Chapter VIII

Dear Diary,

July knocked on our doors just a week ago and although my "holidays" started already three weeks earlier, I was so busy during that time that I couldn't write in here for almost two weeks!

Robert and I announced our "courtship" as we call it while laughing at this ridiculously serious term, to my own and Robert's family just a day after Rob and I kissed on that beautiful sunny day of the day of the party at our old Ingleside. Mother is very pleased and Father always has conversations with Rob before I go downstairs from my room to greet my sweetheart. Susan is shaking her head, saying that in her eyes I am still (and supposedly I always will be) a small child and therefore she thinks that it all happened too fast, but Mother says that it's not too worry, Susan is really happy just more on the inside than the outside.

Nan is obviously dancing in happiness, and almost every single time I pay her a visit she giggles like her sweet baby daughter Rose, and tells me that it won't be too long when she will see a glistening diamond ring on my finger. Rilla thinks exactly the same and she gives me those enormous winks which say everything they need to say in order to make my cheeks flush with red.

Oh, I don't know what to think about it. Of course I love Robert, he is just this man, this man I was waiting for all my life I suppose, but at the same time I don't want to rush into anything as serious as marriage. Nan herself was Jerry's sweetheart for all of those years of the war and then for two years afterwards before they eventually married. But when I think about getting married… It is a girl's dream, isn't it? Whether we want or want not to admit it, this dream is in each of our souls.

I don't think that Robert has proposing in his plans. Right now we enjoy being able to hold each other's hands in this precious way while walking down the Rainbow Valley or the shore in Four Winds, and kissing when nobody is looking… I would never think that a kiss, even a soft and tender one, can be so romantic and so nice.

But if Robert was to propose any time soon, I think that I would accept. After all, I have never (and I don't want to any other time for that matter) fallen in love with anyone else till now and Robert is the one, I can feel it, even if I'm just writing it down. Besides let's be realistic, I turned twenty-eight recently and unfortunately I am not getting any younger, I don't possess this strange magical air around me like my Mother does.

Let's go back to some happier things than my age: I am really enjoying myself and I'm happy that I have those two months off. I visit Una and Shirley almost everyday and I help Una with little Cilia as Shirley has to work harder now, it's the harvest time after all, and Una told me that she is in need of company when Shirley is gone. Therefore that's what I do, I visit her and I talk with my dear friend and admire my beautiful niece. Cilia is the image of Una at just four months old, she has sweet black curls all over her head and dark-blue eyes which Una calls the "steadfast eyes" with those shining eyes of her own. I've never seen Una as happy as she is when she's with Cilia in her arms or when she sees Shirley cooing over his little daughter. I'll say it again, Shirley is the most adorable father I have ever known (apart from our own Daddy of course).

You probably ask now, why do you visit Una everyday? And not take walks with your Robert down the Rainbow Valley instead? Well, the answer is is that unfortunately Rob went for the whole month to Ottawa, to visit his parents, "To tell them all about you, my Diana." he always says and I think I'll believe him. I'm glad that he went of course, I know that he missed his parents and that he worries over them especially as his mother was always sickly and was complaining about "being weak in her bones" for the past several weeks.

Rob is going back in two and a half weeks time so I can't say that I'm as sad as I could be. I am very lucky to avoid the situation in which each of my sisters were put, to wait for your sweetheart to come home, not knowing when and not knowing if. There, I have to finish now, and pack the brownies I attempted to bake two hours ago and I shall make my way over to Jem's, I promised the twins (especially Merry) a bunch of them last week and I wouldn't dare not to bring them for them to taste.

Yours,

Di Blythe

"Delicious brownies, Di. I always knew you were a great cook even though you always said that you were quite the opposite." Carl said while chewing the last bit of his chocolate cookie with delight on his face. Di and Carl were sitting together under the Tree Lovers in Rainbow Valley on a bright and warm August evening. It was their tradition, to meet up and bring some blankets and food and then talk about everything that would come into their heads.

Di grinned at her friend "Thank you, Carl." she replied softly "But the secret to those brownies aren't these." she raised her hands up to her face "But Susan's watchful eyes and her ever moving hands."

Carl chuckled "Well, in that case I have to add that even though Susan's 'watchful eyes' had their part in making those brownies, it was still those," he gently took Di's hand in his own "-that made those delicious goodies."

Di blushed a little "Why, thank you, dear Carl." she said sweetly "Have you ever tried cooking yourself?" she asked him curiously.

Carl quickly shook his head "Of course not." he said decidedly "I always thought it the most difficult thing in the whole universe when I was a child." then he sighed.

"What is it?" she asked him worriedly.

""When I was a child"," he repeated "I sometimes have to remind myself that I'm not thirteen years old anymore." he answered wistfully.

Di grinned at him lightly and patted his hand "I've never met a man who thought that being a child was so much better than being an adult." she said.

Carl grinned back at her "Yes, I suppose that not so many people think that." he agreed "But I think so."

"I don't know whether I would like to be a child again." Di confessed with a furrowed, thoughtful brow "I like my adult life now, I didn't for a while but now I do and I think I would like it to stay that way."

"Even if this Robert of yours would propose to you?" Carl's mouth opened and the words were let out by themselves without him thinking about them. When his mouth closed again, he looked at the grass underneath his legs and his cheeks turned bright red.

Di looked seriously at Carl "Why is everyone asking me this?" she burst out "Even you, Carl? Maybe you all think that I'm waiting for Rob to propose so that I could eventually, yes I know that everyone waits and watches out for me to get married, settle down and be a little plump housewife? Well then all of you are mistaken, and I'm not intending to be married to anyone in a while." she finished with a loud humph and crossed her arms angrily.

Carl looked back at Di ashamedly "Sorry." he said in one of those tones that could melt anyone's heart.

Di turned her head towards him and sighed, she then put her hands around Carl's neck and kissed his cheek "No, Carl. I'm sorry." she said "I shouldn't have burst out like that."

Carl grinned at Di as she sat back down "I understand why you did. Maybe I shouldn't have asked about Robert, but I'm just curious about who he is and whether he's a good man for you."

"He is a good man." Di's eyes started to twinkle all of a sudden "He is very intelligent and very poetic along with determination and tenderness in his heart. You don't have to worry about me Carl." she assured him.

"I think I do." he replied in a voice which wasn't exactly his own "I must tell you that I never truly liked this man."

Di's brows furrowed again "But why? You have never even spoken to Rob." she said.

Carl shrugged "I don't know why." he said honestly "He's just so… perfect, I suppose."

Di looked at Carl again and there was a shadow of a smile hiding in the corner of her lips "Is it so wrong? To be perfect?" she asked him.

"I don't know if it's right." he answered "To be perfect, I mean. There's always something more to being perfect, something out of our reach and something which doesn't belong to us, to our personality."

"Interesting point you make, Carl." Di said and had to forbid herself from laughing at his seriousness "But I assure you that Robert isn't so perfect, nobody is." she chuckled eventually and it made Carl to smile at her shyly.

"I think that maybe you're right." he said eventally "But even though there might not be people entirely perfect, some people almost are." he said mysteriously looking at Di's hands resting on the fabric of her blue dress. Di didn't quite know what to say and therefore she crossed her arms, sighed deeply and laid down on the blanket, looking at the branches of the trees above her, thinking that she had never heard Carl being so serious about anything.

Di closed the door of her classroom and sighed with contentment, yes, the school started again and she couldn't be more glad about it. The happiness radiated from her face, especially when she saw a tall handsome man with blonde curls on his head riding towards her on his bicycle with a smile on his face.

"You crazy man!" she shouted to him, while holding her hat on her head in fear of it being blown away by the wind "What are you doing here, Rob?" she asked when Robert jumped off his bicycle.

He came closer to her and kissed her softly on the lips "I knew that I would want to know how your first day after the summer went. So?" he asked her with a raised brow and she chuckled.

"Oh, it was wonderful." she said joyfully and put her hand in Robert's very own "My new class is even better than the last one I think, much more... interesting, but perhaps the students might be less prone to learn."

Robert smiled at her and squeezed her hand "It will be all fine, you'll see." he assured her "But the good thing is that your first day back was more than fine."

Di grinned "That's true." she said.

"Shall I walk you home then?" he said and offered Di his arm.

Di took it gracefully and as soon as the two of them started walking, she stopped and looked around "Oh, Rob, I'm sorry, I'm supposed to be walking back with Carl. It was his first day back as well." she said worriedly looking at the door of Carl's classroom.

Robert looked in the same direction as Di and sighed softly "Do you prefer to walk with Carl instead of me?" he asked her.

Di's cheeks turned fiery "No, of course not." she answered hurriedly "I much prefer walking with you, darling. It's just that… Carl is my friend and I wouldn't want him to feel left out." she said eventually.

Robert put his hand on her cheek and smoothed it "I know that he's your friend, but don't you think that he would feel even more left out if he would be walking with us, the two "lovebirds" as my mother would say?" he asked.

Di looked around again and saw Carl in his classroom, facing his students and saying something to them with a soft grin on his face "Maybe he wouldn't be so cross after all? I will see him in the evening anyway, at Ingleside." she said, more to herself than to Robert who was standing next to her.

"If he's your true friend, I don't think he would be cross at all." Robert replied decidedly "Besides, I was planning to take you out for a coffee and a delicious cheesecake at the "Rosie's Cafe". If you would like it of course." he grinned at her and Di smiled back at him, her eyes gleaming again.

"Yes, I would like that very much." she answered and that's when she started walking hand-in-hand with Robert and although her face was shining, her thoughts were in the small Biology classroom where a tall man with brown hair with golden glints was about to finish his own lesson.