Chapter 32
Despite having declared himself fit as a fiddle with many more years in him, Matthew gave the residents of Green Gables quite a scare one day. He bent over clutching his chest. Gilbert who was closest when it happened rushed towards him, assisting him to the ground. Tommy seeing Gilbert assisting Matthew took off for the doctor while Henry ran for some cool water. The two boys met each other's eyes briefly, fear in both of their gazes.
In the kitchen where she had been watching out the window, admiring Gilbert, though she wouldn't admit it, Anne gave a shriek and ran for the door. Marilla at her heels after galancing out the window and seeing Matthew laying on the ground. Mrs. Lynde had been over visiting and recognizing the symptoms of heart trouble began issuing orders.
Matthew was pronounced by the doctor weakened,but would survive and was given some diet restrictions and guidelines to follow. The militant look in Marilla's eyes declared he would be following them. The same militant look declared she wouldn't hear a word from Henry of staying come the fall.
…
It was less than a week later, that the paper featured the failure of the Abbey Bank. Marilla had read the terrible headline and offered up a prayer that against, Matthew's wishes a decade or two ago she had insisted on putting part of their money under the old floorboard after a spate of gossip about how well off the Cuthberts were, based on a deposit they had made. Marilla had felt it wasn't anybody's buisness how much her or Matthew put aside and put a small amount in the bank for appearances and the rest under a loose floorboard. Marilla, like Anne, could hold a grudge and she had held one against gossipy bank tellers for 20 years after the incident.
While Green Gables was able to avoid the fallout of the aftermath of the bank's failure, the Blythe family was not as fortunate. Gilbert tried to get his parents to take the funds they had provided for his schooling, but they refused saying it was their stake in Gilbert's future and that they would get by. His father argued that they could resave for their old age and as long as Gilbert went on to become a doctor, once they were to old to work the farm they could sell it without feeling guilty for selling their son's inheritance and settle into a small house. Gilbert stubbornly began to speak of teaching but Mrs. Blythe was so determined that he use the funds that she came by Green Gables with an appeal to Anne and Henry to talk some sense into her son.
Any conversation or talking of sense into Gilbert fell on death ears, his eyes locked on Anne's lips and fighting the urge to crush her to him, kiss her as he had before and claim her as his. She was his greatest strength and his greatest weakness. In the end he couldn't say if it was a strength or weakness that made him decided that as long as Anne was going, he would follow her to Redmond. He loved his parents and felt duty bond to them and their farm, but Anne was the very air he breathed.
…
The sorrow at Green Gables wasn't done though. Doctor Spencer had insisted Marilla see an eye specialist when he came to the island and the prognosis wasn't good. Marilla was going blind. This time it was Anne's turn to waver in going to Redmond. It wasn't Henry or Gilbert, her usual voices of reasoning that appealed to her. It was Tommy.
Tommy grapsed Anne firmly by the shoulders, he was no longer small for his age and with his last growth spurt over the course of the summer he stood slightly taller than Anne and after a year of taking over Henry's duties he had begun to develop his own set of farm muscles. Any shirts this summer from him for Anne wouldn't be to tight, but perhaps to loose to accommodate those changes. "You've got to go, Anne," he said quietly. "I'll see to Marilla. She would hate it if she felt she kept you back."
"She needs me to be her eyes," Anne said shaking her head. "After everything they have done for us, I can't let Marilla down now. Not when she needs me," Anne protested.
"If you don't go, Gil and Henry won't either. You three have done it all together ever since we all exploded into Gilbert's life. Your the one that talked Henry into not being to proud to accept the legacy, to use it for his schooling. And when Gilbert found out his pa had sold the part of the farm he had meant to someday sign over to Gilbert, for him to go to Redmond with you and Henry, well you convinced him to accept. He still is on the fence about it. The failure of the bank didn't help. He's struggling with the concept of accepting aide from his parents financially after that, when he feels they could use the money," Tommy said, aware of the fact the only reason Gilbert really had been able to accept his parents' help to get started at Redmond was an unswerving determination to be at Anne side. He wanted to stand on his own two feet, but even more than that, he wanted Anne. He had overheard Gilbert tell Henry that his pa had told him, not to be to proud to lose his place by Anne's side. That that piece of the farm would have given him a place to have Anne by his side on the island, and now it could give him a chance to stay by Anne's side off the island. That the deed was done and the funds were there and would sit there until Gilbert went and used them, whether he did it this year or not.
"If you don't go both of them will waver, especially Gilbert. Henry barely agreed that I was here to help Matthew out so he could go. You stay and he'll be feeling all guilty if he goes and he'll stay too," Tommy said with conviction.
"But it's Matthew and Marilla, his heart is bad and her eyesight is going-"
"Anne don't say it's to much for me to handle. I'm twelve years old, by that age you and Henry were handling a lot more. I've been here with them while you were at Queens, and we got by just fine. Marilla even says I'm a better hand in the kitchen then you. The fail of the abbey bank was a shock for him, and might have done him in if him and Marilla hadn't stashed all that cash under the floorboard. But well Anne, my mind is made up. I'll sit out a year of school if I have to, but you and Henry, your going to Redmond."
"You had better not sit out school Thomas Marcus Conner!" Anne exclaimed passionately.
"And you had better go to Redmond, Miss Shirley," Tommy said firmly. "Matthew was so proud of you for winning the Avery. Don't let him down now Anne. That just might kill him," Tommy said knowing it was going for the jugular to throw Matthew at Anne like that, but figuring she left him no choice.
"I'll do it," Anne said with a determined nod of her head. "But if anything changes, if things take a turn for the worse-"
"You and Henry will be on the first ferry back," Tommy finished for her. "Don't think it'll just be you. Henry would be right with you." Silently Tommy added Gilbert would likely be right behind her, if not next to her. The type of situation that would call Henry and Anne back from their education would not be the type Gilbert would willingly let her face alone.
"Besides, Anne," Tommmy added teasingly, "if you don't go, Mr. Charles Sloan will go thinking you regret refusing his proposal and though he swore not to ask again, if he thought you were finally training to be a good housewife rather than seeking an academic education-"
"I'd rather die. One proposal from Charlie Sloan was enough," Anne said dramatically.
"One proposal from him was about one to many, me thinks," Tommy said grinning.
"That it was," Anne said with a shrudder. She couldn't help but also remember with unease the times since then Charlie had stopped her and addressed her as if the incident had never occurred. He had even the other day informed her he liked boiled potatoes on Tuesday nights, like it should mean something to her. He also tended to pepper these run ins with snide comments on her past and how it would serve her well to remember her place in the future. Anne attributed these to bitterness and attempted to shrug them off, though they were often hurtful and left her feeling uneasy.
