Jack poked his head in Ingleside's dining room. "Gwen, Phil," he said. "Want to go fishing?"
Phil shook his head. "I can't. I'm off to Uncle Carl's as soon as we're done with breakfast." He looked up at the big clock. "In fact, I should be going now." He dropped his napkin next to his plate, kissed Grandmother's cheek, and was gone.
Jack shook his head. "A budding scientist. Well, Gwen?"
Gwen nodded, beaming. She hadn't been fishing yet at all that summer.
"Me too," Jo started to insist.
"Sorry, chum," Jack said sympathetically. "Older kids only this trip. Tell you what, though, tomorrow I'll take you fishing all by yourself, just you and me. OK?"
"OK," Jo said, grinning over the slang and the excitement of a fishing excursion with just Jack.
Jack turned back to Gwen. "Well, come on, then!"
Gwen jumped up. "Let me just get my gear and change my clothes!"
She had been wearing her pretty new skirt that Lynde had helped her make (Grandmother insisted on donating the fabric, a darling green background with tiny pink flowers scattered across it) and a crisp white pin-tucked blouse, in hopes—she had to admit it—that maybe Oliver would stop by sometime.
She couldn't wear that fishing, though, so she donned her comfortable old trousers and short-sleeved button-down shirt that had belonged to her mother, once upon a time. Then she grabbed her rod and creel and ran headlong down the stairs, calling, "I'm ready," as she went.
Of course, at the bottom she tripped, and stumbled wildly across the parlour floor, dropping her gear with a crash. She was only saved from falling by a pair of strong, slightly familiar arms. She looked up into the smiling face of Oliver Grant and wished that she could just drop dead, right there.
"Easy there, Gwen," Jack laughed. "The fish aren't going anywhere."
Gwen pulled herself away from Oliver and tried to speak with dignity. "You said you were in a hurry."
"Not so much that I want you to break your leg," Jack said. "You don't mind if Oliver comes along, do you?"
"No," Gwen muttered, blushing furiously and hating herself for it.
"Not that I'll be any good," Oliver said easily. "Mostly I'm going to sit back and make admiring noises as you two reel them in."
Suddenly Gwen felt like she could breathe again. Listening to Jack and Oliver joke made her feel like she was back in Kingsport, going fishing with Jeremy and Phil. This wouldn't be so bad.
The trio was headed out past Rainbow Valley when they met Chloe and the twins, on their way up from Four Winds.
"Oliver!" Chloe shrilled. She flung herself into his arms. "I'm so glad to see you! We haven't seen you at all yet this summer."
Gwen sternly told herself that it was ridiculous to be jealous of her eleven-year-old cousin.
"How long have you been here?" Oliver asked.
"Two days," Isaac told him.
Oliver grinned. "That's not very long, Chloe."
She rolled her eyes dramatically. "You're the only person in this village worth talking to outside my family—and even sometimes within it," with a pointed look in Gwen's direction. "Even being here for two days without seeing you is too long! Won't you come down to Rainbow Valley with us?"
"Sorry," Oliver said cheerfully. He shook his creel. "I've already agreed to go fishing with Jack and Gwen."
Chloe narrowed her eyes. "Then I'll come fishing too," she decided promptly.
"You don't fish," Jack said.
"I'll watch," she said with dignity. She looped her arm through Oliver's and led the way to the pond, chattering away brightly.
Gwen watched helplessly. Chloe looked more beautiful than ever in a shining yellow dress, with white ankle socks and black mary janes, her lustrous brown hair held back from her perfect face with a white Alice band.
Jack nudged her with his elbow. "We fishing?"
Gwen ground her teeth together. She was going to fish, and she was going to have a good time. She didn't care that Chloe had neatly, and with skills far above most eleven-year-olds, separated Oliver from them. She had wanted to go fishing when she thought it was just Jack, and she still wanted to fish with him.
She forced a grin onto her face. "Yes. We're fishing."
They followed in Chloe and Oliver's trail, with Isaac and Isaiah continuing toward Rainbow Valley, no doubt plotting mischief.
The fishing wasn't so bad. Gwen did manage to land the same amount as Jack, while Chloe monopolized Oliver so much he didn't even catch one. He took it all with his usual good grace, and Jack and Gwen managed to have a good time building up a mock competition between them as to who was going to catch more. When they finally called it a day, and discovered they had caught the exact same amount, their mirth bubbled over.
"Co-champions!" Jack cried, catching Gwen's arm and pulling it over her head. "This deserves a trophy of some sort."
"At least a medal," Gwen agreed with a laugh.
"I'll send a notice to the paper," Oliver promised.
Chloe looked bored.
"Well, I think we've at least provided lunch for the gang down in Rainbow Valley, don't you?" Jack said.
"Sounds good," Gwen said.
"Oliver, since you didn't catch any, you get to carry them all," Jack informed his friend.
Chloe wrinkled her nose. "Ew!" she squealed. "They smell, and they're slimy!"
"Well, nobody's asking you to carry them," Jack told her reasonably. "and I don't notice you complaining about eating them after we fry them up."
Chloe glared at him and stomped off toward Rainbow Valley. She turned after just a few steps and planted her hands on her hips. "Well?" she demanded. "Aren't you all coming?"
Jack rolled his eyes at Oliver. "We're coming," he said.
"You all go on ahead," Gwen said. "I'm going to go fetch Phil from Uncle Carl's and tell him we're having fried trout in Rainbow Valley. Even he will tear himself away from science for that!"
"I'll come with you," Oliver said promptly. "Dr. Meredith has a book he promised to lend me."
"You're doing studying now, in the summer?" Jack asked with a raised eyebrow.
Oliver shrugged, then handed the string of fish to Jack. "Sorry, mate," he said. "Guess you're elected to carry the fish back, after all."
Jack grinned roguishly. "No worries. I'll just get Chloe to help me."
They all paused to watch her suddenly scamper as fast as her legs could take her down the road. Laughing, Oliver and Gwen took their leave of Jack and walked companionably to the Meredith residence, right in the heart of the village.
"I didn't know you and Chloe were such good friends," Gwen said tentatively after a bit.
Oliver shrugged. "You know how kids get. Our mother have always been great friends, and so Chloe somehow thinks that we all have to be best friends, too—my brother and sister and me, and her and the twins." He laughed sheepishly. "I mean, don't get me wrong, she's a good kid and all … but we're not, you know …"
"Best buddies?" Gwen suggested. She was ashamed of how petty it was—but she felt immensely relieved.
"Yeah," Oliver agreed. "I mean, everyone knows that Jack's my best mate."
Gwen didn't mind that, oddly enough. Jack and Oliver had been friends for far longer than she had been around the Glen. In fact, she didn't like the idea at all of usurping Jack's position as Oliver's best friend.
Apparently, it was just Chloe she minded.
Thinking it over, though, she decided it wasn't that she so much minded the thought of Chloe being friends with Oliver, even better friends than she herself was. It was Chloe's air of possessiveness, and her ability to make Gwen feel about two inches tall every time she was around, that was the problem.
And that, really, had very little to do with her crush on Oliver at all!
After lunch, and a rousing game of baseball (Gwen missed every single ball that flew at her when she was in the outfield, but her team still won, thanks in part to her fast running), the cousins and friends dispersed into smaller groups. Gwen was thinking about casually drifting back to Ingleside and changing back into her nice outfit, when Chloe cornered her.
"Oliver is my friend," the younger girl began without preamble. Her arms were folded across her chest and one foot was tapping on the green grass.
Gwen blinked. "Excuse me?"
Chloe narrowed her eyes. "Don't think that you can steal Oliver from me. He's my friend."
"Can't he be my friend as well?" Gwen asked, thinking this was ridiculous.
"When I grow up," Chloe answered instead, "And I'm a movie star, I'm going to have rich, famous, and handsome actors all begging me to marry them, but I'll refuse them all, even though I won't know why. And then, when my career is winding down, and I'm old and wearied of the glamour of the cinema, I'll find myself travelling back here, to dear old PEI, and there I'll find Oliver, who had been patiently waiting for me through all the years. And we'll marry and live happily ever after," she ended abruptly.
Gwen bit her lip, and then she couldn't hold it in any longer. She knew it was unkind to laugh—for all Chloe's dramatics, she obviously believed her own dream wholly—and also unwise, but she honestly could not help it. She laughed.
The dreamy expression on Chloe's face turned to one of pure hate. "Just you wait," she hissed. "You'll be sorry. I'll make you wish you'd never come to the Glen, and never met Oliver. By the time I'm finished, nobody will like you at all!"
She spun on her heel and stormed off, leaving Gwen slightly ashamed, and more than a little worried.
Then she shrugged her shoulders. Really, what could Chloe do to her? She wasn't like Lee—the twins couldn't make her cry by laughing at her. And Chloe was only a little kid, younger even than Jo.
How much damage could she really do?