So I didn't plan on this, I had no reason to ever write this. But being on a bus for sometimes 6 hours a day with twenty people. I escape to other places and this happened.
No one ever asked for a prequel to Fluttering Fresnels, but apparently, it needs one….though right now this is fairly stand-alone. I don't think one needs to read Flutters to appreciate this story but the premise is Anne and Gil have Joy and 18 and 20 respectively and how being young parents in college shaped them.
Also apologies for the bad editing, it has since been fixed up. I should know better than to write and edit while bone tired! Hopefully, it is better now!
Side Note about the Title
I choose the title for two things. The Alliteration that follows the previous two stories. Fluttering Fresnels, Alluring Allegro, and now Precious Pearls and the canon knowledge Anne and her pearls. I am aware of there is an older story with the same name by a reviewer, but after considering that Anne and her pearls are canon and my own theme for this universe that I have created. I have decided to keep it, and also for the reason that I cross-post to A03, where the other story is not published. I am keeping the title as it is, it is rather mental to have it named one thing on A03, and another here on FF.
1985
Anne Shirley was uncomfortable, very many reasons, the dress she wore was uncomfortable despite it having puffed sleeves which were fashionable. She felt ridiculous in it, not that she would admit that out loud to Marilla Cuthbert, not after she had a good friend make her something respectable, but also pretty to wear on the occasion. Still, it was white with a bit of lace, and it wasn't even the shapeless tent that she usually wears, it had a dropped waist that actually looked flattering if you looked at the right angle, but it also had scattered pearls sewn into the yoke of the dress and an element of something that just made it hers.
She gets up to go the bathroom, waving off everyone who jumps in to help her.
She looks in the mirror, classy makeup on her face, eyeliner and rosy cheeks with a touch of reddish lipstick. Her hair was curled and pulled partially back from her face before being teased out making it frothy and pouffy, with a few flowers pinned into one side of it. Something Diana had done for her, she wanted to skip school for this but was afraid of her mother finding out, so she didn't even have her best friend with her. Unless she decided to go against her mother?
Still, she felt oddly pretty for the sake of this whole event. She even got a new pair of pantyhose and a pair of new heels for the occasion, even with her string of pearls that Matthew got her the previous year when he took her shopping in the mall.
She does go pee though, probably for the hundredth time that day, and the nerves didn't help it either. She looks in the mirror once more.
A solemn thing – it was – I said –
A Woman – White – to be –
And wear – if God should count me fit –
Her blameless mystery –
Anne finds herself reciting Emily Dickinson to herself in the mirror.
She walks back down the hall, Marilla dressed in her best suit is sitting primly waiting for their turn. Matthew would be here as well, he just had to pick up the children from early dismal this morning and get them changed.
Anne looks again for the millionth time, at the building was pretty. The courthouse was always pretty as it was old. Old as the island with its architecture and tiled floors. It even had this domed cathedral-like hall that they were sitting in, sitting the March sun shining through. It looked pretty for photos that would come later most likely. Not that she wanted photos if she had her way if they had a way— they would wait longer. But what is done is done, and this is the remedy now that was properly eighteen.
She folds her hands on her lap, or what used to be her lap? Does she ignore the looks of the surrounding people, the looks of pity or disgust? She has to at this point because they never stop. Marilla had fought tooth and nail to keep her in school and to graduate on time. Gilbert was in college already and missed so much, but he could miss this could he? No, his parents wanted this as much as Marilla wanted it. This whole year had been nothing planned by either of them
"Stop fidgeting Anne," Marilla tells her as her shoe dangles. Swinging as her foot moves with each nervous gesture.
Anne sighs and stops, but still, she feels the rapid beating of hearts under her skin. She looks at the watch on her wrist, a birthday present from Marilla and Matthew, it was dainty and gold with a few small pearls on it as well in the face of the watch. It felt like forever before she spots the familiar curls of her fiancé…the word is still strange to her. He's dressed up in a navy suit, his best suit, the one he used to wear to church. Thankfully Mrs. Allen had taken pity on young Anne and wooed the mothers of the congregation to embrace Anne's predicament and not shun her for it, or Gilbert for that matter.
"Anne," he swoops down to kiss her, his hand lingering lightly and away from view as he holds her non-existent waist for a moment. "Traffic took longer than expected, and then the sale clerk couldn't find the order."
"You got them though?" Marilla asks, standing up to kiss the young man's cheek. Anne struggles to stand up, John Gilbert's Father holds out a hand to her, before giving her a light hug, and Mrs. Blythe who always seems stand-off-ish kisses her cheek.
"Oh yes, all cleaned up and ready to go," Gilbert nods his head. "Also got you these," he says reaching for something else in a bag and pulling out a small bouquet filled with star flowers, lilies of the valley and a few pink-tipped white roses.
"They are lovely, thank you," Anne says playing with the satin of the ribbons, taking the time to inhale and smell them. "Truly they are the loveliest, really Gil they brightened up my whole day." Marilla rolls her eyes slightly at the gesture, muttering something about fiddle sticks before talking to Gilbert's parents. The ultimate plan, was for Anne to live at Marilla's house until she graduated, even when Gilbert finished in a few weeks though he was welcome at her place, of course, she just didn't want Anne moving too much between places, not this far advanced.
It was like everything was being planned out with her input and suddenly she feels her blood boil and race. Jesus doesn't cry, don't cry, she tells herself.
"It will be okay," Gilbert tells her seeing the panic on her face. "I love you," he says pulling her close as he could. For the first time that day, Anne felt better.
"I love you too," She hears him whisper as she feels a sharp kick that was directed to the stomach squishing hers. How the idea terrified both of them? Parents, they were about to be parents. They both blush slightly as Marilla and his parents look at them in their moment. They haven't had much time alone since it all came out. Granted he was at University something she wouldn't let him give up, but still it was awkward and embarrassing.
She wasn't sure if she was ready to be a mother, how her own mother had only been a few years older than her when she got married to her father, only having a few short years together, she had only a few vague memories of Walter Shirley, and they all involved music and piano. He had been a music teacher, and so had her mother. Kindergarten and because of that she was bright and cheerful always on the move, and always dancing around their small home. Even when she was sick from chemo and lost most of her strawberry blonde hair, her fathers had been red. Red like hers as the photos told her.
She did wonder about what this child would look like, and time would only tell her that.
They had a name picked out for each gender, they had little clothes they saved up for and bought on a rare weekend together.
She just didn't understand why this! Why did they have to do this? Anne looks down at the ring with a small circle of precious pearls; something that had been his grandmother's, another thing they didn't need to spend money on. Her whole life was changing and this was the beginning of it all, at least she had Gilbert at her side, but still was she ready for this? She didn't know, but she also knew that she had no choice if she wanted to be respectable.
"You are beautiful," Gilbert says quietly.
"I look like a whale," Anne says sighing.
"You are beautiful," Gilbert shakes his head.
"Blythe and Shirley," They both turn at their names being called, but Anne also turns at the door nearby swinging open Diana looks windblown and still in her dress she wore to school panting there as she steps inside.
"I made it!" She exclaims.
"Hurry up then," Marilla tells her. Others waiting still, oddly it was a busy day in the courthouse for things.
No one walks her down the aisle and she didn't want anyone to. It was just her and Gilbert walking to the officiant quietly holding hands.
The officiant says nothing about her obvious state because Anne doubts that this was the first wedding they have done with a bride in her condition.
There are no handwritten vows, or her sentimental declarations or poems. It was straightforward and to the point.
This was not the wedding she envisioned for herself, there were no flower girls in white dresses and blue satin sashes. No garlands of roses, or little boys carrying the rings on a pillow. Things she used to dream about with her mother once upon a time. Even, her mother's dress was too small, though it would have fit if she hadn't gotten pregnant. It was something that Marilla had saved for her apparently. Though Mrs. Lynde did take a small piece of the dress's lace and sewed in a small heart inside the inside lining of the yoke.
Matthew was standing there proudly now, Dora and Davy with him, at precocious ten the twins were sweet and wild at the same time.
Dora stands there in a pretty floral dress and Anne's eyes tear up slightly she is there with a hankie.
She looks back up at Gilbert, who still had his impossible grin on his face looking down at her.
"I call upon these persons here present to witness that I, Anne Elizabeth Shirley do take you Gilbert Jonathan Blythe to be my lawfully wedded husband. To laugh with you in joy, to grieve with you in sorrow, to grow with you in love, to be faithful to you alone, As long as we both shall live." Anne finds herself repeating.
"I do," she says with a shaky voice. Looking up into hazel eyes, would this child have them?
"I call upon these persons here present to witness that I Gilbert Jonathan Blythe, do take you Anne Elizabeth Shirley to be my lawfully wedded husband/wife/spouse/partner, to laugh with you in joy, to grieve with you in sorrow, to grow with you in love, to be faithful to you alone. To raise our child together to the best of our abilities so they grow up knowing they are loved and wanted, As long as we both shall live." Gilbert says, adding on slightly which makings her eyes water even more.
There again is Dora with her hankie, and Diana is dabbing her own eyes.
"I do, also," Gilbert says with an impish grin realizing he never said it. They exchange rings, a simple small gold band for each of them before they sign the registry, while their guardian and parents signed as witnesses.
"I know to pronounce you husband and wife, you may now kiss your bride," the officiant tells him.
Gilbert grins smiling and pulls Anne to him. It's sweet and magical, it had to be for her to end up in the state that she was.
Everyone is congratulating and hugging them and it all feels strange considering how fraught the beginning was when it all came out. Pictures were taken with cameras to remember the occasion.
"One day, once I'm done medical school, once you're done school as well, we'll have a real wedding, and invite everyone," Gilbert whispers in her ear. "And yes you will get all the pretty dresses," he says when he feels a sharp kick against his hand that was laying naturally against the swell of her stomach.
"It may be a boy," Anne tells him.
"It will be a girl, and she will be the joy of young lives," Gilbert says shaking his head and kissing her temple and then her lips as the camera flashes.
Well, there we have it...
I'm not sure how this will go, but I feel like there is much of an untold story for these two. We know who they are through Rilla's eyes in flutters, but we don't know how they got to those people. We shall see how this unfolds together I think.
Tina