Hello Anne-girls!
So sorry to have dropped off the radar over the last two months. I am very happy to be back and posting this terribly overdue update for this story. I know I left the narrative poised at a rather delicate time (!) and hope that you enjoy how the chapter has unfolded. It was certainly tremendous fun to write!
As I have indicated before, this story is almost at its conclusion. I originally had the thought to start and end on a proposal – Roy declined and Gilbert accepted – as the symmetry of that appealed very much, but then I found myself developing other plot points that deserved to be tied up. As it stands I have in mind one more chapter and an epilogue and look forward to bringing those to you very soon.
Love
MrsVonTrapp x
Chapter Eighteen
'The best way to explain it is to do it'
"Gilbert!" Mrs Blythe gasped.
"Ma!"
"Gil?" spluttered Mr Blythe.
"Dad!"
"Anne Shirley?" Mrs Blythe exclaimed.
"Oh Mrs Blythe! Mr Blythe!" Anne yelped.
"Anne!" John Blythe, the quickest to recover from his surprise, tried unsuccessfully to muzzle his grin.
John Blythe was not a prudish man, and prided himself on having brought up his bright, brilliant son to be likewise, although there also lingered about Gilbert a rather courtly courtesy with regards to young ladies that was both an essential aspect of his charm and a sometimes slightly troubling character trait. Gilbert also had enough of his mother's romantic sensibility, albeit closely guarded, to flavour the mix, sometimes not in his favour. All the long years longing after Anne Shirley had trapped him in a hopeless pit of purgatory John had been desperate for Gil to climb his way out of, much as he liked and admired the young lady in question himself, and perhaps, regarding his own long ago romance with a girl of Green Gables, had understood the attraction of rather too well. Though he had worried that Anne, for all her gumption and smarts, was still too ethereal to be a proper mate for Gilbert – that her romanticized notions of the world and even of young men would be impossible to live up to and difficult to reconcile with the sometimes hard, prosaic reality of a relationship, let alone a marriage.
When she had taken up with that Kingsport fellow his heart broke a little for his son, much as Clemmie saw it as further evidence, after that refused proposal, of Anne's growing unworthiness. There were indeed, to be fair, few young women Clementine Blythe did think worthy enough of Gilbert. John had always found Anne worthy, but worried that she was right. Gil lived in his head enough, with his ideas and his study, and to see him and Anne together in the day was to view two jesting kites pirouetting around one another on the breeze, high above mere mortals and earthly concerns. It was a thing of rare beauty. But you needed to be grounded, to be of the earth, too, and he didn't need to be a farmer to know that. Earthly delights were just as important as lofty ideals. He wanted both for Gil, for he would have need of them in the demanding, all-encompassing career he had set himself on. Perhaps Anne moving on would be, eventually, for the best.
But then, the incredible change in Gilbert on his arrival back home after Convocation, bruised as a prizefighter and grinning as an idiot. Gilbert had finally gotten his hands dirty and John couldn't have been prouder. All the whispers round the village of Anne calling off her Kingsport courtship - let alone all the new sightings of Gil and Anne together, just as in days of yore – fuelled John's curiosity, but they were off to that fancy Bolingbroke wedding before he could bend Gilbert's ear about it. And then… the desperate, shocking summons, and there was no thought of anything but reaching their boy and praying for his recovery.
And there, at every turn, was Anne Shirley, never more lovely than with her straggling hair and her pale, pinched face and her shadowed grey eyes, who had herself come crashing to earth as resolutely as Gil in his terrible fall. This Anne was not the blithe, merry maiden he had known but a desperate woman both aching and adoring, both sentiments for the first time directed at his son, and John was infused with the quiet glow of hope. True to form, their path was still torturous – these two would never quite get their heads out of the clouds – and this are-they-aren't they, engaged-or-not business made his brain hurt. Just now in the lobby he and Clemmie had paused for ten astonished minutes perusing a hotel copy of the Kingsport Chronicle which he now carried under his arm, his wife unable to decide between tears for the bravery shown by Gilbert – and indeed also Anne and young Mr Gardner… pride in the handsome images of him captured for the edification of all… or indignation at the blatant lies spread regarding her beloved boy's marriageable status.
But for John, to use a metaphor made truly awful for them now, there was never smoke without a fire, and the arresting sight before them of a semi-clad Gilbert in passionate embrace with a certain redhead could well have burned his eyes in their sockets with a heat all its' own.
And although he had no idea what it meant, he was truly delighted.
"Ma… Dad…" as Anne leapt from his embrace, Gilbert seized his shirt and was now rebuttoning it awkwardly. "I can explain…"
"Well, Gilbert, I am all ears as to how you came to be in this state of dishevelment, appearing to forgo your clothes and wear Anne Shirley instead!" Clementine Blythe was rather magnificent in her affront.
"My shoulder was paining, and Anne was just giving me a massage, Ma…" Gilbert offered hurriedly.
"Is that what they're calling it these days?" Clemmie huffed.
Anne blushed furiously, reddening further still to note John's unrepentant smirk.
"Ma…" Gilbert flashed a wary look at his father and the article in clear view on the front page, which John now shifted into his large hand. "That is not how this is and with respect I think you know that."
"It seems I know nothing, Gilbert John Blythe, most especially about a certain engagement!"
"Clemmie…" John cautioned, belatedly remembering to close the door behind them and relinquishing the offending article to a side table. "Gil's offered to explain, so let him explain…"
"Thanks, Dad," Gilbert took a breath, and then held out his hand to capture Anne's, who had been hovering uncertainly beside him. "It's true… Anne and I are engaged…" he gave her a tender look, drawing her close. "But it didn't happen until today. Just hours ago, after we left you. I'm sorry for the shock of the news in the paper. We ourselves don't know how the misunderstanding was reported, and I know it all might seem back to front, but it is, at least, a true and wonderful fact right now."
"You're engaged?" Clemmie spluttered. "You and Anne?"
"Yes, Ma." Gilbert's eyes were shining as his arm snuck around Anne's waist.
"And this came on so suddenly? Are you sure after the fall you're in your right mind, love?"
Anne's cheeks by this time were flaming.
"What your mother means to say, Gil, is that it's been a little hard to keep up with developments. One minute we're told you're engaged and then the next minute 'tis refuted, so it's been difficult to find a definitive answer on the subject," John attempted in rescue.
"Ma… Dad… I can't find a definitive enough answer for you except to tell you that I love Anne and have for half my life… and wonderfully she loves me too… and to show you – "
"Gil – " John raised his hands in surrender. "I think your mother has seen enough of the show part of proceedings today!" John's tone was stern but his eyes twinkled with his son's own mischief.
"And to show you…" Gilbert continued undaunted, extending Anne's left hand, "that through surviving the worst of times, Anne and I are now able to enjoy the best of them."
A very pretty ring, ruby-red and glowing as Anne's cheeks, sparkled as if winking on its pale, slim finger. John and Clementine stared, transfixed, for many moments, scrambling to make sense of this new development.
"Our engagement is not the result of my concussion, Ma…" Gilbert added firmly. "Of course, the fire and the aftermath of it rather crystalized our feelings, but those feelings on both sides had developed and strengthened over the last month or so. I did ask Anne to marry me, in a manner of speaking, even before the fire…" Gilbert looked down to her with a chagrined smile, "but circumstances rather got in the way and I was not able to renew those sentiments until today, with the most wonderful result."
John certainly didn't need any further confirmation, giving a delighted shout and wrapping Gilbert in a very careful bear hug, mindful of his shoulder and ribs and gifting an amused look when getting a whiff of the lingering smell of liniment. He then turned to the gorgeous young woman with the large grey eyes and widening smile.
"Welcome to the family, love," he crushed Anne in a hearty embrace, "though it's always seemed like you were, at that."
"Thank you, Mr Blythe!"
Gilbert had paused before Clementine, who stared up into his handsome, lean face and gripped his hands tightly.
"You're happy?" she asked tearfully.
"Ma, I'm so happy I can hardly breathe for it!"
For the mother who at one point likely feared her son had taken his last breath, this was a rather startling admission, but her tears overtook her reservations, and she held him gently and kissed him lovingly.
"Anne," she looked to the young woman with whom Gilbert had had such a long and often fraught relationship. She hadn't been the only one to observe the changed feelings that the pale, slim, attractive young lady wore on her sleeve and well as in her heart. Clementine's own heart had softened towards her, in observing her evident devotion to Gilbert, undeniable these uncertain days in Kingsport, though this shillyshallying back and forth regarding engagements and whatnot had seemed without end.
"Mrs Blythe…" Anne offered, a little tremulously.
Clementine now clutched Anne's own hands, noting again the truly lovely ruby stone adorning that pale finger, a very fitting symbol of the pulsating passion between Gilbert and his intended she had just witnessed. Although momentarily shocked and more than a little surprised, Clementine wasn't as affronted as she had originally indicated, now that there was a true and official promise attached to such a display. She wasn't John Blythe's wife for nothing, and hadn't wanted Gilbert to end up with a simpering miss any more than John had. Or worse, some refined Kingsport debutante who looked down her nose at their simple ways and spoke a language she didn't understand, ready to drag him off beyond her reach. But Anne spoke her language, and more importantly, she spoke Gilbert's. Here was a young lady she knew and would delight in knowing better still.
"You love him," Clementine stated, relief in the realization, smiling through new tears. There was no need to add at last, though even Anne herself would have acknowledged that point.
"Yes," Anne gasped, tears sparking her own grey orbs. "More than anything!"
This seemed enough for Clemmie, too, and she embraced Anne as tenderly, and certainly as tearfully, as she had her son.
"Well, then, this certainly calls for a celebration!" John beamed at the room. "How about dinner in that fine dining room downstairs?"
"Dad!" Gilbert was quick to waylay the thought, tempting as it sounded. "We don't need to worry about any extravagant meal…"
"Indeed we don't," John gave his son a wink, as incorrigible as any overture young Gilbert had made to Anne in the schoolroom. "The manager saw us on the way in, and is mighty keen to have his establishment reward the hero of the hour, with his compliments!"
Their meal was as merry as anyone could have wished, with not three but four courses, which bemused John Blythe greatly, washed down with sparkling cider almost as good as that produced by the man himself.
They would leave early on the morrow on the boat train, and the Blythes, with knowing smiles, farewelled Anne and Gilbert at her door.
"Mind you don't forget which room you're in there, Gil," John couldn't resist, causing his almost twenty five-year-old son to roll his eyes as he may have done a decade before.
"Do you think they'll ever let us forget how they discovered us this afternoon?" he groaned, taking both Anne's hands in his.
"Your mother may want to," Anne gave in to a becoming rosy blush, "but your father is sure to hold onto the memory of it for the length of our engagement at least!"
"There's nothing for it, then, Anne-girl," Gilbert replied smokily, leaning into her. "We'll just have to elope."
"I thought we were married already?"
Her secret, suggestive smile did disturbing things to his heart rate. He was still getting used to Anne's irresistible charm turned so completely and unreservedly upon himself.
"Ah, yes…" he breathed. "How does it go again? I Marry You…" he paused to kiss her cheek. "I Marry You…" he caught the fluttering pulse behind her ear. "I – "
" – Marry You…" Anne completed the vow, lips reaching for his.
Several minutes later, the two new lovebirds reluctantly pulled away.
"With our engagement proclaimed and now our marriage settled, there's barely anything left to arrange," Gilbert teased knowingly.
"Nothing but smooth sailing..." Anne cuddled into his chest, sighing deeply. "Though I don't think the board of Summerside High School will quite share the same view."
Gilbert delighted in wrapping his strong arms around her, ignoring the twinges Anne had worked hard earlier to eradicate, resting his cheek against her perfumed hair.
"Your job offer…" he now shared her sigh. "It's a wonderful opportunity, Carrots."
"It is," she answered hollowly. "For someone else."
"You don't wish to take it?"
"I had… reservations… even before we went across to Bolingbroke. I mean, of course I was incredibly flattered and heartened by the offer, but… I just don't see myself there, Gil. Especially now."
There was a thoughtful pause.
"And yet… I'll need to do something in the meantime…"
Gilbert sighed again. "I wish we could marry straight away, Anne. I don't want to waste a single moment with you."
She looked up into his beloved lean face.
"You need to concentrate on medical school, Gil. You worked so hard to get there. You can't be studying whilst worried about a wife."
A flash of feeling sparked those bright hazel eyes.
"It is now my honour and privilege to worry about you, Anne. But I don't want to trample your dreams just to pursue my own. And I worry that I am also condemning us to a three year engagement."
"It was good enough for Diana and Fred," she smiled gamely.
"They were both in Avonlea. Able to see one another every day."
"Then I'll stay with you here in Kingsport."
"You'd do that? For me?"
"In a heartbeat. But I am also doing it for us. I can't bear to be away from you either, Gil."
Her gentle declaration infused him with the purest joy, and his mouth seized Anne's again, pouring into his kiss the love and longing of a decade. If half his life had been in the pursuit of her, he barely trusted himself to survive the happiness of the next five minutes, let alone an entire life together.
"Three years together, here…" Gilbert's face glowed at the thought as he finally tore his lips from hers. "I don't trust myself to believe it's possible, Anne. You'd walk into any teaching position in Kingsport, of course, but it has to be what you want. Maybe instead you might want to work as an English tutor, back at Redmond? Or pursuing your writing…?"
Anne's heart pained with the fierce kind of feeling she'd read about and sought but thought would never experience… to properly know the devotion of the man who held her in his arms, who had loved her, by his own admission, for half his life… She had spent half of hers running from that love, and now that she could finally embrace it, in every sense, the reality was wonderfully overwhelming. And honestly, a Gilbert busily making plans, reaching for any solution that might please her, particularly after the pained uncertainty of these past weeks, was utterly adorable.
"I don't know what the next bend in the road will reveal, Gil," she forestalled him now with a burning look of devotion, her hand reaching up to his cheek, "and for the moment I don't care. I'm only sure of one thing… that I'm scandalously in love with you." *
His long, deep, ardent kiss in reply was an appropriate match for her words.
The Gardners met them in the lobby of the hotel in the morning, Dorothy rushing forward to embrace Anne, agog with both their news and the sight of Anne's ring.
"Oh, Anne, darling, so it really is true! You sly thing, you! Undying congratulations of course!"
"Thank you, Dorothy!" Anne drew her away from where Jem was greeting Gilbert and introducing Lily to the Blythes. "I'm so sorry you learned of it this way! We weren't engaged when the paper came out, though. It only happened yesterday afternoon."
"Well, however it happened, I'm delighted. No one deserves happiness more than yourself and your Mr Blythe. Though I am so sorry to see you go! How terrible and dull it will be without you here."
"I hope to be back…" Anne smiled softly. "To Kingsport. Somehow."
"I'm holding you to that! I certainly don't want to be seeing more of your fiancé round the hospital than you will!" she smiled cheekily.
"Whatever do you mean, Dorothy Gardner?" Anne's wide eyes gleamed at her friend.
"You weren't the only one who had a busy day yesterday, Miss Shirley. Dr Johnston has recommended I nominate for the hospital board next month, and I've made up my mind to do it. And what's more, Roy is supporting me!"
"That is… is… quite marvellous!" Anne was too agog herself at this revelation and more than a little flustered by the gentleman's very appearance through the doors. "Dorothy… is Roy all right? With the news?"
"He is more than all right. He defended the both of you to Mother, what's more. I dare say that actually this whole business has been the making of him."
Still unsure, Anne began to walk towards him, astonished to see Roy instead not hesitate in approaching Gilbert, Jem, Lily and Mr and Mrs Blythe, eyes out on stalks as he extended his hand to meet Gilbert's.
"Mr Blythe," Roy's resonant tones caused a little thrill of memory to snake down her spine. No matter that her heart leapt to the sound of Gilbert's baritone and would forevermore, she still could not deny the power of that velvety voice.
"Roy," Gilbert cut through unnecessary formality as they shook hands.
"Gilbert," Roy conceded, visibly relaxing. "Thank you."
That voice almost broke on his gratitude, sparse of words but not of emotion. Roy worked his mouth as if he would say more, unable to manage it.
"No thanks necessary. Though we would thank you, for the generosity of our hotel rooms and my medical bill."
"Not a word of it," Roy smiled briefly. "You are recovering fully?" he asked of the man he had last seen unconscious in his hospital bed.
"Yes, thank you. I was very lucky and I've received excellent care."
Anne, clasping Dorothy's hand tightly, slowly approached the two men, both tall and handsome and more alike in dignity, ** than she may once have preferred to believe.
Roy saw her on his periphery, his eyes flicking to her, working to mask the flash of feeling her news had obviously engendered.
"Gilbert… Anne… I believe congratulations are in order. May I wish you both every happiness."
His manners, as faultless as she best remembered them, rescued them all from what could have been an uncomfortable situation.
"Thank you, Roy," Anne's wavering voice betrayed the emotion behind it.
"We appreciate that immensely," Gilbert added, his arm coming lightly around her waist.
And then she and Gilbert were swamped by Jem and Lily, the former with a smile of unbridled delight that tried very hard to be considerate of his cousin. Meanwhile the Blythes descended on Roy with all the kindness and appreciation he had never received from his own mother and perhaps missed from his late father, and his astonishment was rather touching to behold.
"You'll both keep in touch?" Jem now urged them as Mr Blythe directed their assorted bags to the porter, noting a package left for his son at the Front Desk with a secret grin.
"Absolutely!" Gilbert was shaking his hand with enthusiasm, as Anne embraced him tightly.
As the Blythes farewelled Jem, Lily and Dorothy, Anne turned back to Roy.
"May we keep in touch with you too, Roy?" Anne asked carefully, taking his hand, "if you would not find it too strange?"
"I don't think anything could have been stranger than the events of this summer," he gave a chagrined look, mouth almost quirking at the corners. "And I certainly won't stand being the only one not hearing your news directly," his brown eyes smiled.
"I hope for your happiness, Roy," Anne urged with the sweetness he well remembered.
"I hope you'll spare a hope or two for my happiness as well!" Dorothy interrupted with her broad, generous smile.
"Oh Dorothy!" Anne embraced her tearfully. "I know we won't be official sisters now, but I take you for mine all the same!"
"That's just as well…" Dorothy's own hazel eyes brightened suspiciously. "I was not going to let you leave otherwise!"
As a cab was flagged and then loaded, the Blythes and Anne were seen safely off, and both parties smiled and waved until the carriage rounded the corner and out of sight.
Gilbert heaved a sigh of relief and sat back as the train chugged out of the station, his parents opposite and Anne by his side. If he had done so as intended two weeks earlier he would have been far safer, even secure, and hopefully still moving towards a happy outcome with Anne. But he knew he would have been the poorer for missing the chance to make a new friend and form a stronger connection with the Gardners, something neither he, Anne or even Roy would have sought let alone welcomed at the start of the summer, even at the cost to person and property that had been the price. But how much better for all of them to be on this firmer footing now, and he and Anne engaged, and his parents with a knowledge and appreciation of Kingsport, and with all the connections he had fostered at the hospital, to build upon and strengthen in the coming years.
And the strengthening relationship with Anne and his parents made his heart swell. The two ladies after a time sought out refreshments in the dining car, chatting all the way, and Gilbert let his gaze linger on the departing forms of the women in his life, unable to muzzle his grin.
John caught that grin and gave it back to his son, tenfold.
"Gil, there's a package for you in the overhead locker, dropped off at the hotel this morning. Mind you don't wrench your other shoulder getting it down!"
With a raised eyebrow, Gilbert hauled the wrapped package, pausing first at the note attached.
Dear future Dr Blythe
I heard that some recent acquisitions of yours were sacrificed in the fire. Please borrow my copies, with all good wishes, for however long you have need of them.
Looking forward to seeing Nurse Chalmers 'boss you about' on the ward.
Warm Regards
William Johnston
Gilbert's grin was ever wider as he tore off the brown paper, perusing the medical textbooks he had doubled-back for at Redmond, precipitating an unfortunate and quite extraordinary series of events. They were worn and much loved, if that was the right description, with Dr Johnston's helpful, astute jottings in the margins pointing the way, as if a map to help guide him through the coming three years.
"Wow, how fantastic!" Gilbert enthused.
"Rather you than me, son," John answered dryly, folding his arms and leaning his head back, closing his eyes for a brief respite until his wife and future daughter-in-law returned.
Rest up there, Hypnos, Gilbert smiled to himself, eagerly turning back to the first volume.
Chapter Notes
The chapter title is courtesy of the Dodo in Chapter 3 'A Caucus-Race and a Long Tale' in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.
In a lovely note of serendipity, my daughter recently auditioned for and won the role of the Cheshire Cat in an amateur youth production of a musical version of Alice in Wonderland. She has been rather astonished by my close knowledge of the story 😊
*I've chosen the wording here, you will not be surprised, from the Sullivan production The Continuing Story, but the original wonderful quote of course is from Anne of Windy Poplars, The Second Year Chapter 9 'Gilbert, I'm afraid I'm scandalously in love with you.'
**Romeo and Juliet (Prologue)
And some correspondence…
I was really thrilled to receive such a large number of comments for the previous chapter and thank you to everyone who stopped by! Apologies again for the long time between posts on this story.
Guest #1 of Aug 7th (Ch 17): Thank you for your delightful and encouraging words! I am so thrilled your have enjoyed this rabbit-hole of a story and it is such a pleasure to have such a responsive reader! I hope since you posted your review that you have enjoyed the subsequent LOHD chapters and it will be something I refocus on very soon!
Guest #2 of Aug 7th (Ch 17): Hello Guest! I just grinned shamelessly to read how you thought the Blythes would react to walking in on Anne and Gilbert in the previous chapter and without having reread your comment before writing this next chapter you can clearly see that you have been right on the money! So glad you are enjoying this story and well played!
Guest of Aug 10th (Ch 17): Aww thank you! I hope you enjoyed your reread and that everything hung together! Thank you for your kind words and so sorry this next chapter was so long in coming.
Guest of Sept 6th (Ch 17): LOL dear Guest! I hope this chapter lived up to expectations!
Guest of Sept 8th (Ch 17): ARGH poor Guest SO sorry the wait for an update was so long! Thank you for keeping faith with this!
Guest of Sept 12th (Ch 17): Thank you I'm so pleased you do! Always grateful for any words of encouragement x
Guest of Sept 14th (Ch 17): Oh Guest you are too kind! I am thrilled you are enjoying this little diversion of a story! Somewhere out there is an M-ish rated chapter where Anne and Gil are NOT interrupted but sadly it is only in my head at this point!
Guest of Sept 17th (Ch 17): Thank you Guest I am so happy to hear you are liking this x
Guest of Sept 18th (Ch 17): Hello Guest! Ahhh, the poor Blythes and their reactions to, as you well put it, this 'entanglement'. I hope you enjoyed how that scene unfolded!
Guest of Sept 23rd (Ch 17): Aww thank YOU so much!
Guest #1 of Sept 28th (Ch 17): Dearest Guest thank you SO much for your absolutely lovely and touching words! I will definitely keep plugging away at mainstream writing but my writing has been so strengthened by the reactions of this wonderful community and readers such as yourself x And so very glad you are enjoying this! I am thrilled that this is a story you can either buzz through or savor!
Guest #2 of Sept 28th (Ch 17): Thank you so much! It is so satisfying when readers post on their enjoyment x
Guest of Sept 29th (Ch 17): Thank you Guest! This Rabbit-Hole has been a fun diversion in every respect and has enabled me to follow a few different paths and burrow down in others… and the bad metaphors will stop now!
Guest of Oct 1st (Ch 17): SO sorry about the long long wait for an update but thank you for dropping in during the interim! The One Where the Blythes Don't Interrupt would be a terrific chapter to write and maybe I'll work it in one day!
Guest of Oct 5th (Ch 17): Thanks for that! Always pleased when a new chapter is out there for you :)
Guest of Oct 7th (Ch 17): Thank you so much! Music to my ears!
Guest of Oct 14th (Ch 17): Thank you Guest! The only good thing about taking so long to post updates is the absolutely lovely reception I receive when I do x
Guest of Oct 15th (Ch 17): Aww thank you!
Guest of Oct 20th (Ch 17): Thank you so much for that lovely feedback. It is always wonderful to have readership across stories and to find out the ones people have best responded to x
Guest of Nov 1st (Ch 17): So sorry Guest! You had to wait months more after your comment! I hope you have enjoyed the update now that it finally here!