Disclaimer: This is a work of fan fiction using characters created by L.M. Montgomery and Moira Walley-Beckett. I do not claim any ownership over them and offer my writing to the world as a homage to their creations as well as an outlet of imagination to imagine an infinity of alternate storylines. This is just one of them!

Epilogue

The first of January 1900 turned out to be a delightfully sunny day in Avonlea. Gilbert felt that the weather reflected his mood perfectly as he made his way through the woods towards Green Gables. He thought about the previous day and smiled as his heartbeat quickened in anticipation of seeing Anne once more.

Anne had been so radiant yesterday and had been so moved by his proposal and the party. He thought of the moment when she had burst into tears of joy and recalled what she said, "I just didn't think that anybody would love me the way you do, and that I would find love right here in Avonlea. But you do, and I did. Love revealing itself as it bloomed from friendship."

Just when Gilbert didn't think he could love Anne more, that moment smote his heart.

Now that he and Anne were engaged, Gilbert thought about all of the changes to come: not just the wedding itself but all of the details of merging their lives into one and creating a home together. He felt suddenly anxious that the dynamic between them might change. Thoughts of self-doubt flooded his mind. What if it was too soon? What if she changed her mind? What if he wasn't worthy of her?

Gilbert shook his hand, took a deep breath, and knocked on the front door. Anne opened the door to greet him with a wide smile that immediately calmed his nerves.

"Good afternoon, Anne." Gilbert smiled as he took off his hat and coat.

"Good afternoon, Gilbert." Anne giggled, right before they kissed. "Why so formal?"

"I dunno." Gilbert laughed nervously. He then took her hand in his, and at that moment, all of his doubts and fears subsided with the sensation of her firm hand in his.

"When I woke up, I was worried for a moment that it had all been a dream…"

"So did I!" interjected Anne. They both laughed, as Anne took Gilbert's coat and hat to hang them up.

Anne looked up at Gilbert and the way he looked back at her with such devotion made her cheeks flush. "But then I saw I was wearing your mother's ring and was immediately reassured. And all the wonderful indelible memories of yesterday came rushing into my mind to confirm that yesterday was most definitely not a dream."

Gilbert kissed Anne's hand, admiring how lovely she looked when blushing. For a moment she averted her glance from him in embarrassment. Then the next moment, she took a deep breath and lifted her chin up to face him, her eyes intense with determination and affection as she looked into his. He leaned in closer, about to kiss her once more, until he saw Marilla and Matthew enter the kitchen behind her. He straightened his posture quickly as he addressed them with a smile. "Oh, hello Marilla, Matthew!"

Gilbert backed away slightly from Anne as she turned around and smiled a little more brightly than usual, causing Matthew to want to chuckle out loud. Instead he cleared his throat. "Hope we weren't, uh, interrupting anything."

"Oh, no!" Both Anne and Gilbert shook their heads.

Marilla smiled at the young lovers, looking so sweet with their cheeks glowing. "Hello Gilbert! Please. Make yourself at home, no need to knock and be so formal now. You're part of the family now!" Marilla came up and embraced him. Anne felt tears of joy prick at her eyes for what seemed like the millionth time in two days.

"You may have the parlor all to yourselves. Matthew and I will be upstairs. Gilbert, maybe you could stay for supper?"

"Thank you very much! I hope we aren't inconveniencing—"

"Nonsense," said Marilla. "Matthew and I know you two want to spend as much time together before you head back to Toronto." She smiled at them, and motioned to Matthew with a tilt of her head to follow her out the kitchen.

After Anne heard the familiar creak of footsteps on the stairs, she whispered to Gilbert as they walked into the parlor. "They've gone upstairs."

Gilbert then came and encircled Anne in his arms. "Now where were we?" He smiled as he bent down to kiss her. "Yesterday really did happen." She smiled and knew she could always depend on his keen memory. His impeccable recall of the memories they had shared over the years was evident in every perspicacious detail of yesterday's surprise.

Anne had Gilbert sit on the sofa while she opened a glass cabinet and pulled out a large book with a faded cover. She held it with reverence as she ran her fingers over it. "Here it is at last for you to see, Gilbert. The precious treasure Marilla and Matthew found for me." She sat down next to him and handed him the book. "The book my father gave my mother."

Anne watched Gilbert take her mother's book carefully in his hands, handling it with great care.

"The Language of Flowers." Gilbert read the title on the cover as he held the book on his lap and glanced up at her. Anne felt as if she were introducing Gilbert to her parents, and introducing her parents to Gilbert. She gave into that feeling.

Anne cleared her throat as she turned to him, placing her hand over one of his hands holding the book. "Gilbert, allow me to introduce you to Walter and Bertha Shirley. Mother, Father, may I introduce my fiancé, Gilbert Blythe."

"It is a pleasure and honor to meet you both at last." Gilbert looked into Anne's eyes and smiled wistfully. Anne opened the book to the inscription and he then read the inscription out loud:

"For my Bertha,

So you can share your love of the natural world with your pupils.

Love always,

Walter"

As Gilbert finished, he looked at Anne. Her eyes were moist with tears as she smiled back at him. He knew how much Anne had longed to find out more about her parents. This book had filled in a chapter of her family history she had not known.

"Your descriptions were so vivid in your letters, but still nothing compares to actually holding this book in my hands and seeing it for myself."

Anne smiled and sat even closer to Gilbert as he carefully turned over each page in the book. She reveled in sometimes glancing at his reaction as he scrutinized and pointed out the beautiful illustrations as well as the colors.

Gilbert turned to Anne, his mouth agape in wonder. "Anne, this is exquisite. I've never seen a book quite like this before."

"Neither have I. I've pored over this book so often that I feel I've not only learned more about who my parents were, I've also learned a lot more about flowers and their names, although I already knew a majority of them."

"I don't doubt that. It's almost as if you had read this book as an infant, and perhaps your mother read it to you."

Anne nodded and sniffled as she wiped more tears from her eyes. "I like to imagine that was true."

Gilbert also marveled at the annotations left in Anne's mother's hand. "Her handwriting—it reminds me of yours." Gilbert's fingers traced a line of writing that went along the contour of one of the illustrations.

Anne smiled up at him. "I thought the same when I first looked through this book, that-that my writing looks like hers!"

"It's wonderful how she wrote along the edge of some of the illustrations." Gilbert pointed at an example where the words followed the contour of a rhododendron. "Her words almost seem like part of the illustration and the book itself!"

Anne was thrilled to see Gilbert's first impressions of the book so closely mirrored hers. They smiled and read out some of the dates that were written in, such as Anne's birthday and Anne's first picnic.

"There are so few dates written in," said Anne softly. "They had so little time with me." Gilbert took her hand in his as he squeezed it gently.

"How I've taken for granted having my father raise me. I can't begin to imagine losing both parents so young. You have every right to be upset at the world for cruelly separating you forever from your family."

"I confess that I've had moments of anger and despair," Anne reached to caress the side of Gilbert's face where her slate had once landed. "But life is far too short for anger and bitterness. I want our life to be full of family, friendship, joy and love. All that I'd been denied until I arrived in Avonlea."

Gilbert put down the book gently and embraced Anne tightly. Anne savored feeling his strong arms holding her and feeling his heart beat so close to hers. She knew immediately why she wouldn't have been able to bear the distance between Toronto and PEI for too long.

Gilbert smiled as he pulled away slightly to look into Anne's eyes. "I recall you mentioning in your first letter to me in Toronto that you look like your mother. Where is the drawing?"

"Ah, my mother's portrait is at the back of the book!" Anne reached over for the book and flipped it gently to the back cover. There was a drawing with colors painted in of a woman with beautiful red hair arranged in a stylish updo. It was labeled "Bertha" at the top and signed with "Walter" at the bottom.

Gilbert smiled, admiring the illustration before turning to Anne. "So your father was an artist!"

"Yes, but that was only my second thought when I first saw this. My first thought was that my mother had red hair. That I have red hair because she had red hair. So not only was this book given with love, I can see this portrait was drawn with love."

"And you were born from their love." Gilbert smiled. "My father always told me I resemble my mother, and that it was sometimes a comfort to him that she lived on in me. But it was also a daily reminder of what he lost. So your parents live on in you, and my parents in me. And someday when we are parents, we will live on in our children."

Anne looked down at her ring, Gilbert's mother's ring. Gilbert looked down at the book in his hands, Anne's mother's book. Their eyes connected in understanding as they kissed.