Chapter XVII

"Di, stop thinking about it, you will drive yourself mad with worrying." Carl said soothingly to his friend whom he was accompanying during a walk to the post office at the end of the warm and inviting month of April.

Di sighed and put her arm in Carl's "I guess that I shouldn't worry so much." she replied "But then this class was a real hard work for me, and I'm not sure about at least a half of my students whether or not they'll pass to Queen's." she sighed wistfully.

Carl sighed too, as he ran out of ideas how to cheer her up, and he tried his very best to do so "Di, just stop thinking about it." he said eventually "You know that you did your best, but now it's all in their hands, not yours." he smiled at her warmly and Di managed to smile back, making him to sigh with relief.

"Thank you Carl, I needed to hear that." she replied more contentedly "But I'm such a stressed person, you know that yourself."

Carl chuckled "Yes, I do know that, too well to be honest." he said and Di chuckled quietly too "But really, you'll be fine, whatever will happen."

"I know, I know." she said "Carl is that possible that it's almost May already? I can swear that it was New Years Eve two days ago." she grinned at him, forcing herself not to let her mind wonder off to the small classroom in the Glen's school.

"I actually don't think that it's May "already"." he answered "Those five months were actually quite slow for me."

"Really?" Di asked him with surprise "Why?"

"I'm not sure." he replied dully, although he knew quite well why those months were so monotonous for him, and how much he would love the time to fly faster "But I'm glad anyway, that the spring is coming I mean." he smiled at her.

Di smiled back radiantly "Yes, I did miss spring." she replied dreamily "I missed the softness of the air and the scent of flowers filling each room of Ingleside."

Carl nudged her at the side "You're quite a romantic person aren't you, Di?" he asked her impishly.

Di laughed "Of course I am, and I believe that everyone has a soul of a romantic but just some people don't want to acknowledge it." she said with a raised eyebrow, looking meaningfully at Carl.

He chuckled "Of course you would look at me while saying this." he said "But I think you're wrong Di, don't look at me like that! I just don't think that everyone has a romantic personality, and it's better this way, everyone is different then."

Di grinned at him lightly "Maybe you're right." she tip-toed to reach his ear "Or maybe not." she whispered and she was lucky that she couldn't see how in the same time as Carl luaghed, his cheeks flushed with red "Is Rosalind a romantic person?" she asked him suddenly, trying to learn more about his feelings towards his fiancee.

Carl sighed softly, he hoped that she wouldn't ask about Rosalind but now that she did, he had to do nothing but to answer her "I don't really know." he said finally and Di's brows furrowed.

"What do you mean? How can you not know Carl?" she asked him quickly, not letting him to finish his thought.

"Well, Ros sometimes acts like she doesn't want to talk about romance at all, at least not as much as you always want to." he looked knowingly at Di and she hit him playfully on the arm "I don't know, she likes kissing that's for sure." he grinned at Di who was trying her best not to laugh.

"Carl!" she exclaimed and giggled finally "Well, kissing is kind of romantic, but that's not what I'm talking about really, you know." she said more seriously.

"Like I said, I'm not sure if she is, I think she might be, but then I'm not entirely certain." he replied honestly.

"Robert is very romantic." Di added and sighed with delight as she touched the silk scarf resting around her slender neck.

Carl forbid himself to sigh or roll his eyes and so he just murmured "I'm sure he is." which made Di to look at him questioningly again but then when she opened her lips to finally ask him what was wrong and whether he was worried about something, she decided on asking him other question.

"Do you have any idea where you and Rosalind will live after your wedding?" she asked him.

Carl sighed with relief as it was a much more comfortable question to answer "We will stay here in Glen, of course." he replied "I will still work at school and Rosalind will still work in her shop, and we're going to rent out a small house near the Upper Glen somewhere around July, so near our wedding." he said the last word almost with disbelief.

"That's nice." Di said, somehow feeling uneasy.

"Yes, life won't change so much, will it?" he said, or maybe asked, Di wasn't entirely sure but she didn't have to wonder as she realised that they just reached the post office "You go and visit this fiancee of yours, Carl, and I'll send the package from Mother to Aunt Leslie." she told him as they stood together outside the red door of the post office.

Carl smiled at her sadly and his eyes turned a bit gloomy but he kissed her cheek nonethelss, like he always used to "Sure." he said and then his smile was more radiant for a second "Do you want me to walk you back home?" he asked her expectantly.

Di chuckled sweetly and touched his cheek "You don't have to be the best friend in the world, Carl." she said to him with a tender smile "I will see you tomorrow then." she stepped on the doorstep of the post office and smiled at Carl once again.

Carl smiled back at her as if she just slapped him in the face, and this time he didn't even mind whether or not she could see how much his smile changed "As you wish, Miss Blythe." he replied, truning aroud and waving at her "I'll see you tomorrow then!" and he turned around again, this time for good.

Di was about to turn around too but then she stopped and looked at Carl's back as if she was studying him all over again. Yes, she did see the change in his smile and even in that second, she knew that this smile would haunt her for the rest of the day.

Dear Diary,

May came into our lives with a blessing. On the very first day of the month beginning the true and real spring, Una and Shirley welcomed their second baby. A baby-girl again! Luna Rosemary Blythe came into this world just three days ago and she's already a star of our family. She looks just like Una, entirely, the very image of. She has the exact shade of her mother's eyes, and she's so sweet and so wonderful in every way that I think I love her just as much as her parents do.

You might ask why did my brother and my sister-in-law name their second baby Luna? No, it's not because it has "Una" in it, it's because she was born at night and as Una told me, when she held her in her arms for the first time a moon shone on her daughter and she just knew what name she would give her second baby.

Everyone is, again, in love with baby Luna and I can't do anything but to bake more cookies and knit more hats or socks and make an excuse to go to Shirley's and Una's house to gain the opportunuty to hold baby Luna and look into her blue eyes and wonder what she will be like in the years to come.

Whenever I hold Luna or Owen, such tiny beautiful babies like they are, I can't do anything but wonder whether I myself, Diana Blythe, will have children as beautiful and as wonderful as those two, my new niece and nephew are.

Only now I realised that I've never actually thought about having children properly, as strange as it might appear to some people (definitely to my twin Nan) as I am nothing but almost thirty years old, but I never really gave this thought enough time to sink into my mind. I didn't even talk about having children with Robert, somehow I just didn't feel like he would want to talk about it with me, or maybe he wants to but I just don't know about it?

The reason I talk about it now is that whenever a new baby in our family is born, I feel like I am isolated, maybe just for a second or two, but I feel like I don't belong to this new group of parents which consists of most of my family members.

There was this one time when we had a family dinner and all of the men of my family went fishing and we, women, stayed in the Ingleside's living room and we all started talking together, like we always do when we're in such a big circle. Faith started to talk about how the other day Julia said her first word to Jem, saying "DadaMama", we all laughed of course but then the conversation grew stronger and each of the women around me started to talk about their children and their more or less funny situations connected with them. Even Mother and Susan were talking very eagerly about each of us, me and my siblings that is. Only me, childless Di, sat back down in her chair and just listened, and no one, I think, even noticed that for the next hour I didn't say a word.

Like I said many times before, this thought makes me even more excited about my marriage to Robert. But I can't feel properly that I will get married in just three months time. I don't talk about it enough, I suppose, but what can I do? Everyone is so busy, I'm busy myself with school, my students and now I have the whole wedding to plan too. I have most os the things figured out but still there is my wedding dress and a veil waiting to be decided on. I think I'll go and try to think about buying them next month, when school will be finally over and I will have more time for myself.

For now, I will put on my hat and my shoes and I will head to to the Farm House to chat with Una and to hold baby Luna because she's just as beautiful as the moon is.

Yours,

Di Blythe

"Oh, I like this dress, Di!"

"No, I think it's too plain."

"Why, Rilla? It looks wonderful with this lace nackline and flowing bottom!"

"Nan, I think that Di should get something more extravagant, for once in her life."

"Excuse me, sisters of mine." Di finally spoke up as she turned around from the mirror and looked meaningfully at her twin and her baby-sister "I think that I should have a say, don't you think?" she asked them with a light grin appearing in the corner of her lips.

Anne chucked quietly when she saw how her two daughters glared at each other "Darlings, it's Di who should like the dress, she will be the one to wear it, and it is her wedding." she told them warmly.

Nan and Rilla sighed in unison and looked back at Di who stood in front of them, twirling around, examining the dress she was wearing "I don't know if I like it enough." Di said wistfully.

"Di, dear, you have to pick eventually." Susan said "You will have to wear this dress in one month's time!"

Di's cheeks flushed with red and her eyes suddenly filled with fear "Oh dear, I'm so scared that I won't choose the right dress!" she said and looked in the reflection of herself in the mirror again "Maybe I should borrow your wedding dress, Mother…"

"No, Di." Nan cut her "Both Rilla and I borrowed Mother's wedding dress, it was just after the war as you know and we couldn't yet afford to buy our own ones, but now when the war finished almost seven years ago, you will get a brand new wedding dress." she smiled at Di who smiled back at her.

"I suppose you're right." Di agreed "I will be married just once in my lifetime so I suppose that if I have the chance, I can buy a brand new wedding dress."

"Maybe you should try on another dress?" Rilla suggested.

Di was about to agree but when she looked at the clock hanging on the wall she put her hands on her cheeks and quickly started to walk back into the dressing room "No, I have to go now! I have to run to school to see who passed and who didn't pass to Queen's!" she exclaimed.

"She will never buy this dress." Nan whispered to the women around her "It's the second time this week when we come here and she tries to pick out this dress."

"Just give her time, darling." Anne said "She needs it and we should all respect that."

"I just hope that she will get married after all!" Susan sniffed and no one dared to say anoter word to that.

Di ran to the Glen's school as fast as she could. She was already late, she knew that everyone of her class already saw the results and went back home, but she had to go and see for herself who passed and who didn't.

She felt guilty that she forgot the time while she was putting on so many different wedding dresses and was presenting them to her family, she knew that she shouldn't agree with her sisters to go on that day and try to buy a wedding dress at last. But now she couldn't turn back the clock and the only thing she could do was to run and see, even if she was the last one, the results of her students's exams to Queen's.

Carl was leaning against the wall, his hat on his head and his eyes following the birds flying above him from one side of sky to another. He thought that Di would be late, as he knew that she went to town in order to buy her wedding dress and so he wasn't surprised when he saw Diana Blythe running, out of breath, with her red curls completely out of order and her hat in her hands, straight to the place where he was standing.

"Carl! You waited for me!" she breathed out as she stopped running eventually and gave him a soft breathless kiss on the cheek.

Carl chuckled when he examined how red her cheeks were and how messy her hair became "I did wait." he replied cheerfully "Di, you could get a heart attack from all this running." he put her hand on her shoulder worriedly as she was breathing heavily.

Di finally started breathing normally and straightened up, as she put her hands on her messy curls "No, I wouldn't." she answered him joyfully "Carl, why did you wait for me? I feel even more guilty now." she said to him.

"Don't then." he replied and took her hand to show her a board with a few papers sticked on it "I had to wait when I heard how many students passed from your class." he smiled at her slightly.

Di's face turned suddenly pale and she looked at him nervously "Oh, no!" she exclaimed "No one did? Oh, no that's what I thought! I told everyone that…" she started but Carl put his hand on her mouth and chuckled again.

"Di, for once in your life, stop talking!" he said "All of your students passed, again." he smiled at her again and Di immediately looked at the board next to her.

She suddenly squealed and jumped on Carl's neck "Oh, this is like a dream!" she shouted out and laughed at the same time.

Carl eventually put her down but still held her hands in his "That's why I waited, I had to see your reaction to the results. Congratulations, Di." he said to her and they both grinned at each other joyfully.

"Thank you, Carl." Di replied merrily and put her arm in his "Walk me home Carl, and let's make it a long walk, and let's talk and talk about everything."

Carl patted her hand gently and they both started walking arm-in-arm "I don't want to do anything else." he replied and his chest filled up with maybe not full, but at least some, happiness.