind them were Rilla, Kenneth Ford, Nan, Di, and Shirley, all of whom began to laugh as they saw what the source of the commotion was. Indeed, Anne and Gilbert seemed to be trying not to join them, and the dimple in Gilbert's cheek flared.
"Jem, go home and put some clothes on," Mrs. Blythe ordered, fighting a rather undignified chuckle.
Jem threw her a cheeky grin as he went to comply.
Susan shook her head mournfully.
"Oh, what is the world coming to?" she queried of no one in particular.
For some mysterious reason, the Dr. and Rev. Meredith both found themselves clamping their lips together resolutely as their shoulders began to shake. Not soon after, they both excused themselves to the manse's small backyard, where the sounds of full and hearty laughter could be heard.