The first Gwen knew of the Fords' latest trick was when Uncle Carl stormed into Ingleside's parlour. Uncle Carl was usually the most easy-going of men, but now his blue eyes were stormy and a scowl covered his entire face.

"Why, Carl!" Grandmother said, looking up from her knitting lesson with Lee and Leigh. "Whatever has happened?"

Uncle Carl drew in a deep breath, obviously trying to calm down. "Someone came into my study this morning while I was out fishing with Shirley and Ken, and destroyed some of my best entomological specimens."

"Oh no," Grandmother said in dismay. "Who would do such a thing?"

"Phil was in your study this morning," Isaac piped up from the corner, his eyes wide with innocence. "I saw him going in through the window. Maybe he saw somebody?"

"I wasn't—" Phil began, and stopped abruptly, realizing too late Isaac's trap. Gwen's heart sank down to her toes.

Uncle Carl turned his stare to his nephew. "Philip?" he said incredulously. "Did you destroy my specimens?"

Gwen couldn't blame him for being suspicious. Phil knew Uncle Carl was going to be out fishing, and Isaac's simple statement that he had crept in through the window, followed by Phil's automatic denial, sounded awfully convincing. None of the adults knew anything about the feud between the Fords and Blakes, and so to them, Isaac would have no reason to make up such a story.

Say no, Gwen silently begged her brother, but he ignored her pleading eyes. He stood up and faced Uncle Carl squarely.

"I'm sorry about the specimens," he said, his face set. Isaac's malicious grin from the corner made Gwen want to hit him. "I'll pay you back for them."

Gwen couldn't keep her mouth closed any longer. "Oh Uncle Carl, Phil would never—"

"Shut up, Gwen," Phil growled.

"But Philly—"

Phil turned to glare at her, and Gwen closed her mouth abruptly.

Uncle Carl shook his head wearily. "You could never pay me enough to make up for the loss, lad. I just want to know why?"

Despite his best efforts, Phil's lips trembled a little at the disappointment in his favourite uncle's voice. "I'm sorry," he repeated.

"I'm sure it was an accident, Carl," Grandmother said, clearly distressed.

Uncle Carl looked back at Phil, as though hoping for confirmation of this, but when the boy said nothing, his shoulders sagged a little.

"I hope so. In any case, I can't have Phil over anymore. I'm sorry, Phil, but I can't have someone I can't trust working alongside me."

Phil swallowed once and nodded. Lee burst into tears and ran sobbing out of the room, and out the house. Leigh stood up, cast one sad look at everyone in the room, and followed her.

"I'm sorry," Uncle Carl said to Grandmother, and then he too left.

"Oh Philip," Grandmother said after he was gone.

Phil couldn't take her disappointment in him, too. "I'm sorry, Grandmother," he whispered, and bolted.

"It's a mistake," Gwen declared passionately, ignoring Isaac for fear she would hit him, right there in front of Grandmother. "Phil would never do that, Grandmother. He wouldn't."

"Then why didn't he say so?" Grandmother asked, reasonably enough.

Gwen set her lips. "I don't know," she said severely. "But I'm going to find out, right now."

Phil was in a secluded corner of Rainbow Valley, lying on his stomach with his face pressed into the soft moss. Gwen approached him tentatively.

"Phil?"

He raised his head. His eyes were dry, but his expression was worse than tears would have been.

"Go away."

"I can't do that, Philly, and you know it." Gwen sat down next to him and tucked her skirt around her knees. "Why didn't you just tell Uncle Carl the truth?"

Phil rolled over onto his back and stared up at the sky. "Because that would have meant calling Isaac a liar."

"But he is."

"But I don't want to make Grandmother and Uncle Carl choose between us. That's not fair to them."

"But this isn't fair to you!" Gwen burst out passionately.

Phil turned his head and, surprisingly, gave her a crooked smile. "I know. Just like it's not fair to you that Chloe is spreading all those lies about you and the Kingsport boys, but I didn't notice you telling Oliver the truth, did you?"

Gwen blushed. Did everyone know about her crush on Oliver? "That's different."

Phil turned his gaze back to the blue sky and clouds. "Sure it is."

Gwen clenched her fists. "Phil, we have to do something. We can't keep let them do this to us. What if next they do something to Jo-Jo? Or Lee?"

Phil sighed. "I know, Gwennie. But what can we do? We can't stoop to their level. That makes us no better than them. We just have to keep on doing the best we can, and hope that eventually they tire of this."

Gwen sighed. "I've always suspected you were the most like Dad out of all of us, Philly, and now I know it. Why do you have to be so good? Can't you be just a little bad, to keep me company?"

"You wouldn't want to do anything nasty to them, either, Gwen, not if it came right down to it. You know you wouldn't."

"I know," Gwen said quietly. "But I wish I could."

Phil surprised her again with another quick grin. "So do I, actually."

The brother and sister were quiet for a few moments. Then Gwen said,

"So what are you going to do now?"

Phil sat up, his face determined. "I'm going to start paying Uncle Carl back. It'll probably take me the rest of my life, but I'm going to do it, even though he said not to."

Gwen wanted to protest again, but on second thought, decided not to. "I'll help," she said instead. She didn't really need those new shoes, or that professional haircut. "If we pool our resources, it'll only take us half our lives."

Phil slipped his arm around her in an unusual show of brotherly affection. "Thanks, sis."

As it turned out, they didn't have to bankrupt their futures, after all. Oliver stopped by Ingleside during their usual Sunday afternoon dinner to see Uncle Carl.

Uncle Carl half rose from his seat as Lynde ushered Oliver in to the dining room. "Don't tell me something else has happened to my specimens!"

"No sir," Oliver said. "In fact, I'm here to set the record straight about those others."

Uncle Carl raised his eyebrows. "Oh? I wasn't aware the record was off."

Oliver nodded. "Indeed it is, Dr. Meredith. You see, Phil couldn't have damaged your specimens Friday morning. He wasn't anywhere near your study, in fact. He was with me, helping me with my science homework." As Uncle Carl's jaw dropped (making him look exceedingly foolish), Oliver turned to where Phil was sitting with a stare of blank astonishment and gratitude on his face. "It was good of you, old man, to not tell, but when I asked you to keep it under your hat about me needing help, I didn't mean for you to go to that great of an extent."

"Why didn't you say something, Phil?" Grandmother cried.

"Why did you tell me you saw Phil?" Uncle Carl fiercely demanded of Isaac at the same time.

Isaac turned bright red and began to stutter.

"Isaac must have made a mistake," Gwen said quickly. Part of her wanted to leave her cousin to stew, but the other part of her knew Phil would prefer it this way. "Right, Isaac?"

He stared suspiciously at her, obviously wondering why she would come to his defence. "Uh, right."

"Well, next time, be sure of your facts before presenting a theory," Uncle Carl snapped. He turned his back on the shamefaced Isaac and looked Phil squarely in the eye. "I'm truly sorry, Philip, for jumping to conclusions. I should have known that you wouldn't do such a thing."

Phil now looked exceedingly uncomfortable. "Don't worry about it, Uncle Carl."

"But Phil," Grandmother persisted, still distressed, "why didn't you just tell us that Isaac made a mistake? Why let yourself be falsely accused?"

"'For what glory is it, if, when ye be buffeted for your faults, ye shall take it patiently? But if, when ye do well, and suffer for it, ye take it patiently, this is acceptable with God,'" the minister's son said unexpectedly. Gwen recognized the verse as one from First Peter—one that Dad always quoted to them about not defending themselves if accused of something.

Uncle Carl sighed. "There is such a thing as taking Scripture too far, Phil."

"With all due respect, Uncle Carl, I don't think so," Phil answered calmly.

"Quoth the Reverend's child," Aunt Faith laughed, and suddenly everyone was laughing and smiling, and Gwen felt like the sun had come out again. Uncle Carl respected Phil even more now than he had before all this happened—that was plain to see—and once again, they had gotten the best of the Fords without having to stoop to their level.

She smiled gratefully at Oliver. At the moment, she didn't know if Phil really had been helping him study, or if he had made that up to save her brother, and right then she didn't even care.

Then she remembered the stories Chloe had told him about her, and she blushed and looked away. She felt wretchedly mortified until she suddenly felt a hand on her shoulder. She knew even without looking it was Oliver's.

"Come outside for a moment?" he asked her quietly.

Gwen nodded wordlessly. She got up and followed him outside, vividly aware of Chloe's hate-filled glare at her back.

Oliver led her all the way to Rainbow Valley, where they couldn't be overheard by anyone in the house.

"Dr. Meredith isn't the only one who owes somebody in your family an apology," he began without preamble, his hands stuck in his pockets. "I owe you one, too."

"What … for what?" Gwen asked breathlessly.

"For believing what Chloe told me about you." Oliver looked down and kicked the ground angrily. "I never should have listened to her … I should have known better than that. I should have known you better than that. I didn't want to believe her … but she sounded so sure. I mean, she had names! I didn't think she could make something up in that great detail."

Gwen's heart was singing—he believed in her again!—but she still answered practically. "Why should you? You've known Chloe your whole life, and you never met me before this winter. Of course you would believe her instead of me."

Oliver looked at her, shook his head, and laughed. "Gwen, I've never met anyone like you. You're supposed to be mad at me! You're supposed to say things like 'I thought you were my friend,' and 'I don't know if I can ever forgive you,' and things like that."

Gwen thought about that. "Would it make you happier if I did? Because honestly, I'd just like to be friends again, like we were before."

Oliver took one step toward her. "I'd like that, too."

She smiled at him. "All right, then." She stuck out her hand, and Oliver gravely shook it, and the friendship was sealed.

Without one word, they began to walk together, turning their steps to the shore road. "How did you find out the truth?" Gwen asked, consumed with curiosity. "And was Phil really with you Friday morning?"

"He really was." Oliver answered the second question first. "My science grades dropped last year, and I was too embarrassed to ask Dad or any adult to help. I knew Phil was a whiz-bang at science, so I asked him to tutor me on the sly, and he said he would, and wouldn't tell anyone.

"As for when I found out the truth, you can thank your little brother for that."

"Jo-Jo?"

Oliver nodded. "He must have figured out what Phil and I were doing—that kid is too clever for his own or anyone else's good, sometimes—and came to me this morning at church to ask me to set the record straight. Up to that point, I had no idea that the Fords were plotting against you Blakes at all, or any of it." He looked sheepish. "I can be pretty clueless, sometimes."

"I can't believe Jo went to you, all on his own like that," Gwen marvelled.

"I've always known Chloe had a jealous streak, and that the twins were full of tricks, not always nice ones, but I never imagined they'd do anything like that against family. You Blythes are all so clannish, most of the time."

"According to Chloe, we're not real Blythes," Gwen said a little bitterly. Her cousin's comment in that area still rankled. "We're Blakes, by character as well as name."

"No reason you can't be both Blake and Blythe, is there?" Oliver asked, sensibly enough.

Gwen laughed, and her spirits lifted. Ahead of them, the sun was sparkling off the sea, and Phil's name was cleared, and Oliver was her friend again. It was a beautiful day. "I suppose not!"

She and Oliver had a delightful stroll along the shore. It was twilight as they came back to Ingleside finally, and he bid her goodnight at the gate. Gwen walked dreamily up the path to the house, only to be greeted by Chloe's vengeful whisper from the verandah.

"This isn't over," she hissed, and Gwen could see the angry sparkle in her eyes even through the dim light. "Just you wait."

Gwen shook her head wearily. "Chloe, why can't we just let all this go? I don't dislike you. If we can't be friends, can't we at least be at peace?"

"Never!" Chloe declared, and she jumped off the verandah and vanished into the night.

"Never mind her, sis," Phil said, coming out of the shadows on the other side of the house. "She can't do anything to hurt us, not now. They're trying too hard—they're only going to end up hurting themselves."

Gwen put her arm around his shoulders. He was getting tall enough that she was having a difficult time doing that and still keeping her balance, but she managed. "I don't mind her," she answered him. "So long as I have you, and Lee, and Jo, I don't mind anything."