Chapter VI

Dear Diary,

It is the beginning of April and I am nothing but the shaking ball of nerves whenever I think about my students writing their Queen's exams in this very moment. It is the big moment of my teaching career and I've been dreaming about it and fearing it very much at the same time. I know that I did everything to make each of my pupils ready for this exam but who knows whether all of them will pass the exam or maybe just a few of them? Of course everyone is trying to cheer me up but somehow I just can't believe in any of those words they say to me.

Well, Robert is a help and so is Carl. Robert squeezes my hand in this special way and tells me that he's very proud of me and that he knows that everything will be fine one way or another. He brings me some of those beautiful records he brought from his home in Ottawa, some of them are by my favourite Schubert. Robert dances with me in Rainbow Valley, even without any music on, which caused dearest Susan to turn positively red from shame! Shame! But I can't be angry with Susan for long, she is a darling after all.

Carl helps me, like a friend helps another friend and I'm extremely grateful for him, he's such a dear. On the contrary to Robert he tells me not to think that everything will be perfect but to think about the worst and just agree with it so that if (like he always emphasises the word "if") it will come I will be prepared for it, but he later winks at me and assures me that my whole class will pass "for sure".

But let's talk about happier things, for example about the fact that I became an auntie again! Yes, Shirley's and Una's little baby girl has arrived last Saturday and she's all chubby and beautiful. Cecilia or rather "Cilia" as everyone calls her now, is a real image of Una, we can all see it even though she's just a week old. Cilia has black curls on her head and she has those beautiful dark blue eyes. Shirley is the proudest father I have ever seen in my life, yes, Shirley! I can't quite believe in how talkative he gets whenever it comes to a question "-and how is little Cilia doing?". This little baby is held all the time by Una, she loves her incredibly and she doesn't want to leave her for one second. And Susan! She is beaming that her "little brown boy" is a father now and a father to a beautiful baby girl at that. But she whispered to Mother, thinking that I couldn't hear her, that she wished her skin was just a bit "browner", like Shirley's.

Goodness me it's four o'clock already, that means that my students are just about to finish their last paper. Oh, I feel that I have to go downstairs and ask Susan for some fresh tea and a slice of the honey-pie she did yesterday, it will do me good, I'm sure.

Yours,

Di Blythe

Di and Robert took a walk down to Rainbow Valley on one warm afternoon in the middle of May. It was so nice to be walking in the sunshine again, after so many months overfilled with cold and snow. The trees danced waltz with the wind and there was a whisper of the ghosts of the past from every corner of them. The Tree Lovers bent their branches towards the two handsome people walking next to them as if they were the Queen and the King.

Both Robert and Di almost did look like royalty. Robert wore his new elegant suit with a blue tie which Di always considered as the most interesting she had ever seen, and he wore a black hat which suited his dark-blonde curls undearneath it. His eyes sparkled while he watched how Di's lips moved when she talked about how hopeless Jacob still was with his algebra and Robert was almost as good as enchanted when she laughed at his jokes. He never thought that someone could laugh as light-heartedly as Di could, and the way her grey (or were they green? he was always thinking afterwards) eyes twinkled when she looked at the trees around her, her mind filling up with memories Robert knew about very well.

Ever since the year before, when Di welcomed Carl back from Redmond in her grey dress and a straw hat, she always remembered to dress up "properly", especially when she was meeting with either Carl or Robert. On that day, she wore a beautiful green-taffeta dress with long sleeves and a golden bow on her neckline. Her red curls, which recently had been chopped to the level of her chin, were covered by a small dark-green hat and her cheeks were flushed under Robert's gaze.

"Which season is your favourite one, Rob?" Di asked her companion as she put her arm in his strong one.

"I think that it must be spring." Robert answered with a dreamy grin "When the weather for each day is the chirruping of the birds. What about you?" he asked her.

Di smiled at him sweetly "I don't know, I love each season for different reasons." she replied.

""… the spring, the summer, the chilling autumn, angry winter, change their wonted liveries; and the mazed world by their increase, now knows not which is which"" Robert quoted with his mysterious poetic eyes.

Di patted him on the hand "I know this!" she said "It's Shakespeare. Walter quoted it to me once, I think it was right before the war started and the world really seemed peaceful." she said absent-mindedly as she looked at the White Lady, almost being able to see Walter sitting right under it with a book in his hands and a funny serious brow starting to furrow as he was slowly drowning deep into the irresistable world of books.

Robert looked at Di and squeezed her hand, as he knew what she was thinking about "It's peaceful again, Di." he told her assuringly "Do you think about Walt very often?" he asked her suddenly.

Di grinned at him weakly "Yes, I do." she replied "There isn't a day when I don't think about him, even if it's just for a little while. And I don't mind now, it doesn't hurt as much as it did right after he… right after he died." she said softly.

Robert squeezed her hand again "I think about him too." he said warmly "And about my own brother Jason. Can you believe that he would be thirty years old this year?" he asked her or maybe even asked himself in disbelief.

Di looked up in Robert's eyes with sympathy "Oh, Robert…" she sighed helplessly "Do you think that they're safe and warm up there in Heaven? Do you think that they are peaceful?" she asked him and her eyes shone with hopefulness.

"Yes, I think they do." Robert answered with a smile "Maybe they don't eat as nice "monkey faced cookies" as your Miss Baker makes them, but I think they're happy up there." he grinned at Di and his eyes followed the clouds above him.

Di chuckled quietly "I think that you're right." she said "But there, Rob, let's talk about something different, like for example… Your plans for your bright future." she said excitedly.

Robert chuckled as well "My plans for the future?" he repeated.

"Yes." she replied "How do you want to spend your lively and wonderful life, Robert Keats?" she asked him with a funny raised eyebrow.

Robert grinned at her and hurrumphed theatrically, making her laugh again "Well," he said "-I would certainly like my company to be as successful as it is now, or maybe even more. Then I think that I would want to live every moment as if it was my last."

"That's a good plan." Di said "But don't you want to have a family of your own one day?" she asked him a bit more shyly, and her cheeks turned more red than they already were.

"Of course I do." he said honestly "But firstly I must find this "one and only" someone for myself and this can take a long time." he looked at Di more curiously "Or a short time, depending on my luck."

Di's heart started to beat faster and she smiled at Robert hurriedly, then she looked at the Ingleside in front of her "And may it be, Rob, may it be." she replied.

"Where have you been, Di? I've been waiting for you with this tea for at least an hour!" Nan exclaimed when Di, all blushed and trembling, entered her twin sister's house.

"I'm terribly sorry, dear Nan." Di replied absent-mindedly as she put took off her hat and kissed her sister's cheek in the similar manner.

Nan fixed her eyes on Di's face and her brow raised just a few milimeters up, so that Di couldn't notice it "Where were you?" Nan asked her again, trying to appear more angry than interested.

Di grinned at Nan and followed her sister to the living room, where they both sat down on the sofa "I was in Rainbow Valley." she answered blankly.

Nan clasped her hands together and raised her eyes to the ceiling "With Robert, I imagine?" she said, half-sighing.

Di looked more sternly at her sister, coming from the clouds back to the Earth "Is it a question or a statement?" Di's cheeks flushed with red again.

"A statement then." Nan said decidedly and took Di's hand in hers but before she could say anything, Di interrupted her.

"Where are the children?" she asked her hurriedly.

"With Mother Rosemary." Nan answered ardently "Di, could you tell me… whether… you and…" she started more slowly and more sheepishly than she thought she would start asking her twin the question which she wanted to ask her for quite a while.

Di stopped her as she took her hand away "Oh, Nan, I'm not sure anymore!" she exclaimed with passion her sister had never heard before "Everyone asks me this, everyone! And I always say the same answer: 'no, we're just friends'. But…" she looked at the window next to her and sighed deeply.

Nan looked closer in Di's eyes "But?" she repeated.

"But… I think that's not true anymore." Di replied "I think that I might… I think that I do… I think that I'm in love with him and that I have been for a while without me realising it." she finished and felt as if a big stone lifted from her heart. She looked in Nan's shining hazel eyes "Nan?" she asked worriedly.

Nan squeezed her hand and laughed joyfully "Di! You silly goose!" she said "You realised it just now? I've known for weeks, ever since the New Years Eve I suppose."

Di laughed too and kissed Nan's cheek "Oh, Nan, is that how it is to be in love with someone?" she asked her excitedly "Being always eager to meet him, to hear his low voice and see the sparkle in his eyes? Feeling your heart beating faster than normally just because he is next to you?" she questioned with hope in her green eyes.

Nan chuckled "Yes, that's exactly how it is to be in love, darling." she said and then looked in Di's eyes more cheerfully than excitedly "I am so happy for you my dear sister. Did you tell Robert?"

Di's eyes darkened "I don't know if he loves me too." she breathed out dully.

"Di, I can see, everyone can see that he does, whenever he leaves this soft kiss on your cheek when he announces that he must be heading back to his apartment and we all know that he says that just because either me or someone else disturped you two while being alone." she answered with a smile "But you must tell him."

"I can't!" Di exclaimed in despair "I can't do such a thing. I must wait until he will make the first move." she said decidedly.

"I think that, after all, you might be right." Nan said to her wistfully but smiled to her nonetheless "But don't wait forever." she warned her.

Di shook her head with a light grin spreading across her frecled face "I won't wait forever." she vowed and as she was being hugged by Nan, she could swear that she could still feel this delicate kiss that Robert left on her left cheek just one hour earlier.